Chapter 28 : The Fastest Man Alive - Part 2
June 2016 — National City — CatCo Worldwide Media
The warning came through my nervous system before it hit the news feeds.
Lightning Logic screamed—a massive surge of electrical activity somewhere in the city center, growing stronger by the second. The signature was familiar. Livewire. But amplified beyond anything I'd felt from her before.
"That's not good." I pushed back from my DEO workstation, reaching for my comms. "Barry, we have a problem."
"Already on it." His voice crackled through the channel, slightly breathless. "Cisco's picking up the surge from Central City. Also detecting a secondary signature—sonic frequency patterns unlike anything in our database."
"Silver Banshee." J'onn appeared at my shoulder, pulling up tactical displays. "She escaped containment three hours ago. We assumed she'd fled the city."
"She didn't flee." Kara's voice joined the channel. She was already airborne, I could tell from the wind distortion. "She found a partner."
The tactical display resolved into a live feed from CatCo's security cameras. Livewire and Silver Banshee stood in the main lobby, electricity and sound waves creating a sphere of destruction that had already reduced the reception desk to smoking rubble.
Cat Grant cowered behind an overturned table, her normally perfect composure cracked by genuine terror.
"They're after Cat," I said. "Livewire has a grudge from her transformation. She must have recruited Banshee for muscle."
"En route," Barry reported. "ETA thirty seconds."
"Kara?"
"Forty-five. The Banshee's sonic attacks can hurt me, but I'll manage."
I was already running for the motor pool. "I'm twenty minutes by car."
"Stay at the DEO," Alex ordered. "Coordinate from here."
"Not happening." I grabbed keys from the board, ignoring the agents who tried to stop me. "Livewire's electrical output is stronger than ever. If she cuts loose, Barry and Kara won't be able to handle the civilian casualties. Someone needs to be there who can absorb what she throws."
Silence on the comms. Then J'onn: "Be careful."
I floored the accelerator.
CatCo Worldwide Media — Main Lobby
Barry arrived first.
Through the security feeds I was monitoring while driving, I watched him phase through the lobby doors—a streak of red lightning that resolved into the Flash standing between the villains and their target.
"Ladies. I'm going to need you to step away from the media mogul."
"The Flash?" Livewire's face twisted between surprise and delight. "Central City's hero? This day just got interesting."
"I don't care who he is." Silver Banshee's voice was a constant hiss, barely human. "He's between us and our prey."
"About that." Barry shifted into a fighting stance. "Cat Grant's under protection. My protection. And I'm really, really fast."
Livewire smiled. "Let's test that."
She unleashed a bolt of lightning that would have vaporized a normal human. Barry dodged—barely. The speedforce let him perceive the attack in slow motion, but electricity moved at the speed of light. Even he couldn't outrun that forever.
"Kara, status?"
"Incoming!"
Supergirl crashed through the skylight, landing between Barry and the villains in a shower of glass and righteous fury. Her heat vision lanced toward Livewire, who dissolved into electrical current and flowed across the room.
"Missed me!" Livewire reformed near the emergency stairwell. "Careful, Supergirl. Wouldn't want to hurt the civilians."
Silver Banshee screamed.
The sonic attack hit Kara like a physical force, driving her backward into a support pillar. The building shook. Civilians who'd been hiding behind furniture clutched their ears, some bleeding from the intensity.
"We need a strategy." Barry's voice came through comms while he evacuated people at superspeed. "They're covering each other's weaknesses. Livewire goes intangible when threatened, Banshee provides covering fire."
I was three blocks away, Lightning Logic tracking both villains through the building's electrical system. "Can you create a vortex? Dissipate the sound waves before they reach full intensity?"
"Maybe. But that leaves me vulnerable to Livewire."
"Kara can handle Banshee's screams if she's prepared. The sonic attacks hurt but they won't put her down."
"What about Livewire's electricity?"
"I'll handle that."
My car screeched to a halt outside CatCo. Through the shattered lobby windows, I could see the battle raging—flashes of lightning, pulses of sonic energy, two heroines and a speedster fighting a battle they couldn't quite win.
"I'm here. Kara, pursue Livewire when she runs. She'll head for the power station—she needs to recharge after that display. Barry, keep Banshee occupied. Vortex strategy."
"And you?"
"Mobile support. Go."
CatCo Rooftop — Three Minutes Later
The fight had moved upward.
Silver Banshee stood on the roof, screaming at Barry as he circled her in a tornado of his own creation. The sound waves that should have shattered eardrums dissipated harmlessly in the swirling air, reduced to white noise by the sheer volume of atmosphere being moved.
"Can't hear you!" Barry shouted, grinning despite the danger. "Wind's too loud!"
Banshee's face contorted with rage. She abandoned the ranged attack and lunged at him with clawed hands, supernatural speed making her a genuine threat even to a speedster.
They clashed across the rooftop—a blur of silver and red, punctuated by flashes of ghostly energy.
Below, Cat Grant had been evacuated to a secure room by remaining security staff. The civilians were clear. The building was mostly empty.
But Livewire was gone.
"Kara, report."
"Following her toward the power station. She's moving through the grid—I can't keep up without destroying infrastructure."
"Don't. Let her think she's escaping. I'll be there."
I ran for the stairs.
National City Power Station — Five Minutes Later
The power station was a nightmare of humming transformers and crackling electricity.
Livewire had drawn herself into the main distribution hub—a spider at the center of a web of high-voltage lines, absorbing power from the entire grid. Her body glowed with captured energy, more electricity than she'd ever held before.
"I knew you'd come." She didn't turn as I entered. "The tech guy. I felt you back at CatCo—your nervous system lit up like a Christmas tree when I let loose. You're not normal."
"Neither are you."
"I'm better." She finally turned, and I saw madness in her eyes. "I'm pure energy. Pure power. And once I discharge all of this into the city center..." Her smile was cruel. "Let's just say Cat Grant won't be the only casualty."
I stepped forward. "I can't let you do that."
"You can't stop me." She raised her hands, electricity arcing between her fingers. "What are you going to do, IT guy? Hack me to death?"
"Something like that."
I opened myself to Lightning Logic fully.
The world transformed. I felt every electron flowing through the power station, every spark of energy that Livewire had gathered, every circuit and conduit and ground wire in a hundred-yard radius. She was right—she held enough power to devastate several city blocks.
But she was wrong about what I could do with it.
"Last chance," I said. "Surrender now, and nobody gets hurt."
"You first."
She released everything.
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