Warp Speed (A Flash and Arrow crossover Fanfic)

Bast's Story

    Bast's countenance was rather zen-like as she sat, quiet, in her meditation pose. Her eyes were closed, and she was shut off by reinforced steel, but the inhabitants of the lair still felt vulnerable around her.

Oliver had sat in front of the monitor all night, his hawk-like gaze never once left the monitor, lest their newest inmate try something. The meta didn't so much as twitch until she finally leaned back up against the wall, asleep. Previously motionless, Bast was suddenly twitching violently.

    Her legs jerked out, and her metal-tipped claws unsheathed. She writhed on the floor, slashing the walls. A screeching sound rang through the monitor's speakers as metal met metal on the floor. She roared in her sleep, a primal and terrible sound. A sense of loss was conveyed through the growl, one that Oliver had felt himself. Unfortunately for Bast, she was getting no sympathy from the green archer any time soon.

    Oliver took out his phone, dialing the speedster. "Barry, I think it's time we have chat with our new house guest."

...

    Bast sat handcuffed to the table of team Flash's makeshift interrogation room. Oliver had wanted to hang her from the nearest water tower until she talked, but Barry had objected adamantly. Bast had found the whole argument rather entertaining.

Her face still maintained a smirk as the two heroes entered the room, both in costume. She watched coyly as they sat across from her. "You're not getting any information from me any time soon." She stated plainly.

    Oliver leaned over the desk, looming over the impassive vigilante. "Try me." He snarled.

"Is this the part where you say you have ways of 'convincing' me?" Bast scrunched her fingers into little air-quotes. Oliver bristled with annoyance.

Barry placed a hand on his shoulder, giving him a look. He turned to Bast. "We just want to know why you came to our cities."

Bast snorted. "I would think that was pretty clear. I'm administering justice to egotistical pricks."

Oliver slammed his hands on the table. "What you're doing is not justice,it's reckless. We protect our cities and the people in them. We certainly don't need your brand of help. "

    "Haven't you had to rebuild your city, like, eight times?" Bast asked, studying the archer's reaction. "And as for your brand of protection, it certainly didn't do much for your friend in the red hood  when I chucked him into that chimney."

Oliver lunged, only stopped by Barry's quick reaction. Bast was grinning again, well within her element. "Did I say something wrong?"

Oliver regained his calm, resisting the urge to jam his entire pack of arrows down her throat. "What. Are. You. Doing. In. Central. City?"

    "I don't go around questioning why you dress up like Robin Hood every night, Mr. Queen." Oliver froze.

"What did you say?" Barry asked.

"Oliver Queen, Laurel Lance, Roy Harper, and Barry Allen." Bast responded. "My team and I kept tabs on every super we heard about. The only Super more paranoid than me is Gotham's bat boy."

Barry furrowed his brow. "Who?"

Bast shot him an incredulous look. "You seriously don't know who--never mind. You hoods seriously need to get out more."

Oliver was focusing on something else Bast had said though, choosing to avoid the matter of secret identities until later. "You said something about a team?"

Bast cursed under her breath. "Notice I said it in past tense. You wanted to know why I'm in you're precious city? Find Mindbender and I'll clear out."

    "What's your problem with Mindbender?" Barry asked. Bast snarled at him. "I used to have a team, now I don't. How do you think that happened. What, they all stood up and decided to make career change to librarians one day?"

"OH, I think I might know what she's talking about!" Oliver jerked slightly as Felicity shrieked into his ear.

"You alright there, Jolly Green?" Bast dead-panned.

Oliver, ignoring her, tapped his comm. "Felicity?"

A clacking sound filled his ears. "On it. A few years ago, there was this news report about a group of anonymous do-gooders in Mayville that were responsible for jailing half the city's criminals. Of course, I wasn't really all that interested because I was in total hacker-mode back then, so I just kinda changed the channel and started watching Animal--oh." Felicity's ramblings turned into a soft exclamation of pity.

"What?"

"Oliver, the youngest kid couldn't have been any more than thirteen. Kinda sick, if you ask me. They died when a building collapsed fighting..."

Oliver sighed impatiently. "What, Felicity?"

"Crap. Oliver, they were fighting a 'powered individual capable of inducing immense pain in his victims, whom had previously been targeting a gala. The vigilantes managed to clear the building of any civilians, but perished in the collapse, along with the perpetrator of the crime, an individual the media has dubbed--"

"Mindbender."

A beat of silence. Bast averted her gaze, feigning a look of disinterest.

"Yep."

"Thanks, Felicity. How's Roy doing by the way?" Oliver heard Felicity shifting to look over at their patient."He's reasonably angry. This morning Diggle had to sedate him to keep him from following you to Central."

"Tell him to stay there. Later Felicity." Oliver ended the call.

Bast watched him carefully. "So now you have my life story. What do you think?"

Oliver's gaze hardened. "I think that you're an angry kid with a vendetta, and that makes you dangerous. You're not getting out of here until we can be sure you're not going to break the city when you go crazy on Mindbender."

    Bast surged up in her chair, cursing at him. "You would keep me down here while the man who killed my team runs free around your city! Are you insane?!"

Barry ran over and tried to calm her down, but her lashing tail wrapped around his ankle and dragged him to the floor. Oliver had an arrow aimed at her chest in an instant. "Go ahead and try it, rich boy." She challenged, teeth gnashing.

    Challenge accepted. In one lightning-fast motion, Oliver smacked her head with the bow, and Bast's shoulders slumped.

As soon as the girl calmed down, a strange transition took place. Her fur receded into pale white skin, and her hair became raven-black. She looked almost peaceful.

'At least now we know she has an off-switch,' Oliver reflected wryly.

Barry stood up, groaning. "That was fun." He did a double-take as he spotted Bast. "Whoa. That's different. Now what are we going to do with her?"

    Oliver shrugged. "First, we're going to pay Mindbender a visit."