[The Watchtower
March 24, 20:30 EST]
Diana was no stranger to familial love. She had a whole island full of sisters that she would surrender her life for without a second thought. True, she was not a mother and hadn't yet experienced any parental feelings towards a young child before. The closest she had come to it was the intense protectiveness she had for her youngest sister, Donna, and many of the young heroes that had been trained by her own teammates.
Donna had been pleading with Diana for years to let her come to man's world. She wanted to fight crime as her partner – she'd even picked out a name and costume.
Wonder Girl.
Diana had been hesitant to even consider the idea at first, but then she'd really paid attention to how the few heroes and sidekicks worked with each other, and she'd nearly been convinced. Donna was a fine warrior after all – a little unpolished, but well-trained. She was still young, by both human and Amazonian standards, but fifteen wasn't an unreasonable age. Robin had been nine after all when Batman had first begun training him.
Diana had been sold on the idea. She'd even gone to Hephaestus and had him craft a set of armor for her sister. Then, the sidekicks had all rebelled. Roy had stormed out on Oliver. Dick, Wally, and Kaldur'ahm directly disobeyed the instructions of their mentors and snuck off to put themselves into extreme danger investigating Cadmus.
That incident had turned her off from the idea for a long time, but then the sidekicks had made their bids for independence, gathered more young heroes, and formed a very successful team. After that, Diana watched them again, and she was beginning to reconsider Donna as a partner.
It would take some more convincing though because Diana fought demigods and arcane magical beings as old as humanity itself. Her foes were especially deadly, and she wasn't sure if she was willing to put her beloved sister in that kind of danger. Especially not now, with Wally in the hands of one of Barry's most powerful enemies.
She could imagine how he was feeling, and she could definitely understand. If anyone had hurt her sisters, Diana would kill the ones responsible. Barry's reactions were logical to her, but they were unhealthy for him. He was quite possibly the most honorable out of all of them next to Clark. This stunt he'd pulled breaking a villain out of a maximum security prison was alarming.
They'd received word just now that Doctor Alchemy had been returned to his cell twenty minutes ago. He had twelve broken bones, extensive burns on his arms and hands, and minor blood loss. Captain Atom was dealing with Iron Heights right now while she and Clark headed down to the Watchtower's lab to confront Barry. The security system had recognized Barry's arrival a few seconds ago, which was plenty of time for him to get to the lab that he'd practically lived in the last two days when we wasn't out running the planet.
"How bad is it?" Clark asked anxiously. He'd been out scanning all of Missouri and Kansas for Flash and had only just returned half an hour ago.
"Not as bad as it could be," Diana assured him. "Barry's city loves him, and it looks like they're giving him the benefit of the doubt until they have the full story."
"Alright, let's clear this up fast and get a statement down to Central," Clark rubbed at his face stressfully.
They rounded the corner in time to see Hal zipping towards the lab doors full speed, limbed in glowing green light. Clearly, Hal had heard the security system announcement too. He spotted them and landed in front of the doors with both hands thrown out to ward them off, "Just wait a second! Give me a minute to talk to him before you go in guns blazing!"
Diana felt a small twinge of irritation towards him. She had a difficult time getting along with Hal. He was arrogant, and impulsive, and it was almost as if he tried to annoy her. Like it was fun or something.
"We're not going to hurt him," Clark said calmly, giving Hal a look like he'd said something ridiculous.
Diana hoped it was ridiculous. She remembered Clark trying to pin Barry down that first night when she'd been guarding Rudy West's cell. She really hoped they weren't about to walk into another fight with Barry. He was a good friend, but he hadn't been easy to take down. They'd needed three other speedsters to do it.
She looked from Clark to Hal, and then back to Clark. It was eerily similar to last time. Maybe they should've brought a couple speedsters along, although Max Mercury and Jay were still in the med bay.
"Right…" Hal ran a hand through his hair, looking upset. "Still, though, let me go in there and talk to him first just in case he – hey!"
Diana shoved past him and pushed open the double doors, looking around for Barry. She spotted him off to the right, hunched over a table and looking through a microscope with his cowl thrown back. He didn't give any indication that he'd heard her enter.
Hal flew right by her and landed behind Barry, placing himself between his friend and Diana. He put a hand on Barry's shoulder when he didn't react to their approach in any way and leaned in close to talk to him, "You gotta stop doing this, buddy. I don't like you switching up the roles in this friendship whenever you feel like it. I'm the one who does the stupid shit and you're the one that smacks the sense back into me, remember? I can't be the reasonable one. I'm ill-equipped for it."
Barry didn't look up from the microscope, "It's Element Z."
"What?" Hal asked, cocking one eyebrow in confusion.
Diana moved to the other side of the table where a small chunk of rock was sitting. She looked closer and saw that it was softly shimmering a pretty gold color in veins.
"One of the substances in the blood samples," Barry stood upright and fixed Hal with a grim stare. There were deep circles under his normally bright blue eyes and his hair was a mess. "It was Element Z. I found it."
Clark looked at the rock and then at Barry, looking like he was connecting the dots in his head, "Did this have anything to do with you breaking one of your villains out of prison?"
Barry's eyes flickered over to Clark instantly, and he spoke in a harsh voice that was so unnatural to hear coming from him, "One of the first few times I fought Zoom, before he got his own powers, he used Element Z to gain super speed. Doctor Alchemy purified it for him."
Clark looked at the rock with understanding then and nodded slowly, "So, you thought Doctor Alchemy was responsible for the Element Z in Blue Trinity's blood. You took him to question him…"
"How do you know that Element Z wasn't just an ingredient in Dr. Orloff's serum?" Diana asked.
"I'm a forensic tech," Barry said sharply, narrowing his eyes at her as if she'd just insulted him. "I know how to check my facts. Orloff had already created his serum well before the first time Professor Zoom surfaced. He wouldn't have any idea what Element Z even is, much less how to purify it."
"So it was definitely Doctor Alchemy," Clark said quickly, obviously trying to diffuse Barry's rising anger before it became an issue. "What did he say when you spoke to him?"
"Nothing at first," Barry said ominously. Evasively. "He kept lying to me and pretending not to know anything about Zoom. Until I made him talk."
"You tortured him." Diana said bluntly. There was no hiding what he'd done to the imprisoned villain. He'd beaten the answers out of him. Barry turned to face her, and she stared back unhappily, daring him to deny it.
He didn't.
"He told me that Zoom came to him a little over a year ago and asked him to purify more Element Z – about a hundred pounds of it. Never gave him a reason why," Barry said steadily. "He said Professor Zoom threatened to kill him if he breathed a word of it to anyone."
"How'd you get him to talk then?" Hal asked nervously. He was looking more and more worried by the second.
"I made him fear me more," Barry ground out carefully, glaring at Hal out of the corners of his eyes.
Clark looked just as upset at the news but seemed to be able to keep it together enough to handle Barry cautiously, "What does this mean?"
"I don't know…" Barry seemed to calm down a little. He closed his eyes and leaned against the table for support. "Zoom obviously found a way to grind Element Z down and inject it into the bloodstream, but using it on Blue Trinity doesn't make sense; they're already speedsters. Unless it was like an enhancer. Beyond that…I have no idea. I thought the lead would give me more, but it's just an extension of an already dead end. Zoom was covering his tracks."
They all fell silent for a long minute, and Diana watched Barry wither a little. Her heart went out to him. He was trying so hard, but every lead they had so far had turned up nothing they could use to track down Zoom. She knew how difficult it must be to keep going when it looked like there was no hope.
"Barry, we have to talk about this," Clark said reluctantly but firmly. "Taking a supervillain from prison…there were better ways you could have gone about questioning Doctor Alchemy. You should have set up a meeting inside Iron Heights-"
Barry shot him a look like he was crazy, "There was no time for that! Do you realize that time moves differently at superspeed? If Zoom's torturing Wally, he could make an hour feel like years. He's had him for thirty-three! I didn't have time to 'set up a meeting'!"
"There were still better ways that you could have handled it," Clark sighed. "Captain Atom's trying to deal with the fallout from this as we speak. The Justice League can't have its members doing things like that, Barry. We can't afford any bad press – not with people like Godfrey watching our every move for mistakes."
"I don't give a damn about the League's public image!" Barry growled at him incredulously. Even Diana cringed a little at Clark's choice of words. He wasn't wrong, but she knew that he hadn't meant for that to sound so callous. "All I care about is finding my son!"
Diana saw Barry's rage vanish suddenly and his eyes widen a little in surprise as he caught his own slip up. Hal frowned at him sadly in concern, reaching out to grip his arm tightly.
"It's more than that. If you cross lines like that once, it's easier to do it again," Clark toned down the accusation in his voice and looked at Barry sympathetically. "We're worried about you."
"I'll do whatever it takes to find him," Barry pushed off from the table and snatched up the Element Z ore. His anger was muted now, and he just seemed unconcerned with their attempts at an intervention. "Kick me out of the League if you have to. I don't care."
"What about your city?" Diana stepped forwards to block his path once he started for the lab's exit.
"I'll answer to them once this is over and I've found Wally," he made to sidestep her, turning his back on all three of them.
Diana watched him approach the door, feeling the pull to stop him but having no idea what to say. How was she supposed to stop a man who was just trying to protect his family? Hal seemed to have at least some kind of idea, because he ran after Barry to catch up and hadn't gotten more than two words out of his mouth before the lab doors suddenly slammed open with a bang.
Diana's entire body automatically readied for a fight but relaxed when she saw Roy running into the lab. He was panting and sweating from what she could only imagine had been a frantic sprint over here.
"I've been looking everywhere for you," the young archer took a deep breath. He jogged the last few steps to Barry and held up a fistful of files and pictures hastily bound together. Diana raised an eyebrow at the crooked grin on his face. Why was he so happy all of a sudden? A few hours ago, he'd been an unholy terror in the training room.
"You've got to see this."
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[Undisclosed Location
Unknown Date, Unknown Time]
He felt like someone had ripped the heart from his chest and replaced it with an eighty-year old's. Wally opened his eyes slowly, much more awake than he'd been last time. He looked around at the glass cell that he was still trapped in and pushed himself upright. On the other side of the glass, there stood two tall men in blue and white costumes with cowls that covered their entire heads and a blue star smack in the middle of their chests. One was standing a few paces back with his arms hanging at his sides and his head cocked to the side like a confused dog. The other was staring at him in much the same fashion but was right beside the cell with some kind of remote resting in his hand.
They were the two speedsters who had attacked Jay and Max!
Wally zipped to his feet.
Or…he tried to.
He ended up horrifically misjudging the speed he meant to move at and staggered off balance in a hunched over sort of posture. Wally shot out his hand to steady himself on the glass, miscalculated again, and crashed into it shoulder first. He hit the ground hard, unable to coordinate his limbs to break the fall for him, and rolled onto his back with a groan.
What the hell was going on? He wasn't moving correctly. At all.
The two speedsters watched his progress curiously and silently. Wally got to his hands and knees and stared at the ground in alarm. His heart was plodding along in his chest at a snail's pace, feeling heavy and slow and unnatural. Wally raised two shaking fingers to the vein in his neck and tried to control his breathing as he counted.
One…two…three…four…five…six…seven…eight…nine…
His green eyes widened in alarm, and he sat back on his heels in numb shock. His heartbeat was barely faster than one beat per second. That was…so hilariously slower than normal that Wally didn't know how to process it. His heartbeat hadn't been that slow in six years – since before he got his powers.
He moved his fingers further down his neck. Maybe he just wasn't reading it right. The digits bumped into something hard that was fixed snugly around his neck. His heart rate picked up a few beats finally. Wally gripped the foreign object with both hands, feeling along the metal all the way around his neck. He gasped soundlessly in crushing terror as he realized what it was.
An inhibitor collar.
That's why his heartbeat was so slow. The collar had cut off his connection to his speed. It had taken away his powers. Wally desperately tugged and pulled at the collar, testing all around for weaknesses and finding none. He looked up at the two speedsters for an explanation, but they remained stonily silent, still staring at him blankly. Wally tried to use his speed again to shoot to his feet, but it failed again. This time, he knew what was wrong and corrected the motion before he could fall over. He slammed a powerful kick into the glass, which didn't deliver as much force as usual but was still enough to rattle the glass. Okay, so he was still as strong as normal – just without the momentum of superspeed behind it. Thank God that Uncle Barry had always insisted they do strength training and conditioning even though they were metahumans. Relying on super powers all the time was how you got killed.
Unfortunately, Wally thought as he eyed the two insanely fast speedsters waiting on the other side of the glass, that probably wasn't going to be any good to him this time – not against those two. He frantically eyed his surroundings again; he was still in the same warehouse type room as before. His eyes swiveled to the roll down door that tracks of slushy snow had been leading from before. There. If he was going to run, that would be the way to go. It clearly had to lead outside at some point.
Wally looked back at the relaxed speedsters again and felt his stomach sink. There was no way he could outrun them. He hadn't been able to do it when he did have his powers; he'd never be able to get past them now. Wally turned around and looked at the various stacks of crates and tables that littered the space that Zoom had occupied before.
Zoom.
Shit! Was he still here?!
Wally turned in a circle, frantically searching the room for any sign of the bright yellow villain. It…didn't look like he was here, but that didn't really mean all that much. Professor Zoom could be hiding behind any one of the towering stacks of junk that filled the warehouse.
He took a deep breath and tried to adjust to being so slow again. Ugh. How had he ever lived like this? How did Aunt Iris, or Hal, or Dick live like this? Wally frowned at the thought of his family and friends. He pictured Aunt Iris' smiling face, and his heart constricted violently. He missed them. Geez, how long had he been gone? They had to know he was missing by now. Were they looking for him?
Stop thinking like that. Of course they were looking for him.
Wally felt his courage rebound, and he kicked the glass again, glaring out defiantly at the two speedsters, "Let me out of here!"
The one closest to the glass held up the remote and pressed a button. Immediately, the glass cell gave a great hiss, and the cylindrical walls started to slide upwards, detaching from the base. Wally stumbled back in surprise. He hadn't really expected them to – nevermind! He wasn't some helpless civilian. He'd been trained by the best, and he wasn't going to let them do whatever they wanted to him without a fight.
Wally ducked under the glass and sprinted for the roll down door at a dead run.
He miscalculated again. His mind was already placing him only a few feet from the door before his feet had taken six running steps. Right. Powers gone. But, it was too late to go back. Wally grit his teeth and ran as fast as his legs would carry him which, while impressive for a normal human, felt like he was crawling. He pushed himself faster, feeling ridiculous but having no other alternative.
Come on. Come on. Come on!
Wally glanced over his shoulder as he ran, already a third of the way to the door, and saw that neither speedster was chasing him. They hadn't moved so much as an inch, only turning their heads to watch him. He looked back at his goal and focused on keeping his breathing even while his instincts screamed at him that something was wrong. They should have chased after him. Why hadn't they? Were they toying with him - letting him get all the way to the door before capturing him again and dragging him back just to let him feel the crushing defeat of being so close to freedom only to have it ripped away?
He steeled his resolve and kept running. Wally would endure.
Quick as lightning, Wally felt a ripple of hot, thick pain shoot through his entire body. His muscles locked up, and he went crashing to the floor in full seizure. His skin tingled like it was bubbling, and his heart raced as he convulsed helplessly, every vein feeling like it was bursting apart.
Wally had only ever experienced searing, numbing pain like this once before. It had been the happiest day in his life – he'd been ten years old and meeting the Flash for the first time in his uncle's lab at the Central City police station. A bolt of lightning had come arcing through the window and struck him dead in the chest, throwing him back onto a rack of chemicals. It was how he'd gotten his powers.
Then, it was gone.
Wally just stared up at the dark ceiling in open mouthed shock, feeling the coppery taste of blood spreading through his mouth. He must've bitten through his tongue when his jaw clamped shut. His head throbbed in agony, sending the waves of aching pain all the way down into his bones. Wally could only lie there, paralyzed, feeling his heart pound madly in his chest like he'd just finished running from coast to coast. Two strong hands pulled him upright and hooked beneath his arms. Wally managed to crane his neck enough to see both speedsters standing on either side of him.
They started walking away from the roll down door, and Wally tried to move his legs to resist, but they just dragged along behind him uselessly. He wrenched to the side with his shoulders and bumped one elbow ineffectually into the speedster to his left. They didn't speak, didn't react in any way, just carried him along to the room's other exit. Wally swallowed a mouthful of his own blood and dug one heel firmly into the ground. The speedster to his right just yanked his arm harder and pulled him along.
Feeling was beginning to return to his muscles. Undeterred, Wally fought through the pain, curling his legs up off the floor. He locked his own arms around the ones holding him and twisted his body to the side, slamming one shin into the back of the speedster to his right's knee. When it gave out, Wally kicked his other leg out into the side of his captor's bent knee. He heard it dislocate with a satisfying crack, and the blue and white clad speedster went down.
The speedster to his left released his arm, grabbing the back of the shirt they'd dressed him in yesterday and throwing him away from them. Wally hit the floor in a roll and was just placing one foot flat on the ground when the collar electrified him again. He seized up and collided with the concrete head first. Wally's fingers and toes curled up painfully, and his organs felt strained to bursting. The white hot current tore through his muscles again mercilessly, lasting a few seconds longer than last time. From his prone position on the floor, Wally could see the speedster he'd taken down roll onto his back, clutching the disfigured kneecap with both hands. He gave a forceful jerk and popped the knee back into place without even a grunt of pain.
He got back to his feet as his partner calmly watched Wally writhing on the floor uncontrollably, the collar's remote in his hand and pointed right at him. He lowered the remote once the shocks had died off and pulled Wally back to his feet. The speedster he'd injured took up his other side again and kept walking like it hadn't happened.
Wally fought to recover again, looking all around at the room before he was taken from it. They walked past the project tarp that had been blocking his view of the conveyor belt earlier, and now Wally could see everything. Sitting on the small stretch of assembly line was a neat, evenly spaced row of Manhunter head faceplates.
Great. He was trapped in the middle of a Manhunter factory. Excellent. Wally spat out another mouthful of blood and hung limp in the arms of his captors as they carried him through the door. He was smart enough not to try a third time. He'd save his energy and try something else when the opportunity presented itself.
They left the dark warehouse behind and entered a clean, brightly lit hallway. The walls were utilitarian grey, unpolished, and windowless. The lace-up combat boots they'd put him in squeaked loudly on the tile floor as Wally stumbled along on jelly legs. Wait, why was he trying to walk? Wally went completely dead weight, forcing both speedsters to struggle to drag him until they gave in and lifted him off the ground entirely.
Wally didn't have any choice in where they were taking him, but he sure as hell didn't need to make it easy for them. He ignored the pain in his arms and just hung limp, carefully watching the route they took and committing it to memory in case he needed it later.
Left turn, another left, elevator on the right, down four levels, no stairs – that was a special kind of awful – six doors down the left hallway, last door at the hall's end.
Wally's captors carried him into a room that closely resembled a hospital's examination room. Except instead of a table, there was a reclining chair with restraints built into it. Standing beside the chair were two women wearing red and blue Manhunter uniforms. One was dark-haired and young looking, and the other was brunette and appeared to be middle-aged. Both had on surgical masks, gloves, and were holding a rack of empty vacutainer blood collection tubes.
Oh, hell no! Wally bucked frantically, thrashing and twisting to get free. He'd been wrong. He totally should have fought the whole way here.
One of the speedsters slugged him in the kidney, and Wally doubled over with a gasp. He lashed out with his long legs and scored a hit on the one who'd punched him. He shrugged it off and changed the hold in a blur of motion. One wrestled Wally's arms behind his back, and the other locked his legs under one arm. Wally threw his head back and smashed it into the masked speedster's face. Predictably, it didn't have any noticeable effect.
They forced Wally into the chair and held him down while the two women quickly secured him with the straps. He tried to keep his breathing steady and not panic with his arms, legs, and torso tied down. Man, he really wished they hadn't taken his costume from him. He could've used the extra reassurance it gave him, because the black shirt, pants, and boots they'd changed him into weren't helping him feel like a superhero at all. And, God, he really needed to not feel like a civilian right now. Well, if he couldn't have that, he'd have to resort to mouthing off. That usually gave him a bit of false confidence when he was facing off against a powerful enemy.
Both women approached him, and the dark-haired one rolled up his sleeve and swabbed the crook of his elbow with something amber colored and sterile smelling. Wally jerked his arm away as much as he could in the restrains and fixed her with a glare, "Wow, so there are like a lot of you supervillain rejects, huh? What are you guys – robot nurse one and two? What do you do? Oil changes and tune ups?"
"We aren't robots," the dark-haired woman furrowed her brow at him, the rest of her expression hidden beneath the mouth cover. "We're acolytes, and we need medical attention sometimes just like anyone else."
She slid a hypodermic needle with a connector into Wally's arm, taped it in place, and held her hand out to her partner. The second woman handed her an empty tube, and she plugged it into his arm. Wally watched the finger-sized tube fill with his blood and felt the panic rising again. Oh crap. What did they need his blood for? Cloning? Experimentation?
"Except, you're not like everyone else," he spat, still moving his arm to make it as difficult as possible for her. "You're some creepy, child abducting psycho that's helping to end the world. I mean, who helps a bunch of alien robots kill their own species? Wait... Eww, you don't have like a robot fetish, do you? Cause that's really gross. They've got therapists you can go to see for that, you know."
The dark-haired woman didn't look at him. She just removed the full vial and plugged in another one, handing it off to her partner.
"How'd you get into this? Couldn't land a real job at a hospital?" Wally cringed like he felt bad for them. "Oh, I bet you weren't all that good at keeping people alive, huh? Had to go work for robots, 'cause I guess they wouldn't care, right?"
The woman's eyes flickered up at him in annoyance, but she just switched out vials again and filled another one with his blood.
"Hey, it's not like this is human teenager on tap, you vampire!" Wally struggled against the bindings as more and more tubes were filled. There had to be like twelve of them by now. "Listen, lady; if you're gonna tie me up and steal all my blood, you at least have to buy me dinner first! I'm not this easy."
She sighed and handed off another vial, "Anders, would you please shut him up?"
The second woman nodded and set down the rack of blood samples. She went to the cabinets against the far wall and retrieved a thick, black gag.
Wally's struggles kicked up a notch. "Just tell me what you want my blood for, and I'll be quiet for…three minutes. Okay? Hey! I think that's a fair offer! Get the hell awa-mmph!"
She secured the thick fabric firmly over his mouth and chin, fastening it behind his neck and then returned to assisting her partner. Wally tossed his head stubbornly and tried to dislodge the gag.
The two women finished quickly after that, carefully securing twenty vials of his blood and discarding the needle and tape. The older brunette knocked on the door twice and stepped back when it opened. Wally glared at the doorway silently, feeling his heart quicken when a familiar yellow and red clad man stepped into the room.
Professor Zoom again.
"We need an escort down to the labs," the dark-haired acolyte told him slightly nervously.
Zoom just jerked his thumb at the door, "Gregor. Boleslaw. Leave the remote."
Wally watched curiously as the two speedsters left the room together, one in front of the women and one behind. Those blood samples had to be pretty important if they needed a four man guard. He felt his stomach twist uneasily as he thought about what they were going to do with his blood. Was this what they'd taken him for? It had to be a part of the reason at least.
"Well, good morning, Wally." Zoom turned to him and pulled back his mask as soon as the room was empty. "How did you sleep?"
Wally glared at him.
Zoom smiled, the sick mockery of his uncle's face contorting to show the manic glee, "It doesn't look like you've been a very good boy today. Here, how about we make a deal? I'll give you a chance to redeem yourself. I'm going to take off that gag, and you're going to tell me the secret identities of as many heroes as you know. Sound like a fair trade?"
Wally tried to keep the fear off his face as he shook his head at Zoom.
"No? Hmm. Alright, how about this: I'll remove the gag if you tell me all the identities and the access codes you know. Like to the Hall of Justice and the Watchtower."
Wally sat very still, forcing his expression into a defiant mask.
Zoom sighed and threw his arms out like he was playfully exasperated, "You are one tough negotiator. Did Barry teach you that? Okay, final offer. I cannot sweeten the deal any more than this, Wally, so stop asking! You tell me identities, access codes, and the layout of all your secret hideouts. Then, I'll take off the gag. What do you say?"
He felt his false bravado starting to slip, his fear beginning to take over. 'Calm down, Wally,' he told himself mentally. He needed to keep his cool.
When Wally didn't nod or shake his head, Zoom crossed his arms unhappily, "You're not being very agreeable, Wally. Are you going to make me force it out of you? That's pretty rude."
Then, Zoom's smile darkened considerably, "Didn't your mother teach you any better?"
Wally saw red. He lunged against the bindings furiously, trying to yell from behind the gag. How dare he?!
Zoom threw his head back and started laughing while Wally thrashed to get free, "Oh, don't be like that. I tried to be nice about this. After all, you and I go way back. True, I do hate you, and I want you dead, but you made me what I am."
Thawne zipped closer and was suddenly standing right in front of Wally. He leaned on the armrest of the chair with one hand and gripped Wally's throat with the other. Zoom's mismatched blue eyes glared down at him madly, and Wally had an odd moment of numbness where he wondered if Zoom had stolen the eyes and transplanted them himself or if he'd just used some future device to change the color. He really hoped it was the latter explanation but had a terrified feeling that he'd taken them from two different people.
"You're going to tell me everything even if I have to pry each syllable from you by force," Zoom snarled at him. His eyes glowed red, and Wally felt an electric charge build up around them both. "I'm going to make you betray everyone you love, and then, after I sell their identities to the proper villains, I'm going to make sure they know it was you who gave up their secrets."
Wally smashed his forehead into Zoom's face, feeling the sociopath's nose break on impact. Professor Zoom reeled back in surprise, clutching his bleeding nose with his eyes shut in pain. Then, Wally saw his thumb press down on the remote.
Electricity shot through his body again from the collar, making Wally jerk rigidly in the chair. He tried not to show that it hurt but ended up making a strangled choking noise. The current ripped through his body like fire, speeding up his heart until it felt like it would punch right out of his chest.
Zoom turned off the current, and Wally slumped in the seat, gasping for air. Thawne wiped the blood off his face and idly tossed the remote up into the air over and over again, "Oh my, that was fun. I have to be careful not to overuse this. Don't want to kill you accidentally."
Wally wanted to shout that there was nothing accidental about strapping someone to a chair and electrocuting them to death, but he had a feeling Zoom wouldn't care.
Professor Zoom reached out and pulled off the gag, "Let's see. I already know your whole family and where they all live. I know about the first Flash and his wife, but they're not really my concern. Retired heroes won't make me any money. Let's think a bit. Who are you and Barry good buddies with?"
He snapped his fingers as if a great idea had just hit him, "I've got it! Green Lantern. Tell me who he is."
Hal Jordan.
Wally spat blood at Zoom. It was childish – and a little gross – but he felt that it got his answer across pretty accurately.
"Where does he live? I know he and Barry are close. Surely, you know everything about him?" Zoom rolled his eyes at Wally's defiance. "I think you do."
"Pfft," he rasped, trying to make it seem like he was totally fine. "You don't know anything. Flash hates GL. They don't get along at all."
"Liar," Professor Zoom chuckled mildly. He took Wally's hand in both of his own and calmly broke his index finger. "Why don't we try again? Who is Green Lantern?"
Wally gasped in pain and clamped his jaw shut to keep from crying out. He tried not to look at the severely crooked digit and instead focused on Zoom, who was watching him closely in pure delight. Wally kept his hand as still as possible and took a deep breath to control the pain.
"Come on, Wally. Just give me his name. He's not worth another broken finger, is he?"
Yes. Hal definitely was. He was like another uncle to Wally.
"Green Lantern is actually just Poison Ivy in disguise," Wally said very seriously. "But, don't tell anyone. It's a secret."
Zoom snapped his middle finger with an unamused glower. Wally gave a shaky cry and instinctively tried to curl his fingers in to protect them.
"Keep lying to me, and I'll start pulling teeth next," he promised angrily. "I'll be nice and pick another hero, but only once. Merlyn's been after Green Arrow for years. Tell me who he is."
Oliver Queen. He and Roy didn't always get along so well, but he was still Roy's adoptive father. Roy loved him, whether he admitted it or not, and Oliver had always been super nice to Wally. He'd never give up Oliver's identity to save himself.
"Oh, same thing," Wally shrugged, trying to keep his voice as normal as possible with both broken fingers radiating sharp, stabbing pain through his nerves. "He's also Black Canary. You can tell, 'cause they're both blond."
Zoom gave a growl of rage and grabbed Wally's ring and pinkie fingers, bending them all the way backwards until they touched the back of his hand. They both popped out of their sockets with twin snaps, and this time, Wally couldn't hold back his shuddering cry. "Enough!"
"I'm not going to tell you anything!" Wally gasped, fighting to get free as Zoom broke both fingers at the second knuckle.
"I've spoken to Psimon before," Zoom said rather calmly. He abandoned Wally's mangled right hand and moved onto the left. "He's very good at figuring out people's relations to each other. So, I asked him to watch all the heroes and tell me who was close to whom."
He broke Wally's thumb sideways, "I know that Superman and Batman have a great deal of respect for each other."
"Red Arrow thinks of Black Canary as a mother figure. So sweet…," he bent another finger upwards at a ninety degree angle.
"And I know that you," Zoom grabbed Wally's face and forced their eyes to meet. "-are in love with Robin."
Oh, God no…
Wally panted heavily, a sudden, overwhelming feeling of pure terror drowning his pain. Zoom knew how much he cared about Dick. Wally had dragged his best friend into Zoom's sights.