It was just another day at S.T.A.R Labs. Barry Allen was ever continuing his training to improve his speed and powers so when he finally confronted the Man in Yellow, he would be able to beat him finally and clear his dad's name. As he ran on his "cosmic" treadmill as its creator Cisco Ramon called it, Barry waited for the next call to arms in their never ending hunt against metahumans.
It seems that ever since the particle accelerator accident over a year ago, there were more and more metahumans each day. Thankfully there were plenty of ordinary criminals there to keep The Flash in shape or else these super crazies would toss him around.
"Hey guys. Come check this out." Cisco called out looking something up on the computer. Barry stopped running as he, Dr. Caitlin Snow, and Dr. Harrison Wells walked/rolled over to S.T.A.R Labs mechanical engineer genius.'
"What do you got for us Cisco?" Wells asked.
"So I was looking through specs of S.T.A.R Labs making sure in the off chance one of our little baddies locked up down in the the jail gets out there's no way to escape and look at what I found." Cisco said typing on the keyboard. Just then a 3D model of the layout of S.T.A.R Labs pops up and focuses on a small room.
"The storage room? What about it?" Caitlin asked.
"Watch." Cisco said typing some more . The 3D model then shifted to reveal a large extra room attached to the small storage closet.
"That's new." Wells said intrigued by this development.
"What is that?" Barry asked.
"It's an entire section that we never knew existed." Cisco said.
"But how could we have missed something as big that?" Caitlin asked.
"We never really looked for it. Can't find something if you don't look." Cisco said.
"Good find Cisco. Let's go see this for ourselves." Wells said as the four off them headed towards the lowest section of S.T.A.R Labs.
As they climbed lower and lower into the depths of the building, Barry was wondering what was happening. When they got to the storage closet, they looked for any sign of a door, in spite there not being one.
"Well where's this door Cisco? Cause this looks like a regular closet" Barry asked picking up a mop
"I'm working on it. Don't rush me." Cisco retorted scanning the room, before stopping at the opposite wall. He pushed the wall as steam escaped through two cracks in the wall as the door opened. "Open sesame." Cisco added smiling.
"Nice work Cisco." Wells said as the four walked into the room. As they did the lights suddenly turned on. The room was entirely white and entirely empty say for one large storage container. It was rusted and old as if it's been there for centuries.
"Del….This container is old. Really old." Barry said reading the partial name on the front of the container. "Wonder what's inside."
"Well there's only one way to find out." Wells said with a hint of giddiness in his voice.
"Are we sure this is a good idea? What if it's boobytrapped or contains an evil monster or or…" Caitlin says trying to find another reason to not open this creepy random container.
"Nothing ventured nothing gain." Wells responded as Barry and Cisco opened the rusty door with much difficulty.
"This sucker is heavy!" Cisco complained through strained breaths.
When the they finally got the door open, the contents of it was shocking to everyone. Inside wasn't a weapon or a monster. It was a human man. He was wearing an all white jumpsuit that matched the walls and was sitting crossed legged on the floor. He was about 6'1 and had brown hair that was a bit messy. The inside of the container had no signs of damage to it. It must have been well preserved compared to the outside.
"What the hell?" Barry asked looking to head inside but something was blocking him. He held up his hands and placed them on this odd barrier that he couldn't see. "It's blocked off. Hey! Buddy!" The man who had his eyes closed suddenly opened them, they were a piercing icy blue. "Yeah you! You okay in there?"
The man got to his feet and walked up to the barrier that was separating the two. At closer inspection, Barry could see pain in his eyes as it looked like he was holding his breath and was struggling to breath, but he was breathing fine. Suddenly the man buckled and collapsed. Caitlin gasped as the barrier appeared to vanish as the man fell into unconsciousness. Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin ran up to the guy and checked on him.
"He's still breathing. Who is he?" Caitlin asked as Barry and Cisco picked the guy up so they can get him into a bed to check on his vitals. Wells stared silently and watched the scene unfold.
"This could get interesting." He said to himself with chuckle.
Back up in the cortex, Caitlin was at working examining the mysterious man as Cisco, Barry, and Wells watched. Cisco did some research on his tablet, trying to make sense of the cargo container.
"What's your name?" Caitlin asked calmly strapping sensors to the man's head.
"Zachary Bloom." Zachary said as Caitlin checked his heart rate.
"How old are you Zach?" She asked checking his brain functions. "Well it appears that everything is okay with you, but you're heart rate is a bit high and you've got some interesting wave activity going on in your brain but that is just most likely from the box and stress in general."
"I'm 27. Look do you know where I am?" The man asked suddenly.
"You're in S.T.A.R Labs. We found you in a container downstairs and brought you up. It seems you were down there for a while." Wells said as they entered Caitlin's little medical office.
"S.T.A.R? What is that?" Zachary asked but before he could get an answer, Cisco was chomping at the bits to talk about what he discovered..
"Guys, I think I've got something. So believe it or not there was a building that existed here before S.T.A.R Labs was even built! It's name was," Cisco said before being interrupted.
"Delvago Industries." Zachary said simply as everyone looked at him shocked.
"Yeah….anyways they were a research facility owned by a woman in Emily Delvago." Crisco said putting the picture of this older woman on the screen for them to look at.
"What? No! Emily Delvago wasn't the owner, she was the head scientist. Her husband Vance was the owner." Zachary said rubbing his head to alleviate a headache that was forming.
"I was just gonna say she inherited the company from her husband Vance after he died in an on sight explosion that killed 70% of the workers. Police reports state they have no idea what set it off but it was ruled an accident. How do you know all this?" Cisco asked as Wells remained silent, already figuring out the mystery man before anyone else.
"How? I work there. Emily is my boss." Zachary said in a matter of fact tone.
"That's not possible dude. Delvago Industries was demolished years ago and moved to Starling City the year after the accident." Cisco said concerned. Maybe this man was crazy and dangerous. Zachary, however, started laughing a bit.
"I see what's going on. This is a trick!" Zachary said with a chuckle, getting to his feet strolling out of the examination room into the Cortex. "Very funny guys. You can all come out now, you fooled me." Everyone, including Wells, were looking at him like he had 10 heads.
"What are you talking about?" Barry asked.
"Did Jacob put you up to this? That guy is such a jokester. Always pulling pranks." Zachary said laughing. "Come on guys, the joke is over. Where is everyone?"
"There's no one else here." Wells said calmly rolling down the ramp.
"Oh I get it. They put the experiment on a timer and went home! Man that's a new one." He said laughing but noticing the other's were not laughing. They were confused, a little concerned even. That was when he started to worried.
He quickly started to pace back and forth around the room. "It's a joke yeah it's just a joke. Emi is gonna jump out any second and we're all gonna have a big laugh about this. I bet they're in Vance's office watching this on the closed circuit just laughing." His voice started to break as his emotions were getting the better of him. His actions become swift and jerky as he started to look around the room, trying to find evidence that this was a joke and not really happening. He started to grab his head in a panic.
"This is a joke…...It has to be…...It's all just a harmless prank…..no….no….no...no..no no no no no NO!" He yelled as he sat on the ground holding his face.
"Mr. Bloom. What year do you think this is?" Wells asks calmly. Zachary looks at him trying to figure out why he asked that.
"1978…." Zachary said.
"Cisco. The year of that explosion at Delvago. What year was it?" Wells asked.
"1978 Dr Wells." Cisco said starting to piece it together as well as Barry and Caitlin.
"I'm sorry Zachary. You were trapped in that container for 37 years." Wells said sympathetically.
Zachary couldn't hold it back and begins to loses it and starts to heavily sob in front of everyone. Caitlin fights back her own tears as Barry just shakes his head, while Cisco frowns heavily.
A few hours later after Zachary has had a chance to calm down, he wanted some answers and so did Dr. Wells. "Mr. Bloom. Can you shed some light on why you were in that container?"
"It's actually Doctor but call me Zach. It was an experiment. Delvago Industries was working on ways to create superhumans." Zachary said as everyone looked at each other.
"You were creating metahumans?" Cisco asked.
"I have no idea what a metahuman is, but we were trying to crack the gene code that could grant a person abilities. They got the idea after that dude in Metropolis." Zachary said.
"Where did you get an idea like that?" Barry asked.
"Well the theory was: what if superpowers, so to speak, were not just a freak thing but part of our genetic code? That over the course of millions of years of evolution, man was at one point able to use certain abilities that got lost in time? We still share a close resemblance to our ancestor on a genetic level. If we could isolate those genes we could reactivate them." Zachary said, his eyes lighting up with life for the first in since they found him.
"And how does that connect to you being locked in a box?" Caitlin asked trying to wrap her head around this odd situation that they were in.
"Like I said, it was my experiment. We were testing the Time Distortion Gene as we called it." Zachary said getting some blank stares. "We were able to create a way for a person to distort time."
"That's theoretically impossible." Wells said with a chuckle.
"No it's not. It was a matter of figuring out how not to stop all of time but create an environment that was cut off from the rest of the world." Zachary said simply standing up walking over to the glass window, grabbing a black sharpie
"The barrier when we opened the door." Barry said as Cisco snapped and pointed at Barry thinking the same thing.
"Exactly. Everything in the bubble is existing in it's own little world, so to speak, that passes by at the rate of the person's choosing. To the outside world, time moves normal. In there it can be speed up or slowed down, even stopped." Zachary said writing a bunch of formulas on the window. "By isolating a small pocket, we've discovered that time is in fact not as linear and stiff as everyone originally thought. It's possible to bend and twist time. By bending it backwards we reverse time, and bend it the other way to fast forward."
Dr. Wells looked at the formula and examined it. Cisco was close behind seeing if there were any mistakes. The two started smiling as everything that was written was 100% correct mathematically. This odd man has figured out the formula to control time itself. Zachary smiled a bit.
"Well then, why were you the one chosen to do this experiment? Why lock yourself in that box?" Caitlin asked, unsure why someone would risk their health on something so dangerous that was uncertain. Ever since the accident that took her fiance Ronnie away from her, Caitlin has hated unnecessary risks.
"Why? It was all my idea." Zachary said. "I got the job at Delvago because I was already working on the formulas as my college thesis. When I graduated, they found my paper and hired me on the spot to make it a reality. Because of them I was making good money doing this."
"Enough talk. I wanna see this power in action." Cisco said excited. Zachary chuckled as he took an apple that was given to him by Caitlin to eat and held it up. He focused on the fruit as a shimmering bubble formed around the apple before vanishing.
"So now the apple is in it's own bubble of time. As long as the bubble remains in tact, the apple will move at a different rate." Zach said as the apple suddenly started to turn rotten then back to normal. "Only drawback is, once the bubble is broken any object or person that has been aged or de-aged, so to speak, they will be stuck that way."
"Totally awesome. You're like a human…..Stopwatch. Oh that's a good one!" Cisco said once again naming a metahuman. That seemed to be one of his favorite perks of his job.
"I must say Zachary, this is an impressive feat even by today's standards." Dr. Wells said poking the bubble. "What was the exact point of your experiment?"
"To test how large I can make the time bubble and to see how it affects a human after a period of 24 hours. I was to stay in the bubble for one day to see if I do in fact age at a normal rate or if time just stops inside the bubble until something is done."
"Well Caitlin. How old would you say Zachary would be biologically?" Dr. Wells asked.
"Uh…..all his vital signs point to someone who's 27, but there's no way to tell what harm is has done to him neurologically or even long term." Caitlin says uneasy about the whole thing.
"A success then." Zachary says under his breath sadly.
"I know this must be a hard time for you Zachary, but if you need a place to stay until you figure out what to do next, you are more than welcomed to stay here at S.T.A.R Labs." Wells offered, holding his hand out.
"Can't really say no now can I?" Zachary said shaking wells hand. Zachary got up and walked over to the computer the crew used to direct Barry when he's running through the city. He had his eyes on it since he first came to in this room.
"What is this device?" He asked looking at the screen and the digital keyboard. It was all sleek looking.
"It's our computer." Cisco said, earning a surprised look from Zachary.
"This is a computer?! This tiny thing? Ours took up an entire wall in our lab. How much space it got? 250 MB?" Zachary asked typing on the keyboard. The crew all just shook their head as they knew that Zachary didn't know any better.
"Try 3 Petabytes." Cisco said looking for a impressed reaction from Zachary but only getting a confused look.
"Is that alot?" He asked looking around.
"Yeah….it's alot." Cisco said sipping his soda alittle annoyed.
"Incredible though. This much advancement in less than 40 years. This lab alone looks more expensive than Delvago's entire net worth." Zachary said. "Mind if I look around on this?" He asked pointing at the computer.
"Go ahead. Take all the time you need. As for you three." Wells said turning to Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin. "We're done for the day. Go home and get some sleep. See you tomorrow." The three all said goodbye to Dr. Wells as they all started to say goodbye to each other.
"Night Zachary." Caitlin said to Zachary who gave a wave as he was engrossed in discovering how to work this amazing machine in front of him.
"You think he'll be fine?" Caitlin asked Barry and Cisco as the headed for the exit.
"You mean the guy who can control time who somehow got trapped and woke up almost 4 decades later? Yeah, I'm sure he'll be fine." Cisco said in a sarcastic tone. Caitlin didn't appreciate that.
"I'm just worried. Everyone and thing he knew and loved are probably gone. He's all alone." Caitlin said softly.
"We'll help him don't worry." Barry said smiling. That's why Caitlin liked Barry. He was always willing to help people no matter what.
Back in the lab, Zach was typing away. This computer was pretty straightforward to use in all honesty. Just type what you're looking for an it pops up almost like magic. There he found the news clips from the day of the accident. He had to know the truth. He started to read and read….and read. Every word he read made his heart fall faster into his stomach.
"What's this? List of missing scientists?" He said out loud. He clicked the list as it expanded and he started to read the names. "Rebecca Jimenez, Derek Constantine, Jacob Grimly oh not you Jacob…." He said softly mourning his close friend. When he got to the bottom of the list his heart stopped. There clear as day in bold print read the name, Zachary Bloom. Zach sat back in his chair and put his hands over his mouth.
"Oh god…...just what exactly happened that day?" Zach said out loud to no one. This wasn't his world. This wasn't his time. He was stuck here and had to figure out what he was gonna do now. Everything was changing and was not gonna stop changing for him.