54

Mirror, Mirror On The Top

HR stumbled as he landed on the ground from Gypsy's breach. He immediately jumped back out of the way to be passed by a screaming siren of a police car. To his left and right he found Harrison, Maya, Tess, Joe, Tracy, and Gypsy all land beside him, where it disappeared quick as a flash.

Turning, HR watched STAR Labs in the distance, looking for any sign of the explosion that was to come. There was nothing but STAR Labs standing tall in the distance. The sounds of an increasingly worried city rumbled around him.

It was then the sound of screaming reached his ears, all coming at once. There was a low roaring sound that stretched to the sky he could barely hear—he tilted his head back to see the missiles streaking up toward the sky. But it wasn't all he could see; he could see Breathtaker hovering high above the city, glass and shards of the buildings closest to him twisting and breaking apart, shooting towards the sky as he did so. As the seconds passed, the sounds of people around them, screaming and hollering in fear, continued to increase as the seconds passed.

"Oh boy," Harrison murmured.

"Do we have anything to stop that?" Tracy asked.

Tess nodded swallowed hard. "Yes, but…they're gone."

"Oh, okay, well…" Tracy shrugged, bobbed her head back and forth. Her voice turned light and airy, as if there wasn't anything bothering them at the moment. A small, almost frantic smile came to her face. "I meant more like a weapon."

"Probably what's destroying STAR Labs right now," Joe remarked. He turned to Harrison, eyes wide in anticipation. "The uh, the uh, uh," he stammered, trying to find the words amongst his panic. "The Philosopher's Stone? If it blows STAR Labs sky high, maybe it can take out Breathtaker, too."

"If Breathtaker hadn't already thought of it," Gypsy said grimly. She shook her head. "If this guy is the same as the Breathtaker on my Earth, it's going to take a lot more than that Stone to take him down." She looked behind her, hearing another sound of another bloodcurdling scream. A younger couple screamed, cowering amongst the ground as a a chunk of concrete fell toward them.

Gypsy threw out her hand and a breach opened to catch the concrete. It fell into the swirling vortex and Gypsy flung out her other hand, creating another breach where it shot out and scratched along the ground, coming to a stop next to a fire hydrant.

"So, what are we going to do?" Maya asked. "With Barry and Cadence and the others taken away—"

"Look, while you eggheads go around and talk about what's going on, I'll handle this guy." Gypsy threw open and leapt through it. The breach deposited her on the rooftop nearest Breathtaker. Breathtaker simply looked at her with a raised eyebrow, before turning his attention back to the sky, holding his arms out to the side as if in rapture. "Better bask in it now, because today is the last day you'll see."

"The collector," Breathtaker murmured, voice echoing over the city. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Oh, believe me." Gypsy clenched her hands into fists. "The pleasure's all mine."

"We're going to have to take him out if we want this to stop," Maya said. She jumped out of the way of another police came that came screeching up the street.

Joe glanced inside and shook his head. "That's Chief Paulson," he said. "This is just the reason he needs to push his anti-metahuman agenda even further than before. And without the Flash or Flare to help us…"

"We'll need to help ourselves," Harrison agreed grimly. He set Julian on the ground, his head lolling to the side, and motioned toward Maya. "Make sure nothing happens to him. If he wakes up as Julian, we may find a way for him to tap into Alchemy and help take Breathtaker down."

Maya nodded.

Harrison then slid his rifle around toward his front and stood next to Joe. "There's not much of a chance for us," he murmured under his breath. "Without powers, but we have to do something to distract him long enough, to give them more time to come back from…wherever they are."

"What about me?" HR broke in. Harrison and Joe both looked at him as if he were crazy. "There must be something I can do to help. There's always something I can help with, whether it be realizing other people's potential, or even coming up with a way to help out—" he spun his drumsticks around his fingers then shoved them in the back pockets of his jeans. "There's more than to me than meets the eye." As if to prove his point, he reached behind him and pulled out a pistol. "I'm not quite sure what this does compared to the 'normal guns' you all have around here," he used air quotes around the words. "But if I'm a Well and we did that mind-meld thing, we must have a pretty good shot."

Joe leaned back and forth, bobbing and weaving as HR waved his pistol around. "Watch where you're aiming that thing. Always treat a gun as if it's loaded."

"Why would you leave any unloaded weapons around STAR Labs?" HR chuckled. "I mean, that's just careless, that's just—" he broke off, noticing Harrison staring straight tat him. "I know, it's dangerous. I'll stop." He lowered the pistol to his side.

But Harrison continued to stare at him, eyes narrowing a fraction. Finally, it appeared that clarity came to his face and he nodded. He held his hand out to HR. Confused, HR did the same and Harrison grasped it firmly. The two stared at each other for a moment before HR blinked hard, as if waking from a deep sleep. He took a step back from Harrison and nodded, dropping his hand to the side.

Harrison nodded back, pulling his rifle in front of him once more.

HR looked upwards once more, watching as Gypsy through a red vibrational blast toward Breathtaker, the blast arching and curving around him as he did so. It was only a matter of time until he became nuanced with her presence and decided to attack her. Nothing was taking his attention from the missiles that continued to arc higher and higher in the sky as the seconds passed.

He lowered his chin and nodded.

"We'll have to help the police evacuate the city as quickly as we can," Joe said. "Gypsy can hold off Breathtaker for now. We've got some anti-meta measures within the police force that can hold them off for a while, but until the Flash and Flare get here, we're on our own. Don't stop unless they give you a reason to stop, and even then, keep going."

With that, Harrison, HR, and Joe broke off from the others and headed into the surging crowd to lead them to safety.

Brady turned a corner and sighed, pressing his palm against the wall beside him. Another dark, empty hallway. His mother's warning continued to follow him (or was it from TV?)—keep your left hand on the wall and follow it, eventually you'll find your way out.

How does that work if you don't know where you are? Brady thought. It was one thing to be that young drunk woman in the Catacombs whose panic and impaired state made it even more difficult for her to find her way out even if she were in the right state of mind, and another thing to be taken out of your apartment by force from a Speedster who had a grudge against the life you were a part of.

What did it mean for Brady to be trapped wherever he was, if it was all out of his control? Not that he'd ever thought being a superhero was going to be easy, but geez. Sometimes they should cut him a break. How many times was bad things going to happen to him before the karma of being a hero would kick in?

First his PaPaw dies, then his mom acted like everything was okay when she clearly wasn't okay, then his friends start getting hurt left and right, and betraying them and then Caitlin is Killer Frost and Barry is Savitar and his mom…

Brady pressed his lips together, continuing to stare at the darkness in front of him.

His mom was going to die.

Brady kept creeping forward, dragging his fingertips along the wall beside him. It accompanied the sound of his footsteps. Anything that would keep him from focusing so much on the breathing that seemed to be getting heavier by the second.

"Mom?" He called out as he went deeper into the darkness. "Barry? Cisco!"

The silence continued to stretch around him. The sounds of his feet dragging over the concrete seemed to echo and swirl around him much like the darkness in front of him. Brady twisted his lips to the side, feeling his heart race start to increase, focusing on the darkness in front of him.

He was afraid.

As the realization settled upon him, Brady shook his head. Don't be afraid, he reminded himself. He could be afraid later. It wasn't the right time to be afraid. They were going to get through this just like they did everything else. Things were going to be okay.

Brady kept going, he wasn't sure how much time passed. He dragged his fingertips along the wall, following it every time it came to a new hallway or a dead-end. There was a way he got in, so there would be a way he could get out.

Finally, after however long, he found himself still going, when something at the end of a hallway grabbed his attention. Brady stopped walking for a fraction of a second. Just to figure out what it was he was seeing. Then he started to move faster, trying to figure out what it was he was seeing.

Brady's footsteps moved faster and faster.

Yes.

It was just as he thought it was. A light. A light at the end of the tunnel if it were. Brady picked up his pace, not moving at a run, but faster than a walk. Finally, he got close enough to see what it was he was bobbing towards. He slowed down, reaching out his hand. His fingers pressed against something, making him jump and bring his hand back.

Then he reached it out again, finding his hand pressing against a firm surface. Brady's eyes narrowed, he leaned closer then backed away again. The dim lightning, coming form somewhere behind him, made it easy to see he was looking back at himself. He watched as his reflection tilted its head to the side just as he had. Then back the other way.

Releasing a low breath, Brady lowered his hand and found his reflection doing the same. Over and over he'd move slowly, watching his reflection do the same. Not that, rationally, he had to do it. But something about him seeing his own reflection in the dark, with his suit on, was a bit unsettling.

As if he was expecting something to move differently.

Brady turned to go back the way he came, almost making it so that his back faced the mirror, then stopped. Eyes narrowing once more, Brady started to turn back, noticing his reflection moving a fraction of a second further. Caught, it turned the whole while and smiled back at Brady, his face twisting into an ugly snarl.

"What the-?" Brady started.

He closed his eyes as a shockwave of energy punched his stomach, accompanying the sound of shattering glass. Feet swept out from beneath him, Brady found himself flying through the air before he landed on his back on the ground.

He sat up, opening his eyes once more to find Sam Scudder aka Mirror Master leaping through the mirror to stand in front of him.

"You again?" Brady managed to wheeze out, rolling to his side. His fingers stretched across the ground, scrabbling to grab a hold of the shards of glass that broke. He looked down, a quiet, "What?" escaping his lips when he found there was nothing there. As if he'd made up the sound of glass breaking.

Mirror Master shrugged. He ran a hand through his hair then pushed back the bottom of his suit jacket to give him space to slip his hands into the pockets of his slacks. "Oh, you know, never really go out of style," he remarked. "And what else would I do to bide my time than to get rid of the snot nosed kid that keeps getting in my way." He pointed towards Brady. "It was you whose been keeping tabs on me, right? Since that time at the soccer game and then when you got my police file."

Brady's heart stopped. "How'd you know about that?"

"Let's just say there's beauty in the eye of the beholder," Mirror Master remarked. He turned back to the mirror behind him and ran a hand through his hair once more. "Reflections, as they say, are the best view of oneself."

A quiet groan escaped Brady's lips as he pulled himself to his feet. "Why does every villain have to talk in riddles?"

"Kicks," Mirror Master replied. "And it's fun to watch our helpless victims squirm. It's fun."

"I don't know." Brady finally made his way back to his feet. He clenched his hands, the darkness around him starting to swirl into a ball. Mirror Master glanced at it then look back at Brady, obviously thinking him as nothing short of a nuisance. "It looks a little tacky from over here."

A wheezing laugh burst forth from Mirror Master. He wagged a finger back and forth. "We told you to stay away."

"I try not to listen to criminals or stupid people." Brady shrugged. "And you seem to be both." He charged towards Mirror Master, hoping to catch him off-guard.

Mirror Master, instead, took a step back and melded into the mirror behind him. Brady, unable to stop himself from moving forward, couldn't stop his forward projection and crashed headfirst into the mirror with a resounding tong!

Groaning in pain, Brady leaned back and rubbed at his forehead. Mirror Master's laughter eased out from the mirror just as he leaned his head out, making Brady glare back at him, then wince from the villain's sudden appearance and the pain shooting through his forehead.

"Didn't your mommy ever tell you to watch where you're running?" He then lifted his hand, producing what appeared to be a gun, and fired it off to the side. Mirror Master smiled in satisfaction as a glass vortex opened before it solidified into another pane of glass.

He pulled his head back in through the mirror and appeared through the second one he'd created with his companion, Rosa Dillon, aka The Top, leaping through with him. Her green eyes flashed as she threw her long blonde braid over her shoulder.

"You should've done as you were told," Top remarked, lips pulling back into a smirk. She motioned between herself and Mirror Master then pointed at Brady, the mirrored vortex behind them disappearing. "It's two versus one, odds aren't in your favor."

"I'll take that bet," Brady replied.

He whipped his hand from behind his back, brandishing his slingshot and pulled back the ammo he had inside. He released it, shifting his hand down at the same time. The ammo crashed into the floor, letting out a tiny implosion before the brightest of lights illuminated the area.

Mirror Master and Top both turned away, shielding their faces. At the same time, Brady transpose dhis slingshot into the long metal bow staff and swiped it at Top's legs, taking them out from beneath her. He then planted the end on the ground and with a leap, pushed himself forward in a pole vault to bring his feet directly into Mirror Master's chest.

Mirror Master fell to the side while Top crashed heavily to the ground. This gave Brady the opportunity to swing the bow staff around and towards Mirror Master's head. Mirror Master lifted his hand and knocked it away before sliding forward to swipe his feet out from beneath him. Brady fell hard to his chest, the wind knocked out of him for a moment, before he phased through the ground, seeing Mirror Master get back to his feet, a snarl on his face.

When Brady phased back through the wall, he found Top waiting for him, striking him in the face the second he came back through. Brady stumbled back for a second, bringing his hand up to his face.

Don't underestimate your opponent! Oliver's voice immediately warned through his head. The amount of times he'd trained with the Emerald Archer had been enough for him to learn how to defend himself when needed—a step up from what his mother had taught him over the years—and he'd really underestimated these guys.

Mirror Master couldn't fight to save his life. Brady knew that form the second he looked at him. He was dressed too nicely to be able to fight well. Top, on the other hand, caught him off guard with how well she could anticipate him, not to mention within the second he was hit in the face, Brad noticed her muscles tense and the way she held herself before throwing the punch forward.

A quick glance of his opponent told him as much. Briefly, in the back of his mind, he could hear his mother smugly saying, "I told you so," in terms of how much you could learn from other people when you're watching them.

Brady lowered himself to the ground and Rosa sent another punch his way. This time, Brady allowed her fist to phase through him. Top's eyes widened in surprise before narrowing in confusing, allowing Brady the chance to bring up his knee and strike her in the side. She crashed into the wall beside her and Brady formed a shadow ball, striking her in the chest with it.

Mirror Master growled and leapt through the mirror behind him, reappeared behind Brady and struck him hard in the back of the head. Stars exploded in front of Brady's eyes and he found himself falling to his knees. Mirror Master then walked around Brady and kicked him straight in the ribs.

"I don't care if you're a kid," he remarked, then lifted his foot, kicking Brady once more. Brady cried out in pain, rolling onto his back. "If you get in my way, you're in my way. And I need to make sure you leave me alone." He lifted his foot and stomped onto Brady's ribs.

Had he been a normal human, Brady was sure his ribs would've immediately snapped beneath the force of Mirror Master's foot to his chest. As it was, pain exploded through him, making him let out a low wheeze. Mirror Master backed away, pulling his arms from his jacket.

Top moved next to him, dusting at his shoulders. "Aww, baby, you got your coat dirty," she whined. "You need to get it dry cleaned."

"Tell that to that little shit over there," Mirror Master said, jerking his head towards Brady.

Brady used shadow blasts for shoot himself back to his feet, his cloak swirling around him. He held his hands out to his sides, black orbs starting to form over his hands. Mirror Master tilted his head back, making a long groaning sound.

"We've done this before, kid. It must take you a long time to get the picture—" He jerked his head back out of the way when Brady threw shadow balls toward him. The shadow balls struck the wall and left a warped circle out from the concrete around him.

Top narrowed her eyes at him. "This kid is stronger than the last time we've seen him," she murmured, still hanging off Mirror Master's shoulders. Then she turned back to Mirror Master, planting a kiss on his cheek. "But so are we."

Mirror Master grinned, spinning his gun in his hand. "Got to thank Breathtaker for something. By now, we're going to reap our rewards." He turned back to Brady. "Nothing personal, kid, but we've got some riches we're in for. You know how it is."

Brady threw another shadow ball toward him. Mirror Master held up his gun and turned it aside, showing off the reflective side. The shadow ball bounced off and flew back toward Brady, who quickly phased it through him. Mirror Master frowned and pointed the gun toward Brady again.

This time, Brady held his ground. He'd had enough guns pointed at him over the past year to not be afraid of them anymore. He looked down the darkened barrel of the gun and straight into Mirror Master's and Top's eyes defiantly.

Brady ducked down, grabbed handfuls of the dirt that covered the floor and threw it in the air. Mirror Master turned away, moving to cover his face. But Top moved in front of him swiping a hand through the air before doing a straight punch forward into Brady's chest.

"Top," Mirror Master declared, coughing loudly. He sucked in a sharp breath and continued to cough. "Give him a little ride."

"With pleasure." Top gleefully rubbed her hands together, eyes glowing a brilliant bright green. Then she locked her gaze on his, tilting her head aside.

Brady gasped, watching as the world around him twisted and turned. Tilted like a top. Everything around him started to slant, making him let out a low groan and bring his hand to the wall, working to keep himself steady. Nausea rolled through Brady's stomach.

Even as he closed his eyes, Brady continued to feel that he was being pulled in multiple directions. Opening his eyes once more, Brady's eyes twirled in his head, trying to keep track of the walls that spun like a moving kaleidoscope.

Then Mirror Master held up his hand and clenched them into fists. Instinctively, Brady turned away, finding himself face to face with the puddle he'd stepped in before. The reflection, which would've been an upside-down version of what they were seeing before, twisted and turned in a spiral, copying the walls around him.

It's all in your head, Brady thought, breathing deeply. His chest screamed in protest, still working to heal from the kicks he'd received before. It's all in your head. It's not really happening.

"Oh, it's happening," Top warmed, pursing her lips and adopting a babyish tone. "And it's not going to stop."

Brady gasped, pressing his back to the wall behind him. He slowly fell to the ground, bringing his hands up above his head, trying to push back the walls that continued to crumble around him, twisting around and contorting itself into a block that moved in on all sides.

Top cried out in surprise, suddenly flung to the side. Mirror Master was shot in the opposite direction, the hold the two metas held on Brady was released. He let out a sigh of relief, pressing his hands to the side of his head, finding Leah standing next to him. She gasped for air, her hand pressing into her side.

"Are you trying to make this a thing?" Leah asked him. "Because there's only so many times I can save you before it gets old." She grabbed his elbow, hauling him off the ground.

"Two against one is never a fair fight." Brady shook his head, working off the last of the nausea that washed over him. He was sure Deity may have said something like that to him before. Or he'd heard it from somewhere else...? It sounded like something Deity would probably brag about, but... "Why does that sound so familiar?" He asked her.

Leah chuckled quietly. "I've been running around here looking for anyone, you're the first person I found."

"No one else?"

"I haven't seen anyone. This place is big…wherever it is…"

"Are the lovebirds done having their merry reunion?" Top asked, getting back to her feet. Her cheeks bloomed red, teeth bared, long braid hooked over her shoulder was loose, spilling her hair everywhere.

Despite the situation, Brady and Leah both looked at each other with wrinkled noses. "Ew," they said in unison.

"Looks like everything's even now," Top said, stepping towards the two young superheroes. She rubbed her palms together once more, then planted her hands on her hip. She looked at Mirror Master over her shoulder, who shared the same bared teeth expression, hair falling over his forehead. "We've both got someone to take down."

Leah held up her hand. Top's face muscles started to twitch as she slowly, very slowly was forced toward the ground. Mirror Master looked at her before he did the same. "Your crime spree is going to stop here," she declared.

"What did Breathtaker promise you to help him?" Brady demanded.

Mirror Master snarled but didn't respond. His hands slowly moved toward the ground, moving him into a submissive position. Silence stretched between the two groups, the gravitational pull moved between them. "I'm going to do whatever I want. There's a new King in town."

"And I'm his queen," The Top added.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Leah said.

"I would, little girl," Top continued. Her eyes narrowed on Leah's. "It's the circle of life. Everything always manages to go in cycles. They just spin, spin, spin…" Her eyes started to glow once more.

Brady closed his eyes, turning his head away. "Don't look!" He reached into the belt attached to his suit and pulled off the frisbee. With a forward thrust of his arm, Brady clicked the frisbee into moving into its shield position, ducking the two behind it. "That's how she gets you, she has to look you in the eye.

"What else are we going to do?" Leah asked.

Brady opened his mouth to respond, then cried out, feeling an almighty blow against his shield. One solid one, then multiple little ones that continued to press against the frisbee. Brady risked a glance over the top and noticed shards of glass coming towards them like a hailstorm.

Mirror Master's face was twisted in fury as he continued to throw shards of glass at them, pieces increasing in size as the seconds passed. Brady and Leah cried out when a considerably big one hit the front of his shield, denting it.

Brady slowly inched his way backwards as Mirror Master continued toward them, taking a step forward for each of theirs back. Leah lowered her hands, allowing Top to get back to her feet as well. She grabbed onto the handle of the shield, helping Brady hold it up.

"We can't hold this off for long," she said.

"I know," Brady agreed. He jumped again when there was another large strike against the front of his shield. The metal continued to hold, but it probably couldn't withstand what Mirror Master was giving to it. Not when Cisco probably hadn't meant for him to be in so much danger. "What else can we do? If we lower this shield, we're going to be shishkabobs."

"There has to be something we can do to stop him." Leah shook her head. "I don't know how much longer I can hold them."

Brady squeezed his eyes shut in thought. It'd all come down to him. But his shadow balls didn't seem to be doing much to keep them at bay. Even the size of the hole he'd left in the piece of concrete wasn't enough to slow Mirror Master down. What if it didn't slow him down but sucked him in? The thought came to Brady's mind out of thin air. (Or, he thought a split second later, he'd paid attention to Barry when the time he'd gone on and on about space when he was helping Brady with his telescope to look at the moon).

Something about there being spaces in the universe that were void of anything but a gravitational pull. Where anything that went in couldn't be let back out. The pull was just too strong.

"A black hole," he said. Brady wasn't sure how loud he said it. But noticed Mirror Master's eyebrows twitch, his eyes grow crazy, throwing glass harder and harder as he did so, creating more sheets with his gun when he ran out. Top stood next to him, clenching her hands, looking at her boyfriend then back to the young superheroes. Then Brady looked to Leah, who looked back at him.

Leah nodded.

All at once, Brady stood up and swung his arm as hard as he could, throwing his frisbee-shield in the narrowed hallway. Mirror Master and Top pressed their backs against the wall to keep from being hit. At the same time, he activated his phasing powers or flight while Leah decreased their center of gravity, shooting them straight up to the ceiling while the wave of glass soared beneath them, skittering along the hallway.

Clear of the danger, the two let go and dropped back to their feet. Brady fell into a crouch, groaning when he felt glass digging into his knees. Ignoring the pain, Brady created a large shadow ball of energy in the air while Leah added her gravitational manipulation on top.

It took a second before the shadow ball to start swirling in on itself. The back end made a peak, shifting back towards Brady and Leah while the front held steady. Brady and Leah watched as Mirror Master and Top pressed themselves harder against the walls, their clothes starting to be pulled from the gravitational pull of the black hole.

Brady pressed his lips together and threw more shadow energy into the vortex, making it bigger, the pull from inside growing stronger as the seconds passed. Finally, Mirror Master and Top, screaming, were sucked in side the black hole, reaching for each other as they were pulled inside. Brady and Leah dropped their hands, breathing heavily from the exertion of energy they used.

For a long minute, the only sound around them was the sound of their heavy breathing. Finally, Leah ventured to ask, "Are they…?"

Brady focused on brushing direst off his suit, realizing with surprise that Cisco had to have made them stain resistant in some way, not finding any dirt sticking to him. "Dead?" He completed her thought. Brady shook his head. "No." At least, he hoped not. "I think I phased them somewhere else." He didn't stop to think about it. "Come on, we have to find the others…Savitar, Breathtaker… we have to go."

Leah nodded and the two took off running once more, this time with Brady leading the way as they phased through the walls. It was much faster and, if they were stopped by Mirror Master and Top, the others had to be in as much danger.

A/N: Well, the next one is the big one you guys. There's a lot that's going to be going on and, well, you need to be prepared for it. That's all I can say about it, though. Unless you ask, because I have no problem answering questions and giving spoilers if you need it.

Cheers,

-Riles

Review Replies

Ethan: Glad you read through the Superbowl, must mean the game was as bad as everyone else thinks (lol) or it was a compelling chapter. You're right, Cade doesn't need anyone to protect her, lol. But she doens't mind a bit of backup.

DarkHelm145: We'll find out if Jesse killed Mindboggler and what it means for her character moving forward cause, no matter what, it'll be a poignant event for her.