Chapter 81: keep running

Star Labs

Late morning

"Okay Wally, you need to phase the bullet out of him," Caitlin told Wally as they stood on the med bay, Barry on the bed in front of them.

"I don't know if I'm ready for that," Wally said unsure.

"You need to be because Barry is counting on you. Now get the bullet out," Caitlin told him firmly.

Wally nodded, taking a deep breath. He walked over to Barry, vibrating his hand. Then, he reached his hand through Barry's abdomen, frowning at the strange feeling of his hand in Barry's body. Feeling the bullet, he grabbed it and yanked his hand out, his hand rematerializing as he opened it to reveal the bullet.

"You did good Wally; now get out so I can do my job," Caitlin said, pushing Wally aside so she could work on Barry. "Stay with me Barry."

Barry was in an open field, looking around in confusion. Then, a familiar voice spoke up behind him.

"My sweet boy."

Barry whirled around, staring at his mother in shock.

"Mom," Barry said in a choked voice as Nora smiled slightly at him.

"Barry. I'm so proud of you," Nora said as she walked over to him, putting a hand on the side of his face. "My sweet boy. You brave, brave man."

"I'm sorry," Barry said the first thing that popped into his head. "I'm sorry for what I let Thawne do to you. I let you die."

"You didn't let me die Barry, you did what you had to do to set things right, as you've always done. And you still have so much more you need to do. You need to keep running my sweet boy," Nora told him.

Barry opened his eyes, blankly staring up at Caitlin's face before he passed out again.

Caitlin stared at her friend sadly before she exited the med bay, where the others were waiting for her.

"His vitals are stable. But, even with his accelerated healing, it'll take him a few days to completely recover," Caitlin explained.

"And Savitar is still out there, stronger than ever," Roy pointed out.

"Where the hell did he get that suit anyway?" Sam wondered.

"I don't know, but it made him strong. Even I couldn't match his strength with my arm," Bucky said as he glanced down at his robotic arm.

"But thanks to you and Tony, we know Savitar's weakness," Steve said, putting a hand on Bucky's shoulder while nodding at Tony.

"His new suit doesn't seem to like high frequencies," Tony mused.

"Okay, then we need to get to work on coming up with some weapons that uses that to our advantage," Cisco said and Tony nodded his agreement.

"I like the way you think kid," tony said.

"Before we do that, you two might want to get our biggest gun online," Clint said pointedly.

"Time to get Vision back," Tony agreed.

Central City Police Department

Same time

"So, time travel and other earths? I thought this city was crazy before," Singh said blown away as he and Joe stood in his office.

"Trust me, it doesn't get any less crazy on the other side," Joe told him.

"I'll take your word for it. How's Barry?" Singh asked concerned for his former employee.

"He's alright, but he'll need to take a few days to recover," Joe said and Singh sighed.

"I thought we'd seen the worst of it last May when those Metahumans invaded," Singh sighed.

"So did I. But Savitar, he's on a whole different level than Zoom. But we have to have faith Barry and his team will stop them. It's what they do," Joe said simply.

Star Labs

Afternoon

Vision blinked as his consciousness came back online. Vision lifted his head up to see he was in some sort of workshop, Tony and the longhaired human who Alexei had been holding captive standing off to the side.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Tony asked and Vision tilted his head to the side as he floated himself to his feet.

"I believe I am unharmed," Vision said after a moment.

"You've been in a sort of coma for the last week. It was the only way I could save you and get us both out of there," Cisco said as he held a hand out to him. "I'm Cisco."

Vision nodded, recognizing the name from Barry's stories and realizing this must be Cisco Ramon, Barry's best friend from Earth-1.

"So we are on Earth-1 then," Vision said, looking over at Tony as Cisco dropped his hand.

"Yeah. And we have a lot to catch you up on," Tony said, thinking of the predicament they were in.

In the med-bay, Barry's vision blurred as he opened his eyes. As he tried to sit up, Barry groaned as he felt a spike of pain shoot through his waist.

"Barry, don't push yourself," Caitlin was suddenly there, forcing Barry to lie down.

"Cisco and the others, are they alright?" Barry asked.

"They're fine," Caitlin him as Wanda walked in.

"Barry," Wanda rushed to his side as Caitlin stepped back.

"Hey, sorry I worried you," Barry said as he took her hand, looking over at Caitlin. "How long do I have Doc?"

"You'll be fine, but you'll need to take it easy for a couple days," Caitlin told him. "Savitar really did a number on you."

"Venom Flash. That's what he calls himself now," Barry said and Caitlin started. "What?"

"Venom Flash, those were the exact words he used?" Caitlin asked breathlessly.

"Yeah. Why, what's going on Cait?" Barry asked bewildered.

"Venom, that's what Savitar called the symbiont when Killer Frost was working with him," Caitlin said and it took only a moment for Barry to understand.

"So, this new suit isn't a suit at all. The symbiont, it bonded with Savitar," Barry realized.

"Argus, they must have studied the symbiont before Lyla had it locked up," Caitlin realized.

"Get Lyla on the phone, we need to know everything they learned about Venom," Barry ordered.