Barry feels the air whip around him, the sensation and freedom of running never ceases to amaze him after all these years, he hopes it never stops. Soon he's gotten his suit on and the comms work as he hears Cisco say. "The disturbance is on Fifth and Clearwater." Barry nods, running through the city as he makes his way to where the docks are, as he does so he asks Cisco.
"Do we know what type of meta it is?"
Cisco shakes his head, then remembering Barry can't see him says. "Nada. But from the way things are going over there, I'd say they've got some speed."
Barry groans. "Another speedster? The accelerator is the gift that keeps on giving." He arrives at the docks to find it empty. "There's nothing and no one here Cisco, are you sure this is where the disturbance is?" Before he can hear his friend's response a flash of yellow and black knocks him off his feet, he slowly gets up and then gets knocked back down again. "Yep, it's a speedster." He says into the comms, slowly getting up to his feet.
A black figure stands before him, devil horned and slit masked. There could be no mistaking this figure for Zoom. The speedster's voice is not vibrating. "Ah, Flash. I was wondering when you'd show up."
Barry looks at the figure and asks. "Who are you? And what do you want?"
The figure takes a bow, then says. "Name's The Rival, and I'm the fastest man alive. You're in the way though." The figure leans forward and then runs. Time slows for Barry, he sees the way the Rival favours his left side more than his right, Barry leans to his right, as the man comes toward him, extending his fist and hitting the man's right side. The Rival staggers to the side then comes back quickly laying into him, one punch and then another, Barry hears Cisco saying something in his ear, but all he can focus on now is facing off these blows. He eventually manages to block enough punches to send the man back, pushing as hard as he can.
The Rival is back though, a manic laugh rippling through the air. They flash from one place to the next, causing dust to rise from the ground and swirl around them. Pain rivets through his arms as he smacks the Rival, the man is strong, his chest is made of rocks, it must be, to withstand so much pain at such a high speed. Onwards they go, Barry hitting the Rival with everything he has, and the man throwing it all back in his face. Barry gets knocked down, and soon enough he's falling, falling, falling, the ground rushes up to meet him and he grunts. As he lies on the ground, he hears Cisco call out in his ear. "Barry, Barry get up. You have to get up."
"I know Cisco. I just need a minute." Barry responds.
"You've got to get up right now Barry, he's going to be doing something serious, and you need to get up." Cisco says breathily.
Barry blinks, forces himself up and stares in horror at the sight of the force of air rushing through the sky. "What the hell?" Barry exclaims.
"Exactly, you're going to need to run as fast as you can Barry." Cisco says.
"I know." Barry grunts, the pain from his landing still running through his system. He steels himself and then flashes off, running around and around, doing his best to siphon off the energy that Rival is creating, feeling it flow through him, his lightning crackling around him. So much of it is there, he's digesting it all, he's not sure how much longer he can keep going, but he keeps running. He won't let this fool do something that could endanger so many. Eventually, he stops running, he looks at his side and sees the Rival standing there, staring at him gobsmacked.
"You couldn't do that before." The man says.
"What are you on about?" Barry asks. "We've never fought before."
At this the Rival laughs. "Oh but we have Flash, many times." The man runs at him again, and hits him, hard. He falls to the ground then gets up and chases the man around the docks. As he does so he thinks about what he'd said. He's never seen the man before, he'd have recognised him if they had. As he catches him, he whispers into the comms. "Cisco, run a search on the Rival."
"Already doing it now." Cisco replies, thinking through what they're hearing.
Barry races after the Rival, catching him and smashing him into the ground. Something flashes into his mind, and he stops himself from delivering the finishing blow. He watches the Rival writhe and scream in pain, his legs beating hard and fast trying to break free, but unable to against the pain in them. "You said we've fought before, where?" Barry demands.
The Rival stops his writhing and looks at him. "You really don't remember? I'm disappointed. We fought here, exactly here. And I was about to win before your cop friend shot me. I killed the younger Flash and was about to do the same to you. You're faster than you were Flash, I'll give you that, more ruthless."
"What? I've never met you in my life. I don't know who you are, or why you're doing this." Barry replies, his heart racing as he thinks through every memory he has, trying desperately to suppress something that Thawne had once said to him.
The Rival laughs once more. "Flashpoint." With that he says nothing, and he does not resist when Barry takes him from where they fight to the meta wing in Iron Heights, throwing him in and alerting Joe. He races back to the Lab and takes off his suit, looking at Caitlin, seeing something stirring in her that he can't quite place, then looking at Cisco and asking. "Well?"
Cisco sighs. "Edward Claris, he was a racer before he went missing a few months ago. That's it."
Barry nods. "Well he won't be doing any racing now."