A/N: Sorry for the late update, folks - crazy day today. Anyway, thanks to my reviewers Aedien, Dextra2, balletangel19, EmperialGem21, Invader Abigail, and leathman. Also thanks to those of you who gave me some input on Wally and Rudolph's relationship in the comics. And last but not least, kudos to leathman for spotting the theme of the chapter titles - I'm glad you think it's clever, because some of the names were difficult to come up with.
Chapter Fourteen: Reversed Roles
The Justice League's reaction was instant. Aside from Hawkgirl, who volunteered to stay to monitor Wally, every Leaguer was on the transport pad and had teleported to Central City within two minutes of the broadcast. They materialized just across the road from where Zoom was tinkering with his gravity implosion generator.
"Like we planned," Batman instructed as they separated to take different routes to the park. The energy-siphoning machine was far from ready, so they would have to do this manually, using the strategies they had thought up.
The first move was Batman's. He took Zoom by surprise by flinging a batarang at the speedster, followed by a couple of smoke grenades. Though initially unbalanced by the batarang, Zoom quickly recovered his wits and spun a tornado to whisk away the smoke…only to be met by Green Lantern's glowing energy construct. Zoom narrowly avoided getting trapped by the Lantern, and the sphere of willpower that would have imprisoned him ended up ensnaring Batman instead.
At this point Black Canary stepped out from behind a bush and let loose a ringing canary cry. Zoom clapped his hands over his ears and nimbly escaped her scream by accelerating beyond the speed of sound. In the blink of an eye, he was over by the bush and knocking Canary out cold. J'onn rose through the ground and grabbed Zoom firmly from behind, but Zoom started vibrating his molecules so hard the Martian Manhunter was forced to let go with a cry of pain. This was accomplished much faster than the League had anticipated, so Wonder Woman's charge from the air was too late to catch Zoom, who whizzed past her fist and slammed into Green Lantern.
…Or, he would have, had Superman not got in the way. The Man of Steel put an effective crimp in Zoom's plans by using his own speed (and his indestructible body) to block the speedster's punch. Zoom yelped in anger and pain and immediately took off in the opposite direction. Superman chased after him, keeping pace easily.
Zoom glanced over his shoulder. "You're fast, Superman," he called, "but I'm faster." He increased his speed, moving from Mach 1 to Mach 4, leading Superman on a merry circuit around the park. No matter how fast he was, the Kyrptonian couldn't keep up with an enemy who consistently traveled so high above the speed of sound, and Zoom was eventually able to run up behind Superman, who had deliberately stopped at one point in the circle.
Ice, courtesy of Batman, suddenly spread over the ground directly in front of Zoom, blocking his path to Superman. Unable to stop, Zoom skidded alarmingly on the slippery surface, coming to a halt only when Superman grabbed his legs.
"Now!"
At the Man of Steel's signal, Green Lantern once again – successfully this time – enclosed Zoom in a green prison.
"This isn't going to hold me," Zoom informed him, already starting to vibrate within the containment.
Green Lantern smirked at him. "It doesn't have to."
Right on cue, Doctor Fate descended from above, all ready with a stasis spell. Just as Green Lantern's construct broke from Zoom's efforts, Fate cast the enchantment over Zoom, locking his limbs in place and barring any further escape attempt.
Wonder Woman frowned. "Is it just me," she asked, "or was that too easy?"
"Too easy?" Black Canary groaned as she limped over, massaging her head. "You're kidding me, right?"
"No, Diana's right." Batman's eyes narrowed. "Zoom can travel at Mach 8 and above. If he really wanted to escape, he wouldn't have run so slowly."
"How clever," Zoom congratulated mockingly. Though Doctor Fate's spell constrained his arms and legs, his mouth was left free. "But you're right, of course. I don't see the point of expending precious energy to escape you…because that beautiful machine in the middle of the park is going to implode the gravity field here in less than a minute – not enough time for you to teleport back to your space tower, I'd imagine." He smirked. "You'll die with the city, but I'll be totally unaffected." His voice took on a darker tone. "And then I will find the only other living person in this wreck and finally kill him."
Before the Leaguers could respond, a familiar voice said quietly, "No, you won't."
Flash walked into view, prompting a malicious grin from Zoom.
"Flash?" Green Lantern said in surprise.
"No," Batman refuted. "Not our Flash." Blue eyes peered back at him from the lens-less cowl, confirming his deduction. This Flash was not Wally West.
Zoom instantly recognized his old enemy. "Well, well, the prodigal Flash crawls out of hiding. Have you been enjoying the show?"
Barry looked Zoom straight in the eye, utterly resolute. "I'm not letting Central City be destroyed because of your mad quest for revenge against me."
"You don't have choice," Zoom sneered. "That machine begins its work in exactly three…two…one…"
On cue, a great spiral of bright yellow energy shot into the sky. Almost immediately, gravity began acting up, lurching in all directions, tossing people, cars, and other objects up, down, and sideways.
"You're too late, Flash!" Zoom crowed as the Leaguers fought to stay upright. "It's started. In a matter of minutes, Central City will be no more!"
Automatically leaning first one way and then another in order to compensate for the changing gravitational pull, Barry turned to gaze at Zoom's machine. His eyes travelled to the energy beam disrupting the Earth's gravity field, and he knew what he had to do.
Wonder Woman noticed his firm gaze. "Flash?" she asked hesitantly. She had to remind herself not to use Barry's name because Zoom was right next to them.
Amid the pitching motion of gravity, Barry met her eyes. "I can stop it."
Zoom narrowed his eyes, knowing exactly what his nemesis was up to. "You'll die before you manage to generate enough kinetic energy to counter the energy flow from the machine."
"That's why you're going to help me." Barry caught the handcuffs Batman tossed him and dragged Zoom to the machine, then promptly shackled his wrist to it.
"If you expect me to help you stop this, you're even stupider than you look."
"You don't have a choice." Barry's voice was steel. "Now that you're strapped to the machine, your molecules will automatically vibrate to counter the action of the machine so that you'll survive. That combined with your mass will add kinetic energy whether you want it to or not. And the faster I run, the greater the exchange of kinetic energy between me and you, and the faster your molecules will vibrate. Think of yourself as a gear in a machine, increasing my mechanical advantage."
Zoom scowled. "You're going to take us both down without accomplishing anything. My molecules aren't going to pick up on your kinetic energy because there's no connecting conduit between us."
Barry stretched his limbs. "We're both connected to the Speed Force, and we've even travelled through it together. That's enough of a connection…especially if I break the lightspeed barrier."
"You can't go that fast!"
"I can try." Barry cast a look back at the Leaguers, pausing to gaze at Wonder Woman and Doctor Fate, his old teammates. Despite being pulled and shaken in all directions, both managed to focus on him. Wonder Woman's eyes were suspiciously bright, and Doctor Fate gave him a solemn nod.
"It's been an honor, Barry."
Barry managed a brave smile at the sound of the wizard's voice in his head. "Same here. Tell Iris and Wally…"
"They know." Fate paused slightly. "But I will."
"Thanks."
His message delivered, Barry began running in the opposite direction from the energy spiral. With every circle he made around the machine, he picked up speed, until he was nothing but a red blur of movement surrounding the machine. As he continued running, the energy spiral began to sputter and slow, as did the disruption to Earth's gravity.
Electricity not quite of human nature began to gather around Barry's form, streaking with him and adding a white-blue tinge to the circuitous red whirl. By now the energy from the machine was no longer sufficient enough to disturb the gravity field, so gravity returned to its normal function. But Barry had to keep running until all the energy was negated, so he did…increasing his speed all the while. Everything within his circuit took on an unearthly glow – the machine, Zoom, Barry himself – and started fading from sight. Still Barry kept running.
Finally, on his thousandth or so circuit, a small explosion erupted from within the circle. When the dust had cleared and the light had dwindled, both Zoom and the machine had disappeared…as had Barry.
The Leaguers made their way to that site and stood there for a few minutes, silently paying their last respects to the second Flash to run on Earth.
The second thing Wally became aware of upon regaining consciousness was Hawkgirl's voice coming from somewhere above him, sounding anxious and relieved at the same time.
"Yom shigureth! Wally! Wally, can you hear me? Wally, if you can hear me, open your eyes, please."
She sounded so strange – a mixture of scared and excited – so he complied with her request. Laboriously forcing his eyelids open, he stared blearily at her worried face.
Hawkgirl's face lit up as she let out her breath in a relieved huff. "Ichthul. Wally, thank goodness you're okay."
Somewhat bewildered, Wally nonetheless obligingly submitted to the hug she subjected him to. Searching the room for Barry and feeling even more confused when he didn't find him, Wally thought back to the first thing he'd become aware of, wondering if he'd just imagined the words he thought he'd heard his uncle say just before he woke up.
Be well, Wally.
A/N: And that's that. I hope the climatic battle lived up to your expectations even if it didn't quite bring in the elements you were hoping for, and I hope Barry's death properly put across the emotion I wanted to convey.
Join me tomorrow for the denouement and final chapter of this Flash story.