No Mercy
Barry POV
C'mon... C'mon!
I racked my brain to try any jog any more memories loose of the cage put in place by my therapist.
Goddamn doctor! I told him my father didn't kill her! But no one listened; no one listens to weak, pathetic, puny Barry Allen!
Everyone had left my room to continue their jobs, leaving me with my new, very angry thoughts.
Alex told me that 'Supergirl' had come out of hiding the day I went into a coma and has been saving the city ever since.
A bit of a coincidence, is it not? My mother's murderer hiding in the same city as me until the day I go into a coma and on that day she makes herself a hero? Not on my watch!
Whinn had told me that they had all but given up on me in the first week. I had lost a lot of blood from the glass lacerations and most of my skin was covered in corrosive acid, not to mention the severe lightning burns. But on the third week, when they were about to pull my plug, they noticed that my scars had all but healed. A week after that and I had no more acid corrosion. And a month after that any signs of my accident had disappeared. Like it had never happened.
Velocity! It worked! The formula was poured onto me then bonded; it must have healed me from the inside!
I need to get back to my lab; I successfully made the drug that can save a person's life! I need to get it to the public so it can begin saving peoples life.
No! I need to see how else it can be used, if there are any side effects, I can't give a deadly drug to hospitals across the country without performing more tests.
That's right. I need to make some more and put it through a series of tests, I can't let any more people die because it 'may' have worked.
Who can we test it on though? We can't inject a homeless person with it, we can't tell anyone at the DEO and certainly not Supergirl!
I have to inject myself with it. I can't test it without a volunteer and there is no one else more qualified and willing to stay quiet. How can I get to the lab though?
Wait until night, when all the lab technicians have left, that's when we will sneak out and use the lab, when no one is there. That's the best way to reduce disturbances.
I will wait until night. When most people have gone home, that's when I need to do my experiments, I can't do them all tonight, I will have to spread them across multiple nights.
Good, it is almost dark now, soon the guards outside will be changing shifts and you know these guys are lazy, as soon as the clock strikes 8 they will race to the locker room, leaving you to have a straight shot to the labs!
Now. I just have to wait.
.
The clock struck eight, and just as expected, the Agents outside my door rushed off, leaving behind the rhythmic drum of their heavy boots along the hallway.
Go now!
I threw the covers off my body and poked my head out the door, only a few people were leaving and that was the opposite way of my target.
Perfect!
I tapped down the hallway; the dull noise of my bare feet slapping the ground was the only sound in the nearby area. I reached my personal lab that I took from Alex and made my way to the locker in the far corner.
This used to be Alex Danvers lab but with me taking her job I also got her lab. I swung the metal door open to find the spare pair of clothes that I always kept here for the specific reason that chemicals would go all over me.
I buttoned up my shirt, trousers and laced up my converse before looking for the specific chemicals I would need. Unfortunately, I need to ask for my own chemicals when I need them, and since I was in a coma, I had no chance to order new chemicals.
Looks like you have to steal some; Jenkins always has a full stock.
Jenkins always has everything a science geek could need, but he also had a god complex, he only lets you take things if you give him enough offerings.
He can't ask for anything if he doesn't know we are taking anything.
Right. It's not like he'll miss them, he always has new supplies in every week. He will hardly realise they are missing. In and out, he is probably knee deep in his pointless research anyway.
I poked my head around the door that connected my lab with Jenkins, he was running between his chemistry set and his notepad, obviously too absorbed to see me. His short brown hair was ragged, like he hasn't slept since he got this job and his glasses were slipping off his sharp nose.
Unfortunately, his chemical rack was in-between both of his destinations, cutting me off from the vital component I need to complete my research.
Just run in Barry, you need those beakers, just run in and grab them, then run out.
He will see me if I just burst into the room.
Trust yourself Barry; he will never know you are there.
But it's in the middle of the room!
Run, Barry. Run!
I charged into the room, keeping my head low until I reached the rack. I scooped up all the sealed beakers and ran back out, blocking out my surroundings.
I placed all the compounds on my desk and looked back to my door, expecting Jenkins to be fuming in the doorway.
... But he wasn't.
Trust yourself, Barry. Now get to work
I set to work making the formula, and now that I had the knowledge and working electricity I wouldn't need to get hit with a bolt of lightning.
.
So close! I am only one step away!
You know what to do now, Barry.
After three hours of exact measurements and diluting many different substances, I finally had the right mix, I held the dark blue mix of chemicals under the light, and nothing seemed unusual.
The electricity Barry, charge it up!
I stuck two electrodes into the liquid and prepared to put a heavy charge through the beaker.
This is a historical moment in time; I need to record what is happening, I began to search for my phone so I could record the results
No! That is a waste of time, just flip the switch!
My body stopped mind search and my mind set completed a 180 degree switch as the electricity surged through the mixture, binding the dark blue liquid and making it look as if little sparks of electricity shot between the bubbles that floated freely to the top.
"What am I doing? I'm a scientist; I need to perform tests to see if this is safe!" I scolded myself as I slammed the sample down.
"No, we need to test it now!" My body lost control as I jerked to the left uncontrollably and I lost control of my mind.
"What is happening to me? I need to get back to the doctors." I tried to move away from the workstation but my feet felt like they were nailed to the floor.
"They can't help you, Barry. Only I can help you." My body let out another spasm as I lost control.
"What are you? Am I going insane?" I asked myself/it, I don't even know the difference anymore.
"I am you, Barry, but stronger! I am the Barry that's fed up of being pushed around, being told he's wrong, going to therapy so a doctor can take away my memories!" The sickly voice was nothing more than an illusion in my head, only in my head, but I was still talking aloud.
"No, I went to therapy for my own good. If I didn't I would still think a man in red lightning killed my mother, that's crazy!"
"For once, you are right. No man in lightning killed your dear old mother. It was an alien. An alien with super speed and a red cape."
"No, Kryptonians are friendly. Supergirl wasn't even around then and Superman was in metropolis, it makes no sense!"
"How else did that women die then?! You know that, deep down, I am right. Supergirl has been on Earth as long as you have been alive. Your mother, killed at the hands of someone pretending to be a hero? You must want revenge."
"No! I don't even know her! The Director says she's here to help, and she's working with the DEO, she's a good person!"
"Don't kid yourself, stop struggling against me! Let me take control, you don't have to be weak again, you don't have to be afraid!"
My left hand reached for the small vial of my creation.
"That? What will that do? It heals people, it can't make you stronger." I slapped my own hand down; I must look so stupid if anyone was watching me.
"Stupid, Barry Allen, this is why I should be in control! It can do so much more than heal, in the right hands, it can destroy!" The evil voice wasn't in my head anymore, it was coming from my lips!
I had lost control of my own body to something insane while I was left as a spectator.
"So many opportunities at our fingertips, we could do anything. Let's start out small though, see you in the morning, Bar!" My own hands inserted the vial into a syringe and placed it on my forearm.
Before I could regain control, my finger squeezed the trigger and the serum was shot into my bloodstream as I fully lost myself, falling into nothingness until the morning.
.
"Agent Allen! Agent, wake up!" Hank shouted at me as my eyes started to flutter open.
"Barry! This is no time for sleeping!" Alex's hand slapped my cheek as my eyes flew open, before I could stop myself I was on my feet with Alex's arm in my tight grip.
"Sorry! Your training sticks, even through a coma." I chuckled through my rushed explanation.
"Good to know, but you need to waken up, this is important." Alex urged me as I nodded grimly.
"Agent Allen, what were you doing last night?" Hank asked me as if this was my fifth interview.
"I was stuck here on your orders. It's all a blur of boredom. Catching up on the news over the last few months. I think I went to sleep pretty early though. Why?" I asked the Director as I crossed to the sink in the adjoined bathroom.
"Nothing suspicious? No one out of the ordinary?" He asked again.
"Apart from the regular burly guys in full black with a gun strapped to their side? Nope, nothing. Something happen?" I turned the tap on and rinsed my face.
"An Agent was murdered last night. Agent Jenkins was found on the floor of his lab." I looked into the mirror to find myself grinning from ear to ear, not being able to stop the twinkle in my green eyes as I heard about his murder.
'What is going on with me? This isn't good news!' I thought to myself before going back into the room with Hank and Alex.
"What was the cause of death? Not a heart attack or an experiment gone wrong?"
"We don't know yet. The other lab guys are too scared to come in so I have to perform the tests, but I can't do that until later on, I need to investigate a lot of power surges that split through the city." Alex sighed as she typed at her datapad some more.
"I can do it. I was CCPDs best CSI and I don't want to spend another day in a bed, I will do any tests you need right now as long as I get out of here." I rambled as I searched Hanks face for any signs of leniency.
"Fine. But this is only because we need you. If you show any negative signs you are back in that bed." He warned before storming off.
"So... when can you get started?" Alex asked as she handed me the case file on the datapad.
.
Jenkins was spread across a mortuary table in one of the lower levels of the DEO. It had taken me one shower and change of clothes to get back to work, and I loved it.
"Weird, there are no signs of... anything! It's like he just dropped dead, no defensive wounds or signs of a struggle. If he had a heart attack he would have knocked things over in his lab but it's still in pristine condition." I spoke for the recorders benefit, documenting my initial findings.
"Moving on to xray before my first incision." I noted as I pulled the machine up my co workers body.
"Nothing unusual in the patients lower half. Moving to upper chest annnnd..." As the machine reached my patients lungs and heart, it showed something almost impossible.
"Xray malfunction, failing to show any signs of a heart. That could definitely be the cause of death but a heart can't just explode!" My body seized up as my arm spasmed and knocked the recording equipment off its ledge, breaking the tape.
"No, it can't. Don't you remember?" My body was possessed by another force as it took control of my lips.
"Remember what? What is happening to me?!"
"Don't play coy, you know what's happening. What we did last night, what YOU did?" Images flooded my mind once more, dark blue lightning shooting through my lab, Jenkins cowering in a corner, my hand vibrating through his chest...
"No, that wasn't me, I couldn't do that, I wouldn't!"
"But you did, and you liked it! Remember the power!" My body surged with electricity as I felt every cell in my body flare up, like I was constantly plugged in to a power socket...
... And I loved it.
"Last night. We created the future, a formula that sped up every cell in our body and gave us super speed. Remember how you felt as you ran through the city!" I fell to the ground as I remembered blazing a trail down the roads, weaving in and out of cars and people as if they were statues...
... Statues completely at my will.
"All that power can be ours just embrace me as part of yourself Barry, don't fight me. We can get revenge for your mother, remember that night!" A fire burned in my eyes as I saw the scene of my mother's murder for the first time since my therapist helped me repress the memories.
A trail of red cloth, a small women staring at me with cold blue eyes. Supergirl!
"That's right Barry, she killed her, made your dad go to prison. Why should she play hero? She has to pay!" I stood up straight, lightning still shooting off of me, but I wasn't scared anymore.
I will never be scared again, because I have a purpose. Before I do anything, I need to make poor Jensen's death look like an accident, and I have plenty of unhealthy hearts to help me.
"Which poor unfortunate soul died of a heart attack?" I ran my finger over the metal coffins all lined up in rows, waiting to be cremated, waiting for me to borrow a heart.
"Here we go, a John Smith! Perfect, no one knows you, so no one will care!" I thrust my hand through the cool metal and frozen flesh as I searched his chest for the organ.
"Perfect, now I just need to give you to Jensen, huh, I'm like Frankenstein." I chuckled to myself as I thrust my hand into the dead man's chest, leaving the other man's heart in its place before pulling my hand out.
"Now it looks like you died of a heart attack, sorry ole chap. No one will miss you." I patted the cold shoulder as the elevator doors signalled its arrival on this floor.
I zoomed to the chair on the opposite side of the room and began to write out the poor man's heart attack.
"Any luck, Barry?" Ugh, Alex Danvers, goody two shoes perfect Agent. I really want to kill you but you may be important in the future...
"Nah, nothing on or inside the body that would suggest murder. He does have a very unhealthy heart though. Poor Jenkins died of a heart attack." I let out my best empathetic sigh as Alex looked over my charts.
"Really? He was the healthiest man I've ever met, better than half the field agents, how do you know if you haven't cut into him?" There's that smart girl I know and loathe!
"The truth is Alex..." I walked up to her side as she looked over the body on the slab. "... He told me! When I first joined the team, we hung out as a 'welcome to the lab' sort of thing. He said he wouldn't be there long because he had heart problems, it's a shame I didn't get to see him before he... before he..." I let a single tear roll down my cheek, imagining the saddest thing I could... A world where Jenkins was still alive!
"I never knew you were that close..." She stared at me with her inquisitive gaze and I had to turn away before my facade broke.
"He was a good man." I couldn't keep from smiling as I said that! "I will miss him but we must push on, I need to go to my lab, I have some experiments to complete." I excuse myself as I entered the elevator alone, closing the door before my sinister smirk could be seen.
.
"The last batch now, soon we can go to bigger things!" The voice in my head piped up as I sent a large shock into the beakers in front of me with my fingertips.
"Right, this should be enough for a month, but how does this whole speed thing work? Do I go unconscious and forget every time?" I asked myself as I loaded a syringe.
"You only went unconscious last night because you fought against me, now, once you give yourself a dose, we should become one, your speed, and my knowledge." I didn't waste another second as I shot the serum I have come to name Velocity into my system.
"Yes! The power! It's electrifying!" I chuckled to myself as I felt the familiar surge but a tenfold stronger.
"What should I do first? Murders already under my belt, let's go for some robbery next!" I tapped into my newfound power, feeling the electricity in the very air, and I ran.
I ran out onto the balcony and down the side of the DEO building, I need to get a hang of my powers before I can even think about bringing Supergirl to justice, she has had months mastering her powers. I need to prepare.
I ran into the National City shopping centre, determined to test the limits of my powers in a fun and creative way. To steal as much as I could before anyone could react.
I hit my first store, a jewellery shop, picking up the most expensive necklaces and rings I could before burning a trail outside before the security gate could close, not like it would be a problem.
I threw the petty trinkets from the top level of the shopping centre before going to the next shop, a loan store, time to bring out my Robin Hood side.
I picked up all the paper documents and hard drives that store the shops records and threw them burned them with the energy coming off of my body, before throwing them to the public too.
That was a nice thing to do, but it wasn't very fun!
I headed into every shop I could grab expensive thing in and threw them to the greedy little ants down below me, scurrying to save money and take the stolen goods, no one bothering to ask where they came from.
I couldn't stay in one place for long, unless I risked my face being caught on the security cameras, so I never stopped running. I hit the last store, a sports store, making sure I hit a few people with some tennis balls as I threw the equipment from the ledge. Not hard enough to kill, but it was pretty hilarious.
I ran back to the apartment the DEO got for me, the apartment that has only ever had one person inside. As I stopped running, I felt a more intense burning all over my body. Not the good burning, the bad burning!
I shed my scorned clothes to the ground. As I watched the fabric burn, I realised I would need something more durable.
"Stealing and giving to the public? This is not what the power was given to you for, it is a waste!" My head scolded me.
"But what if... Just a maybe... I was given these powers to do good, bring justice to my parents by helping people?" I whispered to myself.
"Imbecile! You have been doing good your whole life, solving murder after murder, bank robber after bank robber. And for what! Your parents are still dead, and ashamed of the weakling that carries their name. Why should other people be happy when their hero stole your happiness? They protect her, they worship her! They are nothing compared to us, let them worship us!"
Right. They worship a murderer that pretends to be a hero, I need to show them the real Supergirl, the one that murdered an innocent women and orphaned a little boy.
No mercy for Supergirl. No mercy for National City. No mercy for ANYONE!