CHAPTER 9

A week. Charley had been cooped up in the West house for a week. Iris had lent her dumbbells to keep up her fitness, and she'd gotten her phone back after Cisco and Caitlin scavenged around on it, trying to dig up clues, to which they found none. The Team has made a unanimous decision to keep her in the dark and hidden away for the time being. Iris would check up on her every day, and they'd either talk, watch TV, dance around the house like idiots, or just enjoy each other's company. Iris had been great, and updated her on everything that had happened, including someone called 'Captain Cold' killing his father to save his sister, Dr Wells from earth Two, whom Cisco had labelled 'Harry', appearing, Ronnie getting replaced by someone called Jefferson Jackson, thus creating Firestorm 2.0, Barry's ex-girlfriend's doppelganger trying to kill him, Cisco having powers, and something that seemed to rub Iris the wrong way; Barry getting a girlfriend out of Joe's partner, Patty Spivot. Hmm, if this was what happened in a week, she didn't want to miss any more of it.

She had just been reading 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince', having a bit of a freak out over Harry and Ginny and how much she loved the couple, when the home phone starting buzzing. Joe had told her to just pick it up, and hang up immediately if it was a door-knocker. Getting up reluctantly, she lumbered her way over to the phone.

'Hello, this is Charley Burgess, you're calling the West residence, how may I help you?', she drawled out monotonously, having said this exact phrase 700 times the past week.

'Charley, it's Caitlin, turn on your TV.'

'Wait, what-'

'Just, please! Hurry!'

Literally dropping the phone, Charley leapt over the couch, grabbed the remote and turned it on. She flicked through the channels frantically and rapidly, until something caught her eye: the Flash, all beaten up and unconscious, being held by his neck at Central City Picture News by some demonic man dressed in a black version of Barry's suit.

'Oh fuck. That's Zoom. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,' Charley breathed out, before reaching for the phone again, 'Caitlin? Zoom?!'

'Yeah, where is he?'

'CCPN. Oh my god, he's holding Barry by his neck like some pathetic trophy.'

'Cisco! He's taken Barry to Iris' work', Caitlin yelled to the frantically typing voice in the background.

'Caitlin, what the hell is happening?'

'Just stay put, Charley. We'll sort it out.'

'Yeah, well, by the looks of things, you need all the help you can get. I'll be there in two seconds.'

'Charley, don't-!' Caitlin yelled through the line, but Charley had already left the house before she could finish her sentence.

/*/*/*/

Honestly, when she first stepped out of the house, she didn't know what or how she was going to get to S.T.A.R Labs. It wasn't like she had a car. Charley had pulled out her phone to call a taxi, then realisation set in; it was a Friday night, therefore peak hour traffic. Walking would get her there faster than a stand-still cab. Which gave her an idea. Walking, jogging, running. She could run there. With her new found abilities, who was telling that it just super senses, speed and strength? She could also have impeccable endurance. She set off at a steady jog, then boosted it up to a run, then a sprint, before reaching her super-physical peak at around 100 kilometres.

Come on, Charley, she thought while gritting her teeth, push through the burn. Just run, don't stop. She pulled out her phone while she whizzed through Central City, going into the 'Speed Limit' app. Something she'd bought to check how fast her patients were and if they were reaching the minimum limit without physical exhaustion. It read 122.3 km/h. Holy crap.

Somehow finding the will power to push through the growing pain in her legs, thanks to not having stretched or moved in way too long, she picked a back route that would avoid civilians and traffic. She jumped a garbage can before ducking under a flight of stairs. As she ran, her mind wandered to what was happening to Barry. What had that demon done to him? How powerful was he if he could just cripple Barry that easily? From what she'd heard, Barry was far tougher than his gangly build led on to believe. He'd survived a telepathic gorilla, a meta who used electricity like food, the man who had murdered his mum, and so much more. The singularity hadn't just opened up a pathway to different worlds, it had opened up a pathway to hell.

As she dragged her conscious out of her head and into the real world, she saw there was a ginormous wire fence in front. At least 4 metres tall.

'Oh, fuck me', she breathed out as she coiled her legs and prepared for the leap. Extending her legs before tucking them underneath herself, she soared high over the gate. Maybe she couldn't fly, but this was damn close enough. As she made contact with the ground, she started running almost immediately. The exhilaration, wow, the adrenaline. It was insane.

As she reached the two minute mark, she found herself at the security fence of S.T.A.R Labs. God, she hoped she wasn't too late.

/*/*/*/

Reaching the cortex within a matter of seconds, she abruptly stopped to take in the situation in front of her. Barry was passed out on the floor, in a shape before death, Zoom was lying down on the ground, Cisco was holding some sort of gun, which seemed to have just shot at Zoom, and a horrified Caitlin was standing beside the surprise guest: Dr Harrison Wells. Almost as soon as she took in the scene, Zoom got up and sped past her and out of the facility. An enraged Wells ran after him, before yelling out at the top of his lungs.

Charley drew herself away from her stance and ran over to Barry, who was being crouched over by Caitlin and Cisco.

'Stay with me, stay with me, Barry. Please, please,' Cailtin pleaded as she pressed as concerned hand to his chest.

A hand came up to Charley's gaping mouth. No. No, no, no, no, Barry was going to be fine. He had to be.

'What, what happened?' Charley managed to breathe out.

Cisco bolted to his feet and pulled through the hospital bed, before ordering frantically, 'We'll tell you after, right now, we gotta stabilize him.'

After 3 minutes of frantic scrambling and rushing from here to there, the three friends managed to get Barry onto the bed, back in the operation room, and start stitching him up. Well, Caitlin was stitching him up, Cisco and Charley were constantly checking on his vitals and heartrate.

Ten minutes had passed, and Barry was now finally stable. Caitlin had done a fantastic job: cleaned off his face, stitched up the wound where Zoom had stabbed him with his vibrating finger, all the sorts.

'Barry?! Oh my god, Barry!' Iris' frantic voice filled the room as she sprinted into the cortex. Joe followed suit behind.

As she reached Barry's side, she placed a tender, concerned hand to his forehead.

'Bear…', she whispered.

Joe looked to Caitlin, worry clear in his eyes. She just nodded, to which Joe took in a huge sigh of relief.

As thoughts started rampaging through her mind, Charley sat herself down on the nearby chair.

Head in her hands, she demanded, 'What the hell happened? Huh? How did he get into this state? You guys should've done something!'

Caitlin got up defensively, replying ferociously with, 'Done something? You saw that thing, Charley! Even if for only a second. There wasn't anything any of us could do. Even if Jay had his powers and was fighting with Barry, he still probably wouldn't've been much better off. What we can do for him now though, is be there for him when he wakes up. God knows how traumatized he'll be. I think I'll need therapy after what I saw.'

Everyone else backed off a bit as the two women death-stared each other. Neither were in the mood for retorting or arguing.

Iris stepped forward, resting a comforting hand on Charley's shoulder.

Breaking the silence, she said, 'While we wait, to take our mind off… things, we can test you out, see what's up with you?'

Charley gave a thankful smile to her friend, before slowly nodding her head. It was selfish of her to divert everyone's attention from the crippled Barry to her, but Iris was right. They all needed a distraction. Looking around, she saw Joe and Cisco nodding in agreement, and then after some reluctance, Caitlin gave in too.

/*/*/*/

Charley was sitting in the very interrogation room she had been in a week ago, but this time, there was some high tech treadmill, a few weights, some platforms sitting high up and a mechanical dummy. Ability testing time.

Cisco spoke into the microphone, instructing, 'Okay, Charley, here we have tests of speed, strength, endurance, fighting abilities, and you hadn't known it yet, but senses. We recommend the treadmill first. Speed first off, and then we'll push to endurance. Whenever you're ready.'

Charley stepped onto the treadmill, heart racing before she had even begun. Did she really want to do this? She could just pretend to be normal. But then she'd never know. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she started walking. Cisco quickly increased the speed, and soon she was going at 60 kilometres an hour. Much faster than any human already.

'Come on, Charley, push it,' Iris' voice appeared. Charley spurred on.

She pumped her arms faster and faster, and once she hit 100 kilometres, it came easy. She'd gone faster still, however, and pushed harder than she ever had before.

Glancing across, she took a double take when she saw what the treadmill read. 154.8 km/hr. She couldn't believe it. She glanced over to the Team, and laughed when she saw their gobsmacked faces.

Still finding it unbelievable that she was no longer tiring, she called out, 'Come on, guys, this is nothing compared to Barry! True, I wasn't hit by lightning, but still.'

Their eyes were diverted to Charley once more, before Joe found it in himself to call out, 'Charley, how long do you think you've been running?'

'Uhh, I dunno, 1 minute? Two?'

Joe shook his head, before reading out, 'Fifteen minutes, at 96.18 miles per hour. And Caitlin and Cisco think you could go faster still.'

What? She thought to herself, there's no way I can go remotely that fast for that long. These powers kept suprising her every day. Which was why she wanted to find out just how far she could go today.

'I'm, I'm gonna keep pushing. I need to see', she yelled out. And with that, pushed it even further.

She felt like her legs know longer belonged to her, like something was taking over them, pushing them into overdrive. Her arms were pushing and pumping harder than before, too, they were being taken over by something greater as well. Her eyes narrowed and concentrated, and a snarl grew on her mouth. She was angling forward and closer to the ground with every heightened speed. Suddenly, she felt she was running flat, and extended her legs was easier than ever. She screamed in triumph into the imaginary wind. Once another ten minutes had passed, and she had grown somewhat weary, she stepped off the treadmill. She felt different, more alert than ever, more awake, more aware. Smiling up to the Team, she realised they were all gaping back at her.

'Guys, say something. I just ran at like 200 kilometres per hour and you're saying nothing', she said confused.

Iris, of course, was the first to move. She slowly and carefully made her way into the room, with… a mirror.

'Charley?' she whispered, with the utmost caution, 'is that you?'

Iris looked taller. Taller than her, which was weird because she stood nearly 3 inches above her.

'Yeah? Iris, what's up with you, you're acting weird?'

She held out the mirror, and Charley gasped when she saw what was in it. It was the cat. That mystery, hybrid she-cat from the clinic. From the day the Accelerator exploded.

Charley was that cat.