16 Setting the stage

Chaos ensued while the two speedsters stared each other down.

Fortunately, Cisco was of the idea that Barry take his Flash's suit along because in his words, "you never can know who needs savin'"

Barry immediately changed into his suit and rushed towards Zoom in the next instant. One hand reached for Caitlin's arm while the other punched towards the arm that was holding her in place.

Zoom smirked at Barry as he came up to him and pulled Caitlin backwards while he pushed the palm of his free hand towards Barry's fist, blocking it completely.

In that split second, Barry caught the look on Caitlin's face. She was scared, her knees were slightly bent, her eyes looking towards Barry with pleas.

Angered, Barry sought to solely to release her first before venting his annoyance on Zoom. He lunged towards Zoom and threw an unhinged blow towards his face as he tried reaching for the hand restraining Caitlin again.

"How dumb can you be?" Zoom smirked as he just stood in place, ready to stop him again when the fist reaching for his head opened up right as he was about to block it.

Four long and sharp claws protracted from each of his fingertips, slashing zoom across the face and ripping a tiny portion of his mask off.

Zoom paused for about a second and brought his hand to his face and felt that it was wet, as blood trickled down to his chin.

Enraged he pushed Caitlin away and dashed towards Barry, dodging an incoming swipe and grabbing him by the scruff of his neck, hurling him through a section of the building. 

Barry's back hit the wall with a resounding thud as blood spurted out his mouth.

"So, what gave you the impression that you could take me? Huh?" Zoom hollered at him raising him by the neck. "See, I've been in this business for far long than you can imagine. In fact, I think I'll play with you a little, that was a nice trick you used there, after all."

Barry grabbed onto Zoom's hand stabbing into it, and dragging his fingers upwards. The pain caused Zoom to suddenly let go, giving Barry the chance to go on the offensive for a little while. Or, at least that was what he thought.

Zoom's body suddenly shone faintly for about half a second before he threw a flurry of punches at Barry. Barry was forced to go on the defensive again, taking a couple of hits.

'Must be that damn tachyon generation Cisco has been talking about. Man this is getting ugly. I need to be able to use that speedster's rage skill.'

'The condition perhaps has to do with rising levels of pain, anger and sadness.'

[A/N: and for those of you arguing that the speedster's rage is just another plot armor. what is an MC without some ridiculous plot armor. c'mon, cut me some slack]

Fighting Zoom while simulating painful memories in his head proved to be a difficult thing to do but he had no choice, to be able to defeat Zoom, a speedster who seemed to always be one step ahead, he needed just that extra edge.

"What? What happened to your bag of tricks? Running on empty? Don't worry, when I'm done siphoning off your speed, you'll have a front row seat as I rebuild this city in my image."

He continued his repeated assault on Barry until he had little to no energy to spare. 

"Barry!" Caitlin and Cisco cried out monitoring his vitals since they sped off into the facility. 

Zoom placed his hand over Barry's head absorbing some sort of power from him.

Through his hazy consciousness, Barry felt his connection to the speed force getting weaker and weaker.

'Man, is this how it ends? Came all the way here, risking it all to end up like this?'

'I've been docile, been so weak, relying solely on speed and never really trained'

'Arrggh! This is all so f*cking annoying! I will not die again!'

Slowly, he moved his hand towards Zoom's and yanked it away from his head.

"Oh?" Zoom raised a brow in surprise, "I thought you couldn't get up anymore, you're more resilient than I gave you credit for."

Barry looked up, his eyes flickering a bright red color.

"Now that's new!" Zoom moved away from him and watched from a distance.

Barry slowly stood up, his whole body brimming with new energy. 

The real fight was just about to begin.