"Hey, Barry, mind holding my coffee for a sec?" Caitlin Snow held out her coffee from the famous Jitters café to Barry.
"Oh, sure, Caitlin. What exactly are you doing?" Barry looked at the contraption that Caitlin was messing with.
"It's something Cisco and I have been working on. It'll help us monitor the vitals of the metahumans in the Pipeline with better accuracy."
"Ah," Barry nodded as Dr. Wells wheeled into the room.
"Good morning, Barry and Caitlin." Dr. Wells smiled.
"Good morning, Dr. Wells." Barry and Caitlin said in unison, prompting them to give each other a "that was weird" look. Cisco suddenly stormed in looking panicked. "Whoa, Cisco, you're more jumpy than usual. What's happening?" Barry asked.
"Look at the news," Cisco said concerned as he turned on Central City's news on the computer. It was showing live footage of downtown Central City from a news chopper.
There was smoke coming from buildings.
"We're coming to you live from downtown Central City, where a strange red creature has been terrorizing the area." A female news reporter was reporting from the chopper. "It appears to be shooting what looks like energy beams at buildings and at people. Everyone is advised to evacuate and avoid this area at all costs." The camera zoomed in on the creature as best as it could. It was standing on the street, sending multiple barrages of a red energy beam everywhere. It looked like some kind of red robotic bug creature. The entire team was watching the news in shock.
"That's…definitely not a metahuman, is it?" Cisco turned to the other three.
"What is that thing? And, where'd it even come from." Barry stared at the screen.
"I have no idea," Dr. Wells replied. "But, my guess is that it somehow came here after the particle accelerator explosion and maybe it was dormant until now or maybe it decided to go into hiding and wait for the right time to strike, assuming it's intelligent." There was no time to lose. Before anyone else could speak, Barry rushed over to his suit with his super speed and rushed out of the lab just as fast. As he ran at his usual superhuman speed, he wondered if this creature would be easier or harder than the metahumans he's fought so far. He could see the smoke by now and soon, he could see the creature in the distance quickly approaching him. As he came closer, he could see the creature aiming at a woman cowering in fear. Barry pushed himself to go faster, knowing this woman was in trouble. Barry focused his sight as the creature shot its beam. He could see the beam inching slowly towards the frozen woman. Before the beam could even reach halfway to the woman, Barry scooped up the woman in his arms and shot towards a safe area with paramedics around the corner. Barry unfocused and could hear the boom of the beam impacting the nearby building. The woman looked around in confusion, then at Barry.
"Oh, thank you Flash!" The woman said gratefully as he put her down.
"Are you okay? Anything hurt?" Barry asked.
"I'm a little shaken, but I'll be fine." The woman smiled. Barry nodded, then heard Caitlin in his earpiece.
"Barry, what happened?"
"I just saved someone...now to deal with that thing." Barry turned back in the direction of the creature.
"Barry…please be careful." Caitlin said.
"Don't worry, Caitlin." Barry ran around the corner back to the bug creature and stopped a few meters away from it.
"Hey! Bug face!" Barry shouted at the creature. It turned towards Barry, giving Barry a more detailed view of it. It had some kind of cannon on its back, which is how it was firing its beams. Its eye color somewhat matched its bright-red body.
"You dare yell at me, human?" Barry could hear a harsh, male voice in his head, which made him wince a bit.
"Yeah, I do dare! Stop terrorizing these people right now!" Barry threatened. Even if there were bad people in the city, he still wanted no one to die at all, even if that means pushing the limits of his speed. The creature's eyes glowed a brighter red.
"No filthy human tells Genesect what to do!" the creature known as Genesect charged his back cannon and fired. Of course, that wasn't a problem for Barry-his superspeed allowing him to easily dodge the shot. Genesect fired another shot, and another dodge.
"Looks like you can't hit me." Barry grinned. Suddenly, Genesect folded itself up, then shot in the opposite direction of Barry.
"Holy crap, that thing's fast!" Cisco said into the radio as he watched the blip representing Genesect move at incredible speeds. Without wasting a second, Barry began running towards Genesect. Besides the Man in the Yellow Suit, Barry had never met something that could match his speed like this. Both of them kept swerving throughout the entire city at their unimaginable pace.
"Guys! I'm trying my best to catch up with this thing!" Barry yelled over his running. Dr. Wells grabbed the microphone.
"You can do it, Barry. Focus on your speed and give it everything you got." Dr. Wells said, trying to motivate the Scarlet Speedster. Barry did as Wells said, and he slowly got closer and closer to the speedy-red creature, reaching out his hand to try to grab Genesect, but the hardy bug quickly unfolded and swung his arm at Barry, knocking Barry down and sending him tumbling on the street until he came to a stop. Barry groaned in pain as he grabbed his shoulder and Genesect landed and watched Barry slowly got up on his feet. Barry wiped some blood from his cheek and glared at the bug.
"I didn't think I would meet a human who could run as fast as I can fly." Genesect said. "I still won't feel regretful killing you." Barry wondered how he could defeat this thing. Speed punches probably wouldn't work, and it was incredibly fast, so fast that Barry had to put a lot of effort in catching up with Genesect. He then noticed how hard Genesect's exterior was, which made him remember Tony Woodworth and how he could turn into solid metal. Barry then looked back and ran away from Genesect. "Pitiful coward." Genesect scoffed. Barry was a long way away from Genesect by now. He pressed his hand against his earpiece.
"Guys, how far away am I from Genesect?" Barry asked in slight exhaustion.
"You're 5.3 miles…" Cisco stopped. "Barry…are you-"
"That's right," Barry interrupted. "Super Sonic Punch." Barry took a deep breath, then put all his effort into running in the direction of Genesect.
"Barry, wait!" Caitlin said, echoing what she said the first time Barry tried a Super Sonic Punch. Of course, Barry didn't stop. He could feel himself accelerating at a very fast pace. Soon, he could feel it-he broke the sound barrier. Windows of all kinds shattered as Barry sped towards the red bug. As for Genesect, he turned around after hearing the sonic boom. Before Genesect could react, Barry made one final push and laid his fist dead center in-between Genesect's eyes, causing Genesect to be flung across the pavement and skid to a halt.
"Another Super Sonic Punch, Baby!" Cisco yelled in triumph. The glowing in Genesect's eyes began to flicker as Barry walked over to Genesect, holding the hand he punched with. Genesect began to lift his pointed hand, followed by the same hand flopping on the ground with a loud clunk while the glow in his eyes completely faded-Barry knocked him out cold. Barry sighed with relief, pressing his hand on the earpiece.
"I did it, guys. He's out cold. Go ahead and prepare a cell in the Pipeline." Barry said.
"Will do, Barry." Dr. Wells said with a smile. As all three in the lab headed off to the Pipeline to prepare a holding cell for the mysterious hard-skinned bug. Barry had a little trouble picking up Genesect; it felt like picking up someone of his own weight, but he managed to carry Genesect on his shoulders as he shot off back to S.T.A.R. Labs. Barry arrived in the Pipeline with Wells, Cisco, and Caitlin. Barry walked on over to the open cell as the other three looked at Genesect in awe. Barry carefully lowered Genesect onto the cell's ground and walked out and Cisco shut the cell's door. Now, it was all a matter of waiting for Genesect to wake up. Barry turned to Dr. Wells.
"Dr. Wells, do you think the Pipeline can hold this Genesect creature?" Barry asked.
"Barry, I assure you, if the Pipeline can hold a man that can turn into solid metal and a man who can turn to into poisonous gas, then I'm pretty sure this Genesect cannot escape." Dr. Wells assured Barry. As if on cue, Genesect began to wake up, groaning telepathically, which was heard by everyone. Genesect noticed where it was and began banging on the walls.
"Where am I?! Get me out of here!" Genesect screamed. He then noticed Barry and his friends. "YOU!" Genesect screamed and fired a beam at the window, only for the beam to be reflected and hit Genesect, knocking him back onto the wall. Genesect quickly got up and banged on the window. "I will kill you! Do you hear me?! I will kill all of you filthy humans!" Genesect screamed as Barry made the "blah-blah" motion with his hands.
"Yeah, yeah, we get the idea." Barry mocked as the opaque seal closed over the clear door, silencing Genesect's telepathic screaming. As everyone walked back to the main room, Dr. Wells turned his head to Cisco.
"Cisco, I want you to come with me later to examine this Genesect creature and record some data of it. Nobody's ever seen an extradimensional anomaly like this, so we should record as much data as possible."
"Oh, sure thing, Dr. Wells." Cisco acknowledged. Barry rubbed his hand, still hurting from the Super Sonic Punch.
"Well, just another morning at S.T.A.R. Labs," Barry chuckled, also getting a chuckle out of Caitlin.