Episode 16 - Flash Fanfiction - Gotham's Gladiators

Chapter 1

"Wow, this place is..." Astrid searched for her words carefully, as she, Barry and Cisco walked through the dark cold streets of Gotham City.

"Depressing? Old? Rough? Scary? Dark? Dirty? There are just a few words." Cisco said, but she remained quiet. The three of them were dressed for winter and the cold still got into their bones.

They heard someone scream from in the distance, but before Barry could go and investigate, his friends held him back as they saw the commotion. A cop had killed a man.

"So, this is where Eddie... I mean, Malcolm decided that he wanted to be a top detective, I can see why." Barry added.

Astrid attempted to hide her anti-mind control bracelet into her pocket, but as she did so, someone knocked her and removed it from her hand.

"Hey!" she called out to the man. Within a heartbeat, Barry had her taken the bracelet back from the man and handed it to her. "er... Barry?" Cisco said as he had turned to face his friends.

Barry heard the click of the gun, but before the man could shoot him, he turned around, took the gun and knocked the man to the ground, unconscious. "Maybe we should hand this into the police station?" he suggested, as he picked up the pistol.

"Or maybe..." Astrid said, taking it from him, "We should just hang on to it, in case we need it later." She placed the gun and bracelet into her purse and tucked her purse inside her jacket.

"Astrid, can you do your mind scan thing? See if you can locate Caitlin? Then, hopefully, we won't overstay our welcome." Cisco said.

"Weren't you the one who was excited about coming here? That you were keen on meeting your hero?" she argued.

"Hey, I thought I was your hero," Barry joked.

"Dude... you saw the Batman at work... he quite literally has a gadget for everything... and he keeps them in his belt... In his belt! So, you just never know what he's going to bring out. But I think I'd rather see Batman away from here... So let's just find Caitlin, Ronnie and Dr Stein and go home... besides, did anyone else get a funny feeling about that bellboy at the hotel... My creep vibe was going through the roof!"

"I really wasn't too keen about doing my mind scan here... but you do make a good point."

She opened her mind, sifting through the thoughts of the entire city, but as she heard them one by one, waves of extreme sympathy, sadness and anger came over her. They crippled her to her knees, so she tried to shake them off.

Her friends knelt down beside her as she wiped the tears from her face. She had closed the link. "Don't make me do that again!" she snapped.

"I'm sorry... but at any chance did you read Cait..." Cisco began.

"No!" she shot back. Barry helped her to her feet and they continued to walk in silence.

They were alerted to the sound of her phone, beeping in her pocket so she pulled it out and checked the message. "Well, it looks like someone knows we're here."

The message was from an unknown number and it read, 'Welcome to Gotham, BW'.

They saw the headlights first and turned to see a limousine pull up beside them. The window to the back seat rolled down to reveal that Bruce Wayne's face was inside.

Astrid and Barry stood back, while Cisco walked towards the window.

"Cisco Ramon?" Bruce said. "Do you and your friends want a lift?"

Cisco turned and stared at his friends. "You guys... Can we?? Please??" he asked excitedly. He rubbed his hands with excitement, and a large grin spread across his face.