14

What's the Magic Word?


Barry bounced from foot to foot, watching as the portal in front of him continued to open, expanding in size as the seconds passed. Cisco stood next to him, arms folded, watching the swirling vortex with such an intensity he may have been watching a movie marathon of some of his staples.

"And you really think this is going to work?" Cisco asked, finally breaking the silence.

Barry nodded, continuing to stare at the vortex. Oliver rolled his eyes, turning his gaze toward the ceiling. Once Barry got tired of bouncing, he brought his hands up behind his head, lacing his fingers together, and started to pace. Every few steps, his eyes would dart back toward the vortex.

"No. I really don't know, man," Barry replied. "But I need to do something to get Savitar out of my head."

"And you're pacing is really doing it," Oliver remarked. Barry shot him a frustrated glance, prompting Oliver to raise a hand. "It's making me dizzy and if it hasn't made Savitar disappear by now, I don't think it's going to."

Cisco rubbed his chin, nodding as he listened to Barry. Just as he had when Barry told him, in the first place, what his plan was. Somehow, he managed to figure it out without having to deal with Barry's babbling once more. Or, rather than he'd been minding his own business, watching the satellites when his chair was grabbed and in a flash of light, he was whisked off to his lab where markers drew all over the transparent board to get the point across.

And Cisco all but stared, watching as it was played out before him until Barry came to a stop, the bottoms of his converses squeaking against the ground as he worked to stop himself. His eyes shifted over the board, reading everything carefully before saying, "So…Savitar's still here?"

Now, Cisco's face scrunched up, still trying to wrap his mind around it. He watched Barry continue pacing, nodding despite holding the back of his head. "He's here, like…" he lifted his hand, wiggling it in the air, jerking his hand back every few seconds, as if afraid he was going to stick his finger up Savitar's nose. "Here? Or…here? Am I about to poke him?"

"I don't think you're going to be able to touch him," Barry said. "So far I'm the only one who can see him. And if Oliver's right," he nodded towards the very frustrated looking Green Arrow. "Then only speedsters can."

"Okay, but what about Wally?" Cisco asked. "He couldn't see Savitar, either."

"Wally wasn't in the Speed Force as long as Jay and I were," Barry explained. He let out a long breath, dropping his hands from the back of his head and looked anxiously towards the breach. "It's only going to be us who can do it. And, who knows, maybe Jay will have an idea of what to do."

"Have you thought of mind-melding with him?" Cisco asked. He started to move toward Barry's side then stopped, taking a huge step back. He eyed the area in front of him, frantically waving his arms to ensure Savitar wasn't standing right in front of him. Though he wasn't quite sure what would happen if he could touch Savitar. If he were only visible to speedsters, did that mean he was moving too fast? And would that mean he was moving fast enough to phase, so that Cisco would just move through him? "Maybe that'd give you an idea of what to do?"

"Mind-melding with him would be like mind-melding with myself at this current point in time," Barry said. "Savitar isn't a speed mirage, a doppelganger, or a time remnant, he's a version of me that should be living at this point in time, but I changed that timeline. He's me but he's not me."

Cisco blinked slowly. He brought up a hand to press his fingertips to his temples that now throbbed with a headache. "Wow…I think this is the first time that I don't like the idea of time travel," he murmured. "But I'm not sure if it's because of your explanation in general, or that I actually understood it."

Barry laughed humorlessly. "Are you sure that breach is open to the right place?"

At his best friend's words, Cisco dropped his hands from his head and planted them on his hips. "You did not just question my breaching skills! I know you've been gone for however long it is in the Speed Force, but here, it's been six months. And in those six months, you don't know how much training I've been through so…" he flicked his hand towards Barry, muttering a curse in Spanish under his breath. "Yes…this breach is open to the right spot, I've had a lot of practice with target breaching."

Barry lifted an eyebrow, turning back toward Cisco. "You trained that much to breach?"

A knowing smile came to Cisco's face before he could stop it. "Well, that and I've been doing some Earth jumping of my own."

Barry opened his mouth to respond, stopping only when there was pulse through the breach, seconds before Jay Garrick jumped through, dressed in his suit. He landed in a low crouch, then straightened. He looked around the basement of STAR Labs then at Barry and Cisco, and Savitar if the way his eyes widened were any indication.

"It's nice to see you again," he commented, taking off his helmet. He spun it in his palms and gestured toward Barry. "But something tells me you didn't breach me over here for just a greeting call. Or even to offer a quick run and some lunch."

"Not this time, Jay." Barry nodded in the direction Savitar stood, though to Cisco it was nothing but an empty area of the floor. "I need to talk to you about the Speed Force prison."

"It's good to see you out of there," Jay remarked. He continued to spin his helmet in his hands. Watching as the reflection of the room continued to whiz by with each rotation of the metal. "It's not fun, being in a prison like that. Makes you wonder if you could ever really handle the real thing, powers aside."

"Coming from the man who could throw someone into prison in the blink of an eye," Oliver remarked.

Jay flicked his gaze toward Oliver. His lips pulled back into a warm smile before his tongue poked out to wet his lips. Then he turned away from Oliver again, silently dismissing him. Oliver's eyes narrowed and he looked to Barry, who looked equally irritated at the change of conversation, and amused that Oliver was, sort of, being put in his place.

"Anyway! That's what we wanted to talk to you about," Cisco said. He stepped toward Jay, nodding in the same direction that Barry and Jay had referred to before. "Savitar's been with Barry since he was in the Speed Force, and now he's followed him out. We want to know what's made it so that he's here with him and that when he tried to talk to us about it, he said nothing but speed gibberish."

"Ah, the speed gibberish." A smile came to Jay's face. He stopped spinning the helmet and looked at the two for a moment. He sucked in a short breath through his nose. "Tell me, was he saying things that he's said before? Things that you may not have recognized?"

"Well, if something about falling stars means anything to you…?" Cisco shrugged. He thought for a moment then nodded. "There were a lot of things he said that sounded familiar to us. But, you know, the strange things…"

"We just need to know if there's a way we can stop this," Oliver interrupted. "Or fix it. Or…whatever it is that speedsters due to get their heads back on straight."

Jay looked at him for a solid moment, the nodded. "Oliver Queen," he remarked. "I never thought I'd see the day where I was able to meet you." The side of his mouth turned up when Oliver's eyes narrowed. "I know that sounds strange, but on my Earth, the Oliver Queen I know comes from more…humble beginnings."

Oliver's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What are you—"

"Jay," Barry interrupted. "Savitar was with me the entire time I was in the Speed Force prison. I saw my entire life flash before my eyes. Saw how it began and ended…" he shook his head. "It took a long time for us to realize, that what I was seeing, was Savitar's life. My original life."

Jay blinked in surprise. "Your original life?"

"Savitar is who I should've been, had my mom not died that night. Had Eobard Thawne not come back to the past. The life I saw in the prison was that life, over and over again. Why would I have been shown Savitar's life and why would it keep him with me?"

Reaching up a hand, Jay rubbed his chin. "It might have to do with the calcified Speed Force we used against Savitar," he remarked. He shrugged, pursing his lips. "Then again, this might be another mystery we're unable to solve. The Speed Force is the embodiment of reality in motion, there's only so much we can learn about it as speedsters and even as people who've managed to experience it in other ways."

Oliver shook his head. "So, you're saying there's nothing we can do to stop this…thing from haunting Barry?" He demanded. "Nothing at all?"

"Relax, Behemoth, we're all friends here," Cisco broke in. Oliver turned a glare his way, making Cisco gulp loudly, taking a step back from Oliver. "We're all trying to figure this out. It's…well, Caitlin's been keeping track of everything, before Snart and Mick stole it and sold it on the black market."

"Well, why don't we just ask Gideon?" Barry interrupted.

Oliver lifted an eyebrow. "What's a Gideon?" He asked.

"We could try it," Cisco said slowly. "But we have to be careful of the kind of information that—" he broke off, feeling the world move around him in a blur, his feet flying from beneath him. He was grabbed by a speedster and was being raced to the Time Vault before he could even finish his sentence. Finally, he was let go, the world slammed back into place. He slammed his eyes shut, waiting for the world to come back to speed.

Oliver, on the other hand, reached out a hand and placed it on the wall beside him, the other resting on his knees as he bent in half. His cheeks ballooned every few seconds, then returned to its natural state. He sucked in a deep breath and stood up, placing his hands on his hips.

Barry patted him on the back. "You can throw up if you want," he said, a grin on his face. "Diggle does it all the time." Still grinning, and missing the harshest glare Oliver could send him, Barry removed his hand and stepped up to the pedestal that stood in the center of the room. He passed his hand over it. Immediately, the room illuminated with the large, artificially enhanced head of Gideon. She tipped her chin, lips moving back into a straight smile.

"Good morning Barry Allen, Cisco Ramon, Jay Garrick, and Oliver Queen. Also known as The Flash, Vibe, The Flash, and the Green Arrow."

"She didn't say anything about Savitar," Oliver said.

"That's because she can't see Savitar," Jay reminded him. "As far as we know, Savitar is all in Barry's head. But as far as Barry's concerned, Savitar is as real as the rest of us."

"A real Ghost Dad if you will," Cisco agreed. All eyes turned his way. It even looked like Gideon was giving him a blank look. "Have you never seen that movie? Do you watch the classes? Ghost Dad with Cosby. Long before his fall from grace, that's a good movie! Y'all need to educate yourselves!"

Barry rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Gideon. "Gideon?" Her head turned his way. "We need you to tell us everything you know about the Speed Force."

Gideon nodded and lifted her head, eyes staring blankly ahead as if she were looking at a newspaper right in front of her. "The Speed Force is the representation of reality in motion; a cosmic force that pushes space and time forward. It has also created the speedsters such as Barry Allen, Jay Garrick, Max Mercury, and Bart Allen."

Oliver's eyebrows came together. He and Cisco exchanged glances, but stayed silent, waiting to see what she had to say. Cisco, however, kept it in the back of his mind. Max Mercury, Bart Allen…if Gideon mentioned it, it had to be something they needed to pay attention to. The newspaper changed before, she told us about that future. Max and Bart may be names we should look out for.

Gideon continued speaking, revealing everything her database knew about speedsters. "The source energy of the Speed Force has existed since the beginning of time, acting as a 3-D projection detailing past, present, and future events of both reality and all those touched by the Speed Force," Gideon continued.

"That explains what we see when we're imprisoned there," Jay remarked. He shook his head. "Seeing past, present, and future all at once is enough to drive anyone mad. It couldn't have been fun for Savitar."

"He's been in there for thousands of years," Barry agreed. "I couldn't begin to imagine what that'd do to someone."

Gideon continued as if no one had said a word. "The Speed Force can become incredibly volatile without an outlet to help expend its excess energy; often snatching people, places and things from across the eras into the Speed Force dimension. The powers bestowed upon those touched by the force revolve around motion and progression ranging to particle acceleration and deceleration, time, space, momentum, development, kinetic energy, evolution, and enlightenment."

Cisco nodded, mentally compartmentalizing all the information they were being given.

"The speed force has appeared in the form of wormholes opening up from all across history bestowing its mysterious powers to whomever it came in contact with."

"Wait, wait, wait." Oliver held up a hand. He turned to Barry with an incredulous look. "You're telling me that you got your powers from a lighting strike and chemicals and…dark matter and all that. But you're also telling me that, as a speedster, you also have this, wormhole power that you can tap into to help you run to the future, the past, and it's been around for centuries?"

Barry rolled his eyes. "You've been on an island for five years, learning all kinds of violent ways to survive and this is the part that worries you?"

"Centuries ago, the Speed Force went to war with the Sage Force, the Strength Force, and the Still Force. Each force battled to survive and for control of the Forever Force." At that, Barry and Cisco exchanged surprised glances. There weren't many things that could surprise them about the metahumans they met in Central City, about the extent of their powers and abilities as the day passed. But to know there were other forces out there?

"The Speed Force's avatar eventually banished the other forces behind the Force Barrier."

Gideon fell silent.

They waited for a second before Cisco sucked in a deep breath. A sound that would've been tiny compared to the Cortex or the Medical Bay, but in the tiny space of the Time Vault, it sounded grand and surprising, making Barry, Jay, and Oliver jump. Cisco reached out a hand and placed it to the wall, everything spun as if he'd been yanked away by Barry once more.

"You're telling me, that we don't have to just worry about a Speed Force," he said slowly. "But also a Sage Force, Strength Force, Still Force, and Forever Force?" He brought a hand up to his forehead, where a cold swat had broken out. "This…this is the greatest day of my life."

"Cisco…" Barry started.

"No, I mean, there's more than one speed force. They're not even speed forces, they're knew and different and defy the logic of physics and science that we ever knew and now we get to explore that! And see if there's any ways we can reach it to get Savitar back to where he needs to be. What?" He didn't miss the look Barry and Jay exchanged.

Jay kept his gaze on Barry as he said, slowly, "You may be thinking the same thing I am."

"That I may not have been in the Speed Force prison?" Barry replied, speaking just as slowly. "Or, that Savitar might not have been in the Speed Force and ended up in another one of the forces? Which is why he's stuck."

Jay nodded.

The silence that stretched afterwards was immediately broken by the sound of Barry's and Cisco's metahuman apps going off at the same time. Cisco's eyebrows furrowed together when he brought out his phone to study the location of the alert.

"Central City Pier," he murmured.

Barry was gone from the room in a flash.


"The other guy's getting away," Connor reminded Brady, lowering his hands from his best friend's shoulder as they stopped phasing.

"Well, this guy is more important," Brady replied. He tightened his grasp on the hilt of his hammer, bouncing it in his palms. Watched as the Samuroid slowly, yet determinedly lowered his sword, tapping the vey tip against the ground. His stomach clenched with each tap, waiting for the pulse of light blue energy again. Despite phasing it through him, the destructive power wasn't missed. Parts of Central City were still recovering from it the last time he'd attacked; the same day Barry re-appeared, he wasn't sure how long those at the Pier would be able to handle anymore blasts like this. "It's the same guy we've faced before."

"There's more than one of these then?" Black Blade asked. He tightened his grasp on his katana, taking a step back, sinking into a fighting stance. "I've been trying to shake it for days."

"Why would they be after you?" Brady asked.

"Looking to find the Flash," Black Blade replied. "But I haven't known where he was, so he must keep following after me to ensure I would bring him to the Flash." He shook his head. "I didn't know the Flash had been missing. I haven't been in Central City for a while."

"Well, that explains that," Brady said.

"I'll hold him off," Black Blade declared. "It's been looking for me, trailing me…then I should give him what he wants."

If it were possible for the Samuroid to grin more than his mask already had him, the Samuroid would've grinned even further. He spun his sword in his hand. Spoke in a robotic voice as he said, "A swordsman verus a samurai. A fight for the ages." Then he leaned back, falling into the same stance Black Blade was in. "I'll allow this fight as I wait for the Flash. I'm sure he's bound to show up at any minute."

"This won't take long."

Black Blade stepped back once more, then raced forward. The Samuroid moved back at him with blinding speed, aided by the jet pack on his back. A burst of jet propulsion shot the Samuroid forward. Black Blade lifted his sword in front of his face, a thin, neat barrier that cut his face into two profiles, each mirror on the side of the blade. At the last second, he turned the blade aside, catching it against the katana the Samuroid swung toward him.

Sparks flew from the swords clashing against each other. The force of the jet propulsion sent Black Blade skidding back against the wooden slats of the pier, sending splinters in all directions. Finally, the jet propulsion wore off and the Samuroid landed on his feet. Black Blade took the opportunity to spin around, swirling his sword above his head, aiming for the Samuroid's head. The Samuroid ducked out of the way and spun to Black Blade's other side.

Anticipating it, Black Blade worked to swipe the feet from the Samuroid from beneath him. He turned, opening his mouth to let out a cry of effort, but his cry was cut off by a shout of pain from a sudden blow to his shoulder. Sword falling from hand, Black Blade twisted to remove the blade from his shoulder, stopped when it was released from the wound, shooting back into the hilt of the Samuroid's sword.

A weapon recall. Black Blade gritted his teeth, scolding himself for to having seen it coming. It made sense for the Samuroid to be able to take his weapons back as quickly as he sent them out. He'd watched the news footage of the Samuroid's first attack, it was the first big attack on Central City since the Flash disappeared. Everyone was watching it. But Black Blade didn't watch to see how he was taken down, no, he watched to see how the Samuroid moved, how he used his sword, how easily he'd taken down Team Flash the first time around. Everything the Samuroid did, was just as a true samurai would do.

They wielded two swords and used it in intricate drawing and cutting movements, fell into a trademark stance of both swords held above the head in an attack, both swords used in a simultaneous rhythm with one defending and the other attacking with each step. All with the additional prospect of hand-to-hand combat behind the powerful swings of the sword. The Samuroid used the recall of the blade as a subtly changed design of the attack, offense and defense all in one move.

Quick enough that Black Blade couldn't phase in time.

But that didn't mean there wasn't another trick up his sleeve he couldn't throw out. Something the Samuroid wouldn't expect. Black Blade pulled his hand off his shoulder, brought his arm back as far as he could, and thrust it forward once more. As he pushed his hand forward, a dark cloud moved from his hand, as if from within him, and crashed straight into the Samuroid's chest. The force of the blow sent the Samuroid rocketing backwards, far enough away that Black Blade was able to bring his hand back to his shoulder.

He pressed his fingers against the wound, the darkness that came from his hand before covered the wound, swirling around it until it fused together, healing him. He turned back to the Samuroid who, smoking, stood straight, turning back toward Black Blade. All without a scratch on its metallic front, where it'd taken a direct hit.

Black Blade stared at the Samuroid, eyebrows coming together. "Whomever created you thought ahead," he murmured.

"Precisely," the Samuroid replied. He spun his sword once more, this time an alectricla blue charge starting at the bottom of the blade and rocketing toward the tip. He swung his word and the electric charge shot towards Black Blade. The shadow meta phased, allowed it to pass through him and crash into the hot dog stand behind him. "You've prepared as well."

"'You've been following me long enough."

"Long enough for you to bring me to The Flash."

"The Flash isn't here."

"He will be soon enough."

At the same time, Black Blade and the Samuroid charged toward each other. Black Blade dodged another blast of electricity and swung his sword forward. The Samuroid ducked to the side and Black Blade followed along, swinging to the side. At the same time, he reached behind him and pulled off another blade that stuck to his back. Wielding both, he conjured shadows from his arms down the blades of the swords and sliced toward the Samuroid.

Shhnnnk!

The tips of the blades scratched against the Samuroid's armor, sending sparks but not outwards damaging the metal. Once the blades cleared the Samuroid's armor and reached air, Black Blade came back around and struck forward, working to get the tip of the blade to impale the Samuroid, but found the tip of his blade breaking off and falling to the floor of the Pier.

Then they were fighting in hand to hand combat, strong punches that struck true, hitting each other in the face and chest, before they were able to duck out of the way, evading as many attacks as possible and doing it all again.

Behind them, stunned into watching the fight, Brady finally came to. He blinked rapidly, shaking his head, eyes scanning the Pier. Looking for the man that had been working to steal as many items form the crowds as he could. The crowd had dispersed the second the electric pulse had ripped through the area. But it did claim some victims, Brady could see a few people lying on the ground, struggling to get up. He glanced at them, remembering his mother's words from the entire summer;

Civilians first, then go after the bad guy. Make sure they're okay, see if you need to get them to the hospital. We'll get the bad guy later, they always end up making a mistake sooner or later.

Brady continued to watch the civilians, watched as they, one by one, pushed themselves up, grabbed each other and started to run. Brady let out a sigh of relief. Adrenaline aside, if they could run, they could get out of the strike zone. They weren't too damaged, didn't need the hospital.

Besides, Brady reasoned, hearing police sirens come closer. The CCPD can help them.

Decision made, he turned to Connor. "We have to find that other guy," Brady declared, dragging Connor's attention from the fight in front of them. "Stop him before he gets away. If he's a meta, we need to get him to STAR Labs and in the pipeline as soon as we can. Figure out what he wants and how he's doing it."

"Seems like a petty thief to me," Connor replied, though dutifully navigated away from the video he'd recorded, phone in hand. He turned it sideways, using his thumbs to navigate through his app, barely looking at the screen. "Just wanted to wow a crowd and steal their things."

"It's not petty with how quickly he did those things," Brady replied. He pressed his lips together, spun his hammer in hand. "There's more to it. I can tell, the way he moved…"

It was hard to explained. His mother had said to always pay attention to the little things that people did. How they moved when answering a question, how their smiles were when telling the truth or a lie of how their day was going, watching the way they moved when they were in a hurry and when they were calm. Paying attention to their nervous habits. There wasn't anything outwardly weird of the way the man moved, he was confident.

Overly confident.

It wasn't that that threw Brady off.

But the way he was able to do his tricks…

There were the amateur clowns and magicians he'd seen in birthday parties and events practically since he as born. Then there were the masters, who he watched with wide eyes on their TV specials, trying to figure out how they were able to do their tricks so well. Then there was this guy who…

Who's a meta, Brady deduced. He could feel it in his bones. But a different kind of meta. What would his powers be, the power to control any and all inanimate objects? Without responding any further, Brady grasped Connor's arm and the two lifted off into the air.

Brady's eyes scanned the pier, looking for the man who'd managed to transfix the citizens of Central City so well. Finally, he spotted him walking calmly, further down the Pier. Every now and then he'd pick up a watch he'd stolen and examine it. The shine of the watch glinting off the sunlight that bore down them. Brady landed on the ground in font of him, holding his hammer up higher.

The man continued toward him. He looked away from his winnings and looked Brady up and down. "I should've known you'd come back. What is that I can help you with? Or were you still wondering about that whole Demon thing?"

"How do you know so much about that?" Brady demanded.

"I already told you, little boy. I know everything." He lowered his hands, clasping them behind his back. "I know that Demon is nearly unstoppable. And that you cn control it, but not until after you have to give up some of the things that are the most important for you to do so."

"This is about his life—"

"—And it's my life if you hand me over to those people you are working with. I can let you know everything you've ever wanted to know…but only if you keep me free." He wiggled his fingers. "Especially because I'm not your biggest threat. I already told you who you want to pay attention to, this DeVoe fellow. But you're not paying attention. Or, maybe I should focus more on what else is coming up for you. You and the other metas may not make it as far as you'd like you know. Considering how many people here seem to dislike metahumans. Which is odd, because that's not so much of an issue on my Earth." He spread his hands. "I mean, look what's going on with me."

He threw out his hands, sending a flurry of cards into the air.

Brady flinched backwards before swinging his hammer, knocking a good chunk of them back toward the man. He barely blinked, pursing his lips to watch as the cards harmlessly fluttered around him. "Hm, interesting."

"I can do a lot more than that," Brady replied.

"You've got a lot of training done, then?"

"About six months' worth," Brady replied, his confidence building by the second. "Let me show you." The second the last word left his mouth, Brady threw out his arm, sending a wave of shadows towards the man. The shadows moved forward like tentacles, wrapping around the man's arms and legs, holding him still. The man's eyebrows pinched together as Brady rushed forward, returning his hammer to a yo-yo and trading it with his bow-staff. In the blink of an eye, he swept the man's feet from beneath him.

The man crashed hard to the ground, his eyes widening up toward Brady. He shook his head, struggling against the tentacles that held him. "You really are stronger than I'd thought you'd be, Shadow," he remarked. "I guess I must've come at the wrong time. Or the right time, if you were teo be a bit more precise."

Brady's eyebrows ticked upwards. He spun the bow-staff in his hand and turned it back to the slingshot, aiming it directly toward the man's face. "Anything else you'd like to say?"

"Yes, actually." The man slowly grinned, his bead and goatee growing as the seconds passed. He lifted his hands, showing that the shadows had let him go. Brady was unable to keep himself from gasping in surprise. "Abra Kadabra." The man clapped his hands together.

All at once, Brady felt himself lifted off the ground and into the air. He crashed against the cart of a rollercoaster nearby, groaning as he hit the ground. Brady flipped to this stomach and found the pain in his back receding faster than it had before. He pushed himself to his hands and knees before he was pushed back against the tracks of the roller coaster in the same way he'd been before. By a simply lift of the man's hands.

Something within his grasp glowed, Brady saw it for a fraction of a second as he flew through the air. He landed atop the track and let out a harsh grunt of pain. That one had been a harder hit, the wind blowing out of him within seconds. He rolled to his side once more, found himself starting to be dragged along the tracks by the same force.

Quickly, Brady threw out his yo-yo. He felt a snag in his wrist when it wrapped around a nearby pole that held the tracks together, and pulled hard. The retraction of the line to his yo-yo nearly ripped his arm out as he was suddenly flung to the side and wrapped around the pole. Nevertheless, he felt the pull of the man recede, allowing him to create his own trajectory to swing back to the ground. He released the yo-yo from the pole and fell to the ground, phasing through it to keep from becoming injured when slamming to the ground.

He phased back up and stood back, looking around for the man who'd suddenly disappeared. A frustrated grunt escaped his lips when he saw the man gone. Could only find Black Blade and the Samuroid still deep in a fight. Brady turned toward Connor. "You need to get to safety. If that blast can spread that far, then you need to get away from any of this stuff. It's just leaving you defenseless."

Connor gave him a stricken look. "How am I supposed to—" and he was whisked away in a flash of light. Seconds later, Barry re-appeared at his side, skidding to a stop with his right foot forward.

Brady glanced at him, first in annoyance—he'd been on his own for six months, he didn't need backup—then in grudging relief. The Samuroid was looking for The Flash, if he were able to see that The Flash was, in fact, there, maybe it'd throw him off enough to take him down. His relief increased when his mother teleported to Barry's side as well.

"Are you alright?" She asked, using a tone for allies than for mother-son. That was reserved for a different time of day, when everything was done and she could really face the reality that her son was out in the battlefield. Brady quickly dispelled her fears with a nod. "What've we got?"

"Another Samuroid," Brady explained. "This guy's been following Black Blade all over the place, looking for The Flash. He knew Black Blade had worked with us before…" He tossed his head aside, to where Black Blade and Samuroid were still fighing.

The Samuroid immediately stopped when he spotted the Flash. With a strong arm, he knocked Black Blade aside and started towards Barry, holding his hands out to the side, spinning his swords as he did so. "So you've finally decided to show up, Flash," the Samuroid drawled.

Barry immediately took off, running in a circle to create electricity and threw it towards the Samuroid. It struck the android straight in the chest and harmlessly bounced off, shooting out over the water.

Brady shook his head, backing up along with Barry and Cadence. "Somehow, he knows what we're doing. It's like he's…watching us or something. He was prepared for anything that we tried to throw at him."

"He's only come out Barry was supposed to come back, we hadn't seen him before," Cadence remarked. "You're probably right that he's taking on an certain interest for The Flash." She turned her attention back to Black Blade and the Samuroid. "Anything we've tried to do to regularly attack him, didn't work."

Brady thought for a moment, immediately going back to the way the Samuroid had been defeated before.

Looking up, Barry watched as the Samuroid continued to swing his sword back and forth, sending waves of energy out into the poles of the windmills he flew by. A loud, groaning filled the air seconds before the windmills started to tilt. Barry blinked hard, standing still. On a good day, the passing clouds behind anything tall would give the appearance something was about to fall over. This time around, the windmills were, in fact, careening toward him.

Barry gritted his teeth and took off once more, weaving between the falling windmills towards Cadence as she continued to fall. Barry raced up a windmill and, at the same time that he leapt towards the Samuroid, he threw a bolt of lightning forward.

The Samuroid watched as the lightning bolt harmlessly shot by him. Then he turned back to Barry and said, "You missed," in a robotic-deadpan voice.

Barry smirked. He landed atop the Samuroid and, with a wrench of its flying mechanism, ripped it of fhis back. Then he leapt off and sped towards the ground, just as the lightning bolt shot back towards the Samuroid—the lightning that struck the blades of a nearby windmill and directed back towards the Samuroid—following the metallic conduction of the blades. The Samuroid almost immediately blew up, black smoke billowing out of its back as it spiraled toward the ground.

Barry pushed himself to run even faster and gathered Cadence in his arms before she hit the ground. He ran a safe distance away before setting her on the ground. The Samuroid hit the ground and exploded, sending metallic bits and pieces into the air.

Silence stretched between them, Barry stepped back and looked at Cadence, chest heaving from the effort he put into his running, watched as she looked torn between wanting to give him a hug and throttling him. Of which he wasn't what she would do.

Finally, she pulled her goggles down from her face and said, "I had that."

A laugh escaped Barry's lips. He reached up and pulled down his hood. "No, you didn't," he corrected her.

"We need to short circuit him," Brady declared., turning back to them "It's part android, so he runs on a computer system. There has to be a way to shut him down."

Cadence looked around for a moment then locked eyes on Barry. "You need to throw a lightning bolt at him," he said.

"I tried that already, it didn't even stop him for a second." Barry shook his head. "Whomever is sending these things out, they perfected the design from the last time, probably thinking of how I'd use my lighting against it."

Cadence snapped her fingers. "That's because you need more speed." Cadence turned and pointed to the Ferris wheel. "The more rotations you get on something as big as this, the more electricity you'll conduct. More electricity, the bigger the lightning bolt. Big enough to take him down."

Barry nodded and raced toward the Ferris wheel. He ran up the side and leapt from spoke to spoke, rotating the Ferris wheel. It started off slow, moving slowly, screeching and grinding against the metal as it came to a start. Slowly and slowly it revolved. Finally, it started to move along Barry's rotations. Lightning slowly, yet surely gathering along his path as he rotated around, moving faster and faster as the seconds passed.

"It's still not moving fast enough," Brady remarked.

"I'll help him out, you keep him busy." Cadence teleported to the side of the Ferris Wheel. She watched it for a few moments before reaching out to grab the spoke that whizzed by her. She grabbed the spoke and pulled as hard as she could. For a moment, the Ferris wheel slowed down, taking on the sudden traction of Cadence holding the spoke. But, like a parent flinging their child on a merry-go-round, she pulled the spokes, using her enhanced strength to give it more push each time it went around.

Lightning continued to trail after Barry, the largest trail any of them had seen. Finally, one the fastest of his rotations, he launched off the top of the Ferris wheel and threw the lightning bolt toward the Samuroid.

It streaked through the air and crashed into the android. The glow in its eyes faded almost instantly, turning a yellow along with Barry's lightning before it finally imploded, sending pieces of shrapnel in all directions. Brady brought up his arm, shielding himself despite allowing the pieces to phase through him. Black Blade and Barry did the same while Cadence teleported to safety, arriving back seconds later.

For a moment, they watched the burning husk as it stood before them, then it slowly pitched back and fell to the ground, cracking apart into little pieces as it struck the concrete.


Tommy Monaghan twisted his mouth to the side, watching as the news footage rolled over The Flash taking down the Samuroid. Watched as the letterhead scrawling against the bottom cemented The Flash's return to Central City. It wasn't as impressive of a fight, if he said so himself, but it was enough.

Enough so that the numbers in front of him continued to swirl higher and higher and higher as the seconds passed. Bidding on the metas that were going to make him a very rich man. Especially for those that wanted to be kept alive. Live targets weren't always his favorite, but who was he to judge what other people wanted?

Dead or alive, the money exchanged hands and he got a cut whether or not it was his own hit. But when it got out there and got his hands dirty, that's when things were exciting for him. Nevertheless, he couldn't turn down such a big bounty attached when the nameless benefactor gave him such good ideas of how to get the Flash alive.

He wasn't quite sure his means of sending out the Samuroids—or whatever STAR Labs was coining it—was doing much but…he wasn't after any of that. He was just after the money. The notoriety. His precious attempts had been abysmal, and so had the others, but there was always someone who would be successful. And with how the the money was moving, his commission aside, he hoped it was him.

REVERSE-FLASH…XXX

THE FLASH…700,000,000

FLARE….550,000,000

?

?

?

KILLER FROST…..10,000,000

VIBE…..7,000,000

SHADOWHUNTER….100,000

JESSE QUICK…50,000

KID FLASH…..50,000

GEO….10,000


A/N: Ugh, I tired, and tried, and tried to get the battle with Black Blade and the Samuroid to work well and be amazing and…maybe I'm just reading it too much? I hope you guys at least enjoyed it. That's the end of the first arc of the story and we're now moving into arc 2! I'll be back to regular Friday updates soon, I promise!

Cheers,

-Riles

Review Replies

Ethan: It wasn't trickster, it was Abra Kadabra. Remember in Friction I'd said AK would be tied into a Brady plot, but then I ultimately had to push it back to this story instead.

DarkHelm145: Oliver has a pretty big point in this story along with how he did in Flash Fire, so he's going to be showing up a lot. Mostly as Barry's confidant, but in some other interesting ways.