FLASH #110, "Dead Heat, Fourth Lap: Cut To The Quick" w: Waid, a: Jimenez /Marzan. ==Open with Jesse Quick using XS's flight ring to fly herself and Flash up to the heights of Savitar's mountain eyrie. They land on the roof and make their way inside, having a brief conversation about the Speed Force as they do. Jesse stands midway between her scoffing father and the mystic Max -- she's a learned agnostic who figures this explanation of their speed "makes as much sense as anything else." Wally confesses he's uneasy about taking the chance of returning there. He's the only one ever to return and there's no guarantee he'd get to do it twice. You're afraid, notes Jesse; Wally changes the subject. (Nice touch.)

As Jesse admires the mythological murals on the walls, Wally ponders how Savitar can be storing the Speed Field's power, and then finds out: ranked in cells lining the walls of a deep vertical stone chamber (Jesse calls it a "cathedral of pain") are the ninjas, hundreds of them, speed lightning creeping over their bodies. And in the bottom of the pit, running the transformer, is Christina Alexandrova (the former Red Trinity member a/k/a "Lady Flash" ) described by Wally as "a Soviet speedster and emotional sponge." He blames himself that she's fallen in with Savitar and is trimmed off short by Jesse, who snaps that 'Tina's a weakling and an enemy, whose woes can be worried about later. (Great line from Jesse: "You have got to stop taking responsibility for the choices women make after they meet you.")

Wally theorizes that Savitar has sucked more speed energy from the other runners than he can contain in himself or in an object, and is storing it in this "alchemical transformer" - a spinning dynamo device - using Christina as a conduit to channel it into the ninjas.

And speaking of Savitar, there he is, with a mission for Christina. She grovels before her "lord and master" [I can just hear Jesse snort!], and he orders her to prove her sole loyalty is to him - by killing the Flash.

--Of course he knows I'm here, realizes Wally belatedly, he can sense the Speed Force's presence anywhere, which makes temporarily-speedless Jesse their secret weapon. He shoves her into hiding and joins battle with Christina, topples a wall on her, then takes on Savitar.

Savitar can metabolize his wounds instantly and is way arrogant about his command of the ins-and-outs of the Force. Unfortunately he's good enough to be so, and thrashes Wally pretty solidly while lecturing.

Jesse tries to disconnect the ninjas' battery-well and is jumped by 'Tina; they have a neat half-aerial swordfight while Christina rhapsodizes about Savitar and Jesse lays on the scorn ("he's just using you, you stupid b--")---[ --whoo! language!]
'Tina retorts with The Wrong Thing To Say to Jesse Quick: "Who do you love? We will take them away from you! Who? Your comrades? Your friends? --Your father?"-- and Jesse winds up and comes down like a SCUD missile, blasting the whirling dynamo into shards.

Instantly it happens: Max in his hospital bed, Bart on his way home, Jay and Johnny standing by Max, are all wreathed with the crackle of the Speed Force. Savitar yowls with rage and bolts. While Jesse dives on the stunned Christina like an avenging gyrfalcon ("You leave my father ALONE.")and tornadoes the living daylights out of her, Wally's left wondering what the hell happened - and Savitar materializes to slam Jesse into a wall.

Christina will have to be punished ("yes... punish me..." she whimpers. oh brother.) but first she can help...By the time Flash shakes Jesse awake Savitar has mobilized fifty of his best ninjas. He's ready to erase the blasphemers and the odds look bad. But suddenly yea! VOOM VOOM, the cavalry arrives - Max, Jay, Johnny and Bart, all looking grim and pissed. The odds, Jay says, just improved....

IMPULSE #11, "Dead Heat, Fifth Lap: Breaking the Barrier" w: Waid, a: Ramos/Foucher. ===Scene: Savitar's castle, a pitched battle between our speedsters and a seemingly endless tide of Speed Ninjas. Savitar - and Christina, on a leash, crawling on hands and knees! - watch the cyclone rangers kick ninja butt for awhile, then leave the scene, with Johnny, Jesse and Max close behind.

Jesse, the scholar of the crew, is awestruck by Savitar's towering library, but Max suggests the zealot wrote most of the tomes himself as he accumulated knowledge about the Speed Field and his "divine right" to rule it. There's a nice moment between Max and John about JQ's "conversion" to belief in the Speed Force. (--JQ, smiling ruefully: "Live and learn, Max. That's what you always tried to teach me. Maybe I finally listened.")

Jesse points out that the library is also a chapel - and yike, there in it are Savitar, 'Tina, and a dozen or so ninjas. Battle ensues. --UH-oh...Savitar calls Christina's attention to Jesse as an example of "the qualities I seek in a worthy companion". That doesn't sound good... --Max torches the library.

There's an energetic free-for-all - in which Wally blows up a wall, Bart doesn't, and Jay demonstrates a nifty boomerang/Captain-America-shield maneuver with that Mercury-style hat - but the odds aren't improving fast enough. [I suppose, as cavalierly as Savitar kills off his ninjas, we could've guessed that he has hordes of 'em to spare.] Why couldn't you bring XS? Flash wants to know. Complain to Max, says Impulse; he told her to stay and protect your girlfriend and Gramma Iris.

And speaking of them: Linda, finally fed up with Iris's hands-off policy, chews her out, saying that she must get involved; everyone affects the present just by existing, and that what Iris knows about the future may be vitally important to the lives of people they both love. Iris agonizes, decides, and sends Jenni on a mission...

Back at Fortress Savitar, Wally, Jay and Bart have their share of the opposition whittled down to about half, but they're taking worse damage than before. Wally catches on: the ninjas all draw from the same pool of Speed Force energy, so the fewer there are using it, the faster the remaining ones get. Oh, great. Separated from Max, Johnny and Jesse, their only chance is a masterstroke that'll take out all the rest at once.

Max and Johnny are knocked out and ninjas grab Jesse. Lucky her, Savitar has chosen her for his new priestess. And once she's converted, she'll get to dispose of this "windblown piece of gutter trash" ...Christina, for whom this is the last straw. She grabs a ninja's sword and charges Jesse. Johnny comes to, sees his daughter in peril, and there's a great moment in which he breaks an old habit once and for all: "3x2...3..x2... Ah... the hell with it."

--He races forward, intercepts Christina - consciously, willingly using the Speed Force for the first time - and suddenly there's a tremendous blast of lightning that whites-out the whole room. When the glare's gone, so are the ninjas. And Johnny. And Max.

Where are they? In the brilliance of the Speed Field. Max pursues Johnny, who's streaking toward the edge of light - after all this time he finally feels its call. He calmly fields Max's protests, saying that beating Savitar is Flash's job, and as for Jesse, now he'll be more part of her than ever. Bidding Max goodbye - "you may not have been the best student - but you were a great teacher." - he's into the light and gone. ("Thank you," says Max.)

Wally, Jay and Bart, pounding the stone floor in unison, cause enough vibration to collapse the place; Jesse tries to save Christina's life, but she chooses to die; and Max breaks the sad news to Johnny's daughter.

While Max and Wally decide to search the rest of the castle, Jay Garrick holds the weeping Jesse, and Bart too is moved to tears (and a rare moment of gravity: "Max, I'm sorry I wasn't taking this more seriously." Replies Max, quietly: "Live and learn.").

Before anyone can do anything more, a howling wind roars through the castle, and the voice of the unseen Savitar threatens Flash with the same fate that Flash has just dealt to him - the loss of everything that matters to him. Crying out to Linda, Wally bolts, and as the rest of the Cyclone Rangers give chase, Max voices his worst fear - Savitar will continue to strike until Flash kills him.

Jesse Quick and Impulse react to the news of Johnny Quick's death.