Zero hour

The Crimson Comet

It was too late to avoid the hit. Barry's knees failed him and he started falling but was intercepted by the charge his adversary, Jay's young female apprentice, before he could hit the ground. The fast and robust punch connected with Barry's jaw and sent him flying many feet away. The next second, when his body touched the unforgiving hard asphalt underneath, a shout of pain escaped his lips. If his ribs were only bruised before, he now had a few broken ones.

Stunned and in pain, Barry wasn't able to move before Lady Indigo ran to him and positioned her body on top of the CSI with her right arm vibrating; she was going to crush his heart, literally!

Gasping as fear and the man's survival instinct took over his mind, Barry forced his whole body to vibrate as well. Shock was written all over the woman's face when her hand inefficiently passed right through her new enemy's chest. Taking advantage of the few seconds of distraction, Flash rolled and phased through the lady to free himself and jump back up to his feet.

Digging in his remaining strength, Barry concentrated all of his powers in his right arm and sent a powerful and breathtaking punch straight on the side of her head. Defeated, Lady Indigo fell like a rock on the ground with a thump.

"I'm sorry," whispered Barry to the young girl as he was breathing heavily and leaning forward, hands on his knees, to catch his breath.

He just needed a moment to summon back some energy before the next portion of his plan. First thing first, was he at the right address? Was he on the right day? At the right time? Going back in time, Barry aimed for the date of Polly's murder, and the Galways' home, based on the information they got before leaving for Earth 3 a few days ago. Hopefully, there were enough similarities between the universe to bring him back to the right place and the right time.

It looks like these data were just as reliable as they could be on this earth considering how a yellow flash surged in the night from somewhere further down the road and flew right into the house.

Jay. Had to be.

It had to be the Jay who just got brainwashed by Daniel and had been sent back in time to save the man's wife, the event that caused all the changes to the present.

Based on his experience, the red hero from the first Earth knew there was no bringing everything back exactly the way they were before all of this. It was a lesson he learned the hard way after Flashpoint. But, even if this universe would forever be altered, the least Barry could do was minimized the damages by ensuring Polly's death.

Swiftly, Barry dragged the unconscious lady in blue on the residence's front balcony, hidden by the pieces of furniture on it and the cover of darkness. It was a lot less suspicious than having an unresponsive body lying in the middle of the road for someone to find or to roll over. Once that was done, Barry raced inside but not before gulping down nausea and barely stopping himself from falling on his face at the sharp agonizing pain spreading in his body.

"No, no no... not now," he muttered to himself.

He couldn't let Jay and this universe down; he needed to keep pushing.

The CSI didn't enter the home a second too soon. Barely stepping in, he instantly spotted Jay victoriously standing over a terrified house robber wearing black from head to toe, including a black toque, black shoes and a black ninja-like mask that had slipped from over his mouth and nose. Right behind the duo was a younger Polly Galway in pink bottom pyjama and white top slumped against the kitchen's bottom cabinets.

The first detail Barry noticed about Polly was her hands loosely pressing against her side. Blood was freely escaping between the fingers of the woman who was tensing up in agony and fighting to stay conscious. It didn't take a CSI to connect the dots; the woman had been shot and was probably not going to make it without a speedster taking her into the ER in the next instant or so, especially since her husband was either knocked out or not home at the moment.