No one was injured, and Jack Kadere was still contained within the electronic fence. Barry Allen took the chance to scan the area, trying to figure out what kind of explosives Jack had used. But the search turned up nothing.
"Bombs always leave something behind—wires, fragments, chemical residue," Barry muttered. "Once I start analyzing, I can usually tell the complexity. But… I didn't find any oxidizers. This looks exactly like the technique Plastique/Betty used!"
"And Betty was taken away by Jack!" Cisco Ramon jumped in. "Is she here too? I'll go find her!"
"No, Cisco." Barry shook his head firmly. "Betty's power is to turn whatever she touches into an explosive and trigger it instantly. But there's no way she could've caused those detonations right under our noses with all of us watching."
"No one could've planted bombs without me noticing," Oliver Queen said darkly, eyeing Jack through the barrier. "Unless it was a Speedster."
Cisco double-checked the trap. "The system's still intact—he can't break out of it! But seriously, how did you pull that off?" he asked Jack. "And why go out of your way not to hurt anyone or disable the trap?"
Jack chuckled. "Didn't I say? This was just a little gift. As for why I didn't kill or smash my way out, that's simple—"
He tilted his head, eyes cold.
"If they're dead, I can't humiliate them."
"You're saying you can escape? That's impossible!" Harrison Wells, still weak but recovering, snapped from the ground.
Jack's lips curved. "Then it seems you still don't know what despair really is."
A glow of golden light rippled around him.
Barry's eyes widened. "Speed Force? No… that's not Speed Force."
"This…" Jack grinned, fist tightening, "…is Divine Power."
With that, he slammed his fist into the shimmering barrier.
Bang!
The impact rippled like a quake, cracks spider-webbing across the electronic fence.
"This—this can't be. The barrier runs on—" Cisco stammered, but before he could finish, Jack struck again.
The fence shattered like glass under his punch, fragments of light fading into nothing.
Jack stepped through casually, the golden glow fading as he advanced.
"Everyone, scatter!" Oliver barked, immediately charging forward with nothing but his bow and his combat training. His arrows were long gone, destroyed earlier, but his fists were weapons too.
He swung the bow across to strike, raising a leg for a precise side kick.
"League of Assassins close-combat form," Jack smirked, recognizing it instantly. Then, withdrawing the golden glow, he flared with red lightning as he tapped into the Speed Force.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The room erupted in a storm of blows. To the others it was a blur, but Oliver was caught in a hurricane of strikes from every angle. Jack wasn't even using enhanced strength, just the speed of a normal man multiplied by the Speed Force.
Still, the effect was brutal. Each punch and kick cracked against Oliver's body like a drumbeat. He stumbled, spun, and reeled, unable to defend, his body whipped around like a rag doll in a storm.
Finally—
Splat!
Oliver collapsed, coughing blood, his body trembling under the barrage.
Jack slowed, grinning. "How's that taste? A hundred strikes in the blink of an eye. I hope your speed is fast enough to protect your mother and sister."
Oliver's bloodshot eyes widened. "No—"
But before he could move, Jack blurred into a streak of red lightning and vanished.
"Caitlin!" Cisco suddenly shouted. Caitlin Snow was gone too.
Failure. Not only had they failed to contain Jack, but they had also lost Caitlin—and now Oliver's family was under threat.
Barry clenched his fists, grief in his voice. "Oliver, I—"
Oliver cut him off, forcing himself to his feet despite the pain. "I have to go back to Starling City."
"I'll get my speed back as soon as possible," Barry promised, his voice hollow. "Caitlin and your family will be okay. I swear it."
But the words sounded weak even to him.
Oliver didn't answer. He simply turned and staggered out, pushing himself toward Starling City. He had no choice—his family's lives depended on it.
…
Originally, Barry Allen had wanted to ask Oliver Queen for help saving Central City, but now Oliver was forced to leave, and Caitlin had been taken. The crisis hadn't eased at all—in fact, it had only grown worse.
"Whoosh!"
A red streak cut through the air, and Jack Kadere appeared.
Caitlin Snow found herself in a strange, transparent holding cell. The walls shimmered faintly, like advanced tech she couldn't identify, yet there were no bars or locks she could see.
"My clothes…"
Caitlin gasped, instinctively crouching down to cover herself.
"Relax. Just making sure you don't have any tracking devices on you," Jack said casually. He tossed her clothing far outside Central City, ensuring that if there had been a tracker hidden somewhere, it would only send her captors on a false trail.
"Jack, we're friends!" Caitlin pleaded, her voice trembling.
Jack smirked. "You tried to lock me up, so now I'm locking you up. Fair is fair." He tilted his head, looking at her with an unsettling calm. "That's what friends do, right? We forgive each other. I forgive you for siding with your team and trying to cage me. And you… you should forgive me for putting you here, because our beliefs don't line up."
"But—" Caitlin tried to argue, but Jack had already vanished in another flash of red lightning.
The gate to the holding area slid shut, sealing her in with nothing but silence and cold, sterile walls. Caitlin hugged her knees to her chest, despair weighing heavy on her shoulders.
Meanwhile, on the highway between Central City and Starling City, Oliver Queen's car tore down the asphalt at nearly 200 miles per hour. To most people, it looked like a death wish, but Oliver's precision behind the wheel kept him from colliding with the sparse traffic. He ignored the angry honks and curses of other drivers, his mind locked on one thing—getting home.
As he sped through the night, he grabbed his comm and reached out to his most trusted ally: John Diggle.
Every hero needed backup, and for Oliver, Diggle was more than just a driver or bodyguard. A former soldier turned confidant, Diggle had been hired by Moira Queen years ago, only to become Oliver's partner in his crusade. He wasn't just "the driver"—he was Spartan, a brother-in-arms, and the one man Oliver could trust to help protect his family now.
And Oliver needed him more than ever.