The Antimatter Cannon
By Superboy-Prime The Eva Pilot
The feeling was new to him. Ever since he'd first been struck by the lightning, he was always on the run. Standing still was a hard thing to do when you could outrun pretty much ever particle that existed in the universe. Now he was stuck in the jelly, captive of an evil being. Fear and depression struck him like a sonic boom; the ones he'd been making for several years. He looked around the stone-lined room and saw a single Thunderer keeping watch on him. The pink guard sat silent and paid no attention to him. How he got to this prison, he never knew. The past few days kept replaying in his mind.
Barry Allen had been living in a lessening fecund world. The 30th Century saw more steel and glass rise than grass and trees. The park in the middle of the city offered several miles of vegetation, but it still didn't give him enough of his old home to keep him happy. The skyscrapers and spaceports were ubiquitous in the gigantic city and gave him more of a space to run in, despite keeping it under the speed of sound (to avoid the annoying sonic booms he made). His wife was discovered to be alive in this time period. All along he thought that Zoom had killed her. It was a long story and he'd rather not think about it. All that matter now was that he was with her in a new, exciting world.
The Flash was reputed to be the Fastest Man Alive, in one century or the next. His reflexes were so aligned with acuity that he could phase through walls and land a million punches in a matter of seconds. So fast was the Flash that he could even cross the boundaries of time itself. Now that the world was crumbling around him, he needed to figure out just what the hell was going on. The skies turned red and disasters occurred left and right. Originating from the 20th Century, his friend and colleagues might have an idea of what might be the cause of the madness. He concentrated his penchant for the Speed Force and disappeared.
1985…
Barry Allen never got a chance to see his friends in our time. He was whisked away to some dark and terrible place. There were two beings there: One was from Earth, like himself. His name was the Psycho-Pirate and his power was to manipulate emotions in others. The second was the main instigator of the invidious plot. He called himself the Anti-Monitor and boasted that he would be ruler of all the multiverse. Barry didn't know who he was or what he planned to do with him. Soon, the Psycho-Pirate practiced his powers on the Flash, garnering fears and anxiety that lay dormant in him for many years. Paralyzed with fear, he was imprisoned within the Anti-Monitor's fortress.
That was how he got here. The world was going to hell and he was here ready to watch it all. He needed to come up with a plan to escape. The effects of the Pirate's emotion-powers were starting to wear off. The figments that tormented him disappeared from his mind, leaving him ready to strike. Off to the left corner, the Psycho-Pirate walked in with a nice smile on his face.
"Ol' Flashy didn't give you any trouble while I was gone, Thunderer?" asked the Pirate.
"He hasn't moved an inch, Pirate." said the guard.
The Pirate happily moved up to the Flash and giggled, his overweening joy echoed through the halls.
"Oh, I have something special in store for you, Flash. After I feed off your emotions for a bit more, I'll let these Thunderers have their fun with you!"
The Flash slowly looked up and stared at the Pirate. He readied himself for what was about to happen.
"Pirate…Eat Jell-O!" yelled the Flash, spinning around in great circles. His gelatin prison dissolved under the friction that he created. Once free, he ran and landed a super-fast punch on the Pirate. Next, he ran and knocked out the Thunderer that had presided over him.
"Flash…wait!" yelled the Pirate. Barry looked back at him, ran to him and started beating the crap out of him.
"Try to enervate my mind, will ya???" screamed the Flash in his raging fury "You made me feel things I never wanted to feel again! Whatever the Anti-Monitor does to you, you'll deserve it!"
The Pirate was a bloody pulp, but his face was still recognizable. His face was full of terror, his own real terror.
"Okay…okay…please don't hurt me anymore!" whimpered the Pirate.
"You're going to help me with something, Pirate. So get ready to go fast!" said the Flash. The Scarlet Speedster grabbed the whining villain and ran out of the prison.
The Anti-Monitor presided over his minions and kingdom. The world of Qward wasn't a nice place to be, even for its natives. The fact that it lay in the Antimatter Universe only made the problem worse. It was a place of evil and darkness for the denizens and a place of opportunity for the powerful. Obviously, the Anti-Monitor was the most powerful of the people of Qward. He ruled the land with an iron fist and, today, he gave a near-impossible fiat: the construction of an antimatter cannon to obliterate the remaining universes. The Flash realized it when he first saw it; it wasn't hard to feel the antimatter swirling inside the gigantic weapon.
"W-what d-do you p-plan to do with me, Flash?" asked the Pirate.
"You'll see," said the Flash. He grabbed the Pirate and ran across the sumptuous complex, showing the hating face of the Pirate to the brutal Thunderers. Their hate turned into rage towards the Anti-Monitor. With their weapons crafted from his own power, the attacks left the Anti-Monitor stunned. The Flash kept up his race with the Pirate in tow, turning each Thunderer against his master.
"Okay, Flash, I've helped you out. Now you have to save me! Save me from the Anti-Monitor!" pleaded the Pirate.
"Pirate, all I have to say is tough luck!" said the Flash as he punched the Pirate and vibrated within the walls of the antimatter cannon.
Inside, a swirling ball of pure antimatter powered the main generators as it geared up to fire its attack. The Flash took a deep breath and ran in the opposite direction of the antimatter flow.
"If I can reverse the flow of the antimatter, then maybe I can make it destroy itself!" said the Flash as he started around the swirling ball. The energy threatened to slow down the speedster. He persevered on as his race took his toll on him. As he approached the speed of light, he caught glimpses of his collegues that he had left behind. Most of all, he saw his best friend Wally, whom he had trained ever since he gained his own powers. Time slowed around Barry; ageing as the antimatter reversed itself. The pain was intense but he knew he couldn't slow down. He had to stop all of this chaos and depraved madness. Slowly, Barry shrunk into his own costume, sending out a last cry of help as he disappeared in a shower of explosions.
With the destruction of the cannon, the Anti-Monitor had no way to destroy the remaining universes. The remaining heroes of Earth soon made their way to the world of Qward in search of the Anti-Monitor. Barry's friend Wally was among them, there to look for his mentor. What he found was the Psycho-Pirate holding onto the Flash's costume, now empty of its owner. A mournful silence was held for the speedster; a man who saved not one universe, but all of them.