'I didn't…'
'When did he…'
Both Derek and Barry slowly widened their eyes as their gaze remained glued on where Thawne once stood.
Silence prevailed as the pipeline remained dimly lit, the barely visible and familiar red lightning disappearing just as fast as it sparked.
However, where Derek and Barry's brains lagged to comprehend what just happened, recalling the blur that they last saw, the others, whose brains were far more used to simply seeing a streak, stared at the result of the sudden movement.
Thawne, not only his face but his entire figure partially blurred, crackled with red lightning as he held a beating heart in his hand while the organ still spewed blood.
The others fell into the same trance that Derek and Barry were in, only for a different reason.
"Ronnie!"
This familiar voice seemingly snapped the two back to reality as their heads unknowingly moved to the side, their eyes remaining wide as they soon fell on the gaping hole in the chest of their quiet partner.
"R-Ronnie…" Barry muttered, looking up to see Ronnie, the latter looking down for a brief moment, his hands frozen in the air before his torso.
-SHUA
-THUD
At that moment, a blinding light flashed where Ronnie stood, dimming shortly after only to reveal both Stein and Ronnie separated, lying on the ground. However, while Ronnie's heart was still gone, Stein was merely unconscious, with no sign of any fatal injury.
'Shit!'
Derek snapped his head back as his Eclipse rose off his body like tentacles with a BLOP, while Barry leapt off his feet with a CRACKLE.
In a split second, the two were able to coordinate. While Barry sped Stein and Ronnie to safety, not to mention Cisco and Joe, Derek steeled his feet and grit his teeth in an attempt to…
"What's wrong…"
'Huh…'
Derek slowly looked up, only to find Thawne staring down at him with menacing blood-red eyes.
The youth hadn't even noticed when Thawne had closed the distance.
"Where's all that big talk? I thought you were…better."
-BANG!!!
Thawne shot his fist into Derek's gut, so fast that the brief movement broke the sound barrier a hundred times over.
A mouthful of blood escaped Derek's lips as his feet left the ground. The punch was so strong that the outline of Thawne's hand was visible on Derek's back.
'So…fast…'
Derek thought while feeling as though he'd hurl his lungs.
Nevertheless, with the small sanity he had left, he was able to make a single command, his eyes briefly shifting over to what seemed like the plain ground of the pipeline, but to him, there was more there.
-BLOP
-SHING
-BRRR
Despite Derek shooting half a dozen spikes of his Eclipse straight at Thawne, each one aiming for a vital point that would be sure to at least weaken the Speedster, if not kill him, Thawne somehow managed to phase the exact parts of his body that were soon to be damaged.
Derek didn't expect these attacks to land, however, he at least expected the tips to touch his body before he felt it and dodged, like with his battle against Barry.
Yet, Thawne was able to dodge just as Derek launched it.
Regardless, Derek was satisfied with achieving what he set out to. A simple distraction.
-BLOP
Suddenly, Derek disappeared, seemingly becoming one with the air. Not only that but his very breath and heartbeat were no more.
If Thawne didn't know any better, he'd have assumed Derek had disappeared from STAR Labs altogether.
But no.
Instead, the emerald-eyed youth stared from up above, on the ceiling while resting on his hands and knees.
Not that anyone could see him.
No, from the Eclipse covering him from head to toe, refracting light and making him invisible and the [Stealth] skill he'd obtained after being trained by Nyssa, he had practically become one with the surroundings.
Hell, with his Eclipse and superhuman body, he was greater in the art than any assassin to ever live.
Not only did he lower the temperature of the Eclipse to mask his body heat and match the natural air, while also blocking out the sound of his beating heart, but with his Mirakuru, he only needed to take a few short breaths every few minutes, further concealing himself.
'Bastard. I guess he has nothing more to lose. Even with my super speed perception, I can barely keep up with his movements. He'll win this battle but he'll ultimately lose the war. Yet that doesn't bother him.'
Despite trying to ignore the pain in his gut that felt like it took forever to heal, Derek wiped the blood off the corner of his lips, never losing his train of thought.
'I hope this works.'
Derek's mind raced like a supercomputer yet remained fixed on a single thought.
The wormhole he previously shut down.
While waiting for Barry to return, his mind had a few minutes, or hours to him, to linger and dwindle.
It was then that he thought of something.
'The brief synopsis I got from Gideon on the topic should be enough.'
By "Short Synopsis", he meant everything known on the topic from the last 50 years.
But as Derek thought this, he raised his arm straight up so that it aimed right at the ground below.
As he did, a ball of Eclipse formed before his arm. But unlike usual, more and more pieces of Derek's Eclipse merged with the ball, yet the ball never grew in size.
'More mass. I need way more mass into my Eclipse while forcing it into this tight density.'
With that thought, the property of mass started to increase tenfold…no, one hundredfold with every piece infused.
And finally…
'This is the most I can do…'
Derek sweated while grinning. Though it was only a second, he looked at his creation in admiration.
Though it only looked like a simple and perfect black sphere that could fit into one's hand, there was more to it.
And standing so close to it, Derek could feel it.
'It only has about 16% of Mount Everest's total mass, however, because of its density, now potentially being the densest material in the whole universe, it comfortably occupies its own gravitational field. It's my very own black hole.'
This much was incredibly taxing to Derek. Though it wasn't as much as he'd have liked it to weigh, the density and the fact that he had to keep the ball from collapsing in on itself was enough to make him sweat.
Though the range was only about 20 metres and the pipeline was massive, it didn't bother him too much…
'Because I can do this…Go, Almighty Pull!'
Holding his fingers out like a pistol and noting only a few seconds passed for everyone else, Derek grinned as he shot it out.
-BOOM!!!
The ball shot out, the very air around it rippling as it burst forth like a bullet, closing the distance between the two in a few seconds as its figure blurred.
'He's fast, but the Gravity's pull should be able to slow him down just a bit for me to see him better. If I'm lucky, it'll hit him all together and rip him to shreds…'
"Not bad. Your smug demeanour sometimes makes me forget how smart you are."
Derek widened his eyes, his eyes barely turning only to realise Thawne right beside him.
-CRACK!!!
Derek darted through the air like a fly being swatted, to which he had very much in common. Thawne's punch cracked across the side of his face, blood spewing from his lips as his eyes rolled to the back of his skull.
But the force of the attack isn't exactly what let out the gut-wrenching CRACK. It was rather the result of the attack.
Nevertheless, while in the air, his eyes struggled to focus on where he once stood.
'Freeze!'
The skin-like Eclipse he had on remained where he previously was, and with his command, it shrivelled until it combusted into an air of cold blizzard, a single touch sure to induce frostbite.
Yet Thanwe simply ran backwards, quite easily evading the attack.
-BLOP
'He predicted where I'd go.'
Thawne thought, seeing Derek's black hole inches away from coming face to face with him.
Thawne knew the danger of the black hole. He couldn't phase through it, outrun it or touch it.
Yet…
-BRRR
-BANG
Thawne phased through the ground, reappearing where Derek was soon to land, bashing his shoulder into the youth's back and sending him shooting toward the opposite wall of the pipeline.
'He…broke my neck…'
Derek thought, the dust clearing as he found he was unable to move his body from his neck down, nasty purple bruising disfiguring his neck. Not to mention the shoulder to his back wasn't doing his spine any favours.
He comfortably lay in a crater, his back on the wall while his arms lay lifeless on his lap, his Eclipse surrounding him gone, as well as his black hole.
'Crap…I'm so stupid…'
Rather than ask himself how Thawne knew, not falling for a single one of his ploys while also locating him while invisible, he inwardly smacked himself on the forehead.
'This bastard knows the future. This very possible future we're living in. He knows every move we'll make and every punch we'll throw. Any plan we have is useless.'
Just as Derek thought this, he witnessed the blurred figure that was Thawne, shoot toward him.
-CRACKLE
-WHOOSH
Barry appeared before the two before Thawne could reach the former's partner. But it was useless…
-SMASH
Barry was merely lifted by his skull as Thawne smashed it into the pipeline below.
"Too slow, Flash…"
-BLOP
"Come on, Barry. Get up…we just need a few more minutes."
Barry's eyes focused as he recognised the familiar voice. But he needn't ask any questions as he could feel the Eclipse on his ear.
"I know a few minutes is a lot considering we're talking about a speedster, but it'll all work out. I have a plan, I just need a little more time."
Derek mumbled under his breath, loud enough for the sound to travel through his Eclipse to the one in Barry's ear.
-BLOP
Barry was propped up by the Eclipse, appearing as tentacles on his back, facing Thawne despite him still being dizzy.
Despite this…
"I was afraid of you once. You appear to me now as the same blur I saw all those years ago."
"You should still be afraid."
"Maybe. But that's just the thing, Thawne. Isn't it funny? My entire life you were my boogeyman. Sure, it took literal time travel to help me become who I am now, but either way…"
Barry, despite blood trickling down the corner of his mouth and his legs slightly buckled, smiled.
"I'm not afraid of you anymore."
But in the next second, Barry's smile turned into a dangerous frown.
"All I can think about is how I'll get you back for what you did to Ronnie."
Derek grinned widely from behind while Thawne's blurred expression remained a mystery.
But both Barry and Derek knew him well enough to know exactly how he felt.
At that moment, Eclipse let out its signature BLOP as strands of it ran down every one of Barry's limbs, the most part clung to his back, all while Barry and Derek's eyes aligned onto the joint foe.
"Barry, he knows the future. That means every move we'll make. Try your best to throw him off, do things you wouldn't normally do. Anything to buy us time. Leave the rest to me after that."
"I can do that much. Besides, I've got a plan of my own I'd like to test. I'd have liked to do it in practice but since we're thinking outside the box today…"
Barry's legs bend as Derek's Eclipse tightens around his body.
'Go, Puppet Master!'
"Let's do it!"
And during all this…
'Yes…You did it...'
Derek's grin widened as he stared at a screen that suddenly appeared beside him.
"I owe you one. Thank you…Nyssa."
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I'm not a scientist nor do I know much on the topic, so don't hold it against me if some of what Derek mentioned in this Chapter sounds like straight BS.
Anyway, Next Chapter Title: His Name...Is Ainz!
You know what time it is, Fork over them Powerstones (Yes, this is my new thing)
But if you can't be bothered to wait, head over to my Patreon where we're well into Volume Two!
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