Unmasking The Consortium(3)

Xander with his left hand brought out his cigarette to puff out while his right hand remained raised, the gravitational pull in the area steadily decreasing.

Cisco and Caitlin remained at alert until they felt their bodies start to get lighter. 

"His ability has something to do with gravitational energy. Activate the gear's defensive mechanism" Cisco hollered.

They both pressed a button on the wrist of the makeshift suit they had on, creating some sort of energy shield in a small range around them that counteracted the effect of the gravitational pull.

Cisco brought out a high-tech pistol from his utility belt and fired two shots of highly concentrated energy beams back at him.

Lazily, Xander raised his hand. The two energy beams stopped a meter away from his face, as if they met with an impregnable wall.

"I thought it was going to be a group of Metas. What a waste of my time."

His leg pushed against the floor, his hands pushing towards his back, he shot out like an arrow from a bowstring. He closed the distance between them while simultaneously blocking all projectiles from them.

Anxiety gripped Cisco as Xander appeared in front of him, swinging his fist at his gut. Before he could even react, the fist had met its mark at his lower abdomen, creating a ripple of forces on his suit before his body flew into the building behind him, turning the wall into rubble....

*****

Barry stood in the middle of the room, right beside the machine he just got released from. The woman stood right in front of him folding her arms.

Not wanting to waste any time, he dashed towards her wanting to end it as fast as power. As he neared her, though, he suddenly found himself moving very slowly until he felt like he was walking towards her with his a fist.

She sidestepped him and increased the speed at her right hand while throwing a lazy punch at his midsection while releasing her powers around his body—his body crashed into her sped-up fist, sending him hurtling backwards, and landing with a thud.

"Oh, you're way in over your head if you think you are even close to being a match for me." She said laughing haughtily.

Barry smiled as he cracked his knuckles, swinging his head from side to side. "You can only control time around a specific area and can't directly influence a person, other than yourself."

Her face changed for a split second, one that Barry didn't miss. The corners of his mouth curled up in a playful smile as he ran forwards. As soon as he felt the flow of time reducing in front of him, he started vibrating, his molecules passing through all energy barriers. 

Slowly, he inched his way towards her, and swung an overhead kick at her head. As the kick hit her, her vision got hazy reducing her hold on her abilities.

Grabbing her by her hair, he threw at the door with all his might—her body shattering the door as she glided along the corridor, stopping in front of a black leather boot.

She looked up to see Xander with two people over his shoulder.

Barry also saw this same scene, his fist clenching, as a mix of anger and fear washed over him. He could not afford to endanger his friends. But he knew he could not act rashly. Right now, they had the upper ground and he had to play it by ear to avoid any harm from coming to Cisco and Caitlin.

"You couldn't even handle him?" Xander said, gazing down at her bruised face in slight disgust.

"It's not my fault if he can easily my abilities." She said, pouting angrily.

"Take these ones. I'll deal with him. And stay back Astrid. I'll handle him, 'alone.'" He said, dropping Cisco and Caitlin harshly on the floor—which elicited an angry gnash of teeth from Barry.

Rolling her eyes, she stood up and used her heels to turn Cisco over to reveal his face, revealing the huge patch of blood at the side of his head.

—Rage Levels Increasing—

Ignoring the unusual system message, Barry leapt towards the two of them immediately, ignoring everything but the four people in front of him. 

Astrid put her two hands up, increasing the speed around Xander to allow him to fight better against Barry.

Xander put up a defensive barrier in from of himself while simultaneously increasing the gravitational pull in front of him.

Barry felt a sudden heaviness on his body trying to drag his entire body into the floor. Gritting his teeth, he pushed himself to proceed forwards. With all the momentum he had accumulated, his clenched fist hit the shield surrounding Xander causing a resounding boom.

The shield absorbed the impact and immediately released it in the span of a second.

The force blew Barry backwards. Making the best of his chance, he joined his two hands together as if he was compressing air.

Simultaneously, an explosion occurred right beside Barry sending him sending him flying even harder through the air until his back hit the wall with a resounding thud—coughing up a mouthful of blood with a large cut on his head.

'Damn! So f**king frustrating!'

He slowly stood up, bones aching and vision hazing.

—Rage Levels Increasing—

....

He was seething as he looked at the both of them. One standing still like he had no care in the world, the other with a foot on Cisco's chest while Caitlin layed unconscious beside him.

....

—Rage Levels Critical—

—Activating Hidden Skill---SPEEDSTER'S RAGE—

....

SPEEDSTER'S RAGE

Condition: Locked

Skill can be forcefully stopped.

Description: Temporarily boosts speedsters connection to the SpeedForce granting;

-Supercharged Speed

-Enhanced Strength

-Temporal Manipulation

-Energy Projection

-Infinite Stamina

Duration: Unknown

Drawbacks: Exacts a toll on the physical state of the user. Overuse of the skill might lead to loss of oneself.

*****

Only about a dozen seconds had passed as Astrid and Xander waited for Barry to make his next move, because they knew they had the upperhand.

Barry stretched his body, feeling rejuvenated. All his wounds were already mostly healed. Feeling the power coursing throwing him, he jumped up and down a few times.

'Alright! Let's give it a shot!' 

Immediately he dashed towards Xander, he arrived beside him almost immediately. The same thought running through all three of their minds—What the hell!

A kick met the barrier that Xander formed around himself, cracks spreading all around it before it shattered.

Leaping up, a bolt of lightning appeared in right hand, which he hurled towards him.

Instinctively, Xander created a triple-layered barrier in front of him while simultaneously increasing the gravitational force in front of him to slow down the lightning.

As the bolt of lightning neared him, it easily broke through the first barrier, the second barrier. And after a second of struggle with the third barrier, it sliced through it like butter hitting it right in the chest, the electrical current damaging his body as he flew across the room.

Barry appeared behind his back and kicked him upwards, then leapt up to meet him and drove a fist into his face sending him plummeting down.

He continued throwing him all across the room, landing hits that resounded like a bang across the room for 10 seconds before a final axe kick in mid air sent Xander into the floor forming a huge crater.

Getting up, he turned toward Astrid and started walking towards her slowly.

"Stay right where you are!" She shouted her voice panicky as she held onto Caitlin and Cisco's head. "If you move any closer to me. I'll accelerate the movement within their skull and explode it from the inside out!"

Barry stopped for a second, then smiled and continued to walk forward.

Angry that he completely disregarded her, she held tightly onto their heads...

The moment she was about to use her powers, she felt time slow down to a crawl and Barry still walking towards her.

—Temporal Manipulation—

Imitating a pistol with his hand, Barry shot a condensed bolt of lightning at her thigh, boring nasty hole through it.

Her screeched pierced the entire place and she immediately fainted—she couldn't handle the pain.

Barry immediately turned off the skill. His body immediately wobbly and extremely fatigued as he did so.

He got to Catlin and Cisco's side. Pained that he let this happen to them on his watch.

He bit his lip to suppress the stabbing pain he felt as he saw their faces and immediately carried them to Star Labs where some perosnal medical personnel could attend to them.

Then he went back to the facility and used a nearby payphone to call the CCPD. Using his disguised voice as the Flash, he called the CCPD and gave them little details of what transpired and hung up.

Taking a deep breath after all was done. He raced back to Star Labs.