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.

10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The Rescue of Jessie Quick – Part 2

OOO

A/N: Chapter updated with new, altered ending.

OOO

Téa, Cisco, Mana, Kaiba, Joey, Mokuba, and Jack were all lying on the ground, staring up at the self-satisfied, superior faces of Zoom and his minions, the Earth-2 versions of Caitlin Snow, Laurel Lance, and Ronnie Raymond, aka, Killer Frost, Black Siren, and Deathstorm. The four villains exuded nothing but total confidence and assurance in their victory. A small pool of Jack's blood was beginning to form underneath his wounded shoulder.

"I'll admit, I am impressed." Zoom rasped out. "I underestimated you all. An uncommon mistake. You have come closer to thwarting me than anyone ever has, and that is no small feat. You can be proud of yourselves for that. Still, as I know how your powers work, you never had a chance. You were all doomed as soon as you undertook this mission against me, but still, in acknowledgment of your accomplishments, I will make your deaths as quick and painless as possible."

Zoom then super-sped towards them, and they flinched with the expectation of their lives coming to an end. When he was only five feet away, out of nowhere, a wall of mirrored crystal sprang forth, blocking Zoom off from his intended victims and sending him flying away for fifty feet. He recovered quickly and went back to stare at the strange manifestation with angered confusion.

From his position on the ground, Jack sat up, and his face had taken on the same countenance as the one worn by their adversaries moments before. Forcing his way through the pain, Jack raised himself to his feet and stepped closer to them, passing through the magically created wall as if it had no substance.

"Surprised?" Jack asked. "You see, there are two aspects to being a great duelist. The ability to think on your feet, and the ability to strategize ahead of time. Me, I prefer to mostly operate by the latter. I knew I'd never have the time to draw and play my cards in the normal way with your speed, so I set them before we ever left Earth-1. What you just experienced was a handy little trap card called 'Mirror Wall.' It reflected your attack back at you, and then if this were a normal duel, would have cut your attack power in half. In this case, I'm guessing you're probably a lot slower now than you were a minute ago. But, Mirror Force isn't the card you really need to worry about." Jack held up his duel-disk for emphasis. "What you need to ask yourself is, 'What might the other cards do? Will it take away the rest of my powers? Will it put me and my goons into orbit? Or will it simply make me cease to exist?' All you have to do to find out is lay just one finger on me or any of my friends."

In that instant, Zoom ran over and stood directly in front of Jack, the two of them staring eye to eye. Zoom did not understand how this could have happened. Mere moments before he had been on the verge of both eliminating a large obstacle to his path and throwing a wrench in Bakura's plan. But now, this kid had forced him into a corner, and there was absolutely nothing he could do but back down. Zoom was enraged past every previous level he had ever reached.

"Well?" Jack asked smugly.

Zoom screamed angrily in Jack's face and then super-sped away.

Jack looked over at Zoom's henchmen. "Anyone else want to try their luck?"

Deathstorm, Killer Frost, and Black Siren all stood there tensely for several moments, before they turned and headed away. Once they had all left sight completely, Jack fell back onto his butt, and the six others all rushed over to him.

"Jack! Are you alright?!" Mana wailed as she knelt down beside him.

"Been better. But, I think it missed my heart, so, all things considered."

"What can we do?" Téa asked.

"I can heal him, but its going to take some time, and we have to take the shard out first." Mana said.

"Jack, here." Joey said and held out his hand for Jack.

"I'll pull the shard out." Cisco said.

He and Mana exchanged places, and Jack held on to Joey's hand.

Mana said, "Alright in three, two, one."

Cisco ripped out the sharpened ice, Jack squeezed Joey's hand from the pain, and Mana instantly began to apply her healing magic. Joey and Cisco then helped Jack to his feet while Mana stood with them, being careful to not remove her hand from his injury. They all started to move back towards S.T.A.R Labs, but stopped moments later, as Kaiba was blocking their way.

"Kaiba, move! We need to get Jack inside where its safe!" Téa ordered.

"Not before I say something." Kaiba said.

He looked at Jack. His expression was as cold and angry as it ever was. There was nothing in it to tell anyone he was feeling anything other than the usual contempt he showed to everyone.

"If you hadn't pushed me, that shard would have killed me." Kaiba said.

He then walked away. Everyone stared at his departing back in surprised stupefaction.

"Am I imaginin' things, or did rich boy just say 'thank you?'" Joey asked.

"I think he did." Cisco said.

"Yeah, that was a 'thank you,' alright." Mokuba said. "I'm surprised myself. That's the most gratitude I've seen him show anyone for years."

"I think he's starting to warm up to us." Jack said, wincing and cracking a smile at the same time.

"Now's not the time for jokes, Jack. We need to get you sat down so I can focus on speeding this all up." Mana said as she pushed him forward.

"So, then, I shouldn't mention how I don't have enough blood left to fill a coke can?"

"That's not funny!" Mana shouted at him.

Despite her protestation, from behind them, Cisco, Mokuba, Téa, and Joey were all stifling laughs at the joke and whole interaction.

OOO

At the motel outside of Central City, the Earth-2 Serenity Wheeler had her two boys who were still alive pushed Tristan and the Pharaoh down onto the floor and held them at gunpoint.

"Bring Reverb back right now!" Serenity screamed at them.

"We can't. We had nothing to do with his abduction." The Pharaoh said.

"I don't believe that! Reverb told me all about you weirdos and what you can do!"

"Listen!" Tristan shouted. "You're wasting time and focusing on the wrong people! For one, the Pharaoh can't summon flesh and blood monsters like those, and even if he could, those were Fiend type monsters, and only Bakura can control those. Secondly, we have absolutely no interest in your boyfriend. We came here to help save someone's daughter from Zoom, and that's it. Thirdly, if you would just let us call our friends, we might be able to help you get him back unharmed, but there's absolutely nothing we can do for you from this floor!"

"Bakura?" Serenity asked no one. "Reverb said something about him."

Taken aback by her unexpected statement, both the Pharaoh's and Tristan's faces filled with curiosity.

"Serenity, what do you know about Bakura?" The Pharaoh asked.

A look of contemplation held itself on her face for a moment before she gently shook her head, and her steely gaze reasserted itself.

"Nothing that you two need to know!" She harped. Serenity then ordered her boys, "Tie them up and get them on the bikes! We'll sort this out at our other hideout."

The men holstered their guns while Serenity trained her own pistol upon them again. The bikers forcibly hauled the Pharaoh and Tristan back to their feet and manhandled them outside.

OOO

In the S.T.A.R Labs control room, everyone was equally spaced throughout. Jack was sitting in a rolling, desk chair while Mana stood behind him with both of her hands on his wound. They had all just finished explaining about what had happened ten minutes before in the parking lot.

"So, you actually forced Zoom to back down?" Harry asked

"You should have seen him!" Joey declared. "My boy Jack makin' big, bad Zoom go quakin' in his boots."

"That look in his eyes was just priceless!" Cisco added.

"Hey Jack, what were those other two cards you had ready, anyway?" Téa asked.

Jack lifted his left arm, removed the cards from his duel-disk, and held them up to be seen.

"One of them was 'Compulsory Evacuation Device,' in case we needed to make a quick escape, and in a worst case scenario, I had 'Obliterate!' ready to take care of them once and for all." Jack said.

"Wait a second, there's something I don't get in your story." Barry said. "If you had all those cards ready and waiting to protect you and the others, how did the ice shard injure you?"

"That was a stupid oversight on my part. When I set them, I made them specific to any speedsters coming at us, so, it was really a bluff for the other three. We're just lucky none of them decided to try." Jack explained.

"Hey, Barry, where were you while all of that was going on outside, anyway?" Mokuba asked.

"Well, I didn't know what was happening outside, and we all agreed that those of us with powers would stick to those without. I was in here, covering Harry."

"So, now that we've covered all of that, we need to get back to my daughter. I need to know if any of you found anything." Harry said.

With that, everyone went around the room, taking turns relaying what it was they discovered.

"So, Zoom has somehow been here today, previous to this last incident. Suggestive, but nothing actionable with that. Ramon and Mana's information is far more promising. Some kind of cave narrows down the field considerably." Harry said.

He moved over to the keyboard at the main control station and began to type rapidly.

"There are several cave systems outside of the city where he could be holding her. There's also an old mine that's been long out of commission. Any of them could be our target. Our speedster tracking program is still tracing all of Zoom's paths for the past twenty-four hours. As soon as it shows one going to one of those locations, we'll know." Harry said.

"Hey, guys, I just noticed, we seem to be missing some people." Caitlin said.

Looking around, the rest of them came to realize that the Pharaoh, Tristan, and Jay Garrick were not present. From his position, Harry used the computer to try to bring them up on the communicators given to each of them, with no success.

"I don't like dis. Wit all dese wack jobs out there, anything could happen." Joey said.

"We need to find them. It's gonna take all of us to beat Zoom once we know where Jessie is." Cisco said.

"Garrick was with you two. When's the last time you saw him?" Jack asked.

"He was with us down in the pipeline. It must have been just before all that happened with you guys outside." Barry said.

"Why am I not surprised?" Jack thought.

"I can't help with this part. The speedster tracking program is so complex, its drawing most of the computer's available processing power. On top of that, the program is new, and seems like its already starting to glitch, so I need to stay here to make alterations as problems arise. And as before, I'll need Allen to stay with me. Maybe I can have the computers run a search algorithm on them in a couple of hours." Harry said.

"We don't have time to wait, we'll just have to find them the old fashioned way." Jack said and started to stand up.

Before he could lift himself halfway, Mana forcibly pushed him back down into the chair.

"You're not going anywhere until I've sealed that wound all the way!" She ordered.

"Mana, we have to find them, and someone has to go with everyone in case Zoom decides to come back. If I don't go, they won't be safe." Jack said.

"And if you do leave right now, I can't guarantee that wound won't reopen and get worse." Mana said.

"Also, I'll want to examine you, make sure there isn't any permanent damage when Mana's finished." Caitlin said.

"I can go with them." Offered Barry.

Everyone looked at Barry, and then to Harry.

"I can make the alterations just as safely with Harper as I can with Allen." Harry said.

"Well, Mokuba and I certainly aren't going." Kaiba said. "We've done more than our parts for the day, and we only came to collect data on the breaches and how to manipulate them."

"Dat's just fine. We don't need ya there, anyway." Joey said.

"We should go." Barry said.

Moving towards the hallway, Barry passed closely to Jack's chair, and Jack reached out and grabbed him by the arm. Barry glanced down at him, and they shared a look which communicated more than their words could have. Jack's look said that Barry was about to be in charge of guarding the lives of the greatest friends he had ever had in his life. Barry's said that he understood what they meant to Jack, and he would do everything he could to keep them safe. Barry gave a small nod of his head, and Jack released him.

"Come on, we should move fast. Something bad could have happened to them." Téa said.

"Oh! Wait!" Cisco shouted. "The emergency beacons I gave them! I completely forgot. I can activate them remotely, get their exact location."

"We'll do it from the van so we can get moving." Barry said.

"Hey, guys." Jack called after them.

They all turned to look at him.

"Be careful."

OOO

The dark hoods were ripped off of their heads, and Tristan and the Pharaoh found themselves in an entirely different location. They had been blindfolded back at the motel, tied firmly to the motorcycles they'd been taken on, and driven for a good thirty minutes.

Serenity's bikers had tried to clear the room of details to at least partially obfuscate where they were, but the job had been sloppily done. From the dull colored concrete walls, grease stain on the floor, a couple visible, metal nuts, and the smell of oil in the air, they were evidently in the back room of an auto garage.

Serenity, the two remaining bikers from the motel, and two Tristan and the Pharaoh had not seen before were all glaring angrily down at them.

"Tell me where Reverb is, and we can keep this moderately painless." She said threateningly.

"We've already told you three times, we didn't have anything to do with that." Tristan said.

"I'm gonna give you an hour to think it over." Serenity said. "If by that time you haven't told me what I want to know, it's the wrench. If the wrench doesn't convince you, it'll be the vice press. If by some chance you hold out through all that, we'll move on to the power drill!"

"Serenity, please take a minute to think. What if you are wrong? What if we are telling the truth? You would be hurting two people who have done nothing to you, and for no reason. I can't explain how, but I know that you are not capable of that." The Pharaoh said.

Serenity's face took on an expression which showed she was both shocked by the insight, and dismayed by it. It told the Pharaoh that he had hit upon something with this new version of their friend. After a split-second, her face hardened again.

"One hour." She said.

The petite redhead turned and stormed out of the room, followed by her goons. They shut the door behind them, and the sound of a strong lock clicking into place was audible.

"So, the shine on this whole 'alternate dimension hopping' thing sure has worn away. It's a shame they ripped everything out of our pockets back at the motel. Those beacons sure would come in handy right about now." Tristan said. "Any ideas?"

"Yugi does, but I don't consider it to be a very good one. It'll put him in danger." The Pharaoh said.

"I hate to point out the obvious, but we're already in danger. We don't have a lot of options."

"I know, but I don't like it. This is very different from the typical danger we face."

"Pharaoh, you know I won't let anything happen to Yugi." Tristan said.

The Pharaoh nodded. A second later, the Millennium Puzzle's eye glowed brightly, and Yugi took control. With his smaller stature, the ropes around his wrist and ankles were entirely slack and came off with no trouble.

"Hey!" Tristan exclaimed a bit too loudly.

He and Yugi cringed and waited for something to happen. For Serenity and her goons to burst back in and catch them. Long, tense, moments passed, but it remained silent. They both breathed a sigh of relief.

"Clever idea, Yuge." Tristan said.

"Thanks. I figure if I can get to a phone, I can call in the cavalry. I just hope that the S.T.A.R Labs number is the same here as the one Jack gave us." Yugi said.

Yugi then stepped over and untied Tristan.

"Shouldn't be a problem. I can give you a boost through that high window, and then you just flag down the first, halfway decent looking person you come across, use their phone." Tristan said.

"Right."

They moved to carry out their plan. Unknown to either of them, out in the main garage, Serenity Wheeler was making a call of her own.

"Hey, Frosty, its me. I need to ask you about something."

OOO

Jay Garrick arrived back at the old mine where he had kept Jessie Wells for so long. Even with his speed, it had taken longer than usual, as he had been forced to implement a roundabout route, leaving the city in one direction and then coming to the mine through the forest. It rankled in him the time it had taken. He could feel it now. That ridiculous goody-goody Harper with that ludicrous, brown and blonde hair had not only gotten the upper hand over him, but Harper had reduced his speed by half. He thought he was still faster than the Flash, but no longer by much.

To start, he checked to make sure his prisoners were still there. Both Wells' daughter and his other captive, the man he kept in the cell across from her, his identity hidden beneath the metal mask Garrick had put on him, were still there.

Garrick sped through the rest of the habitable portions of the mine he had established. His supposed partner, Bakura, was nowhere to be found. Garrick didn't like that. They both knew that their partnership was a veneer, at best. They were constantly circling each other like two sharks waiting for an opportunity to sink their teeth into each other instead of a common prey. Bakura not being there when their joint plan for conquering their enemies was on the brink of coming to fruition could only mean that whatever he was doing, it had to do with some kind of subplot to betray him. It didn't matter, because Garrick's own ambush was still ready for the proper time.

Garrick stripped out of his Zoom suit and changed back into his street clothes. He steeled himself for what was about to happen, and threw a super-fast punch into his face. He continued to beat himself, to sell the cover he would present to all of them when he returned to S.T.A.R Labs. After he had inflicted injuries upon himself for ten minutes, and cut his lip, he left the mine, walking at a normal human's pace. He had to take the slow course back to both avoid his enemy's new speedster tracking program, and to allow the bruises to develop on his face.

OOO

From his location, Bakura watched Garrick trudge away. He sneered down at the other man with malevolent, superior satisfaction.

"Poor, pitiful, little fool. You really still think you have a chance. It will be so sweet when it happens!" Bakura thought to himself.

OOO

The group of Barry, Téa, Cisco, and Joey arrived at the motel where their friends had been held.

"This is where they are?" Téa asked.

"This is where the beacon's signal is coming from." Cisco said.

"So, how would Tristan and the Pharaoh have ended up all the way out at a run down dump like this?" Barry asked.

"Knowin' him, da dumb jerk probably thought he could get somebody to point 'em towards somebody who works for Zoom. Probably thought he could bribe 'em to set up a meet or somethin'." Joey said.

"Would that have worked?" Cisco asked.

"Hard to say. Tristan does know more about seamier sides than da rest of us, but he ain't a world class spook either. It obviously took 'em out here, but after dat is anybody's guess."

"We should go in, check it out." Téa said.

"Hold on." Barry said.

He bent down and looked closely at three sets of tire tracks on the ground.

"These tracks are recent. They can't be much more than an hour old. Three motorcycles. Sixteen by five centimeter wheels, between one-hundred-eight and two-hundred-forty size tires. Tracks coming in, and going out." Barry said.

"Whoa! How can ya tell all that?" Joey asked.

"I'm also a CSI for the CCPD back on Earth-1." Barry said.

"So, what does that mean?" Téa asked.

"Well, it means someone was here about an hour ago. We might be able to find more evidence inside." Barry said.

They all then went into the aged motel. They found the lobby in the same state their friends had earlier, but with the card tables knocked over and far flung, and the air cleared. The first thing that caught their attention was the large hole in the ceiling.

"I wasn't expecting something like that." Cisco said.

"What could have caused that?" Téa asked.

"The building is old." Barry said. "Or it could possibly have been some kind of meta-human attack. Zoom knows what we're after. He could have sent someone to capture them."

At that moment, Joey looked to the side and spotted something interesting. He bent down, picked it up, and presented it to everyone else.

"Unless Oith-2's got some even weirder meta-humans den yours, I'm guessin' dis didn't come from one of them."

What he was holding was a what looked like a feather, except it appeared to somehow be both feather and reptilian scale at the same time.

"I think that's from a duel monster." Téa said.

"A duel monster. But, Jack hasn't summoned anything, and if he did, why would he send it here?" Cisco asked.

"Jack ain't de only one who can summon livin' duel monsters." Joey said.

"Bakura's here." Barry stated.

All four of them quieted. The implication that their other, and equally dangerous adversary was so nearby was daunting. The air between them was heavy and somber. Several long moments later, the silence was broken by the happy ringtone of Téa's cellphone. The sudden disturbance caused them all to jump with surprise. Téa reached into her jacket after recovering and took out her phone. Out of nowhere, Cisco started to snicker.

"What?" Téa asked.

"Your world's so far advanced, but you still use flip-phones." Cisco chortled out.

Completely unaware as to why Cisco found that funny, Téa ignored him and answered the call.

"Hello?"

"Téa!"

"Yugi?! Yugi, where are you?! What's happened?!"

Téa put her phone on speaker.

"Thank goodness I was able to get you. Jack's number for S.T.A.R Labs didn't work, and yours is the only other number I could think of." He said.

"Yugi, slow down. What happened?"

"Tristan and the Pharaoh were following his plan, and they ended up getting captured by Serenity's bikers."

"Serenity's bikers?" Téa repeated.

"That's too hard to explain right now. The Pharaoh and I switched so that I could get out and get help. Téa, we have to get Tristan out of there quickly. It took me thirty minutes to get back to a good enough part of town to flag someone down for their phone, but before that, I had to avoid some cops thinking I was a lost little kid. Tristan's only got about twenty minutes before they start to torture him for information he doesn't have."

"Yugi, it's Barry. Where are they holding Tristan? I can get there in an instant."

"I'm not sure. I only know the street, cause I was in such a rush to get help."

"Alright, we can work with that. Which street?"

"It was East Lafayette Street. I think we were being held in some kind of garage or something." Yugi said.

"I'm on it." Cisco said.

He took out the tablet he had brought with him and quickly pulled up a satellite map of Central City.

"On East Lafayette Street, there's an auto-garage at twenty-fifty-seven. I'm using Harry's access to get into the city records. Looks like the building is owned by a company called 'Arquette Nationwide Ltd.' That's gotta be a shell corp. That should be the place." Cisco said.

"Okay, Barry, you go get Tristan, we'll take the van to pick Yuge up, and we'll meet back at de lab." Joey said.

Barry nodded and flashed out.

OOO

Two minutes later, Serenity Wheeler was sitting in the passenger seat of a muscle car. The dumb kids locked in the other room had less than twenty minutes left to tell her what she wanted to know before the pain would start. She was fine with it, either way. They would tell her what they had done with Reverb. She looked out into the garage. Since they had arrived, she had more of her boys come to reinforce them. At that time, she had fifteen big guys waiting to do their jobs.

"What are we waiting for, anyway?!" She heard one of them say with annoyance.

"We're waiting because I said so!" Serenity yelled at him.

All faces turned to look at her.

"I said they had an hour, and they've got twenty minutes left!" She proclaimed.

"Why are we still listening to her? She's just a little girl. Reverb's the boss, she's just his girlfriend. Those two in there know where he is. We should go in now!"

In one, swift motion, Serenity pulled a .45 caliber, tactical 1911 pistol out of her jacket and fired a single bullet. It plugged the dissenter through his ear and exited the other side of his head at an upward, diagonal angle. The fourteen remaining bikers watched the pink mist plume, the body fall, and then looked at Serenity.

"Anyone else have something to say?" She asked in a way that conveyed her seething rage, in a calm, controlled voice.

No one said anything. They all went back to their previous talks and activities. Serenity leaned back in her seat, considering how she would begin their torture when it happened.

A super-fast streak of light entered the space straight through the closed garage door, and rocketed around the room. When it stopped, Serenity found herself tied up with rope, all of her boys were unconscious on the floor, and all of their guns were in a pile in the distant corner. She looked up to see the goofy face of the guy Reverb had told her was Zoom's speedster enemy from the other dimension.

"Agh!" She grunted in fury.

"I'll be sure to call the cops to come help you with that guy you killed after I get my friend." Barry said.

Serenity grunted angrily again and began to struggle on the ground. Barry walked towards the back room. The door opened normally and easily, and he stepped in. A single step into the room, Barry was forced to use his super-fast reflexes to stop the heal of a foot from colliding with his nose. Looking to his right, he saw that the foot belonged to Tristan.

"Tristan!"

"Barry?! Oh man, am I actually glad to see you!"

"Come on. The others are on their way to pick up Yugi, so lets get you back to the lab." Barry said.

The two walked back out onto the main garage floor, and found that Serenity had freed herself. The knife she had used to cut herself loose was still in her hand, while the other had some kind of technological device neither of them recognized. Also in her hand were what Barry knew to be meta-human, power dampening handcuffs.

"Serenity, there's nothing more you can do. It's over." Tristan said.

"Not yet." Serenity growled out.

She hit a button on the device with her thumb and threw it at them. Barry super-sped forward, caught the device, and intended to throw it out of danger for everyone, thinking it was some kind of explosive. The second he caught it, it detonated, incapacitating him with electricity. He fell to the floor, out cold. Serenity held her knife out threateningly towards Tristan and never took her eyes off of him as she stepped forward and clamped the cuffs onto Barry one-handed.

"What a hero." Tristan said sarcastically, looking down at Barry.

"Take his feet and drag him back in there." Serenity commanded him.

"No."

"You know what I'll do if you don't."

"Go ahead. The knife, I'm not afraid of." Tristan said.

Serenity could see that he was serious. She knew that he would probably easily be able to deflect the knife and counterattack if she tried to stab at him. Things were looking bleak for her in the moment, but she had already come so far. Reverb meant everything to her. After she had run away to Central City, it had been Reverb who had elevated her from the angry, but incapable street urchin she had been. He had seen something in her no one else had. He had shown her the importance of commanding through dominance, and taught her everything she knew about making money, surviving, and raising herself further up. For all of that, she loved him, and she would do anything for him.

Doing the only thing she could think of to recover the situation, Serenity threw her knife straight at Tristan. He was forced to dodge the blade, and Serenity instantly turned and ran. After he had dodged the knife, Tristan chased after her. With her head start and lighter swiftness, Serenity was able to reach the pile of guns before Tristan could catch her. She got a gun, turned, and fired a round past Tristan's head, the bullet grazing his cheek. Tristan halted. There was nothing he could do now.

Serenity smiled wickedly. "Guess it ain't so over yet, huh?"

At that moment, a knock sounded at the garage door. Keeping her gun and gaze trained firmly on Tristan, Serenity shuffled over and hit the button for the door to automatically rise. It rattled up to reveal Killer Frost standing on the other side. Serenity gave her a quick glance before looking at Tristan again.

"Hey, Frosty. Glad you could finally make it."

Killer Frost looked at her, at Tristan, at the passed out bikers, and then at the equally comatose Barry.

"You seem to have had an interesting day. Better start telling me what this is."

OOO

At S.T.A.R Labs, Harry, Jack, and Mana had not changed their respective positions in almost any way since the others had left. Harry was still at the computer station, Jack was still in the same desk chair, and Mana was still working on healing him. Hardly a word had passed between them. Mokuba came into the room and walked over to Mana and Jack.

"Hey guys, how's it going with that?" Mokuba asked, pointing to Jack's shoulder.

"I think we're about seventy-five percent of the way there. Healing is one thing, but for this injury, I've had to regenerate a sizable amount of muscle tissue. It takes quite a while." Mana said.

"Mana, are you sure you're alright? You've never had to do this by yourself for so long. I've felt your hands start to tremble a little." Jack said.

"It is draining me a bit, but I'll be fine, and we're almost there."

"Okay, but don't push yourself. If it has to, it can heal the slow, regular way for the rest. You already said I'm out of danger, anyway." Jack said.

Mana bent down and planted a peck on his cheek.

"Thanks, but I'll be fine, and we need you in fighting shape, remember?" She asked. She then smiled. "You know, you're cute when you worry."

Jack smiled back at her.

"Ughll!" Mokuba groaned and walked away from them.

He moved over to Harry. He was typing furiously at the keyboard.

"Hey, Harry. How's the program? Still working?"

"It's been misbehaving. Three times the map has spontaneously erased between twenty and thirty percent of all Zoom's already traced routes. Its also showed some of the routes just circling a point on the map endlessly, too much to be anything but a glitch. I've had to shut it down twice and go into the JDE to change the code, and when it starts back up again, more progress has been lost." Harry said, barely keeping his frustration from seeping out.

"Why don't you just change the image captured on the RAM memory to change the script and alter the program while its running? You should be able to make adjustments and fix problems without taking it offline or losing progress." Mokuba suggested.

Harry stopped typing and cocked his head slightly to one side. He gave Mokuba a look which conveyed he was surprised by how insightful the suggestion was, and how much merit it showed.

"How did you think of something like that?" Harry asked.

"I help my brother run an international, multi-billion dollar corporation. Do you think I do that by sitting around, playing computer games?" Mokuba said back.

Harry smirked. It was a smile filled with far more amusement than he typically showed.

"Not a bad suggestion. If something else happens, I might try it." Harry said. He returned to staring at the screen as he asked, "How's your brother's research coming?"

"He's still pouring over the data we got by coming through the breach. From the grunts he was making when I left, I got the sense that he was not displeased with what he was seeing."

"Surely high praise coming from him." Harry said.

"Ha!" Mokuba laughed. "You got that right."

At that moment, an unusual sound caused everyone to look towards the door to the hall. A hand gripped the side, and Jay Garrick pulled himself into view as if his he were dragging himself. He was panting like he was about to pass out, and had terrible, dark bruises covering half of his face. Moments after his head came into view, he collapsed onto the floor. Due to the sound, Caitlin came running from the medical station she had been setting up to see what happened.

"Jay!" Caitlin shouted and ran over to him.

She bent down to inspect his injuries.

"What happened?!" She asked.

"Zoom... took me... when left... before." Garrick choked out through labored breaths.

"Why, exactly?" Mana asked.

Jack could hear the suspicious tone in her voice and knew she was thinking the same as him. If this Garrick was playing at something, then showing up injured like this would be a textbook, if not still efficient way to convince everyone whatever he might say was true.

"Help me take him over to the bed." Caitlin called to Harry.

Harry groaned, but walked over and helped Garrick up to his feet. He and Caitlin walked Garrick over to her station so she could work on him. Mokuba moved back and stood beside Jack and Mana again.

"That sure does seem convenient." Mokuba said.

"I'm getting a little tired of it." Jack said.

"If any more of these helpful little occurrences happen for him, I think we know what we have to do." Mana said.

"Yep." Jack confirmed.

"Anything I can do to help?" Mokuba asked.

"Just tell your brother to make himself available to come help us." Jack said.

Mokuba rolled his eyes and smiled sardonically.

"Will he ever love that."

He set off to do as asked.

Mana leaned her head down close to Jack's to speak privately.

"Do we have a plan if we need to do something? I assume you're thinking what I am." She whispered.

"I'm working on it." He replied.

"Right. Until then, we just keep playing it cool."

OOO

Killer Frost and Serenity pulled up outside of a large nightclub. After Serenity had finished explaining everything about the situation to Killer Frost, they had moved quickly. The two had decided the most important, immediate thing to do was to move the captives to a new, secure location. Both of Serenity's having been burnt, she had allowed Killer Frost to choose where to go. They had forced Tristan to drag Barry out to Killer Frost's purposefully inconspicuous car. They had forced Tristan to put Barry into the trunk and then get in himself after being retied.

The nightclub they had come to was an impressive sight. It was a four story building. With the exception that the building looked upscale while still being in the low-rent neighborhood, the outside was nothing special in any regard. The one thing of note was the sign over the entrance. It was a bright neon of almost nondescript green letter tubes surrounded by a gold circle. It read "The Dice Pit." Despite its appearance of seediness, and it only being mid afternoon, there was a long line of people outside the front door, all dressed several classes higher than their surrounding environment. The Dice Pit never seemed to be closed at any time.

"Come on." Killer Frost said.

She and Serenity both got out of the car. They walked towards the door, leaving their captives secured in the trunk. The two of them bypassed the line of people waiting to be let in and stepped right up to the door. The front bouncer was a tall black man with a shaved head and muscles making him look like he would be more at home quarterbacking a football team instead of working the ropes. Killer Frost gave him a smug, threatening smile.

"Hi, Jackson. That hypothermia clear up?"

The man did his best to not change his expression from the one of quiet menace he typically employed in his job, but Killer Frost could see the fright come into his eyes. Without a word, he unfastened the red velvet rope and let the two girls pass. The crowd of dressed up clubbers gave impotent shouts of protest and grief, knowing full well that it would not get any of them in any faster.

Inside was the typical night club scene. The lighting was less than half bright, allowing for many different strips of neon and other ornamental lights to add their decorative effects. The noise from the speakers drowned out everything with their booming beats. The majority of the space was taken up by a dance floor packed nearly to capacity by the throng of bodies pulsating to the music. The far right wall was almost entirely dominated by a bar that did not have an inch of space with the crowd.

Killer Frost led Serenity across the floor, heading for the stairs to the second level. As they maneuvered through the cluster of people, a hipster with a trying too hard fedora and a porn star goatee grabbed Killer Frost's arm and pulled her to look at him.

"Hey, white hair! Ooh, you are cute! How 'bout you and your little friend come dance with me?" He shouted over the music.

Serenity grimaced in anger and moved to draw her 1911, but Killer Frost held up her free hand to stop her. Killer Frost gave Serenity a small, knowing look. She turned her head and smiled wickedly at the hipster. She projected her powers through the arm he was still holding. The hipster's face twisted into a mask of shock, fear, and pain as his hand and forearm were quickly frozen. After just five seconds, Killer Frost ripped her arm back, causing his to shatter halfway to the elbow. He stared at the stumped remains of his arm, and then into the pleasure filled face of Killer Frost, too in agony and shock to make any sound above a squeak.

"How 'bout you get to the hospital before the rest of your arm thaws?" She yelled at him.

The hipster turned, stumbled, and ran away as quickly as he could. Killer Frost turned to Serenity, and they shared a look of enjoyment between them.

The two of them ascended the stairs to the lounge area of the second floor. It was a simple open air design with many tables big enough for nothing but drinks and small bowls of snacks, stools for the tables, and a few comfortable couches for lounging. Killer Frost led Serenity across to an elevator in the north corner with two muscled men in suits standing guard at it. Both women could easily discern the sub-machine guns hidden beneath the men's jackets.

"I want to see him." Killer Frost said.

She was referring to the owner of the club. While she worked for Reverb, who worked for Zoom, each respectively under the threat of death from the one above if they did not, neither payed her anything. While she and Ronny normally just hit banks or armored trucks whenever they needed some cash, they sometimes did work as hired muscle when the money was good enough. That was how Killer Frost had met the owner.

He liked to operate under the philosophy of "pay for the best," so when he had needed someone to solve the problem of a building inspector getting too nosy about the construction happening on the top two floors, he had hired her to take care of it. The job had been laughingly easy, and the pay ludicrously ample. Relishing in the squirming of those weaker than those as she did, even though the owner had done and delivered everything he said he would, she had tried to show him who was the boss. To her surprise, despite how she could have easily killed him within a second, he had been completely imperturbable. He didn't show any fear when she threatened him, when she hit him, or even when she had started to freeze his chest. He had just kept staring at her with this smile of immovable confidence. Killer Frost hadn't expected it, but he'd won her respect. Since then, she and Ronny both had done a couple more jobs for him when he needed something, and he did favors for them every now and then as well.

Knowing who she was and that their boss considered her something like a friend, the men guarding the elevator pressed the call button for the doors to open and stepped aside. Serenity and Killer Frost stepped into the car. The doors closed, and opened again on the third floor.

The third floor of the club was where the real money was made. It was a casino, as well known and frequented by its clientele as it was illegal. All around, men and women were dressed in evening wear, the same as if they were at the tables in Monaco. From poker, roulette, and craps to blackjack, baccarat, and chuck-a-luck, the casino had almost every form of gambling there was. Killer Frost knew that the owner made millions every year from the casino.

She and Serenity moved through the gamblers, looking for the owner. Killer Frost spotted him after a minute. He was playing at the craps table. Figured. She knew she should have checked there first.

Serenity saw him as well. He was younger than she had expected, being somewhere around her own age. He was about five inches taller than her. His hair was black, about shoulder length and wildly spiky, falling everywhere across his head and face. His eyes were a dark green that did not seem to match the rest of his appearance. He was dressed in an exquisite, hand made tuxedo, open at the collar with no tie. He had an earring which was a die on a three inch chain dangling from his right ear.

Serenity saw him clearly win his roll and pull a stack of chips to himself. He then glanced their way and noticed her and Killer Frost. He handed his dice to another player and moved towards them.

"K! Great to see you!" He greeted Killer Frost warmly. He looked at Serenity. "Ooh! Who's your friend?"

"Her name's Serenity."

The owner took Serenity's hand and tried to give it an old fashioned kiss on the knuckles. Before he could finish it, Serenity drew out her gun with her free hand and pointed it at his crotch.

"Finish that kiss, and it'll be the last pleasure you ever get in life." She warned.

The owner pulled his head away, but did not release his grip on her. He did not bat an eyelash at being threatened.

"I see your taste in companions remains the same, K." He said. "And as for you my dear Serenity, Duke Devlin at your service. Anything you want while you're here, all you have to do is ask."

He then let go of Serenity's hand and looked to Killer Frost again.

"So, do what do I owe the pleasure of this visit? You never gamble, you don't do social calls, and I certainly didn't call you with a job." Duke said.

"We need to lay low for a little while. There's some stuff going on, and we need to keep us and the two guys in the trunk of our car outside out of sight." Killer Frost said.

"No problem! You can all wait up in my office until everything's sorted."

"We're also gonna need a place where we can talk to the two guys. Talk to them privately." Serenity said.

"Again, got you covered. We got a nice, soundproof room for just such an occasion." Duke said.

"I should also tell you, this has to do with him. Zoom." Killer Frost said.

"I'm not worried. Like I always say, 'There's no one you can't do business with.'" Duke said, readjusting his jacket.

"Thanks, Devlin." Killer Frost said.

"Anything for a valued associate. Go bring your car close to the freight elevator in back, and I'll have a couple of my guys help you bring the unlucky guests up. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have my clients to attend to." Duke said and walked away.

"Is he always that smooth?" Serenity asked.

"As long as I've known him." Killer Frost said.

"I hate that arrogance of his. Thinks everything revolves around him!"

"You get used to it. Now, let's go get the car." Killer Frost said.

OOO

Joey, Cisco, Téa, and Yugi all walked through the open archway into the S.T.A.R Labs control room. They saw that Harry, Jack, Mana, and the Kaiba brothers were all there. Jack was standing upright, Mana having finished healing him. Kaiba, Mokuba, and Harry were all at the computer station, seeming to be arguing. Jack noticed them, and then he and Mana ran over to greet them.

"Yugi! Great to see you back and in one piece, pal!" Jack said.

"No one's happier about it than me!" Yugi said.

The two fist bumped.

"So, what's been happening while we were gone?" Téa asked.

"Kaiba's been working on something by himself. Harry's been tweaking his tracking program, trying to make it work. Jack's healed up, and that guy Garrick came back." Mana said.

"Jay's back? Great! Where is he?" Cisco asked.

Mana pointed to Caitlin's station across the lab. Cisco half jogged over that way.

"Speakin' of, any new developments wit that guy?" Joey asked.

"He showed up bruised and bloody. No explanation yet as to what's supposed to have happened, but I bet it'll make him look really good to everyone else." Jack said.

"Yeah, I'll bet." Joey said.

"That'll never work!" They heard Harry shout.

Looking over, they saw that Harry and Kaiba were in a heated argument.

"Just look at the math, Wells!" Kaiba shouted.

"I've looked at it, and its wrong! You try to create an artificial gravity-well to alter the interdimensional destination of a breach, you could throw the Earth you're on right off it's axis!"

"Not if we use a reverse-polarity magnetic field to hamper the effects!"

"Even assuming you could build a device like that, it'd take a nuclear reactor to generate a strong enough magnetic field!" Harry shouted.

"Which is why we use low voltage semiconductors to reduce the needed energy, automatic cut-off circuits in case of emergency, opposing poles to siphon off excess magnetic force, and a cyclic, perpetual motion machine and use the kinetic energy it generates to power it!" Kaiba shouted.

"There's no such thing as a a cyclic, perpetual motion machine!" Harry shouted.

"KaibaCorp made one two years ago!" Kaiba replied.

"And you think you can just whip up another one?!"

"Alright, stop!" Mokuba shouted at the both of them.

He shoved himself between his brother and Harry and pushed them apart.

"You're both geniuses, we get it, but could we maybe save this argument until after we've done what we came here to do in the first place?!" Mokuba said to them both.

Both men looked down at the boy, glared angrily at each other, and then huffed an exhale. They looked away from each other and returned to their own, quiet calculations. Mana smirked at the scene with amusement before returning to her own friends. Her brow then furrowed and a look of consternation came over her face.

"Where are Barry and Tristan?" She asked.

"What? Wait, they're not back?" Téa asked.

"They're not with you?" Jack asked.

"No. Barry flashed away to get Tristan a half an hour ago." Téa said.

"Here we go again. Hey!" Joey yelled to Harry and Kaiba. "We got Yuge back, but Tristan's still missin', and now Barry too."

"God! Someone should hire you geeks a nanny!" Kaiba said.

Cisco then came back from talking with Caitlin and Garrick.

"Did I hear that right? Barry and Tristan are missing now?" Cisco asked.

"Yes, apparently the children are determined to make this as difficult as possible." Harry griped.

"Like you've made everything run smooth as silk." Téa said.

"I can help with this." Cisco said as he stepped up to the computer station. "I'll just check if there were any cameras active near to the address."

Cisco spent about a minute typing on the keyboard. His body language told of his vexation as he straightened up.

"Okay, so, there are no ATM's or CCTV cameras within three blocks of that garage, so we can't get any eyes on."

"So, then who's going out this time?" Mokuba asked.

"I've been sitting here for almost two hours doing nothing, so I'll volunteer. Show you what magic can do, and tech can't." Jack said.

"Eh, Jack, but what about, uh, you know?" Joey asked.

He subtly gestured with a nod of his head to Caitlin's station, where Garrick was still laid out on a cot.

"That issue seems to be out of commission for the moment, and even if something does happen while I'm gone, I'm sure you, Mana, and the Pharaoh could handle anything." Jack said.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of everyone." Mana said.

"Guys, what's going on?" Cisco asked.

"Just the dorks trying to play detective on something." Kaiba said. "Knowing them, its nothing to be bothered with, besides, we have more pressing issues than any hunches."

Yugi, Téa, Joey, Mana, and Jack were all surprised by this. It sounded like Kaiba had just covered for them. He had phrased it so that it came across as something he would say at any time, but by trivializing the situation, he took the spotlight off of it. It could have been Kaiba just being the arrogant ass he usually was. Still, Jack had saved Kaiba's life earlier, and Kaiba did not like to owe anything to anyone. If he had just purposefully covered for them, than it was probably just him trying to even the score.

"Kaiba's right. Harper, get going. If this comes to a fight with Zoom, we're going to need Barry, and I guess your powerless little friend too." Harry said.

"Right."

"Be careful, Jack." Téa said.

"Yeah, we don't want to lose anyone else... again." Joey said.

"Don't worry. I'll be back with the guys in a- actually, no, I'm not going to make that pun." Jack said.

"Jack, really, be safe." Mana said with gravity.

Jack's smile contorted to a solemn look of seriousness. He nodded to Mana, turned, and walked out. Téa went to Mana and placed a friendly, supportive hand on her shoulder.

OOO

The fist struck Tristan across the face. Serenity had been pounding on him for ten minutes. Although she wasn't muscular, she was naturally much stronger than the typical girl her age. Her last punch caused a small cut over Tristan's right cheekbone. Blood streaked down his face, adding to the bruises Serenity had caused, but which had yet to show in even the preliminary stages.

They were not alone in the room. Diagonally across from them in the corner, Killer Frost was guarding Barry. She wasn't interrogating him. She, and many other of Zoom's meta-humans had been given direct orders from him that if they came across any speedsters from another world, they were to hold them, but leave them unharmed. The speedster in front of her was helpless because of the power dampening cuffs, but she wasn't going to take any chances. It was also a strategic move. Seeing his friend hurt enough could get the speedster to talk where his friend would not.

"Tell me where Reverb is!" Serenity demanded.

She punched him again, making him fall onto his back.

"How many times do I have to tell you I didn't have anything to do with that?! Neither did Yugi, neither did Barry!" Tristan shouted back.

He sat up on his hands, and Serenity took out her gun and pistol whipped him in the head. It caused another gash on his temple to open and bleed.

"Stop it! Leave him alone!" Barry yelled.

"I will when he talks!" Serenity declared.

Tristan sat up again. Serenity lifted her arm, ready to whip him again.

"Okay, I'll tell you something." Tristan said. "That guy you mentioned, Bakura, he has your boyfriend!"

While not losing every facet of anger, Serenity's expression softened a little and changed to take on a note of curiosity.

"Why should I believe that?" She asked.

"Think about it. If I could summon and control monsters like the ones who took your boyfriend, do you really think I would still be here, getting beaten up by you?!"

Serenity said nothing. She just looked at him, thinking.

Tristan went on, "Now that guy, Bakura, he can do stuff like that. On top of that, he's greedy, conniving, and has the ability to take powers from others under certain circumstances. If anyone has Reverb, its Bakura, and that's not good for your guy! But, if you were to stop being stupidly stubborn long enough to think a little, you'd realize that since me and my friends know more about him than you do, we could help each other!"

Serenity's face then hardened again by a small degree, and she hit him. She didn't use her gun to pistol whip him, but just lifted her leg and kicked him in the upper chest, putting him on the floor again.

"Frosty, we need to talk." Serenity said.

She opened the door, and she and Killer Frost stepped out of the room. Serenity made sure the door was closed firmly behind them and locked before she would speak.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think he's telling the truth."

"How's that?" Killer Frost asked.

"I've had that idiot for hours now. I've put my gun to him twice, threatened him with torture, and did all that in there, and he hasn't changed his story at all."

"That's hardly proof."

"No, but he has to know where this is headed. He has to know that if his friends took Reverb, I'd either get it out of him, or kill him eventually." Serenity said.

"So? What are you thinking?" Killer Frost asked.

"Reverb said that Zoom mentioned something about a guy called Bakura. He said Zoom told him that if anyone calling himself Bakura came around asking for anything, Reverb should make it seem like he was giving him whatever he wanted, but to send him away as quickly as possible."

"Serenity, I know you're not thinking about actually letting them go." Killer Frost said.

"If this Bakura guy really is the one who took Reverb, then those stupid goody-goodies might be my only chance of getting him back.

"Look, I know you really love Reverb, but that is not an option. That other guy is the Flash from the other Earth. Zoom told everyone that if they came across him, they were to hold him without harming him so he could be handed over. Not giving him to Zoom is not an option. We'd die if we did that, without question."

"But if-"

"No!" Killer Frost shouted, her eyes glowing white with scared anger. "I like you, Serenity. I actually do. But, if it comes down to your love life versus my continued living, the answer is a no-brainer."

Serenity slumped her shoulders, showing her ascension to her friend's position.

"Yeah, okay. You're right."

Killer Frost's face relaxed, the tension easing slightly.

"Good. Now, I'm gonna have to go report to Zoom about this. I've put it off long enough already for your sake. If you still think they know something that could help you, you won't have much longer to get it out of them."

Killer Frost turned and walked away in the direction of Duke Devlin's office to make the call. After she was gone, Serenity's face hardened again with determination. She wasn't done yet.

OOO

Not far away, at the biker's garage, Jack arrived to find that the police were there. It wasn't necessarily out of the question given the neighborhood, but given they were right at the garage, instead of adjacent to it, or possibly on the street, it did come as a small surprise. In addition to the cops, there was also the usual crowd of voyeuristic onlookers, trying to get a glance of whatever they possibly could.

Jack considered what to do. He could use the mind control power of his Millennium Ring. The problem was that he wasn't sure if it would even work. When he had done it at a crime scene the last time on Earth-1, there had been just around twenty people in the room to freeze. That had been no problem, but with the crowd, the cops holding them back, and the detectives and forensic investigators inside, there were at least a hundred in this instance.

Using the mind control powers created a strain on Jack's own mental capacities. Even though causing immobility had the most benign effect upon him, with so many people, he thought there was a real chance he could become overwhelmed by it and lose his focus. If that happened, the result would be he would seemingly appear out of nowhere in front of the Earth-2 detectives, which wouldn't do any good for anyone.

That answer was to use his most prominent power. Keeping a healthy distance from the crowd so no one would particularly notice, Jack switched out his decks. Leafing through his cards, he found the one he wanted and drew it out.

"I use 'Instant Freeze' on all these people."

The card worked, and all of the onlookers, cops, and those just walking past immediately stopped and became as still as statues.

"I love my powers." Jack thought.

Walking around to the edge of the crowd on one side, he had to weave his way through a few people to get to the police barrier but had no real trouble. Inside the garage, Jack found pretty much what he expected to. The interior was the same as any other low-rent auto garage. Cops were everywhere in the room, photographing different angles. Seeing a group of three people standing upright while another was kneeling over someone sprawled out on the floor, Jack got a bad feeling and went to look at the body.

Relief swept over Jack when he saw that the body was neither Barry nor Tristan. He then received another small surprise seeing that one of the cops looking at the dead man was the Earth-2 Iris West. The look on her face was intense and sober.

"Okay, enough sightseeing." Jack thought.

The Millennium Ring glowed with golden light as Jack used the power to peer into the past. The scene around Jack morphed, the police and everyone disappearing as the past images superimposed themselves over the present. Jack watched as the confrontation between Serenity, Tristan, Barry, and Killer Frost played out before his eyes. He watched the two women force Tristan to drag Barry out to a nondescript sedan and place him in the trunk before getting in himself.

Keyed on their images to allow himself to stay with them, Jack then shifted the vision so that it accelerated through time. He could see their journey along the streets of the city as if he were fast-forwarding through a movie. He watched them arrive at a building which was easy to see was a lavish, thriving club. He saw that the name of the club was "The Dice Pit."

After coming out of the vision, Jack left the garage and made sure he was outside of the crowd and nowhere in sight before he deactivated his spell card. All of the people renewed their talking, watching, and other actions as if there had never been any break.

Jack instantly called the lab and had Cisco look up the address for him. After receiving it, he switched decks to access his "Teleport" spell card, and used it.

OOO

On his cot adjacent to the S.T.A.R Labs control room, Zoloman's phone vibrated in his pocket, indicating he had a text message. He picked it up and saw a number he didn't recognize. While this would have been a point of contention for any normal person, for Zoloman, it was a relatively normal, and even expected occurrence. His many lackeys had to get hold of him somehow, and whenever possible, he stressed in the strictest terms for them to remain untraceable. They were instructed to solely use one time only burner phones, or to just covertly steal someone's for a quick use if they ever needed to relay any information to him. Zoloman removed his phone and read the text.

"Sir, this is Killer Frost." It said.

"Proceed." He wrote back.

There was half a second's delay as the call was routed from its overseas carrier, through the internet, and multiple virtual private networks in half a dozen different IP addresses to make it untraceable.

"Sir, I have captured a speedster. I, and an associate of mine are currently holding him on the fourth floor of The Dice Pit. He has not been hurt in any way. Here is a photo." The new text read.

Half a second later, a photo appeared. It was of Barry with meta-human cuffs on, lying on the floor of a cell. Another text followed it after another half-second.

"We will hold him until you can come to claim him."

Zoloman replied, "I am pleased. Do not allow him to escape. I'll be there soon."

He shut off the phone and placed it in his pants pocket. He then sat up on the cot, playing up his pain and injuries for the sake of Caitlin, who was standing nearby. Zoloman made it seem like this was the first he had awakened since his staged collapse at the mouth of the control room. He saw that Caitlin's attention was instantly roused by his fake groaning. She quickly made her way over to him.

"Whoa! Don't do that! I'm not sure since I can't take any x-rays, but I think you have at least four broken ribs and a severe concussion." Caitlin said.

"You don't understand. I have to go. Zoom's going to go after my family, like he took Wells' daughter. Except, he's not going to kidnap them, he's going to kill them. That's why he didn't kill me when he took me earlier. So I could know that while I was still alive, somewhere, he was killing my loved ones at the same time." Zoloman groaned out in a faked, injured voice.

"Okay, Jay, just hold up. You know we can help you. As soon as Barry and Jack get back, we can come up with a plan to save your family, and rescue Jessie." Caitlin said.

Zoloman could see the concern and worry in her eyes. His plan to have her develop a romantic interest in him had worked better than he had thought. He could see that she was truly afraid for both him and his fictitious relatives.

"No. Even if you guys have Zoom distracted at the moment, it won't be long until he keeps his word. I have to go and get them to safety right now."

"Jay, you are in no shape. Even if you could get to them, what would you do if Zoom showed up? I hate to say it, but you'd be less than useless against him." Caitlin said.

"I don't have any choice. My parents, my sister. If I don't at least try, I'll never forgive myself. If you want to stop me, you'll have to knock me out." Zoloman said, sounding like the quintessential hero.

Caitlin stared into his face intently, and he could see everything she was thinking. She had bought into the newest element of his false persona completely. She was going to let him go without any kind of conflict, even giving him her blessing. She was just fighting against her medical doctor's instinct to never let someone risk further injury if they didn't have to.

"Okay. But, at least let me give you a painkiller, and wait ten minutes for it to work. You'll be able to move better and think faster that way." She said.

Zoloman didn't want to wait ten minutes. He didn't have any pain, and Barry and his speed was his for the taking. A lot could happen in ten minutes, but he couldn't see a way of backing out which wouldn't raise questions. Caitlin's suggestion was perfectly logical and something anyone would accept. The problem was that they all thought Zoom would be focusing only on how to take them down at the moment, therefore, a bit of vengeance would be further down his to-do list, and in that context, Zoloman could have the luxury of waiting for a shot to take the edge off.

Zoloman wished he had a time remnant at hand. A clone of himself created by going back in time a single second. If he did, he could have the time remnant go get Barry, and kill the Harper kid at the same time. But, he didn't have any. He'd been forced to kill his last one months before to resolve a situation, and hadn't had the need to create a new one up until now. Zoloman cursed himself in his mind.

"Okay, sure, Caitlin. Ten minutes, but no more." He said.

Caitlin gave a nod, the tone of her body language saying she wasn't happy, but that a little bit of her tension had left her. She turned and went to get the syringe.

"Ten minutes." Zoloman thought.

OOO

One minute after Serenity and Killer Frost left the room, Tristan turned his head to look at Barry.

"Barry, you okay?" He asked.

Barry looked at him with a look of confusion. He hadn't been the one beaten up and pistol whipped.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What about you?"

"I meant, can you run? You know, super-fast, like you do." Tristan clarified.

"I could if it weren't for these cuffs. They're keeping me from using my powers. Otherwise we'd already be out of here."

"Good." Tristan said.

He then lifted his left hand and opened it to reveal a high-tech key. Barry's puzzlement deepened.

"What? How? When did you get that?" Barry asked.

"While she was hitting me. That's why I never even tried to hit her back."

"And here I thought it was because Killer Frost was covering me." Barry said.

"Come on. She never laid a finger on you, and it was obvious she wasn't going to."

Tristan got up and crossed the room to Barry in just a few strides. He helped Barry to his feet and was just starting to enter the key into the handcuff lock when the door opened in front of them to show Serenity standing there with her gun out and ready. Barry and Tristan both froze, caught red-handed. They were both entirely unsure of what would happen next. A long moment of tense staring passed between all three of them.

"Well, hurry up and unlock him!" Serenity said angrily.

"You're, you're gonna let us go?" Barry asked.

"Of course not! I'm getting you out of here, and you're going to get Reverb back for me. That's the deal. Take it or leave it right now!"

She pointed her gun at them to emphasize how serious she was. Tristan finished unlocking Barry's handcuffs, providing his answer.

"That's been the deal forever now." Tristan said.

Serenity lowered her gun. Barry and Tristan stepped out into the hall.

"We have to move fast. Frosty's called Zoom. He'll be here any minute." Serenity said.

An ice-blast, coming unseen, struck Serenity, sending her back and encasing her gun hand in ice, frozen to the wall. A similar blast then hit Tristan, putting him on the floor, his skin pale, his lips blue, and his body shuddering violently for warmth. Barry turned to see Killer Frost sixty feet down the hall, her arm outstretched to use her powers.

"I told you, Serenity. Between your love life, and my living, there's no contest." She said.

She then fired another freezing ray at Barry, aiming to incapacitate him for Zoom. Free to use his own abilities again, Barry easily dodged it with one super-fast sidestep. He dashed back into the soundproof cell, took the meta-human cuffs, super-sped down the hall and clamped them onto Killer Frost behind her back. Taking a second to realize what had happened, Killer Frost screamed in equal parts frustration, anger, and terror.

Barry flashed back down the hall to Serenity and vibrated his hand to break the ice binding her to the wall. He wasted no time or words in carrying both her and Tristan along with him off of the floor, and out of the building to safety.

OOO

Jack approached the Dice Pit, trying to be careful to keep any sense of purpose or urgency out of his gait as he walked. He had materialized in an ally two blocks away from the club, having seen how many people were around it in his vision.

Jack carefully considered how he was going to mount his rescue. He didn't know where in the building Tristan and Barry were being held exactly, but given that the club itself would likely occupy all of the first two floors, it would have to be somewhere on the third or fourth.

He knew that both Killer Frost and an Earth-2 version of Serenity Wheeler were between him, his friend, and Barry. He hadn't seen anything to suggest Serenity was anything other than an ordinary girl, but she could be a meta-human, and Killer Frost certainly wasn't going to be sanguine about his arrival.

In order to protect himself from any conceivable attack, Jack attached to himself a trap card called "Drowning Mirror Force." It was different from the standard "Mirror Force" trap card in that, in an ordinary duel, when a monster attacked, it would shuffle all of the opponent's attack position monsters back into the opponent's deck. Through his training with Mana, Jack knew that the physical world equivalent of the effect was that anyone who tried to attack him while it was active was transported away to an entirely random location somewhere on the Earth. For offense, he also set the spell card 'Power Stream,' which would shoot a stream of water powerful enough to knock anyone off of their feet, and could submerge the entire floor if Jack allowed it to.

Jack was plotting out how he was going to access what would be the restricted floors when all of his careful deliberations were rendered moot. A fast moving haze of light and lightning streaked past him, and the sudden, intense wind that followed wrenched Jack off of his feet, flipped him into the air, and he crashed down onto his stomach. He lifted his head up from the pavement and blew a strand of his blonde hair out of his face.

"So, clearly, they don't need my help." Jack thought as he climbed to his feet.

He then found and used his 'Teleport' card again to head back to the lab.

OOO

Barry, Tristan, and Serenity came to an instant halt inside the S.T.A.R Labs control room. Everyone stared at them, happy to see them, but surprised. Tristan was no longer shivering with cold, but his face has turned green. A grunt of sickness came from his throat, he covered his mouth, and then ran to a corner at his right. He picked up a small, wastepaper basket and hurled into it.

Despite Tristan's display, the eyes of all of his friends were locked firmly on Serenity Wheeler. No one said anything for a long moment. They were all just taking in how different she looked from the Serenity they knew.

"How on Earth did you manage to pick up another member of the dork squad who wasn't even here before?" Kaiba asked contemptuously.

The shock and silence broken, everyone then came back to themselves. Cisco and Caitlin both stepped quickly up to Barry.

"Barry, you okay, man?" Cisco asked.

"Yeah, no worse for wear."

"What happened? When you left with the others before, I thought there wouldn't be anymore problems." Caitlin said.

"That's kind of a long story, I'll tell you about it later." Barry said.

Jack then suddenly appeared in the middle of the room.

"And the final senseless child is back." Harry said.

"Hey, Jack. So, that was you we passed on the street." Barry said.

"Yeah, that was me. Thanks." Jack said with a little irritation.

He walked over to Mana and gave her a sweet hug to ease his mind a little. Ten feet away, Joey, Yugi, and Téa stepped up to Serenity.

"Serenity, is that you?" Téa asked.

"Who the hell are you people, and how do you know me?!" She demanded to know. "What?! Joey?!... What's going on?!"

"Uh, dat's kinda hard to explain. I am Joey, and I'm not technically your brother, but I also kinda technically am. It's a whole, weird thing." Joey said.

"Whatever! I don't even care as long you idiots hold up your end of the deal!" Serenity yelled.

"What deal?" Yugi asked.

"That's a whole, weird thing in itself." Tristan said as he rejoined his friends. "Suffice to say, I kind of made her a promise we have to try to keep."

"And if you don't..." Serenity threatened.

"Yeah, you'll try to kill me, I get it." Tristan said.

"Ki- what?! Serenity?!" Joey spluttered.

"Don't you even think about judging me now, you son of a bitch!" Serenity said.

"Alright, let's everybody relax!" Cisco said to the whole group. "We're all friends here, mostly, so let's just try to be civil."

Jack then turned his head to see Garrick coming into the main space from where Caitlin had been treating him previously. Jack saw the faintest flicker of surprise, dissatisfaction, analysis, and reassessment pass through Garrick's eyes as he looked at all of them.

"Good, you're all back together." He said.

"Hey, listen, everyone, while the rest of you are saving Jessie, I'm gonna go with Jay." Caitlin said.

"Caitlin, that's really not necessary."

"Of course it is. You're still badly hurt, so you need some help, and I'm the only one who can be spared from helping to save Jessie."

"Guys, what's going on?" Mokuba asked.

"Zoom threatened Jay's family. While you're all saving Jessie, I'm going to help him get them to safety." Caitlin explained.

"When exactly was this threat issued?" Kaiba asked.

"When Zoom was here earlier, he took me, and told me he was going to murder my family after he'd dealt with the rest of you." Garrick said.

"That's funny, because I was outside watching everything when Zoom was here before, and I distinctly saw him leave in an easterly direction. Not enter the building." Kaiba said.

"He took me just as I was coming out to check on all of you." Garrick said.

"You sure do seem to have an answer for everything." Téa said.

"Hey, what's going on? Do you guys think Jay's done something?" Caitlin asked.

"That's ridiculous. He's our friend. He was helping us try to stop Zoom for weeks and months before we even met any of you." Barry said.

"But, doesn't it seem a little odd how every time Zoom comes round, none of us have seen dis guy there?" Joey asked.

"A coincidence." Cisco said.

"I'm sorry, I understand your doubts, and you have a right to them, but I don't have time for this right now. My family is in danger." Garrick said.

"Alright, I've had enough." Jack said.

The Millennium eye symbol alighted on Jack's forehead, and Garrick suddenly stopped moving in his tracks.

"Jack, what are you doing?!" Barry asked.

Jack didn't answer right away. Garrick's mind was strong. It was hard to keep a firm grip on it and keep him immobile.

"Getting to the bottom of this once and for all. I've been stabbed in my front today, already. I'm not eager for a repeat in my back." Jack said.

He then reached into his front jeans pocket and took out a single card. He had put it there for easy access not long after his suspicions had begun for just such an eventuality. He played it.

"Activate 'Eye of Truth!'"

An eye symbol of a different design then appeared on Garrick's forehead. His eyes glazed over slightly, but his face remained a grimace of determined defiance, fighting against the effects of the magic. This told Jack that he was almost certainly correct in his suspicions.

"Who are you really?" Jack asked.

"I'm... Jay... Garrick." He growled out haltingly.

"You will tell us the truth! You will show us who you really!" Jack directed his captive.

"I... told you!" Garrick shot back.

"Jack, stop it! This is ridiculous!" Barry shouted. "He's told you! You've confirmed it with your own powers now!"

"Barry, guys, look, I know this seems drastic, but we all really think there's something not right here!" Yugi pleaded, trying to even things out.

"And we should just believe you? You kids only showed up a few days ago. For all we know, you and Harper could be up to an agenda of your own." Harry said accusingly.

"I'm the last one to ever defend these losers, but they're the most honest and unsuspecting pack of dorks I've ever known. If they're showing distrust in someone, than there's a reason for it. And if there's something threatening mine and my brother's return to our real lives, than I don't like it." Kaiba said.

"Jay has been helping us since nearly the beginning we've been fighting Zoom, and you want us to just turn on him now?!" Caitlin asked hotly.

"Oh, come on, guys! Open your eyes! There's something really not right about Garrick!" Mana countered.

"Exactly! This guy reeks of being up to something!" Tristan added.

While the arguing was increasing in both volume and intensity around him, Jack was struggling to maintain his hold over Garrick. The man was fighting to be freed from his subjection with far from inconsiderate force. The strength of his mind and will were nothing to be sneered at. Taking a quick glance about, Jack looked at his allies in the room, those separate from them who had quickly become his friends, and the duel monster who was the girl he loved more than anything else. These people meant the world to him, and if he was right in his suspicions, than they were being threatened from right under there noses. Rallying all of the mental force he could muster, Jack pushed back with his magic, and the Millennium Eye upon his forehead shone brighter.

"REVEAL YOURSELF!" Jack's words came in the same deeper, more commanding voice they had back when they had faced Gorilla Grodd.

"I... told... you!"

As he spoke, Garrick's voice began to transmute as well, starting to also become deeper, and more gravely, and rasping. The change seemed to resonate throughout the ether of the room, causing everyone else to end their bickering and turn their attention to the others.

"I! am! Jay! Garrick!"

With all the same force as a physical bomb dropping upon them, the truth had been revealed. The voice the so called Jay Garrick had spoken with at the end had been unquestionably, and undeniably, that of Zoom.

OOO

A/N: Hello to all readers and followers. Sorry for how long it took to get this new update published. I've had a lot going on with my other fanfic stories, side projects, and a graphic novel I'm preparing to publish. I hope everyone enjoys this chapter and I'll have the conclusion to "The Rescue of Jessie Quick" out as fast as I possibly can. A big thank you to everyone reading!

A/N (Update): To all my loyal followers of this story, I'm sorry to say that this is not a new chapter, but simply the same previous with an updated, altered ending. However, I am currently working on the next chapter of the story, and will have it up ASAP. Again, a huge thank you to everyone who's read and kept up with this story. I appreciate all of you, and I would love to hear what you think about the story so far, whether good, or being constructive criticism. Thanks again.