I appreciate the support on this book. I can't wait for you all to read what I have planned.
Anna's POV
"I think I figured out how to track the thing that attacked us." Barry tells me. He pulls up a geothermic isotope map.
"You're using a spectrograph from the scene of the attack." I comment realizing where he's going with this.
"Right. There is a rare geothermic isotope that I reprogrammed our satellites to scan for. If we get a hit..."
"Then we can track our target." I finish and he nods his head. "Good work babe." Nora begins to cry. "Oh, I need to make her a bottle." I state and Barry gladly takes Nora into his arms.
"Come to Daddy." He kisses the top of her head and bounces her while I make her a bottle.
"You've been at this all night." I tell him. "Do you want to take a break?" I ask.
I'm not gonna rest while that thing is still out there." Barry says emphatically. "Besides, with Ralph overseas for a while, and Frost still recovering..."
"Oh, I'd say she's more than just recovering." Cisco exclaims as he enters the lab with Caitlin not far behind. "Check out this frosty twist." Frost now walks in almost causing Barry and I to fall out of our seats.
"I know this is a lot to take in." Caitlin starts off.
"That's an understatement." Damian drops down from the ceiling.
"Told you, they'd freak." Frost says to Cisco who hands her money. Everyone moves to the lounge needing to understand how all of this happened. "So you remember when Mirror Monarch blasted me with her gun?" Frost asks us.
"Mm-hmm." We're still trying to follow this but honestly, it's not the weirdest thing that's happened to us.
"Well, ever since that blast, we've had these crazy headaches." Caitlin chokes on her coffee. "Last night, everything gets fuzzy. Caity passes out. And then we wake up...totally fine. But there's two of us." Cisco is loving every second of it.
"I've done some minor research and I found out that Eva's mirror gauntlet contained a reflective mirror chip which I theorize forced Frost's cryogens to rapidly replicate and create a whole new form so that she could survive." Damian explains.
"Minor research?" Cisco questions.
"It's more than you could come up with in twenty years. Your brain is so small you would have swiveled up and died before concluding that you're a moron!" Damian insults Cisco.
"So can you still hear each other's thoughts?" Barry asks.
"Nope." Frost answers with a smile on her face. "Just sweet, sweet silence. and I get to keep my powers." She boasts. I share a look with Caitlin who is obviously uneasy with this whole situation. "Caity got to keep the doctor stuff and science know-how which is fine by me."
"You have always felt like two different people. Now you just have two different bodies." Cisco comments.
"But don't worry. I'm gonna figure out a way to get us back together as quickly as possible, because I'm afraid the longer we wait, the harder it'll be." Caitlin states and Frost won't even look in her direction.
"I mean shouldn't we be focusing on that berserker who killed Abra Kadabra instead?" She argues.
"Cait, she does have a good point." I state knowing that as much as I support Caitlin in her efforts to bring them back together I also know we have bigger problems on our hands.
"Where are we with Fuerza?" Cisco asks. Everyone gives him a confused look. "Fuerza." He repeats the word. "Spanish for strength."
"I'm surprised you know that word since you don't have any." Damian comments and Cisco throws his cup at him which Damian easily catches it and throws right back at him knocking Cisco to the floor.
"Damian." I scold.
"Bitch had it coming. You throw something at me you better expect it to come back at you ten times harder." Damian fires back.
"Look." Cisco jumps back up and brushes his hair out of his face. "She-Hulk was taken, okay?"
"Well, there's still no sign of her, but Barry has figured out how to track her." I explain. Barry is still holding Nora who is sleeping soundly in his arms.
"Oh good. Yeah. Cause Fuerza can survive an antimatter blast, that kind of puts her on..." Cisco looks at me and nods. "At your level of badassery." He compliments me. Alarms go off and Cisco checks his phone. "Satellites detected an isotopic signature?"
"That's Fuerza." Barry and I say in unison.
"Where's she headed?" Barry asks.
"Here, right now..." We all jump as multicolor lightning and thunder surround the whole lab.
"What's with all this thunder and lightning? Is Fuerza a speedster too?" Frost asks. We all direct our attention to where the lightning is focused from and we see a body hovering in the sky emitting the multi-color lightning.
"Who is that?" Caitlin asks as the person begins to fall. Barry quickly passes Nora over to me as he races to catch the unknown person. We all let out a gasp as we saw the stranger to be the Speed Force, Nora Allen.
"Help me." The Speed Force gasps. "Help me."
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We hooked the Speed Force up to monitors and she's resting as we're trying to comprehend how she's here right now. "I just got the Speed Force restarted, now this happens." Barry says in disbelief as we analyze Nora's condition.
"And what about your speed? Has it been affected?" Caitlin asks.
"No. At least not yet." He answers honestly. "I'm still trying to figure out how this is even possible."
"I have no idea. I have never seen biometrics like this." Caitlin states.
"You've never had a God for a patient." Cisco comments.
"The Speed Force took this form when she asked you to go into the Speed Force." I remind Barry.
"It's like Zeus coming down from Olympus, disguised as a mere mortal." Cisco continues in awe.
"Maybe she'll electrocute you." Damian mutters.
"Okay, but why would a God be asking for our help?" Iris asks.
"Whatever the answer is, I need to figure out a way to accurately monitor her recovery." Caitlin says and Barry speeds away and then comes back as quickly.
"Holy mother..." Cisco is losing his shit.
"You good?" Barry asks him.
"Yeah, just give me a minute." Cisco takes deep breaths.
"Seriously get it together. Him speeding away like that is nothing." I remind Cisco.
"Rapunzel you're such a little bitch." Damian adds.
"You shut the hell up." Cisco points at him.
"Make me."
"Guys!" Barry interrupts. "She's wearing my Speed Force Gauge now. Right now, it's red. If it changes, hopefully, that'll tell us her power levels are recharging."
"And if that's the case, maybe she entered a comatose state to help heal herself." Caitlin adds.
"Makes sense, and when she recovers, she can tell us who did this to her. It." Iris states.
"Maybe it's the same thing that can rip through an antimatter bomb like it's tissue paper." Barry comments. As we all see the results. "Those are residual geothermic isotopes. They're all over her."
"You think Fuerza did this?" Cisco asks. "Oh, that must have been one hell of a fight."
"Not as big as the fight we're gonna take to Fuerza." Barry says like it's just that easy. Cisco gives me a look.
"Okay, but this isn't just some run-of-the-mill meta we're talking about here. Whatever Fuerza is, she's powerful enough to hurt the frickin Speed Force. And what if she doesn't wake up? What happens to you?"
"Pretty sure the amount of times he's lost his speed and connection to the Speed Force and we've found new ways to get his speed back it's not his biggest issue." Damian argues.
"But it is an issue." Cisco states.
"Look, we've faced big threats before. Crisis, Savitar, Thawne. We beat them all." Barry reminds us. "If Fuerza did do this, she should be afraid of us." Damian claps and we all look at him confused.
"I'm so proud of you Father. That's right every D-list villain should fear your greatness." My eyes widen as he even sheds a tear. "And if any of them try to fuck with you I'll kill them. I promise you that." Barry goes over and hugs Damian and gives me a worried look.
"I appreciate the love Damian but no one needs to kill anyone." Barry says and Damian continues to cling to him.
"All right, I'll keep looking for isotopes." Cisco says.
"And I'll keep monitoring the Speed Force." Caitlin and Iris follow after Cisco leaving Damian and me alone with Barry.
"Fuerza is going to come back." I say and he nods his head.
"We'll be ready for it." Damian states.
"I already watched the Speed Force die once. I'm not gonna let that happen again."
"And we're going to do everything we can to help." I assure him.
"You three are the most important things in my life." Barry tells us. "I'm not going to let anything or anyone harm you if I can help it."
"I'll kill anyone and everyone for you Father." Damian declares.
"Okay, no more talk of killing in front of the baby." I say.
"She should know the family business."
"Killing is not the family business." I argue with him and he shrugs his shoulders.
"Speak for yourself." He mutters.
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Barry's POV
I can't stop watching the footage from my lack of battle with Fuerza. I can't help but overanalyze how I let another villain show up and wreak havoc on my beloved city. Cecile walks into the lab and I turn the footage off. "Whoa." She sighs as she sees the Speed Force for the first time. "So that's the Speed Force? Uh, Iris already texted me about everything." She rubs the back of her head and lets out another sigh.
"What's wrong?" I ask out of concern.
"I had a nightmare. But it was more like a vision. I don't know, I thought, maybe with my powers expanding lately, Caitlin could check out my noggin." She explains and then she's screaming out in pain.
"Hey...hey are you okay?" I ask.
"No, it's happening again, it's like someone's stabbing my brain."
"I'm gonna get Caitlin."
"No, no, no. Barry, Barry." Cecile winces in pain. "It's not medical. It's my powers. It's like they're picking up raw fear." She explains. My phone buzzes and I see a notification.
"There's a robbery downtown."
"It's okay. Really. I'm fine now." She assures me.
"Are you sure? Let me call Anna and see if there's something she can help you with." I offer.
"No, she has Nora and I don't want to bother her." Cecile says.
"She understands more than anyone what you might be going through." I tell her.
"I'll talk to her later. You go deal with the robbery. I'll be fine." She assures me and I feel conflicted.
"She's just a phone call away." I assure her again before I speed off to the scene. I race there and two guards are screaming.
"Flash, thank God. You have to stop that creature, it's gonna kill us!" I turn around and find nothing there.
"Ah..." I turn back and they're still screaming and now running away in fear. "Where are you..."
"Oh, you gotta go so soon?" I see a person in a magenta-colored mask walking towards me. I race towards them and place meta cuffs on them. And they just laugh. "Ooh."
"So let me get this straight. You made those guards hallucinate some kind of Godzilla rip-off that almost squashed them?" I question.
"Well, I suppose that is an accurate, if not immensely reductive assessment of the situation. So yes, I scared the hell out of them. And that was after showing them a vision of a dozen bystanders getting eaten alive by a very hungry kaiju. It's horrifying when you think it's your turn."
Okay, um look. Whoever you are, I really don't have time for this."
"My, my. How rude. And from a superhero? Is that actually allowed?" Now I'm getting annoyed.
"Okay, I apologize for the rudeness. But I hope you enjoy Iron Heights. Cause I really do have bigger problems today."
"Not yet, but you're about to." His eyes glow.
"Hey, I just got another geothermic isotope reading. It's coming from your location." Cisco informs me. The meta easily breaks free from the cuffs.
"Scared yet? You will be." The next thing I know I'm transported back into the Speed Lab and someone speeds towards me knocking me to the ground.
"You can't stop me, Flash. And you never will." I see Eobard Thawne.
"No, I'm not afraid of you anymore. This is just a hallucination." I stand up tall. "Which means you can't hurt me!"
"Time to repent." He speeds at me and hits me again and I crash into a pipe causing the room to be filled with smoke. I gasp as I feel agonizing pain coming from my chest. I fall forward and hit the ground hard then someone roughly turns me over.
"This is going to be fun." I briefly see Anna with her eyes glowing red gazing down mincingly at me. I touch my chest and then everything goes black.
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3rd Person's POV
In the medical bay in S.T.A.R. Labs Barry removes his bandage from his chest as the team discusses what happened. "Your vitals were spiking, but they seem to have stabilized. Your speed healing kicked in." Caitlin informs him.
"You were almost scared to death. And no one was there." Anan tells him as she tries to keep her eyes on Barry's face but ever since having Nora her hormones have been out of control so seeing her husband shirtless just makes her want to mount him right there in front of their friends. She tries to have some self-control but Barry is making it very hard for her to keep focus.
"What the hell happened out there?" Cisco asks.
"I was hallucinating. Thawne, A..." Barry looks at Anna who has moved a hand to rest on the center of his chest. "Babe, I'm healed. I'm fine." He assures her.
"Oh..." She moves her hand back quickly. "I know that I just...like to feel it for myself." Barry raises his brow at her knowing now exactly what she was doing.
"Um, who were you hallucinating killing you again?" Anna changes the subject. Barry rests his hand over hers which is still on the center of his chest where his wound was.
"Thawne and you." He shares. "I know it wasn't you but probably one of your doppelgangers. "It was like..."
"Like a nightmare come to life?" Cecile says as she joins the group. Anna passes a shirt to Barry who puts it on.
"Yeah. Like the guards in the truck. Wait, like you. You had a nightmare last night."
"Yeah." Cecile confirms. "Someone was broadcasting fear into their victims, and I'm tunning into it like an antenna." She explains.
"Fear I get. Hallucinations can make you freak out but not bleed out." Cisco argues.
"Whoever's doing this must be inciting extreme psychosomatic reactions. Barry's mind literally tricked his body into hurting itself." Caitlin explains.
"So if you die in a hallucination..."
"Then you die in real life." Cisco finishes.
"Well, he carried traces of the same isotopes we linked to Fuerza. That means we can track him too, right?" Barry asks.
"Right. And it means that Fuerza and Psych must be connected somehow."
"Psych?" Caitlin questions Cisco's naming choice.
"He's a psychic psychopath, causing psychosomatic symptoms. I mean the guy practically named himself." Cisco defends.
"People could argue the same thing about me." Anna argues.
"No, you are not a psychopath and you're more telekinetic than psychopathic." Cisco explains.
"He's only dangerous cause he got inside my head." Barry reminds everyone. "Cisco, do we still have some mental dampeners we used to fight Grodd?"
"We can try and repurpose them to repel Psych's hallucinations." Cisco states.
"Do it. If we can keep Psych out of our heads, he can't hurt us." Caitlin and Cisco leave to work on the dampener. Cecile gasps.
"What's wrong Cecile?" Anna asks concerned for her.
"That must have been terrifying, being trapped in that nightmare." Cecile says to Barry.
"I mean, I'm...I'm fine." He assures her. "Really, I'm fine. I mean, we beat those Big Bads already. Psych's no different."
If I'm being honest I love Grant Gustin in every version of himself. It made me so sad reading he felt insecure about how he looks. You never know how someone sees themselves.