The Bolt Episode 7 Innocent

My name is Sean White. After waking up with no memory of who I was, I discovered I could do impossible things. Inspired by the heroes around me, I decided to put my powers to use and protect the people of Alter City, and find the missing pieces of my past. I am, The Bolt!

He was doing it again, running angry.
Bolt, Sean, whatever he called himself most of the time, he never felt so angry before. Peter betrayed his trust and there was nothing he could do about it. He experimented on Meta-Humans, and it was legal?! How is Sean supposed to protest the government? How does he know it's not another lie to keep him in his place? Another trick? Another mirage in the grand scheme? It made him so angry, all he could do was run.
He checked the time on his watch, 11:17 A.M. He didn't want to be late.
A sudden burst of energy entered his line of vision. He didn't bother to stop running as he looked beside himself and saw something unbelievable.
Running beside him, almost in sync, was himself. He was blurry, almost not completely there. But he felt real. His movements were similar but not the same, and he looked just as shocked as Bolt.
"What the-?!" Bolt said, just as the second speedster faded away, every trace of him gone as if it never happened.
Bolt stopped in his tracks, unbelievably confused as to what had just occurred. What was that? Another speedster? Reflection? No, it was too real. A mirage perhaps? How would that even work? Perhaps the speed he moved at created it? His mind filled with too many questions for him to bear. "What was that?" He asked aloud, turning his body to look around himself. What could that have been? Whatever it was, he didn't have time to worry about it, he had to talk to Peter. Now.

LIGHT-SPEED LABS

Peter and Sean sat in silence as they stared at one another. Though Peter had the high ground sitting at his desk, Sean kept a sinister glare. The tension between them was unbearable. The trust they had wasn't what it used to be, not after everything that had happened. They both had reasons to be angry with one another. But Peter understood that he had to reconnect with Sean, and quickly. Without trust, Sean may refuse to work with him further. He knew he had to do something, even if that meant keeping Sean closer to him than he may be comfortable with.
Sean wanted to start with what he saw shortly before coming here, but he decided to address the elephant in the room prior to that.
"Sean," Peter started, "I understand I kept something from you. And I'm sorry."
"Yeah," Sean said, "You should be. You should have told me the truth. You had those Meta's captive. Legal or not you had me hunting them without knowing why."
"I know, I know. But at the same time, you betrayed my trust and went snooping behind my back."
"I wouldn't have to snoop if I felt I could trust you."
Peter sighed, "Yes, I understand that. Believe me, the last thing I want is to lose your trust."
"And why is that?"
"Because you're important to me and this company. And I want to be able to show you that you are able to trust me."
Sean leaned forward, "Then do that. Let me see the Meta-Mutant."
Peter was reluctant, however, he knew he had to do whatever it took, "Very well,"
He said, "But the mutant will be tranquilized, for precaution."
"Deal," Sean said, "Now let me see him."

The mutant was breathing slowly, clearly in a sleeping state and unaware of what was going on around it. Sean examined him, as he was strapped to a table. There were a few wounds still on the creature from that night in Anterior City. Asleep, the creature seemed so innocent, and harmless, "Why is he strapped down?" Sean asked.
"We originally had him in a cage, so he could at least move around," Peter said, "But that didn't work out as well as we wanted it too."
"Where did you find metal strong enough to hold him down?"
"It's a very special alloy. He won't be breaking out of it."
"And what have you been doing to him?"
"Nothing serious. I try to keep any tests as painless as possible. But I can't always stop it."
"And why's that?"
Peter puts a hand on Sean's shoulder, "Sean, there are people, not necessarily above me, but if they band together, can make decisions I can't stop. There is so much more they want to do with this creature that I won't let happen. You need to believe me."
"And what about the Meta's you had captive?"
"A decision made by the government. Each of them volunteered in the beginning and freaked out when they realized they couldn't back out of it. It's a lot to take in I know. But trust me, we need to get them back."
"Why?" Sean asked, "Why is it so important?"
Peter sighed, "We're changing the world. If we can discover the secrets behind Meta-Humans, we can provide better services to the community. Meta's won't have to live in fear and hide anymore. And people like this Meta can be cured if desired."
"Cured?" Sean asked, "You can cure Meta's?"
"Not yet. But we hope to achieve that someday."
The lights suddenly started to flicker above their heads. Looking out into the halls they saw every machine flickering and shutting down completely, "What's going on?" Sean asked,
Just seconds later, the lights shut off completely, leaving everyone in the building wandering in the dark.
"This isn't a normal power outage," Peter said.
"I'll look around," Sean said, going for the door, but found that it would not open, "I guess the doors don't work either," he said, pulling the door open with his bare hands, and speeding down the halls.
Peter enters his assistants office to find her piling her papers, "Rose," he said, "What's going on?"
"I don't know, sir," She said, "But it isn't natural. There's no flaw in the systems. Everything just shut off all at the same times. Even our mobile phones."
"But that couldn't happen. Unless …" Peter suddenly had a realization, "She's here. Get the power back on and lock down the facility," He said, then ran out of the room, "Get every guard on alert! Move it!"
The young woman entered the room labeled "Office: Peter Morrison," and closed the door carefully behind her. The room was nearly pitch black, minus the flashlight in her hand. "Thank you, modern technology," She said, walking over to the computer sitting on the desk. She took a flash drive out of her pocket and stuck it into the computer. It started giving off a strange digitized noise.
The sound of a gun loading caused her to look up, to see Peter pointing a pistol at her.
"Christina," He said, "I'm surprised. You decided to come home."
"This was never my home," She said.
"Then what are you doing here?"
She smiled, "Ruining your day, of course."
She waved her hand and the ear piece in his left ear exploded, causing him to fall to the ground and hold his bleeding ear. He groaned loudly in pain as Christina ran by him. "Security!" He yelled, looking at the blood on his hand.

The lights came back on a few minutes later, along with every other technological device in the building Sean stopped speeding and looked around, finally able to see again. He sped to Peters office to find him there, "Hey, what happened?" He asked.
"Someone was here," Peter said, "An old friend. She uploaded something into the system and I can't stop it."
Sean walked over to the computer, "What is it?"
"It's …" Peter froze, "It's the satellite. She sent a virus to the satellite."
"She's deactivating it."
"It's worse than that," He said, "It's orbiting above the city. If it loses power," He slowly turned to Sean, "It could fall out of orbit and crash into the city."
"What?! How long until that happens?!"
"Judging by the virus she uploaded, it'll crack all the fire walls in … 12 hours."
"So, we have 12 hours to stop it before people die."

THE BOLT

Sean types as quickly as he can, using his super speed to accelerate the process, "Type faster, Sean!" Peter said.
"I'm trying!" Sean replied, "The virus has some serious fire walls installed into it!"
The screen turned completely red, and shut down entirely.
"That's it," Peter said, "There's nothing else we can do from here. The virus has implanted itself into the satellite.
"So that's it? 12 hours and we just let people die? I can't just sit here!"
"We aren't going to do nothing Sean! We just can't stop the satellite from falling."
"So what do we do?"
Peter paced around the room, pushing his fingers against his temples. This didn't seem like something that Christina would do. She would never want to kill people. Did she know this was going to happen? Putting all that aside, he knew she was the only person who could stop this. "Sean," He said, "You have to find Christina," He ran back over to the computer and started typing, "By my calculations, the most likely place the satellite will land is downtown, near the water. But the debris will still affect the surrounding area greatly. There are only two things we can do. Evacuate that section of the city, and find the person who did this."
"Ok," Sean said, "So who am I looking for?"
"Christina Davis," He said, "She's a former employee of mine. But she's also a Meta-Human with Techno-Kinesis, the ability to manipulate technology. She's the hardest to find, because she can block out any camera. Any ways of tracking her through technology is useless."
"Oh, great," Sean said, "Give me 6 hours to find her. If I don't, start evacuating the area." With that he sped out of the room with a gust of wind.

TIME: 12:00 pm. 12 hours until Satellite malfunction.

Peter entered the board room, setting his stuff down on the table with a thud, "This is very bad," Peter said.
"Mr. Morrison," A man in a white suit said, "We understand that you are stressed-"
"Stressed?!" Peter yelled, "Christina Davis has uploaded a virus to the satellite! People are going to die!"
"Does this affect project S?"
Peter froze in disbelief. The man disregarded everything else and only cares about Sean, "Can we just for once focus on our main goal? The survival of mankind?!"
"This won't affect all of mankind," A woman said.
"Fine!" Peter yelled, "But we still, as human beings, cannot allow this event to occur!"
"We cannot alter events meant to happen," the man in white said.
"What are you talking about?" Peter asked.
"Computer," The woman said, "Bring up the event log."
On the screen in front of them, a list of newspapers and articles popped up. Peter looked at the one dated for today.
"According to this article from your findings in the S.P Chamber," the woman started, "In 12 hours, the satellite will fall and destroy a quarter of the city. It is necessary to the events yet to come."
"Necessary?!" Peter said, "We can change one event for the sake of so many lives! These people don't need to die!"
"That isn't up to us."
"Yes, it is," Peter said, clenching his fist, "You just refuse to do anything about it. I may have done dark and gruesome things in the past to get where I am today, but mass murder will not be put on the list," He turned around and started walking away.
"If I didn't know any better," The man in white said, "I'd say the boy was rubbing off on you."
Peter stopped, keeping his back turned, "He has heart. Something you could use," With that he walked out of the room.
"Tabitha," The man said, "He is getting out of hand."
"I know Harold," Tabitha said, "It's Project S. He's too focused on him and his potential."
"What do you suggest we do to correct this?" Harold asked.
"We have no choice. Even if this falters our overall plans, we have to terminate Project S."
"The project, or the boy?"
"We must keep hope that the project can be revived. It's the boy we must terminate. Get a strike team ready. This must be done quietly."

TIME: 1:23 pm. 11 hours and 37 minutes until Satellite malfunction.

Sean ran around the city dressed in his recognizable orange suit. He had spent the last half hour searching the city, looking for any signs of Christina. But she was crafty. There was no hope in using security cameras because she shuts them off with a simple wave of her hand. He didn't know what to expect of her. What kind of person was she? She only attacked the lab, but she also hijacked the satellite. Did she know what would happen? Did she want people to die as a result? He wanted to believe that she had no idea this would be the outcome, but he had very little hope for this fact to be true. Either way, he had to find her, and fix this before anyone gets hurt.
He quickly looked around and spotted Olive, talking on the phone, "… I should warn her," he said, and sped away to change.

"You are insane," Olive said into the phone, "I can't just tell him!"
"Yes. Yes, you can," Charlie's voice rang out of the phone, "You can't keep it from him forever. If you can trust anyone, it's him."
"But-"
"Olive, believe me. You have to tell him."
" …I will, but only when the time is right."
Sean sped behind Olive, "Hey."
"Eep!" Olive yelled, hanging up the phone and stuffing it in her pocket, "Hi, Sean! You scared me!"
"Sorry," Sean said, "But we have a few problems."
"Huh? What's up?" She asked.
"Well …" Sean thought about telling her about the satellite, but at the same time he didn't want to startle her. He didn't want to make her feel afraid, especially if the problem gets solved in the end. But what if it doesn't? Should he warn her? There's a chance she could get hurt from this. He needed to trust her right? " …someone hacked into the Light-Speed satellite and now …we have 12 hours before it crashes into the city."
Olive's face went from red with embarrassment, to a drained pale full of fear. Her eyebrows raised as she tried to comprehend what Sean was telling her, "Oh …. oh my god," She finally said.
"it's not hopeless though," Sean reassured her, "It was a Meta that did it, we just need to find her and make her fix this."
"Well then what are you standing here talking to me for?!" Olive said, "Go find her!"
Sean sped of as fast as he came.
Olive muttered something to herself, then walked away from the area.

ELSEWHERE

Christina entered through the broken door and shut it slowly behind her with a sigh, "That was way too close," She said, sitting down on the old couch, and looking around the room. There was tech scattered across two tables. The floor was covered in small pieces of debris. It was difficult to see how anyone could live there, but Christina seemed to have managed, "12 hours until the virus uploads," She said, "Then Meta's can roam free."
She sighed, "I wonder if he would be proud of me," She said aloud, "Maybe they have him in that facility right now, experimenting on him. This is what he wants me to do, right?" She asked herself, standing up from the couch, sighing, and moving to the next room. She sat on a bed and looked at the photo sitting on the desk next to her, of herself and a man, sitting together.
" …I'll find you, Randolph. I promise," She said.

LIGHT-SPEED LABS

"There has to be a way to track her down," Sean said.
Peter paced about his office quickly, almost as if he was just waiting for an answer to come "Believe me, I'm trying. She has techno-kinesis. She can shut down any camera that she may be near. So it'll be impossible to get any actual visual on her through city camera's."
"Ok so technology is out of the question," Sean said, leaning on his arm as he sat in his chair.
"Something on your mind?" Peter asked, noticing his strange change in mood.
"Yeah …" Sean started, "Everything got crazy so I didn't have time to tell you but …Earlier today, something …weird happened."
"Weird how?"
"I … I was running, when I suddenly saw …myself, running beside me."

Peter's interest suddenly peaked, "You ghosted?"
"Sorry, what?" Sean asked, looking up in confusion.
"It's a term I heard once. The Flash is rumored to have done this before."
"Done what before?"
Peter paused, almost as if for dramatic effect, "Time travel."
Sean slowly stood up, chuckling at first as if he was joking. But after a short moment, he realized he wasn't, "Time travel? Are you saying I'm going to travel back in time?"
"In theory, yes," Peter said, "What happened after you saw him?"
"He just …vanished."
"That's what I thought. That means the time period between you and him is very short, meaning that when you run back in time, you'll replace your past self in the timeline."
"How long do you think until it happens?"
"From my research, it would have to be a maximum of 24 hours."
Sean sat down to process this new information, almost giggling with excitement and fear, "I'm going to time travel."
"Let's be cautious and worry about it later," Peter said, "We still have a lot to deal with in the next 12 hours, let alone 24."
"Right, right," Sean said. He suddenly let his eyes open wide, coming upon a sudden realization, "Peter, she shuts down cameras."
"So?"
"So that means she shuts them down everywhere she goes. So that means if we follow the trail of shut down cameras-"
"We can track her movements! Sean White you are a little Einstein!"
"Eh, that show isn't my thing."
Peter runs over to the computer, and checks in on the city cameras, "IF I check over the cameras in the city that were shut down within an hour timeframe of each other …bam!" He clicked the enter button, revealing a trail of cameras, leading to a sewer entrance, "There we go. She must be somewhere in the sewers."
"I'll go look for her," Sean said, speeding off with a gust of wind.

IN THE SEWERS

2:46 PM, 9 HOURS AND 1 MINUTES UNTIL SATTELITE MALFUNCTION

Bolt steps carefully through the sewers, remembering the last time he tried using his speed down here, "What is it with Meta's and sewers, sheesh," He said, coughing from the horrible smell, "Why can't they just pick a nice warehouse, or a carnival, least then I could stop for cotton candy."
Bolt continued to walk until he came upon a clearing. It was a large room, with another sewer entrance on the other side. Inside the room was tables of scrap metal, and a TV in front of a couch, "Well, someone has been watching too much children's cartoons. If I find pizza boxes I swear …" He walked around the room, examining as much as he could to see what he could find. The metal on the table looked like giant puzzle pieces. If this is where Christina was hiding out, then this must also be where she builds her technology. As a techno-path she can just create her own weapons.
The sound of a gun clicking make Bolt freeze in his place, "Don't move," A voice said. Bolt knew that it had to be Christina. "Christina Davis?" Bolt asked, not turning around.
The lack of a reply gave him his answer, "Who are you? Are you working for Peter?"
"That doesn't matter right now," He said, "I need your help."
"What would you want MY help for?"
Bolt slowly turned around and stepped into the light, revealing to her his orange and grey attire, "A lot of people are going to get hurt because of what you've done, I need your help to stop it."
Christina slowly lowered her gun after seeing who was standing in the light, "Bolt," She said, "How did you find this place?"
"I'm smarter than I look," he said, "Christina, the virus you uploaded to the satellite is going to completely shut it down."
"I know, that was the intention."
"You don't understand. It's going to fall out of orbit and hit the city. I need your help to shut down the virus before thousands of people die. Please."
"What?" Christina's eyes widened, "No that … I didn't know that would … how long do we have?"
"About 9 hours until it crashes into the city. Christina please, will you help me?"
Christina took a moment to think. It wasn't that she wanted people to die. The problem was that she didn't want Peter to catch her. But if lives were at stake, she had no choice, "Ok, I'll help you."

3:15 PM, 8 HOURS 45 MINUTES UNTIL SATTELITE MALFUNCTION

Christina typed carefully on her computer while Bolt sat quietly on the couch, tapping his foot quickly against the ground. With less than 9 hours left he started getting worried. What was he going to do after this? Could he really trust Christina? She did seem as though she was helping. She said she didn't mean for this to happen the way it did, but should he believe her?
"I know you might be worried, Sean," She said, "But it's ok. We're going to fix this."
"I hope you're right," Bolt said, "Too many innocent people are- wait a second!" he yelled, standing up, "You called me Sean!"
Christina stopped typing for a minute and sighed. She waved her hand, and Bolt's watch beeped. He read the text that went across the screen.

YES, I DID

Bolt suddenly understood, "it was you," He said, "You sent me those messages. You've been helping me."
"To an extent," She said, "Yes. I've kept myself hidden and helped you when it mattered."
"Why? What are you trying to accomplish by helping me?"
Christina suddenly stopped typing, and sat up. She thought about telling him, but found it better to stay quiet about her intentions in the worry that Peter may hold much too tight a grip on him, "Do us both a favor, keep yourself occupied in the city while I handle this. Ok?"
Bolt sighed, "Fine. Message me when it's done." With that he sped off.

(IN THE CITY)

The fire inside the building spread wildly. The firemen raced to the scene with their gear in their hands, "Get those people out!" One of the firemen yelled. They came to a screeching stop with their fire trucks, unloading the hoses and getting water on the fires as fast as they could.
Rushing by them in a blur of lightning, Bolt zoomed into the burning building, stopping in time to avoid falling debris. "Is anyone in here?" He yelled out.
"In here!" A voice yelled. Bolt moved into the next room, and saw the flames grow brighter.
His head began to pound immensely.

UNKNOWN TIME, UNKNOWN PLACE

Sean sat down at a desk and started writing.
"What are you doing?" A man asked, walking up to him.
"Writing my feelings …" He said, crying, "I didn't know what else to do."
"Oh …I'm sorry man-" He put a hand on his shoulder but Sean pushed him away.
"This is all because of you! Your brought me here!"
The man sighed, with an expression of sadness. "I'm sorry."

The memory was overtaken by flames.

PRESENT DAY

Bolt managed to snap himself back into reality by shaking his head. He focused on the voice coming from the closet, and moved forward.
As the flames overtook the building, Bolt zoomed the civilian out of the fire and placed them in the infirmary truck, running off soon after.

He stopped running about a mile away and hid in the alleyway, taking a breath and thinking over what had come over him back there.
" …I need some sleep," he said to himself, speeding away.

4 HOURS 34 MINUTES UNTIL SATTELITE MALFUNCTION

Sean awoke with a stretch from his bed, stepping out from his comforters and looking out the window. He kept his watch on so it would wake him if he had gotten a message, which he hadn't. He was starting to become concerned. He checked the time, 4 and a half hours until the satellite crashes. He started thinking that he and Peter need to do the evacuation as soon as possible.
He slipped on his jacket and headed down the stairs, where Mr. White was sitting at the dining room table, typing on his laptop.
"Heya, sport," he said upon seeing Sean come down the stairs, "You going somewhere again?"
"Yeah …" Sean said, "Olive and I are meeting up."
"Seems like you're spending less and less time at home. Everything ok?"
Sean didn't quite know how to respond. He couldn't just tell them the truth. How would he explain everything? The truth of the matter is that he goes out wearing an orange suit, speeding around and saving lives, putting his own as risk. But he always lies, and makes up an excuse, trying his best to be consistent. But he can't tell them. They've done so much for him. He can't hurt them like that. He can't make them worry. He couldn't have them on his case.
"I just … like hanging out with her. I'll see you later." He said, leaving the house and closing the door behind him.
He wanted to badly to spoke how he felt. Running around so much he never really addresses the truth of his emotions. He woke up and was told he would live with a family. People he doesn't know. And while he's grown to like them, it doesn't change that it may never feel like home.

LIGHTSPEED LABS, 4 HOURS UNTIL SATTELITE MALFUNCTION

The scientists rushed around the halls of the facility, bumping into Sean a few times as they passed. Sean held a face of confusion and concern. They're usually so much more organized than this. What's happened?
Sean found himself in the test lab where Peter was. Peter took notice of the young speedster and rushed to him. "Peter, what the heck is going on?" Sean asked.
"It's the subje…the 'meta-mutant' is having a reaction to the medicine we've been giving it."
"What sort of reaction are we talking about?"

The Meta-Mutant struggled and yanked at the straps keeping it on the table. Energy of several different colors flying from him. Sean watched through the window in fear.
"What's happening to him?"
"I'm not sure," Peter said, "It happened after we injected him with a synthetic compound, in the hopes to temporarily disable his abilities, maybe revert him to a human state.
"What's the compound?" Sean asked.
"It's nameless," Peter said.

" …It doesn't have a name, Sean …"
Sean suddenly began to recall a small series of events from a time he cannot remember.

UNKNOWN TIME

" …it doesn't have a name, Sean."
"Why not?" Sean asked as he spun around in his chair, "If it can do what you say it can, why no name?"
Randolph stood up and paced around the lab, "Because this isn't Central City where everyone and everything gets a cool nickname."
"Oo! How about 'the all spark?'" Sean asked.
Randolph chuckled, "Someone has been watching Star Trek."
"What? No, dude. That's Transformers. The heck made you think Star Trek?"
"I don't know, Sean. I work in the science world, that doesn't make me a …what are they called? The fans of science fiction franchises?"
"Depends on the franchise," Sean said, "Tell me one thing at least."
Randolph sighed, placing his papers on the table, "Sure."
"Will I get a cool nickname?"

PRESENT DAY

"Sean!"
Sean snapped himself out of his trance and whipped his head at Peter. "What?! Sorry! What did I miss?!"
He looked up and saw the red alert light going off, along with the building's siren, "Oh, right. Got it."
Peter and Sean jogged through the hallway, avoiding the panicking workers as Peter explained the situation, "Most of our systems are still down from Christina's visit, including our security protocols. Do you remember the people who tried to steal one of our trucks?"
"Is it them?" Sean questioned.
"We believe so. They're the only ones we can think of who would strike at a time like this."
The wall next to the blew, and debris started flying everywhere. Sean had entered speed time and the world around him slowed down. He looked to the debris heading for two workers, and sped over to them. He grabbed them from behind their necks to protect them from whiplash, and moved them out of the way of the debris. He looked back at Peter, who stood in the way of shrapnel heading for him. The trail of lightning left Sean as he moved to Peter, and grabbed him gently as to not hurt him, and moved him to the wall, pinning him as time for Sean resumed to normal pace, and the debris went flying everywhere.
Armored men with guns came rushing in, pointing their weapons at everyone around the room. "Nobody move!" One man yelled.
A worker tried to run away, and he was immediately shot down by two gunmen. His blood spread to the floor as he fell face first, twitching only for a moment before it ceased.
"What do you want?!" Peter said.
One man came up to him and removed his mask, revealing his face. He was an older man in his late forties. The small scars on him indicated that he had been through a lot in his life. "We have to ask you to allow us access to your systems, as well as all your technology."
"Why would I do that?"
The man pointed to a worker, and his men shot him down. The worker hit the wall and slumped down, blood trailing down to the floor.
"Any more questions?"

2 HOURS UNTIL SATTELITE MALFUNCTION

Two hours. Just two hours until thousands of people lose their lives. Christina had yet to message Sean with the codes to shut down the virus. It struck him with fear, thinking that maybe she would be unable to stop this virus, and people would die. They had to evacuate the part of the city where the satellite would strike. But they are unable to. The gunmen have spent the last two hours taking what they want and loading it in trucks. Sean couldn't do anything without revealing his identity. The men had locked the remaining workers who hadn't already escaped in the same room as the Meta-Mutant, along with Peter and Sean, and two armed men to watch them. The Meta-Mutant had been calmed by Sean, who stood by his side and kept him company.
"Peter," Sean started, "Why do you think he likes me?"
Peter sat against the nearby wall, "I don't know," He said, standing up and moving next to him, leaning in to talk kore quietly, "It could be that you're both Meta-Humans? It's the one obvious factor you have in common."
"I don't know," Sean said, "I feel …a connection with him, somehow. Like maybe before I lost my memory, our paths had crossed. What do you think?"
"I can't be sure," Peter said, "Until you regain your memory, we can't be sure. Any other questions?"
Sean paused when he said this. He did have one concerning question he wanted to ask, "Peter, those Meta's you experimented on. Why did you do it?"
Peter sighed, and leaned on the edge of the table, "Research. We wanted to learn as much about Meta-Humans as possible. We were assigned this by the government and we report our research back to them."
"Really?"
Peter smiled, "Well …not all of it. Just what's safe. We don't want them getting their hands on anything dangerous. We aren't stupid."
"Who's we?"
"The board," He said, "Many of them wanted to give the government everything, but I refused it."
"Wanted to keep the research for yourself?" Sean accused.
Peter turned to him, eyeing him directly with lowered brows, "Let me tell you something, Sean. I know I did bad things to those people, but I did it for science. So that we could better understand what the world is becoming. And I don't regret a single moment."
"That's a lie and you know it," Sean said, "We should be helping them, not experimenting on them."
"Experimentation does both," Peter sighed, "You don't fully understand."
"Patrick," Sean started, "Patrick Atkinson. When I confronted him, you came up in conversation. He was so scared of just the idea of you."
"We weren't exactly friends, Sean. Work is work."
Sean groaned, and turned his head away from Peter. He still hadn't fully forgiven him for the experiments he did to the Meta-Humans he kept captive in Light-Speed Labs. He could only imagine the torment they had to go through, and for what? Research? They were prisoners and Sean has been helping to catch them back. But he had no choice. They were going to hurt people, and he had to stop them. So, what does that make this? A necessary evil? He didn't prefer to think of it that way, but it didn't make it any less true.

ELSEWHERE

Christina slammed her hands on her keyboard in anger, laying back in her chair. "I can't stop it …" she said, frustrated. She could only hope now that Sean could somehow stop this crisis from occurring.

Sean sat against the wall, checking the time on his watch. He was terrified. How did he not realize? There was just minutes left. Jumping from where he was he rushed to the guard, who pointed the gun at him. "Hey! Hey! Hey!" Sean said, holding his hands up, "You have to listen to me! If you don't let me out of here, a lot of people are going to die!"
"Can it, kid," The man said, "Don't make me put a hole in you."
"I'm being serious!"
Peter stepped between them, "He's right, you must let him leave the building."
"So he can get the cops?" The man accused, "No thanks."
Sean stepped forward, "Listen to me. A lot of people's lives are at stake. I'm the only one who can stop it. If you don't let me out, thousands of people are going to die!"
"Not my problem," He said, "Population needs to reduce anyway."
Sean was dumbfounded, "How can you say that?! How can you sit back and watch as people die?!"
"Because I don't care-"
"Well I do!" Sean interrupted, "I care! I care what happens to those people because I can save them! Because everyone deserves a chance!"
The whole building suddenly begins to shake.
"Oh no …" Peter said.
"The hell was that?!" The gunman said, pointing his gun at Sean, "What did you do?!"
"This is what I was talking about!" Sean said.
The man clearly didn't care, and used the moment as an excuse to pull the trigger. The gun rapid fired as the man swerved the gun through the perimeter of the room. Sean entered speed time and ran, catching each bullet he could get to one by one. A few stray bullets went through his arm, making time speed up slightly as he lost focus. Still, he pressed forward and ran for the workers in the corner, catching the bullets and holding them in his hand as time resumed to normal. He dropped the bullets with a sigh.
"…Sean …"
Sean looked over to Peter, who held a hand to his chest, where blood dripped slowly. He fell to his knees and Sean speed over, catching him before he fell completely.

The building shakes again.

Sean kept Peter's eyes on him, holding his head up and applying pressure to the gunshot wound, "Peter! Stay with me" Sean yelled.
Peter struggles to speak, coughing up a small dribble of blood, "Sean, listen … I want you to know-"
"Peter you're going to be fine!"
"S-Sean!" Peter interrupted, "I want you to know …I do regret what I did."
Sean stared carefully at Peter, analyzing his words, "Peter …"
"There's one more thing …" Peter said, pulling Sean closer, and whispering into his ear, "Vault 52," he said, before falling backwards, and exhaling his final breath.
Sean slowly put Peter to the ground, closing his eyes gently. He now deeply regretted the things he had said to him, and wish he had found ways to forgive him. Despite everything else, Peter protected him, and gave him the chance to do good. He should appreciate that.
"Aw, what a moment, speedy," The gunman said, "That's you right? The speedster?"
Sean looked up in anger, his eyes twitching slightly as they sparked electricity. He stood up, walking slowly toward the gunman, who pointed his gun angrily as to attempt in scaring him. "Get back kid" he yelled. Sean did not heed his words, and he pulled the trigger. The gun rapid fired as Sean's hand engulfed with white lightning and speedily caught every bullet that came his way. The gunman stopped and dropped his gun in fear.
"Let. Me. Pass," Sean said. The gunman stepped out of the way and opened the door, and Sean sped out in a blur.

The Bolt sped through the city and looked up, seeing the satellite crashing through the clouds in the sky. People panicked at the sight of it.

He was too late.

The satellite started coming his way, and in fear of his own, he ran.
Lightning engulfed his whole body. He didn't dare look back at the satellite. It was huge, and he could hear it crashing into the street, cars and people being silenced in seconds, and replaced with the screech of metal on concrete. Bolt's thoughts were taken over by the things he loved, and came to care about. His guardians, his speed …

"Olive," he said aloud.
In this time of panic he wasn't sure what would happen. He wasn't sure he would see her again, or if he would even make it alive. He was scared. His fear made him run faster and faster, the area around him almost blurred by the sparks. The thought of losing Olive terrified him.

He loved her.

Bolt felt a sudden surge of power, as quick coming as it was gone. The surge pushed him forward, and the sounds behind him were completely silenced. All he heard now was the sparking of his own lightning trail behind him. He stumbled for a moment before regaining his footing, and he looked around. He didn't bother to stop running as he looked beside himself and saw something unbelievable.
Running beside him, almost in sync, was himself. He was blurry, almost not completely there. But he felt real. His movements were similar but not the same, and he looked just as shocked as Bolt.
"… oh, my god," Bolt said in realization, just as the second speedster faded away, every trace of him gone as if it never happened.
Bolt stopped in his tracks, unbelievably confused as to what had just occurred. It was exactly like before. Another Bolt, a surge of energy. In haste, he checked the nearby Television behind a store window and saw the time in the bottom right corner.

11:17 A.M.
He stumbled back, tripping and sitting on the ground. It was exactly like Peter said.
Peter.
He quickly attempted to compose himself and sped away.

LIGHT-SPEED LABS

Sean rushed into Peter's office and saw him standing there, waiting for him like what felt like the morning before. And to Sean, it was. But that wasn't the case, not anymore.
"Peter …" Sean said.
"Sean," Peter said, adjusting his tie, "I understand you and I have trust issues but I was in the hopes that we could-"
Sean sped over and wrapped his arms around Peter, hugging him tightly.
"…work things out," Peter finished, "Did I miss something?"
Sean let go and compose himself, "I uh … I gave it thought, and I understand."
Peter seemed dumbfounded, "You …understand …ok then," Peter said, "I'm … glad you have made the decision to trust me."
"Me too," Sean said. A thought of the previous set of events came to him. Christina must be nearby at this point.
"I'll be right back, then we can talk more, ok?"
Before Peter could even answer, Sean was already gone.

OUTSIDE
Christina stood outside the laboratory, holding a flash drive in her hands. "Ok, you can do this," She said, taking a deep breath, "For Randolph," She stepped forward.
A blur suddenly swooped her up and carried her away, stopping upon the roof of Sean's personal lab.
"What the-who-where?!" Christina composed herself and saw Sean standing a yard in front of her, the last of the sparks fading from him. "Christina Davis," Sean said, "We need to have a bit of a chat, you and I."
Christina tried to play dumb, and question who he was, but Sean held up a hand, "I know it was you who sent me the message's."
"What?" She questioned, "How? I know I've been discreet."
"You were," Sean said, "This won't make sense, but …I'm from the future."
She didn't believe him, "The future?"
"Specifically, 12 hours into the future, where you uploaded that virus, which then caused the satellite to fall and kill thousands."
Christina did the math in her head and figured out the logic, "Time travel ..no wait, that DOES make sense. As a speedster, you could build up massive kinetic energy," She said, "…I kill thousands?"
"That's why I'm stopping you," Sean said, "It doesn't end well for anyone. I know you have your own personal intentions but please, I can't let you do this. I'll even help you leave the city. Just …I have people I care about, So I beg of you, at the very least, find a safer way to get what you want."
Christina remained silent for a few seconds, processing his words. If lives were at stake, she knew she had to stop, no matter what, "Ok," She said, "Thank you, for stopping me," She placed a hand on his shoulder, "Just …do something for me. Find out what Peter has planned for those Meta's inside. Find Warren."
"You mean Randolph?" he said, "The man from the video."
"Yes, he disappeared a few months back. Find him. Please."
Sean sighed, "Ok, I will. For you."
Christina hugged Sean with a gasp of relief. After their meet up, Sean took her away from the city, and found her somewhere safe to remain hidden.

CAMILLIA RESIDENCE

A knock from the door drew Olive to open it, and find Sean standing there, "Sean, hey, what are you-"
Sean suddenly hugged her tight, letting out a few tears of joy, " …Sean?" She questioned, "Not that I'm complaining but is everything ok?" She quickly hugged back, attempting to comfort him.
"Yes," he said happily, "Everything is perfect now."

THE BOLT

The man stepped into the large cortex, as it had been named, and found his two friends sitting in the two main seats of the rooms computer desk. "So, what's our status, guys?" He asked them.
"Well," The woman started, "We tracked our Meta heading out of the city. Good news is, we know where."
"Seriously? Well that's good. Where did he go?"
The other man sat back, drinking a large soda from BBB, "Alter City. You know, the abnormally clean one."
"That one? Always wanted to check that one out."
"Well hop to it bugs bunny!" The man said. His friend laughed and approached the red suit resting on the dummy in the front of the room.
"You want anyone to go with you Barry?" The woman asked.
"If Cisco is up for it, sure," Barry said, observing the lightning bolt on the chest of the suit, "He's wanted to check out the rumors on the orange speedster anyway. Right Cisco?"
Cisco nodded and took a bite out of his burger, "Yeah man, got to see the competition!"
"Yeah," Barry said, "Me too."

NEXT TIME

EPISODE 8: "LIGHTNING"

THE BOLT/ THE FLASH

CROSSOVER

Written by Timelord2024

I do not own the DC universe. This includes the CW Television Shows, ARROW, THE FLASH, LEGENDS OF TOMMOROW and SUPERGIRL.

All original characters are owned by Timelord2024

THE BOLT created by Timelord2024