Barry arrives before an abandoned old building, which still has the aura of nobility around it, even though it has been abandoned for hundreds of years.
Barry stops and lets go of Batman as he tries to pretend that moving at super speed doesn't affect him.
Batman looks at the abandoned building and feels nostalgic. 'The Harbor House,' He thinks. He came here once before in search of the Court when he was little because he thought that the Court was responsible for the murder of his parents, but no, they were not related in any way. He found nothing, no court, no evidence related to the murder of his parents, and now he is here again.
Batman enters the house, and Barry follows closely behind.
"Wait, let me go and scout the place first before we do anything," Barry whispers. Batman looks at Barry and nods his head.
Barry enters Flash Time and begins walking around the house, looking through every room before he finally walks into the dining room.
He sees a bunch of people in white owl masks sitting at the table, motionless.
But something feels off. Not because they are motionless, but because they are all sitting in the same position. Usually, everything is motionless when Barry is in Flash time, but that doesn't mean everyone would be stuck in a similar position.
Barry exits Flash time, and there is still no reaction from any of these people. He walks up to one of the people and places his finger against the man's neck. "No pulse," Barry says. He then looks around the table, 'All these people are dead,' Barry realizes.
"Batman!" Barry calls out. Since everyone here is dead, there is no point in being quiet. Batman enters the room and sees the scene before him.
"Everyone's dead," Barry says. Batman walks up to one of the corpses and removes their mask, he does the same with a few others as well to identify them.
"Who are these people?" Barry asks.
"These are the main members of The Court of Owls." Batman says in a grim tone.
"Wait, these are the Court of Owls? How did they end up dead?" Barry asks, confused. If these are the people who wanted him dead, how come they ended up dying before he could even confront them? Who killed them?
"I do not know," Batman says as he, too, is stumped after discovering the main court members dead. "Maybe an internal power struggle. Though these are the main members, there are still more out there," Batman says, but this reasoning doesn't make sense.
The Court has been ruling Gotham for centuries; they rely on each other to keep this control unbreakable, so it would be quite reckless for them to kill each other.
"You should leave. I will take it on from here," Batman suddenly speaks up.
Barry looks at him. "Are you sure?" he asks. "Yes, we have hit a dead end. I need to investigate this and figure out what really happened; it will take time. I can't keep you here when your city needs you the most," Batman says.
Though Batman would greatly benefit from having Barry around, Central City needs Barry as he is its protector.
Barry can see that Batman is serious, so he gives him a nod and runs out of there.
He gets out of Gotham within seconds, crosses the entire country before returning to Central City, and runs back to his apartment, all within a few minutes.
"What a night *phew*" Barry says, exhaling a breath of relief before going to sleep. Tonight was the first time he pushed his body beyond anything he had ever tried before. He didn't know if his body could handle it, but it did.
He could feel himself growing stronger the faster he ran. The more energy he drains from his other half, the stronger his body will get.
___________________
The next morning, Barry wakes up and looks at himself in the mirror. 'I look a little bigger,' Barry thinks as his arms and legs have gotten a little more muscular. There is at least an inch of growth around his arms and legs.
"I better not push myself like that again if I don't want people to notice," Barry says and puts on his clothes before heading to CCPD for work.
At CCPD, he meets Joe and updates him on the Meta he caught last night, informing him that they no longer need to worry about people ending up burnt to a crisp. Now it's Joe's turn to handle the matters internally.
This will be the usual protocol until the city can develop a prison for Meta Humans; until then, they will continue to be confined under S.T.A.R. Labs.
But there is one thing still bothering Barry: Where the heck did Girder go? Did he run away after getting his ass handed to him by the Flash? Barry didn't believe so. 'Is he still hiding in the sewers?' Barry questions himself.
'I will have to go down there and check for myself, just to make sure,' Barry thinks.
It's just like any other day as Barry, dressed up as The Flash, is sitting on top of a tall building, looking down at his city, when he hears Cisco on his headphones.
"Barry! Bank robbery in progress, at Cunningham and Sampere,"
"Got it," Barry says and runs down the building and straight towards the Bank.