Episode 35 - Flash Fanfiction - Game On!

Chapter 8

Paco shot a blast in Barry's direction, which, fortunately, he dodged. So he sent two more, which once again missed the speedster. There was certainly a strategy to his attacks. Vibe, Mind Marvel, and Frost appeared via breach ready to offer the Flash some assistance.

"Look... your parents are here." Barry said as he noticed them arrive. As Barry was distracted it gave Paco the perfect opportunity to send a powerful blast that crippled and injured the speedster... this time more severe than before.

Before Paco could send another furious blast at the crippled speedster, Frost shot an ice blast between them, forming a wall and stopping the attack.

Cisco breached over to Barry to check on their friend, while Astrid tried to get into the man's head. She reached his mind for an instant, but as the link was closed off from Paco's end, he turned to face her. She wanted to send a mind scream to bring him down, but she just couldn't do it.

Frost shot an ice blast at the man, he saw it and breached out of the way, and reappeared again, only this time, behind her. He whispered to her to "sleep." And she dropped to her knees in a deep sleep once again.

As Vibe sat by Barry's side, Paco ran towards them with his hands up, "Step aside from him! I don't want to hurt you!" he yelled at Cisco.

"I'm not going to let you do that. You'll have to come through me first!" Vibe called back.

He could see the anger in the man's eyes. He had been emotionally scarred big time. "Why do you want to do this?" Vibe asked him. "Why kill him?"

"Get out of the way! Let me do this!" Paco demanded of him. He knew that Cisco would not stand aside, so he had to take matters into his own hands. He sent a mind scream into Cisco's head, distracting him, then breached to the other side of Barry. 

Before Cisco could stop him, Paco grabbed Barry and breached away from Cisco.

"Did you just see what he did?" Cisco cried out to Astrid.

"He isn't going to hurt us, Cisco!" Astrid said as she ran to her fiance's aid. She was trying to predict where Paco would appear next.

When he finally reappeared, he threw Barry up against the dumpster and continued to punch into him angrily.

"What do we do?" Vibe asked Mind Marvel.

"Breach us over there. You tend to Barry... I'll deal with him." Astrid ordered.

Vibe did as she said, and as they arrived, Astrid pushed Paco away from their friend and stood between them. He went to send another blast at Barry.

Astrid stared up into his eyes. He was clearly older than them by a few years, but once again she saw nothing but the uncanny resemblance between them. He looked so much like his father, with her own features blended in. But there was an anger to him that almost mirrored her own.

'Stop!' Astrid thought to him telepathically. 'Whatever has you this angry, let it go.'

He stared at her.

"Astrid... Barry's really hurt." Cisco whispered to her. "He's not regenerating."

'Why are you hurting him?' Astrid asked the man telepathically.

His voice entered her mind. 'I don't want to hurt you. But Barry must suffer for everything he has done. I cannot let him get away with it!'

Astrid's heart sank. 'Death is never the answer.'

'Coming from you that's a laugh...'

'I've never killed anyone. What are you talking about?'

There was a break in the man's expression. It told her everything she needed to know.