Note 1: For those interested, I plan on updating this story every Monday/Tuesday and Friday until complete. There should be about six chapters, I predict, but after that I plan a proper story similar to CharmedMilliE's 'Karry Universe' involving Barry and Earth-1's Kara.
Note 2: I apologise in advance as this chapter doesn't actually have Kara in it as planned; I realised I needed to really flesh out the meta-human a bit more so went down that road as well as add in a lovely moment between Joe and Barry. Well, you'll see. I hope you enjoy and can forgive the lack of Kara.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter Two – The Clone-Maker.
"They don't vibrate!" Cisco sat behind the desk of the main lab, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
"They err… what?" Barry had returned to STAR Labs upon request, but found he wasn't following anything the moment he got back, especially since Cisco seemed off in his own little world again.
"Vibrate, Barry! They don't vibrate!" Iris and Caitlin, who were lingering in the room still, seemed to know what Cisco was on about, but the confused expression remained on Barry's face. Cisco groaned as he pulled up the newsfeed again on the dozen corpses Barry had just visited. "Remember everything here vibrates at the same frequency of this Earth; Harry and Jesse vibrate differently because they're from Earth-2 but those bodies don't vibrate at all."
"They're dead though," Barry pointed out, a little dumbly as he glanced worriedly to Caitlin now.
"They'd still vibrate though. This desk," Cisco indicated the wooden and metal construction he was sitting at, putting his hands on it as though to prove a point, "it isn't alive, but it still vibrates at the same frequency of this Earth, the same as the mannequin that holds your outfit when you're not in it. Everything living or dead vibrates at the same frequency here. The bodies, though no longer living, don't vibrate. Not of this Earth, nor ANY Earth!"
"So… they shouldn't exist?" Barry asked, moving toward Cisco now. "How did you find this out?"
"Oh you know me, I'm able to hack into anything," Cisco replied casually, leaning back in his chair as he added. "Plus, I'm awesome."
Barry resisted a little laugh as Caitlin spoke out from her corner, still with Iris, "That's not all though. The woman who may have caused this scene of complete weirdness, I was able to get an identity."
"How?" Barry was asking a lot of questions. "She was blurred, like I do so people don't see my face properly; facial recognition would be hell."
"Yeah, not sure how she's doing that; she's obviously not a speedster like you though" Cisco thought aloud.
"We'll figure that out," Caitlin responded as she looked back to Barry. "We were able to run a voice analysis from when she spoke to you in the alley, turns out it's Professor Kate Thomson of Mercury Labs; she went missing around the time of the Particle Accelerator explosion and has been presumed dead, but get this: Her area of expertise was in genetic manipulation and cloning."
"Cloning?" Barry asked, the implications of this suddenly laying heavy in his stomach as he remembered the golden thread of hair she had claimed from his suit.
"You know, Dolly the Sheep type stuff," Cisco voiced, Barry throwing him a somewhat scathing look as Cisco held his hands up in mock surrender.
"A lot of the metas we've faced so far have had powers drawn from their own skill, especially those from Earth-2" Barry thought of King Shark at this as Caitlin nodded solemnly. "You think the bodies were all clones?" They could hear the shock in his voice as he said the words, looking at Caitlin
"Only viable explanation," Caitlin stated. "I mean Iris was there and yet she's here too."
"But how did she get my DNA?" Iris finally asked, shivering a little as she said it.
"Could be anything," Caitlin replied. "The average amount of spit has enough deoxyribonucleic acid in it to hold the genetic structure of a person. Add in Professor Thomson's knowledge of genetics and whatever the accelerator did to her and you have a deadly combination for perfect cloning…"
"So I spat at her at once and she did that?" Iris asked, a little irate as she indicated the screen the bodies had been on. It had been a little nerve wrecking seeing her own dead body, albeit from a distance.
"Not necessarily. Microfibers of DNA can be found anywhere." Caitlin explained, listing off some examples: "Shredded skin cells, blood, a stray eyelash –"
"A strand of hair…" Barry interceded worriedly, and Caitlin nodded.
"Perfect piece of DNA," Caitlin said noticing the look on Barry's face. "Did she get a piece of your hair?" Caitlin was nervous at the thought. A clone Barry, and therefore a possible clone Flash, could be big trouble for the team and the city.
Before Barry could answer though Cisco cut in; "Look, I'm sorry and I get that the situation is dire or whatever, but are you going to tell us who Sparky and Shrieky are?" The thought had been annoying Cisco since Barry left. He knew all the metas and their names so the fact that Barry knew two he didn't was irritating him.
"What?" Barry was snapped out of his reverie as he looked directly at Cisco. His thoughts were still on the hair. "Sparky? Shr…" he was confused for a moment until he remembered he'd said those names to them when he thought they had known he'd been gone. Cisco was talking about Livewire and Silver Banshee. "No. Not yet anyway. Look, I'm going head back to the lab, have a talk with Joe and then… I dunno. If you can find Thomson, then let me know; she can't be as dangerous as some of the ones we have had locked in the pipeline or who are in jail now."
"And then you'll tell us who Sparky and Shrieky are?" Cisco asked.
"Maybe." Barry smirked, finding Cisco's annoyance amusing as he then sped out of the lab.
-SuperFlash-
Joe was waiting for Barry when he turned up at his lab, arms folded and leaning against the window. "I'm guessing that scene has something to do with a meta-human?" he asked, slightly coldly as Barry nodded, a little distracted himself. "Who would do something like that? And why? What was the point? I mean Iris…"
"I told you Joe, it wasn't actually Iris. Caitlin… she says they're clones." Barry told his foster father, somewhat dramatically.
"Clones? Like what they did with that sheep? How does that… A meta can clone people now?" Joe removed himself from the window to move closer to Barry, "And how long until this meta clones another meta? I dunno about you but I don't fancy facing off multiple Weather Wizards or… Turtles or whatever."
"I don't know, Joe. So far we've just seen dead clones, hopefully we won't find them alive. As for powers…" he groaned slightly and then simply shrugged. Would clones of metas have their respective originals powers? Would they be the same powers? There were way too many questions and not enough answers.
"You okay?" Joe looked concerned to Barry.
"I'm fine," Barry snapped back. The truth was, he wasn't 'fine'; he'd just come back from facing off Zoom on Earth-4 and no-one knew he'd gone; he'd met aliens and come across different types of meta-humans and no-one he loved knew about it. He'd been gone for two whole days and no-one cared. He still had to face Zoom and now…
"Bar, I know you, I know when something's bothering you. You don't need to keep holding the world on your shoulders all the time. It's okay to share your fears. I'm your dad, I'm meant to make your life just a little easier." Joe pointed out calmly.
"I'm the Flash, Joe, my life isn't going to be easy!" Barry barked, taking a breath for a moment before adding, "Sorry. I just… I've got a lot on my plate and I just need to step back for a moment."
"Zoom?" Joe asked, slightly uneasy and not even caring about Barry's mood.
"Mainly," Barry replied, finally slumping into a chair as Joe crouched to remain at eye-level with him.
"He's locked in another world Barry; he can't come back to this one."
"But he's terrorising that world! There isn't even a Flash to give them hope as Zoom is the Flash! I can't just let him turn the world into… to…" Barry sighed, clasping a hand over his eyes as he let the enormity of his situation sink in again, remembering it was not just one world. There was the other world Zoom had gotten to and he had promised the Supergirl of that world he would defeat Zoom before Zoom could get back.
"Barry, listen to me," Joe grabbed Barry's free hand. "Let it go. You don't need to worry about another world. A year ago you didn't even know it existed, you don't have to take their weight on too. They can handle themselves. The last thing we need is the Flash of our world to let Zoom back in. Go back to just dealing with just this world, okay?"
Barry removed the hand from his face, looking bloodshot eyes at Joe as he smiled slightly. "You sound like Harry."
"Much as I hate to admit it, Harrison Wells is a smart man. At least this version anyway," Joe chuckled as he moved back and stood up. "I'd listen to him in future."
"Maybe I should," Barry rubbed his eyes and stood suddenly, the other worlds and his promise to Supergirl still on his mind however. How could he break that promise? "I should probably get back there. Wells was working on shrinking the device that makes me apparently four times faster than Zoom himself."
"Four times, huh?" Joe smirked, "Perhaps we better start calling you 'The Blur' from now on?"
Barry chuckled, suddenly reminded of Cat Grant on Earth-3, insistent on such a stupid name. "I prefer 'The Flash'," Barry stated fondly though, about to add something reminiscent towards Cat Grant back on Earth-3, but decided against it. After all, Joe wouldn't get the joke about people jumping out of alleys in trench coats – Cat had definitely been a scary woman, but also strangely charming at the same time. Barry made a mental note at that moment to see if she existed in his universe.
Joe gave Barry a fond look as he asked suddenly, before Barry could run off: "Hey Bar, we good?"
Barry smiled again. "Yeah. We're good," he stated, before speeding off.
-SuperFlash-
Back at STAR Labs and Harrison Wells couldn't be found. It was unusual but Barry figured he'd gone somewhere to clear his head; after all he'd gotten quite irate earlier and he still needed to find Jesse. Without Zoom to terrorise this Earth or take Jesse hostage again she wouldn't be in any actual danger, but he was a concerned parent who'd been through hell. Barry knew to give him some space.
To be honest, Barry needed to clear his head too. It had only been less than half an hour ago he'd said goodbye to a version of Kara Danvers and come here to find he hadn't been missed. True, he'd somehow time-travelled to a point just after he'd gone, but it was still disconcerting that he'd lived two more days that didn't even count to everyone else. It was different, too, from the time-travel he'd experienced before – at least he got to re-live events and make them better the last times he'd time-travelled – now he didn't have that chance. It was like nothing had happened.
Perhaps it hadn't.
"Hey you, didn't you go see dad like ten minutes ago?" Iris was wandering the corridors of STAR Labs alone; Barry didn't question this.
"Yeah, well you know me, quick as lightning and all that." He smiled at her. "Free day from work yourself?"
"Well, being a journalist you kinda get a free schedule from time to time, so I thought I'd be here instead." There was something too casual about the way she spoke, and Barry remembered her boss. She had a date with him last night. Well it had been two days ago for him. He was bound to forget.
"How was your date with… what's his name? Your new boss?" He asked casually, not looking to where they were now strolling.
"Oh, it was fine. Just a shared coffee and few sob-stories." It was slightly too mechanical the way she responded, but Barry didn't have much time to wonder why as there was a shout from behind them.
"Hey! Lovebirds!" Both Barry and Iris turned as one to see a blurred figure with a brown ponytail at the other end of the corridor. "Tell Flash I want a word!"
Both glanced at one another before both Barry and Iris ran; Barry had to remain as normal as possible while in view of Professor Thomson, but once out, he picked up Iris and ran her with speed to the main lab room where Cisco and Caitlin were still chillaxing; they too both looked up when Barry dropped Iris off and changed into his Flash outfit, just in time for Thomson to enter the room herself.
"Oh boy, another breach in security!" Cisco commented as he stood quickly, instinctively moving in front of Caitlin as Barry took position in front of all three.
"So this is the infamous STAR Labs…" Thomson commented dryly, looking around absently at the room, "I should thank you."
"What do you want, Professor?" The Flash growled at Thomson, maintaining position.
"Oh, for a start not to be called 'Professor'." Thomson stated, venom to her voice. "I assume you know what I used to be called before your Particle Accelerator changed me?"
"Professor Kate Thomson of Mercury Labs, yeah," Caitlin pointed out.
"NO! Not anymore. You can call me Duplicate now, thanks." In that moment she withdrew a small vile of what looked like smoke from her jacket pocket, it was tinted slightly purple and seemed to draw every eye in the room.
"Duplicate. Couldn't have thought a better name up myself," Cisco whispered loudly. Duplicate ignoring him as she remained focussed now on the vial of smoke.
"Kate Thomson spent her life learning about the perfect way to clone a human being." Duplicate monologued now, "Her mother died, you see, when she was young and if she could just create the perfect copy of her…"
"I'm sorry about your mommy issues" Flash retorted, not actually caring. He had the same story, but he'd never dreamed he could get his mom back so easily.
"She almost got there though." Duplicate didn't pay attention to Flash either now. "Until that fateful night she, herself, died. Duplicate, I, was born from her mess and soon I found I could do so much more than just clone people and animals. I could give them full life, I could control them, could get them to do my bidding. I could even," and now she removed her eyes from the vial, "make them the perfect copy of their original self, meta-human powers and all."
Duplicate looked up at the Flash at that moment. "So tell me Flash, who's hair was it?" Flash didn't answer, recalling back to her taking the golden thread of hair from his suit previously. "I doubt it was yours. Under that mask I don't see you having long golden locks." Flash kept his mouth shut but was worried as Duplicate confirmed his suspicions. It hadn't been his hair. There was only one person whose it could be then. "Don't want to tell me? I'll find out eventually. Once I clone her. I'm assuming it's a her?" Flash remained silent now as his friends were also looking at him. "No, don't say anything. How about you deal with this, instead?"
In one swift movement she removed the top of the vial and breathed on the smoke that had immediately began to release itself from its containment; there was then a flash of light, a popping noise and Duplicate suddenly wasn't alone.
"Oh boy…" Cisco breathed as Kyle Nimbus, the man sentenced to death and made into the Mist when the Particle Accelerator explosion caused his own body to fuse with the very gas he was being killed with, grinned manically at the group.
"The perfect… duplicate." Duplicate responded. "I'll just take my Flash genetic material now. Mist dear, be a friend and kill these people."
Barry had to make a sudden choice; he could stop Duplicate and try and stop the copy of Kyle from killing them all with his toxic gas cloud, or he could save his friends immediately and let both Duplicate and Mist get away. Being who he was, he chose the latter; grabbing Iris first and retreating out the back, he returned for Cisco and Caitlin in seconds and, when he finally came back to the lab Duplicate had vanished, but the toxic gas cloud that was Nimbus' double remained.
He couldn't stay; he'd be killed choking on the gas. Barry ran. He re-joined his friends outside who instantly turned to him. "Barry, who's hair was it?" Caitlin asked frantically still coughing up the gas.
Postscript: End of another chapter. Hope you like! Next one will definitely have Kara in it. Please REVIEW.