Avenging Justice 3:
To Infinity and Anti-Life
Part XXVII
Earth, Tennessee, Memphis
The Flash had seen many things, psychic gorillas, speedsters from the future, a man without power scaring supervillains like the bogeyman. He had to admit his life was strange, there was still that female version of himself mystery, but the one that was boggling his mind at the moment, the vision of an old Batman. To be fair, he thought Superman and Batman would be around forever, alongside Wonder Woman. He always expected that this trinity of power would always be around to safeguard this world, and when it ended, the next.
"Listen, Barry, and I know it is you," the old Batman in the mech suit growled. "I need you to do one thing, be you. The flow of time is in flux, you're the only one that can truly travel both ways. The Avengers will find another way, but it won't change the past, only you can. If everything fails, you must run faster than you have ever run before. Find me, and give me this message, 'The Knightmare is coming.' I will know what to do with it."
Flash smiled, "I do think that is the most I've ever heard you say at one time. Getting a little chatty in your old age."
"To think I began to miss your 'humor.' I don't have long, it took a lot of energy to pierce the temporal barriers like this," Batman said. "I trust you, I know who you are. You were never the least of us, just the one that was the heart. I'll see you soon, Flash."
Batman disappeared and the Flash was suddenly back where he had been traveling. Complete with some plant monster bringing a fleshy tendril down towards him. In a red blur he climbed up the tendril, using his speed to quickly run up the thing, making a quick orbit. The message from the old Batman was in his head, but pushed to the back for a moment. There were many questions, but the most immediate was, what in the hell was this thing?
Huge jaws erupted from the top of the plant, like a nightmarish version of a Super Mario enemy. This made the Flash smile as he thought of those 8 bit and 16 bit chompy sprites that made life miserable for the young Mario fans. He had gotten hooked on those games after picking up one of those NES and SNES units from Walmart, the ones that have all those old classic games on them.
"Hey Chompy, this isn't a real good time," Flash quipped. "How about we find you a Home Depot or whatever gardening shops are around here, and get you an all you can eat buffet. Then we can get my friend in the swamps to find you a nice comfy place. What do you say?"
The plant monster brought its nasty, dangerous jaws down, snapping at the Flash. He easily dodge and sent a massive punch. The weird fleshy feel of the plant sent revulsion through him, but he didn't have time to think about it. The jaws came around again, faster than he would have expected. Another experience to chock up to the weird stuff in the world. Meanwhile he jumped off, and ran to a nearby hardware store.
Inside the store, a bored clerk was listening to these two men argue over the nitrogen content of the fertilizer. She had given the same answer as the two others in the store, but still the two men were debating the mixtures. They didn't notice the red blur that ran past them, but the clerk perked up as an IOU popped up on her register. The only thing in the corner of her eye, the briefest of red blurs.
The plant monster howled as Flash sprayed it with the chemicals from the hardware store. He had to be careful, because this blend would be toxic to any living thing it touched. He had a neutralizing agent already mixed up, but he just needed to wait till the plant thing stopped or moved. Which it did, moving away from the small town it had been drawn to.
Well, that was a plus, so Flash quickly sprayed the neutralizing agent down, before chasing the plant monster again. To its credit, it smashed down at him, and Flash almost was crushed. It was fast, and it seemed to be anticipating him. That was both very interesting and concerning. This thing almost reminded him of how Batman described Poison Ivy's creations.
"Well, we tried the weed killer, I'm guessing a big flamethrower is next on the list," Flash mused. "I wonder if Firestorm or Fire is available. Hey, there is the Human Torch, but how to contact the Human Torch."
As if to announce its displeasure, the plant monster threw a car at him. Flash dodged, only staying still long enough to make sure the car was empty. The next wasn't, and he quickly removed the occupants before the car was destroyed. As such, just a bit of the shockwave from the explosion sent him sprawling. That was too close, and the thing was only getting more violent. He didn't have much time to end this before someone got hurt, which is something he couldn't allow. He was missing the big guy right now, he'd be up for helping out.
"Flash sending you down some help," Wonder Woman's voice came through his cowl communicator. "Then get ready to head towards New York. We've got a meeting."
"Oh great, who do you have?" Flash was happy to have some assistance with this. "I mean giant plant monsters tend to be a little out of my wheelhouse."
The burst of light signaled that the Watch Tower had sent someone down, but the who nearly made the Scarlet Speedster trip over his feet. The woman was pale, her outfit a blend of cool blue tones, and her eyes were ice cold. He'd tangled with this one before, and knew that she could suck the heat out of a body like some weird heat vampire.
"Keep its attention, Flash," Killer Frost said as she sent a beam of cold at the creature. "And don't be looking at me like that!"
Flash shrugged, "Just waiting to see if I have any icicles coming my way. I mean, last time you did…"
"That's in the past, I'm on loan from Waller. Apparently one of you has some serious dirt on her, because she has nearly let me off my leash," Killer Frost answered.
The creature howled as the cold leached its warmth, and then went after Killer Frost. It met several blows and a few sprays from Flash's concoction. It howled in anger as Killer Frost slammed a massive ice pike into it, and started slashing though it without mercy. Meanwhile Flash continued to keep drawing its attention back to him, keeping the thing from focusing on either for very long.
Several minutes later, Killer Frost fell back as the huge plant thing fell across a large clearing. It no longer moved and she could feel the warmth from it flowing into her. She shuddered at the feeling, hating herself and also feeling like a deity. The warring parts of her immobilizing her temporarily, as one part wanted to revel in the destruction, and the other wanted to be normal again.
"You okay there, Frosty?" Flash was by hers side, thought wisely keep his distance.
She could feel his heat, calling to her, like a siren's call. She wanted to take it from him, she was so cold. Despite just having leached the warmth from the monster plant, the cold is already taking back over again. All it would take is one touch, one touch and her hunger would be gone again. Of course it would return even more ravenous, it always would.
"Leave me," Killer Frost said, with more venom in her voice than she intended. "I'm fine, just.."
The Flash smiled, "No worries, take your time. That was a big guy you just helped take down. You did something good for the people around here."
"I don't need your patronizing," she said, despite a slow warmth beginning to erupt from her center. How long had it been since she'd done something that wasn't to abate the cold?
Flash shrugged, "Either way, glad you were on my side this time. See you around, Frost."
He was gone, and soon a nondescript truck pulled up and she got in. She recognized Waller's accommodations when she saw them. Nobody spoke to her, but there was a specially designed seat just for her. Something to keep her powers in check, and make sure she wasn't a threat to those transporting her. She was even sure there was some type of explosive that would kill her, somewhere on this transport. Because Waller was more than willing to kill her operatives than let them out. To be fair most of them were not very nice or good people, what normal would call Supervillains. Still, it felt cold even to Killer Frost.
Off in the distance, Flash stopped and watched to make sure Killer Frost was picked up. He was impressed with her ability, and that she had come to help. She had maintained control, and he could see something that hadn't been there before. Killer Frost was trying, and possibly could be able to change. Could it be that she wanted to be better than yesterday, that she was willing to change for the better? After today he was leaning towards absolutely, and that begged only one other thing.
The only person to be able to pull a move to get Waller to send one of her Squad out, was Batman. What was he up to? And did he want to tell him about the older version of himself? Probably not, because one Batman was enough, having two looking over your shoulder would be enough to drive anyone crazy. That was one thing he didn't need, not trying to figure out his place in a world with imposter Supermen.