Earth-2: 5 months ago...
SPIDER-MAN & ICEMAN R.I.P
Central City mourns its fallen heroes.
They mourn for the heroes that fell protecting them. But there was one individual who was currently taking this loss the hardest. Angelica was looking down on the city as she stood at the top of the Empire State Building and just stared off into the sky. She felt...she felt...
She didn't even feel.
Her two best friends, people who took her in and made her feel important, the people who have been there for years, have been taken from her. She wanted to feel, she wanted to be able to do something.
But all she could do was scream.
She let out an ear-piercing, throat-curling scream that caused her powers to react. She flew off of the building a little so when she exploded, it sent a wave of heat and fire like a gigantic explosion all around her, unbelievably managing to not hurt anyone.
Then she fell.
Not fast. Just slow so that she could fall apart. She lowered herself down to the ground where she then landed in the park and curled up. She cried. She just cried. Thinking of her friends and people she had considered family who have been taken from her.
She was on her way walking through the streets of the city with May Parker, the last of her friends. She tried to help the elderly woman so that they could both stand. But it was becoming increasingly difficult. They were being escorted by Harrison Wells, who funded this entire get-together. Well, mostly. Everyone else sort of showed to show their support for the family and friends.
"Are you Spider-Man's mommy?" A little girl who Angelica recognized as someone Peter rescued from a burning building. She even had a few burns on her face from the experience.
May smiled as she turned to the girl. "No, sweetie. I was his aunt."
"But you made him breakfast like his mommy?" The little girl asks her.
"Sweetie." Her mother tried to stop the little girl.
"No, it's alright." May assure the mother, seeing no harm in these questions. "Yes, sweetie. I did."
"When I was little, Spider-Man saved me from a fire so I didn't die." She informed May. May smiled and nodded, recalling the story. She teared up even more thinking of her nephew. "Do you need a hug?"
May immediately took the kid up on that offer and embraced the child in a hug. She finally let the tears flow and broke down as she held the child. Angelica watched in sadness and knew how she was feeling. She loved Peter and Bobby, not in the same way, but they were basically her family. She lost her father a few years ago before she met Peter and Bobby, and her mother died when she was only a baby. A hand was placed on Angelica and she looked to see it was Jesse, Harrison Wells' daughter, and Angelica's friend.
They were going to start making their way inside when Angelica hears a faint voice ask something. "Why did he do it?" She looked over and noticed a young black boy a few years younger than her (somewhere around 14). "Why did he become Spider-Man?"
Angelica cried a little as she recalled why and walked her way closer to the boy. She wanted to make sure Peter and Bobby's reasoning wasn't screwed around by the media. They were true heroes and died saving her life.
"Because his uncle, the guy who raised him, died. Peter thought that he died because even though he had these powers he didn't do anything to help." Angelica recalled the story. "At least that's always how Peter saw it. And his uncle told him these words, words that the three of us learned to live by: With great power comes great responsibility. Okay?" She then teared up as she thought of what happened. "Maybe if we kept our identities a secret, they'd still be here."
Angelica made her way into the church and left the boy and his friend. But what Angelica never realized was that the boy was named Miles Morales, and he was recently bitten by a genetically enhanced spider.
After the service, Angelica just sat in the church in the darkness of the night and cried. She didn't even know that she ever had these many tears within her. She has never cried this much in her life and didn't know what else she could do other than just cry. There were still two pictures standing up with photos of both Peter and Bobby, both of their normal selves and another of their hero personas.
A streak of lighting could be seen outside if Angelica was paying attention. Then she noticed a figure coming up and recognized it was Jay Garrick, the Flash of Central City. He stood over Angelica and held out a tissue for her to wipe her face with. She took the kind gesture and wiped her face of the snot and tears.
"Sorry I couldn't get here sooner, I was held up with a lead on Deathstorm and Frost. Thought that I could finally put them away for what they did." Jay apologizes and pats her shoulder. "How are you feeling?"
"How do you think I'm feeling?" Angelica asks him sarcastically.
"Right. Dumb question." Jay saw and sighed as he eyed the portraits. "They were true heroes. They didn't deserve this. What are you going to do now?"
"I am going to hunt Frost and Deathstorm down," Angelica promises as she clutched her fists as her body burned. "I want their heads on pikes."
Then their phones went off and they were shocked when they saw what everyone was now talking about: "Spider-Man No More...please?" There was a photo of what looked to be someone dressed in a costume of spiderman getting himself rammed into a store.
"Was Peter training a prodigy I wasn't aware of?" Jay was shocked to see.
"Not that I know of." Angelica knew she was going to have to figure this out.
Earth-1: Present Day...
Barry and Peter have visited Black Cat MJ in the pipeline and she explains how Zoom wanted them dead. And when they were dead, she would take their emblem to prove they were dead and throw it through the breach. He would confirm they were dead. She also warned them they can't stop Zoom, but it's not like they're gonna listen to that.
"Zoom wants Cat to send him your emblems?" Caitlin asks him.
"Yes. If we can get Cat to take our emblems, and throw them through the breach, then Zoom will come to collect the bodies, and we can trap him." Barry tells them the plan.
"This is the woman who was willing to kill MJ and you to escape Zoom, but now she's willing to help us catch him?" Caitlin asks them.
"She knows that there's no other way out," Barry tells her and Wells approaches.
"Before I left Earth-2, I worked on a serum to dampen Zoom's speed." Wells offered as he plugged it into the computers to show it to them. "All we would need is for Ramon to develop a weapon to deliver it."
"Great, that could be this year's cold gun, while we're at it why not a new weapon like say... a Spider-Slayer?" Caitlin tells them, sarcasm in every part of her statement. "Maybe another criminal can get it, and then we'd have Sergeant Slow and Spider-Killer."
"I would never let that happen. Sergeant Slow is a terrible name." Cisco informs Caitlin. "But Spider-Killer isn't half bad."
"I prefer Spider-Slayer," Bobby admitted. "Sounds like some form of Kaiju robot."
"Are we forgetting how more powerful Zoom is compared to Barry? I mean, Barry can catch bullets, and Peter can dodge them. What's to say Zoom can't catch whatever you shoot at him?" Caitlin asks, not wanting to see anything happen to her boyfriend or his brother.
"Element of surprise." Wells proclaimed. "All we would do is rig a projectile to fire as Zoom crosses into the breach. He can't stop what he doesn't see."
"Not unless he has Peter's Spider-Sense, which at this point I can easily see as likely," Gwen added on.
"Ha! Don't you dare jinx us," Bobby commented and got to thinking. "I should start making an emblem of my own."
"Like what? A block of ice?" Harry asked jokingly.
Desperately, Caitlin turned to the man that was currently standing quietly in the corner. "Joe. Voice of reason, here?"
"We need a plan," Joe said, unhelpfully. "That's as good as any." He paused, and Barry nodded. Joe looked up, and straight at Wells. "As long as he can deliver."
"Don't underestimate me, detective," Wells said, almost dangerously, turning and walking off.
Barry's phone buzzed, and he looked down at it. "Oh, Singh needs us back at the station." He told Joe. "I'll meet you there." He bent down to kiss Caitlin's cheek but she batted him away, still annoyed, and strode out.
"Ouch," MJ commented.
"We gotta start feeding our guest, otherwise she'll starve." Peter recognized it has been a while since Black Cat MJ fed.
"Think we should run out and grab her some cat food?" Bobby asks jokingly, noticing the blank stares. He was a little annoyed and rolled his eyes. "Come on, you laugh at his terrible jokes, but not mine?"
"Just for that, you're on duty to feed her." Peter proclaimed and tossed a bag from Big Belly Burger.
"What?" Bobby looked down at the bag and scoffed. "There's like a dozen people here and I end up doing this?"
"Oh, quit whining and get on with it." Gwen mocked.
Bobby just muttered angrily at himself and started to walk off. "I need to find better friends." He then made his way down the halls and towards the Pipeline and just kept muttering to himself. "I mean, you could just get a robot to do things like this."
But when he made his way down to the labs, he was shocked to notice there wasn't anyone within the cell. He quickly ran over to the cell and noticed one of the panels was pried off and the wiring was messed with. Her gloves and white armored pieces were removed, which brought him into a panic, and opened the cell. He ran over to the pieces and wondered what she did.
Then he was hit in the head when Cat tackled him from above and managed to knock him out. Bobby was thrown into the wall and ran out, while he was down, all of the systems started to glitch out on the heroes. MJ Cat managed to hack into their systems using the inside of the cell and was able to make a quick and silent getaway before anyone knew something was wrong.
"Cat managed to hack into the systems through her cell," Cisco explains to them what happened after Bobby woke up and told them what happened.
"We need to figure out what we're going to do next," Wells growled in anger.
"Do you think Cat is going to try to take MJ again?" Caitlin suggested.
"Just to be safe, we should keep you here for now," Joe tells MJ.
"No disagreement there," MJ assured him.
"I thought I convinced her to help us, so she could be free of Zoom," Barry was sorry to see he was wrong. Now they need a new plan to lure Zoom. "How are we doing with the speed dampener?"
"I think we isolated the composite. And were modifying the dart that Oliver used to take down Wells." Cisco tells them.
"He's not Wells, I'm Wells." Wells reminded him.
"We don't even know if this thing works," Joe states.
"Until we try it, no we don't. This will be a field test, so can we end this and get back to work?" Wells asks them.
"Maybe it's a good thing that Cat is gone. Maybe it's the universe stopping us from doing something stupid." Joe replies to Wells.
But Barry shook his head stubbornly. "No. No! Keep going. We gotta figure out another way to get Zoom."
Surprisingly, MJ raised her hand with an offer. "I actually might have an idea." She then gestured to the leftover gear Cat left behind to escape. "We still have her actual gear, right?" She then looked over to Cisco. "And I bet a certain someone can replicate the rest of the suit."
"Yes, but... what's the plan?" Cisco was a little confused.
"Me," MJ stated as she gestured to herself. "We dress me like Black Cat and set up a scene where I fight Flash and Spider-Man, then we can lead Zoom here."
Bobby wasn't sure about that and looked around. "Uh...we all thinking that's a bad idea?"
Barry and Peter both eyed one another. Both of them wondered if that had the possibility of working. There were a lot of risks involved with it, but if she was going to willingly volunteer, it was a path they could at least humor.
"Well, I mean, it could be." Barry agreed with Bobby.
"But if MJ wants to give it a try, I say we go for it." Peter decided to at least play with the idea.
Cisco was quick to get to work on making the rest of the suit so that they could put it all together. While that was happening, Caitlin and Harry were working on where they could have the fight.
Wells was working in the labs on his speed dampener when Peter came and knocked on the door. It was a little strange considering there as there really wasn't a door there.
"You need something?" Wells asks as he was focusing on his work.
"Not really, I was...I was just sort of curious about something." Peter said as he approached, looking over the notes. "My doppelgänger. Did you know him?"
Wells was a little surprised he was curious about his alternate life and shrugged. "Your doppelgänger, he was...very similar to you." He then used his drive and pulled up some information on him. "Your uncle died, during a carjacking." Peter watched the news report of Ben Parker's death fill the screen. "Once the particle accelerator messed with one of my experiments, it caused a genetically altered spider." He then pulled up two more files that showed Peter and Bobby, as well as a third woman he never met. "When you became Spider-Man, you met Iceman. He was a metahuman with no control over his powers. You helped him, and the two of you showed there could be some good metahumans."
Then the third one shows a girl who was on fire. "Who's she?"
"Angelica Jones." Wells introduced Peter to the third member of the group. "Firestar. A metahuman who was capable of manipulating microwave radiation in her body to combust into flames."
"And you knew all of us?" Peter was a little surprised.
"You all came to me to create your suits. You think you could get your hands on efficient designs like that without the gear?" Wells asks sarcastically.
"Fair enough." Peter shrugged and knew he'd need STAR Labs to make suits for the three of them. "What happened?"
"You were ambushed." Wells showed the news of the death of Spider-Man and Iceman, followed by photos of Angelica crying at the funeral. "She was the only survivor."
Peter kept looking at all the newspapers as Wells went back to work. He watched as they first started as a team all the way to the present day. He even came across a photo of him and Firestar kissing, giving the impression they were together in that world. Seems this Peter Parker also shared many traits with himself, with the main difference being that he had longer and messier hair than himself.
But their lives were close to identical, minus Sandman being the one who killed his uncle, the enemies he fought were also the same. Just with different people underneath the masks. He was feeling even worse when he saw that the universe's May Parker was much older than his May. She had to suffer through the death of everyone in the family and himself.
Then he heard footsteps and closed the screen when he looked at the doorway and saw MJ. She was dressed completely in the Black Cat suit. She had the whole suit, including the mask, all placed on and she looked exactly like the real Black Cat.
"How do I look?" MJ asks.
Peter had no idea how to answer that question. "You...look exactly like the Black Cat alright."
Making their way to the basement where they had a training arena set up, MJ was fixing the mask. She was blushing a little when everyone was staring at her as she wasn't really used to wearing such restrictive clothing.
"Do I look ridiculous?" MJ wonders.
"No, you look great," Barry assured. "You look just like Black Cat."
To an alarming level, actually. They moved over to a raised platform, watching Joe and Cisco fool around with the life-size cardboard cutouts of all of them.
"And with these gloves that Cisco rigged up, you'll be able to do what she does." Caitlin handed MJ two black, leather articles, with claws up the fingertips.
MJ slipped them on hesitantly. Iris spoke up. "Don't worry- they are totally safe."
Wells, standing next to her, tilted his head. "Ish."
"Ish?" Harry was a little concerned about that addition.
"Oh come on!" Cisco called, coming down from one of the support beams as he finished rigging the cutouts. "They need to be believable, so they really do slice. And cut things." He pointed at Peter and Barry. "And you are going to have to let her hit you guys with those claws once she gets the hang of it."
Caitlin winced. She really hated this plan.
Joe, as usual, seemed to share her opinion. "Who... exactly came up with this terrible idea?"
"Okay, it's not a terrible idea." Cisco protested. Caitlin gave him an unconvinced look. "Their suits can absorb the attacks!"
"For real or ish?" Gwen wanted to be clarified.
"What does a terrible idea look like to you, Cisco?" Joe said bluntly.
Cisco, annoyed, threw his hands in the air. "Okay, you know what? I like to think I can see the bright side of things, okay? Positivity, people!"
"There's positivity, then here's stupidity," Bobby added, wondering how this was gonna go.
As Joe, Iris, Cisco, Wells, and Harry set themselves up behind the control board, Barry, Caitlin, and Peter walked MJ toward the randomly placed cutouts.
"Alright." Barry sighed. "Just hit the ones of us, okay?"
MJ nodded, a look of determination that Caitlin was definitely impressed with settling over her face. "Okay." She said as she stood surrounded by the cutouts. "Got it. I'm Black Cat." Then she started to shake the jitters out of her. 'Badass cat thief."
The cutouts then jumped upward and MJ reacted a little too quickly and ended up shrieking and activating the claws. Cutouts of Joe, Cisco, Caitlin, Harry, and Gwen all had large claw marks on their chest.
"You know what?" Cisco asked, standing abruptly, and holding out his hand. "I'm just going to adjust those a little-." He then started to slow down the cutouts so they wouldn't be so quick.
"Okaaaay... so," Barry said, attempting to be supportive. "Do the opposite of that, and we'll have it."
Caitlin nodded encouragingly (sort of), and Cisco's cut in half, falling over with a squeaky crash.
They walked slowly into the training field.
MJ winced every time a new cutout swung out from its hook, but refrained from attacking at both Cisco and Caitlin. A cardboard Flash fell, and she spun, sticking out her claws.
"Oh, oh!" MJ shrieked, dropping her glove. "It's stuck."
Barry flashed over and quickly helped her rip her glove from the cutout. "Ah, sorry!" He yelled as MJ staggered backward.
Caitlin hurried over to check her hand for injuries.
They spent the next half hour walking through STAR Labs basement, watching MJ struggle with her instinct to fire at the cutouts. Finally, after way too many "casualties", MJ avoided blasting every cutout except the Spider-Man and Flash's. They stopped it there, letting her excitedly rejoice at her success.
It was cut short as MJ moved to give Peter a high-five. A nail from her gloves cut off a rope that dropped a board or something above the control board that most of Team Flash were hiding behind. They quickly scattered and hid to avoid getting crushed underneath it.
"All good? You okay?" Barry asked anxiously.
"Sorry!" MJ winced.
After an hour more of practice, everyone minus MJ reconvened in the Cortex. MJ left to try and cool down after almost killing her friends and needed some time. She was starting to question herself on this whole situation she put herself in.
"Okay," Caitlin stated. "No offense to MJ, but there is no way she can pull this off."
Barry opened his mouth, ready to argue, but Harry beat him to it. "Well, maybe if she didn't scream every time something jumped."
"Yep, MJ had a rocky start, but she can pull this off," Barry said stubbornly. "I know she can." He turned his attention to Cisco, promptly cutting off any other doubts. "Did you find a breach where we don't have to worry about civilians getting in the way?"
"Yeah, there's a place by the docks that are usually deserted at night," Cisco confirmed.
Barry looked at Caitlin. "And how are we doing with the speed dampener?"
"My tests indicate that it should work," Caitlin told him, still ladened with doubt.
"It will work," Wells said as he stood behind her. "I'll tune up Ramon's gloves, and make sure they work better."
He left the room without another word, and Barry moved to follow. "Great."
"Hey!" Cisco called after him. "We're actually going to go through with this?"
That pulled Barry to a stop, if only for a second. "We're doing this." He said firmly and looked over to Peter. "You wanna go to make sure she's ready for it?"
"Yeah, I gotta go check on her anyway," Peter confirmed he was already going to do that anyway.
Caitlin looked after Barry as he left, then jutted her chin out at Joe suggestively. He broke away from the wall he was leaning on. "Yeah, I'll go talk to him."
Peter made his way to MJ's home where he found she was sitting on the couch. Still wearing some of the Catsuit, just with the armor, mask, and wig removed. She looked over at the door and saw it was Peter before turning back and sighing.
"Hey." Peter greeted her as he closed the door.
"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" MJ seemed to think he came to complain or something. Peter stayed silent for a moment, wanting to let her rant. He took a seat on the stairs to listen to her explode. "I'm sorry that I am a terrible supervillain."
"You think that's why I'm here?" Peter was surprised. "That I came to complain? MJ, if you can't do this, you can just say it."
MJ sighed and looked down at the mask and tossed it over to the coffee table. "It's not this task. Okay, it's a little bit of that. But mainly it's because I wanted this to work."
"Why do you want it so badly?" Peter was a little curious to know why she pushed for this plan.
MJ started to slightly shake as a old memory resurfaced. "Remember last year when the Goblin kidnapped me?"
"Kind of hard to forget about that." Peter nodded to confirm he did recall that day.
"Well, when I was up there, being dangled off that bridge, he made me feel...useless." MJ tried to explain it the best she could. "You were risking your life, all of you were risking your lives, just to save me. I felt useless, I felt...like I didn't belong. I'm not a hero. I'm not...I'm not a metahuman. I'm no use to any of you."
"Useless?" Peter asks in shock as he stood up. "You feel like you're useless?" He walked over to MJ and sat aside from her. "MJ, you're one of the reasons I've been able to keep up being a hero."
MJ scoffed as she didn't seem to believe that. "Don't..."
"You don't believe me?" Peter asks and started to think back. "The first time we met, you saved me from fainting on the side of the road."
MJ chuckled as that day comes into her mind and she recalled how sick he was. "Yeah, you were pretty weak."
"Let's not forget you're also the one that gave me my name," Peter recalled she was the one who came up with Spider-Man.
MJ scoffed and laughed at that reminder. "Yeah, you probably would have gone with Web-Man, Spy-D, or something."
Peter figured it out and knew she was right. "Yeah..." then he got back onto topic. "And when Snart came onto the scene, you comforted me when I couldn't save that man's life."
"That was nothing." MJ didn't see that as much.
"Not to me," Peter said as he leaned to hug her, pulling her around one arm. MJ took it and leaned onto his shoulder. "You put the dots together to help me realize Norman Osborn was the Goblin." He then rubbed her shoulder a little. "You are an important person. Not just to this team, but to me. You're the few people who have been helping me keep my head above water."
MJ started to finally believe him and smiled as she just lay again him. "Thanks, Peter."
"You've been helping me, I guess it was time for me to even things out." Peter joked as he held her. "And next time you worry about powers...remember, I make it look easier than it is."
MJ hummed as she had to admit she never figured that part. "Yeah, fair enough." She then stood up and grabbed the wig and mask. "So...what are we waiting for?"
They had everything set up. MJ was back in the complete Black Cat gear and was starting to casually walk around, using some of her old acting skills. She just acted like she didn't care as she tried to act as carefree as the real thing. Wells was waiting with the dart a bit away from the breach.
"Oh, Spidey! Flash!" MJ called out in a sing-song voice. "It's so cold out here. I'm waiting for someone's warmth." She then leaned over and tapped her ear. "How's that?"
"A little much," Gwen commented from STAR Labs. "Just my personal opinion."
"And stop tapping your earpiece, you're gonna lose it," Cisco warned her.
"Right, sorry." MJ stopped fidgeting.
Peter then came down swinging and landed on his arms and legs, getting into a stance and Barry speeding in. The two stayed on opposite ends of MJ so that she could have the "advantage" over them. They previously set up a few lines attached to some objects so she could cut them to get the drop on them.
"We're right here," Peter said as he got up and clapped his hands. "Ready to send you back to the kennel."
"Well, let's just skip the part where you say you're gonna kill us and we jump to the part where we don't let you." Barry proclaimed as he and Peter circle her.
"I was sent to kill you. And nothing will stop me." MJ stated, only sinking in what Barry just said. "Wait, we're skipping that?"
Barry groaned a little and nodded before whispering. "Yes."
MJ then started to panic and didn't know what to do. "Uh, I am loyal to Zoom, and...oh, screw it." She then spun around and kicked Peter. At least that's what she was going for when she ended up slipping on her own heels. "Yip!"
Peter and Barry stood there and didn't know what to do and Peter pretended he was hit. Acting like he was stabbed in the side, he toppled over and grabbed his side in pain.
MJ "smiled" as she saw one down and looked to Barry, drawing her claws. "One down, one to go."
Barry then ran at her (slowly), giving MJ enough time to slice some ropes and collapse some crates on top of both of them. MJ smiled as she strolled over towards the heroes and ripped Peter's suit with her claws to get the emblem. Then she yanked the emblem that was magnetically attached to the suit.
MJ then walked over to the breach and carried the emblems. "I did what you asked, Zoom." She then threw them into the breach. "Now take me home!"
Bobby, Wells, and Joe were all waiting to see if anything was coming. They were just waiting for something to come through the breach.
Anything.
Anytime now.
Time started to pass a little too long for their liking. It was seconded turning into minutes. Minutes were then turned into half hours. Half hours were becoming...you get the point.
By the time the second hour was over, Peter started to snore and he ended up falling asleep in his spot. Bobby walked around, trying not to fall asleep, and even lowered his ice skin. It took a lot of energy and mental effort to keep that skin up, and he was losing both in the time.
"Okay." Barry decided to finally give up and stood up. "No. It didn't work. It's over."
Bobby yawned as he walked past, kicking Peter. "Yo, dude."
Peter mumbled as he tried to stand up. "What? Zoom here?"
"Nope." MJ sighed as she didn't know what happened. "Guess I screwed this up."
"MJ, you did perfectly fine." Iris offered some words of encouragement.
Peter yawned as he stood up and removed his mask. "Whoo. First time I've slept in the suit." He then looked down at the gaping hole in his chest. "Cisco, I hope you have some way of fixing my suit."
"Don't worry, figured this would eventually happen," Cisco assured him through the comm. "Got some spares ready for you."
Wells came past and knocked over a few paint cans and marched off as Joe approached the boys and MJ. "So, Wells isn't taking this well."
"Well, we almost got the man who kidnapped his daughter." Peter had to say he could understand Wells' frustration. "I don't really blame the man."
"How are you two doing?" Joe wonders.
"Tired." Peter groaned and yawned. "I'm gonna head home."
"Yeah, see you later," Barry said as he and Peter separated for the night.
Peter and MJ were making their way home with their suits mostly removed. There was nobody really around since it was too late, but Peter decided to not take the risk and swing them home.
Landing just outside of their homes, Peter let her go and stood there. "You know, all things considered, you could make a cool vigilante hero."
"Yeah?" MJ asks as she looked over herself. "Think I could be a hero?"
"With some cool trait, I don't see why not." Peter shrugged and leaped over the fence and was starting to make his way back inside. But then he froze when his senses alerted him that something was coming. "MJ!"
Before Peter could warn her in time, she was grabbed by a flash of blue lighting and disappeared. Peter started to quickly panic and tried to figure out where he was going, knowing that it was going to STAR Labs.
Cisco had just attached Barry's newest emblem to his suit "Man, it's like you think these babies grow on trees," and Caitlin was passing the time watching Wells look over the video feed from the fight.
"You've looked over these videos dozens of times." She said as Barry walked over and wrapped an arm around her waist, chin falling tiredly onto her shoulder. "It went exactly according to plan."
"If it had," Wells muttered, head resting on his palm. "Zoom would have shown up."
"Maybe Cat was wrong," Barry suggested, chin pressing into her shoulder as he talked. "Maybe he can't see through the breaches. Or maybe he finally decided to give up."
Wells took off his glasses and rubbed his face. Barry's phone buzzed, and he reached into his pocket. Caitlin peered over at him as he picked up the call.
"Hey." His entire body went tense. "Whoa, whoa, Pete, slow down, I can't understand you."
That's when Wells' metahuman watch started to go off, alerting them that something was coming. And just a second afterward, there was an alert from their own computers.
"What's going on?" Gwen was afraid to ask.
Cisco dove over to his computer system. "Zoom has MJ!" Barry cried.
"He's on the roof," Cisco muttered.
Barry immediately flashed out, and Caitlin took a step forward, willing herself not to call after him. Her heart thudded in her chest.
Barry got to the roof and finally sees Zoom in person. His dark blue lightning flickered off of him, along with his demon-like eyes and mask that would give the devil nightmares. MJ was being held by her throat off of the edge and whimpering in fear.
"You like to fish with bait?" Zoom asks with his menacing voice. "I do too."
He drops MJ and Barry flashes after her and saves her before she could hit the ground. He used his hands to make a vacuum to catch her and slow her descent.
"You need to get out of here, now," Barry warns MJ.
"No, you can't fight that. It's a monster." MJ warns him in panic.
Zoom then sped downward and was across from both of them. MJ ran for her life, making her way inside the building. Cisco pulled up feed as soon as he could, and everyone left in STAR Labs peered down at the computer screen, watching tensely as the face-off between the two speedsters began.
"How the hell is Barry supposed to defeat that?" Cisco muttered.
Barry then took off and started to circle the building.
"Why is he running away?" Wells asked as Barry took off. Caitlin glanced at the tracker and watched as his tiny blip flashed around and around STAR Labs.
"He's not." Cisco realized. "He's not scared." With rising excitement, Cisco cried. "He's gonna Thunderbolt him!"
"What?" Harry was a little lost, as he was in Paris during the Sand Demon incident.
"Jay taught him how to throw lightning," Caitlin informed him, a little more relaxed now that she knew that Barry had a plan.
Maybe they would stop Zoom tonight, after all. No such luck. Barry picked up speed, swirling faster and faster around the building until he tossed a perfectly aimed streak of lighting directly at Zoom. And he caught it. Zoom grabbed the lightning and whipped it back at Barry, throwing the red speedster back and into the wall.
Barry crumpled with a groan. "Did you guys see that?"
Cisco's eyes went wide. "See him catch a bolt of lightning with his- demonic claws?! Yeah, saw that."
Caitlin, frozen in shock, muttered. "Jay was right- he can't do this alone."
Wells strode out of her lab. "He's not alone." He twisted the neck of the gun, rapidly loading it.
"Run, Barry." Caitlin pleaded.
"No..." Barry murmured, pulling a syringe filled with speed-dampening serum out of his boot, from where it was still there from their trap. "I'm gonna see if Wells' speed-dampening serum works. What do you want from me?"
"Everything..." Zoom growled, voice vibrating and low.
"You want to be me?" Barry asked. "Is that it? You want to be a hero?"
Zoom demonically chuckled. "Heroes die."
Barry got a dangerous look in his eyes. "Only if you can catch them."
With that he was off, flashing into a battle that took place on STAR Labs' walls, its roof, and the sky, and ended with his back smashed into the ground, Zoom at his throat.
It wasn't even a fair fight. Zoom was 10, no, 20 times faster the Barry, and punched him over and over. Wells, now outside, hesitated, waiting for a clear shot that never came.
With one final hit, Zoom slammed his arm into Barry's back. Caitlin choked as the sound of shattering bones reached them even through the coms. His vitals were going insane.
Barry crumpled to the ground, beaten and bloody. Zoom raised his arm for the ending blow, and Wells fired. The evil speedster spun with almost invisible-to-the-human-eye speed...And caught the dart.
"Never forget," Zoom growled. "I am the fastest... Man... Alive."
He turned and stabbed his syringe into Barry.
Caitlin was on her feet, sick to her stomach. "He's killing him!"
Cisco looked just as upset, unsure of what he should do, running from computer to computer and yanking his fingers through his hair. Finally, he just settled on grabbing Caitlin's hand and squeezing hard. "Barry..."
Zoom ripped his hands out of Barry's chest, and turned with a menacing look toward Wells. "You're next."
Then he had picked up the Scarlet Speedster and flashed off.
Peter was trying to make his way through the city and was swinging his way to STAR Labs. But just in the middle of swinging, his senses alerted him something was coming. Except they didn't work fast enough when the Hobgoblin came out of nowhere and rammed into Peter when he wasn't looking.
Peter immediately reacted as he elbowed the monster and got free enough to turn around and punch him in the face. But Hobgoblin only laughed as the glider spun the two of them out of control and even ran into a fire escape. Peter managed to kick the Hobgoblin to escape his grasp and free-fell to escape.
"Listen, you Halloween ornament, I don't have time for this!" Peter cried in anger as he spun and shot out two strands to wrap around Hobgoblin. "I've got somewhere to be!"
"Oh, and you're gonna leave me high and dry?" Hobgoblin asks as he raised his hands, which started to light on fire. He scorched the webbing and threw two fireballs at him. "In this heat?!"
"Fireballs!?" Peter cried in shock as he webbed a building to yank himself out of the way. "He's got fireballs?!" He then yanked himself in the other direction to avoid the second one. "That just isn't right!"
Peter then shot a web and grabbed onto the glider so he could stay with him. Hobgoblin then laughed as he flew around the city, throwing bombs backward toward Peter. Peter used the side of a building to run and try to escape the bombs before they took him down, glass shattering everywhere in the process.
Hobgoblin turned around just for Peter to land a punch and go past him. Then his foot was grabbed and Hobgoblin cut power to the glider, causing them to plummet to the ground. The two kept exchanging punch after punch, both trying to take the other down before they hit the ground. Except that only ended with Hobgoblin grabbing onto his throat and choking him. Peter tried to get himself free of his grasp, but then Hobgoblin restored the power and they were right in the street.
Flying as fast as he found, Hobgoblin dragged Peter across the street and was starting to destroy his suit. Peter was starting to be in too much pain to even fit back anymore. And it didn't help when Hobgoblin rammed into an oncoming truck and flew right through it.
The explosion was the last straw as it ended up scorching most of Spider-Man's suit and even leaving Peter unconscious. Hobgoblin laughed and cackled as he flew higher and higher up. He went high enough just as news helicopters started to surround them. The cameras took notice of the hero who was beaten, bruised and had part of his face unveiled. But even then, his blood and bruises made it almost impossible to figure out who he was.
"You're the hero who saved this city?" Hobgoblin asks with a laugh. "They must live in fear."
Then Hobgoblin dropped Peter, sending him falling to the ground. Peter didn't even have the strength to try and shoot a web to save himself as he could barely focus straight. Then things went black when his head hit the ground.
As soon as he hit the ground, Peter was wheezing due to his now damaged ribs and lungs. He was unconscious and was unable to move on his own now. Then a figure ran out of the shadows and made its way over to him. It was the same hooded figure who helped them save Henry. The same one who helped take down the Goblin. The same one who was in contact with Wonder Woman. The one who helped Peter during the fight with Ghost.
"No." She whispered in fear and started to even cry. "Stay with me." She then pulled out a small device and placed it on his chest. "Come on."
She then lifted her hand to her hood and yanked it back. Finally, revealing her half-scorched face that had third-degree burns from the left side of her neck up to her forehead. Finally, revealing her face and confirming who she was and why she cared so much.
Mary Parker.
"Stay with me, Peter." Mary pleaded as she placed the device on his chest. "Come on."
She then lifted him and knew she needed to get him out of sight quickly. Dragging him over, she hit a button and de-cloaked her car, and sneaked him inside. She then hit the gas and knew she needed to get him to STAR Labs.
Zoom sped through the city during the whole fight with Barry in tow. His first stop is Central News which shows them the hero beaten senseless.
"Look at your hero. This man is no god. He is nothing." Zoom tells all of them and speeds off for the CCPD.
At the CCPD, they were all going about their day when someone came speeding through. Then they look in shock to see Flash beaten to a pulp.
"The days of the Flash and Spider-Man protecting this city are over," Zoom tells the cops, already knowing what Spider-Man is enduring. "Now what will you do without your precious heroes?"
"Take him down!" They open fire to try to kill him, but Zoom grabs all of the bullets.
"Nice try," Zoom says, making it pointless and speeding the hero off again.
Cisco and Caitlin both leaped onto their computers, Cisco trying to track Barry's suit, Caitlin trying not to look at his vitals.
Wells ran in, his gun still loaded and over his shoulder. "Anything?"
"No." Caitlin shook her head, fighting tears. Cisco's new mirrored hers.
And then they both appeared. Caitlin gasped, once again standing, as Zoom flashed into STAR Labs and held up Barry's limp, lifeless form. "Barry-"
"Harrison Wells..." Zoom snarled at him. "You thought you could defeat me?" He reached down and peeled Barry's cowl off. Barry's head lolled to the side, dripping with blood. "With this?"
"I made a mistake," Wells confesses.
"Yeeeeees..." Zoom said eyes narrowed as he broke his gaze with Wells to watch as Cisco slowly moved behind the desks so he was resting with his hand on Caitlin's shoulder. "A costly one."
The dark speedster wrapped his hand around Barry's neck, lifting him higher into the air. Barry's eyes flicked open, dazed with pain and the concussion he definitely had. Zoom stabbed his finger into Barry's stomach, and his eyes bulged.
"Goodbye, Flash. You weren't fast enough." Zoom started to mock her, drawing his final breath. "And neither was your Spider-Man."
That is when a dart hits him in the leg and they look to see that it was MJ who shot Zoom. MJ was standing in the doorway to the medical labs and was holding the gun. Gwen was next to her in shock when he saw her shoot. Zoom screamed in anger and pain as he dropped Barry's body and reached for the syringe.
"Nice shot, girl." Gwen complimented in surprise.
"To be honest, I was aiming for his shoulder," MJ confesses in shock at her actions.
Zoom looked around at them, then zipped away, dropping Barry's limp body to the ground.
Caitlin was the first around the desk. She slid to her knees, trying not to see Barry's face, and placed her hands on his chest. "Stay with me, Barry. Stay with me. Please, Barry..."
"You're gonna need a bigger medical wing." Mary Parker commented, getting their attention. But she had her hood raised back up and kept her head down to keep them from seeing her face. "Don't worry about me. Just help him."
Wells didn't need a second to think as he walked over and grabbed the unconscious boy and ripped his mask off. "Thanks."
Mary nodded, still keeping her head down. Wells took the boy and was quick to try and save him, not willing to let another Spider-Man die on his watch. Mary saw she did all she could and left as she vanished just before Joe could reach her in the hallway.
Cisco helped her carry Barry's body onto a gurney, and spent the next three hours in an intense, almost zone of medical procedures. Cisco helped a little, but spent more of it in a chair beside the beds, handing her tools and rubbing his forehead.
Bobby quickly made his way back when he heard what happened and was shocked when he saw his best friend. Harry, Gwen, and MJ could only stand back and worry about the two of them. Eventually, May even showed up and was worried for her nephew. She saw his fight with Hobgoblin and needed to race through the chaos they left in the city to get back so it took her some time.
With MJ, she took a moment and was still shaking in fear a little after what she just went through. She walked into the hallway and pulled out her phone. She scrolled through her contacts and found one she hasn't contacted in some time.
She clicked the contact and raised it to her ear. She waited a moment and there was no and it went straight to voicemail. "Hey, it's me...look, I just need to talk to someone. I know we haven't talked in a while, but...I need to talk to you. Call me when you get this."
Caitlin couldn't sleep and was the only one left as everyone else was starting to fall asleep and couldn't stay any longer. She waited for morning in a silent vigil, one hand grasped in Barry's, lightly resting along his pulse point. Any sleep she did have was restless and lasted only for brief periods. She was worried if anything were to happen to the two of them after the battles they both endured.
Caitlin turned quickly in her chair, standing and moving over to his side. "Barry." She whispered. "Barry?" With one hand, she rubbed his bare arm. His eyelids flickered. "Can you hear me?"
Barry's eyes opened, slowly and laboriously. "Hey." He breathed, voice barely audible. "How bad is it?"
"Bad," Caitlin told him honestly. "If you guys didn't heal so quickly, I'd be very worried." Her voice trembled, every so slightly, in the end, and Barry raised one arm toward her.
She lunged forward into his embrace, carefully avoiding all of the wires she had hooked him up to, and buried her face into his shoulder. "I was so scared." She whispered. "I was scared you'd never wake up."
"How's Peter?" Barry asked, eyeing his brother, once Caitlin had recovered a little bit and pulled back.
"He's fine," Caitlin assured him. But Peter's wheezing breathing didn't help Barry's worry. "At this point, it's just a matter of waiting for him to wake up."
"Zoom?" Barry was worried about what happened. "Goblin?"
"Let's- Let's worry about them when you're up and about, okay?" Caitlin told him, caressing his knee. Barry began to sit up, his face going deathly pale. "Oh, no, you're staying put," Caitlin instructed, shaking her head at his stubbornness.
Something was wrong, though. Barry's hand ghosted over his thighs, and she saw it trembling violently. "Cait. I can't feel my legs."
Dallas Dupree Young as Miles Morales
