Karry Universe
Disclaimer: Same old…
Making of a Speedster
Jesse had succeeded in making Prime Caitlin's Velocity Nine and was now staring at it. This was a temporary cure to her condition and by no means the end all, but it would buy her some extra time…
"You really plan to use that?" Caitlin asked, coming up to Jesse with more papers in her hands. "It's not going to cure you completely, you know."
"If I take this, I get more time," Jesse reasoned. "Time that can be used to maybe make this a permanent cure, or research your DNA-thing, or even find something else…." Jesse turned to Caitlin. "How is your DNA thing going?"
"I've actually shared some emails with my Prime counterpart," Caitlin said, glad that the Ciscos had got emailing between worlds down now; they were on the way to getting Skype up and running apparently, as well. "Any Jesse that is a speedster or who's DNA is just a tiny different from yours would not work. We need your perfect doppelganger, exactly like you in everyway and then we are confident this can work. Their Vibe is checking on the worlds they currently have visited. They think Mutant or SuperEarth Jesse might be good contenders, but there's also another possibility."
"What's that?" Jesse asked curious.
"Copycat," Caitlin stated.
"The meta who made Karen?" Jesse asked, having been let in on this past before her time in Central, and Caitlin responded with a nod. "But she's dead."
"On this world, yes," Caitlin said. "But on their world, she's alive. They call her Duplicate and they have her prisoner in the pipeline. If we can find one piece of your DNA from before you started using Velocity – a piece of hair in a comb… anything – it wouldn't be enough DNA to fix you, but more than enough for Duplicate to clone you. Then we can use the clone for DNA to fix you."
"So you want me to find an old hairbrush, or toe nail clipping or something?" Jesse asked, giving Caitlin looks at this.
"Yes, there are some issues in this plan though. One is their Cisco has experimented on Duplicate to stop her from creating clones to get out so we'd need her powers to be working and for her to agree to clone you. Then there's the clone. It would be a person." Jesse nodded, not so sure if she wanted to clone herself. It just seemed wrong. Not to mention creating a living double just to experiment on – it went against what she had always believed. "Also it would mean a trip to Prime World." Caitlin pulled a face at this, unsure how she felt about world hopping, but if it meant saving Jesse, she would do it.
"Well we…" Jesse paused, as a bing interrupted her train of thought. "What's that?"
"Watchtower Gideon sent an alert to our Gideon," Cisco called out; Barry had finally put another Gideon inside the Superflash cave for the team to use. Unlike the Gideon in Watchtower though, this one wasn't scanning for criminal activities, but was simply connected to the Gideon in Watchtower to alert them in case they needed to know something – she was more an extension of the one out there, but worked in the same way. "We need to rename one of these Gideons…"
"Yeah, I think Barry should have people choose their own names for their Gideons," Jesse commented. "Hearing everyone call for Gideon is getting more annoying than Siri." The less advanced version of Gideon had also taken off for the public, who loved it and already it wasn't uncommon occurrence for people to be asking Gideon for the most trivial of things in public. "So, what's going on?"
"Speedster alert," Gideon said. "Watchtower Gideon did not know which hero to alert, so it alerted us." A video appeared on-screen of what was clearly a speedster, going so fast you could not make out anything but the speed trail. "This speedster has stolen cash, jewelry, and a number of other things. I can list them from the police report."
"Not necessary," Cisco said. "No wonder why Gideon didn't know who to contact. The speedster is gone."
"But who is it?" Jesse asked. "The only speedster on our world is Barry."
"And you on Velocity," Cisco pointed out, turning to her. She raised her hands in defense, knowing what he was implying.
"I have not touched the stuff," Jesse said. "It could be someone from a different Earth but why come here to steal though?"
"Gideon, contact Cat Grant and Lois Lane. They need to get on top of this story." Caitlin said, worried. The Flash had a lot of good press but if people thought he'd gone rogue it would not be good. "Cisco, call Barry. He's the only one fast enough to keep up here. Jesse, put your Velocity away. We're making the anti-speed formula now."
"We have an anti-speed formula?" Jesse asked, confused suddenly turning her head to look at Caitlin. She had not heard about this before.
"How do you think we beat We – Thawne," Caitlin said, stopping herself calling the Reverse-Flash by his stolen identity, but smirking nonetheless as she got to work.
-Superflash-
Barry was in the office of the penthouse going over some paperwork as he kept an eye on Kara through the bond. That was when his cellphone rang and he grabbed it. "Unless it's an emergency, I can't leave today," Barry said immediately.
"This is an emergency, dude," Cisco stated.
"What, are the labs on fire?" Barry asked defensively.
"Oh no, the labs are running smoothly," Cisco cooed. Barry had asked them to take some more responsibilities at the labs so he could spend some more time at home with Kara and he'd thought it was working until now. "This is a Flash emergency."
"Get Firehawk or Firestorm or Wonder Woman or someone else on it," Barry said distractedly. "There's a reason why we have this League and Kara is not doing well today." Caitlin had been right on Kara having good days and bad days in the last months of her pregnancy; some days Kara seemed fine and dandy but other days she simply couldn't get out of bed without fainting. "And I am looking over things for the lab and getting the nursery finished." With the news that their baby was due sooner than expected, Barry had to put a hustle on getting the nursery finished. He had painted it yellow, since they did not know the sex of the baby and it was a nice gender-neutral color. "I'm expecting everything I ordered to arrive today and I have to be here to sign."
"I get it Barry; we all do in fact. Look, we know how busy you are," Cisco said, trying to remain calm. "But you're honestly the only one who can deal with this one."
"Why? What is it?" Barry snapped, not understanding how one of the other heroes couldn't take this one.
"It's a speedster," Cisco said, causing Barry to drop the paperwork. "And who ever it is, they're stealing stuff and putting a bad name on anyone with the speedforce. You're the only one fast enough to stop them."
"Hold on," Barry said, hanging up the phone. Without a word to Kara, he quickly left the Penthouse and ran out to the DEO. He grabbed Alex without saying a word and ran them back to the penthouse.
"Allen?" Alex said, startled as she looked around the penthouse. "You can't just do that!"
"Sorry but someone needs to stay with Kara and wait for deliveries and the Flash is needed," Barry said quickly, making sure Kara hadn't noticed he'd left. She hadn't. "Look, I'm not going to tell her what's going on. Just be her big sister." Barry then thought to Kara that he was going out and Alex was there for her before running off.
"I do have a job!" Alex stated as Barry left but knew she wasn't going anywhere so took out her phone to call Hank and let him know what had happened before heading up to the master bedroom to see how Kara was doing.
-Superflash-
Barry ran into the labs and stopped in front of the group. "What do you know?" He asked.
"Trying to track the speedster but its hard…" Cisco paused as another alert from Gideon came up. "She's currently near an AMC movie theater."
"Anti-speed formula," Barry said instinctively, turning to the two females.
"This takes times, Barry!" Caitlin yelled at him.
"Then it's speed vs. speed," Barry determined, running into his costume and out of the door. "I should have taken Krypto with me…." Barry mumbled to himself, thinking freeze breath could come in handy against one of his kind.
He had no time though to go back for the dog as he ran to the movie theater and confronted the speedster, who sped off before he could get a good look at them. He was surprised too, when the speedster was easily able to out-run him. Barry finally caught up to the speedster who turned around to push him off and Barry got a good look at them... They were a woman. She had her hair up in a ponytail, a mask over her eyes, and a red, yellow, and black combination of the outfit – a definite speedster outfit. The girl smirked before turning and running.
Barry took a breath before running back to the labs. He needed the anti-speed formula now more than ever. "She's fast," Barry said when he got back in. "How did she come to be? Is she from another Earth? Or created by the Particle Accelerator…? Why wait until now though?"
"Well, the only other way to get speed that we know of now is Velocity," Jesse stated. "And no one but us knows the formula. You'd have to research The Flash's powers to figure it out and no one has access to you like we do."
"Oh…" Caitlin paused, making eyes go to her. "Well… there may be one other person."
"Caitlin?" Barry said, surprised at this.
"When Jesse and I were working on improving her Velocity, I asked another employee for assistance."
"One not on the Superflash team?" Barry asked, feeling irritated by this but trying not to get angry.
"I was careful. I only showed her a limit number of the components, telling her the project was top secret," Caitlin stated quickly, going to the computers to pull up an employee's file. "Eliza Harmon, former Physicist at Mercury Labs. She was badly hurt in the explosion there and was saved by Supergirl. She spent a lot of time in hospitals before coming out and being hired by STAR. She works at the sub-labs." When they were rebuilding the labs, they had created another small lab on the property to add extra lab space since they were blocking off the Superflash cave and the pipeline from the rest of the labs. They called this small lab the 'sub-lab'. "There's one other thing though... She's also confined to a wheelchair."
"How badly?" Barry asked.
"Very bad," Caitlin said. "The only thing that could get her walking again is that chip Felicity used." Caitlin turned to Barry. "When is that going to be available to the public anyway?"
"Next month," Barry answered and Caitlin nodded. Palmer Tech was being rebranded to concentrate on making the chips and to better other medical advances. "Don't be too excited though; it's expensive. There's no way around that right now. It doesn't help the media is calling it an eventual cure-all." Many media outlets had indeed got the wrong end of the stick and had announced without scientific evidence, or even quotes, that the type of chips created would aid in curing everything from the common cold and even cancer. They were over-selling what technology could do and nothing STAR could release now would take back some of the speculation. "I hope Iris is up to taking care of that." Iris had taken a couple of lessens with Cat Grant and was now covering the media for Kara. She was no Kara, but she was holding her own.
"Back on track, though" Jesse said, changing the topic away from the medical miracle of Palmer Tech. "Someone has to talk to Eliza Harmon."
Barry nodded, not even thinking further as he ran out of his Flash outfit and back into normal clothes. "Caitlin, you're coming," Barry said, grabbing Caitlin's hand and bringing her out of the Superflash cave and in to the normal labs.
"Jesse…" Cisco addressed the scientist now as Jesse turned around. "How much of that Velocity 9 did you make?" Jesse bit her lip but then opened a draw at her workstation. There were a couple of vials left inside. "Have you used any?"
"Not yet," Jesse said, closing the draw. "But there's no way anyone else got it. They're all accounted for."
"Okay," Cisco said, concerned for her but knowing he could trust her.
-Superflash-
"How much stuff did you buy online?" Alex asked as she walked back into the master bedroom. She had just signed for what she hoped was the last delivery in about a hundred; Kara was sitting up using pillows and was watching the TV. She still looked extremely pale.
"I'm bored," Kara said as Alex moved to sit next to her on the bed. "Besides the baby needs a lot of stuff. Barry and I put it off, figuring we had time. Now though, I've been using a lot of my free time to look up the best of the best and ordering it. And Cisco's making his own onesies for the baby. I suspect a Supergirl and Flash baby clothing line is on the way for Hero Corp," she couldn't help but chuckle to herself at this.
"Well, Aunt Alex and Aunt Sara have also bought something so don't over-spend," Alex said with a smile as she laid on the bed and wrapped an arm around her sister. "Come on, let's watch something on Netflix."
"Hold on, help me get up," Kara said. "I have to pee." Alex nodded and helped Kara out of the bed, making sure she was okay. "You good? Not going to faint again."
Kara paused for a moment but nodded. "Yeah I'm good," Kara said as Krypto sat up and was by her side instantly, walking besides her so to be her aid if needed. Alex turned on the computer and started looking for a TV show for them to binge.
"Hey Alex," Kara said when she reappeared a moment later. "What's going on? Why did Barry leave?" She had been trying to ask him, feeling his emotions and the worry, but he refused to answer. He just sent calming emotions back and said nothing was to concern her. Alex shrugged. "I know something is going on. Don't hide it from me." Kara warned now, laying back down on the bed.
"I don't know," Alex said honestly. "All I know is the Flash was needed – I was in National away from this when Barry whisked me off here so I'm as in the dark as you are. Now let's use this time to have one last sister's night… even if it's daytime. I mean you're going to be a mommy soon and I'm going to have a wife. Things are changing… We may not get just the two of us for a long time." Kara smiled as Alex turned on a TV show. She was right, after all.
-Superflash-
Caitlin and Barry walked into the sub-lab to find a lone girl in a wheelchair. "Eliza," Caitlin said and the girl looked up from her notes.
"Caitlin," Eliza said with a smile and then noticed who was besides her. "Mr. Allen, wow it's an honor to actually meet you! I've met your wife, of course, when I was interviewed, but you weren't… well you know. How is your wife? We're all very concerned since she took early maternity leave."
"She's fine," Barry said. "She just needs to take it easy until the baby is born."
"That's good," Eliza smiled. "Is there something I can help you with?"
"Well I have a few questions for you," Barry said now.
"Anything. I owe you and STAR Labs a lot," Eliza said and Barry raised an eyebrow. "Well, after the explosion at Mercury Labs – the reason I'm in this wheelchair – I didn't think I would ever work in a laboratory again. I thought I would either just be writing papers or having to teach then you opened and you didn't care about that. You hired me."
"From what I hear you're good at your job," Barry said politely. "And that Caitlin asked you for some help with a top secret project."
"Yes," Eliza said nodding. "Is something wrong?'
"We think someone got hold of it," Barry said.
"Did you tell anyone or show anyone the work we did?" Caitlin asked and Eliza shook her head.
"No, and I destroyed the serum we made," Eliza said with a shrug. "I'm sorry I can't be of more help."
"It's fine. Thank you," Barry said, turning to Caitlin and the pair went to leave. Barry paused. "Ms. Harmon, you might want to start saving up some money." Eliza raised an eyebrow. "Let's just say something is coming out soon that can get you out of that chair…"
"The Palmer Tech walking chip?" Eliza said quickly. "I heard, but it's too far out of my price range."
"Well, maybe we'll see about an employee's discount," Barry mused with a smile as they left. But once far enough away from the lab he turned to Caitlin. "I think she's hiding something… not sure what though."
"She can't be the speedster though, Barry. She's still in a wheelchair," Caitlin pointed out as they headed back to the cave.
-Superflash-
Eliza Harmon wheeled herself over to a large mirror, staring at herself momentarily before suddenly standing. "They know," Eliza muttered to herself, to her reflection. "I'm going to get caught…"
"Calm down," her reflection spoke back to her. Or at least she thought the reflection spoke back to her – she was in a speedster outfit too, which greatly resembled that one which Barry had so recently fought. "They know nothing and we need more."
"I'm out," Eliza said to herself, forcefully. "It's gone!"
"You can get more," her reflection spoke back. "They have it… they have millions."
"Oh, no, no" Eliza said. "You hurt people. I can't let you."
"Fine, but think of it this way: The serum is the only reason you're standing now. Once you're completely out, your body might return to how it was. You'll be stuck in that chair again."
"It could have healed me," Eliza said thoughtfully. "Healed me completely."
"Do you want to take that chance?" Her reflection questioned, and Eliza looked at herself in thought. "Let's go get what we need."
-Superflash-
"This is ready," Caitlin said, looking at the anti-speed formula. "Now the question is, how do we get it into this speedster?"
"Well, Thea and Paula are good shots," Barry said. "Repeat what we did to Eobard? We can get Clark and Krypto to help slow her down enough to get the shot in."
Before anyone could say anything else, however, there was a flash and standing in front of them was the female speedster. "So this is what you hide in here?" the speedster said. "And to think, people said a hiding place for the Flash and Supergirl was laughable…"
"Eliza?" Barry groaned, taking a step back. He hadn't recognized her in the lab with the wheelchair as the speedster but now he did; the dots were connected.
"No, Eliza is gone… I'm Trajectory," Trajectory said with a smirk.
"The crazy ones always name themselves," Cisco said, pointing at the girl.
"Now," Trajectory said, holding up a gun. "Give me more. I need more!"
"Eliza…" Caitlin spoke up, using her real name and hoping it would bring her around. "That stuff is dangerous. It's deadly. You can't use it."
"I don't think so," Trajectory said, pointing the gun at Caitlin now. "I think you're trying to trick me. I'm not going back. Not to the chair. Give me what I need!"
"Okay," Caitlin said holding up the vial of the anti-speed formula. "This is it."
"It doesn't look the same," Trajectory said.
"We made improvements," Caitlin improvised.
"How can I trust you?" Trajectory asked, and then moved, taking the anti-speed formula and injecting it into Caitlin herself. As Caitlin wasn't a speedster, the effects were non-existent, thankfully. "You lied! Now… your punishment." Trajectory fired her gun at Caitlin, then at Cisco and then Jesse, all in quick succession – Barry however, managed to catch all three, and then a fourth that sped his way at the last moment.
He then grabbed an extra vial of the anti-speed formula – Caitlin always made back-ups – and ran at Trajectory. He tried to distract her by wrenching the gun from her hand, and only just succeeded as he managed to stick the anti-speed formula in her wrist, only to be surprised when she ran off with no problem.
The formula had worked on Eobard right away, slowing him down… but there seemed no change with Trajectory.
Jesse opened her draw and grabbed a vial of Velocity 9, quickly injecting herself and then running at Trajectory to join the fight. Trajectory ran from her and went to the draw, to grab the vials. "Thank you." Trajectory injected herself with one and then grabbed the rest before running out.
"Why didn't it work?" Barry asked getting up. 'Ow." Barry felt pain in his arm and Caitlin went to look.
"You got nicked. Probably with the anti-speed formula," Caitlin mused.
"Well… it didn't work," Barry said.
"Velocity is the reverse of the anti-speed formula," Jesse sighed now.
"It doesn't work on speedster on Velocity," Caitlin came to the conclusion. "But it does work on you. Barry, get your suit quickly and go on the treadmill."
Barry nodded, putting on his suit and heading to the treadmill. It seemed the anti-speed formula had done something to him... "You're definitely slower, man," Cisco commented worriedly after a moment. "It should wear off in an hour or so – you didn't get the full dose so what you have natural will fight off the formula like antibodies attacking a germ."
"Good to know," Barry commented, still running though.
"We do not have an hour," Jesse said from the computer. "She's bringing down the main bridge across the river!"
"I got to go," Barry said, removing himself from the treadmill. "It doesn't matter that I'm slower than normal… I started off slower, I can do this."
"I'll come," Jesse said running into her own outfit. "I'm on Velocity right now. I can run and help."
Barry sighed, doubting he could keep Jesse away anyway. "See if any other members of the Justice League are available," Barry said to Caitlin now. "Oh, and Cisco, figure out how to make sure speedsters we don't want in here can't get in."
"Easier said than done," Cisco mumbled as the two left and he went to the computer to overlook security.
-Superflash-
Jesse and Barry ran to the bridge, confronting Trajectory almost instantly - Barry tackled her to the ground to stop her from what she was doing. "Get everyone to safety," Barry called to Jesse as Trajectory rolled and jumped up, and he raced after her as the bridge started to quake violently; Trajectory had done something to it. Jesse, being faster than Barry at that moment, managed to grab everyone before the bridge crumbled into the river below.
Barry and Trajectory were still fighting though, but with the anti-speed formula still in The Flash's system and Barry was having problems with the faster speedster; she could hit him faster than he could react to dodge. Barry could still throw lightning though, so Barry ran around her and went to take his tail to throw it at her.
At that moment Jesse, who had saved everyone and wanted in on the action, had run across the water to join the fight and ran between Trajectory and Barry, not seeing Barry in mid-toss and the lightning that sped quickly her way. Faster than Barry could react, lightning hit into Jesse who collapsed immediately under the impact.
"Jesse!" Barry cried, running to his friend's side. 'No… Jesse!?" Barry didn't know what to do – she was unconscious and he had no way to tell if she was alive or not with Trajectory looming over.
"Sorry about your girlfriend – not!" Trajectory mocked, a wicked smirk on her face as she now toyed another vial of Velocity 9 that Jesse had had on her person. "Another dose I think is needed…" before Barry could think to react, the speedster injected herself with the vial and shivered as the effects overcome her.
"Speed you later, Flash," Trajectory now added as she turned to the unbroken side of the bridge and began to run.
"Caitlin?" Barry asked into his com.
"We didn't add anything to Jesse's suit yet, Barry. I don't… wait, what's happening to Eliza?" Barry looked up to see the drugged-up speedster's trail had gone blue in the distance. Curious, and angry, he carefully placed Jesse on the pavement before running, knowing he couldn't keep up with Trajectory but having to find out what the blue trail meant.
She had gone though, and unnervingly only her mask remained on the floor. "Guys, what happened?" Barry asked as he picked up the eyepiece.
"I… don't know. We lost track of her," Cisco's voice now met Barry, unnerved too.
That was when there was a jet of flame and Jax appeared above the Flash. "I'm too late again aren't I?" Jax said, noticing Barry was on his own. "Damn speedsters…. Too fast." Jax then realized who was on the floor behind Barry. 'Is that Jesse? What happened?"
Barry moved back over to the unconscious form of Harrison Wells' daughter as Jax landed beside him and flamed off. "She used Velocity again, didn't she?" Jax asked. "Is she…?" Jax couldn't bring the words up as Barry picked up her form.
"She's alive," Barry said, determined at he turned and ran back to the labs.
Caitlin immediately instructed Barry to put her on a bed the moment he returned and, once he had, she was all over Jesse, going into doctor-mode. Jax was in the cave a few minutes later and Barry had to pull him away to make sure Caitlin had room to work.
"She's stable for now," Caitlin said after what felt like forever. "I've got to run more tests though... This could take all night."
"I'm staying," Jax said looking at Jesse's unconscious form beyond and Caitlin nodded, knowing she was not getting him to leave.
"I've got to go, though," Barry said, feeling how worried Kara was and with him not answering it was making her more worried. He couldn't stress her out over this. "I'll be back tomorrow for an update." Barry ran out.
-Superflash-
Kara and Alex had spent hours watching TV and Alex had got them dinner at one point too. Kara though was distracted from random pieces of information she was getting from Barry, which was starting to worry her. She was very relieved when Barry ran into the penthouse though. "Thank you Alex," Barry said before he even greeted his wife, and Alex nodded.
"I had fun spending the day with my sister. Sara is coming to pick me up though," Alex said hugging Kara goodbye before leaving the penthouse, knowing the two needed a moment and not too keen on being sped all the way back to National.
What's wrong? Kara asked immediately, and Barry shared the memories of the day with her. Eliza… oh, the poor woman. And Jesse is… oh my… Tears appeared in Kara's eyes and Barry brought her into a hug.
"Caitlin's got her,' Barry said. "She'll be okay." Barry repeated the line in his head for her. Half to make Kara believe it, and half to make him believe it too. Let's go to sleep. It's been a long day.
It was a restless night for the pair though.
-Superflash-
The next day Barry walked into the labs and to the office he and Kara used to find Iris behind the desk. "Hey," Barry said and Iris looked up.
"Sorry, do you need the chair?" Iris asked. She had been using the office when she was in the lab as well, since it was free without Kara around. Barry shook his head.
"No, just dropping off some things I wanted Sally to take care of today," Barry said. "She's not in yet." It was early so Barry wasn't surprised when Sally wasn't at her assistant's desk. "What are you doing here so early anyway?"
'Um… well…" Iris paused and then turned the monitor of the computer toward Barry, to show what she was working on. An article that said 'Flash Takes on Female Speedster'. "I know it's not my job anymore, but I love reporting the news. This is okay and I'm good doing it until Kara can take back over the reins, but I do want to be a reporter again. I've been writing articles and putting it up on a blog once more. Hoping I can grab a following and maybe get another local job."
Barry nodded. The job with STAR was just temporary anyway. They all knew that. "You know you were good at the press conference the other day," Barry said thoughtfully now. STAR had a press conference to show a new project they were releasing to the public. It was the first one Kara was not in charge of and Iris had overseen it with Barry being there, since he was one of the owners of STAR, he had to show his own face, and had been impressed with how his sister had handled the whole task. "I mean, not as good as Kara at manipulating the media, but you were comfortable in front of the camera."
"So?" Iris said, shrugging and not seeing where Barry was going with this.
"Why don't you see about becoming a TV reporter?" Barry said quickly now. "It would be a bit different from writing, but not so bad." Iris paused, that thought never having come to her. "Think about it, and maybe talk to Cat. She does have CatCo TV up and running. She might need someone in Central or have connections to help you out."
"I don't know if I feel right using Kara's connections to get a job," Iris said now, unsure. She wanted to find something on her own merit, not on who her family are.
"Cat wouldn't give you a job or help you get one if she didn't think you had it in you," Barry assured Iris. "Besides, use the Superfamily to your advantage." Barry winked at his sister before heading to the SuperFlash cave, leaving her in deep thought as she stared, unseeing, at her new article.
In the cave, Barry could see Jesse was still unconscious on the bed. Jax was next to her, asleep himself in the chair. He must have never left.
"So?" Barry quietly asked Caitlin and Cisco, wanting an update.
"She's in a coma," Caitlin said in lowered voice herself. "But her readings match the coma you were in."
"What?" Barry asked, confused.
"Your coma was one for the history books. I had never seen or heard of anything like that before, and Jesse is in the same type of coma – a speedforce coma!" Caitlin, although worried, couldn't help but grin at this. "By now the Velocity should have worn off, but her body is reacting like it has the speed. I tested her. She's actually been connected to the speedforce."
"Say that again?" Barry asked confused.
"She's becoming a speedster Barry," Cisco said. "Like you. A real one. Not a Velocity one."
Barry stared at them dumbfounded. Jesse becoming a speedster hadn't even occurred to him last night. "That's not all," Caitlin said, her voice more it's natural tone as they relocated to the main lab now. 'I've been running tests. Her cellular degeneration is reversing. She's being healed."
"She is?" Barry asked. Kara repeated the question in his head, too.
"It seems getting connected to the actual speedforce is reversing the effects of the fake speedforce she was using," Caitlin summarized. "Barry, hitting her with that lightning bolt probably saved her life."
Thank god, Kara sent the thought in Barry's head. She was well enough to be on her own today without needing a babysitter, besides Krypto, but she had been very worried about Jesse.
"It's not over yet," Caitlin said to a dumbfounded Barry. 'You were in a coma for nine months. We got out your records from the coma so we know what to do for Jesse. It seems the Reverse-Flash is doing some good for her now after all. There is one problem though… We need permission to keep her from her next of kin, for obvious reasons. I mean, we could hide her here without telling anyone but it would be unethical and if her coma is even half as long as your one was…"
"Yeah, I got it," Barry said holding up a hand. Eventually Jesse would start to be missed by other people in her life if they just kept her here without permission, without her contacting her loved ones too. "Have you started her treatment?" Caitlin nodded, knowing it was unethical to even start without getting permission from her next of kin but it needed to be started. She wasn't letting Jesse die on her watch. "She has a grandma who lives in Florida. I'll look up her records and call her."
Barry left the cave to go back to the office to get Jesse's personal file. He could have found it on the computer in the cave but he didn't want to do this in front of everyone. He even asked Iris to leave and close the door behind her. Once he'd found the number and on the phone with Jesse's grandmother he gave a very brief explanation of what happened to her. Sticking to basics by saying she had accident and was now in a coma as a result.
"What hospital is she in?" Barry was finally asked after Mrs. Morgan had composed herself from the news.
"We actually have her in the Labs here, Mrs. Morgan," Barry said. "You see her coma is very unusual. The only other case was well… me, and STAR labs are the one who saved me. My staff know what they're doing. We'd like your permission though to keep her here and give her treatment." Barry sighed. "I know you have no reason to trust me or STAR, but we only want to save Jesse. We consider her family. She'd get the best care right here."
"I admit I was concerned when Jesse said she was going to work for STAR," Mrs. Morgan started. "But the way she talks about you and your wife and all the people there… I can tell she's happy and she loves you and to say the truth… I admire you Mr. Allen." Mrs. Morgan paused. "I know that monster did to you what he did to us. He killed your mother. The fact you took what he gave you and transformed it… Well, STAR is a great force of good now, and if Jesse trusts you I know she would want you to be the ones to take care of her. So you have my permission to do what you need."
"Thank you Mrs. Morgan," Barry said, relieved.
"Just save my granddaughter, Mr. Allen. She's all I have now."
"I will," Barry said, and said his goodbyes before hanging up the phone and sighing. Well that went well.
Now just to wake Jesse up.
That could take a while.
I remember… Barry was treated to an image of him in his coma and sighed. They had a long road ahead, and they were getting a new speedster out of it too.
Post Chapter Note: Well, hope you like how I gave Jesse speed. Couldn't bring her in without making her a speedster somehow after all…
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Next Time on Karry Universe:
A Very Karry Birth- As Kara finally goes into labor, the Flash is forced to deal with an untimely attack on his friends. Will Barry save his friends and make it back in time to see his child born, and will the mental link between the pair finally answer the age-old question how painful labor really is…?
Karry Master OUT!