Issue 12: "Weather Report"

[Darkseid Is]

[Darkseid Is]

The Flash
Issue 12: "Rogue State Part 1: Weather Report"
Written by Sebastian Gutierrez
Cover by Ramon Villalobos
Edited by Immanuel Coke

[Darkseid Is]

He woke up, sweating. He stood up, and went to the mirror, looked back and saw a woman sleeping in his bed.

“What’s happening to me?” He asked. Things kept changing colors, shape and sizes He tried to remember last night, but he couldn’t. His eyes looked blood red “Drugs?”

He tried to reach the door, but failed. Looking up, he saw a note, posted on the door. He grabbed it and
read it. Jesse James smiled as he opened a yellow package that he found next to his bed.

[Darkseid Is]

“I tell ya my plan can’t fail. Mirrors everywhere in an enclosed space. The Flash can’t get out of that.” Mirror Master said and then opened a beer.

“You said the same thing with the abandoned warehouse and the kaleidoscope the other time, and the Flash defeated you in no time flat.” Captain Cold said. His eyes fixed on his gun, repairing it.

“But....”

“Look, you had your chance. You wasted it. I won’t let you act solo anytime soon”

“But why!? I made mistakes, but this plan has no error margin. It’s flawless…”

Heatwave, Captain Boomerang, Trickster and Weather Wizard entered the room. The building is the official headquarters and warehouse of the rogues. The exact location is unknown to all, except for Mirror Master and Captain Cold. Not even the Flash with his super-speed has found it. The reason why it hasn’t been discovered yet, is that the team enters through mirrors scattered around Keystone and Central City.

“Hey, Cold, when are we going to do something? We’ve been with no action for about two weeks. I’m in the mood for throwin’ some of ‘tis.” Captain Boomerang grabbed one of his weapons and gently touched the sharp edge of it.

“And I haven’t seen fire like it should be in a long long time.” Heatwave said. He then grabbed a beer, and drank it in a long sip.

“I was telling him that I had this great plan to bring the Flash to his knees. I can already hear his pleas.”

“A plan again? Ha ha ha Scudder, you’re a riot! You can’t beat the Flash. It’s proved. Not you, maybe not me, not George, not anyone. Well, not alone. Not this time. I have an amazing idea.”

“Hey, I can beat the Flash.” replied Boomerang.

“Whatever. Look, we can attack the Flash in teams. Tire him out. Hurt him. Then, the next team has more chances of defeating him. And then, down goes the Flash.” Trickster grinned “We divide in three teams, which I’ve already divided, the most powerful, or with the most potential, with, the ... well... less powerful.”

“That sounds good. What do you think, Snart?” Scudder said.

“Keep talking James.” His eyes still riveted to his gun.

“The teams should beMardon and I, George with Rory, and you with Scudder. How about that?”

“Fair enough. So who do we choose who goes first?” Captain Cold finished fixing his gun. “When we attack?”

“Well, first, my team, then George’s and finally our boss. I’ve called some people, low class villains, which could help. But how about making this more interesting? How about a thousand bucks each one and the winner takes all.”

In a flash, six thousand dollars laid on the table.

“The Flash is going down.” Heatwave smiled.

“Six feet under..” The Trickster laughed. Soon, everyone joined him.

[Darkseid Is]

Days after...

Jesse James, sat on a sofa in a fancy penthouse in Central City. Next to him, a beautiful blonde, serving champagne. The room is filled with paper cuts about the Rogues, and other enemies of the Flash.
“So, everything is ready. The master plan will hatch soon. A matter of time before the Flash goes down. This is the greatest moment we’ve had. Cheers!”

“Cheers. Your group, the Rogues, they are really close, huh?”

“Like a family. We’re like brothers that care for each other, good brothers.” Trickster grabbed a photo that was lying in a table next to him. “You ice skate professionally?”

“Used to. Well, I’m sure you didn’t come here just to talk about all this. Am I right?”

“No, and you know it. I have come with a deal I’m sure you won’t refuse. The pay is huge. Happiness. Your deepest desire come true. The other side ain’t pretty, and I think you’re not a bimbo, so I won’t mention it. Deal?”

The blonde woman shook the Trickster’s hand, and smiles.

[Darkseid Is]

Barry looked down his microscope at the blood sample. His mind started wandering, about the last months. About Iris, Wally, but specially, Jay. This same day, a year ago, was the day they held the memorial for him. The Eternity Kid, the Flashes from different periods of time, the JSA. In his heart he still knows, or hopes, that Jay is still there. He can feel Jay every time he wears his costume, or uses his speed, and not in an emotional way. He can almost hear him, touch him, like they were running together.

He focuses back on his work. A guy, named Ebenezer Jones was found dead with chewing gum all over him last night. If the test results Barry had asked for were positive, it meant that the Trickster killed this guy. And it meant the promise the Rogues had done with him a year before expired.

“Hey, Bar, you look awful. Are you feeling well? You should take a break” said Jim, one of Barry’s co-workers.

“I’m fine, thanks.” answered Barry. His hands were shaking.

“No, you really should rest. Go, I’ll finish this.”

“Thanks. I owe you one.”

Barry went to the bathroom, and stared at him in the mirror. He still was sweating, but the shaking had disappeared. He threw water to his head, and headed for some coffee.

[Darkseid Is]

“Hey, Barry. I have the file about Jones. He worked with malls, checking prizes from rival stores. People close to him say he always looked worried, so he could have deals with the Rogues, or something like that.”

“Thanks.”

“Hey, Bar, I have this date, that’s really great, smoking hot, but she has this sister, so I was thinking if you could...”

“No Julio, I won’t double date with you. Married, see?” Barry showed his ring.

“Well, I guess...”

All the lights from the station turned off, leaving everyone in complete darkness. Sirens started to sound everywhere, so Barry and Julio left the building, helping people as they passed. Police surrounded the streets, and helicopters could be seen and heard everywhere.

[Darkseid Is]

“What is happening?”

“The Rogues returned. They have taken Keystone hostage.”

Barry pressed his ring, and changed into the Flash in a fraction of a second. He saw Chyre and Morillo and ran to their patrol. He asked them what had happened..

“The Rogues are in three different points of the city. Trickster has taken hostages, Boomerang is the one responsible for turning the power off, but continues to move around, and finally, the Mirror Master is robbing every bank on Keystone. There are many wounded officers, but still no casualties.” said Chyre, in a low grumbling voice.

“So, where is Cold, Weather Wizard and Heatwave?” asked Barry, confused.
“Well, they can be preparing to attack soon. We really don’t know. This is going to be a though afternoon, but we trust you Flash.” answered Morillo, patting Barry on the shoulder.

And with this, the Flash ran into action

[Darkseid Is]

The Flash decided to fight the Trickster first, for one simple reason. Jesse James was a psychopath, and the people that he held hostage were in great danger.

He arrived to a street filled with apartment buildings, some reached up to the twentieth floor. Police cars were burning in the surroundings, but there were no police to be seen, probably being held as well. Doing a quick scan, he found burned asphalt near the vehicles, possibly by electricity, and frozen guns. But it was too late, a bolt of lightning hit him straight in the chest. When he turned, Mark Mardon, the Weather Wizard was floating near him in a miniature tornado created by his wand.

“Hahaha Flash, you fell into the trap! Walked right to it, hahaha! I can’t believe it, you fool!” The Trickster said, pointing a gun at his head, laughing. “ Did you... hehe... really thought only three of us would be around, wreaking havoc?”

“Not as foolish as you are.” said the Flash, sprinting at the colorful Rogue. He punched him in the face, and the Trickster went flying into the air, and landed nearby. “A robot?”

“Hahaha, fooled again! You’re making my day Flash, you sure are!” said the robot head, still moving.

The Flash grabbed the head, but a powerful blast of electricity came from it, sending Barry flying against the floor. He tried to stand up, but his hands slipped and fell again. The floor was covered by a thin layer of ice. The Weather Wizard shot another electric blast at him, but he moved away this time.

Another Trickster appeared, behind the Flash, and pressed a button in a remote controller he had in his hand. He pressed it, and a bomb exploded in a sewer, filling the street with giant blobs of what appeared to be chewing gum. Flash ran, trying to move where the street was still clean, but he quickly tripped over one.

“Robot Tricksters, bad weather, me. Sincerely, one of my favorite plans.” Said the Trickster that had the remote control. Behind him, appeared another dozen of his robot copies, these ones not as detailed as the first one.

“Look, you want to fight me? Then do it, but leave the people alone.” The Flash said. He vibrated his leg, releasing himself from the gum.

“Huh? Where would that extra thrill be then, Flash? The truce ended yesterday, you can’t expect us to respect anyone anymore” said the Trickster, pointing at him with a gun with a giant nose in the end.

Barry ran towards the Rogue, but a blizzard and several robots stopped him. The Trickster then shot green liquid from his gun, hitting one of the machines and splashing small parts of the Flash’s costume, melting them.

[Darkseid Is]

The blizzard stopped, but a couple of the destroyed cars levitated off the floor, and started to spin in the air. They started to fly, trying to smash the Flash against the floor, and soon all sorts of metallic junk followed them.

“Electromagnetic fields Flash. This thing is fantastic, a real state of the art machine." Wizard said, flickering the wand with his hands.

The robots started to shoot Flash with tennis balls that exploded, and paintballs filled with acid. One even threw a boxing glove from its stomach, that, although incredibly ineffective, made the Trickster laugh. It was difficult to evade all the exploding toys and bullets, while at the same time trying not to step on the gum that filled the street.

“Now?” asked Mark Mardon, still playing with his wand.

“Wait, wait. Now.”

The trickster pressed another of his buttons, while at the same time, the Wizard made a gesture with his wand. Gas came out from several cracks in the floor, and the earth started to shake violently.

“A quake? The buildings will fall, Trickster! The people could die!” said the Flash, surprised. Now, it was even harder to move, and several of the projectiles hit the Flash. The gas that came out made him so dizzy, that he vomited. He thought back to his battle against the Top and how this seemed so similar.
“The quake is all my work. You see, the electromagnetic field is not only about moving metal things around. You have to think big, and that’s what I did. Shifting the earth beneath you.” Said the Weather Wizard, with an angry face. He didn’t like how the Trickster took all the credit from his brilliant idea, and he let the Flash know with another lightning.

The earthquake stopped, but the gas kept coming. The Trickster threw marbles to the trees on the street, and ran far from there. The marbles, one by one, exploded, setting the trees on fire.

[Darkseid Is]

Flash was bruised, hurt and cut. Some parts of his skin were recovering from burnings caused by the lightning and the acid. His costume was still almost intact, except for a few holes and stains on it. If he continued to let them attack him like that, he would die. So he stopped for a few seconds, scanned the area, and started to run. First, he vibrated through the robots and tore them from the inside. Then, while moving his hands in circles, he grabbed all the gum from the floor and filled the cracks with it.

“Well, you’ve broken all my toys. Good thing is, I’ve got more!” The Trickster said, lifting up a bag he had in his belt.

“Leave him to me, Trickster. You’ve already had your share of fun.” said Weather Wizard, holding his wand high in the air.

“But...”

“Look, you check on the hostages, and then you come back. I need some time alone with the speedster.”

“Okay, whatever. Party pooper.” said the Trickster. He then turned to the Flash, who was fighting the remaining pieces of the robots that still moved. “Don’t worry, I’ll soon be back to continue our play date.”

[Darkseid Is]

Captain Boomerang stopped his motorcycle at a beautiful park. The Golden Flash Memorial Park. Heatwave was waiting for him.

"So, they did their work?" asked Boomerang.

"They did. He even attracted people to the area with his little instrument. When he grows he'll be one great Rogue." said Heatwave. They had hired a few D-list villains to help them, with the promise to enlist them on the Rogue squad as supplementary members. He then pointed his gun at a tree. "Burning time."

[Darkseid Is]

The Flash was already feeling better, and the departure from one of his rogues was pure luck. The Weather Wizard looked down at him, and smiled. Barry tensed his muscles, and prepared. Each one was expecting the other to act. And Mardon was the one to have the honors.

Weather Wizard threw water at high pressure, but Flash easily moved out from the way. Mardon had a plan, and turned the splashing water into solid sharp pieces of ice, that cut Flash in knees and arms.

"Are you slower, or is just me?" said Mardon, grinning.

The comment made the Flash doubt. Was that a comment to distract him, or were the Rogues behind his power loss? Barry tried not to give the comment too much importance, and made a short sprint to a safe place, using a car as cover.

“I can see you.” said Weather Wizard, and made the car explode using his wand.

The Flash ran from one place to the other, trying to make time while he thought of something. And then it came. He stepped out from the alley he was hiding in, and faced the Weather Wizard, putting his hand over his head.

“Ok Wizard, this is your chance. You want to defeat me, and I need to get to the hostages, so let’s do this. A one on one final showdown. Fastest one wins.” said the Flash.

“Fast as lightning. Go!” said Weather Wizard, shooting electricity from his wand.

[Darkseid Is]

Barry had to be quick. As soon as he stopped talking, he started vibrating, starting to gain speed. When the Wizard shot him, he used one of his other powers and stole the speed from the lightning. Everything stopped, and the Flash just had to walk and tie Mardon to a post, while the electricity above him dissipated.

The Flash, still powered by the lightning, ran to save the hostages in the buildings.

[Darkseid Is]

Len Snart, Captain Cold, stood in a dark room in an abandoned building. No doors, no windows, no contact with the outside, just a small mirror in the middle of the room. After minutes of waiting, a head appeared besides him.

“I don’t like waiting, Scudder. Have you finished robbing banks already?” grumbled the leader of the Rogues.

“No, I haven’t, but I came here to tell you that the speedster is already in battle against Jesse and Mark.” answered Mirror Master’s floating head. And with that, he disappeared.

Len grabbed his gun and started freezing the walls with it. The first step was already in progress.

[Darkseid Is]

Barry arrived at the building that the Trickster had entered. The lightning speed was already gone, but some of his wounds were already being cured. He took a moment to focus, and vibrated through a wall. He wouldn’t risk his life just to be caught by some booby trap the Trickster had prepared for him. And right he was. As soon as he entered, he saw buckets with acid in the ceiling, hydrogen balloons and robot teddy bears. After evading them, he heard a voice down the corridor.

“You already defeated my partner? Well, I won’t be as naive and foolish as he could be. This is my playground, and these are my rules!” said Trickster, laughing. He held the remote control in one of his hands.

“If you keep talking, you’ll make my ears bleed. Really, can’t you stop?” said the Flash.

“Oh I see you’ve forgot about our guests. Maybe I can make their ears bleed, or even more. Now, the rules. If you want to have a chance to have a fair fight with me, you’ll have to get to the top of this building, and find the bomb that I hid in the ceiling. Oh, and don’t even think of doing something funny. I have cameras all over the place, if you disappear or things like that, I’ll press the button. Understood?” said the Trickster, mockingly. He loved doing this to the Flash.

Flash knew this could be a trap, and that he didn’t had the time to play the Trickster’s game. But there was no other chance, was there? If he tried to remove the control, the Trickster could have the time to press it. Too risky. “Ok Trickster, I’ll do it.”

“Ready? Set? GO!”

Flash ran through the second and third floor easily, but from the third floor and up, there was the same sticky gum the Trickster had used earlier.


The Trickster saw the Flash pass through all of his traps, at super-speed. Sometimes they managed to hurt him, but he continued on. Finally, after several seconds, he reached the top, and started searching. Jesse smiled, and grabbed his remote control.

“Not so fast, Trickster. You got your fun, but play time’s over.” said the Flash, behind him. Jesse looked back, and Barry punched him in the mouth while retrieving the control.

“You tricked the Trickster? Hehehehehe....”

[Darkseid Is]

Less than five minutes later, the police arrived and secured the area. All the hostages, who were in the basement of the building, were released and moved into a school, were all the other civilians affected by the Rogues attack where. The Flash remained there, until the police finally got the situation under control and taken his Rogues into custody.

“Hey Flash, good job in there!” shouted Chyre

“The police have already disarmed the traps in the building, and every single person has been placed in safe zones.” said Morillo.

“Good. So, where are the other ones? Mirror Master, Cold, Boomerang?” asked the Flash, bandaging his arms.

“Mmhh... I don’t know how to tell you this, but, Heatwave and Boomerang were seen, setting on fire Jay Garrick’s Memorial Park.”said Morillo.

“Those bastards don’t have respect for nothing.” Said Chyre.

[Darkseid Is]

Trickster and Weather Wizard were in the inside of a special security van. All their weapons had been removed, and they were handcuffed from the hand, legs and feet.

“It wasn’t my fault! He taunted me, I had to take the opportunity! He surprised me.” shouted Weather Wizard.

“Stealing speed. The oldest trick in the Flash book.” said Trickster.

“Well, how about you? Vibrating through a building, and punching you from behind?”

“No need to have this fight. I prepared everything. As I’ve told you, this plan has all kinds of situations ready with a back up plan. That should be arriving, now.”

The image of a girl with an orange suit holding one of Mirror Master’s gun appeared on the shiny surface of the wall. She then stepped out of the reflection.

“Say hello to our new partner, Lisa Star.”

[Darkseid Is]

To Be Continued...

[Darkseid Is]

Where has the Speed Gone?
Written by: Immanuel Coke
Edited by: Immanuel Coke

[Darkseid Is]

From the journal of Iris West-Allen

My name is Iris West-Allen and I’m the wife of the fastest man alive. Let me rephrase that. I’m the wife of the second fastest man alive. The title of fastest man alive currently belongs to my nephew, Wally West. My husband Barry Allen has been experiencing some loss in his speed. There are moments when he is running over water and his speed just cuts out and he finds himself drowning and other times when he is running up the side of a building and his speed cuts out and he begins to fall. His speed comes back an instant later but afterwards he finds that he is a few degrees slower. It is not that noticeable to anybody, except those with super-speed. Clark is too slow to notice it but Wally did. Barry made him promise not to say anything to anybody. I fear something or somebody is behind Barry’s power loss and his slight shift in personality. I just hope that he will be able to get through it alive.
November 8th

[Darkseid Is]

If anybody were to look in on the small man mumbling to himself in the dark laboratory, they would have seen an instant comparison to any mad scientist. His name was Manfred Mota, and he plays an integral role in this story.
As he bent to pick up a beaker from the floor; Mota was startled by the slam of the lab door. It was his wife Rosa and their 4 year old daughter, Valerie.
“Manfred! I told you that the next time I caught you staying late at the lab, that I would leave you. Valerie needs her father and frankly I don’t think you can provide for her anymore.”
“But Rosa! I have finally done it. I have found the secret to harnessing the power of lightning! You can’t leave me now. I love you.”
“It’s too bad I can’t say the same to you.” With a tear-stained face, Rosa planted a small kiss on her husband’s brow and took her daughter and left for good.
“But mommy, why can’t daddy come too?” asked Valerie plaintively.
“Because baby, daddy believes that he can command lightning and he has forgotten the important things in life.” Valerie thought for a minute and said in a small voice,
“I don’t like lightning. It is scary mommy.”
“So is your daddy. So is your daddy.”

[Darkseid Is]

In a realm of lightning and fire, of darkness and light, three immortal beings stood in conference. The eldest of the three spoke, “The gnat has thrown away his life so that he may commune with the heavens. He dares to try to stand on equal footing with US?”
“Calm yourself brother. This is just a minor annoyance. We still have to discuss what action to take with the usurper.” said the second, the air crackling with energy around her. The last opened his mouth, and his siblings silenced themselves. “I have decided. Barry Allen shall die for daring to wrest control of Nonalin from the Trinity!”

[Darkseid Is]

Elsewhere...

Three different events, all linked together by that disaprate energy source known as the Speed Force. I alone know what will come next but I it is my task to watch and monitor and to never interfere. It is my blessing and my curse.

[Darkseid Is]

To Be Continued...

[mockingbird]

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