DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Flash
Three Months Ago
At first, the only thing he could hear was the sound of his own heavy, desperate breathing. The world was blurred when he dragged his eyelids open.
The young man was tightly strapped to a reclined metal chair in the center of an empty, dimly lit room.
The man's thoughts were sluggish, yet they still plagued into his mind. Who was he? Where was he? Why couldn't he remember?
His head pounded.
Then a deep voice interrupted his thoughts. "Welcome back."
For some unknown reason, the voice caused a wave of fear to pass through the young man.
The restrained man blinked lethargically. His vision cleared to reveal a large person who was dressed head-to-toe in black. A dark mask obstructed their face.
"Let's see how much progress we've made." The stranger boomed, as they reached toward the young man's head.
"Wha…" The young man protested weakly.
When the fingertips made contact with his temples, a surge of energy entered the young man's body, causing him to cry out in simultaneous agony and shock. His wrists and ankles strained against his restraints.
And although the young man couldn't recall a single memory, the intense feeling of torment was oddly familiar.
Present
Joe West never stopped going to work throughout the seven months his oldest son, Barry, has been missing.
Under different circumstances, a parent wouldn't want to go back to their job while their child was suffering somewhere or possibly dead, but Joe is one of Central City's best detectives, and he has worked Barry's case tirelessly since the beginning. Although there wasn't much he could do unless he wanted to reveal Barry as The Flash.
Even as the days turned into weeks, then months, Joe continued his job in case someone somewhere found a lead to where his Barr was taken. But continuing his job forced Joe to also deal with all the other cases that come up. The cases he'd rather not have to work on, like the bank robbery that occurred today.
As the detective is surveying the crime scene, a conversation between an officer and a female witness catches his attention.
"There was… some kind of electricity and wind, and then all of a sudden a guy just appeared out of nowhere." The woman attempts to describe.
The officer probes further, "What did they look like?"
"I- I couldn't see him very well. He was fuzzy. If that makes sense."
Joe is slightly shocked.
'Could it be a speedster?' He thinks, 'There hasn't been a speedster in Central City since Barry fought Zoom- '
The room seemed to be shrinking. Joe has to get out of there.
As soon as the detective is out the door, he dials the number of someone he hasn't talked to in months.
"Cisco, are you at STAR Labs? There's a new metahuman causing trouble…"
AT STAR LABS
"Why are there so many speedster villains?" Cisco half-jokingly complains.
This is the first time that Caitlin, Cisco, and Joe have been in the cortex together in a long while.
The last time was when Barry had been missing for four months. The search was going nowhere, and Joe, quickly becoming discouraged, snapped at his son's friends before storming off. He accused them of not trying hard enough, and not caring about their friend.
Since then, Joe exclusively communicated with the team via over the phone. Even that communication dwindled down to nothing over time. Iris and Wally are still greatly involved with Team Flash, and Joe just expected them to inform him if anything new came up in the search, not that there was anything that actually came up. It was all a dead end.
So, Detective West finds himself asking why he would even come back after something as simple as a bank robbery (well, simple compared to some of the villains they've dealt with in the past). Maybe this meta's powers are hitting too close to home. Maybe he hopes that this could be a connection to finding his son. Whatever the reason, coming back to STAR Labs is like opening a curtain after being used to the dark for so long. It's giving Joe some hope.
"I'm looking at some of the traffic cams, and all I'm seeing is yellow lighting and a blur." Caitlin explains, displaying the video feed on the large monitor.
"What about the security cameras at the bank?" Joe asks.
Cisco swiftly answers, "Dismantled. Probably by the speedster."
"What about a speedster?" Iris' familiar voice chimes in from the doorway, causing everyone to swivel around.
Joe opens his mouth and hesitates, but the look on his daughter's face forces him to answer. "A speedster robbed Central City Bank this morning."
"Why didn't you call me when it happened?" Iris demands.
"I didn't want to upset you, baby."
"I can handle my own emotions, dad!"
Cisco jumps in, "Alright, let's all just calm down."
Joe's phone rings just then. After a brief conversation, he hangs up. "I have to get back to the station. I'll let you know if anything new comes up in the case."
After her father is out of earshot, Iris turns to Cisco and Caitlin, "Does this new metahuman have anything to do with Barry?"
"We don't have very much information on him yet, but we'll do everything we can to figure this out." Caitlin responds.
Iris sighs in frustration and puts her head in her hands.
Cisco places a hand on her shoulder, "Hey, we will figure this out, okay?"
"I just miss him so much." The journalist sobs.
Then Caitlin's arms wrap around Iris' shaking form, "We'll bring Barry home. We have to."
The scientist isn't quite sure if that statement is supposed to comfort Iris or herself, but it doesn't seem to make either of them feel better.
I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! There will be plenty more chapters coming as soon as I can write them. In the meantime, I love feedback and I would appreciate it so much if you left a review!
