Flash Duel

by Mega Ghost

When the particle accelerator exploded, lonely Yu-Gi-Oh player Jack Harper is suddenly in possession of a real Millennium Item. But when he discovers he has the power to summon flesh and blood duel monsters with their own minds and personalities, he decides he's in for more fun than he's ever had in his life. That is, until Yami Bakura appears, as real and alive as anyone else.

4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Jack Harper was taking a shower so unbearably cold that it felt like he'd fallen through a patch of arctic ice. He was taking the frigid washing because he was trying to stop himself from sweating. He knew he had to calm down, he had to relax, but his anxiety was taking hold of him.

"Get hold of yourself, Harper!" Jack thought to himself. "You've been spending time with Mana for three months now. You know what she likes and you know what she dislikes. Just because it's taken you all this time to work up the nerve to ask her out and you and she are going on your first official date is no reason to panic. You've tempered some of the most dangerous dragons there are survived the rage of an Egyptian God monster, you can handle a date with the girl you're crazy about. Except that a date is by nature different from spending time together as friends and this is the first date of your entire life and if you mess it up she might not want to be around you anymore."

Jack stopped washing himself as that thought began to cement itself in his mind. Before it could obliterate every ounce of courage he possessed, Jack shook his head violently to clear his mind.

"Stop that you idiot! You keep thinking like that you'll end up on the floor in the fetal position before you make it out of the bathroom. Just try to act like you normally do with her and a little more and you should be fine."

He finished washing, got out and dried himself off, using several towels and a copious amount of rubbing and friction to get rid of his goose flesh.

Moving back into his bedroom, Jack looked down at the outfit he'd gotten for the date. He'd gone to a local tailor two weeks earlier and had the woman make him a suit based on the most suave and sophisticated person Jack could think of; the English super-spy, James Bond. The suit which had been made was a gray, wool, three-piece suit in the British style with a high quality white button-up to wear underneath the jacket and vest. He had not bought a tie to go with it, partially because he thought that would look like he was trying too hard, but mostly because he'd never tied or worn a tie in his life and he was fairly certain trying to then would turn into a battle he'd be doomed to lose.

As he dressed, Jack's mind wandered into the vacant apartment adjacent to his. Since he only had one bathroom and Mana insisted that they shouldn't see each other in their date outfits until they were ready to go, she had used her magic to unlock the door to the next apartment so she could use it to ready herself. It was technically breaking and entering, but they'd agreed it was a victimless crime of minuscule enough intensity for them to live with.

Jack finished buttoning up the vest and out of the corner of his eye, he saw his duel-disk with Mana's card on it, charging in the corner of the room. He thought for a moment about leaving the duel-disk there, but due to the fact that his powers didn't work unless he played the cards on the disk, he decided it'd be better to take it. In case something happened while they were out, he didn't want to have to leave the conflict resolution solely to Mana. He was in no way a sexist and in fact had nothing but respect for her powers and competence in a fight, but he didn't like the idea of Mana having no backup on the off chance something happened to them.

Jack then put on his suit jacket, placed the duel-disk on his left arm, adjusted the metal arm band to a snug fit, put his main deck in the deck slot, and two more in the inside jacket pockets.

It was then that the spirit image of Kuriboh appeared in front of him.

"Well Kuriboh, what do you think?" Jack asked, lifting his arms to show the whole image of himself in the suit.

Kuriboh replied with his hooting sound.

"Really? You think? It's not too over the top?"

Jack didn't understand how, but the more that Kuriboh had appeared to him and spoken to him over the past few months, Jack had somehow come to know what the friendly little ball of fluff was saying through his hoots. It now almost sounded like English to Jack. Kuriboh squealed to him.

"Thanks pal. Let you know how it goes later on."

The small duel monster then hooted again.

"Don't say that! I'm nervous enough on my own without you bringing up that possibility."

At that point, Jack left the apartment. While walking the twenty feet to the next door, Jack steeled his mind once more.

"Just take it easy, Jack. You're just going out for a good time with your best friend. Just keep thinking that."

He reached the door and knocked on it softly. After a moment, he heard footsteps from the inside approach. The door opened and Dark Magician Girl, the girl he'd come to know as "Mana" was standing before him, smiling.

She was a vision of incomparable beauty. Her golden blonde hair was in its regular style, flowing freely down her head and face with several strands falling right between her eyes. Her emerald green eyes were accentuated with a slight, metallic colored eye-shadow which made them stand out wonderfully and her lips had a very light amount of lipstick which brought out their natural color. She was wearing a torch red satin dress which ended halfway to her knees and displayed a tasteful and classy, yet still arousing amount of cleavage. On her feet were high-heels that matched her dress in color and added three inches to her height. For a long time, Jack just gaped at her, stunned silent.

Finally he mumbled, "Mana... you're... wow, and... wow!"

Mana gave a small giggle. "It's a good thing you're not a writer."

Jack smiled in a self-deprecating way and laughed himself.

"I guess it is."

"You look pretty 'wow' yourself. I've never seen you in a suit before. I like how it looks on you."

"And that dress is just incredible. I want to see you in red more often."

"I'm glad you like it. So, what are we doing tonight?" Mana asked.

"Well, first we've got reservations at a little Italian restaurant I read about and after that is a surprise."

She smiled at that. "Okay."

Mana then stepped out into the hall. Having seen the move done in movies, Jack lifted his arm and held it outwards for her to take. To his elation and relief, she knew what he was doing and hooked her own arm around his so that he could lead her as they walked.

OOO

The dinner at the restaurant turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. The restaurant had low lighting, which made both Jack and Mana think was less about atmosphere then trying to hide the filth they could see all around.

The menu was limited to about five different meals, forcing the two of them to order basically the same meal. The breadsticks on the table were stale, the butter sauce for dipping was greasy and flavorless and when he brought it, the waiter accidentally spilled ice water down Jack's back, making him jump and holler as if he were in a cartoon. Jack quietly swore to himself that if he ever found the person who had obviously faked the reviews of this place, he'd sick Red-Eyes on them.

The only good part of the entire meal was their conversation. They talked about many things through out the meal. Mana told him more about her world of the Dominion of the Beasts, Jack told her about the cities he'd been to during the times he'd traveled to attend the Yu-Gi-Oh world championships. After forty minutes of smelling burning tomatoes and with their food less than half finished, both Jack and Mana unanimously decided to get the hell out of there.

As they left the restaurant, Jack said, "Mana, I cannot apologize enough for that. I swear that the reviews I saw for that place said it was incredible."

"It's alright, Jack. It's not your fault it wasn't as advertised."

"But, I had this whole idea of what the dinner part would be like and this is our first date and... ughll!" Jack shouted lowly.

He then took a breath and calmed himself.

"Okay, it's not the end of the world. We can have something back at the apartment later and we've still got the activity. This I've done before, so I can guarantee no unpleasant surprises."

"Let's go then."

The two of them started to walk down the street together. As they walked, Mana moved closer, reached out and wrapped her arm around his again, leaning into him a bit as she did. The rush of endorphins Jack's brain released from her touch made him feel as if he were floating down the street instead of walking. He almost couldn't believe all of this was happening to him. Four months ago, Jack would have counted himself as one of the top ten loneliest sad sacks in the whole world and now, duel monsters or not, he had friends and he was on a date with most gorgeous girl he'd ever met. In the back of his mind, he had a semi constant dread that he was going to wake up at any moment to find that it had all been a dream, but he managed to keep that fear at bay by focusing on the even more intense fear that he as going to mess up with Mana.

"You know Jack, this world of yours is quite interesting." Mana said, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"How so?" He asked her.

"It's so different from my world and the other worlds I've seen. In my world, we don't have restaurants, or television and movies, or any of these other things you see as normal. It's strange, there's nothing really to complain about, but we don't really do anything. In a way, we merely exist in our world, we don't live. In my case, all I ever really do is study magic."

"Sounds like it could get boring."

"It does." Mana said. "But, like all things, it goes in and out of being boring. It was beginning to get dull again until recently."

"Yeah? What happened?"

Mana looked up at Jack. Sensing the movement of her head, Jack turned his and looked into her eyes.

"I met you." She said.

Jack's heart instantly melted like an icicle in the desert. Looking down at her, so close, her lips and eyes both smiling, Jack couldn't help himself as he began to lean down. A second before he could kiss her, the sound of breaking glass ruined the moment and caused the both of them to look up.

They were standing in front of a bank. No alarm was ringing, but the front window was broken. A total of five men were climbing out of the window with duffel bags in all of their hands, obviously full of cash. They each had an assault rifle slung over one shoulder. All five men stopped and stared, Jack and Mana staring right back in turn. The man who was clearly the leader of the group took a step closer to them. He was a tall man in his early to mid thirties with very shortly cut, brownish gray hair.

"Hi there." The man said.

"Hi." Jack said a bit nervously.

"Hello." Mana said.

"Don't you two make a lovely couple. Out on a date?"

"And you're bank robbers." Mana said, a statement, not a question.

"You must be a detective to make such a deduction."

Jack then said, "You're, you're Leonard Snart, aren't you? I've seen your wanted posters on TV."

"Hopefully it was the one that captured my better side. Now, you kids just run along and we'll all go about our own business." Snart said.

"You're taking money that doesn't belong to you. That's wrong." Mana said.

"So is threatening someone with a gun, but I'm about a step away from doing that as well." Snart said.

The unaltered, certain way with which the man threatened Mana, as if he were just making an offhanded remark shook away whatever dread and tension the situation was producing in Jack and triggered his fight or flight instinct. He chose fight. Jack raised his left arm and the duel-disk into view.

"Don't threaten her." Jack said coldly.

"Or what?" Snart asked. "You gonna hit me with that over-sized wrist watch?"

Jack said nothing as he began to draw a card.

"Oh no, not playing cards! Are you gonna throw some dice at us after that?"

"Not quite." Mana said.

Then, with a flash of pink light, her magical staff appeared in her right hand, ready to use.

"What the?!" One of Snart's men bellowed.

The man then dropped his bag of money and reached to pull up his gun. He lifted it up and aimed it right at Mana. Jack saw his finger tightening over the trigger and knew he had less than a second before it was fired and Mana could possibly be gone from his life forever. He drew his card fully from the deck, completely failing to think to even look at the card before he played it in the spell/trap zone. Snart's man pulled the trigger of his gun and a burst of three bullets fired.

They did not find their target and instead collided with a four-foot by three-foot stone shield. In a stroke of luck, the card Jack had played turned out to be "Shield Wall," a spell card which summoned four Shield Tokens; mindless monsters made of stone which formed a protective barrier between Jack, Mana and the robbers.

Shocked and frightened, Snart and his four compatriots all brought up their guns and started to fire. Jack and Mana instantly ducked behind the Shield Tokens for better protection. They could feel the air from the bullets whizzing past them. They could hear the screeches of the ones ricocheting off the token monsters, each one causing a burst of adrenaline to release into their bodies. Mana and Jack looked at each other, formulating a plan.

"You take the three on the left, I'll get the two on the right!" Jack shouted over the din of the firefight.

Mana nodded at him and then peeked her head around the token to take a look. The three men on her side were all frantically shooting at the token monsters. Mana pointed her staff at them and then with her other hand, flicked her wrist upwards, spun her pointer finger around in a circle twice and then pointed down. A strong gust of wind came out of nowhere, picked the men up eight feet off the ground, twirled them through two circles and forced them back to the street, knocking them out.

Despite the danger, Jack couldn't help but smile at how easily she dispatched them. He then turned to his duel-disk and drew six cards from his deck to see his options. The trap card "Fiendish Chain" was in his hand, which he guessed would work to bind Snart and the other man. He was about to play it, but just before he could, one of Snart's bullets ricocheted in such a way that it sped past Mana, grazing her and making her fall to the ground, unconscious, her head bleeding. Jack's eyes went wide, his heart beat faster and he became utterly enraged. He took his hand off of Fiendish Chain and chose a spell card from his hand. He stood up from behind his Shield Token and played his card.

"I activate Dark Eruption!"

An explosion of red and black energy detonated several feet in front of Snart and his man. The blast caused the entire street to rock and shake with a localized, short lived earthquake. The force of the explosion knocked Jack down onto his back.

When the street finally stopped shaking, Jack climbed to his knees and saw the damage his card had wrought. Two of the Shield Tokens were nearly obliterated, there was a crater in the street at least twenty feet in diameter and six feet deep and the front of the bank was nonexistent. The robbers were all in view, but strewn all about the street. Despite how they seemed to all be in one piece, Jack couldn't tell if they were alive or dead. Leonard Snart was nowhere to be seen.

Jack looked to his left and saw Mana. She was still unconscious, but the Shield Token protecting her was still in intact. Unable to process everything that had just happened at once, Jack simply deposited his used cards into the graveyard, bent down, lifted Mana up into his arms and carried her off. He just heard the sound of approaching sirens as he ducked into an alley.

OOO

It was two hours later before Mana awakened. She found herself on the couch in the living room. She slowly lifted herself up into a sitting position.

"Hey! Take it easy." Jack half-shouted.

He rushed over to her from the kitchen, carrying the glass of water he'd been getting with him.

"Take it easy." He said again. "You lost a bit of blood. I cleaned the wound and bandaged you up. The bullet didn't actually pierce you, but just to be safe, you should be probably use your healing magic on yourself."

Mana nodded weakly as she sat back against the couch.

"Mana, I am so sorry! I was so happy and thankful when you agreed to go out with me that I just wanted to show you the best night of your life, but then all this happens and you get hurt and... and..." Jack trailed off and looked away from her, overcome with emotions about the night's events.

"Jack." She said softly.

He did not move or say anything.

"Jack, look at me." She said.

Reluctantly, Jack turned his head back and made eye contact with her.

"Nothing that happened tonight was your fault, especially not what happened at that bank. It was just bad luck." She said.

"Still, I... I won't blame you if you say you never want to see me again."

Mana smiled and gave a small laugh from the back of her throat.

"You know Jack..."

She then leaned forward and kissed him full on the mouth. The kiss was warm, soft and released an explosion fireworks in Jack's mind to put any and every Fourth of July show to shame. After ten seconds, Mana broke the kiss and leaned back again.

"You're cute when you're awkward."

All Jack could do was smile. In that moment he decided that as long as this woman would have him, there wasn't anything he could not or would not do to keep her safe and to make her happy.

OOO

Two Years Later...

Barry Allen, in his suit and cowl of The Flash super-sped through the city, checking the locations of the interdimensional breaches which would allow the evil speedster, Zoom, to send one of his evil metas through to hurt Barry and his friends. After checking that none of them were at that time being used, something he was doing more and more frequently, Barry ran back to S.T.A.R Labs, into the building and stopped on a dime in the middle of the primary control room.

"Joe, is there anything new from the station house?" Barry asked as he removed his cowl.

"Nothing at all." Joe said. "No reports of any meta activity since you captured Light, and definitely no reports of any speedsters runnin' around town except you, Barry."

"I still don't like it." Barry said.

"Before I left Earth-2, I developed a serum to dampen Zoom's speed. All we would need is for Ramon to develop a weapon to deliver it." Harry said.

"Oh, great, that could be this year's cold gun." Dr. Caitlin Snow joked. "Maybe another criminal could get it and then we'd have 'Sergeant Slow.'"

"I would never let that happen. 'Sergeant Slow' is a terrible name." Cisco joked back.

Caitlin went on, "Are we forgetting how much more powerful than Barry, Zoom seems to be? If Barry can catch bullets, what's to say that Zoom can't catch whatever you shoot at him?"

"Surprise." Harry answered. "The element of surprise. All we would do is rig a projectile to fire when Zoom crosses into the breach. He can't stop what he can't see coming."

"That's great. Thanks." Barry said.

"Joe, what do you think?" Caitlin asked.

"We need a plan. That's as good as any. Assuming you can deliver."

"Don't underestimate me, Detective." Harry said.

"Why don't I make a run to Jitters?" Iris asked the whole group. "Looks like it's gonna be a long day and I'm sure we could all use the caffeine."

"That's a good idea, baby girl." Joe said.

"Barry, you want your usual?" Iris asked.

"Yeah, cream with thirty-seven sugars."

"I'll come along too. Help carry everything." Offered Cisco.

"And you'll get to see Kendra." Caitlin said.

"Damn woman, why you got to out me like that? I had it covered."

Cisco's joke triggered a small laugh from everyone, with the exception of Harry. Iris and Cisco then left the lab.

"Ramon!" Harry said loudly as Cisco and Iris started to leave. "When you get back, you need to look at your computers. They're lagging significantly in certain areas and that is unacceptable. I can't help you people of I'm forced to work with substandard equipment."

"Yeah, sure, Harry." Cisco said through nearly gritting teeth.

OOO

Thirty minutes later, Cisco and Iris had everyone's coffee, Cisco had successfully flirted with Kendra Saunders some, and they were just about to start back when Iris suddenly stopped. Looking across the popular coffee shop, Iris spotted several blonde hairs spiking up from a nest of brown. She recognized that hair.

"Hey, I know that guy over there." She said to Cisco, pointing Jack out. "We used to go to school together. Last time we saw each other was actually in here while Barry was still in the coma. He kinda had some kind of nervous breakdown."

"Really? He looks alright to me." Cisco said.

At that moment, they saw Jack turn his head to the left and start to speak, but to no one that they could see.

"Of course, I don't know the guy." Cisco then added.

"Let's go say 'hi.' I want to make sure he's alright."

The two of them made their way over to the table where Jack was sitting. They saw him notice them coming halfway there and the look of recognition on his face when he spotted Iris. As they approached, they observed the large duel-disk on his left arm and just barely heard him say something to the air which sounded like he was telling someone to be quiet for a minute. Jack stood up to greet them.

"Jack, hi!" Iris said in her friendliest and most casual voice. "It's been a while."

Jack replied, "Yeah, again. It's been, what? Two years since we last saw each other?"

"Yeah, pretty close to it. Oh, uh, Jack Harper, this is my friend, Cisco Ramon."

Jack held out his hand to shake and Iris was suddenly surprised. The last time she'd seen Jack, he'd been so awkward and nervous talking to her that she'd thought he might run away on a moment's notice. She'd always thought his breakdown must have had something to do with his social awkwardness, but now, she couldn't detect a trace of it. Jack was standing tall and straight and the air surrounding him was filled with confidence. It seemed to her that something had happened to Jack to make him become comfortable with himself.

"Hi Cisco, nice to meet ya." Jack said as he shook.

"Yeah, you too. I gotta say that's a nice duel-disk you got on there."

"Thanks! You a big Yu-Gi-Oh fan?"

"Are you kidding?! I've seen every episode, I follow every..." Cisco then trailed off for a split second as he seemed to remember something. "Wait, that duel-disk is one of those Konami prototypes, isn't it? You're not the Jack Harper, the Yu-Gi-Oh world champion, are you?!"

"In the flesh." Jack said with an easy smile.

"Oh my God! Iris, do you know who this guy is? He just won the world championships for the eighth straight time in a row! That's a world record. He's the greatest player on Earth!"

"Please, stop man, you're embarrassing me. I'm no celebrity, I just know my way around a deck."

"Oh! I wish I had my Dark Magician card or my Millennium Puzzle with me so you could sign it!" Cisco beamed.

Jack gave a chuckle at that. "Maybe next time."

Iris then broke back in. "So, Jack, are you doing alright? I mean, the last time we saw each other, you know, you kinda had, well... an incident."

"You can say it, Iris. I had a small breakdown." Jack lied for their benefit. "I had a lot going on at the time, and I had a bit of an episode, but I'm all good now. In fact, I've never been better."

Iris' spirits lifted at his news and a smile spread across her face.

"Good. I'm really glad to hear that."

It was at that moment that Mana returned from the restroom. She came right up to three of them, stood beside Jack and put her arm around his waist.

"I'm back, sweetie." She said.

Jack immediately bent down and placed a peck on her lips. After the kiss broke, Mana looked forwards to see Cisco and Iris.

"Oh, hello." She said to them.

"Yeah, honey, this is an old acquaintance of mine, Iris West, and this is her friend, Cisco Ramon. Iris, Cisco, this is my girlfriend, Mana."

"You have a girlfriend! That's great!" Iris enthused, unable to keep the motherly tone and satisfaction out of her voice. She then reached out and vigorously shook Mana's hand. "It's nice to meet you, Mana."

"It's nice to meet you too." Mana replied, a bit surprised by Iris' forcefulness.

Cisco on the other hand was nearly staring at Mana with a look of deep concentration on his face.

"Mana, you look really familiar to me. Have we ever met before?"

"I'm pretty sure we haven't. I don't actually know a lot of people."

Iris asked, "So, how did you two meet?"

Jack and Mana shot a glance at each other and both gave a small smirk.

"That's really a long story." Jack said.

"Very complex and kinda out there." Mana included. "So, we have to get going."

"Where you guys off to?" Cisco asked.

Mana answered, "We're spending the whole day together for our anniversary."

"Oh! An anniversary, that's great. How long have you guys been together?" Iris asked.

"Our first date was two years ago today." Jack answered.

Iris' face then fell a little as the memory of her own former boyfriend, Eddie Thawne, came into her mind. She tried to brighten her expression again a moment later.

"Well, I'm glad things are going so well for you, Jack. It was good to see you again."

"Yeah, you too." Jack said. "Cisco, it was nice to meet you."

"Yeah, same here. Mana, it was a pleasure." Cisco said. He then asked, "Are you really sure we haven't met before?"

"I don't think so." Mana said.

"See you guys around." Jack said.

With that, he and Mana moved past Iris and Cisco and walked out of Jitters.

OOO

Iris had had to go back to her job at Central City Picture News right after Jitters, leaving Cisco to man the coffees on his own and after that, he'd had to stop off at Big Belly Burger to get something for Dr. Light to eat. Back at the lab, Cisco was running a diagnostic and had started to go over the code for software in the systems Harry had told him about, which Harry had gone into with infinitely more detail as soon as Cisco had stepped in the doors. Cisco didn't think there was actually anything wrong with the computers, he was just doing it to shut Harry up.

"Ramon!" Harry bellowed as he entered the primary control room. "Have you found those bugs yet?"

"Not yet! And you know, frankly-"

Cisco was cut off as the computer beeped. Both he and Harry looked closely at the screen.

"I don't believe it, there's actually something here. Someone embedded a program into the computer code to keep the satellites from alerting us to something. It looks like the program is interfering with the new algorithms we installed pertaining to Earth-2 metas and that's the reason for the lag." Cisco explained.

"Can you delete it?" Caitlin asked.

"Better than that. I think I can undo it completely."

With that, Cisco launched into a long string of typed commands, using all his knowledge of both coding and hacking to work on removing the program. Cisco didn't speak for nearly five full minutes.

"And that... should be... it!" Cisco yelled as he hit the 'enter' key.

The program was removed from the mainframe and things started happening instantly. The primary screen changed it's image to a map of the city with red, location markers appearing in thousands of different places all over the map and an urgently bouncing message box in the bottom corner reading "Unknown energy type detected."

"What is that?" Harry asked.

"Unbelievable." Cisco said. "I saw this over two years ago and Dr. Wells convinced me it was a malfunction with the system. This is some kind of energy the satellites have been detecting since that day, but unable to tell us. It's been running freely all over the city since then."

"A meta-human." Caitlin said. "He must have a very strange type of power for the computer not to be able to identify it."

"Something else to add to our list." Cisco said. "Now, I got to go give Light her burger."

He grabbed the bag of fast food off of the desk, stood up and walked out of the room. Down in the pipeline prison, Cisco rounded the corner to Light's cell, walked halfway up the ramp, stopped and dropped the bag.

"Crap!" He uttered quietly.

He ran up the cell door and looked through the glass to find it completely empty. There was no sign of Dr. Light except for her clothes, piled on the floor. Cisco then moved over to the control panel and tapped the screen, triggering the door to open. An invisible Dr. Light then rushed forwards out of the cell, knocked Cisco down and made her way down the ramp to the hall beyond.

Cisco was stunned with surprise for half a second before jumping up to his feet and hitting the control panel to talk to the control room.

"Dr. Light has gone invisible, lock the doors!" He shouted into the camera.

He turned and ran as fast as he could in pursuit of the fugitive.

In the control room, Caitlin switched her chair to the middle station at the desk and accessed the security subroutines.

After a moment she reported, "The doors aren't responding. None of the security protocols are responding."

"She's hacked the system." Harry added.

Caitlin then called Barry over their com system. "Barry, Dr. Light's escaping."

On the edge of the building, Cisco found an exterior door with it's knob and a large section melted away. He scanned the parking lot and immediate area, but there was no one to see. Barry flashed in behind him a moment later.

"Where is she?" Barry asked.

Cisco merely shook his head negatively as he walked back in.

OOO

"Dr. Light managed to hack into the lights of her cell." Cisco informed the team. "The whole building runs on fiber-optics that operate on pulses of light, so she turned off the dampeners and used her powers."

"I told you how dangerous she was! You should have listened to me and sedated her." Harry scolded the group.

"I thought I had convinced her that helping us was the only way she'd free herself from Zoom." Barry said.

"Well, you thought wrong."

Joe then stepped in. "Okay, look, Dr. Light is gone, so instead of assigning blame, let's try and figure out what we're gonna do next."

"Do you think she's gonna try and take Linda again?" Caitlin asked.

"I had Iris bring Linda to the house. Just in case, to keep an eye on her." Barry said. "How are we doing with the speed dampener?"

"I think we've isolated the composite." Caitlin said.

"And we're modifying the dart The Arrow used to take down Wells." Cisco added.

"He's not Wells. I'm Wells." Harry said, referring to the Reverse-Flash.

"Whatever, Harry."

"But, we don't even really know if this thing works." Joe pointed out.

Harry came back with, "Until we try it? No. This will be a field test. So, can we end this scintillating staff meeting and get back to work?"

"Or how about I say what everybody's thinking?" Joe asked. "Maybe it's a good thing that Dr. Light is gone. Maybe it's the universe stopping us from doing something really stupid."

"No!" Barry interjected. "No. You guys keep going, I'm gonna figure out another way to get Zoom."

"I think there's something else we might have to deal with on top of everything else." Cisco announced.

He walked around everyone to the computer station and brought up the map with the location markers again.

"We found this just before Light escaped. Turns out that our old buddy, Thawne, installed a block in the computer to keep us from seeing something. All those markers on the screen are locations where some kind of energy the computer can't identify has been activated."

"A meta?" Barry asked.

"Probably." Caitlin said.

"You know, I know we're probably not even close to knowing all the meta-humans out there, but one going on two years we know nothing about, not the best feeling." Barry said.

"Huh." Joe grunted as he looked at the screen.

"What is it?"

"I actually know some of these locations. Every now and then CCPD gets a strange call about shouts of violence and gunfire, but what's weird about them is when we get there, there are criminals incapacitated and waiting for us in odd ways. There was one time of a bunch a guys chained upside down hanging from a light pole, another where this mugger was buried up to his chin in snow he couldn't get out of, in July. There was even this one time I heard they got to this held up gas station, the robber was still there with a look on his face like he was hypnotized, waived his right to council and signed a confession to armed robbery right on the spot." Joe explained.

"So, then it's someone who kinda acts like a hero but doesn't really go specifically looking to help people." Caitlin said. "But, what kind of powers could he possibly have? There's no common denominator to any of those occurrences. It almost seems like random chaos."

Cisco moved and looked more closely at the screen.

"It looks like the greatest concentration of occurrences happens at that abandoned industrial park just outside of town and an apartment building in the city, with a recent one at Jitters."

"Did you see anything odd while you and Iris were there?" Caitlin asked.

"Not really. We ran into an old classmate of hers, but there definitely weren't any chains, snowbanks or hypnotized thieves." Cisco said.

"Look people!" Harry burst out. "Our priority is Zoom. You guys can deal with this new thing AFTER we stop him!"

"Harry's got a point guys. I'm gonna run and think, maybe I'll take a look around some of those places while I'm out." Barry said.

"I'll go back to the station house, ask if maybe anybody knows anything more." Joe said.

With that, the team broke and everyone went to fulfill their various tasks.

OOO

As he had said, Barry went out for a super-speed run to clear his head and think about things. His mind focused on several different things.

He thought about Zoom. Even though they had yet to even set eyes upon him, Zoom was already the toughest enemy they had faced. His sending criminal meta-humans from Earth-2 was causing more problems than Barry could have thought. Dr. Light was only the latest in the string of new and dangerous metas threatening the city.

Barry thought about Iris. His feelings for her had not wavered or changed in the least since they had first developed, but things with her were more complicated than ever. In a way, Iris did know about his feelings. He had admitted them to her once, but after it had blown up in his face, Caitlin had helped him by making up a fake medical excuse to explain away his actions. Since then, between her grieving for Eddie Thawne and his own lack of courage to speak to her about his feelings again, Barry was less sure than ever he would one day be with her.

When Barry came to a halt, even though he hadn't intended to go there, he found himself in the industrial park outside of the city where the energy occurrences had taken place. After debating it for a few moments, Barry decided he would look around and see if he could find anything about this new meta-human.

At the start of his review of the area, the park seemed to be nothing more than what it was. The buildings were around ten years old and were slightly rundown with the passage of time with several of their windows broken.

It wasn't until Barry saw the building on the far west side of the lot that he found something out of the ordinary. On the side of the building facing the forest was a huge scorch mark. On the ground at the base of the building were deep gouges in the concrete resembling claw marks. Walking around, scanning the area at a normal pace, Barry found what seemed to be a large, black reptile scale. Lifting the scale into his hands, he felt it's razor sharp edges and it's nearly titanium hard strength. Near to the scale, he found a pure white feather more than three-feet in length.

In regards to another possible new threat, Barry was more bewildered than ever as to what they might be dealing with.

OOO

At the same time in their penthouse, Jack and Mana were taking a break from their anniversary day out for a rest between lunch and dinner. They were watching a few episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh GX together in the living room, sunk into the couch, holding each other close.

Over the two years since they had started dating, Jack and Mana had become completely inseparable. More than just a devoted couple, they were each other's best friend. They were so attached that Mana's card almost never left the duel-disk anymore, allowing her and Jack to live together like an almost normal couple.

As the episode they were watching ended, Jack got up from the couch after giving her a peck on the cheek.

"I'm gonna get us some drinks."

He walked into the kitchen and pulled two glasses out of the cabinet to pour the both of them some juice. As he was pulling the juice carton out of the refrigerator, his Millennium Ring suddenly began to glow with the golden light of its magic. Jack had long become accustomed to the feel of the magic of the ring and learned how to consciously use it, but this was different. The feeling coursing through him was unlike any feeling he'd ever experienced previously from his powers.

Before Jack could call out to Mana or do anything, his body froze in place. He couldn't move, couldn't speak, it almost seemed like he couldn't even think. Suddenly, it seemed like his mind was being ripped from his body and he was floating above himself, then as if a hand were pulling him upwards, he was zooming out of the building, up through the sky, leaving the atmosphere. Jack's fear got the better of him and he started to panic, futilely flailing his arms and trying anything else he could to try to get back to solid ground and then suddenly, he was no longer on Earth, nor was he in space. He was crashing down a corridor of bright, multicolored lights streaking past him. He could see nothing but the tunnel surrounding him and a dim speck of darkness in the distance that he was moving closer and closer towards with every second.

Jack emerged from the tunnel into the darkness and found that he was inside of a large, secluded looking warehouse within the city. The interior of the building was nearly pitch black. The only lights in the room were coming from some kind of battle. There seemed to be many different duel monsters moving around the space. Jack could just see himself riding atop one of his dragons high over the fight, directing several other monsters he'd summoned. Mana was in her Dark Magician Girl outfit, using her strongest offensive magic on the enemy combatants.

Jack saw a huge ball of energy shoot up at his counterpart, hitting the dragon and causing his counterpart to topple off and fall to the ground. Jack saw himself fall through the air, hurtling towards a terrible injury and hit the ground hard. The enemy he was fighting then did something which caused a gale force wind to swirl around the room and incapacitate all of Jack's monsters.

Jack's other self lied there on the ground, panting hard, trying with everything he had to get back to his feet. When he was halfway sitting up, a foot kicked him in the torso back down to the ground. The Jack observing the scene could only make out a smug, evil, smile on the face of the man pushing himself down and a vainglorious look of victory in his eyes. As the man lifted his hand to deliver some kind of finishing blow, a blast of energy struck the man in the back, sending him flying away.

Jack saw that a portal had appeared in the middle of the room, spilling out a huge blue and golden light and several different, new duel monsters. He could see the silhouettes of several different people coming through the portal. There was something strangely familiar about the emerging figures, something strong and oddly heartwarming to Jack. He could see his counterpart smiling widely at the figures.

Then, just as suddenly as the vision had started, it was over. Jack awoke on the floor of his kitchen, seated against the bottom cabinet, his bottom wet from the juice carton that had dropped from his hand and spilled everywhere. Mana was kneeling down over him with a look of vast concern on her face. Beside her was a worried Kuriboh in spirit form.

"Jack?! Jack?! Can you hear me?!" Her voice slowly faded back into his ears.

Jack spread his arms over the counter-tops and leveraged himself up into a straighter sitting position.

"I... I can hear you." He said.

"What happened?"

"I'm not sure. One second I was getting the juice and then I couldn't move, then I was in the middle of this battle. I think I had some kind of vision. It was almost like the visions through time created by the Millennium Necklace on the show."

"What?" Mana asked. She was looking at him with a mixture of deep apprehension and disbelief.

"Mana... I think something's about to happen."

OOO

Twenty city blocks to the west about an hour later, Joe approached a cardboard cutout of himself.

"Ha!" He chuckled as he turned the cutout around to face Cisco. "Dude, how long you been sitting on this?"

Cisco, who was standing on an electric lift turned around a cutout of himself in a funny pose he'd just hung to show off.

"It's important to have hobbies."

Joe chuckled happily again and pointed to the Cisco cutout.

From a corner to the left of everyone, Linda Park walked up to the team wearing the combat suit of her doppelganger, Dr. Light. Barry had come up with an idea to have Linda impersonate Dr. Light in a scheme to draw Zoom out for a confrontation.

"This is ridiculous." Linda complained as she stopped in front of Caitlin and Barry is his Flash costume.

"No, it's not." Barry said with an altered voice. "You look just like Dr. Light."

"And with these gloves Cisco rigged up, you'll be able to do what she does." Caitlin said.

"Don't worry, they are totally safe." Iris said.

"Ish." Harry noted.

"Ish?"

Cisco said, "Well, come on, it's gotta be believable, so they really do fire and explode things. So you, Flash, are gonna have to let her hit you with those blasts once she gets the hang of it."

"Who exactly came up with this terrible idea?" Joe asked the group at large.

"Okay, it is not a terrible idea. The suit can absorb the blasts." Cisco said.

"For real or 'ish?'" Iris asked.

"What does a terrible idea look like to you, Cisco?" Joe asked.

Cisco gripped the sides of his head in frustration. "Okay, you know what? I like to think I can see the bright side of things, okay? Positivity, people!"

With that, Flash, Caitlin and Linda walked out into the large, open area of the training room where there were many cutouts of the whole team setup as targets.

"Alright, alright, so, just hit the ones of me, okay?" Flash said to Linda.

"Got it." Linda said as she took a step nearer the targets. "Dr. Light. I am Dr. Light."

She stuck her left hand forward and fired a blast of light, but the force of the blast exiting the glove was so strong that it threw her aim off and additionally caused her to fire three more blasts in quick succession. The light induced killing strokes in the cutouts for Joe, Caitlin and Cisco and missed the Flash cardboard entirely. Flash caught her under the arms as she started to fall backwards.

"Uh, you know what? I'm just gonna adjust those a little." Cisco said to no one in particular and gestured to Joe. "Screwdriver... Coming!"

Cisco then ran off the monitoring platform. Harry stared at his back in silent, angry consternation.

"Let's just, uh..." Cisco laughed nervously as he fine-tuned the light gloves.

Flash said to Linda, "Okay, so, um, do the opposite of that and we'll have it."

Caitlin's eyebrows darted up questioningly at that.

The three of them on the floor then slowly began to walk through the obstacle course. Several feet in, a Cisco stand fell down into place from the scaffolding it was attached to. Linda nearly fired at it but pulled back at the last moment. She repeated the process a moment later with a second cutout of Caitlin. She then spun around when she heard another mechanical whir and took aim at a Flash cutout. As soon as she tried to fire, the glove instantly started to spark and fritz.

"Oh! Oh! It's on fire!" Linda squeaked.

Flash quickly sped over to the platform, grabbed a fire extinguisher, raced back and put out the malfunctioning device.

"My bad." Cisco called out from the platform.

They all then pushed forward with the training. Linda went back into the training course, holding back appropriately and not shooting the images of friendlies. About twenty feet in, another Flash cutout popped up directly in front of her and she nailed it center-mass through the chest.

"Ho! Ha ha!" Linda laughed. "I did it! Did you see that?"

"Yeah! Alright!" Flash said.

He and Linda moved to high-five each other, but before their hands connected, a light blast fired from the glove causing Flash to dodge away before the light struck the monitoring platform. Cisco toppled out of his chair and Joe and Caitlin both recoiled away from the site. Harry just stood still, arms crossed, the same irritation plastered on his face.

"You all good? You okay?" Flash asked everyone.

"Sorry!" Linda shouted at them.

OOO

Five minutes later, the whole team, minus Linda, walked back into the control room.

"Okay, no offense to Linda, but there is no way she can pull this off." Caitlin said to Barry as she entered.

Barry was out of his Flash suit and was putting a black blazer jacket on over a gray t-shirt.

"Well, maybe if she didn't scream every time she fired." Harry said sarcastically.

"Yep, Linda had a rocky start, but she can pull this off. I know she can." Barry said. He then asked Cisco, "Did you find some place near a breach where we don't have to worry about civilians getting in the way?"

"Yeah, there's a place by the docks that's usually abandoned at night.

"How are we doing with the speed dampener?" Barry asked Caitlin.

"My tests indicate that it should work."

"It will work." Harry added. "I'll tune up Ramon's gloves, make sure they work better."

"Okay, great." Barry said as he checked his watch and started to walk out.

"Hey! We're actually gonna go through with this?" Cisco asked.

"Yeah, we're doing this. I'm gonna have Iris get Linda ready."

Barry then walked out of the room. Caitlin and Cisco exchanged a look and then each sent a prodding look over to Joe.

"Yeah, I'll go talk to him."

Out in the hall, Barry was just getting into the elevator when Joe caught up to him.

"What is it?" Barry asked as Joe joined him in the lift.

Joe told him, "You saw what happened in there. Linda's not ready."

"She is. She's ready enough."

"Why are you pushing this?"

"Wh-why do you think? I want to get him." Barry said.

"Get who exactly?" Joe asked.

"Is that a real question?"

"You tell me. I mean, I'm not sure this is even about Zoom. It's starting to feel like you're still chasing the Reverse-Flash."

"Reverse-Flash is dead."

"Yeah, but after all he did to you, you weren't the one who stopped him." Joe said.

Barry paused for a moment before answering. "We all worked together."

"Yeah, and Eddie got him in the end. I mean, doesn't that make you feel cheated, like you didn't get your revenge, like stopping Zoom is the next best thing?"

Barry said nothing, the elevator doors opened and he moved out of the cab.

"Look, all I'm saying is, if you're going to ask people like Linda to risk their lives, you better be exactly sure why they're doing it." Joe said.

Barry gave a slight nod of his head and walked away.

OOO

In his penthouse condo, Jack and Mana were in the middle of trying to trigger his vision again. They had together tried to force the Millennium Ring to use it's magic to recreate the vision. It had not worked. Jack had activated a trap card called "Bright Future," thinking it would do the job. It had not worked. Finally, Jack had summoned Dark Magician, believing that with the magic between the three of them they could divine some kind of answer. They had been levitating and in mediation for forty-five minutes when they collectively called it quits. Mana, Jack and Dark Magician all floated down and stood on the floor.

"Nothing." Mana said. "I cannot believe we weren't able to find out anything more."

"Tell me more about this vision, Jack. What happened in it exactly?"

Jack explained, "Well, I was in the middle of a battle in a building here in the city. There were and duel monsters everywhere. I got knocked off my dragon and fell to the ground. Someone kicked me as I was trying to get up and just as it seemed I was about to die, that person was blasted away from me. I looked up and saw people coming out of some sort of portal. I couldn't make out there faces, but the me in the vision seemed to recognize them and be glad to see them. I came back to myself in the kitchen before I could see anything else."

Dark Magician put his hand to his chin and took a long time to contemplate the subject.

"It certainly sounds like a possible vision of the future. If it is, we need to be very careful about how we proceed. We have no idea when or how these events will unfold and they sound extremely dangerous. I wouldn't want to see either of you get hurt."

"Thank you, Master." Mana said.

Jack knew that Dark Magician's concern was tilted more towards Mana. However, he and Dark Magician had become slightly closer over the past two years and developed a rapport. Dark Magician had come to see that Jack's shadow powers had neither changed him nor hurt Mana and Jack's proper and kind treatment of her had won him the other man's respect, to the point that Dark Magician allowed Jack to call him by his previous name.

"Yeah, thanks Mahad." Jack said. "I'll summon you again if we need your help."

Jack then removed the Dark Magician card from his duel-disk.

"So, I guess the rest of our anniversary day is off now." Mana said, her spirits dampened.

"No way. We're not canceling the rest of our anniversary."

"But Jack-"

"There's no 'buts' here." Jack interrupted her.

He then moved over to her, hugged her around the waist and pulled her close.

"Mana, you're the first girlfriend I've ever had. The last two years with you have been the best of my entire life. Nothing is getting in the way of you and me celebrating our relationship."

Mana stared up into his eyes for a long moment before a deep blush arose on her cheeks.

"Jack, that is without a doubt the sweetest thing you've ever said to me. I'm so happy I'm with you."

"So am I."

Without hesitation, Jack leaned down and the two of them shared a passionate kiss which lasted more than ten seconds. After the kiss broke, they gazed lovingly into each other's eyes.

"We should probably get ready to go to dinner now." Jack said.

"Okay." Mana replied with a light giggle.

OOO

As Cisco and Harry worked silently in Cisco's lab, Cisco turned his head and peered at Harry. Cisco still needed to try to use his powers to get a vibe off of the new Wells, to see if he could determine if Harry was up to something or not. Cisco stood from his chair and stepped over to Harry's side.

"Listen, I just want to bury the hatchet and say 'thank you' for all your work." Cisco said as he held out his hand to shake.

"You're welcome." Harry said coldly without so much as looking up from his task.

Something about the light gloves refused to cooperate, causing Harry to exhale an aggravated sigh and look closely at the device. Quickly improvising, Cisco picked up a small can of turpentine from the table.

"I think maybe the trigger mechanisms are just sticking."

"It's not the trigger mechanisms." Harry said, overlapping Cisco's words.

"I think they just need a little-"

"No they don't. DON'T!"

Cisco poured an amount of the turpentine onto the gloves circuits.

"Ugh! I'm just gonna clean this up really quick." Cisco groaned and leaned down to do it.

Harry jumped up sharply, hitting Cisco's hands away. "Don't touch me! Never!"

"I'm just trying to help!"

The can of turpentine was knocked over, spilling onto the table. Both Harry and Cisco reached down to try to pick it up at the same time. As soon as their hands touched, Cisco's eyes went wide and a vibe vision began.

Cisco found himself in a dark room. As he turned, he saw a young woman locked in a cage, sobbing in horror. She was Harry's daughter, Jesse. It was then that Cisco saw him, Zoom. Zoom was a tall man in a full body suit made of dark blue leather. Zoom's whole face and head was completely covered by a mask which created a demonic aura. Blue lightning was sparking all over his body.

"I know Wells went to the other Earth. Why?" Zoom drawled in a low, raspy, frightening voice.

"I don't know. I swear." The girl choked out, small and scared.

"Your loyalty is admirable... Jesse."

The cage door rattled upward, Zoom stepped inside and Jesse screamed. Cisco gasped in fear just as the vibe ended. Cisco looked up at Harry, his face full of awe and sorrow.

"Sorry."

Cisco then walked out of the room.

OOO

Some time later, Jack and Mana emerged out of the restaurant where they'd had dinner. Unlike on their first date, Jack had scoped out the restaurant ahead of time and gotten some first hand reviews of the place. They had a long, romantic dinner of French cuisine by candlelight. At that moment, they were strolling along the street, Mana's arm around Jack's waist, his around her shoulders.

"Jack, that was the best meal we've ever had together."

"I actually didn't like that food too much. The company on the other hand was above reproach."

"I agree completely." Mana said.

They pulled each other even closer, basking in the love and happiness of the moment. With his free left hand, the one that held his duel-disk, Jack felt his pants pocket and confirmed that the ring box was indeed still there. His nervousness about what he was planning to ask her swelled up in him anew. He did his best to crush that anxiety back down again.

"So, do we have anything left for our all day anniversary date?" Mana asked.

"I thought maybe we could go ice skating. Seems fun, I've never tried it and it looks like it would involve a lot of touching and closeness."

"You're incorrigible, you know that?"

"Only because I'm crazy about you."

They turned their heads and looked into each other's eyes. Their moment was broken a second later as they heard an endangered shout. It was a woman, calling for help. They then saw a shabbily dressed man rush out of the alley in front of them and run away from them with a purse in his hands. Jack and Mana shared another quick look, knowing instantly what they were about to do.

They freed their arms, Mana summoned her magic staff and Jack raised his duel-disk and drew a card. Mana pointed her staff towards the mugger and made a flicking motion with her hand. The mugger instantly tripped and hit the ground hard.

"I activate Nightmare Steel Cage." Jack said.

A huge, black, metal cage with outward facing spikes materialized and fell onto the mugger, trapping him in place for the police.

"What the?!" The man cried out.

Mana and Jack then placed their arms back around each other and walked past the trapped and stunned criminal.

"So, should we get a cab to the ice rink?" Mana asked.

"It's only about fifteen blocks. We can walk that."

After a moment, Mana stopped them and turned to Jack.

"I think I'd rather go back to our apartment. Show you what I got you for our anniversary. I really think you'll really love me in it. It's red."

"Ooh, that is very tempting."

"Do I detect a hint of hesitation in your voice?" Mana asked playfully.

"Now why would I hesitate to get the most beautiful girl on Earth into bed and ravish her."

"I don't know. Maybe you just don't find me attractive anymore." She said with a mock pouty face.

Jack smiled widely at her. He loved it when she played these little games.

"Why do I put up with you?" He said with mock anger.

"Because I am the best thing that's ever happened to you and you know it."

"Speaking of that, Mana, there's something I've been trying to get up the nerve to ask you all night. I was going to at the ice rink, but I don't think I can hold it anymore. Mana-"

Jack never finished his sentence. At that exact moment an enormous pool of blue and golden light erupted and washed over them. The two of them were unable to resist staring into the light. Moments later, a dark silhouette began to walk slowly out of the light. Jack thought the figure seemed familiar for a short time before knowing absolutely who it was. It was the laugh. It made Jack's blood run cold. It was a villainous laugh of malice and evil. It was a laugh Jack had heard thousands of times. As the light from the portal faded and the normal illumination of the night reasserted itself, Jack saw the long white hair and the wicked brown eyes he knew all too well.

"B-B-Bakura?" Mana squeaked.

"Yami Bakura." Jack whispered.

Bakura pulled a deck out of his pants pocket and held up a card.

"Go my Headless Knight and sever there's!"

Bakura's Millennium Ring glowed, the Headless Knight monster emerged out of the card and immediately charged Jack and Mana with sword bared.

OOO

Across town, Linda stood on the docks in Dr. Light's costume. Behind her was a swirling vortex of energy. It was an interdimensional breach.

"I'm here to kill the Flash! And no one can stop me!" Linda shouted. She then put her hand to her ear, touching the communication mic. "How's that?"

Back at S.T.A.R Labs, Cisco, Caitlin and Iris were watching her on the computers through dock security cameras.

"That's a little too much and stop messing with the earpiece." Cisco told her.

"Yeah, you don't want to dislodge it." Caitlin added.

"Oh, right, yeah. You told me that, I'm sorry." Linda said.

"No, no. You're doing great, Linda." Iris told her.

Barry then came to a stop right in front of Linda.

"Alright, Dr. Light, here I am. But we're gonna skip the part where you say you're gonna kill me and go right to the part where I don't let you."

"I am going to kill you, Flash." Linda recited from her memorized script. She then whispered, "What are you doing? We're skipping that part?"

"Yes!" Barry whispered back.

"Uh... I am loyal to Zoom, so get ready to fry."

At S.T.A.R Labs, Cisco commented to himself, "Next time we do this, I'm writing better dialogue."

"Next time?" Iris and Caitlin asked together.

On the docks, Linda fired a light blast that missed Barry completely and hit a container behind him. He looked at her questioningly and Linda responded with a shrug that said she didn't know what happened. Barry immediately flopped onto his back and feigned being hit.

"Oh!" He fake groaned.

"Gotcha." Linda said.

"Yeah, you did."

Barry stood up.

"Bring it on." Linda said.

Barry super-sped right at her and Linda shot two light blasts that hit him in both shoulders. She then dodged to the side, Barry continued past her and she shot another bolt of light into his back. Barry fake howled in pain dramatically and went down to one knee. The lightning dancing all across his body subsided a moment later and he fell to his back, playing dead.

"Told you." Linda said as she walked around his prone form. "Zoom always wins."

She then bent down and plucked the Flash insignia from his chest.

"You're okay, right?" She asked.

"Yeah, yeah. I had to make it look good."

Linda walked in the direction of the breach.

"Here it is, Zoom! I did what you wanted! Now bring me home!"

She tossed the insignia like a Frisbee and sent it into the breach.

About sixty feet across from her, on their stomachs on the deck of a ship were Harry and Joe, waiting for Zoom with the speed dampener guns at the ready.

OOO

Downtown in the city, the Headless Knight was rushing at Mana and Jack. The two of them were stunned frozen by everything that was happening so quickly. Headless Knight raised its saber. The blade glinted in the street light. The naked eye alone could tell that it was razor sharp, capable of killing with a single blow. Headless Knight swung its sword down, aiming for a decapitation. At the last moment, Jack came out of himself, blocked the sword with his right hand and lifted his left up to the Knight's chest.

"Dark Magic Attack!" Jack screamed.

The color all around them seemed to turn negative for a second, black energy shot from Jack's hand and Headless Knight went flying into the wall of a building behind Bakura.

"Hmm. So, you don't just possess a Millennium Item." Bakura said. "You somehow have the powers of duel monsters themselves as well."

Bakura then took special notice of Mana for the first time.

"Would that be the Dark Magician Girl by your side? Ha! For a mortal, you certainly are interesting."

"Be careful, Jack. If he manages to defeat you, he'll be able to take your Millennium Ring." Mana said.

"What do you mean? He'd have to beat me in a duel to take my item. He's not beating me in a duel."

Bakura then suddenly broke out in his evil laugh again.

"He doesn't know, does he?"

Mana explained, "Jack, the ancient Egyptians who created the items fought in duels, but their word for 'duel' translates closer to 'challenge.' To take your power, he only needs to defeat you in a challenge."

"You mean that any challenge can count as a duel?!" Jack asked.

"Exactly!" Bakura declared with smug pride. "Where I'm from, duels were simply the most common form, but any challenge will do. And by counter attacking my Headless Knight, you accepted this particular challenge!"

"This is too insane!" Jack shouted. "Mana, I'm pulling your card."

"What?! Jack, no! We need to stand united! We need to-"

It was no use. Jack's mind was reeling. He was too overwhelmed by what was happening to think totally clearly. He was standing a mere eighteen feet away from one of the most devious, powerful and evil fictional characters ever conceived and the man was real. As real and flesh and blood as himself or Mana. All Jack was thinking about was what if something happened to her. He could not take that risk, he needed her too much. Before Mana finished her last sentence, Jack pulled her card off his duel-disk and she disappeared. He put her card safely into the deck case on his belt.

"Sending the little woman away? Fine by me. Now it will be even easier to crush you!" Bakura sneered.

At that moment, Headless Knight pulled itself out of the hole in the wall it was buried in.

"Now, Headless Knight, try that again!"

Headless Knight moved to attack again. Jack quickly drew a hand of six cards from his deck and played one.

"I summon Buster Blader!"

Buster Blader appeared and he and Headless Knight locked swords. The two monsters pushed against each other for a moment before Buster Blader punched Headless Knight and then swung his sword into him. Headless Knight flew backwards again and then vanished a moment later, too weak to go on.

"Hello my friend." Buster said to Jack. "What is the situation?"

"This man here is trying to kill me and take the Millennium Ring." Jack said.

"Very well. We shall vanquish him together!"

Buster Blader then ran forward and moved to swing at Bakura. The villain didn't even flinch as he pulled another card from his deck.

"Sakuretsu Armor!"

An image of the huge, metal monster from the trap card suddenly appeared, ready to destroy Jack's Buster Blader. Jack didn't know what would happen to a monster he summoned if it was destroyed by the effect of a trap card like Sakuretsu Armor and he wasn't about to find out. Every duel monster he summoned were his friends and he wasn't going to let anything happen to any of them. He removed Buster Blader from the disk, making him disappear just before the trap could harm him.

"You saved your monster. I suppose my trap will just have to take you instead!" Bakura shouted.

"I don't think so! Activate Raigeki Break!"

Jack activated his own trap card. A blue-skinned hand rose up out of the street and fired a bolt of red energy that eliminated Bakura's trap. Bakura showed no signs of any dissatisfaction and smiled at Jack.

"I see you're quite adept with your shadow powers. It will be a pleasure to have them for myself!"

"Not if I've got anything to say about it!"

Jack drew another card and immediately played it.

"Go Venom Burn!"

A teal colored snake made of stirring liquid arose and launched itself at Bakura. It closed the distance in milliseconds and was a few inches away from biting into Bakura's face.

"This was easier than I expected." Jack thought.

The venom snake half an inch away from his nose, Bakura shot his arm up, grabbed it and stopped it cold.

"It'll take more than that." Bakura said with a laugh.

He then threw the venom snake down to the ground and stomped it out of existence.

"Now, let the real game begin!"

OOO

On the docks, Linda, Barry, Joe and Harry were all still waiting for Zoom to show himself. Nothing was happening. The whole area was silent as the grave.

In S.T.A.R Labs, Cisco was jumping back and forth between different security camera feeds, confused as to the lack of action.

On the ship where they were nested, Harry and Joe were becoming restless.

"This is everything he wants, right?" Harry asked. "Come on, Zoom."

On the ground, Barry was unable to keep from starting to twitch and move a little.

"Hey! Stop fidgeting!" Linda chastised him.

"Sorry, I landed in a ridiculous position. My foot fell asleep." Barry responded.

"He's probably just waiting to see if you're really dead. Any minute now he's going to strike." Cisco told them over the coms.

"No." Barry said softly as he sat up.

Harry and Joe retracted their guns and moved away from their perch.

"I'm sorry, I probably screwed up somehow." Linda said.

"No, Linda, you did great." Iris told her.

Barry pushed his cowl back off his face as he got to his feet. As Joe and Harry joined the younger two on the dock, Harry angrily hit several empty paint cans, flinging them to the ground as he stalked away.

"Wells isn't taking this well." Joe said to Barry.

"Yeah, it just sucks. You know, you were right, a little bit about this not just being about Zoom. About it being about the Reverse-Flash."

"Okay."

"But not for the reason that you think. Not because I didn't beat him. Wells, he said something to me on that video before he confessed to my mom's murder. He said that even if he was dead, he still won, because I wasn't happy. That I'd never really be happy."

"How the hell would he know?" Joe asked.

"He knew me. He knows future me."

"That's future you, this is the you here and now."

"I think that Wells was right. Ever since I went back to that night. I didn't save her, I didn't save my Mom, there's just been this... void in me. You know, I just feel like that is always gonna be there. For better or worse, Wells, he knew me." Barry said.

"Better than I know you?" Joe asked. "Look, Wells may have stalked you for fifteen years, but I raised you. Wells said what he said to you to mess with you, to get in your head one last time. If you listen to him, you let him win."

"I know, I-"

Before Barry could continue, a flash of blue light streaked past him and Joe and they heard a distant scream begin and then quickly fade to nothing.

"What the hell was that?!" Joe asked.

"Zoom! He's got Linda!"

Barry put his cowl back in place and ran after them. Barry chased after them, keeping a perfectly equal pace with Zoom. The two speedsters ran through the city, all the way back to S.T.A.R Labs and up onto the roof. Barry came to a stop about ten feet away from his enemy. Zoom had Linda held tightly under his arm.

"Put her down." Barry said.

"You like to play with fate?" Zoom asked. "I do too."

Zoom took a step closer to the ledge and held Linda out over it, ready to drop her. He turned his head and stared Barry in the eyes, then released his grip. Gravity took over and Linda fell. Barry instantaneously super-sped down to the parking lot and used his arms to create twin wind vortexes to slow her decent enough to catch her safely and place her on her feet.

"You need to get out of here, okay?"

"No! You can't fight that thing! It's a monster!" Linda responded.

"Just go!"

Zoom then ran down to the far side of the lot. Barry moved directly across from him and the two speedsters stared each other down, both knowing what was about to happen. In the control room, Caitlin, Iris and Cisco were watching the face off on the security feeds.

"Zoom cannot be human." Caitlin said.

"How the hell is Barry supposed to defeat that?" Cisco asked.

Barry then flashed away and began to run a large oval all around S.T.A.R Labs, gaining speed and building his lightning wake.

"Why is he running away?" Iris asked.

"He's not. He's not scared." Cisco said.

Barry ran faster and faster around the building.

"Oh! He's gonna thunderbolt him!"

"What?" Iris asked.

"Jay taught him how to throw lightning." Caitlin answered.

Barry came to a dead stop, hurled his arms forward and threw all of his trailing lightning right at Zoom. In response, Zoom burst out towards the lightning, jumped, turned in midair, grabbed the attack and sent it right back at Barry. The bolt hit Barry square in the chest, making him fly back and slam into the wall of the building.

"Did you guys see that?" Barry asked his friends.

"See him catch a bolt of lightning with his... demonic claw?! Yeah, saw that!" Cisco expounded.

"Jay was right, he cannot do this alone." Caitlin said.

"He's not alone!" Harry yelled over the coms.

"Harry?" Cisco asked.

"I borrowed a motorcycle! I should be back there in just a minute."

"Run, Barry." Caitlin advised him.

"No. I'm gonna see if Wells' speed dampening serum works." Barry said as he took a syringe from his boot. He then asked Zoom, "What do you want from me?"

"Everything."

"You want to be me? Is that it? You want to be a hero?"

"Heroes die." Zoom rasped.

"Only if you can catch them."

Barry turned and ran back up the side of the building. Zoom chased him. Harry pulled up on the motorcycle he stole just a moment later. Barry and Zoom circled the roof and ran up the side of one of the towers, Zoom coming right up on Barry's side just before the two ran out of surface and went skyward.

"How is Barry going to match Zoom's speed?" Caitlin asked.

"Genius!" Cisco declared. "He's not going to match it, he's gonna take it out of the equation all together."

"What are you talking about?"

"Terminal velocity. The highest velocity attainable by a falling object."

"Falling through the air?" Iris asked.

"Yeah. Free fall fight." Cisco said. "Their drag force equals the downward force of gravity making the net force zero, making..."

"Equal velocity!" Caitlin finished the sentence. "That is genius!"

Barry and Zoom soared into the air as far as their speed could take them and then began to fall. As they fell, Barry punched Zoom in the head and tried to inject him with the speed dampener, but Zoom kicked the syringe out of his hand. Zoom then got over top of Barry and straddled him, forcing Barry to hit the ground first and take the brunt of the impact.

Back on the ground, Zoom super-speed punched Barry then lifted him up, spun him around and pummeled him with one super-fast punch after the other to the face, to the stomach, to the pecs to the temple. Harry stood on the sidelines, aiming his speed dampening gun, unable to find a clean shot. Zoom then put a roundhouse punch into Barry's cheek, another into his stomach to double him over and then sent a devastating uppercut into his back. The sound of Barry's spine snapping was heard by all.

Barry fell to the ground, unable to continue the fight. Harry then found and took his shot, but Zoom caught the dart before it could reach him.

"Never forget, I am the fastest man alive!" Zoom rasped out.

He then took the dampening formula syringe and stabbed it down into Barry's chest.

"He's killing him!" Caitlin shouted.

"Barry!" Iris shouted.

Zoom looked over his shoulder and glared at Harry again.

"You're next."

He then grabbed Barry and sped away with him.

OOO

Downtown, at roughly the same time as Barry and Zoom had started their fight, Jack and Bakura were staring each other down just as intensely. Their eyes were firmly locked on their opponents. Bakura moved first, pulling a second deck from his pocket, looking at two cards from the top and holding them out.

"I summon Neck Hunter and Barox!"

The two fiend type monsters appeared and quickly dashed towards Jack. Jack took one of the cards from his hand and threw it into the spell/trap zone.

"Activate Flashbang!"

Jack closed his eyes and a moment later, an explosion of light went off on the street, blinding both Bakura and his monsters. Before his enemies could see again, the monsters Judge Man and Noble Knight Joan emerged from the smoke and struck Neck Hunter and Barox with their weapons. Bakura's monsters flew back past him and collided with the building and vanished back into their cards.

Noble Knight Joan and Judge Man then moved in to attack Bakura himself. Judge Man swung his flail, Bakura dodged. Noble Knight Joan threw a powerful jab at Bakura's face, he pushed her arm away and dodged it as well.

Bakura yelled, "Gladiator Beast's Battle Archfiend Shield!"

The equip spell card energized on his arm and he used it to block another strike from Judge Man. He then blocked a second punch from Noble Knight Joan and counter punched her in the head.

"Activate Laser Cannon Armor!"

A huge laser cannon developed on Bakura's free arm and he fired the laser directly into Jack's two warriors, making them vanish back into their cards. Bakura then fired the laser towards Jack. Jack turned and ran as fast he could down the street. He was only able to move fast enough to keep just ahead of the deadly beam, the heat from it was nearly singeing his hair. Jack used an oncoming streetlight and his training from Strike Ninja to run up the pole and flip off backwards. He stuck the landing as the laser severed the pole from its stand. Jack then pulled another card from his deck.

"Tremendous Fire!"

A blaze of fire the size of a man erupted from Jack's duel-disk. The fireball struck Bakura's shield, knocked him onto his back and made his weapons dissipate to nothing. Jack swiftly played a subsequent spell card.

"Activate Frozen Ice Cave!"

Freezing blizzard winds of ice and snow blew in from nowhere. Bakura got to his feet and ran down the street before it could hit him. Jack ran after him and the two men locked eyes from their respective sides of the street. Bakura pulled another card from his deck.

"Thousand Knives!"

A thousand small daggers materialized and thrust themselves in Jack's direction. Jack drew a new hand of six cards, scanned them for a defense and played a trap card.

"Mirror Force!"

The shining, transparent wall of Mirror Force protected jack and sent the knives flying back towards Bakura.

"Trap Jammer!" Bakura yelled in response.

Mirror Force canceled out, he knives stopped in mid air again and resumed their original course for Jack.

Jack played his own card. "Magic Jammer!"

The Thousand Knives card was then aborted and the blades dematerialized. Jack pressed his attack onward.

"Activate Lightning Blade!"

A giant, six foot long sword sparking all along its length came into being in Jack's hands and he ran forward into the middle of the street and swung it, sending a crescent wave of electricity pouring from the sword and flew at Bakura.

Bakura shouted, "Activate Makiu, the Magical Mist!"

A spontaneous downpour of rain arose and the rain caused Jack's lightning to scatter and jolt everywhere, jumping from droplet to droplet. The dispersed electricity found and shocked both Bakura and Jack, but at a far less deadly wattage.

Both men fell injured onto their stomachs, but neither of them were unconscious just yet. They could both still see each other. Both knew that whichever man could play the next card first would be the winner and survivor of the challenge.

OOO

Zoom dragged Barry through the city, speeding through traffic and tight corners across dozens of blocks until they ran into Central City Picture News, Iris' workplace. Zoom ran one circle around the large office then came to a stop at the head of the room, slamming Barry's head into a desk as he did so. One of the workers quickly picked up a camera and started to record the scene.

"Look at your hero." Zoom said.

He then lifted Barry up over his head, presenting him to the audience.

"This man is no God. He is nothing!"

Zoom then flashed away and out of the building. He took Barry across the city again, running this time into the CCPD building where Barry worked and onto the balcony overlooking the main lobby. Many police officers surprised by the sudden appearance ran in and aimed their pistols at Zoom.

"The days of the Flash protecting this city are over!"

"Hold your fire!" Captain Singh told his men.

"Put him down." Detective Patty Spivot shouted.

"Now, what will you do without your precious hero?" Zoom asked the crowd as he shook Barry's limp body for emphasis.

"Shoot that thing now!" The captain ordered.

The fourteen cops all opened fire at the same time, but Zoom was unfazed. Without any difficulty, he moved his hand at super-speed, caught all of the bullets coming towards him and then let them fall and clatter to the floor to illustrate how futile they were.

"Nice try."

He rocketed out of the station house, leaving Singh and everyone else speechless. Zoom sped through the city, making his way back towards S.T.A.R Labs.

OOO

At the same time, Jack and Bakura were both straining to try to get back into their own fight. Although the shock they had each received had been nonfatal, it had been serious. Bakura was reaching out to his deck that had fallen onto the street. Jack was trying to extend his right hand to draw a card from his duel-disk.

Neither man's muscles were working quite correctly. Splitting, horrible pain was racking its way through both of their bodies. Bakura, being a five-thousand year-old spirit had far greater will power than almost any mortal person and was pushing through the agony to try to reach his cards. Jack, though mortal and lacking the knowledge of what Bakura wanted with his Millennium Ring knew that no good would come of it and that if he lost his ring and the powers it bestowed, he would never see Mana or any of his monster friends ever again. Bakura gripped the edge of a card and lifted it to see what it was. Jack drew his card and view it. Both men activated their cards simultaneously.

"Kunai with Chain!" Jack wheezed.

"Tachyon Cannon!"

A huge machine appeared beside Bakura and charged up a blast of energy as a bladed weapon with an attached chain shot from Jack's duel-disk and wrapped itself around Bakura's leg. The tachyon cannon fired and the energy detonated on the street just in front of Jack and sent him and by way of Jack's trap card, Bakura both flying through the air down the street.

By a phenomenal coincidence of velocity and timing, Jack and Bakura's flight was interrupted by their colliding with Zoom and Barry. The momentum of all four men ceased, they were thrown apart and came to rest in a large, ragged square in the middle of the street. The force of the encounter had awoken Barry from his haze. The four of them all sat up as and looked at each other, momentarily stunned by the strangeness of the encounter.

Only Jack's strategic thinking from his years of playing Yu-Gi-Oh allowed him to know that this was his chance to end the fight. He quickly pulled a card from his pocket which he kept on hand for just such an emergency.

"Go Magical Hats!"

Four magician's top hats monogrammed with question marks materialized, fell onto the men, shuffled themselves and then flew off to separate corners with their occupants.

OOO

One of the magical hats fazed down through the roof and levels of S.T.A.R Labs and dumped Barry off in the middle of the primary control room.

"Barry!" Iris shouted.

She, Caitlin and Cisco all rushed over knelt down around him.

"What happened?!" Caitlin asked.

"I'm not sure." Barry answered in a barely audible voice.

"What is that?" Cisco thought out loud, looking at the hat before it vanished.

OOO

Jack's hat released him in the living room of his condo. He pulled himself up onto the couch. He was in bad shape and he knew it. The explosion from the tachyon cannon had driven a piece of concrete shrapnel into his side. Opening the deck case on his belt, he pulled out Mana's card.

"I... summon... Dark Magician Girl."

Mana appeared in front of him in her duel monster outfit. Her clothes always reverted to those whenever she was sent back to the Dominion of the Beasts, like an automatic default setting on a computer.

"Jack?" She then saw him on the couch. "Jack!"

She ran over and sat down beside him.

"What happened?"

"I... I fought Bakura. It was... hard."

"I told you we should have worked together."

It was then she saw the shrapnel.

"We have to get that out before I can heal you." Mana said.

"I know."

Jack took a firm grip on the concrete and Mana placed both of her hands on it as well.

"On three." She said. "One-"

Together, they ripped it out of him.

"Gaah! Wow... that really doesn't help." Jack rasped.

Mana then applied her healing magic directly to his wound. The sedative warmth of the magic significantly relaxed him immediately.

"I assume you won the challenge, otherwise I wouldn't be here right now." Mana said.

"He was too tough. It was a draw, barely."

"He'll be back, then."

"Undoubtedly. We'll have to get ready for him. I won't let him or anyone come between us."

Despite the serious situation, Jack gave her a smile that usually made her melt in his arms, but this time, Mana did not smile back. Although her expression was concerned, Jack thought he detected a hint of anger in her eyes. They'd had a few small spats over the course of their relationship, but to date, she had never truly been angry with him. The prospect unnerved him a bit.

OOO

The hat which had taken Bakura dropped him off several miles outside of the city. The pain in his vessel's body was subsiding and he easily got to his feet.

"Well, it seems that this quarry will be more difficult than some of my previous acquisitions. I may need to recruit an ally." Bakura thought.

An evil smile then spread over his face.

"This game should be more fun than I was expecting."

He set off walking back to town.

OOO

Inside S.T.A.R Labs, the others had moved Barry into a bed and treated his wounds.

"This is all you! If Barry dies, you die!" Joe yelled in Harry's face.

"Joe, Barry's vitals have stabilized and it could have been a lot worse, lets let him go." Caitlin said.

"No, Caitlin!"

"Why? What good does that do for Barry?"

"It's gonna help me."

Joe then shoved Harry hard against a wall.

"Joe, stop!" Cisco said. "Who's Jessie?"

Harry's attention darted from Joe to Cisco.

"How do you?"

He moved closer and put both his hands on Cisco's shoulders.

"Jesse's my daughter, Zoom has her. You... you did vibe me."

"Yes."

"What did you see?"

"I saw your daughter. She was with Zoom." Cisco said.

"But she's alive?"

"Yeah."

Harry gave a great sigh of relief and took several steps back.

"Zoom sent you here like the others?" Joe asked. "You kill the Flash and you get your daughter back?"

"The only way I get my daughter back is I capture Zoom! Do you understand? You love Barry, I love my daughter, and none of these children are safe as long as Zoom is here. I tried on my Earth to capture him. I failed. I thought I could bring him down here, with Barry's help. I was wrong." Harry explained before walking away and out of the room.

OOO

Cisco and Caitlin were in Barry's room within the lab the next day, checking up on him.

"Hey, I think he's waking up." Cisco said.

"Barry? Barry, can you hear me?" Caitlin asked.

Barry's eyes slowly opened and he looked at his friends.

"You scared the crap out of us." Cisco said. "You passed out after that hat thing dropped you here and you've been out since."

"How bad am I?" Barry asked.

"Bad. If you didn't heal so quickly I'd be very worried." Caitlin said.

"Linda, how is she?" Barry asked.

"She's fine. She's staying with some friends out in Coast City." Cisco answered.

"Zoom?"

"We're not sure how exactly it worked, but it seems those hat things transported all of you to different locations. We're not sure where Zoom or those other two metas are, but, let's worry about them after you're up and about."

Cisco lightly placed his hand on Barry's leg as he spoke. Barry raised his head up and looked down at it.

"Oh no, you're staying put." Caitlin told him.

Barry placed both his hands on his legs.

"Yeah, seriously, you got your ass kicked." Cisco said.

"Uh, guys, I can't feel my legs. I can't my legs."