Ever since her father had been killed right in front of her by what the media had dubbed as the Reverse Flash, Jesse Wells had become obsessed with speed. Particularly gaining her own. She wanted to be able to avenge her father herself and she'd been using all the resources she had at Argo Enterprises to find a way to make it happen.
She'd spent months studying the Flash and his powers, trying to find a way to give herself speed. Which wasn't easy, considering a majority of Star Labs' R funding was being devoted to some secret project that Kara wouldn't even share with her and Jesse was the head of Star Labs branch of Argo Enterprises. All she knew was that Kara was definitely putting their robotics technology to use for whatever it was.
But she'd managed to secure enough funding for her own personal research, though not as much as she would've liked. Jesse couldn't wait until whatever project Kara was focusing so much money towards was over so she could get better access to their resources again. Then her experiments could pick up the pace.
Anyways, while it had taken her longer than it should've, Jesse had managed to turn her research into an experimental serum that, according to her simulations, would give the user superspeed. The only issue was that according to her tests, it was temporary and her tests were inconclusive about any side effects the serum might have, since she was essentially creating a speed drug. Not something she could advertise to the public. And once she'd completed her experiment successfully, she was gonna destroy all the evidence to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.
Little did she know that someone had already stolen a sample of her work.
"Well?" Barry asked Caitlin as she tested the sample of Jesse's work he'd retrieved, since they'd been keeping tabs on her ever since her dad died and now that she seemed to be getting close to finishing her work, they needed to keep tabs on her.
"It's exactly what I was afraid of. Since Jesse doesn't have the same insider info that Wally had when he attempted to give himself speed, she has to use a less effective and more deadly way to gain superspeed." Caitlin said as she continued running her tests.
"The way Wally and I got our powers involved explosions. How is what Jesse's doing less deadly than that?" Barry asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Because the way you both got speed is a guaranteed connection to the speed force and stable powers. But Jesse's developing a chemical compound to give herself temporary speed. It's essentially speed steroids and it's not exactly stable. According to my tests, if Jesse uses this, unless she's got a secret meta gene or something, it's basically a game of Russian Roulette. If the first injection doesn't kill her instantly, it'll cause a case of cellular degeneration that'll only get worse the more frequently she uses it until either the drug kills her itself or the cellular degeneration kills her. Either way, there's no way it ends well for her." Caitlin explained.
"Got it. Maybe I can try and talk some sense into her." Barry said.
"And how will Barry Allen or the Flash explain how they know about her research? Besides, considering the fact that she's basically doing the same thing you did for about 15 years, I don't think you're the most qualified person to talk her down." Caitlin said.
"Maybe. But if we can't stop her from doing this, then why don't you use our more comprehensive resources to see if you can find a cure for the cellular degeneration." Barry said and Caitlin nodded.
"Since Gabby's out of town on some quest to fully unlock and master the powers of her amulet, I've got time to work on a cure. I just hope I can find one before Jesse does anything that can't be undone." Caitlin said and Barry nodded.