Within Seconds: Flashpoint Edition

Ch-Ch-Changes

"You're not a God, Barry," sighed Oliver. 

Over the intercom, Cisco yelled, "Hey, guys, wherever you are, we need you!"

Barry fumbled with the podium to access the security cameras. Professor Stein and Jax, Diggle, Thea, Ray, Sara, Kara, and Mick, their eyes tinted with red, were busying themselves with tearing apart the exterior of Team Flash's home base. They had gone rogue. 

"Oh, my God, I don't have the money for more repairs," said Barry, defeated. 

xxxx

With Wally's help, Oliver and Barry brought their friends back to their regular mindsets. Wally knocked out half of them, then was knocked out by Kara. Barry received the source of their mind changes, thanks to their tech squad, and he brought Kara there, angering her in a race, until she destroyed the source. 

All together again, outside of S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry placed his hand over the singed sign. His heart felt heavier than before. To the sky, he whispered, "Park, I'm so sorry. Don't haunt me yet. I'll fix your place, okay? I'll fix everything."

"So, what was it like, being all mind-controlled and stuff?" asked Felicity, nudging Mick with her elbow. In their close proximity under an umbrella, he stared at her blankly, and she shut up. 

"I didn't realize he had a mind to be controlled," admitted Jax. 

"Barry, about before..." started Ray. "Message or no message, we're with you."

"Thanks," smiled Barry.

Thea looked around. "Where's Supergirl?" 

"Scanning the city to make sure they're no more of the Orbs that whammied you," explained Barry. 

"So, now what?" wondered Diggle. 

Oliver suggested, "We call Lyla, tell her these Dominators aren't here peacefully."

It was no more than a few steps towards the building when a blinding white light shined down from the sky above and made Sara Lance disappear. Everyone froze, whipping their heads around to find where the light was coming from. In the panic, Thea was taken by the light, then Diggle, then Ray-- all faster than Barry could reach. 

"Everybody inside! Go!"

Felicity and Mick made it inside. Barry stayed, running for Oliver, when the light came down from above. Barry pushed himself faster, extending his hand. He lunged. It was too late. Barry couldn't save Oliver from the abducting light. 

SPACE 

Aliens! In SPACE! Every abductee had been taken into a capsule of some sort, which brought on a conjoined hallucination, where everyone they once knew was alive and well. They managed to escape the dream and escape, though it brought dozens of Dominator ships after them. 

The Waverider came to them in their time of need. It saved the escape pod filled with the heroes from being blown to pieces. With Nate Heywood, a historian turned superhero Steel, as the pilot, he swallowed up the pod and rejoined the non meta-human's together. 

That was it, Ray had noticed. He proposed the Dominators chose them specifically because they couldn't fight back in a way that would hurt. He suggested that the Dominators used the hallucination to keep their minds busy while they probed for intel. 

"Bigger question: what intel are they after? What is their plan?" asked Oliver.

"'Klic-clac-to-nick-lava-shack-too,'" quoted Ray slowly. 

"Gesundheit," excused Thea.

"No, no, it's what one of the Dominators said to one of the others, which sounds like the beginning to a not-so-funny joke, but... Gideon," said Ray hopefully.

Gideon, their A.I. aboard the Waveride, appeared in hologram form above the center table. She informed them she was translating.

Diggle stared at the hologram. "Someone gonna tell me why that thing looks like Barry's wife?"

"Who?" wondered Nate. 

"A friend of ours. She died a few months back," explained Ray. 

"She was created in A.I. form by Barry, in our future," said Oliver. 

Diggle didn't have much of a reaction. He should have expected a crazy situation to follow Parker's death. She was married to the fastest man alive, after all. 

"The phrase loosely translates to, 'we are nearing completion of the weapon,'" said Gideon.

"What weapon?" 

"I'm afraid I have no idea, but I'm tracking the Dominators mother-ship you escaped from, and it appears to be on a direct course for Earth," said Gideon.

Oliver sighed. "To be continued."