The Boy with Blue Hair

Chapter 3

Young Boy in Critical Condition following Star Labs Incident (Mason Bridge, Central City Picture News, 2013)

After what seemed the juxtaposition of the century, where innovation slowed down progress instead of moving it forward, over two dozen people are being hospitalized for injuries resulting from the Star Labs Particle Accelerator Explosion. Amongst these people now, is a seven-year-old boy, who on behalf of his mother's request, remains anonymous throughout this article. The boy and his mother were returning home from a school-held science fair at Central City Elementary, hoping to avoid the impending storm. Unfortunately for them as well the entire student body along with their families was trapped inside a colossal amount of traffic relating to the Particle Accelerator that afternoon. Hours later, the boy and his mother finally arrived home safely, when the storm began to cause damage to the suburban neighborhoods in Central City. According to neighbors, the mother-son duo had just parked in the driveway and was heading inside, when the boy suddenly became caught in live wires, which caused him to lose his footing, and fall into the street, Moments later, he was suddenly run over by a skidding car. Fortunately, the boy survived completely intact but remains in critical condition in the same coma patient ward as CSI investigator, Barry Allen.

Both the mother and Star Labs founder/director, Harrison Wells, could not be reached for comment.

According to his mother, William had awoken from his coma a month after the explosion and was discharged the following week. However, despite Samantha filling her son on what happened, he never attained any memory of that night ever since it happened.

It was safe to say that William had already deduced what happened to him as the gears in his mind continued to work out any other theories in case he missed a certain detail that would explain why he could change his molecular structure and density as well as why they had come now and not when he left the hospital all those years ago.

He sat in his room that night after explaining his "sickness" in school to his parents. He hated lying to them, of course, after all the effort they were putting together to remain an open and honest family. But then again, was that merely a fantasy the Smoak-Queens were trying to achieve or a pointless escape from the jumbled and twisted family history that had led them all together at the same dining table that night?

However, as odd and different his family might have been, William couldn't even bring himself to say the word "powers" for some reason. Perhaps it was the fact that he was still struggling to accept them, even after only a few hours, or it was due to his incinerating emotions conflicting with his whispering thoughts that urged him to expect a frightened reaction from his parents, who were already scared enough of losing their city to a psychopath on a loose cannon.

In time, they would soon learn that he was hiding something; Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak were not blind after all, but if there was one thing that William was good at, it was concealing his emotions. It was just the tip of the iceberg of how much the boy had to learn about the night he received his powers – he did not know of Eobard Thawne's hand in creating the Flash at the time - so it was going to be difficult to "come out" to his father and stepmother, especially if he had no idea what to say first.

No. William would not allow himself to be corrupted by fear. He was his father's son, surely his father would not be afraid to face this situation firsthand, and certainly not without a plan first.

And that was exactly why he needed at least five hours of a good night's sleep, so he could continue looking into the situation with a calm and collected level head, just as his father would if he were faced with circumstances such as this.

Oliver Queen sat in his cell looking at the mirror in front of him and drew a thin line with his lips. He rubbed his hand where he sported a bruise from his recent stint in solitary confinement, but he brushed it aside at the memory of his beloved photo, which was essentially the only thing keeping him from losing his mind to the walls of Slabside, save for recent events of course.