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.

5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Days later, inside the S.T.A.R Labs control room, Barry was shuffling slowly across the floor, testing out his legs. He had a cane in his left hand and Joe's hand on his shoulder to help him. Caitlin, Cisco and Iris were watching him.

"Alright, I got you." Joe said.

Barry then handed his cane over and took several tentative steps on his own. On the third step, he started to falter.

"Nah. I can't do it." Barry said.

"Yes, you can, Bar." Joe told him.

Barry practically collapsed down into a wheelchair that Cisco had ready for him on the side.

"You were making such great progress." Joe added.

"Yeah, six whole steps. Someone give me a 'Bozo' button." Barry joked.

"Hey, give yourself some credit. You just broke your back." Cisco said and lightly slapped him on the shoulder.

Iris said, "Yeah. A normal person would have been paralyzed the rest of his life."

"How long until I'm fully healed?" Barry asked.

"The initial MRI I took a week ago showed a complete dislocation of the T-12 to L-1 innerspace of the thoracolumbar junction." Caitlin said as she showed the scan image on one of the wall monitors. "But this, is the MRI I took this morning. It's remarkable, but you're almost completely healed."

"I'm still having trouble breathing." Barry said.

"That's totally normal with a spinal injury. It should clear up soon."

Barry rolled several inches forwards in the chair and looked longingly at his Flash suit.

"We're gonna get you back in that suit, Bar. Real quick. Trust me." Joe said.

"What are we gonna do about Zoom?" Barry asked.

"No sign of him since Cisco nailed him with that tranq dart."

"I haven't vibed since then." Cisco said.

"Maybe Zoom's not coming back." Iris suggested.

Harry then entered the room. "I highly doubt that. Which is why I'm gonna go do something about it."

"What do you mean 'go do something about it?'" Caitlin asked.

"I need access to your breach room and your speed cannon."

"Why is that?" Barry asked.

"Because Barry, it's time to go home."

"So you show up on our Earth, screw everything up and now you want to go home. Sounds very familiar." Joe said.

"Again, that wasn't me." Harry said. "I have to go take care of Zoom once and for all, before anyone else gets hurt."

"How do you plan on doing that?" Barry asked.

"I'll think of something. Ramon, if you'll escort me to the speed cannon."

"No, no. You can't go through the breach." Caitlin said, walking around from behind the control station.

"Yeah, he can. Jay taught us how to send people." Cisco said.

"No, that's not what I mean. Look, if you can figure out how to stop Zoom on your Earth, you can figure out how to do it here. We need you to stay here until we can figure out how to defeat Zoom, Dr. Wells." Caitlin said.

"What I need, Dr. Snow, is to return to my home and I'm going to do that, with or without your assistance." Harry then left the room.

"What are you doing?" Cisco asked Caitlin. "If Harry wants to go... bye!"

"Like it or not Cisco, we need his help."

Joe then said, "I'm not sure another plan from Wells is what we need."

"Yeah, I mean the last bright idea he had nearly got Barry killed." Iris said.

"I know, but, Jay's gone and Dr. Wells knows Zoom better than anyone, so, until Barry's back on his feet again, we need to keep Wells around in case Zoom returns."

"Caitlin, if he doesn't want to be here, we're better off without him. Let him go." Barry said.

"I can't do that. Not yet." Caitlin then walked out as well.

A beeping alarm from the main computer suddenly started to beep.

"Oh snap! Meta-human attack!" Cisco ran over to the control station and looked at the screen. "Oh, no, my bad. That is just an alert for me."

"Hey, speaking of alerts, do we have anything on our mysterious new meta-humans who bumped into me and Zoom that night?" Barry asked.

"Oh, actually, yeah. It took a little doing to get 'em without anyone noticing, but I hacked ATM and other security cameras from the area we're reasonably sure those other two had their fight and I got some footage." Cisco said.

He typed a command into the computer and a video feed appeared on the largest wall monitor. The footage was in color, but low quality and the remaining team members could hardly make out what they were seeing. All they could really see was some kind of back and forth fight, a mane of white hair and several bolts of energy.

"That's the end of the video. Got a few still images from other cameras." Cisco said.

The monitor changed to a picture of two human sized shapes dashing across the street, one of something glittering in midair and finally on what looked like a man holding something.

"Wait! Cisco stop there." Iris said.

She stared hard at the picture, trying to make sense of it.

"There's something... can you enhance this?"

Cisco answered, "Sure. Just one second."

He spent a few seconds inputting a long command and the resolution of the photo improved to show a young man with combination dark brown and spiky blonde hair holding up a sword with one hand.

"Jack?!" Iris shouted in surprise.

"You know this guy, baby?" Joe asked.

"That's Jack Harper. Barry, we used to go to school with him. Cisco and I ran into him at Jitters on the day you went against Zoom."

"So, he's our meta with the weird powers who's been all over the city?" Barry asked.

"What is that thing on his arm?" Joe asked, looking at the picture.

"That's a duel-disk." Cisco explained. "It's used, or, if it was mass marketed, it would be used for having Yu-Gi-Oh duels any and everywhere. Hold on, I actually have something about him bookmarked. Let me pull it up."

The monitor screen changed again to an article from a website. There was a picture in it of Jack holding a medium sized trophy in one hand and his free arm around his girlfriend's shoulder.

Barry read the article out loud. "'Jack Harper, the real life King of Games. Dueling champion, Jack Harper, simultaneously defended his title and set a new record by winning the world championships for the eighth consecutive year in a row. When asked to explain his nearly supernatural Yu-Gi-Oh skills, Harper simply responded, 'The heart of the cards are real. Believe me, I know.'"

"All that hype over a card game?" Joe asked.

"Only the biggest card game in the whole world." Cisco said. "And Jack Harper has proven himself the best at it time and again."

"You know this actually makes sense. I saw him a few weeks after the particle accelerator explosion and he had some kind of nervous breakdown. I thought it had to do with his social problems, but maybe it was his powers coming in." Iris said.

"But what are his powers?" Barry asked. "Nothing we know of makes much sense."

"Oh! Don't you guys get it? He's always carrying around that duel-disk, he's the Yu-Gi-Oh champ and those hat things that transported everyone away, those were the Magical Hats, like the card! Somehow, Jack Harper has the power to bring Yu-Gi-Oh cards to life!" Cisco explained. "Like a... Deck Master. Oh yeah! Got it one, baby! Deck Master!"

"Could that explain the length of stuff he's seemingly able to do?" Joe asked.

"There are millions of different types of cards. Jack told me that himself. I think it could." Iris said.

"Do you think we could trust him?" Barry asked.

"He's always seemed nice enough to me, if not a little off. I think we probably could."

"Alright, we could use all the help we can get right now. Cisco, Iris, he knows you two. Why don't you bring him in to talk?"

"I'll see if I can get you an address for where he lives." Joe said.

"Well, I can't really do that right now." Cisco said. "I kinda have a date in an hour."

"Oh, with who?" Iris asked.

"With the lovely Kendra Saunders, the barista at Jitters. She makes a mean latte. I think we're gonna go out for dinner and then a movie... and then maybe some breakfast."

Barry asked, "What? Breakfast? Why breakfast?"

Cisco paused, unsure of what to say. "You know... you go home-"

"Cisco, he messing with you." Joe said, interrupting.

"Oh ho!" Cisco laughed. "Yeah, okay, so we'll work on Deck Master tomorrow."

Barry gave him a "go" wave with his hand and Cisco walked out.

OOO

At the same time in his penthouse condo, Jack and Mana were having a kind of war meeting of their own to discuss the issue of Bakura. In addition to Mana, Jack had summoned out some of his most trusted monster friends including Dark Magician, Kuriboh and Flame Swordsman.

"It's been six days since Jack's fight with Bakura and we need to go over what we know." Mahad, the Dark Magician said. "Are we sure he'll even be coming back?"

"If this is indeed the same Bakura from the show, then he'll be back. He doesn't give up so easily." Jack said.

"Hoo." Kuriboh sounded.

"Jack is fine now, Kuriboh. It took a few treatments of my magic to heal him completely, but his injuries are now gone completely." Mana said.

Jack shot her a small smile then. Mana did not reciprocate it and Jack's face fell and saddened and he moved on.

"Uh, Flame Swordsman, did you talk to our other friends on your side? Anyone know anything that might help us?"

"I've spoken to most of the warrior and fairy class monsters. I'm afraid not much is known about this Bakura. All we can confirm is that he is in fact a vary ancient evil spirit of some sort and immensely powerful."

"That we already know." Jack said.

"Hoo." Kuriboh said.

"Good point, Kuriboh. Mana, Mahad, you two were alive at the same time as Bakura. Can you tell us anything?"

Dark Magician said, "I'm afraid not. Our memories from our previous life are scattered and incomplete."

"When Bakura comes for Jack's Millennium Ring again, we need to have some kind of plan for dealing with him." Mana said.

"Hoo."

"Yes, Kuriboh, a preemptive strike would be a good plan." Dark Magician said. "Can we find him within the city to set it up?"

Jack said, "Well, if he were any ordinary criminal I'd say it be best to start looking at abandoned, condemned, rundown buildings or cheap motels to find him in, but Bakura is no ordinary criminal and I don't think he'd allow himself to stay in a place like that anyway. Not when he could simply send some random person's mind to the shadow realm and take their house keys."

"So, he could be anywhere." Mana said.

"I've got an idea or two on how we might be able to find him." Jack said.

"Once we have Bakura's location, we should jump him, us warriors, spellcasters and two more trusted monsters. Take him by surprise and we will take him completely." Flame Swordsman said.

"Hoo!" Kuriboh shouted angrily.

"I'm sorry, but you know you're not strong enough to aid in battle without support cards from Jack." Mana responded to the tiny monster.

"You know I'll call you when I need you, pal." Jack said to him.

"Whatever we do, we'd best do it quickly." Dark Magician said. "The one thing we can be sure of is that Bakura will not wait long before he strikes again."

"Yes, call us at once if you need us." Flame Swordsman said.

"I will. Thanks guys." Jack said.

He removed the cards of the three monsters other than Mana from the duel-disk and they disappeared.

"So, what is this idea you have for tracking him down?" Mana asked.

"You'll see, but, the last few days have been all about thinking about Bakura. I want to pay some attention to you. Pick up where we left off on our anniversary."

Jack slid his hands around her waist and pulled her into a tight embrace.

"I thought we could go out for a long dinner, take a walk, hopefully without any combat involved, come back here and see what might happen."

Mana used her hands to remove Jack's from her waist and took a step back from him.

"I think we need to focus on finding and stopping Bakura for the moment."

Her tone was curt and to the point and she began to walk away from Jack.

"Mana, are you mad at me? You haven't spoken to me much since that night, you've been going out late on your own and you barely look me in the eye. Have I done something?"

Mana stopped and looked back at Jack.

"Why should I be mad?" She asked. "What could I possibly have to be mad about? What could you have possibly done?"

She then walked away, going into the bedroom and slamming the door behind her. Jack was left feeling desolately grim by the situation. He loved Mana with everything in his being and the last two years with her had been pure ecstasy for him. Before now, they had had a perfect relationship where they communicated, supported each other, continuously desired each other and never wanted to and almost never were apart from each other. Although Jack didn't like the idea, it wasn't her being angry with him that really upset him. It was her cold, distant demeanor towards him. Her ignoring him was a thousand times worse then when he had been alone. Jack wasn't sure what he'd done or how to rectify it, but he knew he had to. Not only for the sake of his relationship, but because he hated to see Mana so unhappy and he also knew he'd never be able to defeat Bakura without her.

OOO

At that moment, Bakura was himself planning his next move. He had, as Jack had speculated, found a poor, unsuspecting woman with a nice apartment, banished her mind to the shadow realm and taken her keys. He had been there for the past six days, having made sure to bring her along to ensure that no doctors or police could find her mindless body and think to check her apartment for a cause.

Bakura was at that moment using her computer to research the same subject he had been versing himself in for the past five days: meta-humans. The idea of people with superhuman abilities without the need for a Millennium Item fascinated him. There was a vast cornucopia of powers throughout this world for him to pick and steal, all with one little duel.

Bakura was right then reading a comprehensive history on the renowned Dr. Harrison Wells. The article covered the death of Wells' wife, his single minded determination to realize his dream of the particle accelerator and the explosion of the accelerator which was of course the birth of the meta-human. Bakura stared hard at the picture of S.T.A.R Labs on the screen.

In addition to everything else, Bakura had become quite interested in Central City's resident superhero, The Flash, knowing that this man would likely aid Harper in protecting the Millennium Ring if Harper asked. He had by then read all the articles by Iris West on the so called "Scarlet Speedster." With the majority of his enemies worlds away in his original universe, Bakura knew all that was standing in his way would likely become the two of them.

"My new adversary and The Flash together could be more troublesome than the fools I used to contend with." He thought.

Bakura then came across an article by Central City Picture News titled "Who or what is Zoom?" The attached video showed the same man clad in blue leather whom Bakura had inadvertently bumped into the night of his arrival.

"Hmm. I think I see a possible partner to exploit. Now, to find him."

He looked at the picture of S.T.A.R Labs again, his evil smile spreading across his face.

"And I think I know where to go for a clue."

OOO

Across town in a bar, Harry Wells was writing calculations out on a map, trying to discover a way home.

"You should stay away from the cheese curds, they're addicting." Caitlin said at his side.

"I'm going to take a wild stab and guess that you're here without the consent of the rest of your fabulous team."

She sat down on the stool beside him. "It's been difficult having you here, for all of us."

"You don't have to worry about that anymore, cause I'm leaving." Harry said.

"We can help you save your daughter." Caitlin responded, causing Harry to look up at her. "I know that's why you want to go home."

"Look, I made a big mistake coming here. My plan was to get the Flash's help and use that help to stop Zoom and that plan failed. I don't have another plan, except, to go back home and face Zoom myself."

"So, let's say you go back to your Earth and you fight Zoom. He will kill you, and then how does that help your daughter?"

Words began to form in Harry's eyes and in his throat but never made it out of his mouth. He had no answer to that.

"The best way to save Jessie is for you to stay here and work with us as a team." Caitlin went on.

"No." Harry said after a moment. "Now, please, leave me alone while I discover which one of these breaches is going to get me home."

"You know, you're lucky Cisco and Professor Stein never figured out how to close all the breaches. Then, you'd be stuck here." Caitlin said as she stood up and began to walk away.

"Wait."

She looked back and their eyes met.

"We close the breaches, all of them, except one so Zoom only has one way to get to this world."

Harry circled a point on his map.

"The breach at S.T.A.R Labs." Caitlin said.

"Exactly. And then we set a trap."

OOO

In a different part of the city, Jack and Mana were back at the last place Jack had seen Bakura, aiming to put Jack's plan for tracking him down into motion.

"So, what is your idea exactly?" Mana asked, her tone interested but none too pleased to be there.

"Well, it's this."

Jack pulled his entire deck from the deck slot and leafed through it for the specific card he wanted.

"I summon Silver Fang."

The green haired wolf monster appeared in front of them. Unlike the extremely hostile Fenrir who had almost killed him two years earlier, he and Mana had tamed and trained Silver Fang some time ago.

"I figure he could pick up Bakura's scent and then lead us right to him."

"That's not a bad idea." Mana said.

"Okay, Silver Fang, we need you to find the evil man's scent and then sniff him out. Can you do that?"

The huge canine snorted an affirmative tone and started sniffing at the sidewalk for the target smell. The three of them walked at a moderately fast pace for twenty minutes before Jack found something he thought he could say to Mana.

"So, uh, I was thinking that after we stop Bakura, maybe we could get away for a little while. Go to an island or something. Leave the duel-disk plugged in at home." Jack said, trying to get her to talk to him.

"Maybe."

Silver Fang then growled positively at them and set off on a brisk trot down the street.

"You know, once we find him, I think we can take Bakura down just the two of us. Hell, you get one good shot at him with your staff and that's that."

Jack smiled feebly at his comment.

"I'm sure." She said without looking at him.

Jack then turned his head to look at her as they walked.

"Mana, please, look, I don't know what-"

The both of them stopped and looked forward when they heard Silver Fang growl menacingly. Looking ahead, they saw a man in a white lab coat carrying some kind of large, liquid container. He suddenly stopped in the middle of the building's parking lot and put the container down.

"What happened?" The man asked himself.

Just then, a nine-foot tall gorilla walking on just its hind legs jumped down behind the man and sent its huge paw into a backhanded slap, sending the man flying up into an overhead clearance gate rail and then crashing back to the ground, dead. Jack and Mana were both staring up at the animal, dumbfounded.

"Mana, you saw that, right?"

"Uh huh."

The gorilla stepped forward and picked up the liquid container with one huge hand.

"Foolish humans, leave Grodd's sight!" A voice said in both of their minds.

"You heard that, right?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, I heard it."

Grodd began to stalk towards them, shaking them out of their stupor. Silver Fang had slunk down into an attacking position.

"Move or die, humans!" Grodd projected into their minds.

Shifting into self-defense mode, Mana summoned her magic staff and Jack rose his duel-disk up to playing position.

"Back off, Kong!" Mana shouted.

"We may not know exactly what's going on here, but we're not gonna let you get away with whatever this is."

Grodd then directed his powers intensely at the three of them.

"Freeze!"

Jack, Mana, and Silver Fang's bodies all suddenly became motionless.

"Turn on each other." Grodd directed them.

Just as their bodies started to turn towards each other, the Millennium Ring began to glow and they were all three released from Grodd's mind control. Upon seeing this development, Grodd roared in anger and tried to slam his free hand down to crush them. Jack gave a violent shove against Mana's side, causing both of them to topple off their feet and safely away from the simian fist.

Jack rolled away from the ape and quickly changed out the deck in his duel-deck for another one from the harness under his jacket. He quickly drew the top three cards and looked at them for something to use.

"I activate 'Danger! Feats of Strength!'"

All of Jack's muscles then bulged, hardened and thickened, his card giving him a temporary supply of super-strength. Grodd swung his free hand at Jack again, but Jack stuck his own hands outward, catching and stopping the large hand dead. Silver Fang jumped up onto Grodd's back and sunk his fangs into the meat of the shoulder, drawing blood and causing Grodd to howl in pain. Grodd ripped the monster wolf from his shoulder and threw him to the ground and then swung his fist at a swift, heavy, sideways angle for Jack. Having given no thought at all to Mana, Grodd was unprepared when she used her magic to lift him three feet off of the ground. Jack then used all of his newly enhanced strength in a massive punch to the gorilla's stomach.

Grodd flew back thirty feet, hit the ground hard and quickly got back up to his feet.

"Grodd has no time to deal with you!"

He then turned and ran on all fours, lumbering with surprisingly swift speed, disappearing from sight before Jack and Mana could pursue. Relaxing from the fight, Jack removed his spell card and his muscles reverted to their normal size. He, Silver Fang and Mana all converged near the entrance to the parking lot.

"That was weird, even for us." Mana said.

"After this Bakura thing is over, I seriously think we should consider moving." Jack said. Bending down, he rubbed Silver Fang down the head and back. "How you doing, boy? You alright?"

Silver Fang whimpered and gave a soft bark.

"Ah, that's not good. I'll send you home so you can rest up."

Jack pulled the monster card from his disk and the wolf was spirited back to his own world.

"Pulling cards. That seems to be your answer for everything, doesn't it?" Mana asked and then looked away from him.

"Mana, I..."

She started to walk away before he could say anything.

OOO

Having called off his date at the last moment due to a strange vibe, Cisco was returning to S.T.A.R Labs to try to distinguish once and for all whether or not Kendra could really be a meta-human. As the young scientist rounded the corner into the primary control room, Cisco stopped, seeing something odd. There was a young man standing at the main station, holding a necklace out towards the computer screen, a golden light emanating from it. It was Bakura.

"Uh, who are you?" Cisco asked.

"That is none of your concern at this time."

"How did you get in here?"

"I walked through the front door." Bakura said, looking at Cisco with a snide sneer on his face.

"Ughll! How many times do I have to fix that stinking system?!" Cisco groaned. "Look, I don't know what you're after in our computer, but I won't-"

He had begun to walk towards the other man but had stopped when he felt the floor slightly shift and distort beneath his feet. Looking down, what Cisco saw perplexed and terrified him. Out of nowhere, he found himself standing in the middle of a gaping mouth with two rows of elephant tusk sized, razor sharp fangs surrounding him on either side.

"I'd be careful if I were you." Bakura said. "My Fearful Earthbound trap is quite hungry. One more step and its dinner will be served."

"What do you want?"

Bakura then turned away from the computer, his Millennium Ring stopped glowing and he let it fall back into place. He looked Cisco squarely in the eyes.

"You'll find out... in due time."

Cisco looked at him harder now, studying his face, some of his fear replaced by curiosity.

"Do I know you?"

"Possibly... possibly not... but you will."

Bakura walked past Cisco and out into the hall. Due to Bakura's magical instructions, the trap Cisco was caught in did not vanish and allow him to relax until Bakura was out of the building and a full two blocks away. Free to, Cisco collapsed to the floor and waited for the adrenaline to subside.

OOO

The next morning, Joe approached the scene of Grodd's attack, walking to his partner, Detective Patty Spivot. He saw she was placing something inside an evidence bag.

"Patty! What'd you find?"

"There's these weird looking hairs all over the street. Found a few human looking hairs and an entirely different set of weird hairs among them. Gonna run 'em all against the database and see what I can find. Uh, here, our victim."

She lead him a few feet to his rear to the tarp covered body.

"His name's Dr. Jeffery Shore. He's a biochemistry engineer here at Vaughan Pharmaceuticals. This is the second dead lab tech in as many weeks."

"That ain't a coincidence." Joe said.

"Yeah, and like the other tech, he'd just stolen a serum from their storage cooler."

"Really? What kind of serum?"

"It's called 'cortexin,' it's used to treat encephalopathy, a blood disease in the brain. Serum's missing, but his colleagues found him here a few minutes later, dead." Patty said.

"He didn't get far." Joe observed.

"He died of blunt force trauma to the head." Patty said as she pulled back the plastic sheet to display the injury.

"And apparently a lot of it."

"Yeah, check this out." She pointed to the blood stain on the clearance sign above the parking lot entrance.

"Is that his blood?"

"Point of impact."

"Okay, can you run through what you told me to her and see if you can get anything else and if the cases are linked?" Joe asked, indicating towards a CSI.

"Sure thing."

Patty told the CSI woman she'd be with her in a second and went back to Joe, who was close to leaving the scene.

"Uh, Detective, how's Barry feeling?"

"I'm heading to see him right now. He asked me to bring him some of my homemade chicken noodle soup. He hates that canned stuff."

Joe then walked away. Patty's face fell, knowing Barry had lied to her when they talked on the phone the previous day when he'd told her he'd preferred the canned soup.

OOO

At S.T.A.R labs, Barry was on a special treadmill, built to accelerate as he did and measure his speedster velocities. He was then doing a gentle walk of one mile-per-hour.

"Faster, Barry!" Joe prodded over the intercom mic.

He and Iris were watching Barry from a just outer, monitor room. Barry picked up his pace to a light running speed of seven.

"There you go."

Barry began to run just a little faster.

"Push yourself!" Joe yelled.

Barry ran harder, but just before his powers would have propelled him to superhuman speeds, a vision of Zoom punching him and breaking his spine flashed through his mind, he lost his feet, fell onto the treadmill and was shot off by the belt.

"Barry!" Iris shouted as she and her father quickly ran into the adjoining room. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, yeah, you know, I'm not great right now."

Barry stepped back up onto the treadmill and bent over, catching his breath.

"What happened?" Joe asked.

"Nothing. I'm good, alright? Just forget it."

"Barry, talk to us. We can help you." Iris said.

"No, you can't help me, not this time. I'm sorry. You wouldn't understand. What you can do is what I asked you to do and go talk to Jack Harper. Try to bring him onto the team, just in case." Barry said as he sat down.

Iris looked at Barry for a moment, taking in his tone and demeanor.

"Yeah, okay."

"Oh, uh, here baby." Joe said, digging into his pocket and coming out with a folded scrap of note paper. "That's Harper's address. I got it this morning."

"Thanks. I'll just go and take care of this."

She then turned and left the room. Joe sat down on the floor in front of Barry.

"What up, Bar?"

Barry shook his head as he said, "Zoom destroyed me. He showed everyone in Central City what he could do and that I'm powerless to stop him. They gave me the key to the city, Joe. I'm supposed to be their hero. I'm supposed to be the guy who can protect them from something as evil as that and I failed in front of all of them."

Barry stood up and Joe rose to stay eye level with him.

"When they think of The Flash, all they see now is someone not strong enough to protect them."

Barry then slowly and painfully walked out, denying Joe's offer for help.

OOO

Twenty city blocks to the east, Jack was in his condo, watching Mana through a crack in the bedroom door. She was sitting by herself on the couch, a displeased look on her face, filing her nails.

"Come on, Jack. You've been with her for two years. Just get her back into our regular routine and everything will be fine." He thought.

Summoning his courage, Jack opened the door and went out. Putting on his most easygoing smile, Jack sat down next to her and gave her a quick peck on the cheek, the same as he'd done a thousand times before. Unlike the thousand times before, though, Mana tilted her head away before Jack's lips could make contact. Trying to not show how that hurt him, Jack pressed on.

"So, why don't we watch the next couple episodes of GX? We've still got a lot to go before we're through all of the series."

"I don't think so."

"Uh... so... what would you like to do?" He asked her.

"Have some alone time."

That was it. That was the sting that no matter how painful the following words might be, Jack had to press.

"Mana, talk to me. I don't know what I've done to make you so angry with me and I can't stand for us to be this way. You're my girlfriend and my best friend in the world, I care about you too much for whatever this is to be hanging between us."

"If you really cared about me, you never would have pulled my card."

"What?"

Mana then stopped filing her nails and finally looked him squarely in the eyes.

"Jack, when Bakura attacked us, you sent me back to the Dominion of the Beasts. You could have easily died in that fight and if you had then I wouldn't have even known, but that's not even the point! It was my choice whether to fight Bakura beside you or not and you took that choice away from me! You treated me like... like I was nothing more than a card to you. And that's why I'm mad at you!"

"But... but... Mana, I was just trying to protect you. If something had happened to you..." Jack trailed off, unable to complete the thought.

"Jack, we're a couple. You're supposed to be my partner and lover, not my bodyguard."

"But Mana-"

"Jack!" She interrupted, raising her voice. "I'm sorry, but I'm still very upset by this. I just, I can't look at you right now."

Jack was then utterly and absolutely crushed. Without a word, he rose to his feet and walked out of the condo and then out of the building entirely. He didn't know where he was going, if even anywhere, but he had to go somewhere to think, to figure things out.

As he was walking, something in the back of Jack's jacket collar itched him. Reaching up and removing the item, Jack saw that it was a long, coarse hair which had somehow become lodged there. Bringing it closer to his face, Jack smelled the same odor as the telepathic gorilla he and Mana had faced the previous night. Out of nowhere, as he looked at the hair, Jack was suddenly overcome with a massive, uncontrollable rage.

"It's all these freaky, crazy villains!" He thought. "It's their fault! If it weren't for Bakura and those like him, Mana and I would still be as happy as we've always been! I have to stop them!"

Jack then quickly extracted his deck and leafed to the card he wanted. Not caring who might see his powers, Jack played the card.

"Silver Fang!"

The large wolf appeared for the second time in as many days. Jack knelt down in front of him and held up the hair for the dog to sniff.

"Silver Fang, find me that damn dirty ape!"

Silver Fang smelled the hair, sniffed the air for a minute or so, then took off down the street. Jack followed closely behind the canine monster.

OOO

Down in the breach room of S.T.A.R Labs, Caitlin and Cisco were going over some preparatory work for Harry's plan when Cisco asked something.

"Oh, hey, I know I keep asking, but have you read any reports or anything recently about a bird-man attacking anywhere?"

"There's no such thing as a bird-man, Cisco."

"Okay, like that's a stretch? In this city?" Cisco turned to go back to his own work. "Look, I know what I vibed. It was a man, with big, wide wings. It was crazy."

A vision of doctors seemingly in the middle of an operation flashed through Caitlin's mind.

"What if it was an angel?" Cisco asked.

Caitlin did not respond. Her eyes were wide and she was staring straight ahead.

"It was an angel."

Caitlin did not respond.

"Caitlin? Oh come on, like that's a crazy idea."

Caitlin turned around and immediately punched Cisco right in the mouth, a look sheer blankness carpeting her face. Cisco went down to the floor as she walked out of the room.

"What is wrong with you?!" He called after her.

OOO

"I just don't know what to do about Barry." Joe said to Iris on a higher level. "I mean, all the test results say he's fine, but it's like there's something holding him back. I keep trying to talk to him, but I can't get through."

"Maybe we should get the person who can." Iris suggested.

Joe's phone then began to buzz and vibrate in his pocket.

"We'll talk about that when I see you at home, I got to take this."

"I have to go try and recruit Jack anyway."

"Right, see ya, baby."

"See ya." Iris said.

Joe answers his phone. "Patty, what's up?"

"Turns out our dead scientist cases are linked. The other scientist stole a large quantity of a racetam drug typically used to treat patients with vertigo."

"Okay, so, we've got two stolen drugs, one for blood disorders of the brain, one for vertigo. What's the connection?"

Patty said, "Well, they're both nootropic drugs, used to enhance intelligence."

"Hey, did you get results from the hairs you found?" Joe asked.

"Yes, I did. Apparently they were all over the other crime scene too. The weird thing is, they're not all human hairs. Some are and the lab tells me some are from a canine, but the really weird hairs are from a-"

"From a gorilla." Joe interrupted.

"How did you know?"

"Patty, I gotta go." Joe hung up his phone.

OOO

In the primary control room, Barry was looking at his suit with a deep look of sorrow.

Cisco stepped in and asked, "Did Caitlin come through here?"

"No."

"She just hit me in the face and ran away."

"Yo!" Joe cried from the hall as he ran in. "Grodd!"

"What?" Cisco asked.

"Grodd's back!"

"Caitlin. That must be why she was acting like that. She was being mind controlled."

Cisco went to work on the keyboard and brought up security feeds from all over the building on the small, work station screen. On the screen, they saw Caitlin walking out the front door and Grodd following after her. The three men immediately ran to try to help their friend.

OOO

Outside, Grodd was about to make off with Caitlin when a stream of fire brushed past him, scorching his arm. Grodd howled with pain and looked back to see that his assailant was Jack Harper with Silver Fang at his side.

"Hey Dr. Zaius! We've got some unfinished business! Get him, Fang!"

Silver Fang charged forward, teeth bared. Grodd snarled loudly, but instead of fighting, he grabbed Caitlin Snow into his arms and ran, hurtling over a nearby wall before Silver Fang could reach him. Just as Jack was about to race after the gorilla himself, Joe, Cisco and Barry came bursting out the nearby doors, seeing nothing but Jack and the parking lot. The men all looked at each other, surprised and upset.

"Jack Harper?" Barry asked.

"Who are you guys?" Jack asked back, his voice angry.

Silver Fang then returned and stood by Jack's side, growling softly and ready to pounce with the slightest provocation.

"Hey, Jack, remember me? Cisco. We met last week. If you could just call off the monster dog."

Jack hesitated for a moment, then did as he was asked. "Silver Fang, heel."

The wolf then quieted his growling and sat down beside his friend.

"Thanks. Now, why don't we all go in to talk?" Cisco said.

OOO

Half an hour later and back inside the primary control room, Harry Wells had joined them and were using the computer to search for Caitlin while Jack stood there silently, Silver Fang still at his heel.

"I'm continually amazed by the similarities between our two worlds." Harry said.

"You got talking gorillas on your Earth too?" Joe asked.

"Oh yeah."

"Remind me never to go there."

Harry asked, "Ramon, why would this Grodd abduct Dr. Snow?"

"I don't know. It doesn't make any sense. She was always so nice to him."

Joe said, "He mind controlled two lab technicians to steal chemicals that enhance intelligence. He wants her for something."

Barry then said to Jack, "Hey, uh, how are you doing with this? It's not everyday you hear a gorilla talk."

"Maybe not for you." Jack said.

"Well, it looks like he left his bachelor pad in the sewers." Cisco said to Harry.

"Grodd's a big ass gorilla. He can't just waltz through downtown in the middle of the day without somebody noticing." Joe said.

"If there's been sightings, we might be able to approximate his location." Harry said.

"I can call CCPD. They can access the tip hotline, send over files of Grodd's recent attacks."

"Maybe Jack can help us with that." Barry said loudly.

The three others then all turned and looked at Jack.

"Who exactly are you?" Harry asked.

"His name's Jack Harper and we found out that he was involved with that other meta fight when we were dealing with Zoom. He was one of the two men who crashed into Zoom and Barry." Cisco said.

"How exactly? What can you do?" Harry asked Jack.

"I play Yu-Gi-Oh." Jack said.

"Yu-Gi-what?"

"Yu-Gi-Oh." Cisco said. "It's a card game. We think Jack's meta-human powers is that he somehow makes the cards work for real."

"I'm not a meta-human." Jack said.

"Huh?" Cisco suddenly asked.

"What do you mean? You couldn't have the powers you do if you weren't a meta-human." Barry said.

"The night the particle accelerator exploded, it caused this to come into existence." Jack held up his right hand so they could see his ring. "The Millennium Ring. It's a real Millennium Item and it has the same kind of shadow magic as the other items from the show. The Millennium Ring is what gives me my powers."

"There's no such thing as magic." Harry said.

"Let's just put a pin that for a minute." Joe said. "What exactly can you do?"

"If I play a Yu-Gi-Oh card on my duel-disk here, then the effect of the card activates in real life. From the spell and trap cards, it could be anything from a brick wall appearing to reversing time based on the card I play. When I play a monster card, that monster comes to life in real flesh and blood and with all its own powers at its disposal."

"So, you can make the monsters do whatever you want? Like your little dog pal there?"

"Not at all. Duel monsters are living, intelligent, sentient creatures with their own minds and personalities, even ones that look like animals, like Silver Fang here. I can't control them. I've made friends with many of them and some of them chose to help me if I call on them. They're all their own people."

"Oh!" Cisco shouted and jumped up from his chair. "'Their own people.' Your girlfriend, Mana, I knew she looked familiar. I just figured it out. You're dating the Dark Magician Girl."

"You're dating a playing card?" Harry asked.

"She's not a playing card. I just said they're intelligent beings and when I summon them they're no different from any other creature."

"Uh, I don't know that much about the game and characters, but isn't the Dark Magician Girl supposed to be only thirteen?" Barry asked.

"Actually, she's closer to five-thousand and thirteen, and she's physically the same age as me. That's enough about my personal life."

"Alright! Touchy!" Cisco said, throwing his hands up defensively. "So, you got the Millennium Ring and these powers and then I guess you decided to do your hair like that to go along with the rest of it?"

Jack then smiled a bit smugly. "Actually, the hair happened to come with the powers. It grows that way now, naturally."

"Damn! That's actually really cool!" Cisco muttered to himself under his breath.

"Okay, back to the subject!" Harry yelled. "What were you doing here when Dr. Snow was taken, anyway?"

"I was looking for Donkey Kong out there."

"Why?" Joe asked.

"Mana and I ran into him last night when he killed a man. He got away and I decided a little while ago to go after him."

"How did you find him here?" Barry asked.

"Silver Fang followed his scent here off of one of the ape's hairs."

"And you were gonna try to bring him in for what he did." Joe said, assuming, not asking.

"Something like that."

"I have a question." Harry said. "Who exactly were you fighting the night you crashed into Allen and Zoom?"

"That's kinda complicated." Jack said.

"Try us. Complicated is pretty much what we do here." Joe said.

Jack hesitated several moments, exhaled and looked at Cisco. "It was Bakura."

"Who's Bakura?" Barry asked.

"Bakura?" Cisco asked, not believing it.

Suddenly, Cisco's mind flashed back to the night before inside that very room. He relived seeing the intruder's mane of white hair, the gold necklace and the strange trap with teeth he'd become ensnared in. The evil smile and the man's face were crystal clear in his mind.

"Bakura? Really?"

Jack nodded his head.

"Who is this Bakura?" Harry asked.

"Bakura was the most dangerous and worst villain from the Yu-Gi-Oh series." Cisco answered.

"But, that's just an old cartoon. That guy couldn't possibly exist." Joe said.

"You probably said the same thing about superpowers a few years ago." Jack said.

"He has a point." Barry said. "Assuming this 'Bakura' is real, how dangerous is he really?"

"Bakura is one of the most clever, most devious, most cunning and the most evil creature to ever exist. He stops at nothing to get what he wants."

"What does he want?" Harry asked.

"Originally, it was all seven Millennium Items to gain the power to destroy the world." Cisco said.

"But if he's come all the way here from wherever, it has to be for something more than just my one item, which isn't even a part of the original seven." Jack said.

"And whatever it is, he came here last looking for information on it." Cisco said.

"What?" Barry asked.

"When?" Jack asked.

"Last night. I came in and he was using his Millennium Item to access the computer. I don't know what he saw or took. The directory and key stroke checker were all screwed up after he left, it took me hours to fix them."

"Whatever it was, it'll be something to aid him in his long term plan." Jack said.

"In that case, we should put him on the back burner and get back to Grodd and Dr. Snow." Harry said.

"Yeah, and I think we have a decent plan on that." Barry said. "Joe will get us the information to approximate Grodd's location, then Jack and Silver Fang will track him down the rest of the way and incapacitate him."

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

"What?" Barry asked.

"What?" Cisco asked.

"What?" Joe asked.

"Look, The Flash in a wheelchair or not, I'm not part of your little team and I don't have any interest in being your replacement hero." Jack then turned and walked out, Silver Fang keeping in step with him.

"I'll, uh, I'll try to talk to him." Cisco said and followed Jack straight out.

In the outer hall, Cisco caught Jack just as the elevator doors opened.

"Hey! What's going on? I thought you were like us."

"What gave you that idea?" Jack asked.

"Well... I mean, you came here to stop Grodd, we have evidence that you've been stopping random bad guys here and there for a while. Why wouldn't you help us?"

"Don't act like you know me, alright? You don't know me. All those other guys Mana and I stopped we just happened to run into. I've never gone looking for a fight before today. I'm no hero."

Jack and Silver Fang then stepped into the elevator.

"All I want is to stop Bakura so that my life can get back to how it was before he showed up."

The doors closed and Jack was lost from Cisco's vision. Cisco turned and walked back into the control room. Barry, Joe and Harry all looked at him, asking the obvious question. Cisco shook his head in answer. Barry then slowly shook his head back and forth, his eyes distant.

"Barry?" Joe asked.

Barry did not respond.

"Barry!"

Barry looked up. "Yeah?"

"You can't blame yourself for this. There's nothing you could have done."

"I still don't have my speed and without Jack, how are we supposed to save Caitlin from Grodd?"

"You may not have your legs just yet, but you still got your brain. Use it, help us figure that out."

Joe started to walk away, but then stopped and added an afterthought. "You know, I remember that kid now from your school. Saw him at parent events a couple times. He had it rough. Didn't seem like even his own parents were all that interested in him. After all that, can't blame him for not caring much about people."

OOO

Several hours later, in a dilapidated old clocktower, Caitlin found herself awaking on a dirty painter's tarp. Glancing around the darkened room, she saw mathematical formulas written on the walls in chalk and the stolen chemical containers on the floor beneath them.

"Caitlin." Grodd said softly in her mind.

"Grodd? You remember me?" She said as she stood up.

Grodd swung down from the rafters above, landing in front of Caitlin with a medium thud.

"Caitlin always kind."

"Why did you bring me here?"

"Need help."

The two began to slowly walk circularly around the room, never taking their eyes away from the other's.

"I don't understand." Caitlin said.

"How did I become Grodd?"

"Oh, um... that's a long story Grodd. The dark matter, from the particle accelerator explosion, that's how this happened."

Grodd stepped closer to her. "Repeat."

"Repeat?"

Grodd grunted loudly and angrily. "Need to repeat Grodd!"

"You want me to make more like you? I don't know how to do that."

"Learn!" Ordered Grodd.

OOO

In their apartment, Mana was trying to watch an episode of the GX series. After having to go back the same five minutes three times, she turned the TV off. Her mind just wasn't on the show and besides, it was one of her and Jack's special things to do together.

Mana looked to her side and saw the framed photo of her and Jack on the end table. She remembered everything about that day, it had been a good day. It had been a date when she and Jack had been together about eight months. It hadn't been an anniversary, it'd been a surprise by Jack. He'd rented a motorcycle and taken her for a ride into the country. With the wind in her hair, the sun on her face and her arms locked firmly around Jack's stomach, that had been one of the happiest moments of her very long life.

From there, it had gotten better as Jack drove them far from the city to a secluded lake in the middle of the forest. They'd eaten a lunch of sandwiches Jack had made himself, swum nude together in the lake and spent hours making love to each other on the shore. Jack had taken the picture with his smartphone at sunset, after they'd redressed. Mana and Jack had stayed for hours more, well into the night, gazing at the stars.

A small tear then ran down Mana's face. As much as she was angry with Jack for what he'd done, she loved him and missed him greatly. She wished she wasn't so angry with Jack, but she couldn't just let it go. When she remembered how he'd pulled her card, effectively removing her existence from his world after hearing her say she intended to fight beside him, it made her furious and sad at the same time. In the back of her mind, Mana thought it might mean that Jack possibly didn't appreciate her. She thought it might even mean he didn't love her as much as she thought he did.

Her phone ringing brought Mana out of her thoughts. She pulled the smartphone out her purse and answered it.

"Hello?"

She listened to the person on the other end talk for a minute.

"Alright, I guess I can come in. I'll be there in a little bit."

Mana stood up from the couch, put on her jacket from the coat rack and left.

OOO

Inside S.T.A.R Labs, Barry was on the treadmill again. He was running, giving it everything he could. A tiny amount of speedster lightning was sparking around his body, but he was still failing to access his powers. After having tried to get back to his full speed for nearly ten minutes, Barry hit the "abort" key on the control screen and the treadmill stopped dead. He stood on the machine, bent over, catching his breath.

"Keep that chin down, slugger." A voice said.

Barry looked to his right and saw his father, Henry Allen, standing in the doorway.

"Dad."

Barry stepped over quickly and wrapped his arms around his father in a hug filled with emotion. Over his father's shoulder, Barry saw Iris standing several feet back and the two nodded to each other and Iris walked back into the primary control room.

"That was a hell of an idea you had, bringing Henry here." Joe told her.

"Well, he may not have his mother, but he's got two amazing fathers. Seemed like he needed both."

Joe chuckled and put one arm over his daughter's shoulder in a hug.

OOO

In Cisco's lab, he and Harry were working on finding Grodd.

"How did Grodd become sentient?" Harry asked.

"Uh, a few years ago, S.T.A.R Labs had this contract with the military to research and awaken latent mind reading capabilities for interrogation purposes."

"I'm guessing Grodd was one of the test subjects."

"Right. But then, Dr. Wells shut down the program and we all thought it was to save Grodd from all the crazy mind control experiments, but it was really so Dr. Wells could use the accelerator explosion to create a fifteen-hundred-pound mind controlling gorilla that he could manipulate." Cisco said as he walked onto the elevated mezzanine where Harry was. Looking at Harry's computer screen, Cisco asked, "What kind of algorithm is that?"

"It's an algorithm meant to extrapolate Grodd's location from places we know he's already been."

The computer screen changed, showing a map of the city with several location points highlighted in a triangle pattern.

"There we have it." Cisco said.

OOO

Back in the control room, Barry and his father were looking at Caitlin's scans of Barry's injury.

"No spinal cord adema, I don't see any sub-acute hemorrhaging, bone fused beautifully. You're all good, Barry. I'd give you some physical therapy, but you don't need it." Henry Allen said, drawing on his knowledge as a former medical doctor.

"I'm really glad you're here, Dad."

"Me too."

"You know, I tried to call but you can't get a signal in Granite Peak National Park."

"Granite Peak? You went camping by yourself?" Barry asked.

"Yeah, I got a tent, I went fishing every day. I have had my fill of large mouth bass for a while."

Barry laughed at that.

"Sometimes you just have to slow down to get back to where you want to be." Henry said.

Before Barry could respond, Cisco stepped into the room.

"Hey guys, I think we found them."

Barry and Henry both moved over quickly to see what he had.

Cisco explained, "Grodd has to be in one of these three bell-towers. The only reason we couldn't find him on any cameras underneath the city before is because he upgraded from a bachelor pad to a penthouse like a baller."

"Okay, so we know where he is, we still don't know how to get her." Barry said.

"We got a plan for you."

"What's the plan?"

"We use me." Harry said from behind the men.

They turned and looked back, seeing the Reverse-Flash. Barry instantly sped over, not at full speed but fast enough to push Harry back into the wall hard and put his arm across the other man's throat.

"That's Harry! That's the other Wells!" Cisco said and ran over. He got himself partially between the two and tried to pry Barry off. "Let him go. Let him go."

Barry released his grip and stepped back as Harry pushed the cowl back and off of his face.

"Sorry." Barry said.

"We found another suit in the time vault." Cisco said.

"I thought he was dead." Henry said.

Barry said, "He is. Dad, this is Harrison Wells from Earth-2."

"Earth-2?"

"I'll explain later."

"If we can get Harry to convince Grodd that he is Wells, that he's his father, maybe we can convince him to let Caitlin go." Cisco elaborated the plan.

Barry slowly nodded his head. "If anything goes wrong I won't be able to help you."

"That's a change I'm willing to take." Harry replied.

OOO

Jack opened the door to his penthouse and stepped inside. He'd spent the last couple hours just walking around, thinking.

"Mana?" He called out.

There was no reply. Jack walked through the whole apartment and did not find her. Ending his search in the kitchen, Jack saw a note she'd written him attached to the refrigerator with a magnet.

The note read, "Jack, Dr. Lawrence called me in to the museum to help with some new Egyptian artifacts. I'm not sure when I'll be home. Don't wait up for me. Mana."

Jack winced as the undertones of the note hit him. He'd never had any objections to Mana taking that part-time job at the Central City museum to translate hieroglyphics, in fact, he was glad for her that she found something she enjoyed doing. What was bothering him was the part where she told him not to wait up for him. The other times she'd been asked to go in late to help with new artifact arrivals, she'd always been glad and he knew even knew, hoping he would wait up for her to get home. Before their current troubles started, neither of them had gone to sleep in over a year without the other one there. Jack no longer could sleep unless he had Mana tightly pressed against him in his arms.

The pain nearly overwhelmed him and he knew the only way he could stifle it was to make himself angry. He did so by thinking about Bakura and the weird, meta-ape Grodd. His anger rose, the pain subsided a bit and Jack then set about tending to his empty stomach. Nowhere in the mood to fix himself a meal, he opened the fridge and took out a couple of power bars and a coke. Taking the food into the living room, Jack sat himself down onto the couch, turned on the TV and took off his duel-disk. Even though he and Mana were onto the GX series, Jack turned it back to his perennial favorite of classic Yu-Gi-Oh. He set it to the season three episode "Clash in the Colosseum Part 1." He wanted the best of the Pharaoh Atem and the game he loved to lift his spirits a bit.

Jack sat there and watched through all six episodes, letting the strategies and banter of Kaiba and Atem make him feel like himself again. At the end of the sixth episode, once Kaiba was defeated, the Pharaoh approached him to congratulate him on the duel.

"Destiny may have chose me to be the victor today, but you fought well."

"I don't need the pep talk, Yugi!" Kaiba shouted.

"It's quite obvious to me that you haven't learned anything from our duel today. I'd say that's a shame. You can never truly be a success until you're able to conquer the monsters within your heart, Kaiba."

"Alright. I've heard enough out of you."

"Deny the truth and it will destroy you. You were doomed from the start; fueled by your anger, your hatred, your jealousy, your rage and lastly, the denial of your past. I, on the other hand was fueled by faith; faith in destiny and faith in my friends. That's how I won!"

Jack suddenly paused the show and turned off the TV. The Pharaoh's speech triggered something within Jack. He was flashing back to earlier in the day when he'd gone after Grodd. He remembered how all he wanted to do was tear the big ape and every other villain apart for interrupting his and Mana's life. It was just like Kaiba.

That thought severely frightened Jack. He'd always found Kaiba's dry, snide remarks and bad attitude funny and entertaining but he'd never once wanted to emulate Seto Kaiba. The people he'd always wanted to most be like were Yugi, Atem and Joey. They were brave and honest and always ready to do what was right. They were heroes.

Jack then remembered all the times before when he and Mana had happened to stop some criminal they'd seen doing something. Whenever they had incapacitated the person, it had always given Jack a tremendous satisfaction within himself. Not from the rush of danger or from feeling like a hero, but because he felt he'd done the right thing, just like Yugi and his gang would have done.

Realizing this, he remembered what he'd said to Cisco Ramon hours earlier, how he'd been acting. He hadn't done the right thing in the least. He'd been acting like Kaiba, thinking only of himself and his own pain and problems.

Suddenly realizing what he needed to do, Jack jumped up off the couch, reattached his duel-disk to his left arm and ran out of the apartment. He was going to do what he should have been doing all along and set things right.

OOO

Across town, Harry and Cisco were walking away from the second bell-tower on their list.

"Looks like we're 0 for two in the bell-towers, huh?" Cisco said.

"I prefer to think of it more as now we know exactly where they are."

"Okay, let's do this again. Give me your best Wells."

"I'm not doing the Wells again, Ramon."

"Look, I just made this anti-mind-control earbuds and if they fail, you're toast, so you're gonna need to nail it if you want to live."

Harry rubbed his lips in a moment of hesitation, then proceeded.

"Ramon-"

"Cisco." Cisco corrected.

"Cisco... in many ways, you've shown me what it's like to have a son."

Cisco rubbed his eye in muted frustration. "Okay, let's try it again. This time, up the creep factor, like a lot more and make it a little more sincere, like you really love me, but you're gonna have to kill me anyway."

"Cisco... in many ways, you've shown me what it's like to have a son." Harry said in a perfect imitation of the Eobard Thawne Wells.

Cisco paused a beat, momentarily frightened by the accurateness of the performance.

"Yep, that's the one. Here you go." Cisco gave him a file folder.

Harry opened it to see it was details on the experiments performed on Grodd. Cisco walked around the S.T.A.R Labs van and climbed into the driver's seat as he made a call with his phone.

"Yo. Yeah, we're moving on to the third location."

OOO

Barry answered the call in the control room. "Copy that." He then turned to his father. "Now we wait."

"So, this is what it's like every time you go after one of those meta-humans?" Henry asked.

"Pretty much. Only, Cisco and Caitlin are usually the ones in here and I'm the one out there."

"There's no reason you shouldn't be." Henry responded. "Iris showed me what happened... with Zoom. That was hard to watch. I can only imagine what that must have been like for you."

"He showed everyone in Central City that their hero wasn't good enough to stop him."

"That's certainly what it looked like. Was he right?"

Barry scoffed.

"Your body's healed, Barry, and yet, here you are, feeling the shame of losing."

"I can't stop him. I know it, he knows it, and now everyone in this city knows it too. They don't believe in me anymore, Dad."

"At my trial for your mother's death, a lot of our family and friends were in the courtroom. They heard awful things about what I'd done to your mother, it didn't matter that it wasn't true. Every day I could see it in their faces, the moment when I lost them until everybody stopped believing in me. Well, that was my reality. I was gonna serve a life sentence for a crime I didn't commit, but worse than that, every time I looked someone in the eye from that moment forward they were going to believe that I killed the woman I loved, in front of our son. So yeah, I do know what it's like being destroyed."

"How did you get past that?" Barry asked.

"I embraced it. Accepting it was the only way I could move forward, but I knew that if I could survive that and learn to believe in myself again, I could survive anything." Henry said as he walked behind Barry and placed his hands on his son's shoulders. "You know who put that belief in me, Barry? You. Eleven year old you runnin' around, believing in me gave me hope."

Barry then pushed himself out of his wheelchair and stood up straight, eye to eye with his father.

"And now I'm giving it back to you son. No more monsters can take that from us."

Barry nodded, believing the words and then hugged his father.

OOO

In the bell-tower hideout, Caitlin had been explaining to Grodd how they might possibly be able to recreate his condition in another gorilla when Grodd suddenly sensed something and turned towards the staircase door. Harry, in the Reverse-Flash suit appeared there.

"Hey buddy."

Grodd growled and bared his teeth. Caitlin stared at Harry with wide eyes, thinking him to be the original Wells, backing away from him as far as she could.

"Easy buddy, it's me. I'm back."

"Father, you died." Grodd thought spoke.

"No. No buddy, I didn't die. I just went away for a while."

He paused for a moment as Barry gave him some instructions from the control room.

"Now that I'm back, we don't need Caitlin anymore, do we buddy?"

Caitlin shook her head, desperately afraid she was about to be killed the same way that Cisco once had.

"So you can let her go." Harry gave her a wink.

Caitlin's muscles relaxed, confused as to what was happening but no longer scared.

"Come on, buddy. Let me get her out of here." Harry slowly made his way closer to Caitlin. "Please."

Grodd then became visibly angry. "Father never ask. Father take!"

Harry's face fell, his cover blown.

"Run." Caitlin told him.

She then tried to run for the door, but Grodd froze her in place before she'd made it halfway.

"Who are you?!" Grodd screamed telepathically and then backhand slapped Harry off his feet and into the wall.

"Cisco, you got to get in there, man." Barry said over the coms.

Cisco ran into the room, unnoticed by Grodd who was stalking towards Harry. He then put a set anti-mind-control earbuds into Caitlin's ears.

Caitlin came back to herself and said, "Cisco, thank God!"

"Guys, you got to get out of there!" Barry commanded.

"Harry's trapped, we can't just leave him here. What do we do?" Cisco said.

Barry thought for a second, then had a blast of inspiration. He was about to relay his idea to Harry when it became unnecessary. The ceiling of the room was blown away in a massive explosion of fire. Everyone looked up just as Red-Eyes Black Dragon came flying in, landing in the room and instantly spinning around, tail whipping Grodd in the head and sending the ape to the ground. Caitlin, Harry and Cisco all saw Jack riding on Red-Eyes back as the dragon turned around.

"Get on!" Jack yelled.

The others all hesitated a moment.

Jack yelled, "You waiting for an engraved invitation?! Get on!"

Harry, Cisco and Caitlin then all ran forwards and climbed onto Red-Eyes back, each positioning themselves carefully to try to feel secure and not hurt themselves on the dragon's hard scales.

"Let's go, pal!"

With a tremendous whoosh of air from his wings, Red-Eyes launched himself and his passengers into the darkened sky.

OOO

Four minutes later, Red-Eyes landed in the S.T.A.R Labs parking lot. Barry and the others came out of the front doors as Jack, Cisco, Caitlin and Harry all climbed down off the monster. The members of Team Flash all congregated a full and in their minds, safe thirty feet away from the dragon. Jack stood next to Red-Eyes head and gently rubbed the scales over one eye.

"Okay, I know we still have a problem with Grodd being out there and everything, but that was the coolest thing that's ever happened! We just rode on the back of Red-Eyes Black Dragon!" Cisco enthused.

"You know, I know he said he could make the card monsters real, but I didn't really believe it. That's, that's a dragon he's petting." Joe said.

"No, it's not a real dragon. It must be some kind of quantum bio-projection created by his meta powers. It can't be a real dragon." Harry said.

Red-Eyes then snarled loudly and started to raise his head up in preparation for something. Team Flash all instinctively flinched back from the intimidating figure.

"Easy! Easy, pal. He's just a scientist, he doesn't understand." Jack said to Red-Eyes.

The dragon calmed and crouched down back to his original posture.

"You really don't want to say stuff like that around Red-Eyes. He's real temperamental and doesn't like humans much." Jack said.

"Maybe we should all talk inside. Jack, could you, uh, uh..." Barry motioned to Red-Eyes.

"That okay with you, pal?" Jack asked the dragon.

Red-Eyes growled softly.

"Course I'll get you that side of beef later on, you came through and I told you I would."

Red-Eyes gave another growl and nodded his head.

"See you next time." Jack said as he removed the card, being careful not to dislodge Mana's in the process. He looked at Team Flash. "Alright, let's go in."

The eight people then all went into S.T.A.R Labs and walked to the control room. Inside the control room, without thinking, the group split between the established members of Team Flash and Jack, the newcomer. Before their talk started, Harry winced in pain and held his side.

"Hey, Harry, let me take care of that for you." Caitlin said to him.

Harry nodded and allowed himself to be escorted away.

"So, you came back." Cisco said to Jack.

"Yeah, I did."

"How did you even know where they were? Or that they were in trouble?" Joe asked.

"Well, first I had Silver Fang lead me to that clock-tower by Grodd's scent and when I got there, I used a spell card called 'Clairvoyance' to give me a psychic picture of what was happening. Once I saw the ape was attacking you guys, I summoned Red-Eyes to help out."

"How, uh, how exactly did you create that dragon thing out there?" Henry Allen asked.

"That's his power." Iris answered.

"And I don't create Red-Eyes or any other monster, I just summon them from their world." Jack said.

"Why'd you come back?" Barry asked. "This afternoon you made it perfectly clear you didn't want to help us at all."

"Well, let's just say I realized that the way I was acting wouldn't be approved by someone I strongly look up to, and I had to fix that."

Barry thought for a moment, then gave a nod of his head.

"So, are you gonna help us now?" Cisco asked.

Jack thought back to the show which had influenced so much of his life. He thought about Yugi and the Pharaoh.

"They would choose to help, because they could and they wouldn't stop until it was over." Jack then spoke out loud. "I'll help you guys with your villains and to stop Bakura, but I don't know about actually joining the team."

"Hey, as long as you're here to help, I don't care how you put it." Joe said.

"I agree." Iris said.

They all then stepped over to the adjacent room. Caitlin was just placing a bandage over an injury Harry had received during the fight.

"You guys know we need to do something about Grodd." Joe addressed the whole group.

"Like what?" Caitlin asked.

"Like, get rid of him for good."

"You want to kill him?"

"Considering how many people he's killed, yeah."

"Whoa! Hold up, I'm not signing on for any executions." Jack said.

"He's right and this isn't Grodd's fault." Caitlin said. "He's only like this because Wells made him this way."

"Yes, but Cate, he kidnapped you and you could have died." Barry said.

"You didn't see what I saw. Grodd's getting smarter. He's lonely and sad. He wants more apes like him."

"What are you saying? He wants kids?" Cisco asked. "Cause I'm pretty sure one telepathic great ape is enough for this city."

Jack then spoke up. "Look, I may be brand new here and I'm by no means any expert on meta-humans or talking gorillas, but one thing I do know, you can't blame someone for what they do to try to alleviate loneliness. There's nothing worse in the entire world than feeling alone, then feeling like there will never be anyone in your life but yourself and you'd do anything to try to ease that pain. I speak from experience on that."

Everyone remained silent for several beats, the implication of Jack's words and the realization that he was right sinking in.

"I know somewhere we could send him." Harry said as he put his shirt back on.

"What are you talking about?" Barry asked.

"When the singularity exploded and you discovered the breach in S.T.A.R Labs. I ran similar tests and discovered fifty-one additional breaches, the difference being the breaches in Central City are scattered all throughout the city whereas the counterparts on my Earth most definitely are not." Harry said as he began to type into the computer.

"And you know where they lead?" Cisco asked.

"Well, I was in the middle of figuring that out when Dr. Snow so gallantly convinced me to stay, but if I am right, then this breach will get Grodd as close to home as he's ever likely to get."

A map location appeared on the main monitor.

"Okay, let's say you're right. How are we gonna bait Grodd into going through?" Joe asked.

"I think I can help with that." Jack said with a smile.

OOO

On the street outside of Grodd's bell-tower, Caitlin approached. She looked apprehensively up at the boarded windows of the tower.

"Grodd." She called up loudly.

An angry voice replied, "Caitlin."

Grodd burst out of the whole created by Red-Eyes Black Dragon, falling through the air and landing hard on his prehensile feet. The second he landed, he tried to grab at Caitlin, but she was instantly whisked away by a streak of lightning. The Flash then appeared before Grodd.

"Flash!"

"You want Caitlin, Grodd?! You're gonna have to catch me first!" Barry declared.

He turned and super-sped out of the alley. Grodd jumped up, grabbing hold of the building and swung himself up, climbing to the roof. On the roof, Grodd was zapped by a blast of energy. Looking across the rooftop, although he was unknown to Grodd, the monster known as Giltia the Dark Knight stood with scepter in hand. The warrior monster fired another blast of magic, striking Grodd in the chest and sending him tumbling off the roof. Half a second after Grodd began to fall, Red-Eyes swooped down, grabbed the ape by the biceps and flew off with him.

OOO

"So, Barry lures Grodd into this chase, Jack uses combos of his card power to get Grodd the rest of the way to the breach and weaken him?" Henry Allen asked, elaborating Jack's plan.

"Yep, and once they get him to the right spot, Cisco's gonna blast him into Earth-2 with his thingamajig." Joe said.

Iris chuckled at that. "Speed Cannon."

"Exactly."

"Well, things have gotten a lot more complicated since I got out of prison." Henry said.

"Man, you have no idea." Joe said happily.

OOO

At the breach spot, Cisco was standing with his phone in one hand and the speed cannon trigger in the other while Harry drew out a circle on the ground.

Barry came in over the coms. "Cisco, I'm almost there, are you ready?"

"I'm in position."

"Now, once you turn on the speed cannon, quark matter will stabilize, stretching the breach about so big, so anywhere in this circle will suffice." Harry said.

"Jack, how are you doing?" Barry asked.

OOO

"Everything's going according to plan." Jack said.

He watched from a nearby rooftop as Red-Eyes dumped Grodd back onto the street, letting the ape fall from twenty feet up in the air. Grodd landed hard on his side and saw Flash streak past him. Grodd got back to his feet, what he was after at that moment remembered.

Red-Eyes flew over and hovered next to the rooftop where Jack stood, allowing his human friend to jump onto his back to continue the fight.

OOO

Barry came to a halt twenty feet in front of the breach zone.

"I don't have eyes on Grodd, does anyone see him?" He asked.

Jack and Red-Eyes hovered a hundred feet over the scene, having a dragon's eye view of everything.

"Flash, he's coming up on your six."

Barry then heard the roar of the intelligent animal and Grodd leaped down in front of him.

"Where's Caitlin?"

Grodd then psychically probed Barry's mind, the invasion causing Barry to relive Zoom punching him and breaking his spine. The Flash momentarily frozen, Grodd easily slapped him with all his animal strength.

"Ah! Come on, Flash, come on!" Jack muttered to himself.

Grodd put one foot down on Barry's chest and pressed.

"Where is Caitlin, Flash?"

Barry futilely struggled. He was pinned by the large animal's weight.

"Right here!" Caitlin shouted.

The gorilla looked up and his face changed for an instant, becoming sad and heartbroken.

"No! No, no no!" Barry choked out through constricted breaths.

"You need to let him go, Grodd." Caitlin said.

"Flash is my enemy, now you too."

"No! He was trying to save me from you. We didn't understand what you wanted, but now we do." Caitlin said as she moved into the breach area circle. "I can give you what you want, I can give you a home. You just have to trust me."

Grodd's face softened, he took his foot off Flash and began to walk nearer Caitlin. Barry staggered to his feet.

"Alright, here he comes." Harry said to Cisco.

Grodd entered the circle and stood in front of Caitlin.

"It's ready, flip the switch."

Cisco flipped the switch and the speed cannon powered to life, shooting it's energy into the circle.

"Now, Barry!" Harry shouted.

Barry ran forward at his full speed, everything else moving slowly by comparison, grabbed Caitlin and took her to safety before the breach and it's small, contained, gravity-well formed. Initially, Grodd was pulled towards the portal, but then resisted, digging his feet into the gravel ground, planting himself. He then began to slowly force his way forwards against the reverse pulling power.

"Full power." Harry ordered.

"It is." Cisco said.

Grodd dragged himself another step and then another further away from the breach.

Still watching from up in the sky on Red-Eyes, Jack was displeased to say the least. The strategy he'd lain out after hearing how they could send the big ape to Earth-2 was in tatters.

"This isn't working! I have to do something!" He thought.

In the control room at S.T.A.R Labs, Henry Allen stepped from the monitor where he, Joe and Iris were watching the altercation over to the coms microphone.

"Barry, you can't let Grodd get free. Conquer you fears son, believe in yourself."

With his father's encouragement, Barry turned and ran, covering the distance needed to turn back and reach the speed required to deliver a supersonic punch.

From his perch, unknowing what Barry was planning, Jack was searching for an answer himself. He knew he didn't have a card in his deck at that moment which could force Grodd into the breach without possibly sending Caitlin or one of the others in with him. He also couldn't risk having Red-Eyes fire an Inferno Fire Blast for the same reason that it might hurt someone besides the gorilla. Then, suddenly, he remembered the vision he'd had of the future the previous week; the vision the Millennium Ring had given him. That hadn't been one of the typical powers of the ring Jack knew and if it had that surprise in it, maybe he could willfully pull out another. He held his right arm outward and pouring all of his mental strength and focusing on what he wanted the ring to do, he aimed the magic of the ring at Grodd.

Barry came back at a full eight-hundred and thirty-seven mile-per-hour, faster than the speed of sound to deliver one of his strongest attacks.

Jack could feel the magic surge and he knew he could do it. As he opened his eyes, a golden aura poured from the Millennium Eye on the ring as the same symbol alighted upon his forehead. When he spoke, it seemed to be in a voice deeper and more resonate than his own.

"By the power of the Millennium Ring, I command you, HALT!"

Jack's power struck down at the breach circle at the same moment as Barry was just a step outside of it. Barry became just as motionless in the same instant as Grodd did, causing his momentum to continue to carry him forward, colliding into Grodd and then sending him spiraling away in a mad trajectory, limp as a rag doll.

The various members of Team Flash all reflexively gasped and called out Barry's name as they saw it occur.

Nonetheless, Grodd had been struck by Barry's superhuman speed and hurtled backwards into the breach, just as planned. The breach closed behind him and Grodd was gone.

Caitlin, Harry and Cisco all ran over to Barry as Jack and Red-Eyes glided down to the street. Barry had landed off the street, just short of colliding with an overpass pillar. He was sluggishly and painfully getting to his feet.

"Barry, are you okay?" Caitlin asked worriedly.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good. Where's Grodd? What happened?"

"Grodd went through the breach. He's gone." Harry said.

Cisco smiled warmly at his friend. "Supersonic punch. Welcome back, Flash."

The two men bro-hugged. Jack then approached, trepidation filling his gait. None of the others looked at him with anything resembling hostility or anger and yet, they were not looking at him as though he were one of their friends who'd just helped them win the fight either. He stopped six feet away from all of them. Jack looked at Barry, his shoulders down and tense and an apologetic look in his eye. Barry looked back and nodded his acceptance of the apology. Without another word, Jack turned and walked away, heading home.

"This hero stuff is more complicated here then on Yu-Gi-Oh. This will take some getting used to." He thought as he walked.

OOO

On the other side of the breach on Earth-2, Grodd was flung out of the portal. Getting to his feet, he looked around, gingerly sniffing the air. In a valley just below, a city made of stone laid, nestled between two large peaks with gorillas carved into the sides. As he heard the sounds of his own kind grunting from within the city walls, Grodd roared, declaring his presence.

OOO

Jack turned the key in the lock, opened his penthouse door, and input the security system disarm code. The whole apartment was dark. Stepping through to the bedroom, he found Mana fast asleep, her back turned towards him. She was spread out under the sheet on the bed. Her small, cute snoring which was reminiscent of a bird's song was sounding and her golden hair was clearly visible even in the darkness. Jack smiled at the sight. Even when she was asleep she was the cutest thing he'd ever seen.

He silently stripped down to just his boxers, pulled the sheet back and climbed into the bed. With how distant they had become over the past few days, Jack had expected that they'd spend the night turned away from each other, like an unhappy married couple. To his eminent surprise, without waking, Mana sensed his presence and turned towards him. Without missing a beat, Jack moved and the two settled into their typical sleeping position, wrapped in each other's arms, their faces only about an inch apart.

Jack sighed mentally. That small unconscious act of hers gave him a slight hope that no matter what was said or happened in the conscious, waking world, he and Mana could work it out. He didn't know what the future held; if he could fit in on Team Flash or if he'd be able to defeat Bakura. All he did know was that as long as he had her, there was nothing he couldn't do. With his arms around the girl he loved, her sweet fragrance in his nose, Jack relaxed into his pillow and fell straight to sleep.

OOO

At the same time across town, the Flash of Earth-2, the man known to Barry and the others as Jay Garrick entered the apartment he'd procured for himself. Moving into the living room, he put his keys into a bowl and put down a paper bag of food he'd bought.

"Quite clever of you." A voice said from behind.

Turning to his six o'clock position, Jay saw a young man no older than seventeen with long white hair and hard brown eyes standing in a corner.

"Very smart to continue the charade of not having your powers even when the rubes are not around. Makes it so much easier to stay in character." Bakura said.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Jay asked.

"The real question is not what I want, but what you want... Zoom."

Jay's face instantly darkened and he began to super-speed over to silence Bakura, but stopped four feet away from the other man. A strange rectangle, five-feet long by three-feet wide had materialized on the floor. There were an evil pair of glowing eyes peering out from beneath the outer surface of the rectangle.

"I'd be careful if I were you. You trip the Man-Eater Bug, then speedster or not, it will be the last mistake you'll ever make."

"How do you know who I am?" Jay asked, continuing to spark, ready to kill as soon the opportunity presented itself.

"The Millennium Ring around my neck affords me certain powers. I used one of those powers to probe the computer of the fools at S.T.A.R Labs. I learned all about what they know of Zoom and what they know, or think they know about you. I recognized the face of a fellow plotter once I saw your photo. I followed you and used one of my other shadow powers to gauge your soul. Seeing how dark it was, I knew for certain your were in fact Zoom."

"What do you want?" Jay asked again.

"From the ruse you're perpetuating, I surmise you either want or need something from those fools who call themselves 'Team Flash.' Something so difficult to acquire it requires you to play a long game and to win their trust." Bakura smiled evilly. "I too am playing a long game and I too am what the common insect likes to refer to as a 'villain.' There is a man in this city who has something I want. He has great power and is able to match my own. His name is Jack Harper. I learned that from the S.T.A.R Labs computer as well. I have very little doubt that he will sooner or later join Team Flash, which will be yet another obstacle in the path of your goal. But, if we were to work together, combine our powers, then I could take what I want from Harper and Team Flash would be down a man and weakened considerably, making your goal that much easier to attain."

Bakura gave a wave of his hand and the card containing Man-Eater Bug vanished.

"Do we have an agreement?"

After a moment where he'd considered just murdering Bakura and moving on, Jay ceased to spark. He stepped forward and held out a hand to shake.

"Agreed. My real name is Hunter Zoloman."

Bakura took the hand and shook.

"You may call me, Bakura."