The Flash

by Richard Knaak

  Mardon’s eyes widened. The manic look in them startled Joe, but not enough to keep him from trying to fire again.

  “Aaargh!” The Weather Wizard gestured in Wally’s direction. The spinning ceased. Instead, Wally went flying into the nearest car.

  “No!” shouted Joe. He fired.

  The hovering figure easily deflected the shot this time. Clenching his fist, the Weather Wizard gestured at Joe. A gale-force wind slammed the detective against the doors to the police headquarters, cracking them and knocking Joe out.

  Paying no heed to Wally’s still form, the Weather Wizard descended further. Hovering over Joe, Mardon raised a new wind that pulled the unconscious detective’s body up into the air.

  “Now that’s more like it,” Clyde, suddenly floating next to his brother, said with satisfaction. “Nice!”

  “I’ll kill him now. We’ll finally be rid of him. He’ll finally pay for you, Clyde.” As Mardon spoke, his voice took on a strained quality. His body dripped, but with sweat, not rain.

  “No. Not yet,” the ghostly figure whispered. “We need him to draw the Flash right where we want him. He ought to be just about tenderized by that tidal wave.”

  “You sure it didn’t destroy him?” the Weather Wizard asked dubiously. “That trap you suggested was a tricky one. He could be under tons of water.”

  “The Flash? Nah. He’s ours, Mark. He can’t die until we decide he should. You need him to bring me back. Then he can die a thousand different ways.”

  “‘A thousand different ways.’” Mark smiled, his lips curled much farther back than normal, giving him even more of a cadaverous countenance. “Yeah. I know what to do. I know how to bring you back. This time I’ll succeed.”

  “Yeah, this time you’ll succeed. That’s right, Mark. Let’s go.”

  “Let’s go,” the Weather Wizard repeated.

  He shot up into the air, Joe’s dangling body following. The Weather Wizard vanished into the clouds with his prey.

  Below, Clyde Mardon stilled. His expression grew slack.

  A moment later, he dissipated.

  * * *

  Moaning, Wally tried to move. More than ever, he was grateful for the special padding Cisco had made certain the suits had. His bones still vibrated and his head felt as if it were about to explode, but he would live.

  Live with his shame, that is. Not only had he twice lost badly to the Weather Wizard, but he’d failed to protect his father. That after swearing to Iris, his father, and himself that nothing bad would happen.

  “Cis-Cisco,” he managed.

  “Wally? Where are you? Hang on! Let me get your readings—geez! Are you with your father?”

  “No.” Wally had to wait a moment to catch his breath. “Cisco. Mardon has—him.”

  “‘Him’? Your father? When?”

  “Just… just a couple of minutes… ago! I think… I think they’re headed east. Tell Barry.”

  “I’m on it. I’ll also get someone over to you—”

  “Never mind me…” Wally’s mind began to clear. “One more thing. I saw someone with Mardon. Right at the end. Floating up there just like him. Couldn’t really make him out. Always… Always like he was out of focus.”

  “Yeah, Barry and I figure some new metahuman pretending to be Clyde Mardon.”

  “Yeah?” Wally groaned as he tried to move. “A-a real strange one, then. I saw him vanish, Cisco. Poof. Just like that. Just like a—like a—”

  Cisco didn’t wait. “Like a ghost?”

  Grimacing in pain, Wally nodded. “Yep. Just like a ghost.”

  13

  Although somewhat dazed, the Flash nevertheless pushed himself to his feet and ran. Compared to his abilities at their peak, he ran so very slowly. Yet, compared to the tidal wave, he still moved in the blink of an eye.

  The only question for the speedster was whether that was fast enough for what needed to be done. Peering at the growing wave as he rushed, Barry could not really trust that it was.

  The fog that the Weather Wizard had set up had already begun to dissipate. It had not been designed as a danger itself, only as a distraction at a critical moment. The Flash could have easily broken his leg or worse. At the very least, he could have been left helpless long enough to become a victim of the tidal wave. Mardon had planned cunningly. Fortunately, circumstance and luck had been with the speedster thus far.

  Once the Flash himself was out of range, he came around again to better judge the oncoming catastrophe. The Flash knew that somehow he had to return to his efforts. Whether or not the main purpose of this second wave had simply been to trap the speedster, the Weather Wizard would at the very least leave much of Central City in ruins with who knew how many casualties. Barry couldn’t risk that happening.

  Taking a deep breath, he picked up speed once more. He raced back and forth several yards ahead of the diminished tidal wave, pushing himself faster than before despite his battered body and rapidly depleting energy. The Flash realized that he probably had enough strength for only one attempt. Anything beyond that and he would likely falter before he could finish.

  His body screamed from abuse as he accelerated again. To his relief, however, a second gale-force wind finally rose from his efforts. The Flash adjusted his path to ensure that the wind focused on a direction setting it against the tidal wave. Faster and faster he ran, building it up to the mighty level of the previous and then pushing it harder yet.

  “Not this time either, Mardon!” Barry muttered. “This tidal wave’s going to be just as much a washout as the last!”

  The wave neared. The Flash’s wall of wind met it hard. The speedster gritted his teeth and belatedly shielded his ears.

  Water sprayed everywhere… but not as one massive wave. Instead, much of the water tumbled back down into the ocean. That which managed to pass the Flash’s barrier only created a briefly rougher rainstorm. There would be some light damage, but hardly anything in comparison to what could have been.

  Still Barry didn’t rest as the two forces met. He continued to strengthen his wall. As weary as he was, as violently as his leg muscles shrieked, the speedster pressed on for as long as there was even a remnant of the original tidal wave left. The Flash easily lost track of just how many times he raced to one end and back. All that truly mattered was that it had to be enough.

  Faster and faster and faster he ran, though throughout it Barry couldn’t help feeling he could not run fast enough. The wave might have been reduced in size by his previous efforts, but it was much nearer the city now, giving him no margin of error.

  The Flash ran until he had nothing left to give, and stumbled to a halt, leaning against the nearest wall, to watch and see whether or not he had done enough after all.

  The initial collision had somehow dwarfed the earlier one despite the marked difference in height. A heavy but very brief downpour washed over the shore and the first two blocks. The Flash remained just out of reach of it, waiting to see if there would be any more threat.

  The sea churned, then settled back. Barry eyed the coastline, but saw no more trace of the threat. The protections already put in place after Mardon’s first attack on Central City would continue to work unless the Weather Wizard attempted something else.

  Only then did he realize that Cisco was yelling in his ear. “He’s got him, Barry! Do you hear me? Wally tried to do something but Mardon got Joe!”

  A chill ran through the Flash. The true reason for the second tidal wave now became horribly evident. Barry shook as he thought of how well the Weather Wizard had played him. Now the worst had happened. “Joe’s… dead?”

  “No! Sorry for that, man! Kidnapped! Wally saw the Weather Wizard use a gust of wind to carry Joe off. Joe was just unconscious. Wally tried to stop him, but couldn’t! He’s still out there now, searching.”

  “Where’d it happen?”

  “Police head—”

  The Flash ran.

  “—quarters!” Cisco finished as the speedster pa
used in front of the selfsame building.

  The evidence of the struggle was very clear all over the area. The damage spoke of the intense effort Wally had put in while attempting to save his father. Barry saw that the battle couldn’t have happened very long ago: police had just started to take over the scene.

  Running so swiftly that everyone around him appeared to freeze, the Flash cased the entire scene from top to bottom and quickly made a judgment as to everything that had happened. He especially noted the damage to the door and to several of the cars in the parking lot, seeing the ferocity with which Mardon had dealt with both Wally and Joe. The vision left the speedster shivering from frustration at the thought that he had not been there to help prevent Joe’s kidnapping.

  Stop it! he ordered himself. This isn’t going to help Joe! Keep your calm and analyze everything for some clue.

  Moving beyond the police facility, the Flash surveyed the neighborhood. Calculating where the Weather Wizard had to have been when he struck the pair, Barry then tried to follow back the rogue’s trail as best he could.

  Only when he was far out of sight of the police and under the protection of an overhang did he pause to evaluate his progress. A part of him knew that he should have joined those inspecting the scene. It was not that he didn’t work well with the department, but right now Barry felt that if he became embroiled in the official investigation he would be slowed down too much. Mardon had no reason to keep Joe alive for very long.

  “He’s nowhere to be found!” a voice cried out from behind him. “I tried but I couldn’t keep him safe!”

  Wally’s harried expression as he suddenly joined the Flash matched the other speedster’s concerns and then some. Wally had only recently connected with his father. Now the fear of losing his parent again hung heavy.

  Putting a comforting hand on his companion’s shoulder, Barry replied, “I can imagine what you’re going through. Not exactly, but certainly near enough. Joe means a lot to me, you know that. He’s always been there for me. So just try to calm down. We’ll save him. I promise.” After Wally quieted, Barry went on, “I know what Cisco told me. Now you tell me what happened, so we make sure we don’t miss a clue.”

  Wally quickly did, filling in some holes in what Barry knew. What interested the Flash most was the last bit.

  “You saw this figure too? The one he called his brother?”

  “I mean, I couldn’t say it was this Clyde, since I never really paid attention to who he was, but there was someone up there. Never really in focus, and then he up and went poof just like you see ghosts do in the movies! At the time I didn’t have much of a chance to let it sink in, but now…”

  “Cisco thinks it’s a new metahuman using the Weather Wizard’s grief, but I’m beginning to question that possibility. I don’t know who or what it is, but somehow it’s key to a lot of what Mardon’s doing, including kidnapping Joe now.”

  Wally shook his head. “That part doesn’t make any sense to me. Why kidnap him? Before, the Weather Wizard tried to kill him in front of the apartment complex.”

  The Flash scowled. “Did he really, though? I’ve thought about it. Maybe a part of Mardon wanted to kill Joe then, but I think he really expected that I’d be there just in time. The Weather Wizard knows me better than most of those we face. He might have assumed, rightly or wrongly, that I’d always arrive in the nick of time and used that.”

  “Man, he sounds loco.”

  “I’m certainly not arguing that, but it makes him no less clever. Take this kidnapping. I think Joe’s still got some time, not that we’re going to slow our search in the least. No, I’m pretty sure at this point that the Weather Wizard’s building up to something involving me and right now he’s using Joe for bait.”

  Wally looked at him as if he now thought Barry insane as well. “What could that be?”

  “I wish I knew.” The Flash looked up into the stormy sky. “It’s something more than just wanting revenge on me too, although he really wants that badly. Never mind that. When’s the last you saw them. Exactly which direction?”

  Peering around, Wally pointed. “There. They disappeared into the clouds that way. I couldn’t follow after that. I didn’t know where to go. He could’ve flown right over me and I wouldn’t have been able to see him.”

  “Yeah. That’s been a problem with him. Most of the others we’ve faced can’t fly, and worse, don’t always bring cloud cover with them.” Barry grimaced. “Still, we may not be at a total loss. Cisco, are you there?”

  “Right here,” Cisco announced in his earpiece. “I heard what you were saying. Ahead of you. Been trying something different. On the assumption that the Weather Wizard is of course the cause of things like the tidal wave, I’m using that to measure his control over more than one incident at a time. If we can see what stresses it takes, depending on distance and intensity, then we might be able to locate him no matter where he moves.”

  The two speedsters looked uncertain. “That sounds like an awful lot of calculating, Cisco,” the Flash commented. “Is that possible?”

  “Well, it’ll take some doing, but I think I should have everything in place not too long from now.”

  “All right. I guess the best thing to do then is for Wally and me to divide Central City in two and double our search efforts until then. Just hurry, Cisco. We need this.”

  “I understand, man. Don’t you two worry. We’ll find him.”

  Barry looked at Wally. “You see anything, you let us know. Don’t go charging in alone. The Weather Wizard’s more powerful than ever. You don’t want to take any chances. That won’t help Joe.”

  “Don’t you worry. I know what I’ve got to do. Think Cisco can really locate him with some program?”

  “We need every shot we can get, that’s what I know.” The Flash eyed the incessant rain. “You ready?”

  “Yeah. Let’s do this.”

  * * *

  Cisco glanced at his phone. Iris had briefly called one last time from Caitlin’s apartment to tell him that they were on their way. The storm had clearly slowed them, which actually benefited him at the moment.

  He went to work, but not on the program that he had just discussed with Barry. Instead, Cisco delved back into the circumstances of the Weather Wizard’s escape from Iron Heights. Something about it still nagged him. He had his suspicions but needed to verify them.

  The knowledge would benefit him in more ways than just satisfying his curiosity. Whatever had happened that night had somehow augmented Mardon’s already substantial abilities. That had not been a simple thing to do. To Cisco, that meant that whatever had managed it should be fairly easy to find.

  “So, where is it then?” he muttered at the data. “Where is the key? Come on, Cisco! You’re a genius, or so you keep saying! Where?”

  He skimmed through page after page of the design for the Weather Wizard’s cell, including especially all the schematics surrounding the extensive wiring.

  And there, deep into that section, he thought he spotted the answer. If so, it had actually been staring him in the eye since almost the beginning. Cisco had seen to it that the information concerning the wand had reached the designers. It had been necessary to do that in order to make certain that Iron Heights could hold the Weather Wizard, since their previous designs had failed to come up with a method to keep his extensive powers at bay.

  And so they had done with Cisco’s secret contribution just as he had expected. But then someone had decided to try to be too clever. Cisco had purposely left out elements of the wand’s design that had in the end actually enabled the Weather Wizard to use it to enhance his powers. Cisco had thought nothing more about it at the time. Now he saw that he had clearly underestimated the designers’ own tech savvy.

  Someone had followed the same logical path he originally had in expanding on his data. Studying the cell’s electronic design, he could understand why. In order for Iron Heights to work where metahumans were concerned, the designers had had to tr
y to take several things into consideration. They had not only needed to create a chamber with four walls, a roof, a tiny window, and a strong door. No, they had had to think about the intricacies of each metahuman’s unique abilities and how best to keep them in check.

  And so they had, in the system designed to make the Weather Wizard helpless, virtually recreated the concept of the wand. Then they had in their further wisdom created a helmet in order to fine-tune the effects to his brain.

  “And it did just that,” muttered Cisco as he leaned back to stare at the results. An expression of disbelief spread over his face. “The wand… Oh boy…”

  “What’s that?”

  Cisco turned to find H.R. at the door. “Where’s Caitlin and Iris?”

  “On their way. I went ahead to see if you needed anything set up.”

  “How is she?”

  “Tired, but normal. What should we do?”

  Rising, Cisco went to where Barry had slept. “Give me a moment here. We don’t need all these electrodes.”

  “No?”

  “The machine is constantly taking readings. I can access everything I need on the computer or my phone.”

  H.R. did not look convinced. “We are talking about the machine that failed her more than once, right?”

  “That was due to a programming error on my part,” Cisco responded. “Even knowing Caitlin as I do, I underestimated her natural strength.”

  “Not by a little.”

  At that moment, Iris and Caitlin entered. Caitlin held tight to the other woman as if fearing a fall.

  “Right here,” Cisco ordered, gesturing to the table. “Hop up, Caitlin.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Nothing at the moment. I just want you to be able to relax. Sorry, but I’ve known for a while that you were having some problems, but I noted you made a few adjustments and seemed to be over them.”

  She nodded. “It worked for a little while, but of late it’s grown so much worse. I don’t understand why, though. For the longest time, I had perfect control thanks to what you built.”