6775/A Sea of Red

A Sea of Red
Date of Scene:	05 March 2019
Location:	New York City
Synopsis:	Impulse arrives in the current era. Professor Zoom tries to take advantage of the event to find a way home... and is stopped by the Flash.
Cast of Characters:	Impulse, Flash, Professor Zoom

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Impulse has posed:
    
     Something had gone wrong.. horribly wrong when Bart stepped up onto the cosmic treadmill in an attempt to cure his accelerated aging, something inside him? In his head? was telling him "Run Bart Run" and he felt a strange pull towards a destination unknown as a strange bliss overcame him, the swirling energies of the Speed Force welcoming another Speedster home.

    "Bartholomew Henry Allen! STOP!" came a new voice, Gideon, his friend and companion screaming warning in his ear causing Bart to stumble and falter in his stride, the embrace of The Speed Force fading as he's sent tumbling, down, down a rabbit hole he didn't know existed..

    20 mintues ago in Queens the storm started, energies amassing and striking down from the sky, a swirl of blood red, bright blue, and even black lightning nearly constantly striking at random places all over a 30 square mile section of New York City, the clouds swirling in an anti-clockwise motion, the only safe place to be either outside of the storm, or at it's center, a quarter mile wide 'eye in the storm' that has it's own strange nexus of energies forming at ground level..

Flash has posed:
Twenty One Minutes Earlier - Central City

"Look at these indentations along the entry wound." Barry kneels beside the outlined body of a young man. Small numbering cones situated around the corpse to provide sight recognition in pictures are taken and reviewed at the crime lab. There's a bag hanging from his shoulder and another small yellow numbered cone is removed to set down against the wound before he steps back to snap another picture of the wound at a closer distance.

"You done, Allen?" One of the officers asks as he steps out of the alleyway, "Yeah, sorry about the wait guys.. I got held...up..." A strange sensation runs up Barry's spine suddenly. Like all the hairs on his neck stood up at once as his brain started to tingle like the approach of a storm on the horizon. "I have to go." He says suddenly, jogging without another word down the sidewalk until he's just out of eyeline.

Then he disappears into a streak of yellow and red

Twenty minutes ago - New York

The Flash skids to a halt at the exterior of the storm, looking up at the mix of lightning crashing at random with a frown, "Okay.. Everybody stop taking pictures and run!" Nothing good comes of these storms, not in his experience. A blur of red and gold spends the better part of that time keeping bystanders from being struck. "Yeah, okay, just keep running that way-" double pointing away from the storm at any words of appreciation.

Professor Zoom has posed:
Even stranded time travelers have to eat. One of the few perks of living in the modern era are some of the foods available. Future Solutions had been setup as a research platform... and a monitoring station for interesting events. Eobard couldn't predict them all, even being a historian... but he did the best he could in these primitive times.

Today, however... was different.

His smartphone had rung moments ago, and 'Harrison Wells' picked it up. It was Gideon, trying to be discreet, "Professor, I've been monitoring a new development on the sensors. I suspected it was transient at first, but it's only grown. There's a form of Speed Force discharge Downtown. It's taken on the characteristics of a storm." Blue eyes squint just a moment as he sits up from the test he was running for one of his prototypes... and he superspeeds back to his office and into Gideons chamber. A holographic interface fills the white room, "Show me."

Numerous hacked cameras and a satellite picture from above float in the air a moment... before 'Harrison' grins, "Something bounced off the Positive Speed Force barrier and created a rift. Unintentional time travel, if I had to guess." He muses to himself, "Keep monitoring the situation, Gideon. Let me know the moment the energy parts."

His costume ring is activated, and the yellow suit is donned moments later, before red lightning trails out of a tunnel into the sewers under Future Solutions. Within seconds, Professor Zoom is at the top of the tallest building right on the edge of the storm.

"Very interesting. I might be able to use this..."

Impulse has posed:
     The energies in the eye of the storm finally coalesce, a swirling blue rift of energy that has Bart coming through at super sonic speeds the sound of a sonic boom ripping through the street and breaking glass and setting off car alarms. Barts exit isn't graceful, the teen coming out ass over tea kettle his clothing is already in the middle of changing, it's reserves of undifferentiated matter working through the suit creating a cocoon of material as strong as spider silk as the teen carreens off the ground skipping over it like a stone over a still lake leaving divots in the pavement as the nanites of the suit grab what it can to add to its mass another loud boom coming as he crashes into a solid steel dumpster folding it in half around him as he finally comes to a violent stop threads of the thick cocoon exploding around him bleeding the force off ablatively..

Flash has posed:
Barry is in the midst of pulling someone out of their car, which was trapped by a piece of rebar and concrete torn off the side of a building where lightning struck, when the Nexus' eye spits out a shape like a human and errupts in a sonic boom. Glass rains around him and his charge, but he vibrates every muscle rapidly so that the debrie phases through him rather than causing either of them any noticable harm aside from an unfortunate headache for the fella he was carrying. "You'll be alright, just head towards the EMTs.. Gotta run."

Because something is bouncing across the street like a rock skipping over the surface of a lake and there's still the business of this storm to contend with. He isn't exactly sure what it is, but he's convinced it's the Speed Forces doing.. and that usually means something bad. If not directly so, indirectly because of whatever damage it inadverently renders on the world.. Collateral damage is never huge on the Speed Forces manage list.

"WHOA!" Impulse in his caccoon nearly take his legs out from under him, saved only by a quick direction change and juke move that clears the path right into the side of that dumpster. Crackling with his own charge of lightning, Barry cranes his head forward and squints the few yards where the impact ends.. "Is that a person? Of course it's a person.. why wouldn't it be a person, Barry? It's like you've never done this before.." WOOOOSH!

Suddenly kneeling beside Impulse, "Hey buddy.." Snapping down at Bart a few times, eyes shifting over the weird material of his clothes, "... I have questions... so many questions."

Professor Zoom has posed:
When Impulse drops out of the eye, Eobard just watches the trajectory. "Gideon, calculate stability of that rift using the sensors. I want to know if I can stabilize it." Eobard snaps off to the AI, before he once again runs, red lightning trailing over buildings as he heads over to one of the rooftops where Impulse 'landed'. "No control, but clearly connected..." The Reverse-Flash muses as he watches the... oh, it's /HIM/.

An angry scowl forms at his lips as he sees the Flash at the site. Eobard had intentionally stayed away from Central City for years until the Negative Speed Force had built enough energy for a direct confrontation... and now one was inevitable. "The amateur might be useful, at least." Zoom mutters as he brings up a directional mic from one of his utility pouches, listening to their conversation from above.

Impulse has posed:
     The rift is already starting to fade, transmissions from the other side that Gideon can catch is giving a time stamp of 2998 and with the fading of the rift the storm is dissipating as well. "Sensors show that the decay of the rift is exponential, if we were to manage to place equipment at the epiceter within the next minute, stabilization may be possible. Comes the reply of Gideon "Although, decay may be slowed by the presence of active speed force usage. Capturing the traveler may be a better option, Sensors are picking up Speed force levels approximately two-thirds that of The Flash." the AI further explains.

    The pile of grey 'silk' fades away it's constituent bonds breaking nearly intantly across the teens body leaving him in a white and red leotard. Looking to be about 16 years old, the brown haired, hazel eyed lad looks up at the snapping figure. "Grandpa?" comes the groggy teens voice before he doubletakes. "holyfrellingschway! Grandpaallen, butyourdead! waitwaitwaitgideondidIgetputbackintothevrpod? whatsgoingonhere?" comes the rapid fire words of the teen as he starts to scramble up onto his feet, a fine net of blood red lightning with veins of blueish white starting to run over his body the blue slowly fading to be replaced by gold..

Flash has posed:
It isn't that Barry can't understand the hyper speak, he follows it just fine, but there's an air of concern in his voice that requires stepping in a little. "Hey, simmer down tiger, did you just call me grandpa? Do I look like a grandpa?" Standing along with Impulse, he turns just enough to watch the storm for a miliseconds, then back to the young kid who dropped down out of it. "What is that? Did you do it?" Thumbing at the remaining lightning strikes as the storm begins to fade.

As of yet he seems unaware of their spectator on the building above listening in on directional mic. "..." Grandpa ALLEN.. "Okay! Let's start from the beginning, who are you and what the heck are you wearing?" tugging at the leotard with red fingers. "This is a little flashy.. even for me."

Professor Zoom has posed:
"The time travel is-" The time stamp on the boroadcasts have him freeze mid-sentence. "The brat is irrelevant. Start warming up the Speed Force Matrix. This is my best chance of getting back home." Red electricity flares along his body as Eobard travels at superspeed back to Future Solutions... and begins moving the matrix piece by piece over to one of the larger rooftops nearby.

He has one minute to work on stabilizing that rift. One minute is an eternity for a Speedster who isn't interested in being subtle. There's a very good chance of the Flash seeing his work... but if he can get a time rift stable enough to get into the timestream? He can come back here anytime.

Impulse has posed:
     Impulse snorts at the pun. "Mandadwas.." he pauses to take a breath "Right, you /do/ make the most horrible jokes." he says laughing with unbridled joy his leotard changing and shifting gold boots sprouting around his feet, a gold lightning bolt forming down the center white stripe of the leotard as it thickens taking on a more slick armored/leather look, an open topped cowl forming from the neck to wrap around his ears with little lightning bolt wings a pair of yellow mirror finished goggles finishing the ensemble. "This better? Less flashy, more FLASHY?" he asks before he stops his head snapping towards the building with the work going on on top... "uhh, Granpa, I mean Flash, do you have Kid Flash doing something about the storm over there?" he asks the hairs on the back of his neck rising..

Flash has posed:
Everythings moving a little quickly, which is probably the funniest thing Barry has thought all day given who he is. "Whoa.. okay, today got heavy." He could write it off as a bit of luck if not for the accuracy of Impulse's knowledge of him. So he shakes his head, grinning a little, "Not even the strangest thing I've seen... Hey, you think you can hold on a tick." Double thumbing back over his shoulder towards the Vortex, "I have to go run in circles around that and desta- you get it, I'll be back." Slow jog, still looking and pointing at Impulse, "Don't move, I mean, not far anyways.."

Grandpa.

WOOSH, Barry takes off with yellow/orange lightning crackling crackling around him as he moves. Partway up the side of a building to bypass bits of debrie laying in the street and to bring him up along the rooftops where it just so happens that Zoom is bringing in his stablization thing. Yellow clothed speedster. Barry skids to a stop nearby, "You got a permit for that?" Time travel movie jokes.

Professor Zoom has posed:
There was no time for this! By the time the Flash was there, on the rooftop, the Professor was back, and to the Flashes enhanced senses, he could see the yellow suited Speedster putting together another component of the machine at near light speed, before he turns to regard the Flash. Red, glowing eyes meet him, and that blurred visage.

Of course, with the enhanced senses of the Flash, he can see beyond the blurring... and will be able to see the yellow suit proper. It's an exact reverse of the Flashes own suit, right down to the reversed red and black Flash symbol on his front.

Luckily for him, the matrix was mostly complete, and he slaps the 'on' button as orange energy erupts from it, into the storm above.

For now, Professor Zoom stands there, watching the Flash. There's no speech, no attempt to move away... just.... that red, glowing stare.

Impulse has posed:
     'Don't move' Bart tilts his head "well, he said not too far.. and well.." with that he takes off at a run just behind The Flash, zipping up onto the rooftop with his eyes glancing at the Matrix. "Ohh cool! A Tachyon inversion matrix!!" he says rushing over to look at the machine "You know, if you put a sub compression capacitor in line with the tachyon flow, you can increase the power output about three fold?" he says looking things over the teen not quite having taken a good look at Zoom as he seems to be all over the Matrix looking at it. "Uhh, Did you know this things like gonna blow up about three seconds after you use it?" he asks turning around to finally see Zoom.. "ohh jinkies.. Evil grandpa..." he says as the augmented reality fills in names with what it's historical databases know of the time period..

Flash has posed:
"You're killing me, kid..." Flash says with a neck craning slightly to one side when his grandson (allegedly) is all over the device the yellow Speedster is standing infront of. The pair of adults just staring at each other for entirely too long... which is probably just miliseconds, but to Speedsters? That's a reeaally long time.

"It's going to blow up?" That gets his attention, nevermind the evil grandpa line, he'll get back to that later. "And here I thought it was going to be an easy night." The Flash blazes the short distance towards the machine, "Can you deactive it?" He's not green, he knows that anyone who goes through the effort to put this thing together isn't going to let him just take it apart without a fight.

So he's ready to get attacked even as he's hoping there wont be one.

Professor Zoom has posed:
"The brat doesn't know what he's talking about. This is a Speed Force stabilization matrix that will keep that timestream conduit open for a few minutes: Long enough for me to use it." Professor Zoom replies... a distorted, monstrous tone that's easily heard as he watches the Flash. "Touch it, and you get hurt."

Judging by everything from Professor Zoom... it's easy to tell that this Reverse-Flash might be one of the few people in the world capable of going toe to toe with him. It's not an idle threat.

Impulse has posed:
     Impulse looks at Zoom, then looks at Flash.. "It's a one shot, you use it, get sent forward in time, afterwards, the energy's got nowhere else to go, /boom/. Makes the Dominator bombing of Tokyo look like fire crackers.." he says with the sureness that only a teenager can have. "So..." he pauses for several milliseconds before he reaches out and touches the off button. "Gotta catch me to hurt me! Grandpaflashdon'tlethimpushtheredbutton! Gideonsaysstorm'llbeoverin45seconds!" he says as he turns to take off in a sprint..

Flash has posed:
"I hear that a lot." Is Flash's reply, "Besides, you're someone's grandpa." Barry squares off, glancing back over his shoulder at Bart, "Deactivate that thing for papa? The adults are going to shout at each other and use adult words-" Probably not honestly, Zoom is reserved and Barry jokes clean, "-If it looks li-" Then he just turns the thing off and, with a frown, Barry flashes infront of the device, "-kids, amirite?"

45 seconds?! They'll be here all night...

"If you're trying to get home, maybe we can help you instead of, ya know, blowing up New York?" Offers out there, Barry isn't moving and will actively try to prevent the device being turned back on.

Professor Zoom has posed:
"I don't care." Comes the cold reply from the man in the yellow suit. Within the blink of an eye, red lightning flares up around Zoom as he's suddenly going near light speed towards the Flash.

A feint to the chest, followed by an uppercut to send him off balance. He's obviously well trained, and knows how to use his superspeed for a melee. "if you get caught in the explosion? So much the better." Eobard snarls at the Flash.

Impulse has posed:
     Impulse glances behind him, seeing no evil murdery speedster chasing after him, and starts to double back. "Gideon, did you get a schematic of the Matrix? What's the Macguffin." he asks his eyes glancing over ghosted pictures of the Matrix as Gideon supplies them. "It could be one of three items, Zoom would have had to have some tools with him but I would not recommend returning to the scene of the battle. "yeah yeah, murder speedster trying to kill Grandpa Barry, I know, but I gotta help!" comes the teens reply as he returns to the roof top to find what tools Zoom was using. "Don't mind me! just dismantling Matrix Mc Boom Boom over here, you two talk amongst yourselves!"

Flash has posed:
The Flash jukes away from the straight punch feint and catches the uppercut in transition. The speed augmented attack has Barry reeling, but it wont take him long to collect himself, twist around in the air, and run along the same aircurrent he was traveling after being knocked like a homerun hitter. "I'm getting that about you." He says unto Zoom's simply worded assertion. "I -do- care and don't really feel like getting blown.. up.." There was something about Zoom, something Barry had been trying to put together since he saw the yellow suited speedster.

Then something he said triggered a memory.

I don't care. Then he's right back at his home watching his mother bleed out while the figure surrounded in red lightning rushed away.. in a yellow suit.

"You where..." Barry's eyes narrow and he's preforming juke moves of his own, shifting from one foo to the other as he approaches at just shy of the speed of light to throw a multitude of quick punches aimmed at the Reverse Flash's midsection. "YOU!"

Professor Zoom has posed:
Impulse has plenty of time to work on dismantling that matrix... and the superspeed show that's going on between Professor Zoom and the Flash on that rooftop is an all out Speedster brawl as the two battle it out across buildings. Red lightning trails behind Professor Zoom as he dodges a number of light speed punches, before allowing one to hit him so he traps the Flash just out of position to get an elbow to the face.

"I can see the recognition now." Comes the amused voice of Zoom as he tries to grab the Flash for a whirlwind throw.

Impulse has posed:
     Tools check, dismantling.. check.. not having to travel between a lab and the roof top Impulse is able to get it down to its constituent parts in half the time it took for it to be put back together.. "So, this looks important Zippy McZoom Zoom.. what's it do?" he asks as he holds out a palm sized piece of 23rd century tech that's glowing. "What happens if I break it?" he asks trying to throw Zoom off his pace as he fights The Flash..

Flash has posed:
Barry follows behind Zoom across the roofs, down in the streets, amidst the figures of people standing still as if frozen in place as a pair of speedsters battle it out across most of New York in what amounts to the blink of an eye to anyone that's not surrounded by the speed force. One of his punches is caught by his Counter and he finds himself rewarded with an elbow directly to the point of his chin. The strike is painful as hell and he's not even afraid to admit it.

It would have killed most people.

Then he's flying through the air after a whirlwind throw that sends him rolling across the street for a few yards. At the end of his roll, however, he's back on his feet and running in a tight circle that kicks up dirt, trash, and anything that gets too close. At the four hundred revolution, he skips his left foot over the right and hurls a concentrated ball of energy directly at Zoom, then rushes right in after it for a baseball slide tackle attack.

"You killed my mother!" The Flash is in full aggression mode.

Professor Zoom has posed:
"Only took you ten years to figure it out, Flash." Zoom taunts the scarlet Speedster, "so much for your investigative skills."

Then when the Flash starts to run in that tight circle, those red eyes squint slightly in observation. He knows an energy buildup when he sees it; he's had more than enough experience with creating them himself. Still, he's not prepared for the sheer force... or the sheer speed the aggressive Flash puts out. With the Flash away from him by a few dozen feet though, he has a window of opportunity to get back to the Matrix and reactivate it, leaving the Flash in his tackle attack.

By the time Impulse is making his quip, Zoom is already back at the rooftop, "GET AWAY FROM THAT!" Eobard snarls in rage as he comes in to directly tackle Impulse at near light speed, trying to get the new Speedster away so he can fix his machine.

Impulse has posed:
     "ohhfrellthatsfast!" Bart exclaims as he's tackled by Zoom the teen holding the core of the matrix in his hand out and away from him as he goes skitting across the rooftop.. "go away, leave the rest and I'll put this somewhere you can find it and get later. Or I can try phasing through it.. Havn't done that before, but Gideon tells me if I don't do it right." He pauses to make a horrible Gideon impersonation 'Complete molecular disruption in a violent manner." " he quips his arm whiping around like a child playing keep away. "You know I'll keep my promise, I'm an Allen."

Flash has posed:
Both the blast and the slide miss and Barry glances after the tail of red lightning that trails behind Zoom. "Dammit, keep your wits, Barry..." He chides himself for letting his emotions get the better of him and whips off after the Reverse Flash in a cascade of yellow and orange as he runs up the side of one building and leaps at the edge to carry him the rest of the way to another. Leap frogging across rooftops until he can see Zoom and Impulse collid.

Barry is right there though, just a hair behind the Evil Speedster with the full weight of his leap coming down in a kick aimmed square between Thawnes shoulder blades. Seeing as this is all about a matrix, even if he's not completely sure how it works or why, Barry reverses in his path and takes off towards the device, once more running in tight circles around it. This time to create a vortex to crunch the metal, circuitry, and other important doodads. Core or not, turned on or otherwise, THIS device THIS time is toast.

Professor Zoom has posed:
Impulse has Zooms attention for a precious second as he starts to run up the side of a building with the fellow time traveler... only for Zoom to toss Impulse /HIGH/ into the air from his momentum. He'll be up there for a few seconds, giving Eobard the time he needs to get back to the matrix on the rooftop and jury rig it.

Or he would, if the Flash hadn't kicked him out of balance going up the building, giving him time to condense the device into uselessness in his absence.

There's a raging snarl from Professor Zoom as he sees the equipment he spent years building discreetly turned into slag. "I'll find another way, Flash. Count on it." Zoom declared with hate in his voice, before he takes off, superspeeding away in an obvious retreat.

Impulse has posed:
     Impulse is in free fall.. "uhh..UHH... I CAN RUN BUT I CAN'T FLY! GONNAGOSQUEESH!!!!!!" comes the panicked screams of the teen his arms and legs flailing as the ground is heading towards him at a snails pace. "littlehelphere?!"

Flash has posed:
The connundrum is real.

Flash wants to catch Zoom. He wants it more than he's wanted anything in a very long time, but there's the obvious problem that stopping him means Impulse hits the ground like a meteor. Barry stands in a haze of flickering lightning and snaps out a hiss as the Reverse Flash disappears in a trail of red. Blue eyes fixate for a half second, then he too is moving, but in a different direction.

Up the side of a building to gain momentum, he jumps back off the wall and catches Impulse in the jump from one building to the next, running the rest of the way to the roof where he deposits his time travelling Grandson. His chest heaves, but not necessarily from being tired and he gazes off in the direction he saw his mother's murder retreat.

"You okay?" Turning to Bart, trying to look natural or calm, neither of which he feels.

Impulse has posed:
     Impulse is set on his feet the palm sized core of the matrix slipping into a pocket that forms on his hip as his hands move to pat over himself. "I'malive! You'realive!" he glomps onto the flash in a hug giddy giggles bubbling up through is throat. "ohh man! I'm really here! You're really here! Dad told me stories, but I don't think he did it right! That was so cool! You're so fast! like faster than me and I'm faster than dad! When did I show up? How old are you? how long have you been The flash? Are you married yet? Will I get to see my dad as a baby? OHH! Batman! are you friends with batman and Superman! can I meet them? Is Batman really a vampire that drinks the blood of his enemies?" the questions seem never ending as he circles Barry seemingly oblivious to the emotions running through the older man.

Flash has posed:
Barry isn't use to this and honestly it's kind of refreshing. Usually he's the inquizative speed questioner with too much energy, but Impulse is draining the air out of New York with the rapid fire essay questions. The Scarlet Speeder follows in a slow turn to keep Bart in front of him and actually laughs. This would be completely crazy if he weren't well aware of the hardships of time travel and how it can bend things until they only marginally make any sense at all. "Whoa, kid, you're exhausting..."

Did he really just say that? Man, Batman would get a kick out of that.

"I can't believe I just said that.. okay, one at a time, huh? Let's start with the obvious.. Hey, I'm the Flash. Clearly you know more about me than I do about you, so let's start with names.. Barry Allen." Moot point, Bart already knows him. "It's twenty twenty seven. No I'm not married yet, who do I marry? Wait don't answer that, you shouldn't know to much about your future..." Batman, "Yes-" Superman, "Yes-" Is batman a vampire, etc. "Yes.... well, technically no, but.. yes..-"

Barry glances off again, in the rough direction Zoom ran, then back to Bart, "Let's go help them clean up and we'll go somewhere to talk. I need to make a call too." Glancing at a watch that doesn't exist on his wrist, "I'm late for work."

So it is with Speedsters, right? Fast as light, can't keep an appointment to save their life.