One Year Later
Disclaimer: All familiar characters belong to DC or Marvel.
Chapter 15: Positives and Negatives
Batman, Blue Beetle, and Tigra had found the Professor Zoom's lab. The other Justice League members were holding off the speedster professor and, hopefully, there would be some clue as to the true nature of the Black Flash. The tigress looked around the lab, which contained numerous scientific formulas and possible notes and theories. She quipped,
"Something tells me that, when we find out what Black Flash is, we'll also find the flux capacitor."
Beetle chuckled,
"Or maybe even a time machine."
Batman glared at the couple,
"Get busy."
Greer placed her hand around Ted's waist,
"Come on, stud. Let's get to work before Batman gets jealous."
Batman ignored the comment and continued sifting through the research…
Meanwhile…
The battle with Professor Zoom was more difficult than Hawkgirl, Green Lantern, and Flash had first thought. Jay Garrick tried to speed up to the mad speedster, but Professor Zoom was always one step ahead. Zoom ran near Hawkgirl and tried to vibrate some of her surroundings. He used the Speed Force and caused part of the street she as flying over to explode. The mace-wielding warrior shielded her eyes as she ascended, some pieces of asphalt pelting her body. Thought the pieces were small, the force of the explosion knocked her back a little. She somersaulted in the air and regained control of her flying pattern quickly.
John Stewart lashed out with his emerald ring, attempting to create constructs that would slow the villainous professor down. Zoom looked up and said out loud,
"I wonder what would happen if I vibrated a Lantern construct."
He placed his hand on the construct and began an attempted vibration. John tried to deactivate the construct, but it was too late. The construct exploded suddenly, and sent the ring user flying into a building. The former soldier crashed through a window and landed on the floor, groaning in pain. He stood up uneasily, but glass shards had showered his body and, as he attempted to stand, cut his hand on one of them.
Jay Garrick said,
"What have you done with Barry?"
Professor Zoom shrugged,
"Well, I might as well tell you, seeing as you would soon be joining them."
He cleared his throat dramatically and began,
"I remember the first Crisis, and when Barry Allen died, he tapped into the Speed Force more so than he ever had done before. He did not die in the traditional sense, but became bonded with the Speed Force and an essence of motion and speed. Naturally, as a scientist interested in speed, I began researching a way to tap into that potential and found out that there are two Speed Forces; positive and negative. Barry Allen tapped into the Positive Speed Force in the Anti-matter Universe, and so did Wally West. So, I began discovering that the Negative Speed Force and Positive Speed Force are a lot like positive and negative charges of electricity; when the two different charges combine, an unbelievable amount of energy is produced."
Jay looked at the deranged scientist and shook his head,
"You maniac! Are you out of your mind?"
Professor Zoom laughed,
"Oh, come on. I'm sure that, as a fellow scientist, you would have wanted to study new aspects of the Speed Force! Of course, I had to infuse Barry with a lot of Negative Speed Force to come back to this world, but I guess I overdid it!"
Jay clenched his fist and slammed a hard hook into Professor Zoom. The deranged professor spun around and was knocked out. Hawkgirl landed and grinned,
"Nice shot."
The elder speedster shook his head,
"Bastard deserved it."
He looked around,
"Where's Green Lantern?"
John hovered to them, trying not to wince in pain,
"I'm here. We'll get Zoom locked up as soon as we can."
One week later, in the Watchtower…
Every League scientist had combed through Professor Zoom's research in an attempt to find a way to restore Barry Allen back to normal as the Flash. Atom, Mr. Terrific, Blue Beetle, Skeets, Jay Garrick, and even Wonder Man were getting in on the act. Each of the scientists had come up with a different theory as to how to restore Barry, and there was a varying degree of opinion on how it would work.
Skeets said,
"Could we produce an artificial Speed Force for him to drain off of?"
Jay shook his head,
"We would need to build a device from scratch in order for that to work, something that could generate massive amounts of force."
Wonder Man nodded,
"I think I might now what it is; Jay, you said that Zoom said that Barry tapped into a positive Speed Force and then got flooded with a negative Speed Force, right? Well, what if we reversed that process?"
Atom said,
"Have Barry absorb negative Speed Force before absorbing Positive? Do you think it could work?"
Mr. Terrific nodded,
"It's possible, but we would need to create negative Speed Force, and I don't know how to do that."
Skeets said,
"I believe I have a way of creating the speeds necessary for what we want to do to help Barry Allen."
Activating a holographic projection screen, the robot from the future showed the heroes the device that could help their friend.
Blue Beetle blinked,
"It looks like a treadmill."
Skeets said,
"As a basic model, it is. We build a treadmill that is capable of creating speeds comparable to that of the Flash and figure a way to tap into the Speed Force to restore Barry Allen from the Black Flash, to the Flash."
Mr. Terrific nodded,
"It makes sense, but it is risky. It could take months to build it and we would need to properly test it."
Atom shrugged,
"It's better than nothing."
Blue Beetle nodded,
"He's right. We'll get started on this right away."
Next Chapter:
Switching gears now, a coup in Kasnia is led by one of Captain America's most nefarious foes, the Red Skull. Stay tuned, fellow readers!