Issue #17: "Live Fast, Die Young: Faster Than..."

[Darkseid Is]

[Darkseid Is]

The Flash
Issue 16: "Live Fast, Die Young: Faster Than Ever" Part 2 of (2)
Co-Written by Sebastian Gutierrez and Immanuel Coke
Cover by Craig Cermak and Ramon Villalobos
Edited by Immanuel Coke

[Darkseid Is]

He came closer. Savitar, the monstrous speedster, smiling and walking. Not running, tasting the moment. I can’t believe that this is the end. No, correct that, I WON’T let this be over.

Although it pains, I force myself to speed up my metabolism even more, trying to heal my wounds. But there’s nothing that can heal my legs, or my knees. When he is near enough, I throw a rock at him, but he dodges the projectile easily.

“Ah, you still have some fight left in you. That’s good.” He grabs my left arm, and I don’t wait for him to break me, or kill me, or whatever he wanted. I hit him straight in the face with my other hand. He goes down, tearing part of my suit as he falls. “Why, you… You don’t deserve the mark of the lightning! I’ve beaten you; you’re done, so go down like a warrior!”

He rips most of my costume apart. Still with it in his hands, he kicks me hard in the stomach, making me lose air. I hit him again, but something sends me flying through the air and landing face first in the ground. I try to stand up, but the pain is unbearable.

I try one more time, and fall again. My metabolism is running as fast as it can go, but still it can’t be helped. Savitar laughs, and then runs at me. He’s trying to finish this. But I’ll be damned if I let him go.

I speed up even more and let out a cry of pure, undiluted pain. The sonic boom caused by it wins me some time to crawl. Yeah, crawl at super speed. I try to stand up, and something happens. Time stands still

A strike of lightning hits me directly, but I feel no pain. I feel no electricity, but some familiar raw power. Most of my wounds heal themselves. Savitar tries to punch me, but is stopped by an invisible force. I think about trying to stand one more time, and to my surprise, I manage to do it almost without the pain. I look down at my legs, and see them still hurt, but with something covering them up. A strange material is building around them, helping me stand up while making my legs recover faster.

Savitar seems completely puzzled for less than a millisecond (One of the advantages of being a speedster, I say with renewed hope) but goes to the same though face, and then goes completely crazy with rage.

“You won’t surpass me! I am a God! I have thousands of followers everywhere! I am Speed!” He throws himself at incredible speeds for a starting sprint, but I stop him with a kick to the face. I almost can feel his nose break. The thing that covers my legs quickly expands through my whole body, creating a type of armor. I admire it, and see it. The armor looks surprisingly like Wally’s kid Flash suit, except a golden yellow in colour.

“It seems the Speed Force favors me.”

[Darkseid Is]

Minutes Earlier,

Iris grabs her bulging tummy as the baby inside her kicks him. She sits down and stares happily to the horizon from the balcony in her apartment. She hopes everything will be fine, and the accident in Mota’s laboratory a month ago is now just a better forgotten thought. She looks at the clock, and sees that Barry will be late to the trip to the doctor. Again.

A breeze goes around her, sending a chill down her spine. She thinks that she has seen something from the corner of her eye, a blur.

“Barry?” She asks to no response.

Lady Savitar just smiles.

[Darkseid Is]

Elsewhere,

A man appears in the middle of a desert, between shiny patches of hot glass made by the friction of a fight that occurred in there less than three minutes ago. He searches around for it, and founds it. He places blood and tissue of the scarlet speedster in a vial and leaves.

[Darkseid Is]

Russia,

I run circles around Savitar, hitting him every once in a while. He tries to hit me, but I modify the structure of the material in my armor into a shield. Then I hit him square in the jaw and goes down once more.

He wipes blood from his mouth, and smiles. I hear him whisper something as he disappears. “You lose.”

I catch with the behemoth in a blink. He is breathing heavily, tired, but doesn’t stop. He looks at me and just keeps running, not even trying to fight. Because his direction is unknown, I can’t outrun him, but even if I knew, a little more pressure on my legs could leave me in permanent need for a wheelchair. The pain is back, but the protection doesn’t allow me to really appreciate how much damage there still is, so I have to do everything carefully.

“Where are you going? Stop now and we can end this!” I say, but it’s just police talk. I know that it’ll never help in some these cases.

“You have risen against the mighty ones, and you shall pay for it!”

He starts to speed up, and when I notice that he has been stealing speed from me, he is already far away. I stop for a moment to recharge, when I’m struck by his intentions. I read a sign that welcomes people to Central City. He is heading for Iris.

[Darkseid Is]

“Lady Savitar!” He shouts, as he nears his target. No one can stop him now. The female’s baby will in seconds be exterminated.

The female speedster sees him coming and grabs the speedster’s wife by the back. “Don’t worry, it won’t hurt that much.”

“Who are you? Get your hands off me!” Iris shouts, angrily.

The door is completely vaporizes as Savitar runs right through it. Iris Allen is frozen in a pose, trying to break free from her captor. He reaches with his arm, planning to make a mess out from her. A big stain, he thinks and laughs again. And he’s stopped. The Flash stands triumphant in front of his wife, with the fist in his arms.


“Iris, go!” I shout at her, and lend her speed. Savitar’s companion tries to catch her, but I get in the way, receiving punches in every inch of my body.

“Get the carrier of the lightning and deal with her!” Savitar shouts.

“You don’t get to talk about my wife that way!” I say, and take both of them away from my house. I can’t let my house be destroyed months before the baby is born.

Both Lady Savitar and Savitar launch at me with everything they’ve got. My armor morphs into something heavier, more appropriate for fighting than running. And fight I do.

I throw punches and receive them. They both hit me hard and send me miles away. I put my feet in Lady Savitar and make her fall, while I pin Savitar into the floor. The confrontation slowly loses the fight, and soon we are just running fast around the world.. Occasionally, we try to hit each other, but soon the speed is so high we need to concentrate all we can to stay on the same track and avoid collisions or something that might make the other side win.

Savitar turns around, facing me. “Come on now, scarlet warrior. Show me how fast you really are! Let’s race to the end of our lives!”

And that’s the shot that begins the race.

[Darkseid Is]

There are just two times when something like this had happened. The first one is with my fight against Dr. Spectro. The second one during the Crisis, with Jay paying the ultimate price. I seem to recall a third time against Jay, but it seems just like a bad nightmare that was too real. Those three times being when I was here. Not exactly earth, not exactly anywhere else.

But this time it’s different. I see periods of time that aren’t ours. I see a scarred cowboy shooting an antique pistol, a man wearing a costume like mine, but with reverse colors. I see civilizations rise and fall. Buildings that looked to old and new to actually exist. And also, always in a place where I can’t see it right, images of an apocalypse.

While I’m distracted, Savitar punches me in the face. I seem to rebound and soon I’m in the race again. I notice that my armor is gone except in my legs. I grab Savitar by the back and I dislocate his left arm. He just looks at me with blind rage and goes to Lady Savitar.

“I’m not sorry.” He whispers to her, and soon she disappears. I see a group of superheroes with rings fighting a war in what appears to be the distant future.

“What did you do to her?!” I shout. I see one of the images that appear, of Iris. I go faster.

He disappears too, leaving an image of a guy with a shield in the top of the daily planet. Soon he is behind me. “I told you I was speed! I got my rightful power out from her and back to me!”

“So you stole her speed? All of it? The sudden decrease could have killed her” I pass through some guy shooting lightning from his hands.

“Not my fault! I gave it to her, and I can take it away!” I feel speed draining away. I try to fight back, but Savitar seems more powerful than before. His skin turns red. The images that I saw evaporate.

[Darkseid Is]

“Stop it! You don’t understand! That will kill you!”

He starts disappearing in front of me, with a huge smile. “It is you, speedster, who can’t understand! I can’t be killed! I’m too fast!”

He continues to do so, running ahead of me. I know where he is going and what is happening to him. The same as Jay. I use all of my speed and power to do this. I get speed back from him, and make the construct in my legs to enlarge. The point of no return is near him. One chance only. I speed up a little more. And launch myself at him.

Everything goes black for a second. And then I look up. We are by a bay. We. Savitar is lying down, facing the sky. He looks conscious, but his gaze looks lost. And I know he is finished, but something tells me this isn’t over.

I grab him, and force myself not to punch him. He is beaten, after all. “You don’t deserve the heroic death Jay got.”


I run back to Central City, carrying him around. I locate his companion lying on a park, still alive but body broken.

[Darkseid Is]

I run back to Central City, carrying him around. I locate his companion lying on a park, still alive but body broken.

After dropping them off at Iron Heights I run towards the hospital. I can feel my speed suit breaking apart. I’m slowing down. It has healed most of my injuries but the pain was too much.
But I can’t stop now. I need to get to Iris. I collapse at the front door of the hospital.
Hours later I wake up with Iris sitting beside me. When I see she is in a wheel chair I almost freak out. And then I see him.
My son.
He looks at me with his intense golden eyes. I start to cry. Arthur was right: it is a beautiful thing holding your son in your hands.
“So what do you want to call him?” asked Iris.
I look at her and smile.
“Bartholomew Jason Allen.” I say with reverence. This is for you, Jay.

[Darkseid Is]

Epilogue

I was going through letters of congratulations from my family and friends when I saw it.

It was plain white envelope with no name on the front. There was no postage and I wondered how it could have been sent to me.

I opened it and read the letter:
Congratulations Flash.You did surprisingly well for somebody whose legs were supposedly broken. You seem to have regained your previous speed levels. It matters not for I know your every desire and every weakness. Enjoy your hard fought freedom for now because there will be a reckoning.
Eobard Thawne

An icy chill crept up my spine. Iris had told me about how when she was captured by Lady Savitar she had seen a man that looked exactly like me except he had brown hair. She had said he was the one who organized this attack on me.

I crumpled the paper in my hand. Bring it on, Thawne. Bring it on.

[Darkseid Is]

FINIS

[mockingbird]

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