**POV: No one
January 18, 2008**
It's been about two weeks since Barry saved the reporter Iris West. During this time, Barry has been searching the city for useful equipment. So far, he has found most of what he needs, but the only thing missing is a power supply.
Walking into the spare room that he has turned into a laboratory, Barry pulls a lever, turning on the lights.
Taking a seat at the desk, Barry powers up the computer. The screen displays a program running multiple simulations for the unstable molecules.
"Ding! S-simulation complete. 97.89% chance of s-successful synthesis. 2.11% chance of failure," the computer announces in a slightly broken voice.
Barry sighs. "I really need to fix that. Okay, Gideon, give me a list of possible power supplies. Make sure to—" He pauses, suddenly struck by an idea.
"Gideon, put the power supply issue on hold for a moment. What is my top speed right now?" Barry asks.
"Ding! Your top speed currently is Mach 14 and rising every day," Gideon responds.
"Okay, I can work with that. Gideon, bring up the cosmic treadmill plans for me." Barry watches as the computer screen changes from simulations to schematics of a bulky treadmill.
"Gideon, if I use the treadmill, can I convert my speed into power?" Barry inquires, running multiple scenarios in his mind.
"Ding! Theoretically, it is possible to convert your s-speed into power as long as you keep a s-steady flow of speed," Gideon replies.
"Okay, Gideon, find me an abandoned warehouse," Barry says as he grabs a calorie bar and takes a bite. Leaning back in his chair, he is startled when the police radio crackles to life.
"Gideon, pull up the police report. What's happening, and where?" Barry asks, already speeding off in his makeshift outfit.
(He'll get his actual suit this chapter)
'Ding! Barry, there is a robbery happening at Central City. There appear to be seven armed individuals holding four hostages: two adults and two children,' Gideon informs him through his earpiece.
"Damn, okay. Gideon, hack the cameras and turn them off," Barry says, taking a deep breath before sprinting towards the bank.
Upon arrival, Barry doesn't stop; he rushes straight in, quickly surveying the area for the hostages. Once he locates them, he grabs the two kids first, speeding them out of the building and dropping them off next to the police cruisers. He does the same with the parents, all before the robbers even realize what has happened.
When the group of seven finally realizes that the hostages are gone, they understandably freak out. Watching their panic gives Barry a mischievous idea.
Going faster than the eye can perceive, Barry collects all the guns and drops them outside for the police. Just for fun, he even ties their shoelaces together.
He sits back and watches as each of them tumbles to the ground before grabbing some zip ties from his belt pouch and securing them all.
Barry leaves without ever being spotted—or so he believes. Iris West, however, has been following these unexplained events ever since she was saved by the mystery man she calls the Flash.
Iris has tried to explain to her boss what is happening, but she doesn't blame him for not believing her. She wouldn't have believed it either if she hadn't been saved and witnessed his abilities firsthand. Since that day, multiple crimes have been resolved in mysterious ways.
For instance, when a convenience store on 42nd Street was robbed, the owner, after calling the police, found his money mysteriously returned to the counter with the thief knocked out and tied up. Then there was the incident yesterday, when a little girl was crossing the street and was almost hit by a truck. Suddenly, she was on the other side of the road, unharmed.
These strange occurrences cannot be a coincidence. Not when she saw the man vanish in a bolt of lightning. Iris West is determined not to let this be forgotten; she will find this man and write her greatest story yet.
"I'll get that interview one way or another, Flash," Iris declares as she looks in the direction where he vanished.
Meanwhile, back with Barry, he is inside the abandoned warehouse that Gideon found. Moving all his equipment into the space wasn't too much of a hassle. Looking around, Barry feels proud of what he has created for himself. It may not be the most advanced lab in the world, but it is his.
(The center is where the treadmill will be)
"Okay, Gideon, how are your systems running?" Barry asks hopefully.
"Ding! Yes, sir. All systems are running at full power," Gideon replies, this time in a clearer voice.
"Great! Now all I need to do is finish the treadmill. Gideon, turn on the music and remember to set it to 500x playback speed for me, please and thank you," Barry says, nodding his head in rhythm.
Within three minutes, the cosmic treadmill is ready.
"It's not the most beautiful thing I've seen, but it'll definitely do," Barry said as he walked around the treadmill to get a better look at it.
"Gideon, is everything ready to begin?" Barry asked, eager to get this show on the road.
'Ding' "Yes, sir. All systems are fully operational and ready to begin charging," Gideon replied.
"Alright, let's start. I'll begin by slowly building up speed to avoid overloading the systems," Barry said, preparing to run.
"Give me a countdown, Gideon," Barry instructed the AI.
'Ding' "Countdown initiated. 3, 2, 1, beginning synthesis." Gideon announced, activating both the treadmill and the synthesizer.
As Barry started running, lightning began to crackle around him. He gradually built up speed until he reached Mach 5.
"Are all systems running fine, Gideon?" Barry asked while maintaining his speed.
'Ding' "Yes, sir. All systems are running smoothly. I recommend you increase your speed," Gideon responded.
Taking Gideon's advice, Barry accelerated from Mach 5 to Mach 9 and finally reached his maximum speed of Mach 14.
"Gideon, how long do I need to maintain this speed?" Barry wondered, contemplating the number of calorie bars he would need afterward.
'Ding' "You'll need to sustain this speed for approximately three minutes," Gideon answered helpfully.
"Well, that's not so bad," Barry said, figuring it would take longer.
After three minutes, enough power had been generated for the lab to last at least a year. Hopping off the treadmill, Barry made his way to the desk where the synthesizer had been working.
Seeing the fabric on the desk brought a smile to Barry's face. This was something that had taken multiple weeks to accomplish. Picking it up, Barry decided it was time to test how resilient unstable molecules truly are.
During the testing, Barry discovered that the fabric could do almost anything. While the material might not be completely invulnerable to damage, it would adapt to almost anything in its environment.
Deciding it was finally time to make a suit, Barry pulled out his notebook. Looking at the designs, he opted for a minimalistic approach, as the others were a bit over-designed.
"Gideon, turn the music back on," Barry said while sitting at his workstation, ready to start cutting and sewing the fabric.
Using his speed, Barry finished the suit in just five minutes. The only reason it took that long was because he's not very skilled at sewing.
Taking a step back to admire the suit on a mannequin, Barry realized it was missing a symbol like Jay's. He already knew what he wanted.
Walking over to the drawer in his desk, Barry opened it and found exactly what he was looking for: a white circle with a golden lightning bolt inside, about the size of his hand.
Heading back to the mannequin, Barry placed the symbol right in the center of its chest.
Meanwhile, a group of men on the other side of the city was preparing to launch a heist on the newest diamond exhibit at the museum.
We see four men sitting at a table in a warehouse, examining the plans for the museum. At the head of the table sat one of the men, who seemed to be giving orders.
"Mick, are you still following along?" asks the possible leader, addressing the individual fiddling with a flamethrower.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm following along, Snart," Mick Rory replied, not bothering to look up.
"I still don't get why we need the pyromaniac to help us rob a museum. He's more likely to burn the whole place down rather than complete the heist," said a man with an Australian accent.
"Oh, give it a rest, Harkness. You're just as likely to screw this up, always throwing those damn boomerangs around. You're gonna take someone's eye out, and it won't be a guard," the fourth man retorted.
"Knock it off, Scudder. That goes for all of you. We need this to go smoothly, which means no fighting while we're doing the job!" Snart said with a snarl, taking a deep breath afterward.
"Look, all we have to do is finish this heist, and then we're gone with the wind. None of us will have to work together again," Snart added, thinking about his sister in the hospital.
A half-hearted "Yeah, boss" was all he received in response. Running a hand down his face, he looked back at the map to give directions.
A while later, we see the four men jumping out of a van parked in an alley about a block from the museum. All four wore masks that covered most of their faces.
"Alright, once we get in, we have exactly 30 seconds before the silent alarm is triggered. Once the alarm goes off, we have five minutes to get what we need and leave before the cops show up. Any longer than that, and we're done for, understand?" Snart said, looking each of them in the eye as if daring them to mess this up.
"Yeah, boss," the three replied in unison.
Once inside the museum, Snart started a five-and-a-half-minute timer before each went to their designated areas, unaware that the plan had already begun to fail without their knowledge.
Within the next two and a half minutes, the group of four had taken over 40 million dollars worth of diamonds. As they were getting ready to leave, they heard a voice behind them.
"Hey, you guys do know that the museum is closed this late, right?" Turning around, the group noticed a man in what appeared to be a spandex suit.
The suit was red with yellow accents that looked like lightning. On his chest was a white circle containing a golden bolt of lightning. Sparks crackled around his body, giving him a menacing presence even in his relaxed stance.
"Who the hell are you?" Snart exclaimed, pulling out his gun. The others followed suit, drawing their weapons as well. Barry, seeing the guns, was momentarily dumbfounded.
"Wait, wait, wait!" Barry said, holding his hands up in an attempt to de-escalate the situation.
"I get that the guns are used for crimes all the time, but I don't understand why you two are using a flamethrower and some boomerangs," Barry said, pointing at Rory and Scudder respectively.
"Like, a flamethrower has horrible range, and don't even get me started on boomerangs!" Barry exclaimed, seemingly forgetting that he was in the middle of stopping a crime.
Rory and Scudder, hearing the insults aimed at their choice of weapons, became incensed.
"You wanna see what fire can do, you son of a bitch?!" Rory shouted, already unleashing a stream of fire.
"What's wrong with boomerangs, ya cunt?" said the Aussie as he threw his boomerangs. The other two were not far behind, already shooting at Barry.
To Barry, every attack seemed to be moving in slow motion. It felt like an adrenaline rush, and he found himself enjoying it—something he rarely experienced.
"Hey, I thought you criminals had a better aim than stormtroopers!" Barry yelled towards the group, dodging and weaving through their attacks while still managing to trash-talk.
"Someone hit him already!" Scudder yelled, frustrated that this 'freak' was avoiding all their attacks with little effort.
"Fine! If I can't burn you, I'll burn the whole damn building down!" Rory said, aiming his flamethrower at the wall and curtains.
In an instant, the entire wing was engulfed in flames, blocking the exit and trapping all five men in the burning room together.
"What the hell did you do, Mick?" Snart yelled at the pyromaniac.
"Are you trying to kill us, you idiot?" Harkness said, looking around for an exit.
"When I get out of this, I'm going to kill you, Rory! Who the hell lights up the building they're in?" Scudder exclaimed, ready to lash out at Rory.
"If we can't hit this guy, we can at least bring the building down on him!" Rory defended himself.
"Yeah, with us in it, you fool!" Snart shouted back.
While the four of them argued, Barry was trying to think of ways to put out the fire. He knew he could dash through the flames in an instant, but doing so would leave the museum to burn. Barry understood that he couldn't let that happen; not only would it contradict everything he stood for, but it was also his fault—all of this was happening because he had been messing around instead of ending the fight quickly.
Deciding that the four of them were a distraction, Barry sped towards them, picking two of them up at a time. He took the first two outside, where he saw numerous people, including police and reporters. Without slowing down, he grabbed some zip ties and secured the men together. Rushing back inside, he repeated the process before returning to try to extinguish the fire.
Once back inside, Barry assessed the situation and realized the fire was too severe to put out with a fire extinguisher. As despair began to creep in, an idea struck him.
"That's it!" Barry exclaimed, his face lighting up with excitement.
"Okay, Barry, all you gotta do is spin your arms," he told himself, taking a deep breath and extending his arms forward.
After the fire was finally extinguished, Barry made his way outside, only to stop dead in his tracks. The reason for his abrupt halt? Iris West was holding out a recorder with a bright smile on her face—a smile that made Barry blush a little.
"Hello again, Flash. Do you have a moment to answer some questions?" Iris asked, cocking an eyebrow at the man.
"W-well, sure, why not? Also, why do you call me 'the Flash'?" Barry replied, slightly confused about the title.
"Do you have a name of your own that you would prefer?" Iris asked the man in red.
"Umm, no, not really..." Barry began, only to be interrupted mid-answer by Iris.
"Since you don't have a name yet, we'll go with the one I chose. So, Flash, let's start with the questions," Iris said, clearly excited.
"I have four simple questions for you, Flash. Starting off with, what happened here tonight?" Iris asked, looking at the group of men still on the ground, tied up.
"Well, I heard about the museum being broken into, so I went to put a stop to it. A fight broke out, and unfortunately, it burned down a whole wing of priceless antiques," Barry said, his tone mournful. The people around him could tell that he was genuinely sad about all that history being lost.
"Luckily, I was able to put it out before it could escalate and spread to the other wings," Barry added, sounding slightly more upbeat.
"Next question: how did you get these amazing gifts? Because I've seen some crazy things in my life, but this? Something like this hasn't been seen since WWII. Are you a part of the government?" Iris asked, referring to Captain America.
"Sorry, that's a question I can't answer. I can confirm, though, that I'm not part of the U.S. military or any military," Barry said, refusing to divulge how he got his powers. After all, how many people in this city had been struck by lightning in the last few months?
"Okay, fair point," Iris conceded.
"Final two questions. Why do you do what you do, and what do you plan to do next?" Iris asked, genuinely curious. Behind her, everyone was watching, waiting for an answer Barry knew he had to provide.
Taking a deep breath, Barry looked at the camera and put on a smile.
"The reason I do what I do is simple. When I was a child, a man took me in. He took in a hurting child and raised me with all the love I could ask for. During my time with him, he taught me the value of helping others when you can," Barry explained, choking up for a moment.
"When he died, I knew it was my time to help the world. So I began doing that for years, and then one day I was given these amazing powers, and I knew exactly what to use them for: to help," Barry said, looking directly at the camera.
"As for what I'll do next, well, I think it's pretty obvious. I'm going to continue helping people," Barry said with a large smile.
"People of Central City, I give you my word that if trouble comes, I'll be there in a flash," Barry said, cringing inside at the pun.
Deciding he had given the city enough of his time for the interview, Barry began to leave, only to be stopped by a hand on his shoulder.
"I never got to thank you for saving me, so allow me to remedy that," Iris said, giving her hero a kiss on the cheek.
Barry cupped his cheek, blushing, telling her it was fine and that she didn't have to go that far before speeding off in a hurry.
With a smile, Iris began walking back to her car.
Twenty minutes later, we find Iris arguing with her boss in his office.
"I can't believe you would give my story away to Muller of all people! That dumbass can't even write a decent sports article! Not to mention, you're turning it into a hit piece!" Iris yelled at her boss. From her tone, it was clear how furious she was.
"Look, Iris, you're a damn good reporter, but you're too soft! You think this freak is some kind of hero? No! He's no hero; he's a freak and a menace! Did you not see what he did to the museum? Millions of dollars gone because he wanted to play the hero!" Her boss yelled back, but from his tone, it was clear this wasn't just about the museum.
"Oh my god! This isn't even about the museum or about him being a hero, is it? No, it's because you're jealous of him," Iris replied matter-of-factly.
Her boss opened his mouth to say something, but Iris continued speaking.
"You are such an insecure bitch! I mean, this happens all the time. Anytime someone does something to make you jealous, you turn it into a hit piece," Iris said, standing up and gathering her things.
"Where do you think you're going, West!?" her boss yelled, following her out the door.
"I'm leaving," she said blandly.
"If you walk out that door, forget ever coming back!" her boss shouted in a last-ditch effort to make her stay.
"Nah, I think I'll be better off on my own. After all, you don't need me. You have Muller for the article," Iris said as she grabbed the last of her belongings from her desk.
"West! West! Get your ass back here, West!" he yelled from the door.
Iris finally returned to her car and placed the box of her belongings in the passenger seat before getting into the driver's seat.
After a few minutes, Iris decides that she needs coffee. Turning on the car, she begins to drive toward C.C. Jitters.
After reaching Jitters, Iris headed inside to grab a coffee and a muffin. As she walked in, she heard someone choke and cough. Turning to her left, she saw a tall blonde man hastily drinking his coffee to help get rid of the muffin that had just caught in his throat.
After placing her order, she decided to make her way over to him.
"Can I sit here?" Iris asked the man.
"Uh, sure. Go ahead and take a seat," he replied, gesturing toward the chair across from him.
"Thank you! My name's Iris West. What's yours?" Iris inquired, hoping to start a conversation.
"Barry Allen. It's nice to meet you, Iris," he said with a smile, extending his hand.
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(Just a reminder AI was used to make this. My process is to write a 1000 words than have AI fix any grammar mistakes and improve it. I know this probably makes some people mad. If so sorry but I'd rather this be readable. Also while I use AI all plot points in this book were made by me.)