Brave New World: Flash

Chapter 9

Central City was in shock as two blurs of red and yellow lightning ran through it at high speeds, the two of them constantly fighting each other.

"You can't beat me Barry. You never could." Reverse Flash said as he sent a lightning punch at the Flash, who was simply sent a few feet back before regaining his footing.

"You said it yourself. Neither of us have ever been strong enough to defeat the other." The Flash said as he returned the favor.

"Well that's about to change. I'm surprised you haven't realized that your powers aren't what they used to be Flash." Reverse Flash said with a grin as they continued their race.

"What are you talking about?" Flash demanded as they came to a stop at the same stadium they had the first time they'd locked horns after he'd become the Flash.

"Can't you feel it Barry? The speed force, it's dying. Your powers will soon be gone. All I need to do is help speed up the process." Thawne said with a grin, only to have the Flash speed him into a wall.

"You're lying." Flash said.

"Am I?" Reverse Flash asked as the Flash held his hand to Thawne's chest with it vibrating, only for something strange, even by their standards, began to happen as storm clouds began to gather around the stadium.

"What is going on?" Flash asked and Reverse Flash grinned.

"Don't you feel that Barry. That's the speed force. Or what's left of it. And that's also my cue to leave." Reverse Flash said as he lightning punched the Flash back and then sped off.

"Coward." Flash said, though as much as he wanted to pursue his nemesis, he also knew that Thawne was right about this storm being caused by the Speed force. He needed to know why, since he also knew how dangerous this storm could be if left unchecked.

"Cisco, Caitlin, please tell me you're listening?" Flash said over the comms, hoping that the two of them had returned to Star Labs.

"Loud and clear. What's going on? We're getting huge speed force signatures." Cisco said.

"What's going on? We also detected a surge of negative speed force energy." Caitlin asked.

"Thawne's back. Our Thawne. I don't know how it's possible, but he's managed to be like us. He hijacked his counterpart's body." Barry said.

"Great, so we lost our advantage over him." Cisco said.

"We'll deal with him later. Right now, we need to deal with the storm, since it's an immediate problem." Flash said.

"Good point. These readings are similar to that of a speed force portal, but they aren't stable enough. Like the portal doesn't have enough energy to fully open, but I don't know why." Cisco said.

"Maybe I can give it some help." Flash said.

"Yes, if you can use your speed, you can generate enough energy to stabilize the portal, allowing who or whatever it is that's trying to get through to get through." Cisco said.

"But what if this is a Savitar situation?" Caitlin asked.

"If it is, then that's a problem we can deal with later, right now, this storm could destroy the whole city, maybe more. It's the immediate threat and this is the only plan we've got to stop it from taking out the whole planet." Flash said.

"Okay, just checking to make sure we were all aware of that possibility." Caitlin said.

"Let's do this." Flash said as he began to run around the stadium and as he did, the more speed he built up, the more energy he released and he could see the portal beginning to form.

"It's working." Flash said.

"Yeah it is. These energy readings are definitely showing that the portal is stabilizing. And someone is coming through." Cisco said.

"I know, I can see it." Flash said as he saw not one, but two figures emerge from the portal, but he could only hope that they got out soon, since he could feel himself tiring a lot sooner than he normally could, since he wasn't even going at top speed and yet he felt exhausted, he couldn't keep up this speed much longer.

Fortunately he didn't have to as he saw a blur of yellow lightning speed of it, right as he felt himself finally give out and had no choice but to stop running and to his relief, the storm subsided as he bent over and put his hands on his knees and panted as the yellow blur came to a stop and the Flash was stunned at who he saw.

"Barry, do you see who came out?" Cisco asked.

"Yeah I do. And I can't believe it." Barry said as he deactivated his cowl to see who was approaching him.

"Barry, who is it?" Caitlin asked as Barry grinned.

"Jesse, Harry?" Barry asked, still not believing it as Jesse Quick came to a stop in front of him and removed her mask, her father standing next to her.

"Allen. It is so good to see you." Harry Wells said with a grin as he, Barry and Jesse hugged.

"Come on, let's get to Star Labs, you can tell me what the hell is happening here." Barry said.

"And perhaps you can do the same for us. I'm guessing that like usual, we missed a lot." Harry said and Barry nodded .

"Cisco and Cailtin will be very happy to see you both." Barry said.

"So let's not keep them waiting." Jesse said with a grin as she sped off.

"So I guess I'm taking you back to Star Labs." Barry said to Harry, who rolled his eyes.

"I can't say I blame her. Guess we've both had enough time together." Harry said.

"Okay. Well, let's get going." Barry said as he reactivated his cowl, grabbed Harry and sped off towards Star Labs.