CHAPTER TWO
"Hey I think you're actually starting to get the hang of this whole running thing," Sophia mused gleefully through her phone as she chatted with Barry and Cisco through a three-way call. She was on her way home after finishing a long night shift and desperately in need of some sleep because she had to be up at 1 to go to some conference at Stagg industries that work was sending her too, which made her regret signing up for the board when she realised she had to go to all of these events whilst sleep deprived.
"Barry!" Cisco yelled, causing Sophia to grimace on her end and push her phone away from her ear as she unlocked her car.
"What? Did I miss it?" Barry asked, sounding slightly out of breath on the other side of the line.
"You overshot by about six blocks," Cisco said amused by this.
"Spoke to soon," Sophia mumbled slipping on her glasses before she started up her car… just the usual routine of being half-blind. Day to day she was fine, but driving was always a hassle if she didn't wear her prescription glasses… she really needed to invest in some contacts, but she was getting off track here. Back to Barry trying to stop a fire.
"My bad," Barry sighed before running back in the other direction, determined to get it right this time. In no time he had zoomed into the burning building, picked up the little girl who was still inside and dropped her outside, in the safety of her mother's arms. Barry's heart swelled at the sight of the child safe, and he knew that look on their faces was the reason he did this.
Meanwhile back at Star Labs, Caitlin had entered the cortex and heard Cisco talking to someone, and looking quite suspicious as he typed away on his computer, a map of the city on his screen, and police scanners on in the background.
"Who are you talking to?" Caitlin asked, to which Cisco said "Nothing." And Sophia replied "Me." To save his butt and all of their butt's because if Caitlin found out that Barry was running around playing superhero then they would all be in big trouble. They had clearly remembered her lecture from the previous week, berating them for any kind of saving work that wasn't in direct regards to meta-humans. But the fire department needed some extra help today, and Barry sure wasn't going to let some people get hurt, or worse, die, because he was told not to.
"Are you talking to Barry?" Caitlin asked sternly putting both hands on either side of her waist, a frown beginning to appear on her face.
"Who?" Cisco said nonchalantly, and Sophia just figured she would stay quiet and focus on driving home.
"Barry Allen? Struck by lightning? Was in a coma for nine months? Woke up being able to run faster than the speed of sound? Ring a bell?" Caitlin asked sarcastically.
"No, haven't talked to him," Cisco said with pursed lips, shrugging his shoulders as he did so.
"What else you got for me Cisco?" Barry spoke through his mic, a trail of excitement in his voice as he finished saving a whole bunch of people from a fire. He was on a roll today and he'd like to keep it going. He swore that nothing felt better than the adrenaline rush of it all, and right now he couldn't get enough.
"Barry, its Caitlin." And with that the roll had dropped, stopped and basically died.
"Hey C-Caitlin," Barry dragged on, his nervousness obvious in his voice. He winced not ready for the verbal beating that was about to come his way. "How's your day?" he asked, hoping she didn't hear the previous comment, which was highly unlikely.
"Smooth Allen, smooth," Sophia mumbled on the line still listening into the failure of a team they were at keeping a secret.
"Get back to Star. Labs. Now." To put it simple, Caitlin Snow was pissed.
"On my way," Barry announced, running back to home base, not wanting to be in anymore trouble.
As Barry arrived back Cisco left the call on so Sophia was still in the mix. "Have you three lost your minds? Yes, Sophia you too," Caitlin said before continuing "Who do you think you are?"
"Well, I'm the eyes and ears, and he's the feet," Cisco replied cheekily.
"And I'm just here for support, go team!" Sophia said lamely through the phone.
"This isn't funny." Caitlin was seriously angry with them. "You could have gotten yourself killed. You can't be running around the city like some supersonic fireman."
"Why not? This is what we talked about, me using my speed to do good," Barry disputed, crossing his arms. What was really so bad about him going out there and helping people. If anything, shouldn't this sort of behaviour be encouraged?
"We talked about you helping us contain other people who might have been affected by the particle accelerator explosion. Meta-humans. And aside from Clyde Mardon, we haven't found any," Caitlin explained, and Sophia could hear the frustration in her voice and imagined there was a large frown to match that pretty face at that very moment.
"People in this city still need help, and I can help them," Barry tried to explain. There was so much he could do. Today he helped save the life of a little girl who might not have made it if he wasn't there. The fire fighters were at least two minutes out and by that time she would have passed out from lack of oxygen, and most of the building would have collapsed. "We can help them," Barry urged and Sophia let out an mmm hmm from the other side of the line causing Caitlin to groan.
"Will you please say something?" Caitlin said to Doctor Wells who just wheeled in to see the commotion.
"I think what Caitlin is saying in her own spectacularly angry way is that we are just beginning to understand what your body is capable of. Not to sound like a broken record Mr. Allen but I do caution restraint," Wells explained.
"Dr. Wells I doubt restraint is how you got to be the man you are today," Barry countered.
"In a wheelchair and a pariah. Lack of restraint is what made me these things. Know your limits." Wells advised, and Barry's anger softened when he faced the man sitting in the wheelchair.
"Don't expect me to patch you up every time you break something," Caitlin whispered harshly before moving along. Cisco gave Barry an awkward smile, trying to show that he was there for support. Caitlin was sensitive when it came to things like this, because of how Ronnie died. She didn't want to see anyone else that she cared about getting hurt, and this was just her way of distancing herself from her emotions.
"Uh not to be a party pooper, but I just got home and I'm in need of some sleep. I'll catch you guys later," She said, and they greeted her goodbye. She was pretty sure if she didn't say a thing, they would have forgotten she was on the phone in all of the commotion.
Just as she hung up Cisco asked Barry if he was feeling alright, because he had noticed a spike in his vitals, to which Barry said he was fine. Barry then got a call from Joe calling him.
"Hey, Joe, everything alright?"
"Great. I got a fresh crime scene, a dead body, and detectives interviewing witnesses, miles of that yellow tape stretched over everything. Only one thing missing. Can you guess what that is?" Joe asked sarcastically, when in reality he was seething. Barry was late, yet again.
"I'll be right there," Barry groaned as he hung up the phone, having forgotten he had work this morning, and was running late, very late.
"My day job beckons," Barry said before speeding out of there and to the crime scene, leaving Cisco, Caitlin and Doctor Wells behind. Wells then turned to look at both Cisco and Caitlin, an amused look on his face.
"When do you think he'll realise he didn't take his clothes?"
The consistent beeping noise wasn't enough to wake Sophia from her deep sleep. The only reason she had gotten up, was because her cat came and sat on her as she slept. She groaned, moving position slightly to get some more sleep, cuddling up to her soft pillow when it hit her.
The conference.
Shit.
She jumped out of bed abruptly, scaring her cat. "Sorry chewie." Her voice was thick with sleep as she made it to her bathroom and turned on the hot water. In record time she had showered, finished her make-up and threw her hair into a fish-tail braid to make it appear like she had put effort into getting ready. She slipped into a navy blue piece that came just above her knees, pairing the dress with a black pair of heels that she knew she could run in and not want to die within the first three seconds of wearing them. She was hopping to her front door as she shoved her feet into the shoes, grabbing her keys and praying to god that she would make it there in time without having to speed.
She was grateful that the weather was nice, the sun beaming down on Central City that day. At least, this would make the event somewhat bearable. She had arrived just in time, rushing through the front doors of the very large and impressive building, slowing down to walk in a more professional manner as she entered. She moved forward into the crowd only to see Simon Stagg being ushered out another set of doors by his security. She groaned, realising she had missed the event, well at least the most important person speaking at it. So she walked forward, grabbing a flute of champagne from one of the waiters, and downed at least half of it, needing the kick right now. She looked around the room only to see a crowd of reporters, and guests, and not a familiar face in sight. She sighed, looking back down at the glass in her hand and thinking what the hell and downed the rest of it, placing the empty glass on a table nearby.
She strolled around the complex, inspecting the new displays and pieces of technology, listening in on some scientists chatting with a few reporters about the new technology that Stagg Industries was starting to produce, and that would bring them to the forefront of scientific technology development. She scoffed mentally at some of the primitive technology they were speaking about. Star Labs had produced a lot of this stuff before the particle accelerator, even their competitors at Mercury Labs had this stuff months ago, so she didn't know why Simon Stagg was trying to make such a big deal about it all. After a while, even this interesting conversation turned boring and she was too tired to pay attention. In fact she was just staring into the distance until she heard someone call her name.
"Sophia?" she turned around, to see Barry and Iris standing a few feet away. She smiled and walked over, her heels clacking against the white tiles. She missed the dazed look Barry had as he looked at her sudden appearance, and probably the fact that she was in something other than her scrubs, or jeans and a coffee stained t-shirt. Her eyes then fluttered over to Barry, who was looking really good in a suit and she admitted to herself that it looked as good as his red one, and she had to bite the inside of her cheek to remind herself not to have these insane thoughts.
"Hey guys, what are you doing here?" She asked moving her eyes from Barry to Iris, causing Iris to laugh "I was going to say the same about you."
"I was meant to be here on behalf of the hospital board, but I slept in and it looks like I missed all the fun," she pursed her lips, not going to enjoy the berating that was surely to come her way once she returned back to work the next morning. She had already been late for quite a few shifts the last few weeks, and needed to redeem herself in the eyes of her manager, and this was probably not the way to do that, but alas, she honestly tried her best.
"I came to get a quote for my article from Simon Stagg, but Barry here forgot he was meant to come along to explain all the science stuff," Iris said, throwing shade at Barry to which they received a sheepish shrug causing them to giggle amongst themselves. But before they could continue their conversation there were multiple gun shots in the air causing them to duck and Barry grabbed onto both of them protectively, moving them out of harm's way.
"Quiet down! All of you!" and with that more gunshots rang out in the air as armed gunman swarmed the place.
"Oh my god," Iris whispered, panicking with wide eyes as the guests were held at gun-point.
"How considerate! You're all wearing your finest jewellery, almost like you knew we were coming to rob you! Now everybody line up!" The robber yelled out. There were six of them, all dressed in black with masks on their faces. They complied and lined up, guests starting to dump their finest pieces of jewellery into the bags they held out. From wedding bands, to pearl earrings, and bejewelled watches were thrown into the black bags, sending many guests into tears as their beloved possessions were stolen from them. Barry in between the two girls. As they were standing there, Barry looked around for a way to get out of there without anyone noticing, that way he could take care of the robbery. Sophia had the same thought, and as they looked around the room, a security guard walked in, a gun held tightly in his hands, as he pointed at the robbers.
With a shaky breath the guard yelled out "Freeze, d-drop your weapons!"
"Barry," Sophia whispered softly, looking around the room with wide eyes before motioning towards the guard to which he nodded and without a second to spare he had sped off, time slowing down as he ran grabbing the man and the bullets that were directed at him dropping to the ground missing their target. The robbers seemed to change their mind about the heist as soon as they noticed the streak was on the scene. They took what they had gotten and fled the scene, trying to make an escape through the back, as Barry followed them, trying to stop them.
As soon as the danger was gone both Iris and Sophia ran outside, in search of Barry. Sophia's eyes darted around, trying to catch sight of Barry but she couldn't see him anywhere. It was a few moments later that Iris spotted his collapsed body laying against a concrete wall as the getaway van sped off into the distance, the robbers getting away. Sophia sprinted over to him with Iris and she put a hand to his neck trying to find a pulse. Come on she thought to herself, as her fingers fumbled against his neck, trying to find the familiar thump of his pulse.
"Barry, Barry, Wake up," Sophia said as she felt a weak pulse. She placed her hand on his shoulder, shaking him lightly as he started to come to.
"Barry! I turned around and you were gone. What happened? Are you okay?" Iris asked in concern, grabbing the other side of his shoulder and helping Sophia lift him up off the ground.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine," he mumbled in a low voice, still trying to get a hold of his bearings. He found that his vision was fuzzy, and his head was pounding, like someone had hit it with a giant hammer.
"I wouldn't call that fine Allen," Sophia muttered looking at his fatigued form.
"I-I went after them to try and get the plates, and I fainted," Barry said unsure of himself, dusting off his jacket.
"Don't worry Iris, I'll get him checked out personally," Sophia assured her, unsure if Barry was faking that he actually fainted to cover that he was a meta-human or if he actually collapsed. She hoped it wasn't the latter.
They walked back inside the building, Sophia still keeping her arm around his for support, though more for her own peace of mind than to help him she realised. They walked in and bumped into Joe and Eddie who were canvasing the building.
"Where were you?" Joe asked Barry giving Sophia and Barry some sort of secret glance, probably referring to where his "other" self was, which obviously wasn't catching the bad guy.
"Dad, go easy," Iris explained placing a hand on his arm. "I found him outside, he fainted."
"You want me to get you a paramedic, Allen?" Eddie asked, clearly enjoying himself, but there was a hint of compassion underneath it all.
"No need, he has his own nurse," Iris responded cheekily, which caused both Sophia and Barry to blush a deep red, and she removed her arm from his figuring he could support himself by now and she didn't want to add to that comment at all.
"Let me talk to you for a second," Joe said, and with that Iris walked off, talking discreetly to Eddie whilst her father was distracted.
"You chased those gunmen, didn't you?" Joe whispered accusingly, a frown on his face. Barry looked at Sophia and then back at Joe, sighing, knowing that Joe had him caught.
"Yeah they must be the same guys that knocked over the gun shop earlier today," Barry said, explaining his theory to the cop.
"And what were you going to do when you caught them? Huh? Ask them nicely to pull over? You're not bulletproof." Joe said, a frown on his face. "Wait- are you?" Joe asked his anger dissipating and being replaced with intrigue as he raised an eyebrow.
"No but-."
"Okay, no more heroics," Joe concluded, point a finger towards Barry, eliciting a groan from the hero.
"Chasing bad guys is not your job," Joe said, "It's mine, you're not a cop. Promise me."
"Promise," Barry huffed, rolling his eyes slightly, not enjoying the lecture he was being given by Joe, especially since he had an audience. Sophia seemed to be amused by this, a small smile on her face as she watched Barry get told off by Joe.
"You too Sophia," Joe said, and this put a frown on her face.
"What, why me? I'm not the one with superpowers?" she pouted, crossing her arms.
"Yeah, but I want you to promise me that you'll keep him in line." Causing her to groan before she gave in. "Fine, but if he doesn't listen to me, technically not my fault, he's your kid," she countered, shaking Joe's hand.
"Fine. And you know Iris is not stupid. Start making better excuses than 'I fainted'," Joe scoffed.
"But I-," and Barry couldn't finish his sentence because Joe walked off, talking to another officer.
"Well look at it this way, it's not like your day can get any worse right?" Sophia offered, shrugging as she gave Barry a small encouraging smile to which he sighed, hoping it was true.
"You lied to us! How could you not tell us you're experiencing dizzy spells? We're your doctors!" Caitlin yelled at Barry, rushing back and forth between her equipment which caused him to groan again, he seemed to be doing a lot of that lately.
"It got worse." He said, eying Sophia, and she just sent him a pointed look from across the room. She crossed her arms and leaned back into her chair, kicking off her high heels which were now bruising her feet. She really needed to invest in some comfortable platforms… if such things even existed. She had to commend Iris, who seemed to wear them almost every day, and not complain at all, she was jealous of her ability to wear heels for that long without wanting to claw someone's eyes out.
"It's your own fault Allen. Caitlin's right. If you were having dizzy spells you should have told us, god knows what's going on inside your body," she responded, brushing her hair behind her ear as she stared at him. She stared at him for a few seconds longer, realising her mistake, shaking her head to try and get rid of any inappropriate thoughts running through her head about his body. Get a hold of yourself Lang.
"Your cells are in a constant state of flux. You could be experiencing cardiopulmonary failure or a transient ischemic attack." This was not Caitlin's day, and Sophia could empathise with her, it was quite frustrating when your patient kept important details hidden.
"Mini stroke," Sophia said, filling in the blanks as she saw the look of confusion on his face.
"Probably not," Cisco threw in as he spun around in his chair popping a purple lolly pop in his mouth.
"You of all people should know that in science, we share. We do not keep secrets." And with that she moved off into the lab to finish off Barry's blood work.
"Wow, I haven't seen anyone make her that angry since Ronnie," Cisco said, passing Sophia the bag of lollies when she raised an eyebrow at his lollipop, popping a jelly baby in her mouth as she ruffled through the bag of sugary goodness, looking for something sweet.
"Ronnie was Caitlin's fiancé? The one that died the night of the accelerator explosion?" Barry asked, intrigued. No one here spoke too much about life before the accelerator, just because it was too painful to relive the memories of that night, and remember those who didn't make it out alive.
"Yeah… he is missed," Cisco spoke softly, and Sophia looked away, remembering Anna once again. It was nearly 10 months on and she still felt sick to her stomach every time she remembered that day. But she tried, she really did. Every day she tried to move on as much as she could, to remember Anna, but not let her memory hurt her. She knew that if her friend was still alive, that's what she would want her to do. She would tell her to move on, and to live her life, and not let the past control her future.
"Now let's figure out why this is happening to you." Cisco changed the subject, bringing Sophia out of her thoughts. He set up one of the smaller rooms in the cortex ready to test Barry and figure out what was going on. Sophia walked in, to see Cisco adding the final touches. He had taken a treadmill and modified it to suit Barry's needs. It looked quite impressive, and Sophia just hoped that it would work. Once Cisco gave the all clear, she went to gather everyone.
"We're all set," Sophia mentioned, gaining their attention.
"A little padding, just in case," Cisco grinned, motioning to the cardboard boxes behind the treadmill that were supposed to act as a safety net… of some sort.
"You sure about this Cisco? Most home treadmills have a maximum speed of-." But before Barry could finish Cisco cut him off.
"This one has been Cisco'ed, trust me. It can handle your speed," He pronounced, smugly and Sophia gave him a small smile and a thumbs up.
"Okay." And with that Barry started running, his body a blur as the treadmill went faster and faster and faster. Sophia was caught up in staring at Barry as his body moved so fast. It was amazing to see, and it still made her heart pump faster in excitement every time. The blur of red seemed to give off yellow-even golden perhaps- electricity as he ran.
"Heart rate, blood pressure, nerve conduction all normal," Caitlin announced out loud flicking through the pages on the tablet as new information came up the more Barry ran.
"Brainwave function within standard limits," Sophia called out from her station as they viewed Barry through the glass.
"I told you the treadmill could take it." Cisco laughed, clearly proud of himself. Sophia threw him a smile before moving across the room to another screen, when she found what she was looking for. If he was generating that much electricity as he ran, and he was using up all this energy to move at these speeds, then something would have to give. As she looked over the data she knew straight away what the issue was.
"Caitlin, take a look at his glucose levels," Sophia mentioned, motioning to the screen in front of them. Sophia squinted her eyes at the screen, watching it carefully as Barry kept running. His glucose levels were rapidly dropping the more he ran.
"Oh, my god. Of course," Caitlin said, in a 'duh' tone.
"Right, it was so obvious. Can't believe we didn't think of it before." Sophia face palmed. It right in front of their faces the whole time.
"Barry! We think we know why you keep- passing out," Caitlin said through the mic, as Barry literally fell backwards, hitting the padded wall as he collapsed again.
They managed to get him settled on the bed, and Sophia attached various IV bags to get fluids pumping through his system. Soon enough he regained consciousness and groaned yet again.
"I passed out again?" He asked to which they nodded.
"Total metabolic failure brought on by acute hypoglycaemia," Caitlin explained, tinkering with her tablet as she went through the calculations.
"I'm not eating enough," He concluded, laying back down on the bed and closing his eyes.
"So an IV bag and I'm good to go?" He figured, only to open his eyes as he heard Sophia's laughter. "Try 40 Allen."
"Guess you were thirsty," Cisco joked.
"We're gonna need to fashion you a new diet based on your metabolic changes. I've done a few calculations. You need to consume an amount equal to roughly 250 tacos, unless we're talking cheese and guac, which is like a whole other set of equations," Cisco trailed off to himself, getting way too excited about Mexican food, and Sophia had to admit that all this talk of taco's had her craving some.
"For Mexican, I recommend Tito's. On Bruckner Avenue? Best Burrito in the city," Joe said, walking into the cortex. As Sophia heard his voice she gulped and turned to look at Barry who had the same pained expression on his face.
"Detective West, what brings you to Star Labs?" Doctor Wells asked, even though it was painfully obvious.
"When I couldn't find you at your lab, I started doing a little research. Turns out there's been reports of a red streak around the city, stopping muggers, rescuing people from burning buildings," Joe said, in an accusing tone.
"You didn't tell him we were working together?" Wells inquired, turning to face Barry.
"Joe, I can explain," Barry started, but was cut off by Joe.
"You already have a job in law enforcement Barry, I suggest you get back to it," Joe said.
"Mm-hmm," Caitlin hummed in agreement, to which Joe looked at her with a 'are you serious' expression.
"Don't look at me, I'm on your side," She explained moving along.
"Detective, we all want what's best for Barry," Wells tried to explain only to be shot down.
"If you wanted what was best for Barry, you'd try to talk him out of this lunacy instead of encouraging him going out there and risking his life," Joe criticized, expecting more of the man sitting in the wheelchair, who knew how dangerous this line of work could be .
"You saw a man control the weather. What are the police going to do against someone like that?" Barry asked desperately. He was trying to convince Joe that what he was doing out there was important, and that there was no one else who could take his place.
"Since the accelerator explosion we suspect there may be more like him." Wells threw in.
"And you're gonna do what? Catch them? Are you insane? You think because you can run real fast that you're invincible? You're not! You're just a kid," Joe yelled, the argument was getting intense real fast, and Cisco, Caitlin and Sophia all sent wary glances to each other.
"My Kid," Joe finished softly. It wasn't that he didn't believe in Barry, it was that he was scared. Everything he thought was real was just flipped on its head, and he was scared that Barry would get injured, or worse, killed by being this vigilante of sorts.
"I'm not your kid, Joe. And you're not my father. My father's sitting in Iron heights, wrongfully convicted. You were wrong about him, and you're wrong about this. Now I may not be able to help him, but if I can save someone from a burning building or stop some armed thieves, I'm gonna do it."
"And you can't stop me, so don't try." And with that there was silence in the room before Joe finally spoke up again.
"You think you're so smart. All of you. But you don't know what you don't know. And I hope that you're clever enough to figure it out before somebody gets killed." And with that Joe walked out of the cortex, and there was a look of regret on Barry's face. Sophia bit her lip, and then walked out of the cortex, and after Joe.
"Detective West, wait," Sophia shouted as he walked out of the building. He turned around but was silent until she caught up to him.
"I'm sorry. I made a promise that I knew I couldn't keep. I know it's dangerous out there, and everything is so new, but Barry," she took a breath before continuing "Barry can save people. Today he saved a little girl from a burning building, and the day before that he saved a family from dying in a car accident, what I'm trying to say is, try to see it from his point of view. He just wants to help, and if he's going to do it, wouldn't it be better if he had the support, love and guidance from his father than without it?" she asked, with pleading eyes. Joe's face had softened but it was soon replaced with a stoic look she knew all too well.
"I'm not his father," Joe said with a tight voice that caused her to sigh and look down.
"You know he didn't mean that, he's just angry," she reasoned.
"He may have been angry, but he's right. I'm not his father, his real father is sitting in Iron heights and I help put him there." Joe finished before his phone started beeping. "I'm sorry I have to go." And with that he left. Sophia felt deflated that she couldn't help smooth things out. The argument between Barry and Joe seemed to have bad effects on both sides. She walked back into the cortex, to find that Barry was missing.
"Where did Allen go?" She asked Caitlin.
"CCPD called him into work," Caitlin explained to which she nodded.
"Well since I'm here and in this gorgeous dress, want me to help you with anything?" Sophia asked with a grin, hoping that she could at least help the team out since they all had a horrible morning.
"Sure, I could use some help re-stocking the medical cupboard and sorting out the drugs," Caitlin said with a small smile, connecting her arm with Sophia's as they walked through the halls of Star Labs and decided to catch up. They hadn't had much of a chance to do that since all of this meta-human business began.
They spoke mainly about mundane things, like if they had caught up on the latest episodes of their favourite TV shows, or what new recipes they had tried out through their weekly cooking. Sophia had an obsession with stir-fry dishes recently, and she had been dying to tell Caitlin about her new discoveries as she experimented with her cooking. The conversation then trailed off to the latest in regards to their superhuman workmate and what had happened that day, leading to a topic that was sensitive to both parties.
"I know the real reason you're angry at Barry," Sophia said softly, causing Caitlin to look at her as she placed the final box of epinephrine on the shelf. "It's the same reason I was angry at him this morning as well."
"And pray tell, what is that?" Caitlin asked, closing the door to the cabinet and locking it up.
"Ronnie… Anna… losing them like we did, it's changed us, and you were scared this morning when he got hurt, because you're comparing him to Ronnie," Sophia said carefully, hoping that Caitlin wouldn't take offence. When she saw Caitlin's shoulders shrink down in what looked like acceptance, she moved to give her a hug.
"I know what you're going through, and I just want to remind you that you're not in it alone." Caitlin wrapped her arms around Sophia, holding onto her tight.
"I'm sorry, it's just so hard," Caitlin whispered, holding back the tears as she thought about Ronnie.
"I know." The two girls stood there for a good few minutes, trying to comfort and support each other as best as they could, making a promise that they would make it through this together.
Meanwhile back at the CCPD, Barry heard the captain yelling orders at other officers as they rushed around in a frenzy.
"Captain, what's going on?" Barry asked in a rushed tone.
"Not now, Barry," the Captain sighed, he had enough on his plate right now and had on time to explain what was going on, but by the look on Barry's face he knew if he didn't tell him what was going on, he would waste more time trying to get rid of him.
"An armed gunman is shooting up Stagg industries," Singh explained walking into his office and trying to co-ordinate his detectives to get the problem sorted.
"Joe's there." Without wasting another moment Barry had suited up and ran at full force towards Stagg Industries. Yes he was angry with Joe right now but he would never ever let anything happen to him. He was there within seconds, and he pulled Joe down, covering him from a Bullet.
"I'll cover you. Ready? Go!" Barry yelled at Joe, pushing him towards the exit and covering him from the suspect Danton Black.
"Go!" He yelled again when Joe yelled "No," before he picked him up, rushed him out of the building and then came back to fight off the 6 men in black. Barry sped forward punching the man in front of him, only to have another be pushed straight out of him. He stood there bewildered for a moment and was caught off guard as he took a right hook to the face.
"Whoever you are, give yourself up," Barry yelled moving out of the way before he was hit by another fist flying towards his face.
"We are not going anywhere," one from the back said, before they all said together in a monotonous voice "Until Simon Stagg is dead." And with that they all rushed at Barry, punching and kicking anywhere and everywhere they could. It took all of Barry's strength to push them off enough to give himself time to speed out of there. His legs moved him out of there and he found himself outside leaning against a metal fence as he panted, ripping his mask off his face to reveal it was covered in cuts and bruises.
It was not even two minutes later and he was back in the med bay at Star Labs and Sophia was treating the cuts on his face. She dabbed antiseptic onto the cotton swabs and lightly patted his face, cleaning the blood off to make sure the wound didn't get infected.
Barry hissed in pain, his face scrunching up as the alcohol stung. "Sorry, should have warned you," She said in a soft voice. "The abrasions are already rapidly healing, it won't hurt for much longer," she smiled placing a hand on his shoulder and their gaze met for a moment before she removed her hand and went back to cleaning up the equipment.
Barry took a deep breath looking away before paying attention to everyone else in the room. "Yeah, I got my ass handed to me," he breathed out, not feeling confident at all in his ability at this point.
"You got blood on my suit," Cisco whined, as he cleaned up the red suit, which was quite hard considering since he couldn't really see half the blood that was on there.
"I think some of it belongs to him," Barry joked, as he moved which caused him to wince in pain.
"I'll get you some ice," Caitlin said grimacing at the bruise that was now clearly visible on his jaw.
"Another not-so-friendly meta-human," Cisco said in a sing-song voice.
"Danton Black," Wells pronounced, examining his profile on the computer.
"He's a bio-geneticist specialised in therapeutic cloning. Growing new organs to replace failing ones," Sophia explained, flicking through the profile on the tablet Cisco hooked her up with.
"Apparently Staff stole his research and then fired him," Caitlin said as she walked into the room, passing Barry the ice to which he gave her a grateful smile.
"I saw Black create duplicates from his own body."
"That's pretty ironic," Cisco remarked, "The guy specialised in cloning and now he can make Xeroxes of himself."
"If he was experimenting on himself when he was exposed to the dark matter wave released by the particle accelerator explosion-," Wells was talking when Cisco cut him off "Meet Captain Clone,"
"Don't worry, I'll come up with something cooler," He reassured everyone in the room, as Sophia barely kept in a laugh. Barry moved, getting up from his seat on the bed, and slipping on his jacket.
"Where are you going?" Caitlin asked him.
"Joe was right. I'm in way over my head. Yeah I'm fast, but I am no warrior. Man, I could barely fight one meta-human, let alone six," Barry said bitterly. He headed in this way too confidently, without having the power to back him up, and he had failed. Danton had taken him down easily, and there wasn't any speed that could match his clones, at least that's what Barry told himself.
"Barry you-," Sophia pleaded. He couldn't give up now, yes he needed work but that's the whole point of the team.
"I understand," Wells said, cutting her off. "Today was a setback, but any grand enterprise has them, and we can never learn to fly without crashing a few times."
"This wasn't a grand enterprise Dr. Wells. This was a mistake," He said with a flat tone, before leaving the cortex with his jaw clenched, and both girls sighed. Today was turning out to be a very emotional day, and Sophia hadn't even had her morning coffee. She glanced at the clock and found that it was only five pm, they were in for a long night.
"So what do we do now that our knight has left the board?"
"We find Black's weakness."
"Sophia, call Barry," Caitlin urged with a wary voice, and Sophia nodded vigorously, keeping her eyes trained on the figure in front, and shakily grabbing her phone out of her pocket.
"Y-Yeah, calling Barry," She held down the number two on her phone, speed dialling the man in red.
"Look, I told you I'm through," Barry said through the phone in a frustrated tone. He felt bad enough that he had given up, and he didn't need them calling him every few seconds to try and convince him to come back.
"I-I know, but you need to get to Star Labs right now," She rushed out, her voice in a tone of urgency which must have done the trick since he was there not even a second later, bringing a rush of air with him.
He stood right in front of her, in a protective stance as he looked at Danton Black's clone with wide eyes.
"Barry, it's okay." She grasped his shoulder.
"It's not okay, Black is here, and he's just- standing there," he trailed off, realisation setting in after the panic left.
"That's not him is it?" he asked, turning around to face Sophia, only to find that they were closer than he realised. She gulped moving back slightly before she lost her balance.
"It's one of his replicates," she replied as Caitlin went on to explain how he came to be.
"I isolated a sample of Black's blood from your suit to see if I could trigger the in vitro cultivation process and learn how black multiplies. So I exposed the target cells to a protein gel, and they began replicating into that," Caitlin provided the science download as everyone in the room inspected the Clone.
"Why isn't he doing anything?" Barry wondered, as they all stared at the clone.
"We did a brain scan, involuntary motor functions are active, little else," Sophia said.
"We think it's acting as a receiver, the clones are an empty shell without Black," Cisco continued to explain.
"Shut down the real Black, and you might shut them all down," Dr. Wells concluded.
"But how do we know which ones the real Danton Black?"
"That occurred to me given your own passing out. Black has limits, just like you. Controlling all of these clones must require a tremendous amount of physical strength. So, look for the one showing signs of weakness or fatigue, He's the prime."
"Just a theory, but one you might want to put to the test, Mr. Allen," Wells finalised.
"Plus, I whipped up these high calorie protein bars for you to keep your metabolism up!" Cisco exclaimed proudly.
"Ah!" Sophia screamed, with wide eyes as she grabbed onto Barry's arm when the clone moved forward, nearly grabbing onto her. A few gunshots rang into the air, and the clone crumpled to the ground, revealing Joe who was standing behind him, his gun aimed at the body.
"Any more of them?" Joe asked, and Caitlin replied with a "No," as Sophia suddenly let go of Barry embarrassed that she had held onto him. They both looked away from each other as Wells spoke.
"My guess is the prime is on the move, this one heard the summons to battle," Wells said, his words leaving a bad feeling in the pit of Sophia's stomach. She hoped that Barry was fast enough to beat Danton this time. If he wasn't, who would be?
"Stagg Industries," Joe muttered, causing them to all look at him.
"You should call it in," Barry said, looking at Joe.
"The police can't fight this. What Black's become, Like Mardon, beyond me. Maybe way beyond them too, the only person it's not beyond is you. You gotta do this," Joe breathed out, placing a hand on Barry's shoulder, and giving it a squeeze. After Sophia's speech, Joe had realised that Barry was just trying to do his best to keep everyone safe, and after the failed attempt to apprehend Black by the police, he knew that the only person who could stop him was Barry.
"I get it," Barry said, a wide grin forming on his face.
"So for once in your life, do what I tell you to do. Go stop him," Joe said proudly, and Barry was gone in a flash.
The rest of the team hovered above the computers, Cisco setting up the communication between them and the suit and Caitlin monitoring Barry's vitals whilst Sophia looked up the floor plans for Stagg Industries and the two older men watched over in fascination as they moved so fast, anticipating what would happen next.
Barry tried his best to talk Danton out of it, but he was adamant at getting his revenge on Stagg after his wife died. There was a lot of grunting on the com line and Barry seemed to get in a few good shots, but not until Danton released what seemed to be nearly a hundred versions of himself to fight Barry.
"Ah!" Barry grunted, as he was hit again before zooming off to a higher vantage point in the building, looking down upon the mass crowd of clones. They ran forward, the huge mass coming straight for him, some on lower levels, others climbing up the stairs and ready to end it all.
"Remember, Barry. Find the prime," Wells directed, trying to guide Barry as best as he could.
"There's too many of them to fight," Barry shouted through his mic.
"Barry, you need to isolate the prime," Wells repeated, slipping his glasses off and rubbing a hand down his face.
"I can't. It's impossible."
"Nothing's impossible Barry. You taught me that. You can do this." There was a lot of yelling, grunting and heavy breathing before a throaty laugh came through the line.
"Barry, Barry, are you alright?" Sophia asked, repeating his name when she didn't hear a response.
"I'm fine, it's done," Barry laughed in relief.
"Hang on! No! Don't!" They heard him yell, the panic back in his voice. That was the last thing they all heard before Barry came back into the cortex, slightly deflated. Danton had jumped.
Cisco turned on the TV, to show the news broadcasting from Stagg Industries, with the crime scene in view. "Central City police officials are now confirming former employee Danton Black-." Cisco turned it off, everyone knowing the rest of the story.
"I tried to save him," Barry whispered. He felt responsible for what happened. Danton had failed, and had lost his wife. He had nothing left to live for, especially considering the rest of his days would be spent inside a jail cell. So Danton had jumped out of the broken window, falling to his death where he hoped he would be reunited with his wife.
"Doesn't sound like he wanted to be saved," Joe said, trying to reassure Barry that he couldn't have done anything to change what happened.
"Some people, when they break, they can't be put together again. Some people heal even stronger."
"I hope so," Barry sighed, running a hand through his hair.
"Well, at least multiplex won't be able to hurt anyone else," Cisco said smoothly from his chair, giving Sophia a wink, "Told you I'd come up with a cooler name."
"Yeah, I may be the one in the suit doing all the running, but when I'm out there helping people, making a difference, You're all out there with me," Barry confessed, bringing a smile to all of their faces.
"Finally realised something today, we were all struck by that lightning." Smiles were beaming, and teeth gleaming as they all enjoyed the moment. Well at least until Sophia's phone beeped and started to play uptown funk, interrupting the moment. With wide eyes she grabbed her phone from the desk, turning the alarm off in a flash with embarrassment, and then proceeded to groan.
"Well, just as you finished with the saving quota for the day, I just got called back into work to do just that," She sighed, before looking back at the time, "Crap, I'm meant to be there in ten!" she yelled in realisation, grabbing her heels from the table which she took off because they were starting to hurt. She turned around momentarily, seeing Cisco laugh at her reaction before she was picked up and sped off in a blur.
She couldn't describe the feeling. Barry's arms were around her waist, and it felt like she was moving through the air, and before she could comprehend it she was at her front door causing her to gasp as Barry placed her on the ground, releasing her from his hold.
"Whoa," she whispered, holding onto Barry's arm to keep her grounding. Her hair brown was windswept, and her mouth in a 'o' shape as she tried to regain her senses.
"Yeah," Barry grinned, trying not to laugh at the gobsmacked look on her face.
"Wow."
"Yeah."
"You just-."
"Thought you'd want to make your shift reasonably on time," Barry said, giving her a heart-melting smile.
"A little warning next time would be nice, but thanks Allen."
"Guess it's my way of making it up to you, after all I did spill coffee all over you when we first met."
"Well technically when we first met you were unconscious, nearly brain dead and I was trying to get your heart beating again," She blabbed, before pausing, giving him an awkward smile which caused them to both laugh.
"So not really anything conventional, but who cares. Thanks for being there for me when I didn't believe in myself," Barry admitted shyly.
"Hey, as long as you get me coffee next time we speak, I don't mind," She teased, unlocking her door.
"You got it Lang. Go save lives," Barry said with a beaming smile, saluting her as he zoomed out of there, not giving her a chance to reply. With wind swept hair, and a gleaming grin on her pink lips she shut the door, running off to be a hero in her own way.
A/N:
And voila, chapter two!
This chapter was meant to be posted on like the 17/12 but you're getting it a few days early because the WiFi in my area has gone down and won't be up for at least another week. I'm at a friend's house, so taking the opportunity to post this early rather than later.
Thanks to all who followed, added this story to their favourites, and reviewed. It's really what motivates a writer, and it's always appreciated, and it's something that will definitely get me posting faster. ;) *hint
Glad to see that you're liking the character so far. Can't wait til we get knee deep in some of the more juicy stuff in the next few chapters. So expect another update, say on the 20/12 unless my internet goes back up before that.
So again, special thanks to Guest (1), highlander348, princessmagic, ashevillain and Guest (2) for leaving reviews. It really brings a smile to my face. Love you guys.
And special mention to alexstarlight18, arianna le fay, princessmagic, alexmariewinchester, corallynblack, inescc, jaimevilla2001, kawaiixkisses, superfarway and jcsheidt for favouriting and following the story.
Til next time.
Heroherondaletotherescue.