It was Acherontic.
The kind of frigid darkness that fills you with dread because you know the dark and the cold had only started to seep in. Relentless rain poured from the sky, making the long lines of electricity that swung over Vibes head crackle, filling the bitter air with the smell of electricity. Any moment she would be here.
He thought the ice that his opponent would be bright blue, much like his friends back on Earth One, but this time it was different. He heard it coming, the sound of the rain forming into little black diamonds, falling to the concrete below it with little plinks of hail. A rolling crackling mixed with the never-ending electric noise around him and his breath was just a vapor, there a moment under the sparks above that suddenly fell and gone within the ebony night.
A shiver almost made him go numb, as his wet hair dripped down his face, freezing his skin as the silent snake of gelid bitterness came sliding up to him, high heels resonating on the ice that formed beneath the invisible black iced that was coming.
" I won't fight you " he called out, sucking in air that made his lungs scream with the frost he filled them with.
" Do I have to take your other leg? " whispered he could feel the sting of the words that filled the air, freezing on the cheek.
She was much closer then he imagined, only an inch away when another transformer spark lit them both up, him looking through his glasses that were now malfunctioning through the wintry mist of her breath.
" I won't fight you " he repeated, straightening up once again. "Ever. No matter what you do to me I'm not going to hurt you. You can change I know..."
His words were cut short by a glove around his neck, his gauntlets charging up and sending the woman back although she caught herself with another ice slide.
Keeping his hands up he took a step forward, his boots almost slipping on the ice she formed where she once stood.
" I don't want you anymore, Vibe" she hissed, saying his codename with a hint of extra spite as the glow from his gauntlets showed her black ice slide zigzagging all around him, a flash of her white hair flying past as she rode it almost straight up into the air and around the big power grid. " I have something I need the power for, I'm sure you don't mind if I just borrow it."
" how can you just borrow power? You're going to hurt yourself! Water is a ..."
Before he could speak she threw three metallic balls from her blue coat. With a whirring, they circled the power grid closer and closer until he was thrown back by a powerful explosion that rocked the whole area.
"Oh did I say 'borrow'? I meant its lights out."
Groaning he lifted his head, a good hundred feet away and saw her slide away into the night. His goggles were flickering all over the place, sparking with an electrical short, his whole body aching as he tried to get to his feet.
She wasn't burrowing the electricity, she wanted it dark... or her husband wanted it dark. Where did she get the T Spheres from?
His thoughts raced as he wondered if he should pursue the half of the arctic duo that hurt his heart so much to see her full-blown villain, or to go back to the Collection Agency to see what they were really after. Slowly he reached up and pressed the com in his ear.
"Felicity..." he started watching the sparks fly down from the grid, the rain in the air hissing with the high voltage.
"Vibe?" she started "are you okay? What happened? We went dark. Using the generator to keep the main computer running but we are low on pretty much every resource now."
"Can you track where she went?"
"No...I can't we have to keep this line open for communications. Are you hurt?" she repeated herself, staring helplessly at the black screens in front of her as she turned on her cellphone flashlight and leaned it against a bottle of water at her desk, the fragmented light making the desk in front of her glow.
"A bit, but I'm alright. I'm going to breach around town and see what they are up to. Keep me informed if you happen to find out anything."
"You got it. Be careful."
Meanwhile, Sean and Jax were in the hospital room with Amy. Doctors came and left making sure she was okay and bandaging her nose as her eyes swelled around it, the skin around her chocolate eyes way more than black and blue. She would have worn it as a badge of honor if it wasn't caused by her running into a glass door, no one else but the police caring about her heroic escape from the truckers at the café.
"Don't worry. We have your back." Jax said sitting on a chair beside her bed, leaning back casually as Sean just stood in the corner, arms crossed and watching the scene before him unfold.
"Yeah Miss Amy. As soon as they said you are free to go we will take you home. If not, we can take you somewhere safe. A shelter or a home for people who need help."
A home? Not another one. The young woman looked at him more frightened of his words then she was of her attackers.
"I have apartment. Two miles from café. Please no home, no reservation."
The speedster instantly dropped his arms, feeling horrible about his choice of words.
"Oh no, I didn't mean like that," he said coming over and taking her wrapped hand gently not to hurt the bloody knuckles under the bandage. "No, no I meant we could make sure you were somewhere safe if you didn't want to go home alone."
"Home I am safe. Just take me there." she looked from one to the other of the men who saved her, more than once.
"Don't worry, Amy. We won't let anything else happen to you." Jax smiled brightly but it instantly faded when the hospital went dark. Pitch dark. The iridescent light was the last to fade.
Panic spread rapidly throughout the halls and rooms of the small hospital, people starting to fumble over each other, others who were dependent on machines making people panic more. The air was heavy with the electricity that was building, and on this earth, that meant one thing.
"That's it, we're out," Sean said, picking up Amy carefully looking up at the fading light until there was nothing but darkness pressed around them. Generators kicked on noisily as nurses and doctors scrambled to make sure life-saving equipment was up and running, scared patients and the elderly in a panic as much as the staff.
Jax nodded, his hands bursting to life with light giving flames.
"Let's take her to the CA. She will be safe there at least for a bit. These power outages have to stop though, it's getting a little crazy."
The conversation faded although even in the wind and blur that followed a moment later she still felt the chest of the man who was carrying her move not just in a steady motion as if he was standing still, but in a few short breathes revealing somehow, even though they had to be traveling at the speed of sound he was still communicating to his friend.
Before the words could catch up to her, she found herself in front of the large building, lights flickering inside as the busy agency tried to find the power to keep running. Lightning lit up the sky, but not purple or blue like she had seen come from of the people who worked here, but pure red lightning tore through the sky above, a roaring thunder sweeping as a large sound-wave through the night above as she was pulled in by her arm out of the now dangerous situation outside.
"Unplug all the computers, I don't care if there is no power!" a frantic woman, her long blonde hair swinging behind her as she ran around helping unplug all equipment that made the Agency run yelled out.
"This is ridiculous!" an elder man exclaimed, doing his best to comply until Sean sparked back to life, all plugs laying on the floor in a matter of seconds.
Amy wished she had time to take the building itself in, but she didn't. It was cold and dark and she felt with the lights on the feeling wouldn't be much different. People bustling with headlights back and forth, all talking at once in the ever-growing danger that the earth possessed. It rained here all the time, sure, but the storms that the atmosphere above lashed out were more terrifying than any other natural disaster on the planet.
"Thanks, Sean." the man said before his light caught sight of the broken woman at the doorway. He watched her a moment then walked over to her, his hands going to her shoulders as he leaned down a bit. "Are you alright? You must be that hero we all heard so much about. You're a brave woman, Amy was it?"
Amy nodded, her wet hair dripping down her back as she squinted to see the man through two swollen eyes in the darkness that pressed around them.
"Hi Amy," the first woman said coming over, her hand resting on the man before her shoulder. "I'm Felicity and this is Harry. Come on in...we have a gas kettle, and about to make some tea at least. With this storm, you are stuck with us a while I'm afraid. Not even Sean can go out in it."
Harry nodded escorting the young woman to a small square table in the corner of the room.
"What about Cisco?" he tapped the table with his knuckle after helping Amy find a seat, the revelation that the head of the Agency was still out there, and with this storm, he was in more danger then Killer Frost or her new found husband Captain Cold could ever make.
"On it" Felicity went back to the computer trying to redirect power to what she needed in order to bring them up long enough to find their leader and friend.
Harry watched the native woman a moment, as if he was trying to figure her out but smiled a big kind smile when he brought her some tea to the candle covered table, watching how she stared into the little flames dancing upon their colored wicks, casting shadows that danced in the same beat they did along the plain grey walls.
"Are you okay?" he almost whispered as he put the tea in front of her, dangling his own tea bag over the steaming water of his own cup, watching it seep and brew in drips.
"Okay, thank you. I sound like pig trying to inhale but I okay." she looked up as the superheated lightning flashed through the sky again, distorting through the reinforced glass bricks that lined only one side of the room they were in.
Harry nodded almost jumping. Still wasn't used to the almost supersonic boom that followed each flash of light.
"The atmosphere is really unstable here isn't it?" he said, picking his words carefully.
A small nod came from her head as she made a motion like rain falling.
"We need rain power. Outside town, they try wind power. Big fans got hit with skylight" she shrugged it off always having the idea that things wouldn't keep going out if there was only some way to keep the rain making electricity instead of whatever they were doing. The dark stormy night was proof of that.
"Rain… hardness the rain." Harry said, his blue eyes big in thought as he brought his teacup down, eyes transfixed on Amy. "you mean making something that uses the power of rain falling to make the power turn on...interesting."
Without saying another word he got up, deep in thought. He talked to himself as if giving himself the encouragement to work on the idea that Amy gave him, paced a few times and put his hands on his hips turning to the window as if the rain itself would tell him how to handle the problems he was contemplating. After a few minutes, he gave a long slow breath and disappeared into the darkness leaving her confused and alone. Her cup of tea later, Sean came by once more, his clothing changed and a bowl of soup in his hands.
"Wheres Harry?" he asked sipping it slowly before placing it down to cool. He disappeared a moment, the room filling purple but before she knew it he was back wrapping a blanket around her shoulders and squatting in front of her by her knees tugging it gently so it covered her for the most part when he realized even with his speed the rain got her a big wet.
"He go." she smiled softly looking down at him. "He have idea I think"
A small chuckle came from the speedsters lips as he watched her a moment, rubbing his chin as he got up to reclaim his soup.
"You know, you really need to meet Cisco."
"Okay, where he is?"
"Where is he." he corrected gently "it's okay you are doing very well with your English, not your first language? It wasn't my wives either. She would have liked you."
A small shake of her head was her answer, filled with an instant regret after doing so her fingers delicately going to her face but through the pain that crept through her cheeks from her nose, she saw as many tears in his eyes as she felt filling hers. Poor man.
"Don't worry about it just keep your head stable and still. The less you move the less it will hurt. Felicity is going to make you a bed up in one of the offices, we are all stuck here until this storm passes and then we will find out where Cisco is if he doesn't just pop in by himself."
Amy gave him a puzzled look, but after seeing how many people here had special gifts his words didn't really surprise her, just made her wonder exactly what this Cisco Ramon could do. If it was like the Firestorm and the Speedster she felt close with, he had to be incredible.