Chapter 12: The Speedster and the Metal Man
"My name is Barry Allen, and I am the 'Fastest Man Alive'. To the outside world I'm an ordinary forensic scientist, but in secret I help my friends at S.T.A.R Labs fight crime and find other metahumans like me. In recent days my friend Cisco attempted to explore other parallel universes by use of his Vibe / breach powers, but something went wrong causing multiple characters from alternate universes to converge together into what we mathematically refer to as Earth 38, some of these Multiverse refugees are scared innocent people, while others are downright dangerous and cannot be allowed to hurt anyone, and I am the only one fast enough to stop them! I am...'The Flash'!
Earth 1, Day 25 after the multi breach event -
Barry Allen's point of view:
I had just finished a date with my fiance Iris West.
But now I had to go and save the world. Figuratively speaking. I was rendering assistance to Supergirl in Earth 38. Cisco was working overtime.
In the three and a half weeks since the event of Cisco's blunder, he'd only been sleeping a couple hours a night while working 7 days a week trying to send all of the Multiverse refugees home. So far we had collected roughly 150. Each one of them was given an armband that would scan their molecular structure to find out what university belong to. For some of them their armbands were still searching. While for others their armbands had discovered the location within the Multiverse Universe early. For those people Cisco was able to send them home.
I activated my miniature portable breach device that opened a breach to Earth 38. I stepped through it and it dropped me off in the middle of the DEO.
Earth 38
"Hey Barry." said Winn Schott.
I liked him. The guy was brilliant. He helped get me home the first time I became the first Multiverse Refugee on this Earth over a year ago.
"Hey Winn." I said back to him. "How are you doing?"
"Well, interestingly a few of the Multiverse refugees are still hostile and causing Havoc." Said Winn exasperatedly. "The last thing we need are more super villains in our world."
"I'm sure that Cisco has apologized profusely."
"Oh yes he has." said Winn. "But his apologies have not solved the problem. Not to mention that people have died because of his blunder. And we're still rounding up refugees and trying to send them home."
It was then that I noticed Bella, Benjamin, EJ, and his new girlfriend Julie Black walk into the room.
"Hello Barry." Bella greeted.
"Hey Bella." I replied. "So, put me to work." I said to them. "Any Multiverse refugees that I can find."
They then handed me a scanning device that monitors the Dark Matter radiation being picked up by all of the spectrometers.
"Find the Dark Matter radiation marked people." said EJ Cullen. "And bring them back here at super speed."
"In other news." said J'onn J'onzz as he walked up. It seems that we have a new terrorist group that has been wreaking havoc in the last couple of weeks."
"A terrorist group." I said in confusion.
"Well, it depends on your point of view, it's less of a terrorist group and more of an extremist cult. They call themselves 'The Order of the Black Serpent'." said Supergirl as she walked up behind J'onn J'onzz.
"It's a group that is so new apparently no one heard of it before a month ago. In fact it only turned up about a short week after the event."
"Agent Schott, would you please bring up the information." said J'onn J'onzz.
Winn touched a few buttons where then multiple TV screens then showed multiple videos and photographs of the last few weeks. They seem to be normal people who were wearing nondescript clothing. They were putting on rallys, and making a few statements by committing a few acts of terrorism where the suspects were not legitimately able to be convicted due to lack of evidence.
"Apparently the organization had gained a great deal of power and influence in Great Britain." said Bella. "There have also been a few members that have tweeted about it and done blog entries. They claim that their founder and leader is some sort of mystical emissary of extraordinary power who has promised them all a new and better World in exchange for their loyalty."
"So? Lots of people form cults. Make extravagant promises. Granted the terrorist attacks are a huge issue for anyone." I said as I observed information on the screen.
"Well, here's the big and major part of this guy's influence," said Benjamin, "as its said he seems to possess extraordinary power; apparently their founder and leader of their organization has been backing up his claims by performing miracles, extraordinary elaborate miracles."
Benjamin's tone of voice indicated that he was skeptical.
"You don't seem so sure?" I said.
"Well," said Benjamin, "I live with a god. And I have seen countless clever tricks and advanced technology that a more naive person would mistake for miracles. Amun healed the sick. Raised the dead. Performed wonders for the ancient Egyptians. But there was nothing Supernatural about it."
"Obviously," said J'onn J'onzz, "there could be any number of things that we're dealing with here."
"Well," I said, "I too have seen extraordinary things. Myself for example, I can run at nearly three times the speed of sound. Have you yourself ever entered another dimension called the 'speed force'? Have you ever seen a giant time Vortex nearly swallow up your city?"
"Have you ever seen a giant super strong telepathic gorilla go on a rampage through your sewers of your city?" Wally weighed in, referring to our number of encounters with the metahuman animal Gorilla Grodd.
"Have you ever seen a giant walking talking shark?" I asked.
"Point taken." said Benjamin.
"We will keep an eye on it." said Archie Cullen as he stood next to Jessamine. " but for the time being, I see a potential future of great evil scattering over the world from this guy."
"Let's all get to work."
Third person point of view:
Voldemort's secret hideout.
Voldemort and Loki sat across from each other at a small table.
About a month earlier, Loki had managed to use his magic to track down Voldemort, though he wasn't entirely sure what Voldemort was all about. All he knew was that he could be a potential ally. While Loki was intrigued about the situation that he was in he too was eager to return to his own universe and see if his army, the chitauri, had successfully conquered New York City, and then the world. He knew that the Hulk was at present in this world allied with a Kryptonian, the famous Superman.
He remembered the day will that he had first arrived in the city of Metropolis through the breach. He was fighting with his brother Thor. Hammer versus his infinity stone scepter. It was a furious exchange blows. When suddenly he was hit hard and he dropped his scepter and then Thor hit him off of the building. He fell. Where then the breach opened up right in his path as he was falling down toward the ground and he passed through it.
He was inside the Vortex of swirling colors and images until he was dropped off in the city of Metropolis. It took him a little while to figure out that he had entered into an alternate universe. He himself had some experience with alternate universes. But he did not possess the magic to freely open these breaches. He needed to construct an elaborate machine powered by the Tesseract just to open the portal in the sky over the Stark Tower for The Invasion Force to come through. He believed though that he could construct a new machine to return to his own universe as well as get Voldemort and himself back to their own universes. But he would need assistance.
Loki then placed onto the table several pieces of paper which were a series of schematics. A highly sophisticated machine of Asgard technology.
"This machine will allow us to reopen the breaches that we came through so that we could return to our worlds. And then we could freely return here if we wanted to."
"It took you nearly a month to come up with this?" asked Lord Voldemort with impatience.
"It wasn't exactly easy." said Loki. "I had to go through several drafts of the schematics and I had to take a little time to figure out how to actually get the machine to work. And besides, I don't see you waving your magic wand and reopening the breaches."
"My powers are very adaptable." said Voldemort. "But in order for me to come up with new and more esoteric spells, I need to know exactly what it is that with dealing with. I don't have the faintest clue on how these breaches work."
"Fair enough." said Loki. "Anyway, I currently have my hands on all of the necessary components, except for one. A sufficient power source. A high output nuclear reactor will not suffice. I will need something...more."
"So all that is holding us back is sufficient electricity for the machine?" asked Voldemort.
"That is correct." said Loki. "Fortunately though I have located one. It is in a high-security facility."
"Beyond your ability to break into?" asked Voldemort.
"Not at all. I can break in. Just I shall need the distraction."
"What distraction?"
"When I attack the facility, no doubt a team of Heroes much similar to The Avengers will descend on me. Nothing I can't handle, but I will need to focus on catching the device. I still need you to attract one of these Heroes and keep them out of the way. The rest of their team will be nearby."
"You want me to lure out one of their Heroes and keep them distracted."
"It's quite as simple as that."
"Couldn't I just apparate in there?" asked Voldemort.
"From what I know of the information that I collected, the device is and the facility that it is in is surrounded by what they refer to as 'metahuman dampeners'. Personally I think that if you attempt to apparate into a metahuman dampening field it would result in what you Wizards refer to as 'splinching'."
"Very well, I will carry out your distraction." Said Voldemort. "And at the same time it will rally more followers to my cause."
"How so?"
These humans are alike pack animals. They give attention and loyalty to the philosophical 'alpha male'. Challenge their greatest champion to a one-on-one fight, and when I win offer the people protection in exchange for their loyalty of course.
Loki thought about that for a moment.
"I like it." said Loki with a smile. "You really are a diabolical genius."
Voldemort smiled with pride.
"I try." he said in a tone of gloating.
"It's the exact thing that I was doing when I came here. Though of course I was pulled into that mysterious breach. I didn't get to finish my grand show that I was showing the people the Earth."
"Though of course these Muggles will resist. They will go to war with us with all the might of their world."
"Well, I have great confidence that you'll be able to come up with a spell that will inhibit their weapons. As will I. And then we each will control Both Worlds."
The planet Oa -
Hal Jordan was answering a summons. He was wearing his mentally conjured skin tight green suit and mask. He had just materialized out of hyperspace, and using his ability of flight that was granted to him by his Green Lantern Ring that he wore on his finger.
He flew into the capital city on the planet and landed in the middle of the Citadel of the immortal Guardians of Oa.
"Guardians?" Hal Jordan prompted when he landed in the middle of the Citadel. "You summoned me?"
"Hal Jordan." said one of the Guardians. "Protector of sector 2814. We have summoned you here to give you an assignment."
"What is the assignment?" asked Hal Jordan.
"There has been a breach in the Multiverse barrier. A great evil has entered into this universe and is currently residing on Earth."
"A great evil?" said Hal Jordan with concern.
"This is no ordinary evil. This evil will spread. It will consume everything in its path. But it will not be confined to Earth. It will eventually spread to other worlds. It may take an eternity, but eventually it will consume much of the known universe, in time."
"Tell me what to do?" said Hal Jordan with determination.
"It may not be that easy. We have reason to believe that this evil cannot be destroyed so easily. It will take extreme resourcefulness to stop this evil...but...it was your courage and determination that destroyed Parallax. You have defeated many other powerful formidable foes since then. We are telling you now that this evil will consume your world unless you stop it. Now go, and do what you do best, Protect the planet Earth."
Without a word, Hal Jordan flew off and using the ring he jumped into hyperspace heading straight back to Earth.
Barry Allen's point of view:
Everything around me stood completely still as I ran in a flat-out Sprint through the streets. But at the same time I still felt the shortness over the very small amount of time that it took me to do everything. It was more like I knew and felt extreme speed, but yet I could take in all of my surroundings with extreme detail. It was exhilarating. I love running. The faster I could go, the better. It was a good thing that I have this friction proof suit, for without it my clothes would be burned to a cinder at the speed that I'm running.
And then, what will you know, I see a bank robbery in progress. I run in there in the blink of an eye, grab hold of the bank robbers who are holding their bags of money while wearing their masks. And I run them out of the bank at super speed and right into the middle of a police station, disarm their weapons, and leave them there surrounded by cops.
I identify the Multiverse refugee that I was tracking. This one was being tracked by the spectrometers for weeks and he kept on eluding capture. Apparently he was quite fast. Capable of running about a hundred and forty miles an hour. That's nothing on me though.
When I encountered him he was about 7 ft tall and heavily muscled.
He had an interesting set up. It seemed more like a nest. It was in a old shed in a remote secluded location where no one would ever go. There was money everywhere along with a lot of empty beer bottles.
"What do you want!?" said the man.
"I know that you have arrived here from an alternate reality." I told him calmly. "We have a means to send you home."
He then scrutinized me with a curious face.
"Wait a minute, I've seen you before. You're in League with the Vampire hybrid EJ Cullen!"
Clearly he has sources of information. But he then ran at me just as his body turned to a smooth reflective silver and punched me right in the face. There was a spurt of blood from my mouth. I was flown back and landed on the ground in the heap. Damn! That hurt like hell! I was more upset at myself than anyone. I should have had the sense to dodge out of the way. He then ran at me but I had the sense to get up and run myself.
I've fought a guy like this before, my high school bully Tony Woodard, who became a metahuman by the particle accelerator explosion just like I did.
Time froze and everything Stood Still as I continue to move at normal speed. I totally should have brought along Jessamine Hale. That is what she is here for after all.
I hit the SOS button on my suit.
I played a game of cat-and-mouse with this guy for about a minute when Cisco breached Wally, EJ, Julie Black, Bella, Benjamin, Jessamine, and Archie to my location.
The big metal man just smiled.
"Well well well." said the man with gloating satisfaction. "This is my lucky day. 1 hybrid, 4 vampires, and a werewolf. I like this kill count score."
He then looked at me.
"And I guess I'll throw in the Speedster mutant and his friends."
"Metahuman!" I corrected him.
"EJ, who is this guy?" asked Archie Cullen.
"This is the mutant that I was fighting when the breach pulled me to this universe. He was pulled here with me. We got separated after we got here. He's a vampire hunter. At least that's what he classifies himself as. He cannot be ripped apart, he's stronger than vampires, bigger than vampires, and faster than some vampires.
"I don't know if he has a nickname, but Uncle Emmett…'my' uncle Emmett, likes to call him 'The Iron Titan'."
"I like it." said Cisco with a smile.
"So how do we kill him?" asked Bella.
"In his 'metal state' he is nearly invulnerable." said EJ. "You need to force him out of his metal state and into his 'flesh state'. And then hopefully incapacitate him or permanently put him out of his misery before he goes back into his metal state."
"How do we force him into his flesh state?" asked Jessamine.
"If he suffers sufficient physical trauma it might cause him to get knocked unconscious. When he relaxes and is not concentrating he reverts back to his flesh state."
Third person point of view:
This guy truly was formidable. He was far more formidable than any vampire. Near complete and total invulnerability, Superior strength and speed. He took on the entire group by himself. And it seemed that he was winning.
Cisco fired streams of destructive energy at him but it failed to penetrate the metal skin. The vampires couldn't rip him apart. Julie had burst forth as a giant wolf and even her werewolf teeth could not penetrate the metal on his skin. Benjamin Unleashed all of the elements of nature on him. He was too heavy to be blown by wind. Water just bounced off of him. Frigid cold and even extreme heat seem to have little effect on him. And throwing large Boulders at him telekinetically didn't do any good either.
Barry Allen's point of view:
"Benjamin?" I summoned to the Egyptian vampire.
Benjamin came over.
"Could you use your healing device on me please?"
While the rest of the team kept Iron Titan busy, Benjamin pulled out the Goa'uld healing device and shone the gold light onto me and my wounds recovered.
"I need you all to hit him in the head as hard as you possibly can with vampire strength." I said to him.
Everyone there acknowledged.
Cisco fired a stream of destructive Vibe energy from his hand right at the iron Titans head. One at a time each of the vampires managed to get a punch off in his face as hard as they possibly could.
Julie Black leapt at the guy growling ready to try and sink her teeth into his metal again when this time he grabbed her and she gave a puppy bark of pain when it was then EJ Cullen that then seem to muster up some kind of extra reserve of strength making him even stronger than he already was. This resulted in Iron Titan releasing Julie Black from his grip and then seemed to be pummeled by EJ Cullen's fists.
"Don't! You! Dare! Ever! Harm! My! Girlfriend! Ever!" he punctuated each word with an extra Hard Punch.
Iron Titan fell flat on his back where then EJ Cullen got on top of him and started pounding one fist after another into his face again and again and it actually looked like the metal skin on his face was being dented.
Iron Titan went cross-eyed and seemed to be very disoriented.
EJ then stood Iron Titan up on his feet one more time and placed his finger to the guy's forehead where Iron Titan then seem to be paralyzed like a statue.
"Hit him with everything you've got Berry, don't worry about me, I can take it."
I then felt the pupils of my eyes surge with electricity as I then ran at super speed. I ran around and around EJ and Iron Titan in a circle 1000 times a second. I collected a ball of yellow lightning in my hand while other streaks of lightning being left behind we're being attracted to the EM field being given off by the metal of Iron Titan's skin. Both he and EJ surged with electricity but I knew that this was part of EJ's plan. I just need to incapacity this guy and I knew that EJ would be alright.
Once my ball of yellow lightning in my hand was sufficiently charged I gained a little distance and then momentum and threw it directly at the Iron Titan but before the ball of yellow lightning reached him I ran towards him at super speed and both my super sonic punch and my bolt of lightning struck him simultaneously. The resounding 'CLANG!' from my fist impacting his face was deafening but he went flying and landed flat on the ground and he was then forced back into his flesh state.
"Wally, cuff him!" I commanded.
Kid Flash then ran forward at super speed pulling out from behind his utility belt a pair of tech-looking handcuffs. He placed them on both of the Iron Titan's wrists. And turned the device on.
Iron Titan then woke up and then look like he tried to break the handcuffs and turn back into his metal state but he couldn't.
"What have you done to me!?" the guy asked.
"Metahuman dampeners." I said to him.
"You're under arrest." said Julie Black as she had turned back to her human form, had darned a pair of shorts and tank top, and then flashed a police badge. "Though technically I don't think I have any jurisdiction outside of the state of Washington."
DEO headquarters
"Glad I could help." I said to J'onn J'onzz.
"Thank you for your help. You are an extraordinary being, Flash." J'onn J'onzz complemented.
"Are you sure you can handle that guy?" I asked as I watched him being led away to one of the holding cells.
"We can handle him. And once we have EJ's armband determine his Universe, we can send both of them back."
EJ then had a solemn and depressed look. And I will admit this was not the first time I seen it on his face.
"What's wrong EJ?" asked Bella in a tone of a concerned mother.
"I'm not entirely all that enthusiastic about going back to my universe." said EJ it sounded like he had taken a great deal of difficulty to get the words out.
"But what about your family?"
"Life isn't all it's cracked up to be in my universe. Not to mention the extreme difficulty going on in my universe."
Bella recalled that EJ had told her this when they first drove to Forks a few weeks ago.
Everyone else was standing around listening to him now.
He paused for a moment before going on.
"There's a sort of new cold war going on between several major powers in my world. International political tensions are running High. The Volturi have been after both me and my family for years. Several different organizations of evil mutants have become terrorists on the grounds of mutant freedom which have been causing a lot of chaos and Havoc around much of the world. And we've also received reports that the Goa'uld System Lords are going to launch a massive attack on my world very soon. While I see a great deal of hope and even peace in much of your guyses universes my universe is more or less doomed."
We all stood there for a moment. We patiently tried to take in everything that he had said.
"Something I want to tell you about my world." I told him. "My world has faced complete and total Destruction several times and we managed to stop it before it happened. It took a hero of extraordinary ability. Several times. And personally EJ Cullen, I believe in you. You EJ Cullen could be a hero. You could be a leader for peace. You could be a soldier to fight for the freedom of those were good."
"Thanks Barry." said EJ gratefully. "But let me deal with this in my own way in my own time."
It was then that every computer monitor and TV screen in the place begin to flicker with static until the picture became clear with one particular face. It was the snake like grotesque face of the man who had dropped into the middle of Washington DC from a breach, and murdered a woman and several police officers.
"Citizens of the world!" said the man in a clear and strong with slightly scratchy voice. "Allow me to introduce myself. I Am Lord Voldemort. I'm not one to beat around the bush so I'm just going to jump straight to the point. I declare myself the new owner of this world. And everything on it. You're homes. Your possessions. Your children. Now all belong to me. I am prepared to grant you all life in exchange for your unconditional service to me. There will be no negotiation. No doubt many of you will laugh at this proposal that I've just given. Many of you will think that I am joking. But, I can assure you that I don't joke. I do not kid. I do not play games. I will seize control of every government of Every Nation on this planet one at a time until I control this entire world...no matter how long it takes. Unconditional surrender to me will result in no deaths."
"What is going on?" Asked J'onn J'onzz.
"It seems that he has hacked every TV signal on the planet. I don't know how." said one of the computer technicians at his station.
"I understand that some of you may think that this is just an empty threat." the man named Voldemort continued on the screen. "But to show that I am sincere, and that I am 100% fair, I challenge this world to send against me one person, a warrior of extraordinary strength and power, your world's greatest champion to place me under arrest and bring me in...if they can. Select your great champion and have them meet me in the Center Street Public Square in Gotham City in 3 hours."
The transmission then cut out and all stations returned to the regularly scheduled programming.
It was then that Kara in her Supergirl outfit came flying in through the main windows.
"Archie, did you see this coming?"
Archie raised his eyebrow and skepticism.
"Sort of, but I kind of thought it was just a joke. But in the last week or so I have been seen at guy's face in my head a lot. As well as a sort of philosophical and figurative cloud of Darkness passing over the world."
"And you never thought to tell us this before?" asked Jessamine.
"I'm sorry. I've just never seen anything like this before And for your information it's not the only thing that I've been seeing."
"Well," said J'onn J'onzz, "let's end this quickly. Let's take him up on his offer. Place him under arrest and bring him in."
J'onn then turned to Kara.
"Supergirl, you're up."
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