(The Flash) Frozen Flashpoint: Chapter 32 - Quick Rage

Chapter 32 - Quick Rage

Summary: Will Barry find a way to defeat an army of metas when the first plan goes off the rails?

With a scream full of rage, Barry used all the speed he could muster to rush toward DeVoe. His eyes immediately went to the back of the chair where he knew the power source was.

Without the chair, all that Barry would need to do is to secure the immobile man so he wouldn't be able to give orders to the other metas.

Without his chair and a way to communicate his orders, the man would be easy to handle.

Barry reached out his hand just a few meters from his target, but that was when everything went wrong. Just a few centimeters from the chair, what looked like a blue, electric net appeared out of thin air and repelled Barry backwards.

Barry grunted and looked at DeVoe with a frown, to which the floating man smirked back. His voice was smug as he spoke, "Did you truly believe with all of my intellect I wouldn't see your most obvious course of action?"

Just as he finished speaking, two icicles could be heard tearing the air on their way toward the same spot Barry was aiming at a moment before, but in the same place Barry was thrown back, the icicles met the same blue barrier and were blown to pieces.

DeVoe chuckled, still smug as he informed them, "I created this barrier when I designed my life support. It will put a stop to anything containing the meta genome, or anything that is the product of one."

Barry gritted his teeth. This wasn't good. It basically meant that most of them were useless against DeVoe himself. The only ones with a chance were Harry and Wally using their weapons, though Wally was out of the fight, so it left only Harry.

Even though they had already taken down four of DeVoe's meta army, there was still over a dozen still ready to fight, so getting Harry any closer to DeVoe would be practically impossible.

DeVoe sat on his chair with a smug look on his face. Barry considered what to do when a familiar voice shouted, "DAD!"

Barry turned just in time to see a lightning bolt hit a meta that was about to jump him. That meta had an open vest as a shirt, a fur scarf around his neck, his hair was short, and the tips were colored bright green. He had brown eyes, and as he screamed in pain, Barry saw the sharp teeth inside his mouth.

What worried Barry the most was the claws he had as fingernails—they too were colored bright green.

Brian Hayes. A meta with the ability to inject unique poisons using his talons. One cut and you could be paralyzed, or even dead, depending on how angry Brian felt in that moment.

Brian let out a scream of pain before he dropped to the ground, not even three steps away from where Barry was standing. He let out a groan but didn't get back up.

A moment later, Lyra was at his side, wearing her costume and mask, her eyes wide as she stared at him and asked, "Are you okay?"

Barry gave her a small smile and said so just she could hear, "Thanks to you, Speedstorm. I owe you one."

Lyra smirked and was about to say something, but before she could, a deep and calculating voice interrupted her, saying, "How interesting."

They both turned toward the floating man, who wore an unreadable expression. His stare, though, was locked on the female speedster. "For weeks I have researched your origin, Speedstorm, and yet I found none. How is it possible for another speedster to be created without dark matter, and if you have used it, I would have known? Your presence here is impossible, and yet here we are."

Barry then realized the predicament they were in. Jesse, thanks to her opponents negating her attack and then redirecting it toward Wally, was exposed and left open on the field.

Cisco was probably dealing with the injured Wally back at STAR Labs, and Harry was still guarding the entrance to City Hall. Joe was a few blocks away making sure no one was breaking the perimeter set by the police.

And finally, Lyra, who was supposed to be their ace in the sleeve, was now out in the open as well because he got cocky and careless.

With him and Frost always meant to be on the front lines, there was no support team left.

Of course, they didn't anticipate the meta barrier he had around his chair, which made things already more complicated than they originally planned for.

DeVoe's eyes scanned the field for a moment before he focused back on Barry and said emotionlessly, "Your hindering tactic has failed; all of your players are now exposed to mine. Your chances of victory are slim. Surrender now, and I will not execute the future speedster."

Barry could feel his heart skipping a beat. Shit! This was bad. Barry tried to plaster a look of confusion on his face as he asked, "What future speedster?"

DeVoe snorted at Barry's attempt and responded dryly, "Come now, Mr. Allen. Did you believe that the greatest mind in the world would fail to conclude the origin of the young woman? She is obviously not a speedster from the past, as those have not existed before you on this planet. In addition, she does not exist in any current system. The conclusion, therefore, is easy and must be that Speedstorm is from the future."

Barry wanted to retort, but the man's logic was bulletproof. Even Barry couldn't find an excuse that would put it into question. DeVoe wasn't done yet, though, and added with a dark smirk, "Considering she just called you her father, I will assume that she is your daughter, Mr. Allen. Tell me, are you willing to end her life for a fruitless effort?"

Barry scowled back at the man and snarled, "If you lay even a finger on her, DeVoe..."

The professor stopped his threat with a chuckle before asking, "You'll what? Perhaps you have not been paying attention during your last lesson, Mr. Allen. Allow me to review. Neither you nor your companions are able to lay a finger on myself; your entire... team is an open buffet to my superior forces."

Barry clenched his fists at the fact he couldn't find any way to refute DeVoe's claim. The anger inside him and the hatred toward the madman began to match the levels he had toward Thawne himself.

"Are you sure about that, Baldy?" The taunting voice of Frost drew him back to reality. When DeVoe turned to look at her with a frown, Frost didn't pay any attention and went on, "I mean, you've said the same thing how many times now, and every time we kick your ass. You keep talking about knowing everything, but looks like there's a lot you just don't know."

DeVoe growled at her before quickly regaining his composure and saying calmly, "Granted, I have made a couple of miscalculations due to lack of information. Yet now with the nature of your powers and the origin of the speedster in front of me, my lesson can be completed."

Barry was confused at what Frost was doing. He was used to her bickering with her allies and friends, but to draw out a conversation with the enemy was a new one. She was usually more of the type to kick their ass first and forget everything about them later.

Frost snorted and with a roll of her eyes said snidely, "Oh, you're still playing the teacher here? Sorry to disappoint you, professor..." She said the word with so much sarcasm Barry could see DeVoe's eye twitch. "But this ain't a classroom, and none of us signed up for your class."

DeVoe scowled again and spoke with something that resembled a snarl but was a little calmer. "You see, insolent fools like you are the ones who prove my plan is necessary. You would destroy the world and all it has to offer us for greed of things like love. I hoped that I could teach the population if I erase such greed, but it became obvious that current people are corrupted to the core. And as such, the only reliable plan is to erase humanity and teach the new generation from scratch."

Barry noticed the look Frost shot him; he was familiar with that look. It was practically screaming 'What are you waiting for?'

That was when Barry finally realized why Frost was talking DeVoe's ears off by pushing all his buttons. She was buying Barry time to come up with a plan.

Once she saw Barry's realization, she reverted her attention to the madman and threw another remark at him that sent the former professor into a rant that Barry tuned out in order to come up with a plan.

He looked around at his situation. It was just like DeVoe said—with the current status of the battlefield as it was now, they would be defeated eventually. The only way they would be able to have a single chance at victory was to dispose of his meta army.

Which was easier said than done when they weren't even sure what the abilities of the remaining metas were, not to mention their lack of the surprise element or team members.

Barry focused again on DeVoe's enraged face, and his worry began to grow. While baiting him to anger was the easiest way to keep the man's attention, it also proved to make him more dangerous.

Barry had to stop DeVoe here and today because even if Barry won today and DeVoe somehow escaped... Barry could feel himself shudder at the mere thought of how far DeVoe's next plan would go and how many people would be hurt as a result of it. After all, it became obvious DeVoe was descending further into madness as his plans kept failing.

Barry considered the ways all of them had managed to defeat the metas so far.

Frost defeated hers by overwhelming Miranda with her powers. Barry himself sort of did the same, as did Harry against the shadow meta. Even Jesse, even though she needed to use all her anger for it, used overwhelming force to defeat the two metas countering her.

But how could he overwhelm an entire group of people with such different abilities? He would have to find some shared weakness all those metas had, or a weakness metas shared as a whole perhaps.

Barry then saw DeVoe launching an energy beam attack at Frost, which she easily blocked with a wall of ice that shattered once the beam collided with it.

It looked like Barry was out of time. DeVoe was beyond speaking his anger anymore and moved on to the offensive. After Frost blocked his attack, he turned and growled to his forces, "Kill them! Those insolent fools who stand in the way to a perfect world must perish so I may build a true utopia."

Barry noticed many of the metas rolled their eyes at the madman's declaration but began moving nonetheless. Though a single meta, who had long purple hair, a thin build, and was wearing what looked like medieval clothes, said with a manic grin, "I don't care much for utopias, but any chance to choke the air out of some hero is good with me."

All of Barry's guards peaked at those words. He wasn't sure who this man was—he couldn't remember him from the file Marlize had shown them—but from the look in his dark eyes and the ominous words, Barry could see the only thing interesting this man was the pain of others.

His words... Choking the air out... Yes! This could work. A weakness shared not only by all the metas but all humans as a whole, so there was no way one of them would be able to go on once their air supply was gone.

Of course, going on and choking them one by one would be useless and impossible; he needed to take them all at once.

Barry grabbed Lyra and entered Flash time with her. Lyra looked up at him confused and asked, "Dad?"

Barry didn't reply to her and instead pulled her toward Jesse. Once they reached the Earth-2 woman, Barry pulled her into Flash time as well.

Jesse was clearly surprised and shook her head asking, "Huh?"

Barry looked at the two girls and spoke firmly, "I have a plan. We need to run around the metas as fast as we can..."

Jesse realized immediately the result of such action. "That will create a vacuum..."

Lyra wasn't far behind to finish the line of thought. "Trapping them without any air inside."

Barry nodded, though before he could say anything, Jesse cut him off, voicing a problem in the plan. "Can we keep up the speed we need for so long? It will take time for a large group like that to lose consciousness."

Yes, Barry had already considered it and already had an answer ready. "That's why Lyra will use her cold powers to create cold air currents, making the air harder to breathe so they will last much less time."

The girls nodded, and Barry took it as they agreed with the plan. He took a deep breath and ordered, "The moment we are out of Flash time, we start running, but wait until Frost is out of bounds before increasing it too high."

Another nod from the girls caused Barry to drop Flash time. The moment things began to move again, Barry and the girls began to run. At the same time, Barry called through the comms, "Frost, get to the entrance, fast!"

Frost didn't even try to question him. She just used her powers to create ice slides and began to skate her way toward the entrance at a speed that even Barry marveled at.

Though she didn't take the direct route to her goal, instead passing through the ranks of the metas and cutting off anyone who tried to stop the speedsters from completing their plan.

Barely a minute later, Frost was at the entrance, and the group of metas, DeVoe included, were trapped in a vacuum sphere.

Barry and the girls pushed themselves to keep the sphere going for as long as possible, but eventually their stamina ran out, and all three of them stopped abruptly, ending up panting on the ground.

After catching his breath for a moment, Barry raised his eyes with a small smile on his face, seeing the entire meta group helping DeVoe laying on the ground, unmoving.

"You ignorant people!" A voice full of rage spoke.

Barry could feel the smile fading from his face, and his relief disappeared completely. Raising his eyes further, Barry could see the imposing figure of DeVoe in his floating chair glaring at him with the blue barrier visible to everyone's eyes.

DeVoe's glare was the harshest Barry had ever received from the man, and his voice was something beyond a snarl, which didn't ease Barry's worry, especially when the madman spoke. "This will be the last time you thwart me, Flash. Mark my words. Next time I will not stop with Central City. You will witness the fall of everything you hold dear for your crimes against the perfect world I wish to bring forth."

Barry wished he could at least stand up to defy him, but with the little energy he had left, Barry could barely stay awake.

DeVoe pushed a button on his chair, and a bright blue light blinded Barry for a moment. What surprised him was, when he could see again, DeVoe was still there.

If Marlize's plan worked, there shouldn't be any light, so why didn't DeVoe escape? That was when Barry noticed DeVoe was looking just as confused, and he asked aloud, "What is the meaning of this?"

Before anyone could reply, an explosion came out of the back of his chair.