Chapter 39: Welcome
Gotham City, a place that now resembles hell. There is no longer the black night sky that covered the caped crusaders who relied on the shadows. Because now, the sky is lit orange, filled with smoke, with the hellscape of fires filling buildings and scattered across the ground. The Batwing soared above the city eventually coming to a hover over a towering but run-down building among others, if the team was going to get where the coordinates told them to go then they were going to have to be smart about it. The transport landed on the building and they all soon enough stood looking over the edge of it to the landscape below.
"I would say Gotham never changes, but it's been a few days and… God…" Rose spoke to the others. The assassin was forever guilty for the parts that she played in all this mess, if she just didn't try to find Joey, then maybe millions of people would still be alive today.
"If we can pull back from the Knightfall incident then we can pull back from this," Sophie replied as Lian carried her on her back. "Come on," Lian spoke, "we have to get through this building, the coordinates say that we need to get into the basement and let's face it, every floor is going to be a challenge."
"I'll take point" Rose replied as she drew one of Damian's old katana's that she had found in the back of the Batwing, "I'm getting used to these Gotham building raids."
Zach looked quizzingly towards Lian as he followed Rose behind her, "I know we don't have many options, but how reliable is The Ravager?" he asked, "I mean, how many times did she try to kill you all in the past?"
"She's trustworthy Zach," Lian quickly answered, "Everything we thought about her was wrong. She's one of us again."
"Again?" he questioned once more.
Sophie chuckled, "I know you haven't been around for long, but Rose was with us for a year before she went A.W.O.L to do her own thing."
Zach laughed to himself, "Jeeze, I knew you guys had history, but I didn't know it was like that."
Mar'i now hovered beside him, "yeah," she added, "but I'm glad you are all friends again!" she smiled. Zach shook his head at Mar'i and her endless optimism but then smiled along with her.
The conversation cut off and the team remained quiet as they slowly made their way down the first ten floors with no trouble, maybe these criminals were way too lazy to climb more than one set of stairs, or maybe there really wasn't much motivation to scavenge through what seemed to be just a normal office building. After all, the only thing that's worth stealing in this place seemed to be the computers from the early 20's and to these kids, that was ancient technology.
"Oh my god look at this thing," Zach poked the old keyboard, "imagine having to hear the constant sound of clacking. That must be maddening," he added.
"How old are you kid?" Rose asked him.
"Fourteen," The magician replied with a sarcastic smile. "you?"
"Nineteen," The white-haired killing machine replied with a deadly stare. The magician slowly moved his fingers from poking the keyboard back towards himself and then raised his hands, as The Ravager turned around to continue walking ahead he whispered to himself "So terrifying…"
The team eventually made it to the third floor with no problem yet but that soon changed when they heard footsteps coming up the stairway towards them. The hurriedly made their way back through to the floor above them and positioned themselves by the door that led to the stair way. Rose held her sword ready and Zachary lit up his lighter despite the bewildered look from the others. The Door creaked open and Rose took the opportunity, she grabbed the man who stepped forward and placed the blade against his throat as she stood close behind him, "who are you and why are you here?!" she whispered with a furious tone attempting to intimidate the man. The man held up his hands and noticed he was holding a golden badge attached to some leather and she also saw the happy expression on Mar'I and Sophie's face which made The Ravager relent and let the man go. The golden-skinned girl flew forward and hugged her great-uncle with glee while Lian stepped forward with Sophie who leaned over to hug him. The man was a blubbering mess as he held the girls.
"Barbara told me that you were okay," he croaked, "but to see you here…"
"It's okay Gramps," Sophie cried, "we're okay."
They all hugged for a few moments more before Lian told them that they should move to get where they are going. Gordon told them to follow him and he eventually led them to a secret hatch that they all climbed into leading them to a metal door. The Commissioner typed onto the keypad and the door opened to show a wide-open space with gear and gadgets placed around the area and two people stood just a few meters from the doorway. Barbara placed Sean on the ground whose smile was extraordinarily bright as he began to stumble towards Sophie. Lian delicately placed her friend onto a nearby chair and watched as Sean began to clamber onto Sophie's lap to hug her.
"I've missed you so much!" Sophie cried as she held onto her little brother so much that she almost promised her to never, ever let him go. The world was too dangerous for him, and she'll be damned if she lets him grow up in a world like this.
"You stinky!" Sean laughed to himself. Sophie feigned offence, "I so do not!" she exaggerated her words to which Sean replied with a giggle and "Stinky stinky!"
Sophie gave the boy a big frown and then smiled as she began to tickle him, his joyous laughter echoed around the area. A sound that nobody had heard in this room for a long time. Barbara stood watching from a distance with teary eyes. Mar'i walked up to her Aunt and hugged her, the woman returned the hug and asked what was wrong. Lian quickly walked over to the two and gave Barbara a sorrowful look, "it's Alfred," she answered for Mar'i.
Barbara looked towards the ground and then back towards Lian, "how?"
Lian sighed before giving her a determined look, "he sacrificed his life to save all of us and took out Doctor Light in the process."
Barbara released a light chuckle, "Alfred always did say that because of Bruce's life, neither of them would get to simply pass away in their sleep. He'd call Bruce selfish sometimes."
Lian nodded, "neither of them died selfishly."
"No…" Barbara spoke, "I guess not." She finished proudly.
"OUCH!" Sophie shouted in pain as she held onto her wrist. "Sorry Soppy!" Sean shouted equally as loud in apology. "What happened?" Barbara questioned in her motherly tone as she continued to hold Mar'I.
"He shocked me," Sophie replied, "way stronger than before."
Gordon pulled one of his legs of his pants up to his knee to show a scar, "he's been doing that a lot lately," he mentioned, "why did you never tell me that he was a Meta?" he asked Barbara.
"I wanted to keep it a secret, and this whole life from you but I guess you've always known," Barbara replied.
"He has?" Sophie asked.
"About me he has, yeah," Barbara replied, "but not about you or Sean."
"Hold on a minute, are you telling me?..." Gordon muttered. "You have got to be kidding me! Not my baby girl!" he seethed to Barbara.
"I didn't know," Barbara replied calmly, "if I did then I would have put a stop to it.
"Don't start," Sophie shouted, "arguing is the last thing we all need."
"I'll say," Rose chuckled.
In that moment a massive shock of blue electricity bolted from Sean's hands towards a lightbulb which then reversed the electricity back from the light and into Sean. Everyone's eyes widened. The boy began to giggle.
"That's… new…" Gordon slowly said aloud.
"Damn," Barbara mumbled, "he has his father's powers."
"Garth has powers?!" Gordon exclaimed
Lian, Rose, and Zach all now stood awkwardly beside each other watching all these family revelations come out one by one. Zach was yawning, Lian was trying to keep up with all of the drama, and Rose was eagerly watching.
"Had…" Barbara solemnly answered. Gordon gave a knowing look, "I'm sorry…"
Again, Sean released a shock of lightning towards another light-bulb in the vicinity.
"How are we going to deal with this new problem?" Rose questioned loudly, "I mean, soon enough that kid is going to scar one of us or we'll all be sitting in the dark."
Zach looked upwards towards the woman beside him, "why not take him to Lex Luthor? He knows all about the Meta-gene."
"Lex Luthor is dead," Barbara answered.
"Nope," Mar'I replied, "Me, Don, and Zach found him because Bobo asked us too."
"Bobo?" Gordon asked the girl, "What's a Bobo?"
"A super intelligent chimp who is a better detective than Batman by, like, a million times" Zach answered the mustached man. Commissioner Gordon threw his hands in the air in defeat, "I'm seriously way too old for all of this nonsense."
"So Lex Luthor is alive? and you found him, why?" Barbara questioned.
"He is helping us defeat The Light, he wants revenge for his sister and for leaving him the way he is," Zach replied, "he'll help us with Sean too, not just with them."
"Barbara," Lian spoke up, "it beats us sitting here doing nothing, and if Sean's powers might be able to help us?"
"My son is not a soldier," Barbara replied, "he's three for fuck sake."
"Let's just see what Lex can help us with."
Barbara paused for a few moments and then nodded, "fine, but he if does or says one thing he doesn't like then I'll take him down myself."
The blurred green of the trees moved past his vision and the thunderous sound of his footsteps pumped through his ears. For once, the streets were clear, and he was free. Free to run as fast as he wanted and as fast as his legs could carry him, and boy, was this as fast as he ever ran. One stumble, one little mishap and he would be meet an injury that could be deadly but that is exactly why he was trained so much as a kid. Each of his elders and family members would help him and his sister be the best that they could be with the potential that they had. When they were younger, their father would spend every evening with them before speeding off to fight those who would do the city harm in the dead of night. Both Don and Dawn enjoyed those hours spent with their hero, it was the only time that they really had the chance to interact with their father because he was just so busy with his life with the League and his passion for his civilian job that the life of his children became something in the background. Don always assumed it was because his father was selfish, that he enjoyed the feeling of people praising him for doing a job that nobody else could do. But now? Now he realizes that he was away so much from him and his sister because he was doing a job that nobody else could do. Central City was The Flash's heart, and always will be.
Welcome to Central City – home of the Scarlet Speedster.
It felt like forever since Don had seen the towering silver buildings of Central, or the now winding roads that had been catered to The Flash instead of straight turns. The City had become a winding river for both it's citizens and the Flash because that's the life everyone ran, everyone here just went with whatever cards they were dealt with. But a burning city is not something they would ever expect. Don's speed came to a halt, he turned to see the windows of a store now shattered, painted in red were the words Where is The Flash? And all Don could do was look away and run once more towards his home. He soon reached it and it was exactly what he expected, half of the house had collapsed and inside was soot and black. He stepped through the open door and his foot cracked the glass of a family portrait, it was a picture of him sat beside his sister with his mother behind him and his father behind Dawn, all of them were smiling so happily. He moved the glass with his foot and then took hold of the small photo to fold it and put it into one of his pouches. Don began to slowly move forward into the hallway towards the dining room where he remembered their last "Flash Family Gathering" and even now he regretted ruining it, that was their last time all together and it had to be him who caused the problems. It was always him who ruined it for everyone. He moved one of his fingers across the soot and dust covered table leaving a trail behind where his finger slid and as he looked into the corner of the room, he noticed something that had never been there before. A mirror. Not a special mirror, maybe something that you'd pick up for cheap just to fill your new apartment with furniture. The only thing that drew his attention towards it was how clean it was. He stood before it, seeing his reflection for what seemed like the first time. He had a tuft of blonde hair protruding from one of the sides of his cowl, his eyes were bloodshot, and his usually bright purple suit was covered in dirt, ripped and faded. His eye's squinted, his reflection had changed, what stood before him now was orange and green.
A hand reached out towards him.
He was pulled into the mirror.
