*DISCLAIMER: ANY FLASH (2014) CHARACTERS, EVENTS, PLACES OR RELATED ARCS ARE OWNED BY DC AND THE CW NETWORK. ANYTHING UNRELATED, SUCH AS ORIGINAL STORIES OR CHARACTERS WERE CREATED BY MYSELF. ANYTHING PERTAINING TO ANY PERSONS LIVING OR DECEASED IS STRICTLY COINCIDENTAL, AND ANYTHING OFFENSIVE WAS NOT MEANT TO BE SO.
THIS FIC IS STRICTLY FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY AND AS SUCH SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY.
CURRENTLY SCHEDULED TO END AT THE FINALE OF S1, AS SUCH IT WILL BE SHORT.*
I awoke to my usual house. But nothing was usual about why I woke where I did, in the kitchen. The wooden floors were covered in shattered glass, I was lucky that I hand't gotten any shards embedded in my skin when I fell.
I done a quick mental check to see if everything as still in place. To make sure nothing was sore, or for the tell tale sign that I was bleeding, or had been bleeding.
But there was nothing, and even though I knew I could injure myself further by moving, I still done so. No one would think to check my house for days, and by then any injury.. Well I didn't want to think about it.
It was morning now, meaning I had been unconscious all night. I cautiously made my way through the glass, and found shoes so I could move about with less worry. I done another basic check over myself to make sure I didn't have any injuries to worry about, and there were none that I could find. I was glad that was the case, I would need to go into work today. And it would be BUSY.
Especially if the Particle accelerator affected the city as much as it did my home.
***
The landline began to ring, with the cell tower barely functioning it was the only way to reach the doctor. She had managed to clean her home, somewhat. But there seemed to still be glass in places she could only wonder about.
She reached it just before it went to voicemail, 'Hello, Dr. Valerie Winters speaking.'
'HELLO, I'm so sorry. But its gone. The building is just not a building anymore.'
She furrowed her brows, the woman, Jess, was more mumbling than talking coherently. 'Jess, slow down. What's this about a building?'
'STAR labs blew up, but the shock-wave damaged our building and... And it's not safe in there.'
'Not safe?' Valerie breathed.
'They had to close it, and I don't think we'll be able to open again, what are we gonna do?' Jess started to sob, she'd just gotten the job at the center a few months ago after moving out. He could barely afford her place with the job, and that was only because she had a flat mate. But now? Now what was she going to do?
'It's going to be fine Jess, we'll work it out.'
'It's not okay! We have no job, how are we gonna eat?!'
Valerie wasn't to worried with that. She had managed to save a small amount, and that was thanks to having the house she was in. 'Jess, you're an amazing admin girl. Anyone would think your an asset, so you'll be fine. And I'm a doctor, so I'll find work somewhere.'
That was a sure thing in her line of work. There would always be sick people. There would always be injured people. It just irked her that there was never enough time to see to everyone that came in. Waiting times could be ridiculous in some departments.
But that was the way the world worked, and she was starting to realize she would never have enough time on her hands, she would just have to do her best. Like always. But sometimes, she wished it didn't have to be the same.
'Dr. Winters?'
The call of her name brought her from her thoughts, 'You don't have to call me that. I've told you countless times to call me Valerie.'
'Right, sorry...' She could hear a sigh through the phone. 'I'll talk to you later, Valerie. Hope you can find some work soon.'
'You too Jess. I'm sure you'll make some company proud.' She hung up before plopping down on the couch. This world had just gone from messed up to crazy. She just didn't know how messed up yet.
It took just over a month, and a handful of interviews just for her to get a part-time job in the hospital. Even then it was one to two shifts a week. But she was desperate.
It was in the E.D. Her first case came in, a bullet wound to the calf, it went clean through. But there was another to the chest, if they got the man into the operating room he would make it without a doubt.
They got him in the room, got the anesthetics, and he was out light a light. They began the procedure, first deciding on the best way to remove the bullet before proceeding.
Dr. Valerie Winters was extremely nervous, her heart was racing and she had to steel herself before they began. But that wasn't what happened.
For the first time in Central City, time was altered. But not to everyone in the city, or the world. No, it wss to a singular patient in the E.R. Patient Zero is what she came to call him. And it wasn't for any good reason.
His timeline was sped up, and it cost him his life. Instead of the operation going smoothly, too much blood was lost. And he woke up, screaming bloody murder at the doctors. But it wasn't their fault.
He died ten minutes after entering the theater. His cause of death was blood loss due to the gunshot wounds.
But it wasn't the first case like this, infections only a few days old were sometimes found to have inflated severely overnight. Or, they would just vanish.
No one would notice for weeks that this all occurred when one Doctor was on shift. But she did. But it was too late to right what had happened.
Her training began six months after the particle accelerator explosion. STAR LABS had taken a patient from one of the wards to their remaining facilities. He was in a coma caused from the explosion but she just thought he was some unlucky sod who had been struck by lightning.
She was wrong.
Valerie left her job six months after getting it, she turned to other means of getting money. More nefarious means, but it was money. She couldn't be at the hospital when she was doing more harm than good.
She wandered the streets at times, slowing down cars, speeding others up. She even discovered how to pause electronics. In short, she was getting better. But she wasn't good enough, one day she knew she'd have to confront the people at STAR Labs, and hope they could tell her what had happened. Why they had ruined the lives of thousands of people, if they knew the risks. If they knew it could curse people like it had her.
All she had wanted to do was save people, and her abilities had taken that from her. She had to switch off the side of her that cared about everything. And it cost her, now she was something else.
But despite how she lived in those months following her leaving the hospital, she tried to only target those who were criminals. It was harder than it seemed, sometimes she got it wrong.
This was how CCPD's finest found her one day. They were investigating reports of a hooded figure taking down thugs, muggers, car jackers- or would be car jackers. Some never got the chance to get in the car, they just stopped and... Well the rests history. Lets just say the cities crime rate was lower than it was before the explosion, but it gave way to a new class of criminal.
Valerie Winters wasn't a doctor anymore, not in practice anyway. Now she just wanted to know so many things, and she had all the time in the world.
Well, she would have if CCPD's Detective West, and his blonde compatriot hadn't come across one of her daring rescues. Three shots were fired before she vanished.
Neither of them knew what had occurred.
***
Three streets away a dark figure slouches against a wall in an alley-way. She had paused the three in the alleyway so she could escape. A bullet had 'nearly' lodged itself in her shoulder. She managed to pause it just in time. Any longer and it would have lodged itself in her shoulder-blade. But, she was getting better, and now she knew there were cops who knew she was different.
The pullet had just pierced her skin, she'd have to patch it up when she made it home. She jumped on her bike when she found it a street over and headed home.
Little did she know, it would be weeks before a streak took the city by storm.