216 |𝐛.𝐚| (hiatus)

𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗 »

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BARRY ALLEN quietly walked through the hall to the left of the cortex, he gently pressed his hand to a section of the circular walling and waited for the opening to appear. Barry willed the wall to open as sounds of faint footsteps tittered in the hallway. As the sounds approached further, Barry went to the other side of the wall and dropped down to his shoes, unlacing them and them tying them slowly again.

"What are you doing?" The voice of the footsteps asked. It wasn't Dr. Wells, it was Cisco.

Barry let out a deep breath he didn't even know he was holding in, "Oh thank god it's you, I was trying to get into the vault." Cisco nodded and then walked over to the wall, pressed Barry's hand against the wall and it opened. Just like Barry did, -- except it was two panels down from where he was trying earlier.

Barry looked out in the hallway, both ways when Cisco put his hand on Barry's shoulder, "Don't worry, I got my watch hooked up to know if Wells comes,"

Barry nodded and headed inside, slowly walking so the lights had time to flicker on. He walked over and put his hand to the white pedestal and tried not to flinch back when the holographic head appeared into existence.

"Hello, Barry Allen," The bald head with a woman's voice greeted.

Cisco stood behind Barry, "Hello Gideon, can you show me the article from the future again,"

There was no reply from Gideon, only the pop-up holograph image of the article written by 'Iris West-Allen' something that didn't make Barry as happy as he thought it would. Barry looked at it and scrolled his eyes through the entire text, not missing a single letter. Although, the main heading made it hard for Barry to focus, "FLASH MISSING IN CRISIS".

It seemed so far away, but how was Barry suppose to change the future. He looked over to the space for the side articles where something caught his eye, and not like the first time. "PENELOPE RATHAWAY BUYS MERCURY LAB" the heading read. Huh, guess Cisco was right, she was going to run Central City. And it also looks like she took Lucy's last name. From the small picture with the heading, it definitely was Penny. She would be about 21 at that time. Wow, twenty-one years old and she had bought Mercury Labs. A lab that had to cost about a billion dollars and that was now! Barry couldn't imagine what it would be ten years from now.

"Hey, Gideon. Can you pull up that article about Penelope Rathaway?" Barry asked.

Gideon didn't pop up, but their voice sounded from the pedestal, "Yes, Mr. Allen."

The article popped up and Barry skimmed through the text while Cisco joined up to his side, looking intensely at it as well.

"What are you doing, Barry?" Cisco asked as he was also reading the article.

Barry shrugged, "Just curious," He mumbled.

The article mostly talked about the transaction of the deal in which Penny bought Mercury Labs for a whopping 1.7 billion dollars, which according to the article "didn't even dent her bank account". And it turns out Penny also owned Central City Bank! It was crazy! Then Barry came to a certain paragraph that piqued his interest.

"Ms. Rathaway's adopted mother commented about her daughter's success, "Yes, I am extremely proud of her. Everybody is, in her life. To think that just the other day she was sitting at the countertop doing her science project is crazy nowadays. I'm proud of all my children." Mrs. Lucille, the heir of Rathaway Industries, recently attended her adopted son's wedding (which was paid for by Penelope). The wedding was a private affair. Lucille attended without her husband but surrounded by her daughters, Penny and Aspen."

Barry stopped there. Wow. Lucy got married apparently, and the guy didn't even have the decency of attending the wedding. And Cisco was right, Penny would end up buying and ruling Central City. Peter, which Lucy had talked about, got married, but there was no mention of her other daughter which Barry caught a quick glance of when he came to apologize. He hoped within changing the future would also change the fate of whatever might have happened to Lucy's eldest daughter.

"Ah, man. We might need to get Penny in here." Cisco said while pointing to a portion of the article in which Barry hadn't gotten to yet.

Barry followed Cisco's finger which leads to a particular sentence, and his eyes widened.

"Penelope Rathaway, the most famous licensed meta-human." Barry read aloud. Penny? A meta-human? What? The article didn't say in what so Barry guessed it was a usual thing in 2024 for licensed meta-humans.

Barry shook his head, "We can't. I can't risk it. Not with this. We let them come to us, we are not forcibly doing tests on her or even pressuring her to do so."

"Bu-" Cisco started to argue.

Barry shook his head again, a protectiveness in his eyes, "No. How are we going to explain how we know? We are going to wait for them to come to us if they ever do. This could change the future and this is personal. Not having to do with the Flash. I am not going to mess with this family's lives."

Barry quickly put his hand to the pedestal, effectively turning Gideon off. He started walking away as Cisco followed him trying to convince him otherwise. Barry ignored his dark-haired friend and kept walking, then coming to the hallway.

Cisco shut up once they both heard the upcoming footsteps, they rushed away into the cortex to hide away as they both peeked over the side of the wall to see the Reverse-Flash. Cisco put his own hand over his watch to stop the beeping alerting him that the Reverse-Flash was in the building. Then for him to zoom away.

Barry got out his phone in a hurry, "Joe, the trap is a go tonight," Barry ended the call and then turned his attention to a waiting Cisco, who was thinking hard.

"Do you think Penny's gonna own this Lab too?" Cisco questioned. Barry chuckled, the situation now lighthearted.

"Heck, she can buy it for a lot less than 1.7 billion."

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Hey, guys and gals! I can not believe how large this is growing, I honestly thought it wouldn't grow this big and wow guys. Big thanks to returning readers such as morgank200 and 251stormbringer, to name a few to add to the people I have already thanked. At least, those are the people I keep seeing on my notifications. Be sure to vote and comment if you are enjoying the chapter!

By the way, I'm planning a Q&A for both myself, and the rest of my characters (OCS only) and so if you want to ask a question, please leave it in the comments. I'll be taking up questions until chapter 24.

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