“No. I was just reminded how quickly I’d better get out there. The storm’s hitting Central City like never before. I won’t just be trying to find Mardon; there are people out there who won’t realize that things are getting worse.”
She nodded. “I understand and appreciate that. Just be careful. Please.”
“I will.” Before she could say more, Barry shifted over to Cisco, who was in a quiet but intense conversation with Caitlin. They both straightened when they realized that he was with them.
“You’re getting ready to go out there, aren’t you?” Caitlin asked anxiously.
“I have to. Mardon’s a literal bomb!”
“Wally’s been itching to go out too,” Cisco interjected. “Joe and I managed to convince him to wait until you decided to as well. Guess he’ll be happy.”
“Before Wally and I leave, any progress on locating Mardon?”
“We may have figured out how to do it,” Caitlin piped up. “We were just discussing the details.”
“We can feed you the info while you’re out there,” added Cisco.
Wally suddenly stood next to Barry. “Tell me you’re ready to go out.”
“Ready as ever.”
Wally smiled grimly. “Then let’s go.”
Barry nodded to Caitlin and Cisco, then looked over his shoulder at Iris. She gave him an encouraging if somewhat nervous smile.
He smiled back… and then, to the eyes of everyone else, vanished.
* * *
“Guess it’s time to go,” Wally remarked just before he too, vanished.
Caitlin instantly turned to Cisco. “I know you’ve still got a few qualms, but it’ll be okay. We’ve done this before and now we know everything should be safe. You’ve made all the corrections needed.”
“Everything should be okay, but that’s what I thought before and look what happened!”
“I’m still getting headaches at odd intervals. I think they match actions by the Weather Wizard. The only thing is, because of the device, I don’t even notice them at first. We need me to be as sensitive to them as possible! Do it, Cisco. We don’t have any choice, not if Mardon’s as near to disaster as we think!”
Cisco grunted. “All right… but at the first sign of trouble, I cut it off. We’ll find some other way then. I swear.”
Caitlin nodded solemnly, but said nothing.
* * *
“Talk to me, Wally,” the Flash called on the private link.
“I’m uptown. You?”
“Near the stadium. Be wary. This fog is so thick you could run into a lamp and not realize it until you’re dead.”
Wally grunted. “Tell me about it. I feel like I’m moving at normal speed. Whoa!”
“What is it?”
“Accident! I’ll deal with it.”
Barry said nothing more. He had already helped a woman who had nearly fallen to her death by missing a step. Now, in addition to the heavy fog, the Flash noticed the rain picking up again. This time, though, there was a strong, chilly wind too.
“Cisco, talk to me.”
“Go ahead.”
“Is it getting a lot colder?” Barry asked.
“Is King Shark one ugly dude?” Cisco retorted. “Man, it’s dropped more than fifteen degrees in the last five minutes.”
“Mardon… Somehow.”
“Looks like it. Might help us narrow down where he is. We need a break. We’re nearly out of time… if we aren’t already.”
Barry dodged a dog in his path. He had moved so fast that the animal had not even noticed his presence. “You may be right. There’s definitely something in the air. Something building rapidly.”
“How are you feeling? Readings put you about seventy-eight percent. You’ve dropped only one since you left, but that’s still quicker than it should be.”
“I’m feeling well enough,” the speedster remarked, abruptly turning back. “Just find Mardon for me,” he added as he scooped up the bedraggled dog, clearly a stray. “That’s all I ask.”
“Will do.” A pause. “They’ve just upped the State of Emergency! Mayor’s office is asking everyone to get off the streets and for every available first responder, police included, to go on active duty until further notice! We’re hitting critical, Barry! Central City can’t take much more of this!”
The Flash dropped off the stray at a shelter and moved on. By that time, the temperature had dropped much more. A simple pass by a bank revealed the actual additional drop to be another fifteen degrees.
It’s coming to a head, the Flash knew. The storm’s getting too chaotic! All these abrupt changes are having repercussions…
Without warning, the Flash found himself sliding along at a breakneck pace despite his boots. He immediately dropped down and used his hands to slow his speed. Despite that, he still collided with a wall at enough of a speed to feel it in his bones.
Biting back a moan, he reached out to Wally. “Can you hear me?”
“I hear you!”
“Watch out! Fog and rain turning into the slickest ice I’ve ever seen! I think I slid a mile. Thankfully, there was no traffic because of the storm.”
“I got you, man! The accident I helped? Turns out to be because of a patch of ice too! Believe me, I’m glad to keep moving! No word from the lab?”
“None. Hang on and let me check! Cisco, you and Caitlin make a decision yet?”
“We’re about ready to start!”
“Great, because it’s just dropped another six degrees!”
The Flash cut communications as something vaguely seen in the fog caught his attention. A few steps later, he came across the car that had evidently careened into a building. Despite extensive damage to the front especially, the engine continued to run. Meanwhile, a large, sinister puddle underneath gave every indication that the vehicle was leaking badly. Meanwhile, electrical wiring broken free from the building by the crash hovered dangerously near the puddle, that situation made worse by the occasional spark.
Ever aware of the imminent threat, the Flash rushed up to the vehicle and discovered two unconscious passengers in the front and a child sprawled in the back. Barry reached for the driver side passenger door, only to recoil just as his fingertips were about to touch the metal. A cautious check revealed exactly what he had assumed. Somewhere, a loose wire was touching the car in such a manner that a good charge was going through it.
Gritting his teeth, the Flash grabbed the door handle again. Pulling the door open as swiftly as he could, he pulled the young girl free, carried her to a safe location, then returned. He opened the front passenger door, removed the man from there, and brought him to the girl.
With one last effort, Barry sped to the driver’s side and removed the mother. He carried her to the others, then looked back to the car. In all, he had taken far less than a second.
The car exploded as somewhere on or near the vehicle the electricity and the leaking fluids met.
The Flash located an EMT crew five blocks away and informed them of the family. That done, he returned to his search.
“How about it, Cisco? Anything?”
Barry waited, but Cisco said nothing. The Flash almost asked again, then decided that he would be disturbing their effort. Cisco and Caitlin had something unusual in mind, of that he was certain. He just hoped whatever they attempted would work.
* * *
“Do it, Cisco,” Caitlin ordered from the platform. “I’m ready. Do it!”
“What can we do to help?” Iris asked, H.R. nodding behind her. Beyond them, Joe West said nothing, the detective having fallen asleep from exhaustion only a minute or two before.
“Just hope it all works out.” Cisco attached the electrodes.
Caitlin smiled confidently. “I’ll be fine, everyone. I promise!”
Cisco nodded, then returned to the console. “Okay! Got all the storm readings running through the program. Got you hooked into them for real-time comparison. Got the system ready to mark any subtle change.”
He looked back at her. “And we’ve got your instincts.”
“If I feel the slightest change, you’ll know.”
“All right then.” Cisco punched in a final couple of numbers. “Here we go!”
No sooner had he spoken than the entire building trembled from a loud rumble.
“What? Does he have the power to create earthquakes now?” H.R. asked as everyone clutched something solid.
“That’s… thunder,” Iris breathed.
“But that’s about a hundred times worse than anything he’s done before!”
“Two hundred and twelve times worse, according to the computer,” Cisco reported. “If his influence on the storm is this powerful now, we’re in real deep!”
“I’m confused,” H.R. interjected. “With all that, shouldn’t we be able to trace him?”
Cisco eyed the screen. “Actually, all this uptick in the violent weather is just confusing the situation. Caitlin and I are hoping to use her to fine-tune matters, so to speak.”
“Okay, if you say so.”
Iris rubbed her chin in thought. “Cisco, tell me again why we can’t use the wand.”
“My fault really. Through channels, I provided them with the tech the wand is based on so that they could utilize it to keep Mardon under control. What I didn’t expect was for some other geniuses to create a device they could implant in his head and actually get a court order to do it. Mardon’s on the same wavelength, so to speak. We pull out the wand, he’s just as likely to seize control of it with a thought and use it to focus his power. Like that thing in his head has been letting him do all along it seems.”
“So the implant is why he’s so powerful?”
“Yep!”
“If it’s the same as the wand, isn’t there a way to shut it down?”
Cisco mulled the idea. “Theoretically we could…” After a moment’s more thought, though, he shook his head. “All that power around him is causing too much interference. What’s worse is that whoever made it upgraded the design, hence the fact that it’s now not just drawing together the elements of the storm, but also the energies that make a metahuman what they are. That’s why Barry’s losing so much so fast. We’d need to get really damned close.”
“How close?”
“Very,” interjected Caitlin. “And since the Weather Wizard won’t come to us, we’d also need to devise a device that could transmit the signal strongly enough no matter where we find him.”
“It’d have to be a special sort of transmission device,” Cisco went on. “Something as complex as—” He slapped himself on the forehead. “As Barry’s com device! Cisco, you are the greatest—ignoramus, that is! You couldn’t think of that sooner?”
Iris brightened. “Is that possible?”
“It should be…” Caitlin said. She leaned back again. “But that means we need to get started with me, Cisco. Right now.”
He gave her an apologetic smile. “Already have.”
“Oh.” She frowned. “Sorry.”
At that moment, the building shook again.
Caitlin gasped. Cisco and the others—with the exception of Joe, who did not even stir—looked at her. Caitlin touched her left temple. Her hand shook slightly.
“Cisco… It’s Mardon! He’s doing something! I can sense it!”
“Already?” he studied the data. “Are you sure? I don’t see any change.”
Iris peered closely at her friend. “She’s reacting to something. Find it or stop.”
“But I don’t—wait. Let me refine the measurements, get more minute changes.” Cisco quickly typed. “There. Damn! You’re right!”
Caitlin now had fingers to both temples. “Nice… to know.”
“This is good. This is very good.” More typing, then a pause.
When Cisco did not continue, Iris finally asked, “Did it change again?”
“No… but there’s something new that doesn’t make sense. Wait. Let me adjust for…”
Fingers pressed against her temples, Caitlin bent forward. “It’s getting worse…”
Iris looked vexed. “Cisco, I’m not going to let her go through this again!”
“Got it!” he declared. Spinning to face her, Cisco held up a small mechanism like an electronic car key. He pressed a button on it. It made a brief beeping sound, accompanied by two flashes of the tiny red light on the front end.
Caitlin gasped, then sat back, her expression relieved.
“What did you just do?” she asked.
“Iris had it right, Caitlin,” Cisco said. “I cobbled this together for emergencies. I swore, one way or another, I wouldn’t let anything happen again.”
“But the data you needed—”
“Already there and ready for Barry.”
“So you know where he can find the Weather Wizard?”
Cisco pocketed the small mechanism, then swung back to his computer. “Yeah… and where he is right now you wouldn’t believe…”
* * *
The Flash circled around again. The elements of the storm continued to shift, but thus far he had been successful in not running afoul of them. The temperature remained far below normal, but was at least above freezing.
Ironically, it was now the thunder that was the greatest threat, its intensity so tremendous that it cracked buildings, smashed windows and set off alarms.
Barry had handled matters as well as he could, and from an occasional response from Wally he knew that Iris’s brother had everything well in hand.
His communications crackled. “Cisco here! Got it!”
“Finally! Go ahead!”
Cisco gave him the address. The Flash frowned. “You’re joking!”
“At a time like this? Not even me! Well… not much actually, but not now.”
“Okay! Heading right there!”
“Listen! One more thing! We think we’ve got an idea about Mardon, but you’ll have to get awfully close!”
“I’ll hug him if that’s needed! Tell me.” After Cisco gave him an abbreviated version, he asked, “Are you sure? We’ve had a lot of trouble keeping communications functioning!”
“We’ll make it work, buddy!”
“All right! Let’s do it then!”
“You got it!” Cisco cut the connection.
The Flash raced on. It took him hardly a thought to reach the outskirts of the location. For some reason he was not entirely surprised by where the Weather Wizard could be found. There, though, the Flash paused, well aware of a thousand potential threats that existed nowhere else.
Iron Heights stood an even more ominous structure in the midst of the wild storm, especially with the ruined section where the Weather Wizard had been kept a stark reminder of the type of prisoners housed here. The Flash prayed that neither of Mardon’s personas would think of unleashing them.
Wally had given him a vivid description of the fight with Mardon, so it didn’t surprise the Flash that the area had been cleared of much of the heavy stone. Still, it was a strong reminder of just how powerful the Weather Wizard had become. Barry knew that he should have told Wally to join him, but after what had happened to him at the hands of the Weather Wizard, he preferred to deal with Mardon by himself. It was bad enough Iris had to fear for her father; Barry didn’t want to risk Wally as well if he could help it. He understood that he was taking a risk, but refused to change his mind.
Seeing nothing, the speedster ran over to the cell. Iron Heights remained active elsewhere, so searchlights sometimes crossed the area; the Flash made certain to stay out of any of the lit regions as he inspected the place for any clues. Cisco had detected the Weather Wizard in the vicinity and Barry had every faith in his friend’s calculations.
Yet not only was there no sign of Mardon but there was also no hint that he had even been back to Iron Heights since being confronted by Wally. The Flash darted back and forth around the area, inspecting the ground wherever he paused. Despite a thorough look, the speedster found nothing, not even the wires and assembly
that should have been there.
“Come on, Mardon…” he muttered. “We’re wasting valuable time! Show yourself!”
But the only reply Barry received was a howl of wind and more deafening thunder.
The Flash studied every part of the prison not currently in use but again came up empty.
“Cisco?”
“Go ahead!”
“Any change in that location?”
“No. Wait…” After a brief pause, Cisco returned. “He’s definitely there! Based on what I’ve got coming in from you, you should be almost standing face to face with—”
A wrenching noise was the Flash’s only warning. Even with that and his speed, he barely evaded the heavy steel beam suddenly ripped by a gale-force wind and tossed his way.
The beam crashed on the spot where the speedster had just stood. Barry paused several yards away, trying to spot his adversary.
More thunder shook Iron Heights. This time it was accompanied by lightning, some of which struck close. Distracted by the lightning and unable to hear because of the thunder, the Flash failed to notice the concrete block soaring at him from behind. Only a chance turn saved him from a direct blow. As it was, the strike knocked him off his feet and might have crushed his shoulder if not for the padded suit. The Flash tumbled forward, ending up on his back.
“He’s here!” Barry warned Cisco.
“I was just about to warn you! Readings on him flaring higher than ever,” Cisco responded. “It’s like he’s a bomb about to blow!”
“Great! I haven’t actually seen him yet, but I’m under attack! He’s pulling up every piece he didn’t manage to throw at Wally and he’s using the storm to distract—”
This time, the Flash saw the attack coming… mainly because it was coming from every direction.
Small but powerful whirlwinds carried heavy refuse from the damaged penitentiary toward the speedster. The Flash turned in a quick circle. The attack was coming from all sides. Mardon—whether of his own mind or that which thought itself Clyde—had again been calculating a trap taking Barry’s speed into account.
But still there was no actual sign of the Weather Wizard. The Flash would have expected him to be present in order to savor the death of one of those he considered Clyde’s murderers.
The Flash Page 27
