The Flash | Convergence 1&2

Convergence #1 

Iris? It's Six. 

I Gotta Get To W--

Iris. 

Every Night, I Sleep And Forget.

Every Morning, I Wake And Remember.

No Iris.

No Happy Ever After, After All.

This Is My Life Now.

Good Morning, Gotham City.  

How Are You Today?  

Still Trapped, Huh? I Know That Felling.  

I'm Barry Allen.  

I Used To Be The Fastest Man Alive.  

I Used To Be The Flash.  

Not Anymore.

Dome's Still There. Been There A Year Now.  

Don't Think It's Ever Coming Down.  

The Whole City Has Been Locked In. I Don't Know Who By, I Don't Know What For.  

Are We Prisoners? Specimens? Lab Rats?  

I Know How I Got Here I Just Don't Know How To Get Out Again. 

After My Trial, I Reunited With My Wife, Iris. We Escaped Together To The Thirtieth Century.  

An Ever After We Could Live In Happily.

Of Course, I Had To Come Back Once In A While. To See My Folks, My Friends.  

The Last Time, It Was For A Charity Appearance. The Paralympics.  

I Jumped On The Cosmic Treadmill. I Was Only Supposed To Be Gone For An Hour.  

But While I Was There, The Dome Closed.  

And When It Closed, I Lost My Powers. So Did Every Metahuman In Gotham.  

I Guess We All Ran Out Of Luck.

We're Still Trying To Find A Way Out, Every Day.  

The Dome's Ultra-tech. It, And Whatever Built It, Would Have Been A Challenge To The Best Of Us At Full Strength.  

Without Powers, Without Insight... It Seems Impossible.  

I've Never Been In A Situation Like This. No Matter The Odds, No Matter The Scale Of The Crisis, We've Always Prevailed Before.  

I'll See You Later, Iris.  

The Loneliness Sucks.  

But It's Being Helpless That Doesn't Suit Me At All.

So I Run.  

Gotham Seems So Horribly Ordinary, As If Everybody's Just Resigned To This Strange New Life.  

I Guess When There's Nothing Else You Can Do, You Just Get On With Life As If It Was Normal.  

Morning.  

Hi.  

So I Run.  

I Guess I Believe That If I Run Hard Enough, Often, I'll Eventually Access The Speed Force Again.  

Hasn't Happened Yet.

-huff--huff-jeeeez  

Fastest Man Alive.  

Fastest Man Alive. My--  

Hi. I Was Paged.  

Doctor Allen.  

Hey, Josie.  

The Tox Screens Came Back On The Fulton Case Early. Thought You'd Want To Know.  

"I'll Be There In Ten.  

So I Run And I Work.  

I Put The Skills I Still Possess To Some Use.

Gotham's Always Been A Tough Town. Crime Rate's Soared Since The Dome Closed.  

Gcpd Needs All The Help It Can Get.  

I Wonder How Things Are In Central City. I Wonder If There Still Is A Central City.

  

I Wonder How My Folks Are Doing.

  

Was Gotham Stolen? Is Central Under A Dome Too?  

Or Has Everything Else Gone, And Only Gotham Remains, Preserved Like An Exhibit In A Museum?  

Morning, Doc.  

Hi, Ritchie.  

How's It Going, Allen?  

Hey, Detective Lossi.  

Should Have Something For You On The Fulton Thing By Mid-morning.

So Nothing On The Tox As It Turns Out, But The Carpet Fibers...

  

Yeah, I See It. I See It.  

That's Got To Be A Match For The Driscoll Street Condo.  

Which Fits—duhn! Duhn! Duuhn! The Time Frame.  

We'll Have To Check It. Polymer Gradation. Dye-comp.  

Of Course, Man, You Impugn My Lab Skills. I Know The Form.  

Lossi Only Gets This When We're Sure Blah Blah.  

But I Think We Might Have Cracked It.  

Josie Leighton. She's Been My Chief Assistant For Six Months Now.  

She's Eager, Funny, Smart, And Very Good At Her Job.  

She's Also Great To Be Around. 

I'll Take These Through To Microspec.  

You, Uh, You Wanna Grab Coffee Later?  

I Know She Likes Me. God Knows, She's Easy To Like Back.  

But Iris Is Never Out Of My Head Or My Heart. In Another Life, Maybe, I Would...

But All The While I Hold On To Iris, I Have Hope. Hope That We'll Get Through This. That Everybody In Gotham Will Get Through This. 

That There'll Be Life Again, Life Like It Used To Be.  

That Iris And I Will Get Our Happy Ever After, After All.  

That's What I Cling To.  

I'd Love To, Josie, But I Have A Thing.  

Gotta Meet Someone.  

Sure. No Problem.  

I'll Take These Through.  

Doc?  

Then Sometimes I Think, Maybe This Is Another Life.  

Maybe This Is What Life Is Going To Be. Can't Run From It. Can't Pretend It Isn't Happening.  

This Is It, And We Better Make The Best Of It.  

No More Putting Things Off. No More Pretending We're Ever Going To Go Back To The Way Things Were.  

These Are Our Lives Now. This Is It. 

And We're Wasting What Small Chances And Pleasures And Consolations We Have Left By Pretending That It's Temporary.  

These Are Our Lives. We Ought To Get On Living Them.

You Really Think That?  

No. Yes. Sometimes.  

Sounds Like... Defeatism. Not The Barry I Know.  

Sometimes I Just Have To Say It Out Loud.  

It's Not Defeatism, Bruce.  

Pragmatism, Maybe.  

And I'm Not The Barry You Once Knew Either.  

A Twenty-something Girl Outran Me In The Park This Morning. Without Trying.  

You Think This Is Going To End? Will We Find A Way Out?  

Everyone's Working On It, In Different Ways.  

It's Just The Scale Of It. How Many Bad Places Have We Been In Over The Years?  

How Many Huge Threats Have We Faced And Dealt With, Even When All Hope Seemed Lost?  

More Than Our Share.

It's Been A Year, Bruce. A Year. No Change, No Progress, Not Even The First Clue.  

We've Never Been In A Situation Like This Before. Not Ever.  

So This Is Unusual. Maybe It's The Greatest Crisis We'll Ever Face. 

Doesn't Mean We're Going To Give Up.  

I Have To Get Back To Work.  

Thanks For The Talk. Always Good To See You.  

You Too, Barry.  

Barry?  

Maybe This Time It's A Marathon, Not A Sprint.  

Yeah.

Traffic's Heavy Today.  

Tell Me About It.  

Something In The Air You Know?  

Everybody's Jittery.  

Yeah? I Guess— 

No, The Guy's Right. There's A Weird Mood On The Street Today. I've Only Just Noticed It.  

Hey, Can You Pull Over? I Need A Pay Phone.  

Josie?  

Just Got A Call To Attend To A Crime Scene. Isley Street. Urgent.  

You Done With Your "Thing?"  

Yeah. I'll Meet You There.

I'm Gonna Walk. Keep The Change.  

Okay, Pal.  

About Eight Blocks. Faster On Foot. 

I Figure Ten Minutes And I'll—  

Wait.  

What The Hell...  

What's Happened To The Sky? I Can't See The Dome Anymore.  

What The Hell Happened To The Sky?

  

What's That Voice?  

Maybe We're Being Rescued? Maybe We're Getting Out Of Here At Last? 

I Don't Like This.

Only One City Shall Strive.  

Your Time Has Ended.  

Your Worlds Are Dead.  

But I Have The Power To Grant One City A Future.  

Today Your Captivity Turns To Competition And Only One City Among Many Will Survive This Day!  

Defenders Of Each Domain Will Battle The Other, And Only The Greatest Of Heroes Will Live!  

Only One City Will Survive This Day. All Other Worlds Will Finally Know The Dark Embrace Of Oblivion!

That Ain't Our Sky.  

What Does That Even Mean? 

Everyone's Stunned. Afraid.  

S'gonna Be Okay, Hon.  

Is This Real?  

What Do We Do?  

Hey, Buddy!  

Pardon Me!  

Excuse Me!  

There's Going To Be Panic. I Can Feel It Coming.  

I've Got To Get Back To Bruce! The Dome's Down. We've Got A Chance!  

Do We Have To Fight? Do We Have To Fight Someone?  

We've Got A Chance!  

Anyone Know What This Means?  

Yeah, That's Right, Buddy... Run And Hide!  

This Is Good, Right? We're Getting Out, Aren't We?

Oh My God.  

Oh My God.  

It's Back.  

It's Back!

Just Like That, It Returns To Me. 

And Just Like That, I Realize I Had Forgotten How Good It Feels.  

I'm Alive Again.  

And I'm The Fastest Man Alive.

We Need Intel Fast. I'll Find A Good Vantage Point.  

This'll Do.  

Oh, God. This Isn't Earth.  

There Are Other Cities Out There.

But Gotham's Gone Quiet. It's Eerie.

  

Hello?  

Who Are You?  

What Do You Mean By A Battle? 

If You Want A Champion, There's One Right Here!  

Hello.  

I Think I Am Your... Opponent.  

I Think We're Supposed To Engage In Combat.  

Who--?  

I Don't Want To Fight.  

Who Are You?  

The Domes Have Only Just Opened. I Have Been Without My Strength For A Long Time. I Have Been Without The Full Measure Of My Mind.  

But It Is Returning Now. It Is Being Restored To Optimum.  

And I Think...

I Think...  

That I Am The Superman. 

You're The... Who?

🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫

Convergence #2 

We're Supposed To Fight Each Other?

That Seems To Be The Situation.

A Contrived Combat, Arranged By The Unidentified Entity Who Has Imprisoned Our Cities.

And The Prize Is... The Winner's City Gets To Survive? 

Those Appear To Be The Basic Rules.

Isn't It Oddly Primitive? The Entity That Has Imprisoned Us Is Evidently Highly Advanced.

It Has Stolen Cities From Different Time-streams And Parallels Of The Hypertime Multiverse, And Contained Them In Domed Containers Like Specimens.

It Opens And Closes Those Containers As Easily As One Might Open And Close A Rabbit Hutch Or A Bird Cage, Yet We Are Utterly Unable To Affect Any Measure Of Escape Or Release.

It Has Deprived All Imprisoned Metahumans Of Their Abilities, Yet Can Restore Those Gifts Again At A Moment's Notice.

It Is An Entity Of Exceptionally High Function.

It Demonstrates Functional Omnipotence. Superior Intellect. Advanced Technology, Perhaps Even What Might Be Deemed Magic.

And It Is Unknowable. Even One Such As I Am Unable To Perceive It Or Identify It, Or Discern Its Reality.

But It Just Wants Us To Fight?

Yes. Does That Not Strike You As Incongruous? 

To Possess Such Sophisticated Abilities, Yet Purpose Them To Force Gladiatorial Contests? 

Used To Happen On Star Trek All The Time.

Indeed. Those Episodes Never Made Sense Either.

You Said, "One Such As I." Sounds Like You Think This Is A Situation You Should've Been Able To Breeze Out Of.

I Do. My Brain Is Evolving At An Accelerated Rate. I Am Hyper-intelligent.

Modest, Too.

It Wasn't Supposed To Be A Boast. Just A Statement.

I Wanted To Be Fair To You. To Let You Understand What I Represent.

You're Superman?

The Superman. Of Earth-9. Our Realities Are Tangential Alternates, Co-existing In Hypertime.

And You. You Are Barry Allen. The Flash Of Earth-prime.

Whoa. What's That? Telepathy?

Yes. Though You Are Hard To Read, Barry. Your Thought Process Is Exceptionally Rapid. It Is A Pleasant Challenge To Keep Up With It.

Well, Glad To Be A "Pleasant Challenge.

No Offense Intended. You Are A Superhuman Beings,My Abilities Are Simply Superior To Yours In Every Respect.

Again, Not A Boast. A Statement. A Fight Between Us Would Be One-sided.

Uh-huh.

But Though I Recognize My Superiority To You, I Respect You Entirely.

You Are The Flash. You Are A Proven Hero. Brave, Determined, Gifted, Selfless.

You Have Saved Worlds In Your Time.

I Have No Wish To Fight You. Under Other Circumstances, You Would Be A Welcome Ally And A Friend.

But If We Fight, You'll Win?

That Is Simply A Fact.

And If We Don't Fight, What?

Both Our Cities Forfeit? Both Get Destroyed?

Again, Those Seem To Be The Barbaric Rules.

So Is This Entity" Constructing Some Moral Dilemma For Us?

We Refuse To Fight, And Both Cities Die? 

We Fight Pointlessly And Only One Perishes? 

A Simplistic Moral Dilemma, Which Smacks Of Neo-malthusian Ideas, Misanthropy...Possibly Eugenics.

Survival Of The Fittest At Its Most Reductive, Literal And Inane Level.

Survival Of The Winner. Trial By Combat.

The Destiny Of Millions Decided By Battles Between Unmatched, Unmatchable, Incompatible Rivals.

Survival Of The Strongest.

Battles? Plural?

We Can't Be The Only Ones In This Situation.

Or This Could Just Be Mind Games.

Meaning?

You Could Be Behind This, You Could Be The Entity.

I Only Have Your Word That You're The Superman Of Earth-9.

And The Superman Of Earth-9 Might Be The Entity, Anyway.

And Your "Statement That You Outclass Me? That Could Just Be Talk.

A Way To Avoid Combat.

A Way To Get Me To Fold Without Protest.

All Possibilities. None True.

You Would Say That. You Could Be Everything You Say You Are.

Or You Could Be A Guy In A Robe Who's Just Telling Me He Can Beat Me Effortlessly, Just To Psych Me Out And Secure An Easy Win.

Really?

I've Seen Star Trek.

Whhkkk

Nhh--? 

Fwoooosh 

Oww!

Whhnnchhht

Skrnnntchhh

D-desist.

Desist, Please

Nhhh! Get Out Of My Head.

Rrrunnnccccchhh

Kkrnnncccht

Guhh!

Nghh!

Ughnn!

Stop.

Please, Stop.

Ngghh...

You Are Obliging Me To Telekinetically Halt Your Mental Processes.

I Am Preventing Your Synapses From Firing.

Just To Stop You In Your Tracks.

Mmgghh...

I Have No Wish To Do This.

I Have No Wish To See My City Die. I Have No Wish To See Your City Die.

You...Outc-class Me. Nhhh S-statement.

You... Were Right. No B-boast.

I Have No Wish To Fight You

I Guess You W--

Don't Say It. Do Not Speak The Words.

Do Not Yield Or This Tournament Ends.

There Is Something....

What?

In Your Mind.

Barry, You Are Hard To Read Because Of The Speed Of Your Thought Processes, But It Is More Than That...

...Now I Have Fully Interfaced Your Mind With Mine, I Can See That You Are Unfixed. Indeterminate.

Dislocated From Your Timestream.

What?

We All Are!

No, Not Like You. My City And I, And This City, Too, We Are Simply Divorced From Our Realities.

But You... You Are Disconnected From All Multiversal Timelines.

Consider The Anachronisms In Your Thoughts.

You Think Of The Speed Force, But It Is A Concept Only Known To Your Successors. And--

Successors? What?

How Can I Be... Dislocated?

What Is This? This Image In Your Mind?

The Cosmic Treadmill

A Time-travel Device. And This? Who Is This?

Iris.

Your Love. Existing In The Thirtieth Century. You Long To Return To Her. You Were Trapped In Gotham By Mischance.

What Is Thisp

I... 

And Thisp

I Don't Know!

Your Destiny Is Not Here. Nor Is It, I Am Sorry To Say, The Thirtieth Century.

You Are Bound Up In Some Hypertime Crisis. A Crisis Beyond The One We Find Ourselves In Now.

You Are The Only Being Capable Of Traveling To Other Universes At Will. You Must Live So That You Can Stop The Use Of An Antimatter Weapon.

You Will Die.

What?

But You Must Live So That You May Die.

Your Sacrifice Will Preserve Causality. It Will Save Hypertime.

If I Stop You Now. If I...Eliminate You...I Will Destroy All Continuity.

I Will Prevent You From Saving The Eternal Timestream.

I Yield, Barry.

What? Wait!

I Forfeit. Gotham Wins.

But Your City--!

One City For Another? A Grim Moral Choice.

One City For All Creation For The Multiverse?

It Is Only A Matter Of Scale, But The Scale Matters.

Superman!

Attention.

Contest Decided. Flash Victorious

I Guess I Won. Is That What Happened? 

And What Happens Now? 

The Dome Is Down And-

Rrrrrruummmmbbbbllleee

The Hell--? 

An Earthquake.

Is This The End?

Is Everything Coming Apart? 

I Walk Back Through The City. Everywhere, The Mood Is One Of Shock, Of Confusion.

I Know That Feeling.

The Trouble With Hyper-intelligent People Is They Don't Much Much Sense To The Rest Of Us

Was He Saying I Have Some Part To Play, Some Greater Role In The Grander Cosmic Scheme? 

Something That Makes This Crisis Seem Small By Comparison? 

How When? I'm Going To Die Doing It? 

Do I Play Such A Crucial Part That, Without Me. Reality Ends? 

Do I Play Such A Crucial Part That It Was Worth Superman Giving Up His Life And His City To Save Mer

Doctor Allen? Where Were You?

The Dome Came Down!

I Know, Josie. I Saw It.

And There Was  An Earthquake! Do You Know What's Going On?

I Know The City's Safe For Now.

Are You Okay?

Yeah. For A Year, I've Been Looking For Answers.

Least Now I Know This Isn't Even The Problem.

There's Not Going To Be A Future. Well, There Is, But Not For Me.

No Iris. No Happily Ever After, After All.

I Don't...I Don't Understand.

No, Me Neither.

But I Guess I Will. Eventually. I Can't Run From It.

If It's That Important, I'm Damned If I'm Going To Run From It.

The End.