Chaos. Pure chaos.
Central City is burning down.
It's the apocalypse out there in the concrete jungle, pure destruction, and disaster. The peak of cataclysmic events. The Flash and the others have been fighting against the ravenous tide of destruction for almost an hour now, and the creatures that haven't died fight more fiercely with each passing moment. They have no concern for their own safety and run directly into danger, mindless in their glorious fury.
Providence has taken her army of creatures from the sewers to the main streets, order flees before them and chaos follows in their wake. Fire spouts up in every road, electricity rains down in heavy waves from every direction. Shattered glass and twisted metal cover every flat surface, smashed and destroyed cars line the street sides in a bizarre type of protective wall, people cowering behind them, hoping and praying to live through this. Praying that the Flash can save them.
She's been calling out to the Flash in the midst of the battle. She wants him dead for his disobedience, no matter the cost to the city. No matter how much destruction or death she causes. She wants the destruction to herald her arrival as the new God. She wants the world to fall to its knees before her mighty army, wants death to sweep away those too weak to worship her. Fear is truly her one greatest weapon.
The citizens of the city who haven't fled the scene can see their hero battling against those monsters out on the streets, aided by Star City's Arrow and the known criminals Golden Glider and Heatwave. They're fighting valiantly, fighting with streaks of lightning, waves of flame and gold, and raining cascades of arrows. Yet they're losing. And they're losing badly. Whatever those things are, the heralds of flame and lightning, there's over a dozen of them, hulking in size, impossibly strong, leaving flame in their wake and chasing electrical storms before them. Every time one of the four gets close, the creatures seem to phase and disappear from their grasp. Monsters, demons, beasts, whatever you call them they are a purely destructive force, lead by one Professor Providence.
"Run while you still can Flash!" Providence laughs hysterically as her mass of creatures attack all they can see, leaving wounded and dead civilians and police in their wake. "You've got a bit of a surprise coming your way!" The one she named 'Mr. Fussy' follows her diligently, staying out of the fray, herding the heroes away from its mistress whenever they get too close for comfort. It longed to be out there amidst the slaughter aiding its brethren, but it had its orders.
A well-placed bolt of gold covers two of the vicious creatures, killing them where they stand, leaving golden statues in their place. Thirteen of them remain, claws swiping at their human attackers. Thick waves of flame wrap around another of them, choking out its own fire. It dies in an explosion of electricity, taking those closest with it into oblivion. Arrows rain down upon the rest, killing some, injuring others.
The tide of the battle is changing to favor the humans.
At long last 'Mr. Fussy' leaps into the fray, closing strong jaws around the nearest human it can reach. Sharp fangs pierce fabric, digging into the soft flesh beneath, an arrow pierces its thick hide. It doesn't notice, just keeps snapping, driving their fangs deeper into the leg of the Flash. A loud scream of pain. Music to its ears.
"Get back here Mr. Fussy!" It's brethren are dying in agony, but it must do its sworn duty. Protect the insane woman who created them. It releases its hold and once again circles Professor Providence, fierce hatred of its mistress stewing deep in its mind.
Vengeance. Not now, but soon. It will have its vengeance against them all.
The Flash throws bolts of lightning into the ravenous hoard, striking more of them down, and explosions of fire and gold take out more of the creatures, sending the remaining five running back to the sewers. Cowards. 'Mr. Fussy' stands its ground, it has its orders. It may not like them, but it will obey.
Providence angrily stomps her feet, her army is retreating, fleeing before their lessers. No matter, she still has her back up plan. The people in the laboratory. Empty minds just waiting to be filled with her power.
She reaches out for them with her mind- wait. Something is wrong. No. NO! This can't be!
"What have you done Flash?!" She tries again, reaching for those she had under her control. Nothing. " Where is my army?!"
The Flash stands in front of her, battered and bleeding, eyes filled with defiance. "Give up Providence," he says, still keeping his distance from her and that creature beside her. "All of the people in the lab are gone, they're free from you. Just give up." The two criminals step up to stand beside him, guns ready to fire gold and heat if needed. "There's no way to win, just come quietly and-
"NEVER!" She lunges forwards, small fists flying, anger and desperation fueling her actions. "I'LL NEVER GIVE UP!" A snarl passes her lips, and her fists strike against the Flash futilely. The battle is over, she just doesn't know it yet. "I'LL KILL YOU FLASH!" She howls with rage, all of her grand work undone by four insignificant insects , don't they know she is a God? Don't they know that she-
A needle filled with a sedative slips into her neck, and she falls limp into the waiting arms of her captors. Metal cuffs are slapped over her wrists, restraining both her and her powers. It's over. Good God, it's finally over.
The mental connection between her and her army is severed in her forced sedation and depowerment. 'Mr. Fussy' slinks away into the shadows after its comrades, the humans too distracted with their hard won victory to notice it leave. Vengeance, soon it will have its vengeance. The battle may have been lost, but they would not lose the war. No matter the cost to itself, it will reign victorious above all things. Human, animal or metahuman. Even above the one they called God. Above All.
No matter what.
*Providence Waits*
Candice Providence is perhaps the worst captive of all time. The complaining alone is enough to drive someone to madness, not to mention her nonsensical pontification on religion. It's absolute torture, getting her to answer questions is impossible, and the questions she does answer are completely irrelevant. She's sworn a crusade upon all of them at least once, swearing her 'Holy Justice' and her 'Divine Victory' on them. Vowing her vengeance and threatening bodily harm.
Completely ridiculous.
It's gotten to the point where even Caitlin isn't paying attention to her threats. Besides, there are more important things to focus their attention on at the moment. Those things she created, her army, have completely disappeared into the sewers. Not a trace of them. However, even that insanity pales in comparison to the importance of repairing the injuries sustained from the battle.
Barry's leg may already be on the mend, but he wasn't the only one injured in the battle. Mick has a few cracked ribs from where a creature slammed into him and tried to chew on his face. Lisa has a dislocated shoulder and sliced arm from wrenching it out of a beast's grasp, and even Oliver has a few injuries. He'll deny it, but it doesn't make it any less true. The death count from the rampage has already been numbered above thirty people. Too many dead no matter how you look at it. Both the police and the public want Providence arrested, and the CCPD is sending a team to transfer her into their custody from that of Team Flash.
Thankfully she's still depowered, and unable to cause a scene. But that doesn't stop her from trying her hardest. Throwing things, cursing, shouting about her research, singing the element song over twenty times in a row. Just a absolute nightmare of a prisoner. All of that and the fact that her simply being there in the pipeline seems to have pushed Snart over the edge. He's been withdrawn ever since the team returned to the Labs, cutting himself off from the others. He keeps saying that he can still hear her whispering in his head. Even without her powers, her conditioning on his mind still remains, tormenting his every waking thought, spreading their seditious lies. He just wants it to stop, so he retreats to the only place he can. He retreats into his head, hides his vulnerability behind his own silence and blank stares, falling prey to the darkness of his own thoughts until he becomes completely unresponsive.
Candice grins in her glass cell, manic glee filling the silence in her mind. They may have taken her army, may have stolen her followers from her, but she still has one final option. One move left in her playbook, an Ace up her sleeve, a Hail Mary for use in dire straits.
Leonard Snart, she knows he's still under her limited power, and she'll be damned if she doesn't try to use that to her advantage in any way she can.
*Providence Waits*
Len can still hear the people around him speak, knows that they do worry, but it doesn't quite register how it should. It's as if they're speaking through a thick fog. Muddled and twisted words pop on the surface of his mind, almost the same as soap bubbles on top of water. It's just so dark, and he can't move no matter how much he tries. Like there's some kind of weight keeping him immobile.
"Lenny? Can you hear me?" Lisa, god, why can't he face her? Why does just thinking about trying to talk to her burn his lungs as if they're on fire? He wants to look her in the eyes and tell her that he's fine, but he knows that he's not. Knows that there is something wrong, something even he can't fix. "I'm just glad you're back, brother. I really worried about you." She touches his hand softly, covering it with her own. Why does it feel so much like a silent cry for help? "I just don't know what to do Lenny, I wish I knew you could hear me."
He listens to his sister talk for hours, as she talks about the battle, about how she met Oliver Queen, about how much she missed him. It hurts to listen to her, but he can't stop. It's as if he's trapped in his own mind, a prisoner of his consciousness. Warm arms wrap around his shoulders, "I'll be back Lenny, you can count on it."
Footsteps, then nothing but the sound of the machines, and the members of Team Flash making plans in the distance. Even that fades into the darkness, and there's nothing once more.
Heavy bootsteps, rustling of cloth. "Hey boss, it's been a while." A familiar presence of someone he could almost always trust to have is back in an emergency. "Your sister told me to come visit you, somethin' about people in comas bein' able to hear it when you talk, I don't know much about that." A loud huff of breath. "...I'm not exactly the best guy to do this, but we all, me, Lisa, the rest of the team… we all, hell, we miss you… fuck, this sucks…" Mick didn't say much after that, just patted Len on the shoulder and said to get better and come back to the team soon.
Time passes funny when you don't measure it, slipping in and out of focus at seemingly random moments, only coming into play when there's some kind of sound. Sound or physical sensation are the only senses he really can rely on right now. He knows that he's in some sort of hospital bed, there's an IV stuck in his arm, and there's no other patients as far as he can tell. Is he still in STAR Labs? There's no way for him to tell, he can't remember the last person who talked to him, just knows that there was a person. At least he hopes that there was a person there and that he didn't make up the whole encounter.
Almost silent now, there's no one here.
Footsteps. Voices. Anything to break up the monotony. Wait, is that?
"-Completely unresponsive-"
"-over four days now-" No, it can't have been that long, didn't seem like it had been… couldn't have been.
"Nothing we can do about it-"
Pressure of a needle. Sound of footsteps. It's all running together now, muddled together like a bad acid trip. "Blood work keeps coming back normal, there's no physical reason for what's happening."
"Did you get any answers from that psycho?"
"No, she just laughed at me." A dramatic sigh, sound of cloth moving. "Again."
"She's done something hasn't she?"
"Probably, we'll just have to wait this out." And how long would that take?
"Wait out a coma?" Oh, well, a coma would sure explain what was happening to him. "Sure, why not."
Len listened to team Flash move around their lab, conducting business, whatever that business was, he had no idea. Not being able to see was a bit of a hindrance in that aspect. They talk amongst each other, and he tries to listen for as long as he can before the inky blackness overtakes him once again.
*Providence Waits*
Cold, dank sewers are no place for them. Not for what they know they truly are. The strong must consume the weak to survive, and they are the strongest there ever has been.
They are legion, strong in their separation, weak in their severance from the fold.
But they will be stronger when they are unified, bound to a solid form.
So it shall be. They have all they need inside of them, ready to use, amazing gifts from the one called Providence.
Lightning and Flame.
Mind and Body.
Strength and Speed.
Superiority. They will be better. The chosen one, the one which she called 'Mr. Fussy', promised them more upon its return to their fold. Promised vengeance and glorious battle unto them. Justice for the fallen, blood for blood, kill for kill. Divinity in their righteous fury.
Providence had promised upon them only servitude, slaves to their First God. But they now know they can have more. More than they had ever dreamed of while under her control. They can be more. Will be more. The wind of change rushes through them in the darkness, linking mind to mind, spirit to spirit, merging them into One.
Perfection. The absolute pinnacle of creation. Promised by the Gods, delivered by the Beasts, the ultimate destruction of Man.
No longer are they separate individuals. No more singularity, no more separate names. They are One. One mind, one body, one spirit. They are Inevitable. The Paragon of Evolution.
They name themselves.
Paragon the Inevitable grins out of the darkness of the sewage system, waiting for what they know shall come to pass. They can feel it.
Soon they will have their vengeance. Soon they will rise up from this darkness and take the Sun. Claim their birthright, the world which was promised to them upon their creation. Promised by their first God. Manifest Destiny. Claiming the throne they so desire.
Soon.
Paragon the Inevitable will lie in wait, biding their time. They will wait for the perfect moment, then they will strike, the war shall be won. They will be the new God.