Issue 2: "Whispers"

[Admin]

[Admin]

The Flash
Issue 2: "Whispers"
Written by House Of Mystery
Cover by Jim Dufresne
Edited by Brandon Herren

[Admin]

Returning from the store, he whistles to himself, watching the leaves blow in the quiet breeze. He shakes his head, thinking of what to do next when he sees something that makes him stop in his tracks. An icy wind connects with the brown leaves, and then they go icy, falling to the floor with a smash.
“I didn’t think that was gonna’ work. I surprise myself everyday, eh?” The man drops his bags and spins around, surprised to see a man in the middle of the street. “Who the heck are you?”
“Me, I’m Captain Cold. You’re The Flash…”
“I haven’t been called that for years…”
“Well, my employer wanted me to keep your occupied for the day. So here I am.”
Jay Garrick looks around. The man is wearing a blue visor with two slits for his eyes, and holds a high tech looking gun in his hand. “I have somewhere to be today.”
“Yeah. Keystone. And that’s why I’m here.” Cold fires the gun, but Jay can see no visible effect.
“You’re gun’s firing blanks, villain!” He steps forward, accelerates… And discovers he can’t move, his limbs become stiff and heavy. “What the-?!”
“Cold field, old man…” Jay thinks. He’s faced a villain such as this before, but he was called The Icicle, and besides, he vanished a couple of years back. Mahkent, was his name. He used to spring this trap whenever they fought… He was a fool not to consider this before!

[Admin]

“Wally is coming with me while I do the annual coverage of the event…” Iris smiles, stroking Barry’s hair. “I’ll see you there later?”
“Yup. I’ll be there at the beer tent.” He smiles widely, and Iris playfully slaps his arm. “Oh God… Did I just say that out loud? I meant…Um…” He laughs slightly, and smiles again. “I’ll see you at the media tent. At two. See you later Wally!” Barry waves at the red haired, thin-featured boy, who waves slowly, and walks out of the apartment. “Nice kid… Ok, I’ve gotta’ go work! I’ll see you later.” Barry leans into Iris and kisses her softly, and then slides back, smiling.
“See you fiancé of mine…” Iris waves good-bye and walks out the door.
“Dang…”

[Admin]

I’m in the lab, processing fifteen things at once, when a knock comes from the door.
“…Allen.” It’s Chyre, his gruff features rougher than usual. Something’s up. “We’re all wanted in the ‘war’ room.” I nod, take off my lab coat and goggles, and join the man as he walks down the stairs to where everyone else has gone. “Hrgh… How’s Iris? And the kid… Wally is it?” I turn to the man, with a look of surprise coming over my face.
“Uh, Iris? Yeah, she’s good. Gone to the festival. Wally… He’s Fine… Fine as he could be, I guess…”
“Hrgh. Right.” I like Chrye. Nice bloke, if he just took down the hard man image for a moment… I see right through him… But not in the way my friend Clark would…

[Admin]

We’ve been called into the assembly area. I see the commissioner, a man in a suit, and as many officials from Keystone and Central you can fit on your fingers. This is big.
“Officers… Our esteemed colleagues in the F.B.I have just informed us… That one of our homegrown psychopaths is back. Everyone hear remembers Dr. Michael Amar do they not?”

Murmur. Sick SOB… Here’s the deal with the guy:

Four years ago, respected surgeon Michael Amar went mad and began a killing spree to ‘stop the voices.’ He cut a swath of terror through Central and Keystone cities until he vanished, and went onto a cross-country killing spree… I heard they found his tongue in one of his ‘nests’ and also a sowing kit… Gotham City makes you do mad, stupid things, no doubt… But this guy… His blood… It was weird. I found a trace of it at one of the crime scenes, and it was unnatural… I don’t know how to describe it… Well, after that, the FBI came down on us, took all our evidence, our hard copies, the masters… And just vanished with it. I heard that they gave it to their capes and freaks section, the DEO… Well it was out of our hands, but not… He’s back… And God knows what he’s going to do.

[Admin]

“Kll thm… hrp thm…” He talks to himself, to drown out the voices, every word muffled, his tongue removed, his mouth sown up. He fiddles with the device, his long, thin fingers delicately altering the circuitry.”Flssh.”

[Admin]

“You do not approach this guy. His clothing… It’s booby-trapped… We had a close call one time… Nearly had him… But some uniform touched his shoulder, got pumped with some kind of fast acting toxin… His throat dissolved. He died slowly, and so far, our scientists have no idea how to stop the progression. Call in S.W.A.T… They’ll take him down…” Commissioner Fox nods at everyone and there’s a rumbling of voices. “So we’re concentrating everything we’ve got on this. I don’t want a repeat of what happened we had this case the first time round. I don’t want some branch of the government coming along and making it some kind of glorified ‘x-file’… This guy’s a murderer. Pure and simple. Let’s bring him down like one.” A cheer echoes through the room, and Barry looks around, looking for who began the shouts. He smiles as he sees the culprit. Chyre, his fist in the air, the other detectives joining him. “Go get him, men.”

[Admin]

“Today, I’m here in Lampert Park, for the annual Flash festivities!” Iris West smiles at the camera, and continues speaking. The decades old statue of the Flash stands in the centre of the park, a tribute to the city’s greatest hero. Not their Flash though, not Barry Allen, it was of the Flash who retired from the limelight in the 50s, the one who was a much loved hero of the 1940s. “The party starts here in an hour, so come along! Appearances from The Smashing Toads, and Greg Farnham, all star captain of the Central City Wild Cats!” The camera is cut off and she smiles and drinks some water. “What next, Drew?”

[Admin]

I leave the lab early… Get in my other work uniform, and run round the city, checking all the usual scummy haunts. If Murmur is in town… Chaos is sure to follow. I tune into the police band in my earpiece, and scan the airwaves, hoping for something… Some lead… I speed up my thinking, remembering every piece of evidence on this case, remembering every detail…

Oh my God.

I know where he might be.

[Admin]

Jay steps back, and gets out of range of the field. The Captain fires the gun at the ground, and Jay foolishly runs around to the back of him, attempting to strike him unawares. This fails miserably, as he slips on a layer of perfect, clear ice and hits the side of a building hard. He shrugs off the pain and turns to his opponent. “My mistake for underestimating you.” But now he has a plan… He rubs his hands super fast, creating intense heat, and he runs hands first at the man, dispersing the field of cold, and getting his hands on the villain. “Who sent you here? Savage? Mahkent?”
“Mahkent… I… I killed him… He’s dead…” Leonard Snart tightens his finger around the trigger, firing a blinding flash around him. Jay stumbles back, and rubs his eyes, and when his sight returns… Captain Cold has gone…

[Admin]

After Amar was jailed, the hospital he worked at came under intense scrutiny. They shut down the place, and now it’s abandoned… I run faster than usual, a red blur along the streets of Keystone. I storm into the main wards, looking around everywhere in a blink of an eye… Nothing… Not in any of the rooms… I slowly creep into the morgue, and feel a twinge on my leg… Trip wire?! I vibrate my molecules, dodge the bombardment of syringes, and look around… Damn. He’s been here… I super speed a syringe to the lab, and immediately start analysing the
contents.

[Admin]

“Aunt Iris… When’s The Flash gonna’ get here?”
“This isn’t about the new Flash, Wally… This is about the old one, The Flash from the second World War… You see that statue there?”
“The guy with the tin on his head? With the lightening bolt? He looks like Captain Marvel… And that guy is such a lame doofus…”
Iris smiles broadly. “Captain Marvel is a national hero! Hundreds of times over!”
“He’s a lame Superman knock off…” Wally folds his arms.
“Umm…” Iris looks around. “Marvel was around first… In fact Superman once said in an interview with Clark Kent… That Daily Planet guy… That Marvel was his inspiration…”
“Superman’s such a lame doofus.” Wally smiles slightly. “When does The real Flash get here?”

[Admin]

“What the hell?” I stare at the compound under the microscope, bewilderment filling me… This… This liquid… It’s a disease… I super accelerate my thought processes… Go through thousands of calculations… And… That can’t be right…
“Allen… What the hell?!” Chyre? Here! I look down lightning fast, and realise, in my absent mindedness… My costume is still on! I change between blinks, and leave Chyre confused. “Whoa… I thought I… The Flash?”
“Yeah, he was just here! Found something at Murmur’s hideout…”
“He found Amar’s hideout? Where? We should get a team down there, process the scene… Make sure the scarlet speedster hasn’t messed up the place…”
“Make sure all the guys wear protective clothing… He told me he set off a booby trap, nearly got infected by this…” I show him the compound; direct him to look down the microscope.
“Why are they… Why are the little black things moving?” Chyre looks up, and at me.
“It’s a disease… A fast acting virus… Like anthrax on speed… Looks… Super accelerated… I think that this stuff could even…” A wave of realisation floods across me. “I think it could even kill The Flash…”
“Dammit! Ok… Did Flasher say where he thinks this Murmur creep is gonna’ strike…” I think through what he says… And think back to everything that’s happened…
“The Flash Celebration… My God! He’s created a virus that can kill extremely fast, and extremely painfully… He… Chyre! Get down!” I stumble back, and something pulls at my foot… A tripwire? Again? A ball drops from above the light strips, and starts hissing with a black gas… I move fast, not too fast, just fast enough to grab the device and throw it in my fume cupboard, but not before the virus hits me.
Murmur was here! Murmur was here in the building! How?!
And I go into super convulsions… And Fred Chyre is standing over me, watching.

[Admin]

“I wonder where Barry is, Aunt Iris…” Wally looks up at his aunt, and looks around. “Why would he be late? I mean… Come on… He promised…”
“Wally… I love Barry, but he has the inherent ability to be late.” Iris sighs and puts her hand through Wally’s long hair.
“Excuse me… Mrs Allen?” A man in a large coat and hat comes up to Iris, his features obscured by a shadow cast from the tip of his fedora.
“Excuse me? What did you call me? It’s West. Not ‘Mrs Allen’…” Iris moves Wally slowly behind her. “Can I help you?”
“Um… Barry… He’s gonna’ be running… a bit late, yeah? Something bad came up at the precinct. I’m sorry if I scared you.” Iris turns to Wally and then back to the man, who… Has strangely…

Disappeared.

[Admin]

“Barry! BARRY!” Chyre grabs my arms, but then quickly jerks back, static shock running up his hands. “Crap!” I catch a glimpse of him leaping over to my desk, grabbing something, and then he grabs my arms again, and holds me down. He’s wearing insulated gloves! His head jerks up for a moment, and then he looks down, determination written across old features. “Concentrate on my voice… You’re… You’re the Flash… Use your powers… Slow everything down… I know you can do it…” He’s right. I concentrate hard, slow everything down, and stop the convulsions for a moment… “And… Now you hear me… You have to… Super accelerate yourself… It’ll… Hurt like dickens but it’ll make the disease run its course…” How does he know this? I don’t care… I do as he says… And he’s right. My throat burns and decays, my lungs fill with blood, but as soon as any damage happens my body repairs… Prolonging the pain… But wrenching the infection out… I jerk up, and look at Chyre. “Barry…” He looks at my hand, and the lightning streaked ring on my finger. “Get to the park. Take down that S.O.B… I’ll send squad cars there A.S.A.P… Good luck.” I press the button on my ring, and the red and yellow of my costume springs out. I change as quick as… well a flash…. “Barry… Don’t tell me you just changed in front of me…” He smiles slightly, and I run.

[Admin]

I’m at the park in a blink, and I scan the area. What doesn’t help is the fact people start to crowd me… Meaning I can’t get a bead on the perp, or run my fastest… Hell.

I make a decision.

I vanish.

[Admin]

“Iris! Aunt Iris! He was here! The Flash was here!” Wally jumps up and down, excited at the sight of his idol.
“I saw Wally… And he looked as if… I think we should get out of here…” She directs him through the media tent and out the back. “Run to the police station. Wait for me there. It’s just a block that way.”
“But what about The Flash? Oh… Uh… and what about Barry?” Wally taps his foot slightly.
“I think something may be up here, Wally… Please, do as I say…”
“Alright. For you, Aunt Iris.”

SHRRRZZZZTT. Feedback from the microphone fills the air. Everyone turns and looks at the stage.

[Admin]

“Uh, hi… My name is Barry Allen, I’m with the Keystone police… I want everyone to remain calm… But I need everyone to leave the area.” Hell. This better work.
A guy in the crowd looks up at the stage I’m on, and starts shouting. “Who ses?”
“I have word from The Flash, and… uh… from Detectives… We believe that there is a threat to everyone’s life here at the celebration… Please… Please leave in an orderly fashion.”
“Every’un!” The man in the crowd starts shouting again, and everyone is at attention. “If duh Flash ses there’s a threat ‘ere… We should ger’out of ‘dis place!” I watch as the crowds disperse, much to my pleasure.

[Admin]

“Wally?” Wally West turns around at the mention of his name.
“Who are you? You look like that Flash guy… the older one…”
“I get that sometime… I just wanted to see you before…” The man in the long coat and hat trails off, and turns to walk away, Wally seeing a red uniform beneath the large overcoat. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t speak to you.”
“Who are you…”
“Me? I’ll tell you a secret… I’m…”

[Admin]

I hear something. Not with my super speed ears… Because if people think that I have that power… They’re deluding themselves… But I hear a scurrying behind the curtain… I slip beneath the stage and change into my costume, and then tear the divide down.

Holy Cow.

Next to his hero's monument, is a monument to me… And atop my head (whoa…) clings Murmur, attaching another green bauble of his virus.

Oh yeah, he is going down today.

Phrases come to mind like ‘Get off my head’ and inane stuff like that… But I ignore them, and start running. I whip up a tornado, running around in a tight circle faster and faster, until the strong winds suck the creep into the vortex, and his syringes, blades, scalpels and… mask… are torn from him. I keep running, sucking the oxygen from the small area surrounding him and then wait for him to pass out. As soon as I look up and he’s flying around there, lifeless, I slow it down, and he comes to a rest on the floor, while my spare hand keeps his weapons up in a small tornado.
“Flash!” Chyre runs over to me with the rest of the police, and people dressed in protective clothing. One of the uniforms goes to touch Amar’s shoulder and I give him a look. “Morillo… He might still have some of those booby traps… I wouldn’t touch him.” He nods slowly. I can tell he’s wondering how I know his name. I change the tangent of conversation. “Nice monument to me there, guys… Thanks for the thought. I’m gonna put all these blades and stuff down now, so please… back off for a minute…” The group of officers back off while I slow my arm down, bringing Murmur’s equipment down in a pile. “Now I gotta’ run… So be safe… That stuff is probably tipped with his disease… It’s nasty, so I don’t want any of you people getting hurt.” I nod at Chyre, who nods back, and I go looking for Iris.

[Admin]

“Barry!” She runs over to me, and I smarten my tie. “I saw you on the stage… What is it with you and this Flash guy? You and him seem to be quite tight. How is that?”
Barry rearranges his tie again, and coughs. “He’s a law official… I’ve met him… We kicked it off…”
“Hmm…” Iris leans in, and Barry gulps. “Could I get an interview with him, do you think?” Barry smiles.
“I’ll see what I can do, love. Now where’s Wally?”
“Right here, Mr Allen.” Wally smiles slightly.
“Call me Barry, son. Where have you been…”
Wally grins broadly. “I met The Flash.”
“Where? Who?” Barry looks confused, knowing that he hasn’t seen Wally whilst he was in his Flash attire. The boy’s words shock him slightly…
“The Flash. Not our Flash though… A different one.”
Barry frowns slightly, and looks at the red headed boy. “What do you mean? The original? He’s not been seen for…”
“Not him. Never mind.” He wanders over to the snack table and grabs a sandwich.
Barry motions to inquire more, but Iris holds his arm and whispers. “I’ll ask him later.” Barry nods and thinks about this latest mystery.

[Admin]

“Welcome to Iron Heights, Doctor Amar. May your stay be long and painful.” Warden Stirk smiles slightly as the latest inmate arrives. “You’re mad… WE know that. And those stitches look awfully crude and painful. I bet they really hurt, don’t they? Really painful for you…” he smiles broadly. “We’ll leave them for now, though… And do I have a deal for you.” Stirk motions for everyone to leave the transfer chamber. “I’m going to leave you here, and wait for a certain acquaintance of mine to arrive. Good luck.” He smiles even more broadly, and closes the promethium door.

“Doccccctooooorrrr Miccchaaaeeeelllll Aaaaammmmmaaaaarr.” The voice is sharp, distorted. “Glad we could finally meet. Glad we could finally meet. Glad we could finally meet. Glad we could finally meeeeeetttt……” Like a poor radio, the voice cracks, repeats, until a yellow blur fills the room. The reverse flash snaps into view. “Hey, I’m here to save you, kill you, redeem you, whichever, I’m easy.”
“FLSH!” Amar mumbles in through the stitches.
“Yeah, I know… I look like the Flash.” He vanishes for a moment, then leans over Amar’s shoulder, and starts whispering. “ButIAmNothingLikeThatMan. IAmReverse.IAmHereToMakeHimBetter, And… If all else fails… Kill him before he drags down others in a false dynasty of heroics.” He looks up. “Just now. Something is here to spoil my plan. Time flies, Amar, time flies… Do you want to join me…?” Amar looks around, and then looks at the vision in front of him.

“Yss.”

I run on patrol, trying to think through the night. Chyre knows my secret. Wally saw a Flash who has been out the public spotlight for years… Yet he says it wasn’t my idol, the original...

Who could it be?

“Flash.” I spin round, stumble, and fall into the side of a building.
“My name is Jay. We should talk.” Jay Garrick, the mysterious speedster from 60 years before, not a year older thatn 50, tips his tin hat at Barry, who lies on the floor in shock. “Are you ok?”

[Admin]

To be continued!

[mockingbird]

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