James's enhanced senses picked apart the mechanism as he closed the distance himself.
A containment field, low-grade, projected from a central emitter he could just make out near the warehouse's loading bay, a lattice of energy that didn't need to hit a target directly, only needed to occupy the space that target's momentum was carrying them into.
Flash's speed made him nearly impossible to hit with a conventional weapon.
It made him extremely easy to trap with a field that didn't care how fast he was moving, only where the field itself existed.
James understood, in the two seconds it took him to process this, exactly why the Central City cell had survived his intelligence drop's warning window.
They'd had this technology ready. They'd deployed it the moment Flash arrived, and it was working.
He didn't call out an introduction. There wasn't time. He ran the remaining distance and vaulted onto the loading dock's edge, enhanced strength carrying him higher and faster than the movement should have allowed, landing between two of the armed figures before either could track the new arrival.
*Thud!*
His first strike dropped one instantly, enhanced strength turning a basic cross into something that lifted the man off his feet.
The second spun, weapon rising, and James caught the barrel in one hand, crushing it before the shot could fire.
"AEGIS, that emitter. Location confirmed?"
"Confirmed. Fifteen meters, your two o'clock. Mounted on a tripod structure near the loading bay's northern support column."
James looked.
'Found it. '
A device roughly the size of a large speaker cabinet, humming with the same blue-white energy he'd catalogued weeks ago, three cables running from its base into the warehouse interior.
A voice cut through the chaos, fast, breathless, and somehow still managing to sound like it was making a joke it hadn't fully committed to yet.
"Okay, that's new. Who exactly are you?"
James turned. Flash had stopped moving entirely, standing at the field's edge, chest heaving, staring at James with an expression that mixed genuine confusion with the specific relief of someone who'd just watched an unexpected variable enter a fight that wasn't going well.
"Sovereign," James said. "Gotham."
"Gotham's a long way from here."
"Your emitter's about to be a lot closer to being scrap metal." James nodded toward the device. "Can you get inside that containment field's radius without triggering it again?"
"Not from where I'm standing. It's got my speed profile mapped somehow. Every time I build momentum it catches me."
James processed that fast. The field wasn't blocking speed itself.
It was reading kinetic buildup and interposing accordingly, which meant a target that didn't rely on sustained momentum could potentially move through the space without tripping the same response.
"Then don't use your speed to close the distance," James said. "I'll draw their attention. You come in slow and finish it manually."
Flash blinked. "Slow. Right. That's going to feel deeply against my nature but sure, let's try it."
James didn't wait for further confirmation.
Read more chapters, 30 days ahead of Webnovel Updates on Patreon marvelstark