Because while he could be there sooner, Orange Lantern had reported using cold fields completely successfully against a parallel universe version of him and he didn't want to dash into a trap. The poison had come as just as much of a surprise to him as it had to Ollie, but he'd recognized it faster and accelerated his metabolism to flush it out before it could 'kill' him. Talk about a Fool's Mate. But fool him twice? He don't think so.
Smart. And the benefit of superpowers.
"Understood. I'm sending Red Rocket and Lantern Jordan."
He runs past a car, the children in the back suspended in the action of battering each other with fluffy rabbit dolls.
Orange Lantern had asked him about it one time, when he was just starting out. He'd wanted to know if he was fast from his perspective as well. And he saw where he was coming from right away. Logically, if his body was moving faster than everything else, from his point of view wouldn't he just be running normally through a world of statues? Or if it was just his body that moved faster, wouldn't he have big problems with steering and control?
A very good question indeed. And one much discussed across the internet.
He hadn't really thought about it before he took his shot of Jay's formula. If Jay hadn't had any problems with it, why would he? And then they went running to test it out and he accidentally ran around the world when they tried to test his top speed. And it had been quick, but after a moment he could remember all of the things he saw, a million still images from every country he ran through, a million stationary objects he remembered dodging around.
He got the best of both worlds, and when Orange Lantern brought up the alternatives he was damn glad about it.
I can imagine. Think about the first example there: running normal speed through a world of statues. You'd be bored stiff after a few subjective minutes, minimum, and what would cross-country sprints be like? An ultra-marathon?
"Red Rocket?"
In Klamath Falls, an inattentive driver suddenly found their phone out of their hand and on the back seat, while the wandering cat they hadn't noticed found itself safely in a nearby garden.
Nice to see he handles the little things in passing...
"It's a secure facility, and Kord himself is on site. The only way we'll know what the attackers are looking for is by getting into their computers."
Dmitri… Yeah. Barry honestly hadn't been all that happy with a serving US military officer joining the League. After getting Jay's Cold War horror stories -and especially after learning that the same man was in charge of the program- he's been extremely sceptical about having Red Rocket onboard.
Captain (now Major) Adams is a decent guy, though. None of the leaguers knew Dmitri.
When he asked, Dmitri admitted that him being there was basically a PR stunt but that he wanted to do a good job anyway. He'd expected a denial, and that response had left him feeling a bit awkward about putting him on the spot like that.
Of course, in a situation like this, he'd be the one out of the three of them whose powers didn't have a direct counter. Hell, he'd joked about green lasers to Hal after they first met. He didn't think they were actually a viable option. Good thing Orange Lantern hadn't spread it about -or told the villain team for the exercise- because the League's Lanterns had dealt with their first opponents pretty easily while he'd been stuck checking up on places that had already been raided.
It's probably good no villain has figured it out, either. All it would take is one laser sight...
"You made any progress working out what the plot is?"
"No. Even with you cataloguing everything that's been stolen, there are simply too many things they could be used for."
Caught me for a second as to who was speaking which line, but it could work either way anyhow.
"Do you think they need it all, or are they running a load of redundant thefts in case they don't get everything?"
"I think it's more likely that they have several potential plans, and will select the best one based on what they manage to acquire."
After all, Barry and Bruce are two of the League's best investigators. It makes sense they'd be lead on the background stuff.
"Isn't that kind of 'metagamy'?"
"It's good planning. I'd do the same. An intelligent villain wouldn't be overly concerned with how they achieved their objectives."
Especially one with the pull to make multiple raids at once. Have they considered the possibility of a Cult, like the Shadows or Kobra?
"And do we know what that is?"
"They were able to hire large numbers of street gangs at short notice. That means that they are well connected with the criminal underworld and have a sizable amount of capital to work with. But at the same time they can't make purchase themselves, otherwise they wouldn't need to commit theft. What makes me curious is how they intended to move what they've stolen. Where the thefts were successful the objects stolen would be extremely difficult to transport. Someone should have seen something."
And that thread leads them to...
You can't pay off everyone.
"So it's not a game thing. They aren't just vanishing when they get so far away from the place they were taken."
"No. Not unless they're reaching somewhere we can't follow."
A pretty obvious conclusion...
"Teleporters?"
"Not according to Lantern Gardner and Icon. Doctor Mist has checked for magic-based teleportation and found nothing."
Alright, so-.
"Mirror Master stole the entire contents of the First Bank of Central City's vault by hiding it in a mirror."
Bam! Give those two a bit of bonus XP for figuring that out.
"No mirrors were reported on-site."
"It-."
"But that would be easy to miss. I'll send Lantern Scott to check the area."
And following up on theories. This is why these two are damn good.
"Not Stewart?"
"Checking for poorly-defined classes of object is harder with green rings."
Something the Greenies are no doubt vexed by...
Makes sense.
"Nearly on-site. Location of Green Lantern and Red Rocket?"
"Green Lantern is there now. Red Rocket will be with you in three minutes."
Slower than Dmitri's actual top speed, but sonic booming through Seattle for an exercise wouldn't be the right thing to do. But in an actual emergency they'd radio a warning and do it anyway, so maybe he should ask Orange Lantern to take that into account?
Not really worth the haste. And the boom might cause a panic, you know DC citizens...
And then the roads and the fence and he stopped a block away behind a solid wall.
"Flash." Hal floats down and nods in greeting. "Took you long enough."
Ever since Hal cracked going faster than light in an atmosphere, he'd kept making that joke. And by the sounds of it he wasn't going to stop anytime soon. God help him if he ever learned to do it at a tactical scale.
Love the interplay between old friends here.
"You think Green Arrow being dead is supposed to make us charge in there?"
"Now Flash; no metagaming. We're both professionals."
Professionals in a dangerous business who'd been fortunate enough not to have a friend die before. Hal had seen other Lanterns die, but they'd been colleagues and not friends. Barry actually wasn't sure how he'd react to Ollie dying.
At the very least, he'd find himself acting more cautiously, more aware of his own fragility. After all, besides his superspeed, he's an ordinary human.
"Can you scan the research centre?"
Hal shakes his head.
"KordTech started warding all their buildings. I could do it with a construct, but that'll tip the people inside off that we're here."
Feel OL's pain!
"So we could want for Red Rocket, or-." Barry blinks. "You can make a telescope construct, right?"
Hal looks mildly insulted.
"Yeah, easy."
Do keep up, Hal...
"So far, even the more skilled thefts have just been hit and run. There are plenty of ways to counter an attack, but they've all been lightly equipped. If you flew up high enough, you could observe the site passively with a telescope. Count how many guys they've got inside."
"Yeah, I thought about it. You don't think they'd spot that?"
"No. I mean, sure, if you were right over the building they'd spot it, but a tiny green light miles up in the sky? I wouldn't think so."
And if he can learn to keep his glow down, like OL has...
"Right. I'll do that. You going to scout the site?"
"Yeah. But I'm going to be really careful. Someone like Orange Lantern isn't going to set up a wargame that never escalates."
Cue on-site supervillain goon.
