Let me get you up to speed, cause I've met The Flash! (Hah! Get the joke?) I've met him twice, actually, though I became aware of it very recently. When I'd saved Johnson's expensive couch from turning into ash I felt grateful for these… talents. I am really comfortable with them now! Lauren continually says that I'm doing fine and she, dad and Adam believe that I should only use them when it's absolutely necessary. I think so, too. Adam has shown a more serious concern for my well-being in case anyone should find out. He thinks I need "expert" help.
"You should contact Dr. Wells." he pointed out as we were having breakfast the other day.
I spread some blueberries on my muesli and avoided looking into his eyes. (He has a rare stare that can make you feel guilty of almost anything!)
"Perhaps."
"Why haven't you?" he inquired further.
I took a slurp of my blood orange juice. It was quite stingy.
"I don't think I need to." I answered, a little too confidently. "I'm getting better every day and that's all I need."
Looking back at what I said, I realize that I actually was afraid of facing more changes. Alas! 'Tis a human condition, the need of feeling in control, and I was frightened by what unknown worlds S.T.A.R. Labs would open up my eyes to… Would I be able to handle it? I don't know the answer, but since I didn't know if I would be able to handle my ordinary life (from its own difficult - and dark - angles) it's best not to think about it.
An event yesterday started the change I had feared would come. I am sorry to say that my suddenly-and-confusingly transforming life no longer will contain just watching dvd's and doing yoga in the living room (note that I do all the above). Even if opening my eyes was freaky as hell, it turned out that I'm not sorry at all!
I was on my way to see Eric for lunch (I don't dare call it a "date") when I bumped into a very tall and familiar man.
"Dr. Kirsch!" I exclaimed after looking up at his dark, masculine eyebrows.
He smiled widely and I remember thinking that he was pretty sexy. He looks a lot like the actor Lee Pace.
"I didn't see you there, Miss Zoe!" he said and I followed up with an excuse. "No, it's fine … Call me Jonathan, please! You look well... I'm glad to hear it… The Musical Academy! Wow! … Oh, Grease is a great movie! I always wanted to look like John Travolta when I was a kid…" Flirtatious laughter. "I truly wish we'd encountered each other earlier so that I could have seen it. What is to be put on next?"
Our conversation got interrupted by someone screaming and people all over the street turned their heads to a brown building a little further down the road. In one or two windows, red fire was sticking its flames out like the clinging arms of an octopus!
"Somebody call for help!" a man shouted, perhaps Dr. Kirsch, I didn't really listen.
Without hesitation I made flames appear in my palms. I didn't care if anyone saw me and ran as fast as I could into the house. I allowed my own yellow fire to explode from within as I hurried up a few floors. Inside the apartment a dog was barking. It smelled of cigarette and a middle aged man lay unconscious on the hallway floor. A woman was hunched over him. She looked up and screamed at the sight of me.
"Oh my God! You're on fire!"
Out of nowhere she threw water at me from a plastic bottle. It didn't reach me, of course. I smiled at her for trying to help in a situation she had trouble in understanding. This act of kindness made my mind set and I hurried into the burning office. The curtains on one of the walls were covered in flames and it was spreading quickly on the furry, red carpet. My hands formed a screen of yellow fire that cornered the dangerous flames. I took a deep breath and closed my fists just as a streak of light appeared in the corner of my eye. The fire was put out and I was standing, once again, in slightly burnt clothes. (I have no idea why they don't burn up entirely.) I turned around and met the gaze of a man completely dressed in red. The Flash was wearing a lightning bolt on his chest and looked at me with wondering eyes.
"You?" he asked.
"Uhh…" was the beginning of my reply. "Yes?"
I found the barking dog (a jack russell terrier) in the back of a closet and a badly put out cigarette in the trash bin. How can someone be so stupid! The man had left it there, calmly listening to Nirvana in massive headphones, and then he fainted from the gases. The dog had obviously seen the closet as protection and got trapped in there by the fire. The red-dressed superhero unhooded his headwear and turned out to be Eric's friend Cisco's friend, Barry! (Confusing?)
"The forensic scientist." he confirmed with a vague smile.
"That's the term!" I exclaimed, almost making him jump. I reclaimed my manners. "Sorry. How are you?"
Now he did smile and then he invited me to S.T.A.R. Labs or pretty much insisted on it. I didn't object because I was way too curious and, also, I heard Adam's voice inside my head saying it was about time! Even though I wanted to, I didn't ask any questions. I figured I would get all the answers I need in a small matter of time.
"Right, should we take a taxi or…" was how far I got with my sentence, cause Barry took one arm around my shoulders and off we went!
I remember seeing lots of blurry colors and hearing barely nothing because of the pressing wind against my face. In a flash I found myself standing outside the large, glass entrance of S.T.A.R Labs. The building is even bigger up close.
"That was so much fun!" I exclaimed while I felt my heart beat fast inside my chest. "What a rush! Will you take me home like that, too, when we're done here?"
Sure, Barry said, but he didn't wait for me to catch my breath before leading me inside. The S.T.A.R. Labs interior contains of great lecture halls, pale corridors in different sizes, lots of doors and dark laboratories... Many thoughts passed my mind (like how much it would echo if I were to burst into song in one of the halls). Fluorescent lighting gave the impression of blue and I am certain that if I'll ever be left alone in there at some point… Well, it will take me a while to get out.
"Welcome to S.T.A.R Labs, Miss Zoe!" a young woman with curly, brown hair and kind eyes said as we entered the main lab.
Lots of computers were standing on tables in the middle of the room and we were surrounded by glass walls. For half a second The Flash-Barry vanished and then Barry Allen returned, wearing jeans and a blue shirt. He handed me a black sweater, with the S.T.A.R. Labs logo on it, and I gladly accepted it (cause you could spot my bra through a large hole on the back of my green blouse).
"Olivia." he said when I had pulled it over my head. "This is Dr. Caitlin Snow, one of the cleverest and coolest people I know."
I let out a laugh while I shook Caitlin's hand (because her name's Snow and she's one of the coolest people he knows. Get it? Snow is cold!)
"Barry has informed us what happened." she said.
I looked surprised at her, then at Barry.
"When did you do that?" I asked.
"After I'd taken everyone to safety."
I snorted with a smile. Of course he had the time. What doesn't a person with super-speed have time for?
"Not exactly everyone." I added with a smirk. "I found the dog."
Barry agreed on that and then I saw Eric's friend, Cisco, carrying something mechanical out of one of the glass labs. He looked at me with a long face.
"Well, hello there!" I greeted. "Cisco, was it?"
Caitlin didn't follow.
"You know each other?"
"She's a friend of a friend." Cisco explained and smiled widely, just as cute as I remembered. He seemed very eager to put down the thing he was holding in order to shake my hand. "Cisco Ramon. Nice to meet you again, Miss Zoe!"
He had a rather loose grip.
"Call me Olivia."
He looked at his hand as if having expected something to be different.
"Wow, you're not hot at all."
He realized his socially awkward remark and there was a slight tension in the air around us, but I simply laughed it away.
"Well, let's just say it varies when I want to."
By that note I told them what happened that night last year and they, most calmly, confirmed me and my family's speculations that my DNA had changed when the energy from the explosion collided with myself and the fire. Cisco said that I probably had the abilities right after that moment but that a distinct contact with fire again was needed for me to experience it. I understand it now, why I have lived such a normal life up until a few months ago: I had subconsciously avoided fire (that's to say, thinking about it and being near it) because of the traumatic associations I might feel after the incident. In Barry's case, he got struck by lightning and was in a coma for nine months. I'm not sure which one of the situations I prefer...
"How long have you been using your powers like this?" Barry wondered with a serious frown.
"About three weeks." I answered. "But I've been working with them for months."
This intrigued Caitlin, who was writing something down on her Ipad.
"Then you're well aware of your condition? What's your maximum heat?"
I gave away an embarrassed smile.
"I have no idea. Everything I know for sure is that the state of my mind controls these… powers." I have to get comfortable with using that word.
Cisco looked questioning.
"So you can decide whether the flames will injure a third party, hence prevent the fire from implementing its natural subsistence?"
He used so many new words that, when I was busy trying to find synonyms in my head, I lost track of the question itself. Instead of answering I told them about the most recent supernatural events in my life: Burning Lauren, the un-timed outburst in CCMA's showers and putting out the fire in Johnson's flat. (I didn't mention that Johnson, all of a sudden, turned into the better version of himself when I touched his skin.)
"It sure sounds different." Barry acknowledged.
Caitlin looked at her male colleagues and said that they had never seen anything like it. My positive first impression of these (clever) people made me relax and my curiosity took out its rightful place:
"Barry and I… (I clocked Barry with a look) You and I… We can't be alone in this, right?"
He snorted with a smile.
"We've encountered lots of metahumans." he said.
Metahumans. Cisco filled in with their names.
"Everyman, Rainbow Raider, Plastique…"
"Most of them had been isolated for a long time after the explosion and weren't their original selves." Barry continued. "After someone's DNA's been changed like that your problems and feelings usually feel a lot bigger, kind of like a second puberty. Some of them couldn't handle it on their own and if they did, they used their abilities to act out on their grudges."
"…Blackout, Weather Wizard, The Mist, Multiplex…" Cisco continued.
"We kept them here at S.T.A.R Labs, but a few weeks ago…" Barry almost looked ashamed. "They escaped."
"Not all of them were bad." Caitlin added to Barry's story and looked at me. "My fiancé was right where the explosion took place in this building and he can also conjure fire."
"Really?"
"Firestorm!" Cisco finished with a smirk. "I came up with that name."
I ignored his comment since I really wanted to hear more. Apparently, Caitlin's fiancé (Firestorm) can burn without getting hurt. Just like me! Still, none of the three seem too confident when it comes to my powers, cause two metahumans are rarely the same, according to Caitlin. I nodded while my brain took it all in. In order to figure me out Cisco needs to construct some kind of machine that can manage fire (he has previously built a special treadmill for Barry) so we decided that our research would have to wait a few days. I didn't mind the break, to be honest.
I feel extremely tired, now that I've crashed on my bed and watched a sentimental romcom. My brother's snores are echoing throughout the apartment. I look through the thin curtains by the window as the peaceful silence settles… There is a warmth inside my chest. It makes me smile.
Olivia Zoe
23rd of April 2015