Not What You Expected

What's Really Going On?

Jessie Wells.

Amy had forgotten that was what Francisco had called her that day at the school, hell she barely remembered what actually happened at the school after what Francisco did to her head, but now that detail was resurfacing and it had Amy's mind reeling. After the initial shock of seeing his face again, Amy's brain began working to understand what was happening; Harrison Wells had been a good man on her Earth before Eobard Thawne stole his life from him, and while just thinking about the Wells she remembered still turned her stomach slightly, she reasoned he wasn't likely to be evil on this Earth, no matter how many of her friend's evil doppelgangers turned up here. No Harrison Wells was just a magnet for misfortune it seemed, and also apparently destined in every universe to be the father of the meta humans. She wondered briefly then, if he was the reason they existed, why would Zoom want to hurt him so badly? Which she answered immediately with the realization that if Wells was a good guy on this Earth, helping a psychotic speedster get stronger wasn't likely something he was keen to do; and what was the best way to get a father to do what you wanted? Target his child.

Amy felt her stomach twist again, her head throbbing as this new information surged through her mind, puzzle pieces she didn't know existed clicking together to form a bigger mental picture as she hurried down the street. She decided as soon as David showed her the picture of Jessie and Harrison she needed to find out as much as she possibly could on this world's Star Labs, but she needed to be careful about it, after all if Zoom was as crazy as he seemed to be, he no doubt had cronies keeping an eye out for anyone looking for that kind of info, and she knew that Francisco would never tell her anything for fear of her getting into too much trouble. Her best bet was a public library, preferably with computer access. She found one downtown, and with a quick application for a library card under her mother's name, she was on the internet where the search results for Star Labs gave her well over one hundred pages of links to various news and tabloid sites, all of which in a frenzy over the attack at Central City University. Guilt gnawed at her for a few moments before she refined her search to the history of Star Labs, finding the facility's own website which detailed the Lab's history in a convenient little slide show located on a page aimed at selling guided tours to the public.

The story was much the same as her Star Labs, founded by Harrison Wells and his late wife Tess Morgan, it was created in the hopes of being the heart of innovative science and technology, and it had lived up to expectations. There was a brief slide on the Wells family, detailing how Tess had died of cancer, leaving Harrison to raise their daughter alone. There was also some mention of Jessie's accomplishments, and hints that she might follow in her father's footsteps; all of which only made Amy feel even more guilty for being a part of Jessie's abduction. The information she really needed was the date of the particle accelerator explosion, and what, if any, efforts Star Labs was taking to help those the incident had affected. She watched the slide show twice, just to be sure she hadn't missed it, but there was nothing to miss: Star Labs didn't care about the metas they'd created.

"Fan-fucking-tastic," she muttered, leaning back in her chair, "no wonder Zoom is doing his best to hurt you Harrison, you're like Frankenstein cowering after birthing his creature." She made a disgusted sound, closing all the tabs she'd had opened and getting up to leave, her mind still working to find some way to help Jessie. In her distracted state of mind, she didn't see the blond man watching her from one of the reading corners by the library's large windowed balcony, which was a testament to her distraction considering the man was dressed so oddly. He wore a dark red military style leather jacket, silver snaps set off to the side with the outline of a silver lightening bolt emblazoned in the center. Beside him on a small table littered with books and magazines, there sat a shiny winged helmet, just like the one that had sprang through the portal back on Amy's Earth, the day she'd been tossed through to this one. He watched her leave the library with a hawk-like gaze, his eyes taking in her every detail as she hurried past a few patrons, head down in thought the entire time. To an outside observer, he might have looked as though he wanted to follow her, but whether that were the case or not, he didn't get the chance as a small hand tapped at his arm drawing his gaze to a little boy before him.

"Excuse me," the boy said politely, if not a tad too softly, "but...are you the crimson comet?"

The blond man smiled, his head nodding as he leaned forward to greet the boy, "Yes I am," he confirmed kindly, taking the boys hand to shake "but you can call me Jay."