You'd think that waking up from a 2-month coma would be disorienting, but after seeing his dead father, Aiden was pretty sure he was ready for anything.
Boy was he wrong.
He felt a strange sense of déjà vu as he blinked a few times to get his bearings. Aiden looked around the room and a shiver ran up his spine. The room looked like it was covered in Braille. It was all white, and for all Aiden knew he was being quarantined for some disease he got from the lightning bolt. After all, his dad mentioned something about the, 'Speed Force,' it could be some kind of disease.
That thought was chased from his mind. This room didn't look like a quarantine area, and if it was, there would be strange people poking him with sticks.
Then things got even stranger.
"Good afternoon Aiden Riley, how are you feeling?" a female robotic voice said.
Aiden's head snapped around and looked at what was standing before him. A hologram of a woman, but it seemed to be some sort of AI, Aiden was good with computers but not at this level. Not only did this room look weird, this AI scared Aiden even further.
It seemed way ahead of its time, almost as if it was from the future.
But that was crazy right? AI from the future, what was this, a cheesy early 2000's sci-fi movie?
Aiden cleared his throat before answering, "Um hello, I'm feeling fine thank you, who exactly are you?"
"I am the Genetic Investigation Database and Energy Optimization Network or more accurately, GIDEON."
"So you're an AI?"
"Correct."
"Who made you?"
"I am not authorized to answer that question."
"Where am I?"
"I am not authorized to answer that question."
Aiden ran a hand through his hair out of frustration, and found it to be neatly cut. Baby steps.
"Who is taking care of me?"
"I am."
"Where are the humans overseeing me?"
"They left you in my care for the 2 months you've been dormant."
"May I see them?"
"Of course, although you may want to change into more regular clothing."
Aiden looked down, he was wearing a hospital gown, and some of the electrodes were still attached to him, he ripped them off.
"Where are my old clothes?"
"Destroyed when you were struck by lightning, but they would not fit you in any case."
"What are you talking about?" Aiden looked down at himself again, and holy shit, what in the world happened to him?
He seemed to be taller, if he had to guess around 5'11, and when did he lose so much weight?
"Gideon, what happened to me?"
"The lightning bolt accelerated your growth period, launching you into your adult body years earlier than normal."
"So what you're saying is that I grew 3 years in 2 months?"
"Essentially."
Then a mirror appeared next to his bed and Aiden had to take a second to look at himself.
His face did seem to age a lot. His baby blue eyes were a lot more piercing than they were before he was in the coma. The bags and the bloodshot in his eyes were also no longer apparent. Facial hair was coming out from multiple locations across his jawline and his upper lip. Speaking of his jawline, when did it seem so firm? He bared his teeth to see if they were also kept clean, surprisingly they were sparkling white.
"Gideon, did you handle every form of caretaking for me?"
"Only the essential ones, I did not handle the facial hair portion because in this time period, it is seen as a coming of age for young men across the world."
"Gideon-" he paused, choosing his next words carefully, "are you from the future?"
"I am not authorized to answer that question."
Well that cleared things up Aiden thought.
"Can I see them now? The other people in this building?"
"Of course Aiden Riley, I have also gone ahead and prepared some cloths for you."
A hissing sound rang throughout the room, and a table appeared from one of the walls. On it was a sweat shirt and some sweat pants. It wasn't the strangeness of the situation that was scaring Aiden, it was the name on the sweat shirt.
Star Labs, THE Star Labs?
"Gideon, where exactly am I in Star Labs?"
"We are located in the time vault, about 8 feet away from the main cortex, where the people who rescued you are located."
Aiden was pretty sure that it wouldn't be awkward changing in front of an AI, but said AI was projecting itself as a female, and he was still a teenage boy. Changing in front of female, whether real or not, was still pretty uncomfortable.
"Gideon I'm ready to go." His voice sounded a lot more confident then he felt.
Who were the people taking care of him? If they were apart of Star Labs, did they any connection to meta-humans running around the city? Were they a bunch of mad scientists responsible for the particle accelerator explosion?
He was about to find out.
"Do you know any old Chinese curses Gideon?"
"I do, to which are you referring to Mr. Riley?"
"May you live in interesting times."
As Aiden was walking out of the time vault, he heard Gideon, "There is a second part of the curse, it states, 'May you find what you're looking for.'"
The hallway was eerily quiet; save for the distant voices he could hear. The walls were an eerie gray, and the floors clean. A little too clean for a semi closed down research lab. As he walked down the hallway, the voices got louds and he realized that 2 of them were in an intense screaming match.
"-If you keep running out there, you could get yourself hurt!"
"-Cait how many times do I have to tell you? I'm fine out there!
"-But what if the day comes when you're not fast enough! This gets rid of that possibility!"
"-You know what that does to the speedsters who consume it!"
The two voices seemed to be in an intense screaming match with each other. The male seemed to be offended by whatever the female was saying. There was an intense silence and that was the moment Aiden made his presence known.
"Um excuse me- "
He would've said more but he saw a tall, lean guy with brown hair and green eyes in a Flash costume looking at him. It took him a second but then he realized that this was the Flash. The Scarlet Speedster. The Man Who saved Central City.
Around the room he saw an older guy in a suit with a police badge, he was African-American with a wispy beard, his eyes bored into him. If this guy was a cop, he was probably trying to read his body language.
The next person he saw was a Hispanic guy shorter than him. He wore a shirt with an NES controller on it in a wheelchair, so this guy couldn't have been all that bad.
To the guy's right was a woman in a peace blouse and pencil skirt. Her auburn hair created bangs on her forehead, and from what he could tell she was the one arguing with The Flash.
To the cop's right was a kid, he assumed, by the way he was standing near her, they were related.
Aiden cleared his throat, and continued, "Can someone bring me up to speed? Pun totally not intended."
The guy in the NES shirt laughed lightly, "Sure kid, we got a lot to talk about."
It took 45 minutes.
It was a little too much to process.
Star Labs was working with the Flash to deal with various threats across the city. The guy in the Flash suit introduced himself as Barry Allen, along with his whole team.
"So the particle accelerator explosion was caused by a madman from the future, and it created meta-humans across the city. You became the Flash to stop them, and due to a battle with that very same madman, who also killed your mother, it created the singularity above Central City. That singularity also created breaches to a completely alternate universe where Zoom is from." He then pointed to Jesse and Harrison Wells from another Earth, who had appeared later on in the conversation, "And you're from there too. Is that everything?"
The woman who introduced herself as Iris offered him a small smile, "I get it's a little much to digest right now, but you get used to it."
"Yeah it's a little much to swallow right now," he decided to try and shift things to something a little more grounded in reality. "You guys seemed like you were in the middle of something, what was it?"
"Our resident compute genius was a having a little trouble doing his thing." Iris explained.
Now his interest was piqued. The whole Flash thing was too much for him to process, but they did save his life, and if he could help out The Flash, it would be a win in his book. Plus, these seemed like good people, and they were working to protect his city, and he would help them in any way possible.
"What was it?" Aiden asked.
"We're trying to hack into Mercury Lab's systems to get access to some research about the meta-human gene, just to see what they know. But trying to hack into them is like trying to wrap your head around the logic of Doctor Who's time travel." The guy who introduced himself as Cisco explained.
"Is it okay if I help?" Aiden asked.
"Well sure," she paused, "You're good with computers?" The woman who introduced herself as Caitlin asked.
"Well that depends," he looked at Detective Joe West, "are you an off duty cop?"
Detective West chuckled, "Son, if I was an on duty cop, would any of you still be here?"
Aiden smiled, "Fair enough, did you guys find my bag when you grabbed me?"
"Yeah," Barry said, "It's kinda ruined from the storm and a little scorched, but most of the contents are safe."
"Good, because I have something in there that's going to help us." He walked over to the bag and starting sifting through the contents. Surprisingly, they were all intact, who knew that a 10-dollar bag from a grocery store could handle a massive storm?
He opened the pocket and the left side and found what he was looking for, a flash drive, his personal one. He walked over to the computer there and was about to plug it in when he saw everyone's faces. They all looked guarded, nervous, and scared.
Aiden sighed, "Look, if I was going to do something bad, would I have stuck around for an explanation after I saw Mr. Allen in the Flash suit?"
Barry ran his hand through his hair, "It's just Barry, but we just went through a rough time, and we're a little shaken up by it."
Aiden raised his eyebrows, "Someone stabbed you in the back?"
They all looked surprised at his reading of the situation.
"What makes you say that?" Barry asked.
"Well, the second I walked in here, Detective West looked like he was going to shoot me, and you," he gestured towards Barry, "have had your arms crossed, and looked ready to attack this entire time."
The tension in the room seemed to dissipate a little.
"It's fine," Cisco said, "just do your thing."
Aiden plugged in the flash drive as began to explain what exactly was on it.
"After my dad died, my mom had to start working double shifts, so I was alone for most of the time. I needed something to occupy my time, so I learned to code. Fast forward half a year, I seemed to have a knack for computer programming. I started to write other types of code, malware, system exploits," he sighed, "I sold some of them to make some money so my mom would drop the double shifts and spend more time at home." He paused, the memories a little difficult to relive, "It didn't work, she was still working twice as hard, she wouldn't take the money and told me to stop before something bad happened. At one point I thought she was seeing someone but was too afraid to tell me. I needed someone to talk to, and since my friends Liam and Christina lived far away, I decided to make one."
As he said this a voice spoke up from the computer, "Good afternoon Aiden."
Team Flash leaned in close to see what was there, it was a holographic face, much like Gideon, but with actual facial features; auburn curls and piercing blue eyes.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the Artificial Regulation and Technologically Enhanced Mapping and Investigation Systems, or- "
"ARTEMIS for short." Iris finished.
Aiden smiled, "I created my own AI to be there when my mom couldn't be, Artemis helped me with my homework, and helped learn everything I needed to." He quickly realized what this sounded like, "I hope this isn't too creepy," he said sheepishly.
"Are you kidding!" Cisco exclaimed, "This is totally awesome, you built your own full functioning AI companion!"
This Cisco guy seemed to be a total fanboy and nerd, so Aiden started to relax a little more.
"So how is this going to help us break into Mercury Labs' systems?" Detective West asked.
Aiden turned to the computer, "Artemis can scan the systems and figure what security systems they are using, they're bound to be exploits for it, and if not I can write one."
"How long is it going to take?" Harry asked, clearly irritated.
"If you quit being so negative, jeez, would it kill you to be more positive?" Aiden shot back.
"Yes it would." Cisco stated.
Aiden turned his attention back to the computer screen, and began to check on the scan's progress. It was almost complete, and then he would make sure to break in.
"They seem to have a very standard security system; I already have an exploit written."
His hands moved quickly across the keyboard, writing the backup so that if the break-in attempt failed, it would scan the security counter-measures and write a counter-measure for that.
"Yeah, so run that and you should be able to look at pretty much anything in their systems."
"Thanks, that really helps," Jesse said, smiling at him.
Heat rose to Aiden's cheeks, and his heart started to race, he would be an idiot if he didn't think Jesse was gorgeous, and a gorgeous woman giving him compliments, it was unheard of.
"Thanks!" Aiden replied with a bright smile.
He observed her for an extra second, he was surprised to see a light blush tint her cheeks.
"Now, onto more pressing matters," Caitlin said, "Would we be able to run some tests, just to make sure everything's okay?"
"Sure."
The tests took a while, and the current one had Aiden running on some sort of treadmill, while everyone else was behind a wall discussing things about his condition. Oh, and to make matters worse, he had to take his shirt off so the electrodes could be put on his chest.
"This is very strange," Caitlin remarked.
She turned to her colleagues, "He's exhibiting the same qualities as Barry when he came out of his coma, accelerated muscle development, increased stamina, but so far no trace of speed in his system."
"I'm sensing a 'but' coming," Joe said.
"But the meta-human gene is already in his system, with traces of the Speed Force already there," she paused, "It's almost as if the Speed Force was already in his system but needed a spark to give him the physical speed and to become more apparent in his physical form."
"And a lightning bolt wasn't enough of a spark to get the speed powers?" Jesse asked.
"Apparently not, it may be more of a psychological issue."
"If it is, do we really want him to find his powers?" Barry asked.
"Why do you say that?" Iris asked.
"It makes him more of a target for Zoom, and it might scare him. Do you think the speed will manifest on its own?"
"It's too early to tell." Caitlin said.
"You gotta admit, the muscles developed very nicely." Jesse remarked.
Harry wheeled on her, "Excuse me?"
Jesse shrunk back in her chair, "Nothing."
"Okay Aiden you can stop now," Caitlin said through the microphone.
He started to slow down and stopped, he put his hands on his knees was breathing heavily. He had never been able to run for that long without stopping, so what was going on? Aiden walked inside the observation room, and looked at the looks at the team's faces, why was everyone so apprehensive around him?
"Is everything okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, just needed to make sure everything was okay, just an FYI, you might want to put a shirt on, Jesse might swoon." Cisco remarked.
It was at that exact moment he noticed that he didn't actually have a shirt on, his face started to heat up. Betraying his thoughts, his eyes gently moved to Jesse, she looked a little in shock. Their eyes met and she turned the other way. What in the hell was going on? Aiden moved the chair nearest to him and grabbed his shirt to put on.
"If that's all, I'd like to see my mom now."
The mood shifted fast, pun not intended, everyone's facial expressions got hard to read. In a moment that shocked Aiden, Jesse walked up to him, and pulled him into a hug. His arms wrapped around her and he would've taken more time to observe his incredibly fast heart rate and light blush had she not said the next sentence.
She nuzzled her head into his neck and said, "I'm so sorry Aiden."
He was confused, "About what?"
She pulled back and looked directly into his eyes.
"Your mom passed while you were in your coma."
Oh yeah, not prepared at all.
A/N: So that was...emotional. Sorry if this chapter is a little shorter than usual, I actually had planned for a longer chapter but after reviewing the story, I decided to move it into the next one. So how about Jesse and Aiden? What do you think is going there? And what happened to Aiden's mom?
Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own anything you recognize.
Side Note: Did you guys see the new Legends sizzle trailer, SO AWESOME.
Please R&R, it helps me gauge your interest in my story and motivates me to write more.
'Till next time!