GAME OVER

“It seems like we’ve got ourselves some hours without having to deal with one criminal or another.”
The team was having the heck of a time at the local club in town. Last week after battling the deranged animated mannequin that Barry always hung his suit on, he had put on a show that had convinced the citizens of Central City that The Flash was still their hero and could still be trusted. With his newfound level of speed, creating a perfectly stable speed mirage wasn’t a problem and mirages were always good for disguises. Reverse Flash had taught him that. As rock music boomed from the speakers, the team tried to forget all their sorrows and enjoy the time they had not fighting and strategizing.
“Too bad alcohol doesn’t work on me, because I was planning to be driven home by somebody tonight.” Barry said in mock sorrow.
“Imagine The Flash being so drunk, he can’t run.” Caitlin said.
“Wait, would you puke at super speed or what?” Cisco joked.
The team laughed. Suddenly there was a loud resounding boom that shook the whole building to its foundations. Everyone in the club who were still dancing and had not had time to assimilate the situation fell to the ground as they lost their balance. Barry transformed into The Flash and got everybody out of the collapsing building. He quickly ran off to save other victims as he saw more than five other buildings going down. Thanks to his new level of speed, saving everybody in all the buildings wasn’t much of a problem.
“Thank you, Flash.” Everyone cheered as Barry put down the last person he had brought to safety. Barry saluted and sped off. He transformed back and jogged out of an alley to meet Cisco and Caitlin.
“Guys, what was that? How could six buildings crash like that all at once?”
“Mistake, Barry. The first question should be ‘how do we know its only happening her and not throughout the entire city?” Cisco said.
“Oh my god.” Barry moved at an invisible rate and ran all around the city. Cisco was right. Several other buildings were crashing down. All at the same time! It was time to employ some tricks. A Speed Force portal blossomed ahead. He jumped a minute back in time and managed to save every single person from every collapsing building. Assured that no other building was collapsing, he sped to Star Labs, knowing his friends would already be there.
STAR LABS. THE NEXT DAY
Cisco was working in the cortex and Caitlin was in her lab when Barry sped in and dropped milkshakes in front of them both.
“Hmmm. Always trust speedsters to make on-time deliveries.” Cisco said, savouring the taste of the drink.
“Thanks, Barry.” Caitlin said.
“Guys, about yesterday, what do you think was going on? Someone must have done that, right? It doesn’t seem normal.”
“Barry, nothing’s been normal ever since the particle―”
“Accelerator exploded. Yeah.” Barry finished for Cisco, who threw his hands in the air and shrugged.
“Okay, who could it be? I stopped by the scene this morning to make a report and from my findings, it must have been some kind of vibration. Most of it was dust, fine dust.” Barry said.
“Someone who can vibe? The Pied Piper? Black Canary? Black Siren?” Cisco threw.
“Good guesses, but whoever it was, they were fast.” Caitlin observed.
“It wasn’t just one person. All these buildings collapsed at once. At the same time. This was teamwork. We’re dealing with a group here.” Barry concluded.
“A group of villains who can project vibrational energy. How cool!” Cisco said, and Caitlin rolled her eyes.
“Alright, I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Say hi to Iris for me.”
“No problem.”
As Barry left the place, the whole building began to shake violently. Cisco and Caitlin watched in horror while trying to grip unto something as the space time continuum ripped open right in front of their eyes. A breach. Five figures walked out in a formation as the shaking stopped. The breach shrank and disappeared into a flash of light.
“We are The Resonance.”
BARRY. CCPD
“Allen, where’s that report I asked you to fill out for me? I want it now!” The chief yelled.
“Yes, Captain Singh, I’m working on it.”
Joe walked past.
“He’s going to kill everyone, right?”
“Ever since Bob broke up with him, it’s been chaos. Just make sure you keep your head on, Bar.”
“Of course, Joe.”
Barry walked up the stairs to his lab. His cell was blinking red from a GPS map. Star Labs. He sped out faster than anyone could see. What could be happening?
STAR LABS
“Sorry for the um…mess.” The one who seemed to be their leader said.
Caitlin and Cisco were dumbfounded. On the contrary, it was their costumes that held Cisco spellbound. Smooth and mature. They each had the same symbol on their costumes, but they were also unique aspects and designs that identified each person.
“Who are you?” Caitlin asked.
“I’ll do the introductions. This”, he pointed to the guy in the purple-black suit “is Breach. He can alter the vibrations of breaches to change the location that they are linked or locked to. In other words, if he tampers with a breach, you won’t be arriving where you intended. He can also make you spend as much time in a breach as he wants before you arrive wherever you were going.”
Cisco’s mouth opened an inch.
“This”, he pointed to the one in dark green “is Wormhole. He can increase or decrease and alter any breach to any size and shape that suits him. He can create a breach suit.”
“Breach suit?” Cisco asked, confused.
The guy moved forward and start twisting his hands in an odd way. Multiverse energy spread out through his body from his fingers and encased him in a skintight suit of shiny blue energy. The one talking walked through him to the other side. The breach suit withdrew and disappeared. Seeing Cisco and Caitlin’s wide eyes and open mouth, he explained.
“He’s practically intangible in that form. He can also vibrate to the point of invisibility. And that”, he pointed to the deep blue-suited guy with a facemask. “is Echo. He can project multiverse energy from his mouth in form of a catastrophic scream. He can’t talk so he wears that facemask to imprison his mouth. Any opening and energy shoots away.”
“Yeah, I don’t think we really need to see a demonstration of that.” Cisco said innocently. “The guy in the red suit is Pulse. He can continuously send spreading waves of devastating multiverse energy away from his body and as far he wants it to go. When sleeping, nightmares involuntarily make him pulse and send out his waves of destruction. He can control it while he’s awake, however.”
“You guys don’t plan on sleeping over, right?” Cisco asked.
“Meet Shockwave. Claps to send out destructive shockwave of multiverse energy. Any direct contact with his body causes a shockwave from the point of contact no matter the force applied. The more the force, the destructive the shockwave. Can’t touch anything without shattering it. Your friend is speeding over right now.”
“What?”
Barry sped into the room and assumed a stance between Caitlin and Cisco and the intruders.
“Who are you?” Barry asked.
“Barry, meet the Resonance.”
“The who now?”
“We only came here to warn you. Do not attempt to stop us. You are not nearly enough.”
“Hey―”
“Vibe, we’ve come to offer you a place in our midst. We ask you to come discover your power. We’ll be back. Think it over.” A breach opened and sucked them in at an incredible speed.
“What was that all about?” Barry asked.
Team Flash looked the situation over. Cisco was fed up with Barry and Caitlin staring at him like he was about to be impaled.
“They’re cool.” Cisco said.
“Is that what you have to say about all this?” Caitlin asked.
“I’m not going with them, alright? I’m not signing up for that. But you have to admit that they are cool.”
“Alright, I give up. They are.” She concurred.
“You can’t possibly hide from those guys, right?” Barry asked. Cisco and Caitlin shook their heads.
“Then we fight.”
“You wouldn’t stand a chance.” The leader of the group said. Team Flash turned around to see him seated in a chair, legs crossed and sipping coffee. “I have to admit, this Earth’s coffee is quite peculiar.”
“Get out or―” Barry was interrupted by the leader.
“Or what?” He sneered.
“I’ll make you.” Barry warned as the leader laughed.
“I didn’t introduce myself. My name is Quake.” He tapped his fingers and a breach appeared behind Barry and sucked him in. “You are coming with me, Vibe.”
“Sorry, but my response is no.” Cisco said as he shot energy towards Quake who simply used an energy-covered fist to deflect it. Cisco opened a breach and jumped inside. As the breach appeared at Quake’s back, Cisco jumped into the waiting hands of Quake, who caught him, threw him in the air and blasted him away with a tremendous amount of energy. Caitlin, who had been hiding the whole while, tried to run up behind him and hit him with a broken pipe. A breach opened behind him and she fell into it as it closed up on her. “You are all pathetic. But Cisco, you have this energy flowing silently through your body. Show it to the world!” He picked Cisco’s limp body up. Blood was running down his face.
“You…er…you’d have to do more than that to change my mind.” Cisco managed.
“Oh, you ignorant fool, I don’t plan on doing any less.” He beat him mercilessly, and threw him away like a piece of trash.
ELSEWHERE
A desert. A breach opened and Barry came flying out of it. It took him some seconds to discover that he wasn’t on Earth 1 anymore and that he was surrounded by…The Resonance!
“What do you guys want?” Barry asked.
Nobody answered him but they kept staring at him with threatening eyes.
“If you don’t mind, I have an issue to settle so I will be leaving―”
“You aren’t going anywhere.”
“Says who?”
As they started to move towards him, he got up and started spinning like a top, creating a very powerful tornado. Immediately, each of them teleported to some distance away and shot beams of energy at Barry, who easily dodged it. They regrouped and nodded to themselves. As Barry opened a breach with his speedy vibrations, he jumped inside but the breach reopened right in front of them. A heavyweight punch knocked him back into the breach and he fell out where he opened it from. Barry ran at super speed, punched three of them one by one into the air and threw lightning at each of them. As Barry punched the last one, a wave of energy blasted him away. Before he could land, another one screamed at him, the vibrations ripping most of his suit away. Far up in the air and with one eye barely open, he saw one teleport right above him, punching him to the ground. Suddenly, they all disappeared and Barry felt four fists of energy hitting his face all at once, the last one releasing enough energy to blast him, knocking him out.
STAR LABS
“You will join me, Vibe, or you and your friends will die.”
“Why am I so special to you?”
“You are nothing special.”
“Then you’re crazy.”
“All I have to do is torture you and you would bow to my authority.” He threw him down and tapped his fingers. Cisco screamed in excruciating pain as Quake altered his internal vibrations. “Will you join me, Vibe?” He laughed.
“No!!!”
“Then you choose death over power.”
A breach opened beside Quake. His comrades walked out holding The Flash’s limp body.
“The speedster is inert.” They voiced.
“Let’s leave our friends here to…think things over.” Quake said as he tapped his fingers. A breach sucked them in.
Cisco’s legs were very unstable but he stood up holding his injured arm. His nose was bleeding.
“Barry! Barry! Wake up! Wake up, please! Barry!”
“Hey…” Barry smiled as he managed to stand up. His wounds were healing. “Where’s Caitlin?”
“Quake must have thrown her into a breach. We have to find her. She could anywhere, with anything!” Cisco panicked.
“I’m here, guys.” Caitlin said, coming into the room. Cisco ran and hugged her.
“How’d you get back?” Cisco asked, tears streaming down his face.
“He threw me into Barry’s lab at CCPD. I had to board a taxi, looking this messy.” She laughed, then looked worried. “Oh my god, Cisco, how bad is it?
“Don’t worry about it. Let’s clean this place up.”
A breach opened and Quake and his crew landed one by one. Team Flash assumed their fighting stance. Energy covered Cisco’s fists and Caitlin picked up a rod. Lightning sparked all around The Flash’s body and filled his eyes. Quake smiled.
“Ready for another round?”
THE END