Disclaimer: I don't own Justice League Unlimited.
Gut Feeling
Chapter Seven: A Good Offence
Ray Palmer, the costumed scientist known as the Atom held up the evidence bag. Carter hadn't met the Atom before, though he had heard nothing but good things about him. Apparently, he was just a decent guy who just happened to be able to change his size and mass at will.
"And… what exactly is it?"
If he had been more emotionally inclined, Batman would have sighed. "Just run the tests."
The Atom frowned, putting the small plastic bag down on the table. "Look, there are a lot of tests I can run on this thing, and it'll help things to go quicker if I know what to look for."
The Dark Knight paused. "Look for anything unusual regarding its composition."
Palmer smiled and nodded. "Right. I can do that. Thank you."
He pushed a button on his belt, and Carter tried not to jump as he heard the thumping noise of the Atom's shrinking device. Slowly and gradually, the scientist became smaller and smaller until he was the size of a children's doll. He looked up at Carter.
"A little help?"
Shaking his head from his amazed reverie, Carter knelt and held out a hand, allowing the Atom to climb on board. He lifted him onto the table top, and let the Atom get to work. Palmer unzipped the bag and took out the piece of Flash's costume they had found at the bar, and made his way over to a machine in the far corner of the room. He opened a small glass cover and placed it inside.
After making sure the glass door was locked shut, the Atom made his way over the keyboard, knelt down, and pushed a few buttons. The machine thrummed to life, and the Atom nodded, satisfied. He pushed a button on his belt, bringing him back up to normal size.
Carter looked over at Batman, who had been completely unfazed by the Atom's display of his powers.
"Sorry about that," Palmer said. "It's just easier for the more delicate operations if I'm smaller."
"How long will it take?" Batman asked. Palmer scratched the back of his head.
"Ten minutes, give or take."
Carter cocked an impressed eyebrow beneath his hawk helmet. "Really? I thought it would take longer than that for such a complex procedure."
The scientist shrugged. "The Metro Tower has some of the finest analytical machines on the planet."
A silence descended over them as the machine continued to do its work. The Atom sat down in his swivelling chair, and started to write some comments on a stack of paper that was gathered on his desk. Hawkman tilted his head to see what they were. The red and blue clad hero looked over at Carter's curious gaze.
"They're term papers. Apparently, some kids seem to think I don't know what the Internet is."
Carter smiled. "I don't know where they could have gotten that impression from."
"Yeah, well, you're over thirty, and they think you're clueless about everything except the 60s and 70s."
He nodded. "Too true."
The Atom cocked his head. "You're Hawkman, right?"
"Yes."
"My wife says hello."
"Oh. Um… thank you."
"She also says a few other things about your bare chest that I'd rather not go into for the sake of my ego."
Carter didn't know whether to laugh or feel embarrassed. "Oh. I… see."
"But still. Nice to meet you. I'm the Atom. But everyone just seems to call me Ray."
The scientist extended his hand, and Carter took it gratefully. "Hawkman. It's a pleasure."
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He looked up at the building towering above him, the repair crews tending to the Daily Planet seeming like small insects on the carcass of a fearsome beast. His eyes thinned beneath his crimson mask.
It shouldn't be there. He knew that much. He knew that it was destroyed by… something. Something big. Dark… something. Clutching his hands to his head, he groaned.
Why couldn't he remember? This building wasn't supposed to be here. It was destroyed along with him. But… if it was here, then that would mean…
He brought his head up. That would mean that he was still here, too. He had died once, then come back again, he remembered that much. Flash definitely recalled him coming back with long hair, a beard and a sword tied to his back. But he had died. He remembered that he had died after that, when Dark… something had invaded.
"Flash!"
The Scarlet Speedster turned. Before him stood Shayera, with Kyle Rayner floating to her right, and Speedy on her left. As he saw Shayera, his face fell.
"Shayera…?"
The Thanagarian considered him sceptically. "Flash? Do you… recognise me?"
The speedster ignored her question and took a step forward. Rayner brought his ring to bear, preparing for an attack. Speedy held his ground, though he didn't draw any arrows. Not yet, anyway.
"I…" Flash put a hand to his head. "But you're… you're not…" He yelled in frustration as he clutched his head. "How?"
Suddenly, he brought his head up to look at Shayera. "It's the same trick again, isn't it? I remember. When Scudder tried to trick me with you. It's not going to work." He charged forward.
"It's NOT!"
Rayner formed a basketball sized green fist and sent it flying forward. "Back off!"
It collided with Flash's chest, sending him of his feet and backwards into the air. As he reached the ground, the speedster extended his arms back flipped to his feet, before charging forward at the Lantern again. Rayner fired several blasts of green energy at the approaching speedster, which Flash easily dodged.
With a loud crash, Flash collided with Rayner, sending him back. Using his ring to steady himself, Rayner landed on his feet, the speed of the attack sending him skidding back along the ground slightly. He looked up in time to see Flash approaching again, his fists ready to attack.
Reacting with trained and honed skills, Rayner put up a shield of green energy in front of him. The Flash was undeterred, pummelling the shield with superspeed punches, his fists moving at such speeds that they vibrated through the green energy field. Rayner yelled in pain as his shield exploded in front of him, the feedback tossing him backwards across the ground.
Flash charged forward again. A sudden loud battle cry from his right drew his attention to Shayera, who swung her mace into his chest and sent him flying back, colliding with a parked car and almost causing it to fold in on itself.
The electricity from Shayera's mace danced across the Flash's body. Shayera lifted her mace to attack again, but suddenly paused.
The colours on Flash's costume were changing colours. The red was becoming a much darker shade, almost black, while the usually sparkling gold was becoming a dull, lifeless gray. Gradually, the electricity subsided, and the Flash's costume returned to normal.
A look of betrayal and sadness crossed the speedster's face, before it became knotted in anger. Shayera readied herself for an attack, and was caught off guard when Flash turned and shot off down the road, disappearing into the distance. She relaxed and turned to help Rayner up, and saw that Speedy was already there.
"Anything broken?"
Rayner dismissively slapped Speedy's hand away, getting to his feet himself. "No, nothing's broken. No thanks to you. Where were you back there?"
"Excuse me if I don't feel like beating the crap out of one of my best friends."
"Well, he's sure as hell not acting like your friend now, so you'd better change your attitude!"
"Couldn't you see he was confused? There's obviously something going on up there, something really wrong. And you're not helping by blasting away at him with that fancy ring!"
"What was I supposed to do? Let him kill Shayera?"
"He wouldn't have killed her!"
"How do you know that?"
"Because I know him! He's not a killer!"
"Well, you obviously didn't know him as well as you thought."
Shayera, meanwhile, was still looking at her mace, wondering exactly what had happened after she had struck the speedster.
"Nth metal?" she mused quietly.
"What?"
She turned to look at Speedy. "Flash. He changed colours when I hit him with this," she said, gesturing to her mace. "And this is made of Nth metal."
Rayner, now beginning to calm down, crossed his arms in thought, bringing his left hand up to stroke his chin. "If I remember right, Nth metal has properties that interfere with magic."
Speedy cocked an eyebrow at Shayera. "Do you think that there's something magical going on here?"
"After what just happened, I wouldn't rule it out," she said, bringing her hand to her earpiece. "Mr Terrific, we lost him."
"So have we. He's moving too fast; he's all over the place. We'll have to wait for him to slow down or stop before I can get you to him."
She groaned in frustration. "All right. Three for transport."
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Linda knocked on the door of the apartment yet again. "Wally? C'mon, Wally, I know you were making that stuff up on the phone. I've just come here through this storm to see if you were okay, and it's freakin' freezing out here. Let me in."
She waited for a response.
Nothing.
She sighed. She leant over and checked through the keyhole. Linda had to admit, Wally was doing one hell of a job pretending not to be in. Maybe he actually was going away, but it was for a reason he didn't want her to know about. But what the hell could it be? Since she had known him, he had had no qualms with telling her anything embarrassing or humiliating about himself. He seemed to find it funny himself most of the time. And likewise, she had felt the same kind of openness and comfort with him. It was that comfort that made her think there was a future between them.
But now…
Recently, he had been acting so strangely, even for Wally. She had learned to live with his unexplained absences from time to time, but this was just strange. He had never called her before with anything like this. If this was his way of breaking up with her, he could have found a simpler way to do it.
She brought her hand up to knock again, when she felt something lift her off her feet. In a few seconds, she felt raindrops on her face, and just as quickly, they were gone, and she was once again on her feet.
She looked around, taking in her surroundings. She was in the Flash Museum, which had only just been reopened for business after Flash's battle with the Captain Boomerang, Captain Cold and Mirror Master. It was after hours, and the usually gaudy and happy lights were replaced by a haunting darkness. An occasional bolt of lightning lit the large room.
She almost jumped out of her skin when she saw a shadowy figure stood next to her. Her shock subsided as she recognised the white eyes of his mask and pointy earpieces.
"Oh… Flash, it's you…" she looked around the room. "Um… not that I'm not… um… flattered, but… why am I here?"
Flash was silent. He just reached forward and stroked her cheek with the back of his gloved hand. "You're… you're still…"
He turned and walked away from her before she could respond, looking up and around the building. "How? How is it still here?"
Linda cocked an eyebrow. "Um… why is what still here?"
"This!" he said, bringing out both of his arms in an encompassing gesture. "It's supposed to be gone! Kadabra… he… it's gone…"
Linda placed a tentative hand on his shoulder. "I… Flash… what are you talking about? What do you mean?"
He whirled on his heel to face. "I mean…" he paused as his eyes widened beneath his mask. "You… you're just like that… that Shayera…"
"Shayera? Shayera Hol? You mean Hawkgirl?"
"She wasn't real…" he glared at her, stepping forward threateningly. "And neither are you."
He reached out to grab her, and she turned and ran for the door. Flash was in front of her before she could even move, roughly holding her by the arms.
"Who are you! Why are going this!"
"I… I…"
A blast of green energy nailed Flash in the small of his back. He yelled in pain as he lost his grip on Linda and fell to one knee. The reporter looked up and saw Shayera Hol, a red haired man on her left with a bow, and someone who was dressed like Green Lantern on her right. Shayera looked directly at her.
"Run."
Linda didn't need any more coaxing. She ran as fast as her legs could take her, unmindful of the torrent of rain that almost instantly drenched her from head to toe as she stepped outside the museum.
Flash got to his feet, growling in anger. Shayera twisted the hilt of her mace, bringing it to life with crackling energy.
"Flash… don't make me do this. Just come back with us to the Metro Tower."
"There is no Metro Tower, liar!"
Shayera was taken aback by the ferocity of Flash's words. It was also the most coherent thing to come out of Wally's mouth since he had escaped from his holding cell.
The Thanagarian was knocked from her thoughts as Flash charged at them, once again going for Rayner. The young Lantern fired a blast of green energy at the speedster's feet, but Flash merely leapt up and at Rayner. He latched onto Rayner as he leapt, taking him back down with him. As soon as his feet touched the ground, Flash was away at superspeed, taking the Lantern with him.
Shayera and Speedy could do nothing but stand there as Flash disappeared from view in an instant.
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Rayner tried to concentrate. To do something. The world was shooting past at such a dizzying pace; it was all the Lantern could manage to keep his green force field up and running.
Suddenly, he felt something change. Looking down, he realised that Flash had jumped up into the air. The speedster began spinning in midair, and the entire world became a red blur. Rayner tried to bring his ring up, but found himself held in place by the colossal winds.
Suddenly, Flash let go of him, tossing him diagonally into the air. Rayner could do nothing as he shot through the clouds and into the stratosphere. He looked up, seeing the black emptiness of space above him. He finally managed to slow his rapid ascent, and came to a halt just above the Earth.
Taking a few moments to catch his breath, Rayner sighed. God, that guy was fast. He reached up to his earpiece, and found that it was missing.
Must have been cut loose during the whole spinning thing.
He looked from his left to his right, and back again, wondering in which direction the Watchtower would be. Choosing left, he shot off in that direction, hoping he would be able to make it back down to Earth in time to do anything useful.
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Atom frowned. "I've never seen anything like this before."
Carter leaned forward in curiosity, though Batman beat him there.
"What is it?"
Palmer looked over at the Dark Knight. "It's… well, take a look for yourself. There's something wrong with its vibration frequency."
Batman looked at the readouts from the Atom's analysis. He froze as he realised something. Suddenly he turned to Carter, putting his fingers to his communicator.
"Mr Terrific, where's Flash?"
"He's in Central City. I sent Shayera, Lantern and Speedy down there after him."
He nodded. "Right. Batman out." Looking up at Carter, he pointed a commanding finger at him. "Go to Central City. Slow him down, keep him distracted, whatever, it doesn't matter. Just make sure that he stays in Central City."
The Dark Knight turned and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" Carter asked.
"No time."
And with that, the World's Greatest Detective was gone. Carter turned to look at the Atom, who was still sat in his chair.
"Do you know what that was about?"
The scientist shrugged. "I just know that when Batman tells you to do something, you'd damn well better do it."
Carter nodded. "Right."
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"Lantern? Lantern, come in." Shayera growled in frustration. "Rayner, do you read?"
Speedy frowned. "What the hell could've-?"
He stopped in mid-sentence as the Flash appeared in front of them, stood at the foot of the statue that had been erected in his honour in front of the museum.
"Where's Lantern?" Shayera asked, activating her mace. The heavy rain sizzled and spat as it came in contact with the crackling weapon.
Flash cocked his head to the side. "He's not GL."
"No, he's not. You put him in the med bay, remember?"
"He took her away from me."
Speedy grimaced. "What?"
"Lantern. He took her away."
Shayera tried to adopt a calm yet cautious stance, not wanting to get caught off guard. Though with Wally at this range, it was difficult not to be caught off guard.
"Took who away, Wally?"
She had decided to forgo codenames. Rayner wasn't here. Shayera and Speedy both knew Flash's secret identity, and no-one in their right mind would be near here in this weather. And maybe using his real name would help her get through to him.
Flash frowned beneath his crimson cowl. "What?"
"Wally, it's okay. You don't need to-"
"Who's Wally?"
Even Speedy couldn't keep his defensive stance after that. "You are, buddy."
"No I'm not."
Shayera nodded. "That's your name. Wally West."
"Stop it."
"Please… Wally… try to think… your name is Wally West. You're a member of the Justice League."
Speedy nodded. "You used to be a Teen Titan."
Flash clutched his hands to his head. "Stop it!"
Both Shayera and Speedy froze, expecting an attack. Shayera glanced over at the archer on her left, who had instinctively reached for the arrow satchel on his back. He paused in that position, ready to attack if needs be.
Shayera took a step forward. "So… what is your name, if it's not Wally?"
Flash whipped his head up to look at her, adopting a fighting ready stance. "You'll never know."
Shayera took a step back and readied herself.
The three stood completely still, one almost daring the other to make a move.
Shayera twisted her hands around her mace slightly for a better grip.
Flash unclenched and clenched his fists.
Speedy moved one of his arrows up the smallest of inches.
That was enough for Flash. He charged at Speedy and swung his fist forward, colliding with the archer's jaw and tossing him backwards.
Shayera leapt forward, bringing her mace back behind her head and slicing it down at Flash's head. The speedster hopped back and grabbed the hilt of the mace with both hands, swinging it and Shayera around and into the wall behind her.
Speedy got to his feet and prepared an electrified arrow.
Using her wings, Shayera managed to steady herself in midair and flipped herself around so her legs came into contact with the wall first. She crouched against the wall and kicked off with all her strength, sending her hurtling towards the speedster, her mace brought back for another blow.
Speedy released his arrow.
The Fastest Man Alive sidestepped the arrow and snatched it out of midair, driving it into Shayera's gut before she could even think about moving out of the way. The Thanagarian yelled in agony as thousands of volts of electricity flowed through her. Once the arrow's charge was spent, it exploded, sending Shayera back and into the wall, knocking her unconscious.
Flash turned his attention to Speedy, who had let loose another arrow. He ducked beneath the projectile and charged towards the archer, bringing his left hand across and out at superspeed to slice the bow in half, and bringing his right hand up in an uppercut. Speedy could do nothing as Flash subject him to a bombardment of superspeed punches before grabbing him by the shoulders and tossing him into the unconscious Shayera at superspeed.
The speedster stopped to take account of what he had just done. Hearing a groan come from Speedy, he began to make his way towards the two, intent on finishing the job.
"Stop!"
He turned to see Hawkman descending from the sky, a large black mace in each hand, the weapons glistening in the rain.
A confused look crossed the Flash's face. "Who…?"
Carter touched down on the ground. "I don't know what's going on, Flash, but I can't let it go on. Look at what you've done. Look!"
The speedster glanced over his shoulder at the unconscious Speedy and Shayera.
"They were your friends, Flash. They trusted you, defended you. They didn't deserve this. And I don't know why you thought they did."
"Be quiet."
Hawkman cocked his head. "Why? Don't you like hearing the truth? That you've become a monster that doesn't even value his friends?"
"BE QUIET!"
Flash shot forward. Keeping as calm and loose as possible, Carter sidestepped to his left and swung out the mace in his right hand, slamming it into Flash's stomach. The blow sent him hurtling back and across the courtyard of the museum until he came to a stop below one of the flagpoles sporting a Flash symbol.
The Flash's costume crackled from the contact with Carter's electrified mace, changing the colours as they had with Shayera. Hawkman's eyes thinned beneath his helmet.
"I told you, Flash. I'm not going to let you continue doing this."
Clutching his stomach, Flash pulled himself to his feet. "You don't… have a choice."
"Why are you doing this? I thought I knew you. Why?"
"You don't know me. I don't even know who you are! How could you possibly know who I am?"
"You're the Flash. You're the continuation of a legacy of heroes who have risked their lives time and time again to safe others. What do you think those heroes would think of what you're doing?"
"You shut up."
"I read up on you, Flash. I know that I there was a Flash before you, and a Flash before him. The first's name was Jay Garrick. He served in World War Two, defending innocent people from the kind of person you've become!"
"SHUT UP!"
Once again, the speedster came at him, this time managing to knock the mace from Carter's right hand. Hawkman brought his left mace around and caught Flash in the side, sending him hurtling back and through the double glass doors of the museum. He skidded across the carpeted floor before coming to a gradual halt. He slowly picked himself up, groaning as he knelt on all fours, seemingly ignorant of the electricity dancing across him and the effect it was having on his costume.
Carter looked over at the speedster. "The second Flash was your mentor. You were Kid Flash. He raised you and taught you how to be a hero. Is this the kind of hero he wanted you to be?"
He kicked off from the ground and flew towards the speedster, gripping the mace with both hands. He swung it down at the still recovering Flash, who quickly rolled out of the way before it could make contact. The mace slammed into the ground, leaving an indentation there.
Moving faster than Carter's eye could see, Flash placed one foot on the mace and leapt up with the other, slamming a supersonic knee into Carter's chin, and sending him flying back.
Carter steadied himself with his wings in time to see Flash running at him while carrying his mace, bringing it up and around into his face. As he spoke, each word was accompanied by another blow to Carter by his own mace.
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"
"SHUT…"
Flash whirled on the spot and brought the mace into Carter's face yet again.
"…UP!"
His helmet flew from his head, landing with a clang on the far side of the museum. Carter was tossed back by the blow like a rag doll, slamming into the wall beside the smashed glass doors. Before Carter could even fall to the ground, Flash had jammed Carter's head into the wall with his forearm, holding him in place by his neck.
He brought back the mace, ready to deliver the killing blow.
Flash yelled in pain as a batarang collided with his wrist, making him drop the mace on the ground behind him. He looked to the doorway and saw a bat shaped shadow disappear from view. Flash looked back at the beaten and bruised Hawkman before releasing him, letting him crumple to the floor.
The Scarlet Speedster zipped to the empty doorway, coming face to face with Batman, who was holding a large white device in his hands. A device that seemed familiar to Flash, though he couldn't remember where he…
Shayera groaned as she slowly emerged from unconsciousness. She looked up and assessed the situation, her eyes widening in panic as she saw the device that Batman now held in his hands.
"Batman… no."
"It's the only way, Shayera."
"No… we can find another way. You don't have to-"
"There is no other way. This is it."
Shayera tried to get up.
But before she could do anything, Batman had taken aim with the Phantom Zone generator and fired.
The Flash was engulfed instantly.
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(A/N: I was looking forward to writing this cliff-hanger for so long… I hope it has the desired effect.
As those of you who read the comics may already know, the Atom and Hawkman are best buddies in the comics, being, as Wally describes them, 'like the Odd Couple', much in the same way that Flash and Green Lantern are. Now, while I'm probably not going to go into detail in regards to their friendship, I wanted to put some element of that in there, since I can see the DCAU versions becoming good buddies too.
Some of you may know what's going on with Wally at this point, and some of you may not. It is comics related, though I have twisted it around a bit here and there to make it suitably different from the comics.
It's actually been awhile since I've done a big action scene like this, so I hope it didn't drag too much. I attempted to make sure there was some dialogue in there as well, so it wasn't just one being description-fest. Honesty please!
Now, it came to my attention while watching 'The Great Brain Robbery' that it's now been established in the show that the reason that Flash doesn't vibrate through things is because it makes them explode. Which, y'know, makes sense. It also makes situations like Flash being tied up in 'Legends' in Season One more bearable (Although why he got stuck in an ice cube is beyond me, since in 'Speed Demons' he melted through a block of ice with no difficulty, but that's neither here nor there).
And that explanation is fair enough, except I've had Flash vibrating through stuff in my stories all the time. So, here's my explanation of why Flash can vibrate through stuff in my stories without making them go boom (as a fanboy who is anally obsessed with putting his stories in continuity, I must do this by law):
When Flash vibrates through stuff, he makes them blow up. But, if he concentrates real hard and takes his sweet time, he can vibrate through things without making them explode. Simple, eh?
As the for the fact that Kid Flash in 'Lightspeed' could vibrate through the wall with no problem (assuming you're putting Teen Titans and Justice League Unlimited in the same continuity), let's just say that as Wally got older, he got faster and more powerful, hence why stuff blows up when he vibrates through it.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how much of a nerd I am.
Anyway, review!)