❝ I keep my 
promises. ❞

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EIGHT | TEAM FLASH

My eyes met the three people in the pristine room, they called it The Cortex. The three set of eyes stared back at me, scrutinizing me from head to toes. Caitlin and Cisco looked as surprised as me, I can't say the same about doctor Wells, he just stared with a faint smile on his lips. I felt like a deer in the headlights, just about to get killed.

"I—I have no idea of what am I doing here," I managed out, feeling the thin layer of sweat forming on my forehead and my face changing to a shade of red,  "I should probably go," I said, sticking a hand in my back pocket and then pointing at the exit with my thumb. I had come to meet The Flash, I had walked all the way here, hoping I would change my mind about meeting him at S.T.A.R. Labs. When he said that to me, I thought he meant it'd be just a meeting spot, but then one thing led to another and I ended up walking into the building, hoping to find him there and I didn't, "This was a misunderstanding, I was supposed to meet with some—" A gust of wing whipped past me, papers from the desks flew all over the place, the whole room seemed to shake; when my eyes looked up and past the floating papers, I saw The Flash standing next to the three people in the room, honestly confusing me in incalculable levels. He stood upright with his arms crossed over his chest.

"I'm glad you came," he said with a smile under the red mask. I observed how Caitlin accommodated her hair back into place and Cisco struggled to do the same; I had to shake my head to even consider the possibility that this was The Flash's so-called team.

"Wait just a minute," I muttered taking a step forward and pointing at doctor Wells, Caitlin and Cisco, "This is your—you are The Flash's team?" They exchanged looks while I let out a chuckle, "Is this some kind of joke?"

"It is certainly not a joke, Miss Steel," doctor Wells stated. I sighed, whilst cursing under my breath and bit my lower lip in the process. This meant I had just revealed the fact of having superpowers to three people I already knew and one of them was my least favourite people on earth and now I was standing in front of him asking for his help—believe me this was the last thing I thought I would do.

"It took us by surprise, but it's okay, Harlow," Caitlin spoke as she approached, "we're not telling anybody about this, we've been doing this for a while now and this is S.T.A.R. Labs big secret too, you can trust us," she said in a sweet voice. The corners of her red lips curled up into a smile. My pride wouldn't let me accept Harrison Wells's help, however, I needed to gain control over my abilities otherwise people could get hurt because of my lack of control. I glanced at the man in the red suit, he gave me a nod. There was no doubt I trusted him, and Caitlin and Cisco—obviously, still, doctor Wells had a long way to go.

"Okay, I'll stay," I said, gaining smiles from everyone in the room. I realized this required a leap of faith, "I need to gain control over this, I can't stand having these powers and not being able to use them when the occasion requires it. A friend of mine was kidnapped by a man of steel and ironically enough I couldn't do a thing; her boyfriend got shot yesterday while a group of ten people remained as hostages at CCPD, myself included and I couldn't do a thing, yet again. I can't stand the idea of losing a friend for not being able to make my powers work under pressure."

"You don't have to worry about that anymore. We're here to help you, Harlow," my name rolling out doctor Wells's tongue made me shiver. I didn't like him, but I had to put my differences to a side to do this. I saw Cisco making his way towards me with a huge grin on his face.

"This is awesome!" He exclaimed, "You having powers is the last thing I could have ever imagined, well, like I said, it is awesome! I'm already working on a name for you, being you it has to be perfect, this is gonna be so fun!" He stalked to the computer. I couldn't help but laugh, he was really excited and somehow his excitement was contagious. I shook my head at Caitlin.

"A name? What does he mean?"

"We give metahumans like you code names," I nodded in  acknowledgement.

"Metahumans?" I questioned.

 "That's what we're calling them, it's just a term," the hazel-eyed girl said. I saw her walking towards the medical bed in the room and preparing syringes and other stuff. That's when I wondered if I had just accepted to be a lab rat. My eyes were fixed on her movements, feeling somewhat nervous.

"Doctor Snow will take a sample of your blood and will run a few tests on you," The Flash spoke, making me stop thinking too much about it, "so we'll know what's going on inside of you," I nodded. His voice didn't sound distorted anymore, yet I could tell he still tried to sound different, his voice was mellifluous; gracefully deep. There was something about him, I felt like I could trust him more than anybody in that room; he was the kind of person that made you feel comfortable, it was almost like I knew him. His eyes immediately looked down at the grey-ish floor, he shifted his head to a side when he noticed I was staring and then he tugged at his mask; a small smile painted on my lips when I realized he was nervous.

"Harlow, are you ready?" I heard Caitlin ask, as she did, Central City's hero walked away, making my curiosity rise even more. Who was under the mask? I spent the last ten minutes sitting on a medical bed with my blood being drawn after a quick check up.

"You're good at this," I said to Caitlin, she smiled.

"Let's say I have a lot more of practice now," it was my turn to smile.

"I always wanted to be a physician," I said in a low voice.

"And what happened?" She asked with a one-sided head tilt, her eyes paying close attention. I didn't like to talk about this a lot, but I told her anyway. I sighed, straightening myself.

"When I was ten, my parents were murdered by some freak and the forensics and the police never found out who did it," her expression went somber, that's why I never liked to talk about this. I didn't like people pitying me, it made me feel weak and I didn't like to feel weak, "so, I decided to become a forensic scientist to do things right," I continued, fiddling with my blouse, "I know that finding out who did it is gonna be hard or might not even happen—who knows," I shrugged, "but at least I won't turn my back to people who need answers, like they did with me."

"I think you have a beautiful motive to do what you do," she uttered, giving me a loving smile. Caitlin had really changed since the last time I saw her. When I met her she was a lot more serious and she seemed to be grumpy all the time; it all was different now, she looked happier and not only looked but was happier, you could see it. That made me happy; she had gone through the worst thing I could imagine, losing the person she was supposed to spend the rest of her life with, that's raw. I don't think I could ever recover from that.

My thoughts were interrupted by the murmuring of Cisco talking to The Flash. Their footsteps were followed by the low hum of doctor Wells's electric wheelchair, the three of them joining us in the cortex again; my eyes looked briefly at doctor Wells and then they fixed on the needle in my arm in an attempt to avoid him. 

"You won't faint, will you?" He asked suddenly, making my eyes shoot up at him again, "The blood," the dark-haired man pointed out, "many people tend to faint at the sight of blood."

"I guess all these years of working with dead people has made immune to that," I said, provoking a smile to pop on doctor Snow's face as she put a cotton ball at the venipuncture site as soon as the needle was removed, "or maybe it was the particle accelerator," I noticed doctor Wells intertwining his fingers together.

"Okay," Cisco's voice crossed the room, "I have here an exact dramatization of what happened the night the particle accelerator exploded, eleven months ago to be more precise," Cisco gushed out as he walked up to my side and held an iPad in front of me; doctor Wells cleared his throat before speaking.

"The electron volts became unmeasurable," he started as I fixed my eyes on the screen, "the ring under us popped. Energy from that detonation was thrown into the sky. As the detonation dispersed throughout Central City, a number of people were exposed to a wave of unquantifiable energy—antimatter, dark energy, x-elements—and you, Harlow, were one of those people. This black matter—as we call it—affected your system. You were at the right place at the right moment."

"I was at CCPD's laboratory that night," I told them in a low voice, my eyes were still glued to the screen, watching the dramatization on repeat, slowly averting my eyes from it. Doctor Wells leaned forward, his hands still clasped together.

"Do you remember what were you doing when the explosion happened?" He asked, then exchanging looks with The Flash—who had been very quiet by now. My mind began to race as it tried to remember as much information as it could. It had been eleven months, period of time in which I had gone through a lot to even stop and think about that night, in detail at least.

"I was talking to a friend," I paused and dropped my eyes to the floor. I saw my feet dangling from the bed; I remembered the reason why I didn't stop to think and look back at that moment, I didn't like to remember seeing Barry hurt.

"Barry," he uttered and as I looked up at him and quickly looked at the others, I nodded.

"The sky light was stuck and the rain was making a huge puddle in the centre of the lab. I went to get a mop to clean up the mess; I stopped and struggled to close a window, that's when I saw the blast of light going up to the sky, right over S.T.A.R. Labs, then a shockwave spread real fast over the city. I began to run back to the lab, but it was too late," I stared blankly ahead as the memories came back, "it hit me and threw me against a wall, then I rushed back to the lab and said nothing," doctor Wells stared at me and smiled; I frowned, "maybe I happened to be there at the wrong time and at the wrong place. Why do you want to know this anyway?" I asked.

"Because the metahumans we have dealt with got their powers in very particular ways. Take Dalton Black, he created duplicates from his own body. He specialized in cloning and he was experimenting on himself when he was exposed to the dark matter wave released by the particle accelerator explosion," doctor Wells said, "knowing what circumstances were you in when the dark matter collided with your body could give us a wide insight of your abilities, as well as what to expect from them."

"I already told you, I ran back to the lab, I was scared. I can't remember," I shrugged. There was a pause in which my brain struggled to come up with something. Suddenly, it hit me. My eyes locked into The Flash's and my jaw dropped, his eyes widened too, "The electric generator," I spoke and saw the man in the leather suit stepping forward, his eyes wide and his lips parted, "it feeds the entire building when power goes out, must've been it."

"I saw it when I went there the other day," The Flash said, "modern-day generator works on the principle of electromagnetic induction, that's how she got her powers," he gushed out.

"Her DNA must have primed with the flow of electric charges that fluttered around," Caitlin added, "could it be possible?"

"Only if the generator turned on for a moment which would have affected the magnetic fields around her right before the dark matter reached the building, which did happen because she does have powers, the fusion gave her the ability to control one of the four fundamental forces of the universe, electromagnetism, baby!" He threw a fist in the air before pointing at me, "That explains the electromagnetic interference when you were around, it was you all the time!" I observed all of them geeking out about electromagnetism.

"So it was me?"

"Hell yeah, remember the sound you heard? That was metal itself dilating due temperature changes, if you sensed that it means you could sense the tiniest particle of any ferrous matter."

"Well, that explains a lot," I mumbled.
 
"How long have you had your powers?" Caitlin asked.

"Uh, for a couple of months," I told her, "the first time they manifested I was at a diner in Coast City, I don't have idea of what triggered them, I was on my phone and then I noticed how a fork was glued to my hand, all of a sudden, all the cutlery was levitating."

"Wait a second," Cisco said, shaking his head, then placing the iPad on the bed subsequently joining his hands together, "if that was you, it means you stopped that truck?" He asked with wide, curious and shocked eyes.

"You could say so, yes," he gasped.

"That is awesome! You know, you could shoot electromagnetic blasts from your hands, and I want to be there when that happens!" He exclaimed, "Oh geez, I really gotta start looking for a name," I held back a laugh, shaking my head.

"Fundamental forces of the universe," I said, lifting my eyebrows, "sounds like something serious."

"Moving and bending metal is not the only thing you can do," doctor Wells stated, taking his glasses off and not averting his cold eyes from me, "your abilities are impressing, Harlow, very," I pressed my lips together, "I'm sure we'll dive into your powers, but by now, we need to run some physical tests," I nodded.

They took me to a somewhat small room, there was a huge glass so people in the outside could see and communicate through a microphone. They even gave me clothes for running and Caitlin began to monitor my vitals. I had been running on that treadmill for about twenty minutes. Cisco had told me of how much speed that thing could handle and how it had been Cisco'ed to work that way. I loved how excited he was about everything.

"She's going really fast," I heard Caitlin saying over the speakers, "and her vitals are perfect, she's not tired, at all," I hear the four people discussing, all of them giving opinions, "heart rate, blood pressure, nerve conduction all normal."

"For her," I heard The Flash speaking.

"Brainwave function within standard limits," doctor Wells spoke this time. I inhaled deeply and focused on running, "look at the glucose levels, they're good, not perfect but good—she needs a new diet or this could end in a serious case of hypoglycemia."

"We have plenty of power-bars sitting by," Cisco stated and I wondered if there was something they didn't have in that place.

"Do you think you could go faster?" I frowned at doctor Wells's question.

"Well, I—I don't know," I swiftly looked at them, "I didn't even know I could run this fast."

"You have to try, Harlow, we are testing your limits," he said and I shook my head to myself, I tried though. I looked straight forward and gave the best I could. I could heard them speak, honestly I didn't know if I was speeding up, maybe not because a couple of minutes later I heard the words, "okay, Harlow, that's enough for today," coming from his mouth again.

"Ohh, thank God," I mumbled and slowed down, bending over and placing my hands on my knees, panting, but I wasn't as tired as I thought I'd be. The door opened and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the familiar red suit walking into the room with a bottle of water in his gloved hand, "I think I just lost sensibility in my legs," he smiled.

"You did great," he said, handing me the bottle.

"Coming from The Flash, that means a lot, thanks," I took the bottle from his hand and sat down on the treadmill, then I saw the others walk into the room, "running at super-human speed must be so fun for you," I hid my smile with the bottle of water, drinking from it. I noticed he was observing me and I couldn't help but point out how quiet he was, "what happened to the talkative Flash from the rooftop? I liked him," I told him.

"I—well, I—"

"Care to explain how you went from thirty to a solid sixty four miles per hour in just five seconds," both of us stared at Cisco with wide eyes, "damn girl, you've got some speed going on in there!" He handed me one of the famous power-bars and I took it.

"I did what?" I let out a chuckle.

"That's basically as fast as a cheetah," Caitlin said smiling, "you were barely breaking a sweat on the treadmill; Harlow's stamina is thirty percent higher than an average person's and only six percent lower than The Flash's, her cellular structure's unlike anything I've ever seen, the levels of heavy metals in her body, such as cobalt, iron, mercury amongst others are higher than I expected, though," I frowned.

"But, that's a bad thing," I uttered concerned.

"All these are fundamental for the human body and we found them in small amounts in food, apparently your body is absorbing extra amounts of these metals from the environment," the chestnut-eyed girl said, "your body is handling it as something normal and if something went wrong your fast healing factor would compliment it very well, there's nothing we should be worried about. If I were The Flash, I'd watch my back," he chuckled softly and I simpered.

"So, can you help me control it?"

"To answer that we have to understand how you work, and to understand that, we have to study you in action," The Flash said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"You know what would we have loved?" Caitlin questioned him, "A little bit more of information about this mysterious metahuman who stopped a window washer from falling off a cleaning platform a few nights ago, could've been  helpful, don't you think Flash?" They looked at me.

"I promised not to tell anyone about her identity," the man in the red suit said, "I keep my promises," he smiled at me and so did I, watching how the two of them walked away, doctor Wells following them closely; Cisco stayed with me.

"So, what now?" I asked as I got on my feet and the brown-eyed boy placed a hand over my shoulder.

"We train you," he said with a big smile and I mirrored his expression; I had to admit this training thing sounded fun, "Now eat up," he pointed at the power-bar in my hand, "you don't want to plummet to the ground, for not eating enough. Your metabolism is different now."

"But, I'm feeling good."

"That's what The Flash said and then he was kissing the ground, eat up!" I bit my lower lip.

"You know who's under the mask, don't you?" I gave him a half smile and raised a brow. He frowned and stared at me, it was obvious he did.

"I ain't telling you that," he began to walk, "don't try to lure me."

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AUTHOR'S NOTE:

i am not an expert on all these science-y things, i've done research for all this and it wasn't easy. i hope you liked it though! i wasn't going to post an author's note but i just watched the flash and I DON'T KNOW WHAT MY FEELINGS ARE EVEN DOING. I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT BUT WHY HIM? WHY LORD?! thank you for reading btw.

do you have any name suggestions for harlow? comment below!