Author's Note: Again, I cannot thank you all enough for your continued support for this story. It's just so, so amazing to see people actually reading and keeping up with this story, and I really do apologize for the sporadic updates. Exams are over now, and I should be posting more chapters more regularly. Thank you to everyone who reviewed!

Guest: Yes, Dark Barry is a savage. I completely agree, and your comment made me laugh!

ROSEY cheeks: Thank you so much! Still not 100% sure which ship(s) I will do, but WestAllen might be one of them, and that's a really awesome idea.

Guest: Probably will not be a SnowBarry ship, at least anytime soon. Sorry. :(

Crimson Comet: Wow! Thank you so much! And I'm afraid you may have to wonder about Joe for a few more chapters... heheh.

Also, I don't know if any of you all have been keeping up with Death By Verbicide's "The Uncontrollable and The Impossible", but it is an amazing fic. Pretty long, ha, but definitely worth a read if you want to check it out.

Once again, thank you all for reviewing. I will have a longer chapter up by the end of the weekend. Hope you enjoy!

Iris frowned as she scrolled through the news on her blog. Robberies, murders, assaults, revisits to older cases- but there was one new topic everyone couldn't stop talking about.

Sure enough, a new sighting of the speedster- the Flash, as he had been coined- was at the top of the page. No murders or other incidents. This time, at least.

The sighting had been at Jitters. She shuddered to think that he had been that close.

It had been a week since her dad had arrived home in the early morning darkness, his eyes red and his face defeated. She remembered. She had been sitting on the couch, eating popcorn and watching TV, patiently waiting for him to come home so she could playfully scold him for being late.

That was what should have happened.

Instead, four officers had been brutally murdered and her father was a witness.

The criminal who had done it remained unapprehended. He was another rogue metahuman, a man who could move faster than the human eye. This man- the Flash- was unidentified, male, and incredibly dangerous, if the brief reports were anything to go by. No one had had an up-close view of him, except for her father, and he had been too shocked by the incident to remember exactly what the man looked like.

Iris skimmed the comments on her blog. Apparently, there was speculation that the criminal could be a prison-escapee; over thirty inmates had escaped the night of the particle accelerator explosion.

The particle accelerator explosion.

Iris had been driving in her car, on the way home from a shift at Jitters, when she had caught a glimpse of the enormous, electrifying explosion in her rearview mirror. Not the full thing- just a flash of yellow light and an enormous dome of energy spreading across the sky.

Joe had not been at the CCPD that night. He had been with his partner investigating an abandoned farmhouse. The criminal they had been after had shot and killed his partner, Detective Chyre, and had attempted to take off in a plane when the dome of energy took it down.

Metahumans- people whose genes were impacted by the explosion for unknown reasons- were slowly appearing in public for the first time. It was her father's job, as part of the metahuman taskforce, to help with containing criminals who had been given "gifts". A man who could control the weather. A woman who could teleport.

And now, a man faster than a bolt of lightning.

As horrible as it was- as much as Iris hated to admit it- the very concept of metahumans fascinated her. Especially a man with superspeed.

How did his cells not just burn up? Would he age faster, or need to eat faster? What about shoes? Wouldn't they just catch on fire? Why lightning? There were so many unanswered questions.

But she would never get them answered. The bottom line was, the Flash was a powerful murderer who knew her father and had killed four officers in less than half a second. He terrified her. And he was free to run rampant through Central City.

Iris blew out a long breath, closing her laptop and zipping it in her bag.

Someone needed to stop him.

Joe knocked on Captain Singh's office door, a stack of reports in one hand and a mug of coffee in the other. He had been at the precinct for almost thirteen hours straight, reading through reports and gathering information for the proposal he was about to make.

To his surprise, the door opened almost immediately- but the man at the door wasn't Singh. Joe narrowed his eyes at the blonde officer who took a startled step back after nearly running into him.

Of course, Detective Thawne's face instantly relaxed into a cheesy grin. He nodded at Joe on his way out the door.

Thawne had been dating Iris for almost two years, much to Joe's annoyance. He was an energetic new recruit who had not only a lack of common sense, but also a police badge and an assistant partner.

Joe couldn't stand him.

Singh gave him a smile as he stepped into the office and sank into a chair.

"Good morning, Detective West..?"

Joe grunted in response. He tossed the stack of reports onto the heavy wooden desk. Singh blinked in surprise.

"This is everything we have on the man with superspeed. Reports, traces, descriptions of evidence, sightings, pictures."

Singh's eyes lit with understanding. He sighed. "Detective. I understand the personal vendetta you must have against this man. I know what he did was unforgivable. And believe me, I want him apprehended just as much as you do."

Joe huffed, but said nothing.

"But ask yourself," Singh continued, "What can we do right now to catch him? We've tried everything we've got. He travels at Mach 2, West. Mach 2. And I absolutely do not want the lives of any more officers risked in pursuit of him."

"He hasn't committed any more crimes. We have bigger metahumans to work on- ones that are immediate threats. We can't take on every freak in the city at once. We've already lost so many from that damn particle accelerator..." Singh shook his head. "No. We'll work on the Flash later."

Joe clenched his fists. His grip on the mug tightened painfully.

"With all due respect, Captain, this man is an immediate threat. I think we're being blind. He could come in here right now and kill any number of us, and we wouldn't have time to lift a finger. We need to be prepared. He's possibly the most dangerous meta of them all. And I've seen firsthand what he can do."

Singh shook his head. "I know. I know how hard this must be for you. But the truth is, we just can't, West. We're stretched too thin as it is, and we can't take him down with just a few officers. We simply don't have the technology."

Joe took a deep breath. "STAR labs does."

Singh's expression darkened. "You really want to ask STAR for help right now? After what they've just done? I don't think there's anyone even working there right now. And thank goodness for that, because if there was, I'd wring their necks. No, I take that back. I'd wring Wells' neck, wheelchair or not."

"I know." Joe said quietly. "But honestly, I think it's worth a shot. They created this monster- they might be able to take him down."

Singh stared at him, deep in thought.

"And we have nothing else to lose. If they fail, it's at their expense," Joe continued. "If they take him down, he's no longer a threat we have to worry about. If they don't, we're right back where we started."

Singh leaned back in his chair. "I still hate the idea of working with them. They have no idea what they're doing."

Joe shrugged. "It's your call, Captain. But I think that this is worth a try."

Singh hesitated, then nodded. "Go. You can try to convince them to do it. But don't be surprised if no one's there."

Joe gave him a grim smile. "Thank you. I'm going to help take down this man, I promise."

Singh nodded as Joe opened the door to leave. "I don't doubt it."

Again, this chapter was a little short, but a big chapter is coming by the end of the weekend. Please leave a review if you enjoyed! :)