Chapter 107: Boom!
"Well?" Hunter asked, tightening his arm around Henry's neck, "Aren't you going to beg for his life?"
Barry glared at him coldly. "What would be the point?" he said, in a sort of resigned anger that would send chills down a normal man's spine. "You're going to kill him anyway, if only just to prove your claim that we're the same. For all your intelligence, you're predictable like that."
Hunter smirked. "You've become quite the defeatist."
"Not entirely. I just know when to accept that I've lost. But…" And here, Barry stepped forward, his face marbling into a quiet, haunting fury that had Hunter gripping Henry even harder, only barely able to restrain himself from choking the other man. "… let me say this. If you do this, you're only going to regret it."
"Oh?" Hunter sounded amused.
"Yes," Barry said firmly, with a confidence that was far more characteristic of his usual self, even if its severity wasn't. "Go ahead. Kill him. Just know that when you do, I'm not going to kill you."
Hunter narrowed his eyes, but said nothing, just keeping the struggling Henry in front of him, gagging the man's mouth with his ever-present arm.
"I'm not going to kill you, Hunter Zolomon," Barry repeated, expression becoming increasingly dark. "No, what I'm going to do is make you suffer. Every inch of pain I felt over these last twelve years, every cut, every bruise, every broken bone — all of that will sound like heaven by the time I'm through with you. Know that when you shove that vibrating hand through my father's chest, you're going to condemn yourself to a hell far worse than the one I suffered for over a decade of my life."
A silence hung in the air after Barry finished his threat. For a moment, there was a flash of genuine fear across Hunter's face. But it was only there for a moment, and if it weren't for Barry's super speed, he would've never noticed it. It was quickly replaced by that smug, self-assured smirk that was ever-present on Hunter Zolomon's face.
"Well then…" Hunter said, before letting go of Henry Allen, "… let's see what you've got."
Henry only had time to let out a single "Barry—" before the promised vibrating hand pierced his heart.
The world stopped, the moment crystallizing into existence. Despite his words, Barry couldn't stop the widening of his eyes, the single tear that dropped down his cheek. Henry Allen fell to his knees, then onto his side, and then to his back.
Barry quickly went to him, holding him close as his father breathed his last. He didn't bother to say anything in that time. No begging, no pleading. He had seen enough death to know it was pointless.
And from the other side of him, standing with a satisfied smile, was Hunter Zolomon. "Now then, Flash," he bared his teeth, "how were you planning on hurting me again?"
The Flash didn't bother to respond. He was still looking down at his father's dying body, completely motionless. The sadness emanating from him was almost palpable.
At least until Henry Allen opened his eyes and let out an audible groan.
"God, that hurt," he complained.
Hunter felt his mouth fall slightly open. Before he could even comprehend what just happened, he saw Barry Allen finally look up at him with his own visible smirk. It was only then that Hunter finally realize what just happened.
"Gotcha," his rival said, before he planted his hands flat on the ground and used the leverage to swing his legs around, knocking the other man off his feet with a powerful sweep.
The very minute his back touched the floor, Barry was on him, a knife already drawn. He stabbed downward, aiming for the shoulder (they still needed the bastard alive, after all) and Hunter barely had enough time to push his opponent off with his considerable strength and roll away. Barry smoothly transitioned back onto his feet while Hunter did the same, though far less gracefully.
"How?" the older man demanded as they faced off.
Barry smirked and nodded off towards "Henry Allen", who had picked himself up and was not sitting up, watching them both. The man grinned before ripping his mask off, revealing a face that was completely unfamiliar to Hunter. "Hunter Zolomon, meet Christopher Chance," Barry introduced his father's double, clicking his teeth. "They call him the Human Target. I had my boss replace my father with him the moment I escaped captivity with Dante and the others. As for my actual father, said boss had him taken as far away from Central City and your reach as much as possible. Not even I know where he is right now."
"But—!" Hunter cut himself off, growing red with rage.
The Flash didn't care. He tilted his head, his smirk widening. "Like I said: you're predictable."
Hunter roared and sped forward with a powerful charge. But to his surprise, Barry dodged, if just barely so. He tumbled forward, causing Hunter to stop himself before he met the wall of the house, and by the time he turned around, Barry was standing up, cowl already back on and two knives in hands, held aloft and ready for combat.
"Come on, Zoom. It's time you and I finish this once and for all."
His enemy tightened his clawed hands into a fist before whipping his own mask back on. "Agreed, Flash."
With that, they ran. The chase was on.
"Ma'am, the Flash currently has Zoom en route to S.T.A.R. Labs, just as planned," an A.R.G.U.S. agent reported to his director, the infamous Amanda Waller.
Amanda laced her fingers together as she leaned over her desk with her elbows on the surface. "Very well. Keep me up-to-date on the situation and prepare a transport truck. I would like our agents to pick up Zolomon as soon as possible after he's captured and properly exposed."
The agent nodded, and turned to relay his superior's orders when the lights of the office suddenly went out. Judging by the sounds of surprise heard from the hall outside, this was not an isolated incident. Amanda scowled heavily as she searched for the button beneath her desk that would activate the emergency power generators. She managed to do just that, allowing the lights to turn back on—
BOOM!
—in time for an explosion to audibly and visibly rock the building. Amanda gripped on the edges of her desk to steady herself, watching as her agent did the same with the walls of her office. By the time everything righted itself, the alarm was sounding as various rooms in the base, including the cells, went into lockdown.
Amanda went to the intercom she had installed on her desk, turning it on and barking out a "Report!" to whoever was now on the other side of the line. There was a faint buzzing sound before someone finally answered.
"Director Waller," a breathy, female voice emanated from the comm, "this is Agent Solis. The base is currently under attack by the metahuman Rupture and at least two metahuman accomplices — a man with a mace and hawk wings protruding from his back and a woman that can channel and control electricity. Judging by their general route, they're heading for the holding cells."
Amanda bit back a curse. That's where Doctor Light, Killer Frost, and Deathstorm were currently interred, alongside all the metahuman prisoners that couldn't be kept at Iron Heights without causing someone to start asking questions. Zoom used his attempt on Allen's father as a distraction so his men could spring his gang from prison. She quickly realized.
"Stop them by any means necessary!" Amanda ordered. "The prisoners, especially those from Earth-2, are not to leave the premises of this base!"
"Understood, Ma'am!" Agent Solis heeded, and then the intercom turned off.
"Ma'am!" Amanda glanced up at the other agent in the room, who had grown pale in the midst of Solis' report. "If Rupture is after the Earth-2 prisoners, wouldn't Zoom go after Black Siren as well? According to our intel, she's supposed to be his top lieutenant!"
Amanda's eyes widened at that observation, and she immediately took out her cell phone and tried to contact the A.R.G.U.S. base in Starling. Her agent was right. If Zoom was after the Earth-2 prisoners, it would make sense to go after Black Siren as well in a two-pronged strike. And accordingly, one of Zoom's known associates was conspicuously absent from the current assault on the Central City base: Reverb, Rupture's brother.
Come on, come on, Amanda internally chanted as the dial tone rang and rang. Finally, the call was answered — and Amanda flinched back as the sound of explosions and a familiar, high-pitched sonic scream filtered through, before abruptly cutting off. "Shit," she muttered.
"Took you long enough," Black Siren griped after she was done screaming at the charging A.R.G.U.S. agents, stepping over the unconscious body of Maseo Yamashiro.
Reverb raised an unamused eyebrow. "You know, I could've just left you here," he pointed out.
"Please," Siren scoffed, "You might be more useful to him right now but we all know who he likes better."
"Of course he likes you better," Reverb snorted back. "You're his loyal little lapdog. Always eager for his approval."
Siren slammed her fist again the metal wall next to them, leaning down to glare directly at Reverb's face. "You wanna start something now, samurai boy?"
Reverb lifted his goggles to glare back for a moment, before smirking. "Whatever. Come on. Let's spring the people here and make our offer. The show is about to start soon." He turned on his heel, not even bothering to look back and see if his companion followed him.
The other metahuman crossed her arms in anger, but nonetheless trailed after him. He was right, after all. The show was about to start, and Black Siren still owed one of those heroes some payback. She wasn't going to miss that for the world.
Unaware of all the chaos unfolding at A.R.G.U.S., Barry Allen, the Flash, was currently engaging Zoom in a chase-fight all across Central City, careful not to slip on the puddles made by the pouring rain of the storm that had coalesced outside during their encounter at the old Allen home. They had a few clashes, but had yet to fully engage in a true battle. Which was all well and good, because a fight wasn't in the cards for this confrontation. Not a fair one, in any case.
Barry led his enemy towards the front of S.T.A.R. Labs, grateful for that small but noticeable lead he had on Zoom, and then moved to a stop, dropping down to cause the other man to trip over his legs. Zoom fell forward, reaching for purchase on the ground ahead, only to get three successive shots of speed-dampener darts in his back, courtesy of Green Arrow.
Before he could reach back, he was harshly kicked on his side and held down by the foot of Supergirl. From all around him, all the heroes of the Justice League, plus Firestorm, Vibe, and Pied Piper surrounded him, each aiming some kind of weapon at him in case he somehow, miraculously, got out from under her foot. One of them, Vibe, was holding a camera with a glowing red dot, which was currently transmitting a feed of the restrained Zoom to every home in Central City.
In front of the camera, the Flash appeared and reached down, ripping off his rival's mask to reveal the face of Hunter Zolomon to the world. There would have to be explanations later, of course, but for now, this should be enough to clear his name.
"It's over, Zolomon," the Flash told him, reverberating his voice so the watching citizens at home wouldn't recognize it on the off chance they met him on the streets in his civilian identity. "Now — where is it?"
Zolomon glared up at him, and then laughed. "You're too late," he told them all.
The Flash looked up at Green Arrow and Supergirl, and was about to have Vibe turn off the camera so they could properly interrogate the man, but before he could—
BA-BOOM!
A minute earlier…
Al Rothstein of Earth-2, colloquially known as Atom Smasher, stepped back as the Dark Matter Collector, a large circular device that had been traveling across all of Central City in a non-descript van for the past few weeks, lit up. The entire thing glowed blue, luminescent and eerie, illuminating the metal mask he wore. Next to him, Eddie Slick, aka Sand Demon, winced as he tried to block the blinding light with his arm.
"Ready to blow a hole in this city?" he asked his teammate, face grim.
Rothstein paused before nodding slowly. Truth be told, Slick and him weren't too keen on this whole plan. Neither of them were saints, of course, but conquering another earth was a bit much, even for them. Even so, Zoom was Zoom and both of them knew better than to defy him. They liked to keep their hearts beating, and hey, it wasn't like this was their earth, after all.
"Let's get this show on the road," Rothstein declared, before pressing the release button on the remote. Luckily, they were far enough from the device that the blast wouldn't hurt them too much.
There was a moment, and then…
BA-BOOM!
The explosion was heard for miles. While it wasn't as loud or as grand as the Particle Accelerator Explosion two years ago, it was still comparable — especially in terms of effect. The blast of dark matter spread throughout the entire city, sweeping through every city and hitting people left and right. Most, it had no effect. Either they lacked the gene needed to grant them powers or they already were metahumans as a result of the aforementioned incident.
Others, however, weren't so lucky.
Eddie Thawne sighed as he got up from his chair, trying to ignore the looks that were being shot his way. Ever since the botched capture of the Flash and his breakup with Iris, everyone had been giving him a wide berth. While he hadn't gotten chewed out by the Captain too badly, he had been warned not to let his not-so-secret vendetta against the 'superhero' blind him like that again.
And of course, there was just now. A live video feed overtaking every screen in the Precinct and presumably the rest of Central City, showing the Flash, with the rest of the Justice League's help, restraining Zoom. It seems the rest of the League was done staying out off the sidelines after the Flash's recent capture and escape. They had all traveled to Central City to help their teammate finally stop Zoom, and reveal his true identity: Hunter Zolomon, the dead man whose death the Flash had been at the scene of. Already, the precinct was in a flurry, now taking a closer look at the investigation into Zolomon's 'death'.
Just another day in Central City, Eddie couldn't help but think derisively.
And then, the lights went out.
Eddie only had a moment to look around before he blasted off his feet by some invisible force. He felt his entire body tingle, and could hear Ralph let out a yelp of his own as the same happened to him and several others. Before he could react, he felt something hard hit the back of his head, and blacked out.
Over at S.T.A.R. Labs, Dante Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Slade Wilson, and Bette Sans Souci were all watching the confrontation between the Justice League and Zoom on the monitors in the Cortex. The former two had not been part of the takedown due to being non-combatants, while the latter two had been expressly forbidden from joining in due to their status as members of Task Force X. The only agents Amanda wanted in the public eye were those that were to be a part of the Justice League, not her Suicide Squad.
An initial cheer had been let out after the Justice League had managed to subdue Zoom and unmask him as Hunter Zolomon on live TV. However, that cheer had subsided when Zolomon had refused to name the location of the Dark Matter Collector. Then he had said those words, and they had all fallen silent, just in time to hear the sounds of a massive explosion from miles away.
They barely had any time to brace themselves before the blast hit S.T.A.R. Labs as well, knocking out the power and sending them all flying. Slade had managed to grab the bar at the edge of the main hub with one hand and Bette's gloved hand with the other, but could do nothing for Dante and Caitlin. They were both blown back, sent skidding on the floor with piercing headaches. Still conscious, but severely rattled.
"That was…?" Dante bit out, rubbing his head.
"The Dark Matter Collector," Caitlin confirmed, mirroring him. "It was filled to its full capacity and released all the dark matter at once, opposed to slowly siphoning it out through tubes installed into the openings on the sides. Right now, all of Central City has been irradiated a second time."
Bette, who was on her knees and trying to pull herself up, blinked in dawning horror. "Then that means…" she trailed off, the thought too horrible to even voice. From the looks around her, it seemed everyone else had made the same realization too.
Just like the rest of Central City, the Justice League barely had any time to react to the massive wave of dark matter that had swept throughout the city. The sheer force of the explosion sent everyone, even Supergirl, into the air. Hunter managed to use his clawed hands to grant himself some purchase as the wave passed through.
Every one of his would-be captors, meanwhile, tried to hold on to each other and find their ways safely back to the ground. Laurel let out a brief cry of pain as the wave sent her back into the S.T.A.R. Labs sign. Oliver grabbed on to the sign and reached out to her, holding her close as she grabbed her aching back.
Barry was the only one not sent too far. He managed to use his knives to gain some sort of foothold onto the ground, and was just sliding back on his suit with the wave. He glanced at Zolomon, who was smirking at him again, mouthing a simple 'I win.' Barry glared furiously at him, but before he could react, something caught his attention from the corner of his eye.
He only had enough time to look up before the lightning struck him. A great, excruciating pain fried all of his nerves, and he lifted his hand to see it begin to disintegrate. He wants to scream.
But he doesn't.
And then… nothing.
You all already know where Barry is. Don't make me say it.
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