Not everyone has a happy story. Some people are just born with tragedy flowing through their veins like blood. Even our heroes have dark pasts. None the less, they persevere even in the darkest of times.
The moon hung low above Central City. A man walked down the street passed the movie theater. He had oily blond hair, slicked back so that it reached his shoulders. He was dressed in a long brown overcoat that protected him from the cold air of the mid-February night.
He moved out of the way of a group of teenagers who were on their way into the theater. In the brief moment he was distracted, he bumped into someone exiting the theater.
"So sorry, sir. I did not...." The man froze when the two pairs of eyes met. The man, a younger more scrawny man, no older than thirty, he had bumped into froze too. The older guy bolted, pushing people out of his way as he weaved through the crowd.
"Magione." The younger man muttered before running after him.
The older man kept running, knocking people over in his path, desperately trying to escape the younger man, who was trailing after him. The older man ducked into an alleyway and crouched there for a few moments, trying to catch his breath. Two minutes past. And the young man didn't reappear.
"Lost me, didn't you, you little squirt." The older man muttered.
"You might wanna think again." Magione spun around in horror. The young man was leaning casually against the graffiti covered wall, his face hidden in the shadows.
"You thought you could hide from me Magione? I may not be that familiar with this city yet, but I have learned a thing or two over the years, now tell me. Where is he?" Magione spat at the boy.
"I'll never tell you." The younger man made a menacing movement towards Magione.
"Tell me where he is... And I promise that you'll walk away in one piece." Magione smirked.
"He would be pleased to know you are quite literally grasping at straws in an attempt to find him. Tell me, boy. Did you enjoy watching your family die?" The younger man barely stopped himself from lunging at Magione.
Magione saw the effort it took for the man to control himself and stood up.
"I would rather die then tell you were he is. But, why don't I start by killing you, and save Rohan the trouble." Magione drew a gun from his overcoat and fired a few rounds at the man, who dived behind a garbage pail. He instinctively brought his hand to a necklace that hung from his neck to make sure it was safe.
Outside of the alleyway, on the street, civilians had heard the gunshots and were fleeing, screaming bloody murder. The younger boy pulled a metal pole from within his coat and stood up, biting his lip uncertainly. Magione laughed when he saw the boy's expression.
"You can't do it, can you? After all this time, you still don't have it in..." Magione was interrupted by a banshee-like screech. He whipped around to confront whatever was coming at him.
"No...." Magione whispered in horror. He started to back away. Then there was a massive explosion, and the alleyway was filled with a whitish purple light. And then the alleyway was quiet once more.
Snart woke with a start and sat up. He had to look twice to make sure he was seeing things right. He was not where he was when he had fallen asleep.
"Where am I?" Snart thought, looking around. He stood and took another look around. That's when he realized where he was. He was at the Vanishing Point.
"Now how did I get back here?" He wondered aloud. He turned around and saw that he had been lying right next to the Oculus. Or what remained of it, rather.
"If Viggo or Nox did this...." Snart thought bitterly. He patted himself down and pulled out the Time Stone. He let out a sigh and disappeared. Snart walked down the hallway, towards his apartment. He pulled the handle but the door remained closed. Snart's brow furrowed.
"They never lock the door." He shrugged and pulled out his keys. He was so lost in thought he didn't even notice Barry exiting his apartment next door. Barry froze dead in his tracks.
"Snart?" Snart didn't even turn around.
"Good morning Barry."
"What're you doing here?" Snart slowly turned around.
"I.. Live here. You know, with my crazy roommates and the woman whom we all fear." The corner of Snart's mouth twitched as if it had tried to smile.
Barry had a blank expression on his face.
"What are you talking about?" Snart's mouth opened to say something but he closed it and pointed at Barry.
"Did they put you up to this?"
"What?"
"Did Viggo and Nox put you up to this? 'Cause, if they did, you can knock it off. It isn't funny."
"Who's Viggo and Nox?" Snart looked at Barry for a moment.
"You really have no idea, do you?" Barry looked like he was considering what he was going to say next.
"Uh, Snart... You died a little over three years ago." Snart's face scrunched together.
"No, you see, I didn't, remember? Two years ago? Shannon saved me?" Barry's face remained blank.
"Is any of this ringing a bell?" Barry shook his head. Snart pulled out his phone.
"Okay, that's it. I'm calling them." He froze and blinked a couple of times. It was like everyone from the other realm's (the dragon realm) contact information had been erased from his phone. Everyone's number was gone. Snart looked up at Barry.
"What happened?"
"Well, uh, Ray told me that..." Snart's hands dropped to his side in exasperation.
"Not that. What happened here? Where is everyone?" Barry took a step towards him.
"Look, Snart. I don't know what's going on, so I'll tell you what. Let me take you back to S.T.A.R. Labs, Caitlin can run a few tests, and we can sort this all out." Snart took a few steps away from Barry.
"I'm not crazy. I'm as shocked as you are about that, but that's not the point. I'm telling the truth." Snart turned around and walked off.
"Where are you going?" Barry called after him.
"I'm going to find someone who believes me." Snart replied. Then he stopped and turned around to look at Barry.
"Don't worry. I'll figure this out." With that Snart walked around the corner. Barry shook his head.
"That was.... Weird. Then again, it's Snart." He thought to himself.
That was the moment his phone rang.
"Hey, Joe. What's up?"
"Barr, someone's been killed. Alleyway at Adam's and O'Neil's."
"Alright, I'm on my way." When Barry arrived at the movie theater, he saw the usual thing you'd see at a crime scene. Yellow tap everywhere, cops interviewing shaken up witnesses, and CSI's looking for evidence. The body was in the alleyway, with a yellow card with a bolded black number one sitting beside it.
Barry climbed under the yellow tap, holding onto his CSI kit that he had slung over his shoulder. He bent down over the body, trying his best not to gag at the smell. The man's face and chest were literally charcoal.
His hands, covered in severe third degree burns. Worst of all, the man's face was froze open, as if he were screaming in agony or fear when he was killed. The smell of burnt flesh still hung heavy in the air.
Joe walked over to Barry, his notepad in hand.
"Hey, Barr. Are you okay?" Barry looked up at Joe.
"Uh, yeah, I think. It's just..." Barry glanced around to make sure no one was listening.
"Snart's back in town." He whispered to Joe.
"Snart? I thought he was dead."
"Yeah, so did I. And he knew about it. He said that he was saved by some girl named Shannon." Barry sighed and shook his head as if he thought Snart was crazy, which he did.
"Does that name mean anything to you?" Joe asked.
"No. Snart seemed to think it should, though." Barry shook his head again. "You know what? We can talk about this later. So, who's this guy?" Joe looked down at his notepad.
"Victim's name is John Magione, fifty eight years old. Do you got anything?"
"I see no signs of gun powder or C4 charge..." Barry replied, eyes darting around the blast radius surrounding the man.
"Victim fired at least one shot out of his Glock 19 before being instantly killed by whatever caused this explosion. My guess is that whatever it was, it was fired from about ten or so feet in the air. Which means whoever did this must've leapt into the air before doing so. And whatever was used was undoubtedly powerful, considering how wide the blast radius is. And there's something else...."
Barry moved over to another part of the crime scene without standing up, slipping on a pair of black surgical gloves as he went. He pulled out a pair of tweezers and picked up the object so he could hold it up in the full light.
"Is that, what I think it is?" Joe asked, hoping it wasn't.
"Yep. It's a scale." Barry replied, placing it into an airtight plastic bag.
"No doubt from some kind of large lizard. Or someone dressed in a very detailed costume." Barry stood up with a sigh.
"Hopefully Cisco will be able to identify whatever it's from." Joe and Barry walked over to where some detectives had gathered a group of witnesses. Well, group might be the wrong word. There were only two witnesses. Which was going to complicate matters a bit but it was all or nothing. The first witness was an elderly lady who had two shopping bags resting at her feet.
"What did you see last night?" Joe questioned. She adjusted her glasses slightly.
"I didn't see anything, but I did hear something. Please forgive me, officers, for my memory is not what it used to be."
"Great. Just great." Barry thought, grumpily.
"Of course. Please go on ma'am." Joe replied, pulling out his notepad again, ready to write down anything that could be useful. Despite the fact he became the Captain of CCPD a few months back, he still had a place in his heart for investigations.
The woman cleared her throat.
"I just happened to be passing by after a grocery trip and I heard two men getting into quite the heated conversation."
"Do you recall what was being said?" Barry asked. Her forehead wrinkled as she thought.
"One of the two was definitely younger than the other. No more than thirty. The other was much, much, older. The younger man had a faint Norwegian accent. Very faint. He said; 'You thought you could hide from me Magione?'." Barry looked at Joe.
"Seems our suspect knew the vic." Joe nodded, and started to write in his notepad.
"We might be able to find a motive using that information." The he turned back the woman. "Continue."
"The youngster continued with asking 'where was he'. And then the older one something about never telling him where he was." The woman frowned before continuing.
"That is all I can remember before the gun was fired and I fled." Joe and Barry exchanged a look. Already, this case was getting pretty interesting.
The second witness was a male teenager, maybe eighteen, with a nose stud which glinted in the sunlight.
"Look, man... I wasn't present for the conversation that woman was talking about, however, I happened to be walking by a few seconds before it happened so I heard the gun shot. After it was fired everyone fled and I was so confused about what to do so I froze. Seconds after the gunshot, there was this high pitched noise, like a banshee or something. Then the explosion happened."
The teen paused and rubbed something on his neck. "It was so powerful it threw me to the ground. It made me go deaf in both ears for, like, fifteen seconds. I think I caught a glimpse of what caused it too."
The teen licked his lips and wrung his hands together in a nervous sort of way.
"Do you think you could try and draw what you saw, son?" Joe asked. The teen nodded, took Joe's notepad and pen and began to scribble down the shape he had seen. When the teen gave it back, Joe showed it to Barry. It looked more like a panther than a lizard. But, if it was a panther, than means the crime scene would've been more messy and quieter. And how did the suspect escape unharmed? Something wasn't adding up.
"That's all I have, man.. Sorry." The teen mumbled.
"This is a pretty good lead to go on, son." Joe stated. The teenage didn't leave. He just shuffled his feet uneasily. As if there was something he wanted to tell them.
"You know if you know something else, you don't have to be afraid to say it, right?" Barry asked, kindly. The teen looked at Barry.
"There was one other thing. It's about the dead guy. Before he fired the shot he said, 'why don't I start by killing you and save Rohan the trouble'."
"Thank you... You can go." Joe said, making a shooing gesture with his hand. The teen nodded, put his hands in his pocket, and scurried off.
"Well, it sounds like this Rohan guy and our suspect have a history. The only question is, what that history is." Joe nodded.
"Why don't you take that scale thing back to S.T.A.R. Labs." Joe suggested. Barry nodded. Before he could speed off, Joe grabbed his arm.
"And Barr, don't worry about Snart. We'll figure out what he's up too after we solved this case." Barry nodded again, glanced around to make sure no one was watching and sped off.