Barry's late again. How can the fastest man alive always be late?!
Carol twirled her hair impatiently. "So is he joining us or not?"
"Sorry about that," Iris flushed. "We should place our orders first." She called his mobile again.
Barry opened the door of the restaurant. Face as red as his wife's, he "ran" at a snail's pace to their table.
"Sorry I'm late," he took his seat at the table. "Forgot the time. It's a puzzling case but I think I've almost cracked it."
"We were about to order. What do you want?" Hal handed the menu to his best friend.
"The usual," Barry replied.
"Hal," his eyes searched his friend's. "What does Gotham have in common with Central City?"
"What do you mean?" Hal frowned.
"Just a case at work I'm trying to crack," Barry mumbled.
That was the last Hal had seen of Barry.
The police scientist was working on a case in Central City. Seemed the culprits were Gothamites.
Barry confided in Hal privately.
He shared his suspicions that the case he was on had something to do with Bruce's disappearance and the subsequent abductions of the Robins.
He suspected he would be next.
So here was Hal. In Central City, following the info his friend had given him before his abduction.
His chat with Nightwing shed more light on the matter. He would head for Wayne Enterprises in Gotham later.
J'onn had gone ahead of him so he'd meet him there after checking something out on a hunch.
Landing in an abandoned warehouse, he searched for hidden doors, chambers, trapdoors, anything that could hide Brother Eye's control room.
Fear. Overwhelming.
No, that's not right.
As a Green Lantern he was fearless.
The air he breathed was tainted with the Scarecrow's fear gas, he realised.
"You!" Hal's eyes widened as a yellow beam powered by fear, struck through his protective aura, knocking him out.
-------
The blood and tissue samples when studied under the microscope were unlike anything he had ever seen.
Human, definitely. Yet reversed. Like mirror images of regular human cells.
Barry was perplexed.
The antimatter universe?
Cold beads of sweat formed on his forehead at the very thought.
If so, then who?
Those thoughts haunted him all night long, throughout his dreams until the alarm clock went off.
"A penny for your thoughts," Iris filled Barry's plate with a 15 inch tall stack of pancakes. The sausages were piled high on yet another plate.
"The case is weird to the point of spooky," he mumbled.
"...condemned building collapsed on 5th avenue.." he heard from the TV in the background.
He took a microsecond to finish off every scrap of food on both plates.
"Gotta go honey," he pecked her cheek and ran off to look for survivors.
As he got the last girl out from the ruins, he saw a strange glow emanating from a nearby building and ran in that direction to check it out.
He felt like he hit a brick wall. He couldn't feel the speed force. His speed was gone.
Shocked, he froze. A blunt object hit the back of his head. Stars sparked in his eyes before everything turned black.
Waking up with a massive headache, he found he could not move. He was stuck, frozen in some hard transparent bubble facing a large window.
He saw a boy in a baggy red sweater run past.
The kid looked around.. twelve years old?
How old was Robin anyway?
That black haired, blue eyed kid looked like Robin, out of costume, without the mask.
Look out kid! The words never left his frozen mouth.
A huge burly man punched the boy.
The kid, like a well trained mini ninja, ducked, returning a kick to the man's face.
The giant collapsed.
Definitely Batman trained.
His newest Robin or one of the existing ones?
Five more guards charged at the boy who ducked out of sight.
Bullies.
If Robin is here, maybe Batman's nearby to clean up the mess.
-------
"Shazam!" Billy yelled soundlessly.
Still nothing.
Okaay.. Here's what Wildcat and Black Canary trained him for.
He lowered himself into a defensive stance as five goons closed in on him.
The first thug swung his fist. Billy ducked, returning a kick to his face.
As the thug fell on his companions, Billy leaped on the nearest goon that had a particularly large head.
The goon swayed as Billy used him to leap over the remaining goons.
The boy landed on his feet like a cat, a few feet away from the confused heap.
"Get him!" Mouthed the guy whose head Billy flattened.
Lungs bursting, sides splitting, Billy sprinted through the maze of corridors heading for the exit.
The door was open.
Billy made that final dash for freedom when something stung his neck.
Pain.
Paralysis.
Darkness.