A/N: I bet you at least one of you thought I forgot about this story.

Listen. I never intended it to take this long. Junior year of high school just started so I'm loaded down with work. That and I'm also trying to learn how to use a game engine, so I'm a bit busy. I also had 2 hurricanes thrown at my state, so that's another thing.

Also, when writing this chapter, I realized that I needed to do something I had never done before.

Worldbuilding.

It's up to you to decide if I'm good at it. Either way though, that didn't help with the time span.

I hope that it won't take this long again. If you are dissuaded from following this because of the update times, I'm sorry. I have gotten used to the workload of the new year and will make it my mission to write more often. Try to hold on a little longer, alright?

I wished I could come back with something bigger, but I figure that something now is better than a lot later. Anyways, onto the review responses!

xOpal69 - I hope the chapter lived up to the hype!

Brian Hughes - Thanks! I hope this was worth the wait too tho...

Oliman99 - I think you got the name mixed up buddy. Either way, thank you for the support! As for the writing style compliment, the dialogue probably has to do with the fact that I can't stand unnatural dialogue. People use contractions, people use slang, people use all sorts of things that many don't put in. Thank you!

alaskanbirdfriend - My friend. You have returned. I swear you make me hyped for the next chapter just because your reviews are amazing. Btw, take a shot at the story idea! That would be an interesting story to read.

Alright. I've decided that I need to get this out asap, so I'm not gonna take the time to get this beta read. The quality of this might show it, but regardless, I hope you forgive me. GlisteningAorticArches, you better be ready for the next one!

I've held you off long enough. It's time for the chapter.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own CW, DC, or any of its shows or characters. I only own this story.


The flame and the flash walked along a barren path. It was a long walk to Berlin and they had to get there in just over a week. The quickest route there still took more time than they had. Luckily, they could use some of their powers in the more rural areas of Europe where Riser wouldn't be constantly monitoring.

The first major city they had to pass through was Lublin, Poland. Or, what used to be that, at least. Chances are, Riser kept the large cities and just rebuilt them to his liking.

On the plus side, this meant that they might have a quicker way to Berlin. Sadly, this also increased their chances of being found. Barry hoped that with their training they would be able to slip past pretty easily.

As of right now, they were fairly close to the border of Ukraine, in a town called Vyshniv. The place was run down, poverty seen everywhere. Wherever there wasn't poverty, Riser's men were stationed.

From what they were able to gather so far, Riser's grunts were just resurrected slaves. They were already dead, leaving a husk to be filled only with Riser's commands. They weren't even alive. Good news for the duo, since they didn't have to worry about making sure not to kill them. The only other enforcer was a position called Civil Enforcers. These seemed to be people from the populace that volunteered to be part of Riser's workforce and lead the resurrected grunts. It's hard to blame them, though. With the conditions they were living in, it would be easy to give in. Although, with how they treated the rest of the populace, any sense of empathy was quickly replaced by hatred. They were still lives, though.

When Barry and Sam made it to one of the checkpoints, they were surprised to find that their attire of rags was quite fitting for blending in with everything else. The checkpoint seemed to stick out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the town. Where dust, rust, and disease covered the rest of the ugly brown-skied town, the checkpoint was pristine. It was stationed at an intersection with one road leading out of the city.

At each of the 4 entrances into the checkpoint, there were 4 pillars of some advanced technology. They were coated in a white ceramic-looking material. At each entrance, two sets were present. Each set was comprised of two of the pillars facing each other, with some sort of semi-transparent blue forcefield emitted between them. With both sets, they took up the entirety of the entrance.

In front of the forcefields were basic defenses. Two short walls standing waist high with a grunt at each. There were also grunts in front of the two forcefields, one each. On the right side of the entrance, there was a small line of citizens moving into the checkpoint, and the occasional citizen exiting on the left side. When a citizen reached the forcefield to enter, they showed something to the grunt, who promptly used a device that looked strangely similar to a scanner at a store on whatever the citizen showed.

Barry and Sam were standing back at a building close to the checkpoint, observing from afar.

"What is that they're scanning?" Barry asked.

"I'm not sure. It looks like something on their right hand." Sam answered.

Barry chuckled. "Mark of the beast sounds pretty fitting right about now."

"Seems like it. How are we supposed to get through, then? Powers? I doubt they've left another way through. We could always go around the town."

"Well, first off, we can't use our powers. Look inside the checkpoint. See the thing with the red lights?" Barry pointed to a device standing in the center of the checkpoint, with bright red lights mounted on it.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Cisco had an idea for a device that detected meta-human energy within a small radius. The radius was too small for practical use, but further development could provide a warning system when planted in areas likely to be hit by a meta. It was essentially an alarm system. By now, they've developed it to the point that it would sense even the slightest usage of powers."

"And my fire?"

"It's fire. They'll see it. Also, we don't have the time to spare going around the town. It's better to find a way through. We would also learn some stuff about them."

"I guess." Sam surrendered. "How will we get in?"

"I have an idea. First, store these." Barry took off his ring. Sam took it, removed his, and opened a small flame rune beside him, no larger than his hand. He reached in and put the rings inside the rune, then removed his hand and closed it.

"Now, give me a knife." Sam summoned a knife and handed it to Barry. He brought it to the back of his right hand and made a cut. Before Sam could protest, Barry cut his as well.

"What the hell?"

"Heal them, but only partially. Make it look like a still-healing wound."

"Alright..." Sam summoned a small blue flame at the tip of his left index finger and held it over his and Barry's wound for a few seconds.

"Now, follow my lead," Barry said.

Barry moved away from the building and began walking to the small line. Confused, Sam got up and moved with him.

"What are you doing?" Sam shout-whispered to Barry.

"Calm down, you'll know what to do."

Eventually, the two reached the line. There were only a few in front of them, and the line seemed to move rather quickly. Barry was trying to look a calm as possible, but Sam was visibly nervous.

Once the two reached the barrier, the grunt spoke.

"Hand." A monotone, yet deep voice came from the grunt. He was dressed in some kind of basic combat armor. His helmet was a sort of head-shaped sphere, all white with red eyeholes being the only break in the blank white. His hands were covered in gloves with what seemed to be built in knuckles. Definitely harder than brass and definitely made for punishment.

Barry raised his right hand to the grunt. The grunt attempted to scan it, but the scanner, as expected, gave no results. His head darted over to Barry.

"What is this?"

"We were attacked. They took our chips. I don't know why. My buddy here is in the same situation." The grunt looked to Sam.

"Uh... y-yeah." Sam managed to get out.

The grunt seemed to growl, before grabbing the two by the arms and tossing them into the checkpoint.

They passed through the barrier, causing it to become green for a moment. The commotion caused some of the enforcers to look their way. The enforcers were wearing a similar uniform to the grunts, but they had Riser's sigil on their chest plate, and they were missing a helmet.

One of the enforcers looked to the grunt. "What the hell are you doing?"

"These two don't have chips. According to them, they were attacked and had them stolen."

The enforcer rolled his eyes. He walked up to the pair.

"You idiots!" The enforcer punched Barry in the gut, causing him to double over. Another swift punch to the side of the head sent Barry to the ground. Sam watched with barely concealed anger. The enforcer looked to Sam and slammed into his jaw with the back of his armored fist. Sam fell to the ground as well.

Sam looked at Barry, gritting his teeth. A blue flame was creeping its way out of Sam's eyes. Barry saw this mouthed 'calm, let it happen'. Sam obeyed.

"Get the hell up. Now!" Barry and Sam obeyed. "I oughta beat the everlastin' outa you. First I get moved from America to this trash heap and now I'm havin ta deal with-"

"Dave, calm down. I'll deal with them." One of the other enforcers halted 'Dave's attempt to beat them senseless. The three all looked at the new enforcer. Dave huffed.

"Fine. Here." Dave pushed the duo into the new enforcer. He was an older man, at least in his late 30s. His eyes were much softer than those of Dave's.

"Come along you two." The enforcer picked up a metallic briefcase and motioned for them to follow. The three walked out of the checkpoint and into a nearby building.

The building must have been some kind of office for the forces. They walked through the cramped building and into a simple office.

The enforcer sat down at his sparsely decorated desk and set the case down on top of it facing him. He switched on his computer.

"Sit down." The enforcer pointed to two small leather chairs. Barry and Sam plopped down in them.

"Thanks for that out there. What's your name?" Barry asked.

"George. George Nelson. I run this checkpoint. So, what happened to your chips?" George replied.

"We were attacked. A few guys jumped us. Put us to the ground and cut them out. I guess they wanted to steal our identity." Barry 'explained.'

"That was stupid. And coming to a checkpoint without getting new ones was even stupider."

"Well, we're in a bit of a hurry. We wanted to meet up with a few friends in Berlin but had to go it on foot."

"Berlin, eh? With friends in such high places, why are you two walking around like this? Or going there on foot?"

"We haven't spoken to them in a long time, so we haven't exactly reaped the rewards from their success." This time, Sam cut in.

"Ah. I assume your travel passes were on your chips, then?"

"Yeah. Any chance you can replace them?" Barry asked.

"I can try." George opened the case and removed two small metal containers, along with a gun-shaped injector. He removed a scanner from the computer and scanned the first box. "Name please?" Directed at Sam.

"Max Adams," Sam said. George typed on the computer and scanned the other box.

"And your name?" Directed toward Barry

"John Fox." Once again, George typed on his computer.

"Alright. Now I'll scan your faces, see if I can find your files easily." George held out the scanner and flipped a switch on its side. One at a time, he scanned their faces and waited for them to load on the computer.

Sam and Barry saw George's facial expression morph from neutral to confused. His brow furrowed and he leaned in slightly to the monitor. It was no doubt to them that Riser made sure to add in their faces into the system to make sure they would be found if they tried something like this.

George looked back at the two in... amazement? It was no matter, as Sam wasted no time to react. He sprung to his feet, and in almost an instant, moved to intervene.

His eyes flared their familiar brilliant blue. Starting from his neck, thin lines of blue quickly crept their way along his skin, almost looking technological in nature. Once they reached his hand, it burst into a bright blue flame. Heat emanated from the flame-covered hand, sending the room rocketing up in temperature. His hand reached for the side of George's head.

"Wait wait WAIT!" George practically threw his chair to the side and backed up against the wall behind him. Sam hopped over the desk with ease.

"Sorry about this," Sam said as he readied to invade the mind of the enforcer. He jutted his hand out and slammed it into the side of the enforcer's head. His eyes burst into fire, just as Sam's. Within a few seconds, the guard was on the floor.

"Great. What now?" Barry asked, moving to the other side of the desk.

"Fix this. Riser gave us files."

"Great. Has a notice been sent to their command?"

"Doesn't look like. I doubt they would do that. Accidents do happen, and I doubt they would want a planetary crisis every time the IT guy forgets to update the servers."

"Let me try something." Barry moved the chair back over to the desk.

After some work with the files, he managed to make the system think that their faces matched up with nothing in the database.

"That should solve our problem. Now, what do we do about him?"

"We still need these chips, don't we? Sit back in the same chair." Barry obeyed. Sam grabbed George and plopped him in his chair. Sam then sat back in his chair. With a flare of his eyes, lines of blue crept over the floor, onto the chair, and eventually across the face of George. Sam held up his left hand, ready to snap. He turned to Barry.

"Look worried." He turned back to George and leaned forward in his seat. With a snap, George's eyes snapped open. The fire from the wake-up-call quickly went away, as did the blue magic across the floor and on the two.

George looked around, confused.

"George? George! Are you alright?" Sam started to act out concern. Barry thought he was quite convincing.

"Wha- uh... yeah. What happened?"

"I don't know." Barry started. "You had just finished scanning our faces when you blacked out for a few seconds."

"Oh. I don't know what happened." George turned to the computer screen. "Strange. Your faces show no match. Connection must be bugging out."

"What does that mean for us?" Barry asked.

"Unless you want to wait here and put more time between you and when you need to be in Berlin, I have to create new profiles for you two. When scanned at another checkpoint, it should come up with your real profile."

George began typing away at the keyboard, doing God knows what. Barry decided now was the time to get some information.

"So, uh... What's your deal? You seem much less pissy than the other enforcers out there." Barry said. George let out a laugh.

"Damn son, you got some balls on you talking like that! But, truth be told... let's just say I don't get my rocks off from beating on innocent civilians."

"Why'd you join? From what I've seen, most that join want power over others." Sam asked.

"I didn't join voluntarily. I used to live in America, but things changed a few years after the occupation. My wife grew sick and it was getting hard to support the family while also keeping her alive. I went to the state for help and they offered me a job. Work in the force and they would take care of my wife. I joined without hesitation. As long as she lived and the kids were taken care of, I would be happy. Now, they only let me see them on occasion. Even when I do it's just for a day or so at a time. And if I quit, then goodbye to treatments." George looked away from the computer while saying this, a solemn look cracking his authoritative demeanor.

George then proceeded to ask them each basic questions about themselves. Naturally, they lied and made up false backgrounds for 'Max Adams' and 'John Fox'. At the end of the questioning, George picked up the containers and placed them on the table. He pressed a button on the top of each. The containers beeped and opened up. The top of each rose with a quiet hum. Inside was a small device, about the size of a grain of rice. He grabbed the gun, flipped a switch, and loaded the first chip into it. He looked at Barry.

"Hand."

Barry put out his right hand. George grabbed hold of it and placed the tip of the gun at a 45-degree angle against the back of his hand. George pulled the trigger and the gun beeped as it quickly injected the chip into Barry's hand. Barry pulled his hand back and looked at the quickly disappearing wound.

George repeated the same process with Sam. After that, he quickly went over the basics of the chip model.

"Some good comes out of this encounter. Those are some of the latest and greatest chips. They pay for anything, online or real world. It has compatibility with pretty much every kind of tech out there. They also..."

George droned on for a good 5 minutes. At the end of his speech, he had them stand and follow him.

"I also added travel passes to Berlin. Free of charge. They will get you through any checkpoint much quicker than this one." The three arrived outside, being met with a few scowls, particularly from the one that shoved them to the ground.

"Thank you for being so helpful! We'll remember you when we get to Berlin." Barry said. He was genuine in his thanks. There was no reason to hold a grudge against this man.

"Thank you. Oh, by the way, I have one more thing for you." George said. He moved over to one of the corners of the checkpoint and grabbed another case, similar to the one with the chips. He opened it and grabbed two outfits from inside. They were all black in color. The outfits were made up of black jeans, black button-ups, and black jackets. He walked over to the two.

"It will be a while until you reach the next big city, so I'm giving you these. It's what we usually wear off duty, though we are far from being the only ones to wear things like this, so you won't have to worry. These are loaded with tech to make the trip as comfortable as possible. Plus, you won't stick out like a sore thumb when you get there, what with your rags and all."

Barry and Sam grabbed the clothing thanked the man once again. They took their leave, walking through the west gate and out of the city.

After they were a considerable distance away, they both changed into their new clothing, Barry speeding into it and Sam changing normally. They continued to chat as they made their way to Lublin.

"Was there anything off about that guy you noticed?" Barry asked.

"Other than him not being a sadist, no. Why, did you see something?"

"Not necessarily. I... look, when he saw our pictures on the computer and realized who we were, his reaction wasn't what I expected."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that he seemed... I don't know like he wasn't hostile to that. When he said 'wait,' to me, it didn't seem as if it were some kind plea for his life, but more like he was, I don't know, trying to reason with us?"

"People react to fear in different ways. It's not unreasonable to assume that he was trying to bargain for his life."

"I guess. I don't know, I just have a feeling. Did you search his mind?"

"No, I didn't want to take the time to do so."

"Alright. Let's just keep moving." Barry sighed as he continued his journey.


George watched the two walk off toward Lublin. He chuckled as he thought of their actions.

John Fox? Max Adams? Could they be any worse at making up names? Ah, well, it's not like that's what they were trained to do.

As he walked back to his post, Dave approached George.

"The hell was that? You tryin to get reprimanded? Why the hell were you so soft with em?"

"Dave, stand down. I am your ranking officer."

"Ranks don't mean jack when you treat these scum like they're royalty or some shit."

"You're testing my patience. Get back." George's face was set in stone.

"What are you gonna do if I don't, huh? Attack me? You know you're already on watch from the shady stuff you get up too. What would happen to that wife 'a your's if they strip away the meds, huh?"

"One last chance. Stand. Down."

Dave chuckled. "You know, you're lucky I'm tired." He turned back and began to walk away from George. "My shift is over. I'm headin out."

George said nothing. He looked around at the other enforcers to see them all staring at him.

"Well? Get back to work!" At that, the rest of the enforcers hopped back to their jobs.

George walked back into his office. He sat down at his desk and rested his head in his hands.

There's no doubt about it. It's them.

George brought up his gauntlet and tapped around a few times. He eventually entered in a phone number. It rang out a few times before the line connected.

"Hello?" A feminine voice filled George's ears.

"Commander, this is George Nelson, UC at Checkpoint 2976-F. I got some news to tell you. Big news.

"Oh? First, when will the black night cry?"

"When the silence of the void breaks."

"Good. Now, what is it you had to tell me?"

"Two people just came through the checkpoint, missing chips."

"And? What's so special about that?"

"I'm sending you something via my PCD. Stand by." George tapped around the device located on his left gauntlet. After a moment, the gauntlet dinged.

"It should be coming your way now."

"It's coming in. I'm putting it on my display. What is it?"

"Mam, it's them."

"Them? What do you..."

Silence fell upon the line.

"Oh my God." The woman said in a voice little above a whisper.

"It's them, commander. They're back. They're headed to Berlin. I think we both know why."

"Yeah..." The woman sounded breathless. "Good work George. I'll follow up later."

"Of course, commander. Signing out." The line disconnected.

The woman leaned back in her seat. She stared at the faces before her. Mainly she stared at one of them.

"You're back... I knew you were alive."

The woman cried quietly in her office.

For the first time in a long time...

She felt hope.