Hi, dear readers!
Thank you so much for reading/following Olivia's story in the Arrowverse! I love hearing your thoughts, so don't hesitate to leave a review. Now, enjoy chapter 9!
Before I knew it I found myself outside the abducted writer's home. The Flash was already standing by the gate as Caitlin parked the car. Beside the fence stood a police car and next to it a dark-bearded man with arms crossed. When we got out and I looked at the house, the sun was resting on the roof, making the scene close to idyllic. The house had something English over it, kind of like a 19th century mansion - only with larger windows and an intensely green (fake) lawn.
"Hi, Joe." Cisco greeted as he and Caitlin unpacked their equipment. "This is Olivia! AKA Little Heart."
I politely shook Detective Joe West's hand and he smiled, vaguely. The glimmer in his eyes informed me of his kindness. He's Iris dad.
"Yes, Barry and Iris told me about you: The new good-guy metahuman!" He glanced at my moss green suit. "I see Cisco hasn't wasted any time."
I smiled and met Barry's gaze.
"Hi!" I said.
"Hi."
His smile was tense and the rest of the face troubled. That made me worry about what was waiting around the corner. As I walked closer to the house, and the angle changed, I saw the actual state of the place. The front door… the whole wall in fact… had been completely smashed in by something very big.
"Oh my God." I uttered. "It looks like a bulldozer has driven straight through!"
"More like a wrecking ball." Cisco added. "Let's get to work!"
All five of us went through the garden and entered the completely destroyed hallway. Picture frames with smiling faces lay torn on the floor and shattered wood creaked underneath our shoes. I've never been cold after the incident with the particle accelerator, but as I walked further into this building the more freezing I became! Apart from that, I had a bad feeling in my chest. It was hard to breathe.
"This is the living room." Detective West said as the room opened up in front of us. The remaining walls had ripped, purple wallpaper and the floor was full of crushed glass. A large couch stood in the middle of the room… with blood stains on it.
"This is where Walker is said to have been sleeping last night, since they're doing repairs on the master bedroom." Detective West informed. "That's what his wife told us, anyway. We questioned her this morning and she said she'd been out of town a few days on a business trip."
I started sweating and now my head hurt. I had to concentrate all my energy not to faint. I began... seeing things in my mind. Or sense them, that's a better word to describe it. Somehow I relived the feelings that had taken place here. I closed my eyes. Anger, hatred, fear… were feeding on what felt like my very soul!
"Olivia?" Barry said and I remember a hand calmly being pressed on my shoulder. "Are you okay?"
I shook my head and tried to concentrate on my breathing. (Though it felt like breathing through black smoke!) The light around my heart began flickering and that's when I could feel myself fight back!
"Barry, back off!" Caitlin cried as the light inside my chest bursted out in every direction! It only took a couple of seconds and when I opened my eyes again, I was met with high eyebrows. The torturing feelings were gone.
"What was that about?!" Cisco exclaimed and took a step back. "What did you do to us?"
"Nothing, I hope!" I answered and felt, strangely, as cheerful as ever. "Are you hurt?"
Barry shrugged his red shoulders and said that he felt fine. So did the others.
"But what about you?" Barry asked and watched my face closely. "The light around your heart sort of… Well, it went right through your skin!"
"I felt… Anger." I explained. "Lots and lots of anger. And fear."
Cisco asked what made me feel those things.
"I didn't!" I answered. "Or at least they weren't my feelings to start with. I could feel it in the air… like an invisible venom. It nearly choked me to death."
Caitlin sighed.
"That has to do with the part of your powers which we do not understand yet." she concluded, seemingly un-frightened.
Detective West exhaled.
"I have a feeling I wouldn't understand even if you did."
"If we stop thinking logical for a moment." Caitlin continued, walking closer to me. "You could have sensed Walker's fear from when he was attacked, and the anger… It could tell us that the person responsible has aggressions towards him."
Barry picked up a plastic bag and showed it to her.
"I found this when we first got here." he said.
Cisco, Detective West and myself gathered around the two to look at the small brown piece. Caitlin wrinkled her nose.
"It's fur."
"Not the gorilla again!" Detective West exclaimed, clearly disliking a memory I knew nothing about. On second hand, I don't think I want to know.
"No." Barry explained. "This fur is more wooly and - look - the color is not the same."
As the others began talking about what this could possibly mean, what threat the city is up against, I leaned my head backwards and observed the sealing.
"What's that?"
There, about four and a half meters up, you could see deep marks from something. They were rounded and long, kind of the size of a thick snake... They were horn marks.
"So what does this mean?" Detective West wondered when we had returned to S.T.A.R. Labs. "That we have a hairy, man-eating Hellboy on the loose?"
None of us could answer that and the data results on the fur and horn marks did not confirm anything new. The horns go upwards in a lyre shape but has to be made of something a lot stronger than just keratin. (Cisco's words, not mine!) The fur, however, is likely to go with the mane of a bull or a cow. The height of the creature is unbelievable!
"Can it be a metahuman?" Caitlin thought out loud.
"If so, it's not very good-looking." Cisco added.
Barry sighed and waved his arms.
"Why did it abduct Walker? Of all people. It has to be a lot more to this!"
Barry leaned on one of the office chairs and I crossed my arms, quite determinedly.
"The most important question is how can we find him?" I pointed out, making the intellects of these (clever) people start working again. "Don't you have some device that can track it? Or should Barry just run around the city and search?"
Cisco smiled like someone who's embarrassed.
"We can arrange so that if you find it, we can put a homing beacon on and then if we lose it again we might be able to find it." he confessed. "But as for now…"
"We can't." Barry sighed deeply and stood up straight again. "I better get going then."
He put on his hooded cap and was just about to leave when Caitlin stopped him. She brought up my powers and wondered if they couldn't help in locating them.
"You felt those feelings in a place they both had been." she explained. "That might happen again! If their feelings leave traces, you'll locate their present whereabouts."
I didn't exactly long to go through the experience again, but I knew there was some truth in what she said. (I had to try!)
"You think you can manage?" I asked Barry and smiled. "I ate a lot of pasta yesterday so don't drop me!"
He grinned shortly and then he swept me off my feet.
"Just concentrate on your part, if we want this to work." he teased back and then glanced at the others. "I'll give you guys a heads up if we find anything."
The perfect spring wind flew in my face as we flashed by blocks after blocks. Even if I had my superhero mask on I had to close my eyes, which was good cause then I could calm down and more easily focus on my surroundings. Like all the other times Barry has given me a lift, every noise got added together and created a confusing mess. But I didn't need to listen with my ears this time, only what could be felt in my chest. And I did feel something! After fifteen minutes of running I encouraged Barry to stop between two brick buildings, in an alley.
"Can you sense it again?" he wondered as he put me down.
I didn't answer him but started to look around instead, not exactly sure what I expected to find. I couldn't feel fear or anger now, only sadness, but it was equally powerful. So much that I almost started to cry myself. Underneath a fire escape (a platform with a ladder) a boy was sitting with his head hidden behind his knees.
"Hello."
He looked up, his cheeks were wet from crying, and his small eyes widened. (Obviously, since he was being approached by two superheroes!)
"Is everything alright?" I asked him and squatted. "Why are you sad?"
The boy's lower lip quivered when he answered.
"My dog. Sh.. She's dead! Who are you?"
"My name is Little Heart." I said. "And that, over there, is my friend."
Barry showed himself behind my back, making the boy shout out of excitement.
"THE FLASH!"
We both grinned and I asked the boy for his name, which was Nathan. Nathan's dog had passed away due to old age. She'd been in his family since before he was born.
"That makes the pain worse." he confessed. "People at school laugh at me for being sad! I hate them!"
"I understand, Nathan. But hating anyone isn't going to bring her back."
Nathan snapped back at me immediately and accused us for being nothing but masquerade guests. (Which I can't blame him for believing.) I met Barry's gaze and he nodded. Seconds after, he showed himself up on the roof, making Nathan gape in amazement. I helped him to stand up.
"Do you believe us now?" Barry asked, suddenly in front of us again, and ruffled the boy's hair.
Nathan nodded intensively. I put my hands on his shoulders and smiled at him.
"You know, your dog, she hasn't really left. Whenever you think of her, Nathan, she's there." I touched his chest with one palm. "In your heart. Love makes it shine."
"It can't do that!" he exclaimed.
I closed my eyes and at once I felt the warming glow from my heart. I heard the boy gasp as the light showed itself in my chest. My hand was still placed on his breast and I could feel it warm up too, shining almost as brightly! A light flickered in his brown eyes, the same light I saw in my neighbor Johnson's, and then he smiled widely.
"I thought so too." I said. "But life tends to surprise you, no matter how prepared you think you are. And things we lose often find a way back. If you're willing."
Nathan told us where he lived and Barry got him there safely. When he returned, perhaps five seconds after they left, he gave me an empty look.
"I really don't understand your powers."
I smiled.
"Let's go!"
We searched ¼ of National City that night without finding so much as a sign of Walker and this mysterious culprit. The next day I had to cancel all my lessons in order to keep on looking, which was tricky cause I really don't fancy lying. I claimed I had really bad diarrhea, but I don't know how long I want to use that...
We didn't find anything this time either, but we did save some hearts (like Nathan's but older, too) and apparently spread the name Little Heart across the city. Soon pictures of me and Barry were posted online and headlines popped up such as Does The Flash Have A New Partner?, Superhero Feminism: The Next Thing and Little Heart Spreads Light Around National City. (How crazy is that!) I love making people happy, but I don't really need the credit for it. Not really. But it's nice to be appreciated. I only hope I can cope with whatever comes our way.
Olivia Zoe
4th of May 2015