Episode 16 - Flash Fanfiction - Gotham's Gladiators

Chapter 16

As Martin, Felicity, Caitlin and their new young friend Kara sat in the dayroom at a table, Kara's handler entered the room. "Hey, Kid! Your first match will be in two hours! The men that found you said that your powers are remarkable. So we're pitting you against someone with super-fast abilities. I'm sure you'll be able to keep up with him."

As the man left, he slammed the door behind him and Kara began to cry again. "I don't want to hurt anybody!" she said through sobs.

Felicity, Caitlin and Martin stared at each other. They knew that they would be made to watch this match. They were certain that the meta-human, that she would be made to face, would be their friend Barry Allen. Surely, Barry would not hurt a child. He would rather risk his own life.

But if neither one would be willing to fight, one of them would surely have their chips detonated by their handlers. "Miss Kara," Martin began, "Now, if my suspicions are correct, this could work in our favor. This fast man could in fact be a friend of ours. And if I know Barry..."

"...Did you say the name Barry?" Kara asked, as she stopped crying.

"I most certainly did. Why do you ask?"

"I might have met him. He was very sad when his friend died this morning. They sent him back to his room. He was very nice." She explained.

"Yes, well that is Barry. He is a very nice young man. His power is speed... and I know that he would rather risk his own life than to hurt you. What I will ask of you is to do all in your power to delay the end of the battle."

"Delay the battle?"

"Yes, and then leave the rest in our hands. I'm sure our friends will come through in the end. We just need to hold on to hope." As if his words had real power, Martin had inspired his friends.

Suddenly, the door was ripped open by a very large and very strong man who entered the room. He ran to what must have been his girlfriend and tore her handcuffs from her wrists.

As handlers began piling into the room to restrain him, he threw them off. One went to grab the remote to detonate his chip. Kara hid her face into Caitlin's shoulder to avoid seeing the detonation take place. But there was no detonation. The strong man's girlfriend had suddenly emerged from in front of the handler and stole the remote, smashing it to the floor.

Though, unfortunately for her, her handler had pressed her button. She started screaming at the top of her lungs, as blood began to emerge from her eyes, her nose and her mouth. Nobody watched as they knew what was to come next. The noise and after mess had explained what had happened. She had been terminated.

The strong man grew into an unpredictable fury, as more handlers ran into the room. "don't shoot him!" One of the handlers yelled out "He's valuable! Get the tranq..." but before he could finish his sentence, the strong man had been shot and killed on impact.

Once they had ensured that the scene had been dealt with accordingly, the team of handlers began escorting everybody back to their rooms. As they tried to pry Kara from Caitlin, Kara tried to resist but Caitlin made her go. She didn't dare to defy the handlers after what they had seen.

"Everything will be okay, Kara." Caitlin called out as she too was pushed to her own room.

"It's so hard to hold faith," Felicity said as she and Martin were escorted in the opposite direction, with the other hostages who had been categorized as 'useless'.
Martin nodded, he too was slowly losing hope. He looked at his handler "I'm afraid to ask, sir... but where are we being taken?" His handler gave him a mocking smile, "where you will no longer take up space."

Astrid had managed to free a few hostages within the facility but she had not yet managed to find her friends. Unfortunately, some of the ones whom she had managed to free had become reckless and had gotten themselves killed, but a few had gone in search for the exits. She was unsure if they had found them.

Currently, everyone was being escorted to their rooms. They had not yet reached the hallway that she was in, so she hid in a storage cupboard and peered out the gap through the door. As she stood in the darkness, she thought that she saw Martin and Felicity amongst the group. So she waited until everyone had passed by. She scanned for any more thoughts in the hallway, and when she found that there were no more, she climbed out from her hiding spot and walked in the direction that the group had been led.

"You guys. Where am I heading?" she asked her friends who were directing her through the facility.
"Astrid, this doesn't look good... go the other way!" Cisco said.

"What? What do you mean?"

"It looks like you're heading towards the heating plant... Why are you going there?" he asked her.

"Because I thought I saw Martin and Felicity being led there."

"Why would they lead them to the heating plant?" he wondered out loud.

But, as Astrid hid again, she watched as a group of handlers left the room after locking the door behind them. Screams began to emerge from in the room.

"Oh my god, no!" she whispered softly, hoping that nobody could hear her.
She watched as the handlers disappeared down the hallway that she had just come down, and she ran towards the heating plant door, unlocking it immediately with her master key.

As the door clicked open an instant wave of heat engulfed her. This room was practically a makeshift oven. People ran towards her, almost knocking her over, as they tried to escape from the sweltering heat. There were roughly thirty of them.

She used her mind controlto calm them all down, she couldn't allow them to risk her plans. Besides, shehad a use for all of them. They would need to unlock the security doors to letthe authorities through. Amongst the crowd, she saw Felicity and Martin. They wereclearly ecstatic that she had finally come.