— 𝒮 —

𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐇𝐒 𝐇𝐀𝐃 passed since the particle accelerator explosion, and things had only gotten worse.

Dr. Wells had indeed survived the explosion, but not unscathed. He had lost control over his legs that night and now has to use a wheelchair in order to get around. While Sophia and the others were more than thankful that he had lived, every glance at him was a reminder of the people who had died that night. Because of STAR Labs. Because of them.

STAR Labs had since then been classified as a Class Four Hazardous Location, and everyone had quit their positions there, save for Sophia, Cisco, and Caitlin.

The worst/best thing that had happened? The explosion had caused a few people's DNA to change, creating a new division of people, which the team had titled 'Meta-humans.' It seemed as though every meta-human had their own unique powers, and whether they used it for good or for evil was up to them.

All they've seen so far, however, was evil.

People murdering others, robbing banks and museums, breaking and entering . . . The list was endless. Luckily, the police had gotten there to help whenever there was a distress call. Unluckily, they didn't really have the assets needed to fight off people with powers.

No one knew—or even believed, most likely—in these powers, instead just believing that it was a trick of the light, or that whoever had seen this was just plain insane. The four of them, however, knew differently.

Only a few days after the explosion did they find out that Sophia was one of these 'Meta-humans,' from an incident involving Cisco, a few wads of paper, and a garbage can.

He had been attempting to land his crumpled-up papers in the garbage can from the other side of the Cortex and was failing miserably. When he had asked Sophia what she thought the chances were of getting the next paper in, she instinctively answered with five-point-thirty-two percent. Clearly, that caught the others' attention.

After running quite a few tests, they had discovered that she had enhanced intelligence. While that was a pretty broad topic, they delved deeper to discover that she had an enhanced memory, enhanced calculation, accelerated probability, and other similar things. To sum things up, she was one smart bitch.

They now had a person in their care, a man by the name of Bartholomew Henry Allen, or as everyone called him, Barry. Which was a good thing, because, damn, Bartholomew was a terrible name.

He had been struck by lightning on the night of the explosion, inducing him into a coma, which was the state he's been in ever since. The team had taken him from the hospital into their care at STAR Labs, under the orders of Dr. Wells.

If Sophia were to be honest, Barry was a pretty cute guy. He had a firm jaw, soft, brown hair, and just had quite attractive facial features. Hell, he had been shirtless this whole time in order to be hooked up to the different machines, and his abs were exposed to her eyes. She would think that was enough to make any girl swoon. But, still, he could be married with seven children for all she knew.

Sophia was sitting at the main desk, rubbing her eyes as she stared at the screen. Cisco had asked her to review a document, and although that man was smart, he could not spell for the life of him. While she suffered, Cisco was busy trying to wake Barry up, something that's becoming a pastime of his.

Suddenly, Poker Face by Lady Gaga began to play over the speakers, the sound echoing through the Cortex.

Sophia looked up to see Cisco leaning over Barry, who was laying in the hospital bed that they had moved to the middle of the room, Cisco's dark curls bouncing as his head nodded to the beat of the song.

Her eyebrows furrowed. "What are you doing?"

Sophia clicked save on the document and got to her feet, tucking her chair in before walking over to the bed. Standing opposite of Cisco, she peered over Barry's face, seeing that he was doing just as normal.

A grin came onto Cisco's face as he informed her, "He likes this song."

"How could you possibly know that?" she chuckled lightly as she looked up at him, her eyebrows raised mildly.

He took a bite of the Twizzler that he had clutched in his hand before looking up at her and shrugging. "I checked his Facebook page. I mean, he can hear everything, right?"

"Auditory functions are the last sensory faculties to degenerate," Sophia confirmed with a small shrug. She looked up to Caitlin, who had gotten up from the side desk and was walking over to Cisco's side, for approval. "Right, doc?"

"Right," Caitlin chuckled, folding her arms as she leaned over him. "You need to stop doubting yourself, Sophia. You haven't been wrong yet."

Sophia shrugged. "You never know."

Cisco turned around, singing along to the words as he walked back over to the main desk, "Can't read my, no, he can't read my poker face."

Suddenly, Barry's eyes opened. The loud gasp and him shooting straight up was a combination that caused Sophia to let out a small scream of surprise.

Cisco whipped around, and he leaned back against the desk with a look of terror on his face. "Oh my God!"

"Where am I?"

"He's up!" Caitlin immediately reached for the small medical table next to her, preparing everything she needed.

Cisco picked up a small walkie-talkie, urgently speaking into it, "Dr. Wells, get down to the Cortex, like, right now."

Caitlin grabbed a small flashlight, forcing Barry to lean back as she shone the bright light into his eyes. "BP one-seventy over one-ten, pulse one-twenty. Pupils equally reactive to light. Look at me, look at me," she said hurriedly, lowering her hand as Barry groaned and ripped off all of the cords that were connecting him to the vital monitors.

"Whoa, whoa. Relax." Cisco grabbed onto Barry's right shoulder as the man slid off of the hospital bed, trying to calm him down. "Everything's okay, man. You're at STAR Labs."

"STAR Labs?" Barry repeated with furrowed eyebrows as Caitlin pushed an otoscope inside Barry's left ear, peering into it. "Who are you?"

"I'm Cisco Ramon," Cisco said gently, a smile on his face before he gestured to the other two women to introduce them. "She's Caitlin—Dr. Snow and that's Sophia Byun."

Caitlin grabbed a plastic vial and held it up for Barry to see, her face more than serious as she instructed, "I need you to urinate in this."

"Not this second." Sophia grabbed the vial from Caitlin, shaking her head as she reached over and placed it back onto the small table.

"What is happening?" Barry broke out of Cisco's grip and took a few steps away from them, his light eyes widened with a mixture of fear and agitation. "What is going on?"

A grin grew on Cisco's face. "You were struck by lightning, dude."

Barry's eyes widened. "What?" He turned around, his eyes widening even further as he got a glimpse of his body in the monitor in front of him. He gawked at himself, obviously utterly confused with the muscle he had gained. "Lightning . . . gave me abs?"

"Your muscles should be atrophied," Caitlin started as she came up to his side, then beginning to press her fingers all over his upper half to check for anything odd.

"But instead they're in a chronic state of cellular regeneration," Sophia finished for her, putting her hands on her hips as she watched Caitlin do her examination.

"Come here. Have a seat." Cisco grabbed onto the man's shoulders and pulled him back a few steps, then pushing him down onto the chair. "You were in a coma."

Barry's head turned to him in surprise, his look of stupor only growing more apparent. "For how long?"

"Nine months," Dr. Wells answered, causing all of them to turn towards him, who was at the side entrance. He gave the gawking man a friendly smile. "Welcome back, Mr. Allen. We have a lot to discuss."

— 𝒮 —

About an hour later, the three of them turned to see Barry and Dr. Wells re-enter the Cortex after a little tour of the facility and an explanation of what happened to, well . . . everything.

"Now, I'm not the most popular person in town these days . . . but Detective West and his daughter gave me permission to bring you here," Dr. Wells continued, gesturing around towards their little hospital station as they entered, "where we were able to stabilize you."

Barry turned to face Dr. Wells, his eyes softening as he repeated, "Iris?"

"Iris, yes." Dr. Wells nodded, a sly smile coming onto his face. "She came to see you quite often."

"She talks a lot." Caitlin sighed as the three of them walked over before handing Dr. Wells his usual mug of coffee.

"Also," Cisco added with a goofy grin, "she's hot."

"Cisco," Sophia chided, elbowing him in the side and receiving a bigger grin in return.

Barry looked off towards the exit, his eyebrows furrowing. He then set off towards the doors, muttering, "I need to go."

"No, you can't," Sophia called after him, glancing over to Dr. Wells, who then turned around and nodded.

"Sophia's right. Now that you're awake, we need to do tests. You're still going through changes. There's so much we don't know."

"I'm fine, really. I feel normal." Barry gave them a reassuring smile, shrugging. "Thank you for saving my life." He backed away, glancing off to the side before dashing away.

"Really?" Caitlin asked incredulously, sending a disapproving glare down to Dr. Wells.

Barry poked his head back into the room. "Can I keep the sweatshirt?"

Dr. Wells gave an exasperated sigh as he nodded. "Yeah, keep the sweatshirt."

"Okay." Barry gave them a small grin before running off.

"Dr. Wells, what do—what do we do now?" Sophia questioned, folding her arms as she stared at the now-empty doorway.

"We wait." Dr. Wells turned back around to face the three of them. "He'll be back."

— 𝐵 —

Barry tucked his hands into the pockets of his jacket, shivering slightly from the cool breeze that brushed past him.

He didn't bother to focus on that, however, as the sign of his favourite coffee shop appeared before his eyes.

As he stepped into Jitters, Barry locked eyes with Iris, and a smile spread onto his face.

He slowed to a stop as he watched her put a coffee pot down on one of the tables. Her eyes moistened as soon as she caught sight of him, and she covered her mouth in shock as she hurried over to him, whispering, "Oh my God."

His smile stretched into a grin as she ran into his arms, and he clutched her tightly.

"You're awake," she breathed out as she pulled away. "Why didn't STAR Labs call us?"

Barry shook his head as he answered, "I just woke up."

"Should you even be on your feet?" she asked worriedly, though her lips were still upturned.

"Iris . . ." Barry shook his head once more, and his grin broadened. "I'm okay."

Her expression became solemn, and his grin faded. "I watched you die, Barry. You kept dying. Your heart kept stopping."

Barry grabbed Iris' hand and brought it up to where his heart was. "It's still beating."

She attempted to smile, though her eyebrows were furrowed. "It feels really fast."

The sound of clattering drew Barry's attention to the waitress behind Iris, and he watched as she dropped a platter that held two mugs of coffee, a glass of orange juice, and a plate.

The strange thing that caused Barry's eyebrows to knit tightly together, however, was that it all seemed to be going in slow motion.

Suddenly, time resumed as normal, and the platter fell to the ground with a small crash.

"Are you okay, Tracy?" Iris asked worriedly as she turned to the girl who had begun to clean up the spilled coffee.

Tracy glanced up at her. "Yeah, I got it."

Barry could only half-hear the two women, however. He could hardly believe what had just happened. What the hell had happened to him?

Iris didn't seem to notice his perturbed expression as she turned back to him and smiled. "My dad is gonna be so happy to see you."

Barry could only grin in response.

"Let me get my stuff, okay?" Iris murmured as she began to walk away. "I'll be right back."

Barry glanced around him as he waited, his eyes latching on every movement around him. Maybe he had just imagined it . . . Or maybe they had given him some kind of medicine with weird side effects . . . He was fine.

Right?

Yeah. He was fine.

Once Iris had collected her things and gotten back, she looped her arm through Barry's, and the two of them headed towards CCPD.

Joe had had a similar reaction as Iris when he first saw Barry and immediately embraced him tightly.

"Oh, you scared the hell out of us, kid," Joe chided as he patted Barry's back.

"That was quite the nap you took there, baby face," added a grinning officer as he walked up to them. "And you still look twelve."

They all chuckled as the officer walked away, and Joe placed a hand on Barry's shoulder.

"You look okay," Joe remarked. "Are you really?"

No. "Yeah."

"Detective West," called a female officer, drawing their attention to her, "we got a five-fifty in progress at Gold City Bank. Two dead. Storm's really picking up on the south side. I'd grab your rain gear."

"Sorry, Barry, I gotta run," Joe apologized as he went to grab his coat from the hanger.

Barry's forehead creased. "Do you need my help?"

"No, you take it easy," Joe immediately answered. "There'll be plenty for you to do once you settle in." He glanced over to the blond officer, Eddie Thawne, who was coming towards them and called, "Let's go, partner."

"Hey, Allen," Eddie greeted as he put his suit jacket on, "glad to see you."

Barry smiled. "Thanks, Eddie."

Eddie turned to Iris and smiled. "Hey, Iris."

"Detective," Iris greeted, "you should go. My dad doesn't like to be kept waiting."

Eddie's expression faltered for a moment before he patted Barry's shoulder. "Glad you're back."

Barry nodded, and his eyes followed Eddie as he went out the door. His eyes then caught onto something else, causing his eyebrows to furrow.

He stepped closer to the glass box, which had the photo of Detective Chyre—Joe's partner—and on the top of the box, read 'NEVER FORGOTTEN' on a golden plate.

"The night of the explosion, Clyde Mardon shot and killed Chyre," Iris explained as she came up next to him, causing Barry's eyes to close and a sigh to escape his lips. "Mardon and his brother died escaping. Their plane crashed."

"Iris. Got a minute?" called an officer, drawing her towards him.

"Hey, Barry," greeted another officer as he clutched a criminal—a druggie, by the looks of his wild eyes and wilder hair. "Good to see you."

Barry gave a smile and nod. His smile faded, however, as time slowed around him again, and he watched as the criminal grabbed a gun from the holster of the officer in front of him.

Instinctively, Barry ran towards the criminal and shoved him forward before running back to his original spot. He watched as the criminal fell forward onto the table while the two officers grabbed his hands and handcuffed him.

His breathing becoming unsteady, Barry suddenly realized what had happened.

So . . . maybe, he was not fine.

"You okay?"

Barry turned to Iris as the two officers dragged the criminal away. He swallowed, attempting to steady his voice as he reassured her, "I-I'm fine. I just need some air. But I'll call you tonight, all right?"

Hurriedly, he brushed past her and headed outside. His hands were trembling as he clasped them together but when he raised one up, he saw that his hand was vibrating on its own. Faster than he could even tell.

"What's happening to me?" he whispered to himself.

He suddenly found himself lurching and speeding forward, and he was ten feet ahead of himself before he even knew it.

He looked behind him, and his legs swiftly brought him over to the police car and threw him on top of the back, shattering the glass.

He slid back to his feet, and let out a few breaths as he stumbled backwards.

Whatever was happening to him . . . it was pretty cool. Scary. Weird. But cool.

A grin grew on his face.

He looked down the open road in front of him, and he ran.

The buildings blew past him in a blur, and Barry screamed in fright as he couldn't get his legs to stop moving.

He continued running and running and running until—

Barry had, fortunately, run into the back of a truck that was full of sacks.

A man removed the one that was covering his face, and Barry slowly sat himself up, his grin only growing.

"Awesome," he breathed out.

— 𝒮 —

After receiving a frantic call from Barry less than an hour later, STAR Labs had to get straight to work.

Barry (who seemed to be both quite panicked and excited at the time) had hurriedly explained to them that he could—although he could barely believe it—run faster than he had ever run before. So fast, it seemed, that the world was slowing down around him.

So obviously, super-speed was their suspicion.

As soon as Dr. Wells had approved this theory, Cisco totally freaked out. It took Sophia about twenty minutes to calm him down, but she had managed to do it in the end, thankfully. And as soon as she did, they went straight to work.

Now, about an hour later, they were at the runway of an abandoned airplane testing facility. They had the STAR Labs truck set up behind the large tent that they had set up, where underneath there sat two desks that were cluttered with laptops and papers.

Dr. Wells was sitting at the desk on the right, peering curiously into the computer screen in front of him as Caitlin stepped up towards him.

"You don't really believe he can run that fast, do you?" she asked doubtfully to Dr. Wells as she began to type into the tablet that she was holding.

"Well, I believe anything is possible, and in a few minutes, maybe you will too," he replied with an enigmatic smile.

Cisco walked over to the open door of the truck, his hands on his hips as a grin was spread on his face. "How's it fit?"

Sophia held back a laugh as Barry came out and walked down the couple of stairs; he looked absolutely ridiculous in the testing suit that Cisco had designed.

He was wearing a tight, sleeveless, red one-piece, and sleeves that didn't attach to the suit and cut off right below his shoulders. For extra protection, he was wearing elbow and knee guards, goggles, a matching red helmet that was strapped under his chin, and puffy, red shoes that were made to be frictionless.

"It's a little snug."

"At least you'll be moving so fast, no one will see you." Cisco grinned, putting a hand on his back and guiding him. "See, you thought that the world was slowing down. It wasn't. You were moving so fast, it only looked like everyone else was standing still." The two of them stopped a few feet in front of the tent, and Cisco gestured back at them. "Sophia will be monitoring your energy output and Caitlin, your vitals."

Barry looked over at him, a small grin on his face as he questioned, "What d'you do?"

"I make the toys, man," Cisco answered with a grin. He lifted a small, black, circular object that had a lightning bolt fastened to the front of it. "Check it. This is a two-way headset with a camera I modified, typically designed to combat battlefield impulse noise—or in your case, potential sonic booms, which would be awesome."

Cisco took Barry's helmet off and brought it over to the desk as Caitlin took his spot to take care of a few last things.

"Super cool, right?" Cisco grinned as he fastened the lightning bolt to the helmet.

"I guess." Sophia looked up from the computer screen that she was staring at, raising her eyebrows. "Although, you never said that my power was super cool."

"That's because you were already super smart anyway." Cisco shrugged, slapping the helmet's side as soon as the lightning bolt was attached. "But I do appreciate the fact that I no longer need a calculator."

Sophia scoffed in amusement, shaking her head as Cisco walked back over to Barry and fitted the helmet onto the man's head.

Caitlin walked back over, her eyes fixated on the tablet in her hands as a small frown tugged down the corners of her lips.

"You okay?" Sophia asked quietly as Caitlin came to her side, her eyebrows furrowing as she turned to her.

"Fine," she sighed, shaking her head slightly. It was quite obvious that her response was a lie, but Sophia pressed no further.

Dr. Wells rolled a little closer to Barry, a small smile on his face as he warned, "Mr. Allen, while I am extremely eager to determine your full range of abilities . . . I do caution restraint."

Barry only nodded in response, his expression growing more nervous.

Everyone watched as Barry prepared himself at the starting point, bending down and planting his hands on the ground as he took in deep breaths. He looked back at them, his eyes uncertain, and Dr. Wells kept his smile on as he put a pair of sunglasses over top of his normal glasses.

Barry faced the front once more and took off.

Instantly, a burst of wind forced them all to stumble backwards, the papers to fly out of order, and the tent to nearly topple over. Cisco had fallen back, but he seemed to be all right as a look of amazement settled on his face while he scrambled to his feet.

Sophia couldn't blame him; she was just as astounded by the sight in front of her.

They could hardly even see Barry; he was merely a blur of red as he ran down the track.

"He passed two hundred knots per hour," Cisco announced, his eyes on the scanner that was in his hands.

Caitlin lowered the binoculars that she had been looking through, her eyes widened as she breathed out, "It's not possible."

Over the speakers that were connected to his lightning bolt emblem, they heard a loud crash and then a groan of pain, immediately alarming them.

Caitlin raised her binoculars, her face scrunching as soon as she realized what had happened. "He crashed into a bunch of barrels."

— 𝒮 —

Caitlin held up the tablet screen that displayed the x-ray of Barry's wrist, showing the piece of the bone that had broken off to Barry, who was sitting on the hospital bed and rubbing his wrist. "It looks like you had a distal radius fracture."

"Had?" Barry echoed, his eyebrows furrowing.

Caitlin swiped up to reveal a new x-ray, which showed a perfectly healed wrist. "It's healed. In three hours."

"How is that even possible?"

"We don't know. Yet," she added before walking around the bed and sitting in front of a desk.

Cisco walked up to him, the red helmet in his hand as he grinned. "You really need to learn how to stop."

Barry smiled back as Cisco took a seat at the other desk, sitting down next to Sophia as he began to fiddle with the helmet.

Dr. Wells rolled up to him, an intrigued smile on his face. "What happened out there today? You were moving pretty well and then something caused you to lose focus."

Barry slowly stopped rubbing his wrist, resting his hands on his lap as a solemn look crossed his face and looked up to Dr. Wells. "I started remembering something."

Upon hearing no further explanation, Dr. Wells raised his eyebrows, causing Barry to elaborate.

"When I was eleven, my mother was murdered."

Immediately, everyone's attention turned to him, their eyebrows furrowed and the corners of their lips tugged downwards. That was not what Sophia had expected to hear.

"It was late." Barry's voice began to choke up as his eyes shifted towards the ceiling. "The sound woke me up. I came downstairs . . . and I saw what looked like a ball of lightning. Inside the lightning . . . there was a man. He killed my mom. They arrested my dad. He's still sitting in Iron Heights for her murder. Everyone—the cops, the shrinks—they all told me what I saw was impossible." He paused for a moment to take a breath, licking his lips. "but what if the man who killed my mom was like me?"

Dr. Wells gave him a reassuring smile. "Well, I think I can say unequivocally, you are one of a kind."

— 𝒮 —

"Sophia?"

"Yes, Cisco?"

He grinned. "What's the percentage I'll slap Dr. Wells? Also, the percentage I'll slap Caitlin? And the percent chance that I'm pulling this outfit off?"

Asking questions like these had become one of Cisco's favourite pastimes. From the percent chance that he'll win the lottery (a percentage nearer to zero than one) to the percent chance he'd die if he jumped off the roof of STAR Labs (ninety-two percent), he had fun.

"That percentage better be low," Dr. Wells warned from the side, causing Sophia to giggle before answering.

Sophia pointed to Dr. Wells. "Zero-point-two-three percent" —she pointed to Caitlin— "five-point-three-nine percent" —she pointed to him— "that's not something to get a percentage for."

Cisco brushed off his blue t-shirt and tugged down the tight sleeves of the grey long-sleeved shirt he wore underneath, all while giving her a dazzling smile. "But am I pulling it off?"

She grinned. "Absolutely."

He blew her a kiss which she pretended to catch. "Thanks."

Suddenly, the doors opened and a seemingly enraged Barry burst in as he shouted, "I wasn't the only one affected by the particle accelerator explosion, was I?"

"Other than Sophia?" Dr. Wells glanced over to the trio, uncertainty displayed in his icy blue eyes before misleading, "We're not sure."

"You said the city was safe—that there was no residual danger." Barry took a step forward, his face growing redder as he shook his head. "But that's not true. What really happened that night?"

Dr. Wells looked back at them again, but their gaze was no help to him before he turned back to the angry man. "Well, the accelerator went active. We all felt like heroes, and then . . ." He pushed a few buttons on the tablet that was connected to his wheelchair and looked over to the monitor behind Barry as it showed the 3D model analysis of the particle accelerator. "It all went wrong. The dimensional barrier ruptured, unleashing unknown energies into our world. Antimatter, dark energy, X-elements—"

Barry looked back towards Dr. Wells, his eyes narrowed as he interrupted, "Those are all theoretical."

"And how theoretical are you and Sophia?" Dr. Wells pointed out as he raised his eyebrows. "We mapped the dispersion throughout and around Central City, though we have no way of knowing exactly what or who was exposed. We've been searching for other meta-humans like yourself and Sophia."

"Meta-humans?" Barry repeated in confusion, his eyebrows furrowing.

"That's what we're calling them," Sophia explained with a small shrug before realizing and correcting herself. "Us."

"I saw one today," he said quickly. "He's a bank robber, and he can control the weather."

A grin spread onto Cisco's face as he leaned forward on the chair he was standing behind, his hands clasped. "This just keeps getting cooler."

"This is not cool!" Barry exclaimed, causing the other man's grin to fade. "All right? A man died!" Barry's eyes shifted back to Dr. Wells as he irritatedly continued, "Mardon must've gotten his powers the same way I did, from the storm cloud. He's still out there! We have to stop him before he hurts anyone else."

"Barry," Dr. Wells called as the other man turned on his heel and headed towards the doors, causing him to pause. "That's a job for the police."

Barry raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, I work for the police."

"As a forensic assistant."

"You're responsible for this." Barry's eyes hardened. "For him."

"What's important is you!" Dr. Wells' voice grew louder. "Not me. I lost everything. I lost my company. I lost my reputation. I lost my freedom. And then you broke your arm, and it healed in three hours. Inside your body could be a map to a whole new world. Genetic therapies, vaccines, medicines, treasures buried deep within your cells. And we cannot risk losing everything because you want to go out and play hero. You're not a hero. You're just a young man who was struck by lightning."

Barry's eyes moistened, but he remained silent as his gaze turned to the trio, who didn't say anything. With a small nod, he turned and left the room.

"A bit harsh." Sophia frowned as the automatic doors slid to a close. "What if he doesn't come back?"

Dr. Wells waved a dismissive hand as he reassured them, "He'll come back."

— 𝒮 —

He came back.

It had been nearing ten o'clock, and Sophia had been exhausted. She had spent the last couple of hours working, listening to Cisco make terrible jokes, and worrying about Barry.

But when he came back, cardboard boxes that belonged to CCPD in hand, and demanded to speak to the trio, she was fully alert and ready to go. Why she was so attentive to the man was unknown to her, but she assumed it was due to the excitement of finally having another meta-human amongst the group.

So here they were, with maps and graphs spread out over a long table. Sophia and Cisco stood on the right side as Caitlin opposed them, with Barry at the head of the table.

Barry spoke, now giving them the reason as to why he needed to talk to them, "I've been going over unsolved cases from the past nine months, and there's been a sharp increase in unexplained deaths and missing people. Your meta-humans have been busy."

Upon seeing the guilty glances that the three exchanged, Barry continued, "I'm not blaming you. I know you didn't mean for any of this to happen. I know you all lost something. But I need your help to catch Mardon and anyone else out there like him. But I can't do it without you."

Cisco looked towards Sophia, exchanging silent words through their eyes before they both grinned.

"If we're gonna do this . . ." Cisco started as he looked over to Barry, his grin widening, "we have something that might help."

The two led the other two to the backroom, where Cisco turned the metal holder around to display their creation. It was a maroon, tight-fitting suit with a few stripes of yellows that lined the outside. The mask covered most of the head, save for the eyes that were covered by goggles, and the mouth and nose that were shielded by a gas mask. The entire suit was modelled by a mannequin, which it fit perfectly on.

"Just something Sophia and I've been playing with." Cisco grinned. "It's designed to replace the turnouts firefighters traditionally wear. We thought if STAR Labs did something nice for the community, maybe people wouldn't be so angry at Dr. Wells anymore."

"How is it going to help me?" Barry questioned, taking a few steps towards it and examining it.

"It's made of a reinforced tripolymer. It's heat and abrasive resistant, so it should withstand your moving at high-velocity speeds," Sophia explained with a small smile. "And the aerodynamic design should help you maintain control."

"Plus," Cisco added with a grin, "it has built-in sensors, so we can track your vitals and stay in contact with you from here."

"Thanks." Barry gave a small nod. "And how do we find Mardon?"

Caitlin, who had a tablet in her hand, stepped forward. "I re-tasked STAR Labs' satellite to track meteorological abnormalities over Central City. We just got a ping." She looked around at them as they all crowded around her, looking at the weather tracker on the screen. "Atmospheric pressure dropped twenty millibars in a matter of seconds. I've tracked it to a farm just west of the city."

"I'm going." Barry looked back at them, to which they gave nervous nods.

As soon as Barry had changed into the suit, he rushed out, and the trio ran to the main deck, their eyes frantically racing over the computer monitors as they set everything up.

Cisco turned on the microphone after his screen displayed the tornado that Mardon seemed to have created, and spoke, "Barry. Barry, this thing's getting closer. Wind speeds are two hundred miles per hour and increasing. Barry, can you hear me?"

"Yeah, loud and clear."

"If it keeps up, this could become an F-5 tornado," Cisco warned.

"And it's headed towards the city! How do I stop it?" he shouted. "Guys?!" There was a moment of silence before he continued, "What if I unravel it?"

"How the hell are you gonna do that?" Caitlin questioned, her eyebrows knitting tightly together.

"I'll run around it in the opposite direction! Cut off its legs!"

Sophia whipped around to face Caitlin, her eyes wide. "He'd have to clock seven hundred miles per hour to do that."

"Your body may not be able to handle those speeds," Caitlin worriedly informed him. "You'll die."

"I have to try!"

Cisco grinned, letting out a small chuckle as he stared at the suit analysis in front of him. "Haha, suit's holding up."

"But he's not," Caitlin said incredulously.

"He can do it." Cisco clasped his hands together, leaning forward as he watched the screen. "I know he can do it."

"Sophia?" Caitlin looked toward the other woman. "Can you calculate the percentage that he'll . . . survive?"

Sophia swallowed. "One hundred?"

"Sophia."

"Fine." She sighed, raking a hand through her dark hair. "Rounding down . . . twenty-seven."

Both Cisco and Caitlin turned to her and shouted, "What?!"

Sophia only gave a small shrug in response, but their attention quickly turned to the speaker as Barry shouted.

"It's too strong!"

"You can do this, Barry."

All three of their heads turned in surprise to see Dr. Wells at the fourth mic.

"You were right," he continued, paying no attention to the others staring at him. "I am responsible for all of this. So many people have been hurt because of me, and when I looked at you, all I saw was another potential victim of my hubris. And yes, I created this madness. But you, Barry, you can stop it. You can do this. Now run, Barry. Run!"

They all watched their own screens in silence, holding their breaths as they waited for the result. Then, the analysis of the tornado showed that it had been destroyed, and they all turned their attention to Sophia as she tentatively questioned, "Barry?"

"It's over. I'm okay."