Starling City: 2005
Starling City was a different beast than Central City. While Central felt like a place of bright futures and scientific wonders, Starling felt heavy. It was a city of cold steel, towering skyscrapers, and a rotting underbelly known as the Glades.
For the Snow family, it was a fresh start. Jules and Mary had taken positions at a research subsidiary of Queen Consolidated, and Caitlyn was already being fast-tracked into advanced honors programs.
And then there was John.
To the world, John was the "quiet twin." He spent his days in the back of classrooms, sketching complex geometric patterns that his teachers mistook for doodles. He was a shadow—unremarkable, unnoticed, and exactly where he wanted to be.
John's POV:
Starling City. The home of the Hood, the Canary, and the Dark Archer. But right now, it's just a playground for the rich and a death trap for the poor.
I leaned against the brick wall of the school library, watching Caitlyn debate a physics teacher twice her age. She was brilliant, a natural-born scientist. I, on the other hand, was busy trying to figure out why my lightning felt like it was made of "nothingness."
I had been training in the abandoned warehouses of the North Side. Every time I ran, I noticed the difference. Barry Allen's speed was friction and thunder. Thawne's speed was malice and static. My speed? It was silence. When I moved, the air didn't push back. I didn't create a vacuum. It was as if I was stepping betweenthe atoms of the world.
The Black Speed Force doesn't just make me fast, I realized. It makes me a ghost.
The GladesLater that night, after my parents had fallen asleep and Caitlyn was buried under her medical textbooks, I slipped out of the window. I didn't use my speed immediately; I moved through the shadows of the fire escapes until I reached the edge of the Glades.
I focused on the black orb nestled in my chest. Give me a reason to run, I thought.
The black lightning flickered in my eyes. The world slowed to a crawl. A stray cat jumping between trash cans froze in mid-air. Raindrops hung like diamonds in the streetlights.
I took off.
I wasn't running on the pavement; I was gliding just a hair's breadth above it. I pushed myself. 500 mph... 1,000 mph... 1,500 mph. As I hit the sound barrier, there was no boom. Instead, a ripple of black energy washed over the street, and for a second, I could see through the walls of the buildings. I could see the heartbeats of the people inside—glowing pulses of red light.
I was a predator looking at a map of prey.
I skidded to a halt on the roof of a luxury apartment complex overlooking the bay. My chest heaved, but the recovery was instantaneous. Within seconds, my breath was steady.
"Who are you?"
The voice was young, arrogant, and slightly slurred. I turned my head slowly. Standing near the rooftop pool was a teenager a few years older than me. He held a half-empty bottle of expensive cider, and his silk shirt was unbuttoned.
It was Oliver Queen.
Beside him sat a guy with messy hair—Tommy Merlyn. They looked like the kings of the world, unaware that the world was about to break them.
"Kid? How'd you get up here?" Tommy asked, squinting through the dark. "The elevator is coded."
I didn't answer. I stood in the deep shadows, the black lightning coiled tightly under my skin, itching to be released. To them, I was just a small, hooded figure.
"Maybe he's a ninja," Oliver joked, stumbling slightly as he walked toward me. "Hey, kid. You lost? This is a private party. Well, it was a party until the girls left."
"I'm not lost," I said, my voice deepened by the slight vibration of my vocal cords. "I'm exactly where I need to be."
"Deep," Oliver laughed, reaching out to pat my shoulder. "A bit creepy for a ten-year-old, but deep."
Before his hand could touch me, I shifted. To Oliver and Tommy, it looked like I simply vanished into thin air. A gust of cold wind was the only thing left behind.
Oliver froze, his hand hanging in empty space. He blinked, looking around the empty roof. "Tommy... where'd he go?"
Tommy rubbed his eyes, looking spooked. "I don't know, man. He was just... gone. Maybe we should stop drinking the green stuff."
The HungerI was already three miles away, standing on the clock tower. My heart was racing—not from the run, but from the sensation I felt when Oliver almost touched me.
The black orb in my chest hadn't just hummed; it had snarled. It didn't care about Oliver Queen; he had no power to take. But it had sensed something else in the city. Far off, toward the center of the town, there was a trace of something... old. Something dark.
Is there another speedster in Starling? I wondered.
No. It wasn't speed. It was something else—something related to the shadows.
I looked down at my hands. The black lightning was more vibrant now, tinged with a faint, dark violet hue. I was growing. I was evolving.
"Barry is the hero," I whispered to the night sky. "Thawne is the villain. But what am I?"
I looked toward the horizon, where the faint glow of Central City sat miles away.
"I'm the one who waits in the dark."
The Snow Residence - MorningThe next morning, I was back in the "lazy brother" role. I sat at the breakfast table, half-asleep, while Caitlyn lectured me about my grades.
"John, you failed your history quiz," Caitlyn said, dropping a piece of toast on my plate. "I know you know the answers. I saw you reading that textbook in five minutes last night."
"History is boring, Cait," I mumbled, leaning my head on my hand. "It's all about people who are already dead. I'm more interested in the future."
Mary walked in, kissing both of us on the head. "Well, the future involves you passing the fifth grade, John. Your father and I are heading into the office early. Dr. Creighton wants to discuss the new bio-molecular scanner."
"Is that the one with the Queen Consolidated tech?" Caitlyn asked, her eyes lighting up.
"The very one," Mary smiled.
As they talked about science, I felt a familiar vibration in my pocket. I pulled out my "toy" phone—a device I had secretly modified with parts from a discarded laptop. A news alert was flashing.
HEADLINE: STARLING CITY MUSEUM ROBBED. SECURITY FOOTAGE SHOWS NOTHING BUT A BLUR.
I smiled into my orange juice. The hunt was beginning. It seemed I wasn't the only ghost in Starling City.