Rocky Raymond //Book Six// - COMPLETED

Chapter 17 - Crisis on Infinite Earths: Hour Four

3rd Person POV

= The Vanishing Point =

"Dear Amanda, so you're dead along with, well, everyone, everyone who's ever lived in any reality ever, and me, I'm supposed to be a Paragon, one of 8 people who are supposed to be the multiverse's last, best chance. I don't see it." Ryan writes a letter to his wife. He look around the room at each Paragon as he writes about them. First up: Sara Lance. "The so-called Paragon of Destiny, she doesn't even believe in tomorrow anymore." Next: Kate Kane. "The Paragon of Courage spends every day working herself to the bone, training for a fight that will never come." Ryan looks at J'onn J'onzz next. "The Paragon of Honor just meditates for hours on end." Next: Kara Danvers. "The Paragon of Hope has lost hers." Ryan looks over at MacKenzie Raymond, the youngest by far, the girl probably closer in age to his newborn daughter than to any of the other Paragons. "The Paragon of belief no longer believes that she will see her family again; she no longer has the drive to get back to her loved ones." He sighs, looking down at his paper again. "And me, I spend my days trying to repurpose the broken technology of this place to find us a way out." He looks over at Lex. "Narcissist, sociopath, evil genius... There are a lot of ways to describe Lex Luthor. But I find douchebag to be the most descriptive. As for Barry Allen, AKA the Flash, AKA MacKenzie's father, AKA the Paragon of Love, he's just gone. Missing."

***

"What, you guys building modern art now?" Sara asks as the group walks over to where Ryan and Lex were working

"Hey, team." Ryan greets the group. "We're repurposing leftover time masters tech. Mr. Luthor and I think we've retrofitted it into a teleportation device."

"To teleport us to where exactly?" Kate questions

"Kate makes a good point." J'onn says. "There is no... there out there anymore."

"So we send somebody to test it." Sara says

"I'll go." J'onn says

"No." Kara whispers. "We've lost too many good people already. Thanks for volunteering, Lex." She says

Lex shoots Kara a look. "Well, that's very cold. Is it because I killed your parallel reality cousin?"

"Start it up." Kara orders

"If this works..." Sara whispers, watching as Lex goes to stand on the machine as Ryan taps a few buttons

"We get out of here, we defeat the Anti-Monitor, and we find a way to get all the people we lost back." Kara says

"Come on..." Mack whispers, watching the machine powerup. "Come on..." She whispers again. The machine sparks and powers down. Mack sighs, dropping her head into her hands as she thinks about all she wants right now: her family

Kara puts an arm around Mack's shoulders, comforting her

"Perhaps it was too much to hope for." J'onn says

"Is there some way you can get it to work?" Kara asks

Lex sighs, stepping away from the machine. "It was a longshot to begin with." He tells the group

Things begin to spark and shake and rumble. "Watch out!" Kate yells as something explodes and is thrown across the room. Or rather...someone

"Daddy!" Mack exclaims, running over to where Barry had just been thrown against the wall. She slides to her knees next to her father, grabbing his hands that were flailing around as remains disoriented

"Where am I?" Barry stammers out as the rest of the group runs over. "Where am I?" He asks again

"The Vanishing Point." Kara tells him