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Now, in a world not our own…
It came without warning.
The Flash was the first to die. His body was gutted, and he was hung in downtown Keystone City for all to see. After that, very few details are known. Among the dead, however, were the majority of the Justice League and the Titans, and any other man, woman, or child who dared to get in its way.
It killed viciously and relentlessly.
It was called Godspeed.
And it was just getting started.
Warrior was never cut out for leadership but he was the last and only chance that the remaining heroes had to stop the rampaging Godspeed. Dr. Fate had formed a new emergency JLA in an attempt to bring the villain to a stop. Despite the best efforts of this makeshift team, it was destined to die as the Justice League had died.
Warrior stood at the head of the table, addressing his new team. He and Dr. Fate had successfully recruited Cyborg, the new Firestorm, Lagoon Boy, the Wonder Twins and Ambush Bug into the team and they knew that the team was drastically in need of power. The group did not have a chance.
“We need Superman,” Guy announced. “No one has seen him since this Godspeed showed up so he's either already dead or scared into hiding. You can guess which theory is more probable.”
Dr. Fate addressed the group. Everyone knew that this new Fate used to be Firestorm and was aware that he was having trouble fitting into the role. “Judging from what we know about Godspeed, there's no guarantee that it isn't Superman,” Fate said through his helmet. All of Ronnie's fears were apparent even through the distortion that was caused by wearing the helmet. It was obvious that he was barely able to hold himself together.
Cyborg began to speak as Godspeed made its presence felt. A stream of golden fluid erupted from Cyborg's mouth and nose as he seized under the shock and surprise. The Omegadrome within his body was being purged, with fatal ramifications to Cyborg.
Godspeed moved so fast that it was imperceptible. The Wonder Twins never got the chance to activate their Wonder Twin Powers as Zan's body was suddenly vibrated into Jayna's body and the two were merged solid into one gruesome entity. They both died instantly.
Time had barely passed as Lorraine Reilly, the new Firestorm, attempted to react to Godspeed's assault. As she raised her hands to focus her atomic rearrangement abilities on the unseen foe, she disappeared without a trace.
Warrior was moving towards the fallen Cyborg as he felt a piercing pain in his back. As he turned to investigate, he realized that he had been stabbed by the torn out spinal column that recently belonged to Lagoon Boy. His head was still attached at the end.
Warrior knew that his death was inevitable. He fell to his knees in defeat.
Within the course of a few seconds, only one was left. Dr. Fate watched, paralyzed with fear, unable to react. In a blur of motion, Warrior's head and arms were torn from their body. Dr. Fate did nothing.
It was then that he finally saw Godspeed. He recognized the killer’s face as his helmet was pulled from his head.
The last thing Ronnie Raymond ever saw was Godspeed donning the all-powerful Helmet of Nabu. It is unknown what happened to Dr. Fate as a result.
Instantaneously, Hector Hall erupted from his bed within his Tower in Salem. Something was terribly wrong in a place that was not his own. As he pieced together the events through the multi-dimensional aspects of his mystical paraphernalia, he soon discovered that he needed to eradicate the problem before it reached his world.
Godspeed had accumulated complete control of the Speed Force and now had the Helm of Nabu at its disposal. If Dr. Fate did not do something about this threat, it would soon become unbeatable. Only able to operate at the speed of thought, Dr. Fate knew he needed help.
Linda West struggled to control herself. She had been sitting comfortably, nuzzled between a pillow and the armrest of the beige couch, when her comfort had been rudely interrupted, and the source of her unrest sounded like he had no intention of letting up.
Finally, Linda clutched the pillow next to her and, digging her fingers into it, mashed it against her own face and let out a frustrated scream.
The figure behind her took a deep breath and, rearing his head back, let out one, long word.
“FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGAAAAAAAAROOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Wally West looked down at his sitting wife, who was doing her best to suffocate herself, and, with a smile, finished his singing and sat down next to her. Cautiously, Linda removed the pillow and eyed Wally with a smile. “I think there’s something sad about the fact that, the only reason you know anything about any opera at all is because of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.”
“Never let it be said that I completely lack culture,” her husband replied with a grin.
Linda sighed, relief washing over her face. “I honestly thought you’d put up more of a fight about this.”
“You thought that I, your notoriously impatient husband, would be (gasp) against going to a three-and-a-half-hour opera?”
“Don Giovanni is nowhere near three and a half hours long.”
“I’m sorry, four hours long.”
“Wally…”
Wally scooted closer to his wife, running his hand over her long, brown hair. He smiled. “I am excited about the opera.”
“You’re excited about the opera?”
“Well, no, but…Linda, I just spent almost a year in the future training with…myself. At this point, I would watch paint dry if it meant I could spend time with you.”
Linda leaned over and kissed Wally. She smiled at him. “I’m glad you said that.”
“It’s true.”
“Good. Because my parents are coming, too.”
Linda watched as Wally’s eyes nearly shot out of their sockets. He sat back on the couch, mouth hanging open, struggling to breathe. “You….your….your pah…” Wally jumped up from his seat and, unconsciously, began to pace around the room. “Your parents hate me!”
“Because we don’t spend any time with them! But if we do things with them, if they get to know you, maybe they won’t hate you as much.”
“AS MUCH! Honestly, sweetheart, that is THE most reassuring thing I have ever heard.”
“WALLACE WEST.”
The booming voice seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. Wally glared at Linda. “Sounds like your father’s here.”
She laughed, jumping up from her seat and moving towards her husband. “What was that?”
No sooner had she finished with her question, than a bright light filled the living room of the West house. When the light subsided, a figure dressed in yellow and blue stood before the couple.
Wally cleared his throat and whispered to his wife. “Fate.”
“Wallace, your services are required. We must go at once.”
Wally stepped in front of his wife. “Can I go out and play?”
Linda eyed her husband with frustration. Finally she let out a sigh. “Fine. Go. Save the world, whatever. My parents aren’t going to be happy…”
“You’d think that they’d understand, in a situation like this, the fate of all existence…” He turned towards Dr. Fate. “We are talking about the fate of all existence, right?”
Fate nodded slightly. “Quite possibly.”
Wally turned back to his wife with a half-smile. “…the fate of all existence comes before Don Giovanni and the pleasure of their company. You’d think they’d understand this.”
Linda laughed and smiled up at Wally. “You’ll come back soon?”
“Wild horses, Linda. Wild horses.”
He leaned down and kissed his wife. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
At a speed faster than the Flash could have traveled, Dr. Fate and Wally West arrived at Fate's trans-dimensional tower via teleportation. Wally closed his eyes, and the costume of The Flash composed itself out of pure Speed Force around his body. He looked around at his surroundings for a few moments, expecting the mage next to him to offer an explanation. As the two stood in silence, it quickly became apparent that none was coming. Finally, Wally broke the silence.
“So, what's the story, Fate?” Flash asked. “Even through that helmet I can tell you're not too happy.”
Dr. Fate looked straight ahead, avoiding eye contact. “Seeing you with your wife is disheartening to me,” Fate responded with an uncharacteristic amount of emotion. “Let's get to the task at hand, shall we, Flash?”
This was the first time that Wally had met this new Dr. Fate but could vaguely recognize the voice. Fate's cryptic response automatically led him to believe that Dr. Fate was having marital problems.
“Who are you in there, Fate?” Wally asked.
“A long time ago I was Hector Hall,” Dr. Fate answered. “We met when I was called the Silver Scarab. We have both come a long way since then, Flash.”
Last time Wally checked, the Silver Scarab was dead and his wife, Fury, had disappeared from the face of the earth. He briefly recalled a Teen Titans/Infinity, Inc. team-up when he asked Fury out on a date. Hector was furious at Wally and Obsidian and Cyborg had to keep them apart to avoid a fight. It was hard to imagine such a hot-headed, self-involved man like Hector Hall was now underneath the mantle of Dr. Fate.
Dr. Fate waved his arm in the direction of the tower and a door appeared from the solid wall. “Shall we enter?” he asked. Flash had never been to Fate's Tower but had heard bizarre stories about it from Jay Garrick, the original Flash. Wally was very interested to witness the inside of the tower himself, to be able to pass on further bizarre stories to the next generation of Flashes.
Flash followed Fate into the tower and it was everything he had heard it to be. The dimensions of the interior made no rational sense and the laws of physical direction and logical proportion did not apply. What was a relatively small tower on the outside was a vast expanse within.
Dr. Fate walked forward across a diagonal floor as he began explaining to the Flash the specifics of the current predicament. “There is a threat of incredible magnitude in a world next to ours. A being called Godspeed has absorbed the core of what you call the Speed Force into itself and will undoubtedly find its way to our world.”
Wally thought for a second. “That's not possible,” he said. “I'd know if something like that happened through my connection to the Speed Force. It's a multiversal phenomenon that's connected to me.”
“As is the Helm of Nabu that I wear,” Dr. Fate said. “Godspeed is in possession of a variant of the helmet. Combine the power of the Speed Force with the power of the Lords of Order and Godspeed could conceivably be unstoppable.”
“Since the Speed force and the Helmet have similar properties, then how do you know about it and I don't?” Wally asked.
“That's something we'll have to discover when we get there,” Dr. Fate responded.
“We'll enter into Godspeed's world through this door,” he continued as he pointed at a glowing, upside-down door. “Be prepared for anything as we enter. I am leaning towards the idea that Godspeed may be this alternate reality's counterpart to Superman.”
“Great,” Wally said. “A Kryptonian Lord of Order that moves faster than the speed of light. Suddenly the opera doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.”
Dr. Fate turned to the Flash as the door began to open. “Opera is always a bad idea, Wally.”
As Wally chuckled at the unexpected bit of humor, the door burst from its hinges. Dr. Fate was knocked from his feet as the Flash felt a wisp of unearthly electricity envelop his body. Within an instant, the electricity was gone and the door stood open.
Dr. Fate rose to his feet from the floor. “Godspeed's here, Flash.”
“No…Dad, it’s not that Wally didn’t want to go…”
Linda pulled the cordless phone away from her face and let out a long sigh. She had thought that calling her parents to tell them that Wally wouldn’t be joining them was a good idea. Now that she was doing it, she found herself forced to reconsider.
Pacing around the room, she placed the phone against her ear again. After a moment she let out a startled laugh. “No, I don’t think he’s cheating on me, Dad, but thank you for that stunning display of confidence in our marriage.”
As her father began to defend himself, Linda heard a sound that had, in the last several months, become very distinct to her. “Look…Dad…” She attempted to interrupt him without seeming like she was insulting him; recalling the insinuation that her husband was having an affair made her change her mind about being nice. “Dad, I have to go….Barry’s…okay, Barry’s crying, I…I have to go…I know I shouldn’t pick him up too often, but he’s….okay…okay, Dad…uh huh…I gotta go…love you, too, I’ll call you later…uh huh…bye.”
She jerked the phone away from her and pressed the ‘off’ button as quickly as possible. For a moment she looked at the white object in her hand. She sighed, tossing the phone onto the couch as she made her way towards Barry’s room. “Who’s he going to cheat with,” she asked herself jokingly, “Wonder Woman?”
Barry’s crying grew louder as she approached the door to the room. She closed her eyes, running her hand along the wall until she felt the opening. “Hold on, Barry…Mommy’s—”
She opened her eyes to see a figure, roughly her height, standing next to her son’s crib. The figure wore a long, red cloak, which flowed around its body, obscuring its features. There was the low hum of a vibration emanating from the figure’s body. Light reflected off of the familiar golden helmet that the stranger wore. Linda shivered at the sight of the figure, and at an odd feeling that seemed to come over her. “Fate?”
The stranger turned towards her slowly, and a feeling of terror seemed to expand in Linda’s chest as she saw what the figure had cradled in its arms. Barry West’s crying only grew louder as the figure rocked him carefully.
Linda stepped into the room carefully. “G…give me my son, please.”
Godspeed looked at Linda, who stopped moving. The total lack of emotion she was getting from the stranger took her aback for a moment. Godspeed spoke flatly. “A mother would do anything to protect her child.”
“Please…” Linda crouched, moving cautiously towards her crying son. “Please…give me my son…please…”
“As you wish.”
Godspeed’s arms extended quickly, leaving Barry West’s feet to dangle in the air. Linda scrambled to her feet as the fingers around her son began to loosen.
Without warning a massive gust of air pressure entered the room, and Barry disappeared completely from the room. A moment later, Linda felt herself lifted from the floor. She closed her eyes instinctively, unsure of what was happening. A familiar voice in her ear made her relax a bit.
“Gotcha.”
A moment later, the feeling of motion went away from her, and Linda opened her eyes again. She was in her own front yard now. Wally stood next to her, their son in his arms. He looked at Linda, his eyebrows arched. “You alright?”
“Fine, relatively. I just…what was that?”
“I don’t know,” Wally replied. He motioned for his wife to take Barry from him. “I really can’t talk right now. It’s coming.”
Linda held Barry carefully. His crying had stopped. She looked up at Wally nervously. “What’s coming?”
“I don’t—”
“FLASH!”
Fate’s scream caused the fastest man alive to stop mid-sentence. He spun back towards the house in time to see a solid beam of light slam into the crimson blur that had been moving towards his back. The light disappeared, and Godspeed landed hard in the middle of the suburban street.
Dr. Fate stepped up next to The Flash. Wally nodded towards him. “Thank you.”
“Of course.”
Wally glanced back towards Godspeed. The being was righting itself quickly. Without looking back towards Fate, The Flash took a few steps forward. “Let’s hit it.”
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Hector Hall couldn’t help but smile underneath the helmet of Nabu. “Of course.”
The two men rushed headlong towards Godspeed, who stood tall in the middle of the street. The figure’s hands disappeared behind its back, and slowly the helmeted being pulled twin daggers seemingly out of nowhere. Fate recognized them as a set of Nabu’s artifacts. The thought made him shudder.
The Flash lowered his shoulder, aiming for Godspeed’s midsection. At the point of impact, he was surprised to feel nothing but empty air as his opponent easily side-stepped the attack. In one motion, Godspeed lowered one of the long, thin daggers towards Wally’s back.
The dagger passed through the vibrating body of The Flash completely, slicing into Godspeed’s own leg, becoming lodged in the figure’s thigh. A moment later, the dagger exploded, shattering bone, destroying muscle tissue, and sending a nearly-legless Godspeed flying backwards, towards the oncoming fists of the speeding Dr. Fate.
“Keep it up!” The Flash shouted as he rushed back towards their staggering foe, slamming his own fists hard into Godspeed’s stomach. Dazed and disoriented, Godspeed muttered an incantation quietly and, before either The Flash or Dr. Fate could realize what was happening, disappeared in a flash of light.
Dr. Fate’s emotions got the better of him for a moment, and he cursed loudly at nothing and no one in particular.
“His leg’s starting to heal already,” The Flash said, a note of disappointment in his voice. “I could see it mending itself as I came at him that last time. In a few minutes, he’ll be good as new.”
“We now know a little about our foe. He seems fully capable of utilizing the abilities of Nabu’s helm.”
“He’s obviously a novice speedster, though. One of the first things I was taught was to vibrate through attacks, and he stabs himself with his own weapon.”
Dr. Fate nodded. “We must make haste if we wish to catch up with him.”
The Flash sighed, glancing back towards his house. Linda and Barry were standing in the doorway. Wally could tell his wife was nervous. Their eyes connected, and he frowned before mouthing ‘I love you’ to her.
Linda nodded, mouthing her own ‘I love you’ to her husband. A moment later, The Flash and Dr. Fate were gone.
Godspeed was long gone. Dr. Fate whispered a spell under his breath that illuminated the trail of energy left in the wake of Godspeed's departure, making it visible to Flash's senses. Within seconds, Flash was off after Godspeed.
After an instantaneous sonic boom, Wally discovered that Godspeed was intentionally moving slower to encourage a confrontation. As he gained ground on the villain at unimaginable speeds, he noticed that Dr. Fate was fast on his trail. Turning his head, he saw Fate running alongside him, able to keep up on foot through channeling the power of his amulet.
With the knowledge that he wasn't taking on Godspeed alone, Wally accelerated to near top speed. Dr. Fate adjusted his running speed to accommodate the quickening speed. The villain was maintaining a pace just quick enough to stay safely ahead of them. It became painfully obvious that Godspeed was attempting to force the Flash into spinning out into the Speed Force.
Wordlessly, since the speed of the sound was well behind them, Dr. Fate raised the fingers of his hands and cast an invisible enchantment in Godspeed's direction as Wally attempted to force his speed aura outward and slow the villain down.
Upon the spell's contact with Godspeed, the stolen helmet of Nabu was torn from the villain's head. The surprise of the attack gave Godspeed a moment of pause, which Flash and Fate used to accelerate further in a desperate attempt to apprehend the villain.
Godspeed came to a full stop as the heroes quickly gained their ground. The villainous entity slowly pivoted on its heels and faced the oncoming pursuers. Without the helmet to shield her likeness, Godspeed stood revealed.
Trapped in the forced silence of super-mach speeds, Wally muttered silently to himself as he saw her face and faltered in his steps. As Dr. Fate zipped to rebalance the speeding Flash, he stumbled on Godspeed's discarded helmet. Flash and Fate collided at near light speed. They fell into a tumble.
As they rolled across the ground, Godspeed lent them a hand, pressing additional speed to their existing speed and watched gleefully as she injected them into the essence of the speed force. As their bodies discorporated into a dazzling display of eclectic energy, Godspeed watched in triumph.
It was a full second before Wally West’s last words finally caught up to the now-vanished speedster. It was a single word, and Godspeed grimaced at the sound of her own name before speeding off.
“Linda…”
To Be Continued...
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