"Score!" she thought. "Got here before the cops."
But someone else had gotten there, too, apparently. The door was open; its broken handle on the floor. Iris cautiously opened the door. She found the room cluttered and dark, with a gigantic chunk of ice sitting in the middle of the room. Iris looked around, confused. The ice dripped and melted in the warm room, leaving a puddle on the floor.
Iris moved closer to the ice, rubbing away the frost covering it. She jumped back when she saw what was inside: a man in a red shiny ski mask. Suddenly, she felt the floor vibrate and saw the man inside the ice turn into a dark blur. The entire block of ice quickly melted, leaving the man behind.
The masked man fell to his knees, breathing heavily. Iris crouched down to help him. She noticed his jacket: red, shiny, slick... the wheels in her head started turning.
Barry looked up into her eyes, grateful he was still wearing his mask.
"...You're the red blur, aren't you?" Iris asked.
Barry nodded, still barely breathing.
"What... what happened here? Who are you?!"
"Snart built a gun. Freezes stuff, apparently."
"How did you get... um... un-frozen?"
"Vibrated my body really fast."
"...You vibrated yourself?"
Barry took one last deep breath and stood up.
"I've gotta go find Snart before the cops do, or things'll get messy."
"Where's he going?" Iris asked.
"Don't know."
"So then where are you going to look?"
"Everywhere."
Barry zoomed out of the apartment.
Snart stood in the center of an intersection, blasting away at the police that had surrounded him. In less than a minute, he'd built up a wall of ice sealing off the police. He might actually get away...
"Nice parka, Captain Cold."
Snart turned around to see Barry.
"What?! I left you frozen!"
"Uh-huh. Now seriously, we need to talk about this look of yours. Blue parka with white fur? Really? What are you, Eskimo Man?"
"...You're wearing a... a shiny ski mask!"
"...Okay, yeah. You have a point. I guess I do need to revamp my look now that people are actually seeing me and all."
"Are you just going to sit there and talk?!"
"Nope."
Barry rushed forward like lightning, then felt his footing slip. Snart had already coated the street around him with a thin sheet of perfectly smooth ice. Barry fell on his back and slid past Snart, into the ice wall on the other side. Snart aimed his gun and shot a burst of cold at Barry; Barry quickly got his body moving to keep from freezing, jumped to his feet, and tried running again. This time, when Barry put his foot down, he slightly vibrated it, melting the ice underneath and giving him traction. But as Barry moved closer to Snart, he felt himself get slower and slower. He eventually realized that he wasn't even moving at super-speed anymore.
"Heh. Feel that?" Snart taunted. "That's your molecules slowing down. Cold affects everything."
Barry did everything he could to keep his teeth from chattering.
"You seem pretty smart, Leonard. Why'd you resort to stealing?"
"Don't you judge me, 'Blur.' I have my reasons."
Barry was stuck now; he couldn't move an inch closer, and he was losing heat fast. He raised his arm and moved it in a circular motion as fast as he could. It acted like a fan, blowing the cold blast back in Snart's face. Snart yelled in surprise, brushing off the layer of frost on his body. Before he could blink, however, he felt Barry's fist slamming into his face.
Barry, back in his normal clothes, met up with Forrest at the icy crime scene.
"Do we have a motive?" Barry asked. "It seems like someone with his brilliance could do better than simple theft."
"His sister is in the hospital. She's got some kind of rare illness; the working theory is that he was going to use the tech to get money for her treatment. Kind of a crazy way of doing that, but I guess with a gun like that he figured he'd be invincible."
Barry suddenly felt guilty, even though he knew he shouldn't.
"...What's going to happen to his sister now? If he doesn't even have a job, then..."
"I'll pay for her treatment."
Forrest and Barry turned around to see Darwin Elias walking up.
"I remember interviewing Leonard for a lab assistant position; I rejected him because he didn't have the practical experience. If I hadn't, then maybe he wouldn't have tried stealing. I'm not saying what he did was right, of course, but there's no reason his sister should have to pay for that with her life."
Forrest smiled. "That's awfully kind of you, Dr. Elias."
Barry sat at the coffee shop waiting for Iris. The irony was not lost on him. Suddenly, a newspaper fell into his lap, and Iris fell into the chair across from him.
"Guess who just made the Central City Citizen front page?!" Iris said, her face beaming.
Barry looked at the title story:
THE FLASH VS. CAPTAIN COLD
Barry frowned. "The Flash?"
"Yeah! 'The Red Blur' was just so nondescript. And after having actually seen him move, with the way lightning sparkles... I'd say he's definitely more of a Flash."
Barry rolled his eyes. Sometimes he felt like Iris was more of an annoyance than anything else. And sometimes he felt like he could spend the rest of his life with her.
No comments:
Post a Comment