August 14th - 2014
I'd ended up sleeping for two days after the battle with Slade. He was still breathing, but was currently being held in a high security prison, reinforced to counter his rediculous strength by A.R.G.U.S. I wasn't sure how I felt about that since Amanda Waller was still in charge and most versions of her painted her as someone who was often against heroes and vigilante's but also not always having the people's best interest at heart either. Still, if anyone could hold Slade for now, it'd be them. Problem is, I think he got hit too hard, he's been mute and was in a coma after what had to be an insane amount of energy discharged into his body to overcome the mirakuru's regeneration.
Nyssa escaped custody when being transported from police custody, which I expected, probably returning to the league's secret location in nada parbat after failing to recover her honor or her target Sarah Lance. The league wasn't done however, one last wrinkle was that Malcolm Merlin had tried to get at Thea while I was unconcious, Fortunately without the crazy showdown and death of their mother, Oliver was able to change the outcome and Thea wasn't taken away by Merlin.
I was just starting to get back on my feet doing exercises after making a full recovery, the regeneration ability giving me ridiculous endurance. When I'd gotten a text from Cisco about some problem in central city they needed my help with. I was fast, sure, but I didn't feel like running hundreds of miles, so rather than taking a train this time I locked up the factory and packed up what I could carry in Durendal and made my way to Central City. Along the way I drove through my hometown in Colorado, still not changing much, and really having been mostly untouched by the advent of supers. Though my house didn't exist here, instead it was part of the growing northern expansion the city council was doing and was mostly mixed use housing, the trailer park having been bought out instead of saved like in my home timeline.
Next I went through Smallville, the hometown of what would have been superman if this earth had one. It was exactly as I imagined it, a small town with a central main street area. Not really much else though I did drive past the Kent farm which was interesting to say the least. Finally, I continued following interstate 70 until I reached the outskirts of Central City, navigating through traffic until I'd gotten to S.T.A.R. Labs. What I didn't expect was to Find Barry Allen up and about early, two months early in fact.
"Mr Allen, I see you've woken up from your coma. Earlier than I expected, too."
"This is why you wanted me to return to my lab?, you knew this was going to happen."
"Yes, It was imperative that you be given these powers, though I wasn't expecting to get my own, not like this anyway."
"Get your own, You're the meta Cisco was talking about?!" I smirked and created a small ball of energy in my palm before letting it dissipate harmlessly into the air.
"You better believe it, honestly it was a real shock, being struck with dark matter lightning like you were, at the same time as getting stabbed by a dose of the mirakruru, it was painful, it was incredible. A lot has happened since you were last up and about, Barry. I'm strong, fast, everything about me was enhanced, and I can control electromagnetism on top of it. Though I'm not nearly as fast as you."
"You're mistaken, I'm not really fast" he seemed troubled by something, like a great weight was holding him down.
"In that case, why don't you show me to your training ground, show me what you can do." It didn't take long for us to get to a nearby airfield, I took Durendal while Barry rode with Cisco and Kaitlyn, Ronnie it seemed was still around, and they'd managed to separate him and professor stein safely, so it was already a better timeline than before. We both took our positions at the starting line, the goal? For Barry to catch me, just once.
"Alright, you're going to give me 5 seconds and then go, understood?" With that, I charged up that inner energy I'd been tapping into and began pushing against the ground, quickly accelerating to fifty then sixty miles per hour and climbing. The five seconds passed, and I heard a loud explosion as Barry began racing towards me, smirking I pushed off the ground and leaped into the air flipping backwards, dodging him as he shot past.
"You're fast, but You need to work on reacting to sudden changes!" He came back towards me moving lightning fast, this time I stepped sideways, his movements a blur but his reactions still slow enough that I could see his moved telegraphed ahead of time.
"Cisco, how fast is he moving?" I spoke into the headset mic as I again dodged the speedster before he slid to a stop and prepared for another go.
"One hundred fifty miles per hour!" not good enough, I knew he could go faster, way faster.
"Barry, stop trying to catch me and catch me, I know you can go faster than this!" he ran at me again, this time faster, but I still dodged him by a hairs breadth. "One eighty" Cisco repeated over the wireless.
"Listen, you need to focus Barry, there's a deep well, an endless reserve of energy both within you and around you, envelop it around you like a blanket, let it flow through you, stop resisting it!" he paused taking a deep breath as he got down into a runner's starting position, energy flowing along him, the speed force charging the air and reacting with my own electromagnetism.
"That's it Barry, draw it in, as much as you can, let it become the very air you breathe!" suddenly he was gone, fired off like a bullet racing past me before the force of a sonic boom knocked me over.
"No way, four hundred miles per hour." Cisco seemed in shock, my ear drums were ringing, but I could feel the heat as they regenerated.
"That's the way Barry, now focus, as you get close let the world slow down, picture time it's self coming under your will and don't miss!" in an instant I flew backwards into the ground rolling as I took the impact, Barry being thrown back from the force of my own electrical field shooting outwards. I quickly moved over to help him up, noting the scorch marks on the suit from the speed and electrical discharge.
"Excellent work, you went well over supersonic just then, might want to be careful of shattering glass if you run at full speed. You alright? I know I can be a bit, shocking to go up against" I smirked as he shook his head, an amused grin on his face.
"That was amazing, you still managed to do something despite how fast I was going."
"Ever hear of a man called Bruce Lee? He had a move called the one-inch punch. It was lighting fast, and could throw someone back ten feet in one inch of movement. And he wasn't an uber, just peak human. He held the belief that he needed to react without thinking, pure muscle memory and reactions. It made him unstoppable. One of the things I trained was a kind of defensive aura, inspired by this idea, it protects me from sudden attacks, provided I remember to keep it up." We started walking back as I continued talking about the abilities I'd learned and what he could now do with his speed.
"One more thing, Barry, I can sense electromagnetic energy, it's part of my gifts. When you channeled your power, it collected on you, you might be able to do more than simply run fast. I can show you how I throw it, but generating it is the challenge, what do you say?" He stared at me in shock for a moment before realizing I was serious.
"Let's do it."
