Chapter Text
December 11, 2013 - Central City, MO
“Miss Calanthe? Mr. Kingsley is here for his weekly kidnapping attempt. Which door shall I show him to?” Raine sighed in exasperation as the racquet ball went past her and hit the wall. Of course. Well, only one thing to confirm this time. She turned to Samson, her manservant, and the one who was once again stuck delivering unwanted messages. While they both knew she’d love nothing more than for him to show her unwanted paramor to the elevator to leave, or better yet, a window, that was not an option.
“And what’s the excuse for why I can’t just turn him away this time. Please tell me he doesn’t have one.” She almost pleaded with her faithful butler. Unfortunately, the universe was not on her side today, and he was forced to be the bearer of bad news.
“He has an invitation for the Particle Accelerator event tonight. The one that, unfortunately, he is somehow aware your mother wants you to attend.” She opened her mouth to make a logical suggestion, except the attendant was also well-versed in logical thinking, and already had an answer for that. “I told him repeatedly I could give you the invitation. He insists upon giving you the invitation in person.” She gave an annoyed huff and waved for him to bring the jerk in, and then turned to her partner for the tennis match, who’d already caught on.
“I’m going, sorry to abandon the fair princess to the fearsome dragon.” Raine glowered at her for that.
“Don’t call me a princess.” Still, she smiled as the two women shook hands. “See you next week, Daisy.”
“Oh, you’re going there, huh, Princess? I’ll drop the nicknames if you do.” As her partner left through the side door to the court with that parting shot, Raine grabbed a towel off the nearby table. She’d mostly mopped herself up when the other door into the room opened, and her recurring headache walked in.
Damon Kingsley was the CEO of Zilog Platforming, a rather successful construction company here in Missouri. She thought he may have worked on some of the construction sites, he was certainly built like he had. He was a big guy, a good head taller than her, and all of it was muscle. The practical kind of muscle, not the showy kind TV strongmen had. His almost fiery red hair contrasted with the dark suit he was wearing, and his amber eyes lit up with delight upon seeing her. Her blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail, and her pink shorts and sports bra were both slightly damp and darkened with sweat, making them cling a little tighter to her. Her blue eyes were focused on him, but her gaze was disinterested.
“Ah, my beautiful queen, keeping in shape. It suits you.” Raine rolled her eyes.
“You’d say trash suits me if you thought it’d get you in my pants.” He gave her an offended look.
“Now, now, no need to be so crass. I’m not out for taking what isn’t offered. Yet, anyway. And besides, I do appreciate you keeping yourself in shape.”
Well, at least he didn’t suggest I was doing it for him. The rich heiress just held out a hand, and gestured for him to pass it along. “Alright, just hand over the invitation, we both know that’s your excuse for being here.” His eyes sparkled with amusement.
“As if I need an excuse to come visit you.”
“No, but we both know you need one to avoid being turned away, so let’s get this over with.” He chuckled as he handed over a flyer for the activation of the STAR Labs Particle Accelerator, with a note written on it that said ‘see you then, my plus one’. Raine considered it for a moment, before rejecting it. While she had accepted some of his offers for interesting events, this one just seemed like it would be a bunch of scientists patting themselves on the back and paranoid people finding reasons to complain. She tore the invitation in half, then tore the pieces up a few more times.
“What are you…?” That took him aback, just a little bit, he recollected that small bit of himself quickly. “That was rude of you.” The blonde heiress shrugged.
“Thank you for the invitation, but I’m not interested. I’ll pass.” He snorted at her response. Apparently her lack of romantic interest in him was still amusing. Did he just think she was playing hard to get or that she would ‘come around eventually’?
“Really? Yet your mother seemed quite certain-” She cut him off there, slightly fuming.
“My mother and I are separate people. Besides, you know it’s not my kind of event.” She gave him a mildly curious look. “Actually, I didn’t think it was yours, either. The lab isn’t something your company built, and this sounds more like a press event than any chance for you to smooze up to people. What’s your interest?” He smiled at her, possibly thinking he’d gotten her hooked.
“If you want to know, come with.” Oh, well in that case...
“Well, guess that’s a mystery I’ll never solve. What a pity.” Casually, she let go of the metaphorical hook she’d been considering, and flicked it off. The slight twitch of irritation in his face was fuel for her soul. To rub a little salt in the wound, she tacked on “Or I’ll hear all about it next time we talk.”
The executive didn’t even seem surprised. Probably hadn’t really expected for her to agree, just tried because. “Fine. I’ll see you later, my queen.” He started to walk away. She should have let him go, but her defiance bubbled up and she sent a parting shot back at him.
“I am not YOUR anything.” Apparently, he wouldn’t let her have that last shot, and he turned back to her, some fury in his eyes and voice now.
“I have your mother’s word that you are to be my bride as soon as you realize what’s best for you-” He’d leaned down a bit to be closer to on her level, though still looking down on her (physically and metaphorically, it seemed). The woman refused to be cowed, though, and cut him off.
“Funny how the only opinions that seem to matter to you are the ones that benefit you. And perhaps I have realized what’s best for me, and it’s not you. Maybe it’s time you learned to take a hint.” Both stood there, staring each other down, before the fire in his eyes cooled slightly, and he straightened back up.
“I apologize for somewhat losing my temper there. I’ll see you later.” He turned and stomped off, almost seeming the lumbering beast he was inside for a moment.
… … … … … … … …
Damon huffed in frustration. As it had turned out, Raine had been right, and he and her mother had been wrong. The activation event was just a press statement, no party for socializing and networking. Aside from some guy chasing down a thief and and a professor’s wife making safety concerns, the event was rather uneventful. And Raine had stood him up, so he hadn’t had her to distract him from everything else.
That woman… when was she going to realize this wasn’t some fancy story where she would just find true love and they’d live happily ever after? This was reality. Sometimes you just had to take what life gave you, and that meant putting your personal feelings aside. Did he like going to all these upper-class schmoozing events? No. Did he do it anyway? Yes, because his company needed relations to build it better. That way, he and his people could be successful.
Her mother knew that too. He knew she was using him to build her little queendom, but that was fine, he was doing the same. But even so… maybe you didn’t always get what you wanted, but you could take what you had and make something beautiful of it. For all Raine’s attitude and smart mouth infuriated him sometimes, it was a welcome change from most of the other wealthy elites. They’d either give him empty compliments or throw thinly veiled insults at him if they didn’t like him. She was upfront about it, and challenged him. What she lacked in tact, she more than made up for in wit. All that only made him more glad she’d been promised to him. He wouldn’t have her any other way… well, ok, maybe in a way that was a bit more fond of him, but not one that wouldn’t snark at him every day. Even so, what did it take for her to wake up? He was nice, polite, he brought her gifts, he wasn’t pursuing anyone else… what more did it take to earn her affections?
He wandered over to a large tank by the window, and reached in to pet the snapping turtle within. “At least you don’t have to worry about all this, Junior.” The turtle nuzzled into his hand, searching for some treats, before lightly nipping at him for not bringing any food.
This moment was interrupted by a faint rumbling boom echoing over Central City. Puzzled and worried, Damon darted over to his couch and grabbed the remote, switching on the TV to the news. The newscaster at the main desk was almost frantic, and what she said sent a spike of dread through the tough guy.
“-repeat, the Accelerator has exploded! We are warning everyone to stay inside and-”
At this point, ripples of fate caught him. In another time, it could’ve been that things played out differently. Perhaps he hadn’t built his company over the past ten years; maybe he would’ve been out on business; potentially he would’ve even been on a date; or perchance he simply wouldn’t have been affected. But, on this version of this night, when a surge of energy from the particle accelerator surged into his apartment, he felt power surging through him, within him. His skin felt hard, and the world became cold as he felt like his blood froze while a raging storm swirled in his chest. He roared out in pain and confusion, and then the world went dark.
… … … … … … … …
October 25, 2014 - Central City
It had been over ten months since Kingsley had last bothered her the night of the particle accelerator incident. Raine was actually a little worried. Did she like the guy? No. Did she want him to stop bothering her? Yes. Did she want him to stop bothering her because he was dead or seriously injured? Actually, no. Last she’d heard, he’d been found ill in his apartment two days after the explosion, and had been rushed to a private clinic for treatment. She hadn’t heard anything beyond that about what had happened to him.
Admittedly, that may just be because she hadn’t really been checking that often, or that hard.
She was pulled from her inner musings by her phone ringing, playing the vaguely ominous 8-bit video game tune she’d set for anonymous callers. She pulled out her phone, and looked at the screen. Unknown Caller, proclaimed the title, along with a number she didn’t recognize. Well, may as well check if it’s a scam or something for her instead of letting them get voicemail and possibly have to call them back.
“Hello?” A breath later, the voice of an older lady answered her.
“Hello? Who might I be speaking to? Is this Raine Calanthe?” Well, they were looking for her. Ok, why?
“Yes, that’s me. Who are you, and why are you calling?” She hoped that didn’t sound too accusatory.
“Oh, good, good.” They sighed a bit and took a deep breath before continuing. “I’m Doctor Kamryn Coleen, I’m calling regarding Damon Kingsley. The little whippersnapper’s been inquiring about you, but doesn’t seem to want to talk to you. We’ve tried to coax him into doing it, but his grumpiness doesn’t want to see anyone. I was hoping perhaps you could do one of those video chats with him? Or just call him. Honestly, he needs to get out eventually.” Raine considered that for a moment. She wasn’t sure what had happened to Damon, just that he’d been taken in for treatment and basically hadn’t been heard from since. And he was… worried about her?
If she was being honest with herself… she’d been worried about him too. She didn’t like the guy like he apparently liked her, she wished he would take a hint about romance, but… he’d mostly taken hints about what she liked, and had changed his gifts accordingly, along with his invites (for the most part. He still tried to get her to go to schmoozing things, but less frequently). He was a dependable person, and she would probably count him as a friend. A somewhat annoying friend, but still a friend. Well, with whatever this was, she could take the time to check in on him. Which, given she didn’t have much on her calendar for today didn’t really mean that much, but she should still do this much. She didn’t owe him anything, but it just wouldn’t feel right not to. Besides, she could always just leave.
She spoke up before she could change her mind about this. “Where is he? What’s the address?” There was a bit of a pause, and Raine considered if that was a bad idea.
“Well, an in-person visit? … You know, some might say this isn’t the best idea, but I say why not? He’s not contagious, and maybe this’ll get him to do something about his condition. You got a paper? 'cause I’m not repeating this.” The blonde wondered what was meant by ‘his condition’, but grabbed a paper and scribbled down the address she was provided. “Alright, when you get there, just ask for Doctor Kammy, and they’ll send you on up. See you soon, dearie.” Raine opened her mouth to complain about being called a ‘dearie’, but the kooky doctor had already hung up. She pulled the phone away from her ear and stared for a moment before pulling up a map app. Turns out, the clinic wasn’t that far away. Alright, time to see what was going on.
… … … … … … … …
December 6, 2014 - Central City
“Cisco, are we sure this is a good idea?” Barry shuffled a little as he stared down the side of the… very tall… building he was standing on.
“Hey, man, you’ve run up a building before. You still need to be able to run down one from the top. I mean, you almost had it last time! And besides that’s why I gave you the parachute.” Barry shuffled his back a bit, feeling the weight of the backpack with said chute on top of his dark red suit. “Again, if you don’t think you’ve got it, pull the chute, and you’ll just float down. Just make sure you’re at least six stories up. I can only do so much with my tech before physics has it’s say. But that’s why we’ve got you up on one the tallest buildings in the city. Plenty of space to figure if you’ve got it before you need to pull it.”
“While I am not sure I support moving the practice to a taller building, Cisco is correct. It is unwise not to learn a more direct way to get down after you get up somewhere.” Dr. Wells rolled up to the console, taking his usual place between Cisco and Caitlin.
Barry took a deep breath, and looked out over the city, attempting to psych himself up. Something caught his eye, though. A blot of pink and yellow on a building two blocks over. There were about… 10 floors constructed, with at least three more only partly finished, which was where the two were. He was a few floors above them, but couldn’t make out much from this distance. “Hey, Cisco? There’s an unfinished building about two blocks south of me. What’s up there?”
The tech nerd blinked, that wasn’t something he’d been expecting. “I don’t know. Let me pull the satellite, see if I can get anything.” The other two scientists in the room turned to look at him as he typed, quickly pulling coordinates. “Ok, a records search says it’s an office building and…” The computer pinged a result as the satellite scan finished. Well, that was concerning. “Uh, there seems to be something unusually warm there. Why, are you gonna check it out when we’re done here?”
“Yeah, I think I see something weird.” The speedster took a deep breath as he let go of the comm button. Alright, no stalling now. He walked to the edge and… hesitated, instincts screaming at him to step back.
“Go on, Flash.” his speed-mentor spoke up. “Do it.”
With that awkwardly phrased bit of encouragement, he stepped forward.
He heard Cisco saying something to Dr. Wells about the wording choice there, but mostly it was lost in the few seconds of the terror of I’M FALLING! He couldn’t say anything, but tried to lean forward, get his feet toward the wall behind him. After a few seconds, he found it, and took a step… only for the step to propel him back away from the wall. The ground was coming up fast and he needed to do something-!
“Lean forward more!” Barry did as he was told, even though this accelerated him a bit more, feeling the wall behind him again. “You need your run to go down, not out, otherwise it pushes you away!” Even as Wells spoke to him, the scarlet-clad speedster was already running again, this time with more lean. He took a step, then another, and another, staying close enough to the building that he could keep running, his speed stabilizing to his control, even as the ground continued to rush up towards him. Barry let his focus slip into high gear, letting the world slow around him.
The wind rushed past him. The wall beneath his feet trembled as he stepped when it was glass but held firm, and remained stationary when it was concrete. His heart beat, every pulse carrying power, carrying lightning radiating out into his body, energizing him and letting him push forward faster than ever.
The ground was almost there, it was far too late for Cisco’s parachute. Now he just needed to change direction, or else he’d just be running himself into the ground. When he was about three floors away he began to slow; when was barely a floor away, he jumped out towards the alley. It seemed a solid theory, until the physicist in him remembered that wouldn’t work. It redirected a lot of his downward momentum, so he didn’t simply splat onto the ground. He actually got a few steps as he tried to avoid crashing, but that didn’t exactly work. So, instead he sort of stumbled and went down in a heap. Well, that hurt.
“Barry!” Caitlin and Cisco both shouted for him. Cisco followed up, while Caitlin was probably pulling up sensor data from the suit.
“Hey, man, you ok?” He made a noncommittal grunt of mixed pain and acknowledgement. Cisco didn’t say anything further, likely because Caitlin was already mulling over the data from the suit and would give them a better answer in a second.
“Well, it doesn’t look like you broke anything. I’m not getting any readings to indicate major injuries. Looks like you maybe just bruised something.” Barry nodded at that. The pain was dissipating now, his rapid healing handling whatever it was. Since he didn’t have anything broken or out of place (as far as they could tell), he would be fine in a few moments. He could feel Caitlin glaring at him, so he turned over and crawled to the side to take a minute to heal.
“Alright, so… almost had it. Didn’t break anything this time, that’s an improvement!” The tech nerd was always looking on the bright side of things, and geeking out about the strange things he could do with his powers. Which helped during the times when trying new things resulted in pain.
“Ok, I’m taking a minute, but meanwhile, what about that building with the weird heat signature? What’s in there?” He could practically see Caitlin and Dr. Wells turning to Cisco as he worked. It took a minute or so before Barry got his reply.
“Alright, so, it’s not fully open yet, the first five floors are slated to be used by an assortment of companies for office space, the sixth floor is used by the construction company who’s building the place, Zilog Platforming, and everything above that is still under construction.” Barry frowned at the name of the construction company.
“Zilog Platforming? I’ve never heard of them.” Another moment passed as Cisco got to looking stuff up.
“Well, they’re only about ten years old. It was founded by the current owner, Damon Kingsley, and has apparently risen in popularity, Google says they’re actually reasonably well-known in the state.” Well, ok then.
After another minute (an actual minute, not what felt like a minute), Barry pushed himself back up, and did a little shuffling jump-hop. Everything felt just fine.
“Alright, so, Cisco, has the heat signature moved?” There was a brief pause before he got a negative reply. Ok, time to run up a building after he just had issues with running down one.
It only took him barely a few seconds to run the two blocks and get up the building. It was insane just how fast he was now.
While the floors below were complete, these top three floors were mostly still just a skeleton. Steel beams stretched up around him, and formed the usual criss-crossing rectangular lattice of a building frame. However, there was some wood beams stretching around, like walkways, and scaffolding arranged around. The floor beneath him was concrete, with only two spots in the ceiling above him open. One of the two spaces was in the center of the space, and larger than the others, while the other was off to the side, and a construction elevator sat in it, though the car was currently on a different floor. The others already had the concrete for the floor above set in. As far as he could see, the third unfinished floor didn’t have any ceiling at all. Surprisingly, there wasn’t any assorted construction equipment scattered around. Although, on further consideration, it would likely be down a floor, where it was less exposed to the elements that got through the half-finished walls.
As he was looking about, there was a loud crash from above. Barry looked up just in time to see a steel drum rolling off the edge of the floor above. He darted out of the way and hid behind a pillar several back from the opening. There was a ringing crash as the drum hit the floor, and heavy thumps from the floor above. Barry stayed hidden where he was, trying to keep his breathing quiet.
A second or two later, a voice spoke up. Based on the heavy footfalls, one might expect the voice to be a deep rumble, or something equally menacing.
No, instead, it sounded more like some tough guy trying to do a Donald Duck impression.
“Hello? Anyone down there?” There was quiet for several seconds, before they muttered something Barry couldn’t hear, and the footsteps turned back. Barry snuck a glance out from behind the pillar. The lid had popped off the drum, revealing it was empty. Cautiously, the speedster crept forward at human sneaking speeds, and peered up the opening. From this angle, he had just enough room to see a large figure with orange scales on their head and a green shell on their back walking away.
...Wait, what?
“Barry, what do you see?” Wells’ voice made him jump a little, his heartbeat skittering towards the high end of the human-feasible scale. Barry kept a cautious eye on the retreating figure, but they just kept walking away, apparently not having heard anything. His heartbeat began settling back towards normal.
“There appears to be a turtle-man throwing barrels at me up here.” As he muttered it, Barry realized why the situation felt familiar to him.
“Uh, very funny dude. But if you wanted to go there, it should have been an ape.” Yep, Cisco understood perfectly.
“I realize for the reference it should be a gorilla, but it seems we skipped forward to the castle, and it’s a turtle.” With his inner nerd having a bit of a party with the simple absurdity of the situation, the speedster with lightning-bolt superhero emblems on his suit found it impossible not to crack a smile. “I’m going to go for a better look, let me get the camera.” He reached up and tapped the emblem, activating the built-in camera Cisco had put there. “Is it on?”
“Yeah, it’s working. Now…” There was a little clap sound on Cisco’s end of the mic, “show me the Bowser!” Carefully, Barry walked over to the elevator, and peered up the shaft. The car was sitting one floor above, blocking him from running up that way. Unless… there was a wide gap in the floor on both sides, meaning the construction elevator was likely going to be replaced with a normal elevator eventually. While the current floor mostly had the area filled in, the section above was much more open, meaning in theory he could run up one of the steel beams, then come out on the next floor up… or send himself to the floor above that, which didn’t have a floor yet; or launch himself skyward if he went too far. Well, he had to try something.
Taking a deep breath to try and steady his nerves (not that it worked that well), Barry took a running start and leapt out into the elevator shaft feet first.
For a few heartbeats (well, his heartbeats) there was nothing beneath his feet as he reached forward.
Then he hit the steel beam with his left foot, and he tried to run. The forward momentum messed him up, and he began to slide down, down, down…
His right foot came over and landed on the pillar and he pushed up. It gripped, and he began moving upward. He let his left slip off before placing it up and getting a run going. Right, left, right, left, right, left. Those seven steps was all it took to get him up to the floor two up from where he’d started.
Glancing about, he saw there was some actual floor around where the elevator shaft would be on this floor. It was concrete, so it wouldn’t be a very soft landing, but it was something to stand on. The speedster took another step for more height, then leapt off to the left. He came down sideways, his left shoulder getting a rough introduction to the floor, but not too rough. That probably wouldn’t even bruise. He rolled a bit and came to a halt on his back.
“Whoa, ok, what just happened?” Barry’s hand instinctively went up to the earpiece. “Ok, for one thing, I need to adjust the camera better for high-speed movement, cause it blurred out a lot there, but now we’ve got a sky view. You ok there?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I ran up an elevator shaft and jumped to another floor.” He quickly rolled over and stood back up. “I’m going to go look at what’s here.”
“I can hear you up there. Come out! Who are you?” Barry froze, and then decided to very carefully walk forward. As he did, the turtle-like figure from before became apparent.
“What is that? It looks like a… man-turtle?” And the STAR Labs medical director proved once again why she wasn’t the team nicknamer.
“Ok, I know I said to ‘show me the Bowser’, but I was just joking. I didn’t expect to actually be finding a Bowser-a-like!” And, really, Cisco’s description was a pretty good summary, though there were some differences.
He was a relatively big guy, though not a giant, standing at about a head taller than Barry. However, he was very markedly not quite human, as his skin consisted of orange~ish scales, save for his chest, which seemed to be a dull yellow color; he was completely bald, but a short pair of horns in a sort of tan color curved upward from the sides of his head near the back; his fingers and toes ended in sharp claws of the same color as his horns instead of being blunt or having fingernails. From what could be seen of his back from this angle, his whole back was covered by a bumpy shell in an emerald green. The resemblance was partially disrupted by the black pants he wore, though his chest was bare, probably because it would be difficult to put a shirt on over that shell. Currently, he was looking up at where Barry was, standing in something like a brawler’s stance. When he spoke, it was the ‘tough Donald Duck’ voice again, rather than an intimidating growl that would be more appropriate to the character he rather visually resembled.
“And who the heck are you? What’s with the lightning bolt emblems?” Now that he had a visual to match the voice to… it really didn’t fit. Barry couldn’t help but crack a slight smile as he answered.
Or, he would’ve, if someone else hadn’t answered for him. “The Flash?” This drew Barry’s attention to the other person up there as she stepped forward to get a better look at him. It was a blonde woman with a semi-athletic build, dressed in a bright pink coat that went down to her knees, along with a dark grey pair of boots and pants; her hands were shoved in her pockets.
“Yeah, that’s me.” Both men… or was the maybe-koopa a guy? As different as they were, it was entirely possible this was a Koopa Queen. Anyway, the speedster and the fictional turtle-dragon-looking person both turned to the woman, the less human-looking one relaxing out of their fighter’s stance.
“The Flash?” The woman nodded in response to her associate’s query.
“Remember that blog I showed you that chronicled stories about others like you in this city?” Iris’s blog. So, she’d been reading that to… presumably try and find either help or someone else affected like her... maybe-friend was? “Or did that not quite get through that shell of yours?” ...Still not sure about the relationship here. Anyway, time to ask a few questions.
“So, I kind of saw something weird up here, and came to check it out. So…” he gestured between the two of them with his hands down, non-threateningly, “you guys ok? You good? Is he bothering you?” The woman laughed a little.
“Not so much anymore. Surprisingly, this,” she gestured at her companion’s general form, “actually improved his manners.” The turtle shot her a glare.
“Really?” She started to go into an exaggerated ‘thinking’ pose, but noticed his glare, and her hands went back into her pockets.
“Sorry.” She gave him a devious, teasing grin, “...well, maybe.”
Barry stared between the two as they bickered back and forth. Honestly, this felt like they knew each other pretty well, even before the particle accelerator.
… … … … … … … …
Meanwhile, Eobard was staring at the screens before him, his mind racing, running faster than a human’s could as he thought through this. He was trying to keep from showing too much shock. His ‘Wells’ persona would be surprised by this, but not as much as he was. Everything he’d seen so far had been things he remembered reading about, either in history class or in his research on metas. This, though… this had been completely missing from any records. Hopefully, the fact that they hadn’t seen any metas with such drastic visible alterations would cover up for any slips in his mask. History, as far as he remembered, said this being should not exist? What was going on? Was this a sign that Barry’s Man in the Yellow Suit needed to make an appearance, and ensure that this never made it into history, or was it something else? What was going on?
“Dddddoooocccctttooorrr Wwweellls?” Eobard refocused his attention on Caitlin as he slowed his brain down to normal human speeds. Right, she’d been trying to get his attention.
“My apologies, Caitlin. I was… a bit surprised by the drastic changes this new meta has undergone.” Barry was making some general conversation with them, but he wasn’t quite paying attention.
“Yeah, so far they’ve all looked human, not… all turtle-y like this. This is…” The engineer let the statement trail for a second before finishing it in a intrigued tone, while at the same time the doctor likewise finished the sentence, but with a more questioning tone.
“Interesting.” The nerd nodded in response, still staring at the creature.
“This might be hard to name. I was going with some kinda reference for a name, but it sounds like he’s heard all those already. Names must be original, and must not be too annoying; I have standards.” Eobard was mildly interested in that. He wasn’t sure where the nicknames had come from in the original timeline, but the timeline often found ways to ensure minimal alterations, so he was almost certain what Cisco was going to end up naming them most of the time. With one exception for ‘Prism’, formerly also known as Rainbow Raider. Perhaps Cisco’s name would jog his memory of this meta.
Unless... this meta wasn’t in the original timeline. But there was only one way to confirm that. Unfortunately, he couldn’t think of a reason for Harrison Wells to leave right now. Hopefully, something would remind him of who this metahuman was before he needed to go look it up. He sincerely hoped this was a meta he’d simply forgotten, that would mean he’d only have to make minor adjustments to his plans. Currently, Barry had no metahuman allies, except for Firestorm, who wasn’t… quite reliable yet. He knew he could handle Barry, even with his speed being greatly diminished, his years of experience, specifically fighting against the Flash, that meant he could easily handle the scarlet speedster. He felt reasonably confident he could also handle himself against Barry’s current allies as well, but… caution was to be observed.
“Guys, do I have a contact I could give?” Wells broke out of his musings again; on the screen, the woman and the dragon-ish man were looking expectantly at Barry. Cisco leaned back contemplatively.
“I mean, we can’t give them the lab number, that would be really easy for them to figure out, we’re in the public directory. But then, we don’t exactly have a Flash-phone, and I’m not sure about giving them our phone numbers…” Why were they looking for a contact, were they trying to recruit him?
“He’s not breaking any laws, so we can’t arrest him or… anything like that.” Barry had probably been about to talk about the pipeline, before remembering that kind of existed in a legally dark grey area, and it was probably better not to mention that to the apparently friendly metahuman.
Either way, it would be best for him to be keeping a close eye on this himself, and that would be easiest if he could filter their contact with the Flash through him. “Give her my number.” Cisco and Caitlin turned to look at him, ‘are you sure’ written on their faces, just as he was sure it was echoed on Barry’s. “My number is unlisted, so it’ll be harder to trace, or prove association with anyone. Besides… I created this mess. This way, you have a bit more distance if this somehow goes bad.”
“If you’re sure…” Barry trailed off, still a rookie, still uncertain; not the confident, snarky man he hated.
“I am, Barry.” His two remaining staffers were still giving him uncertain looks, but seemed satisfied by his answer, probably just concerned for him. It was… nice to know they cared.
“Alright, so I’m going to give you a number for a friend of mine, he’s a scientist, he might be able to help you, or alert me if you need things. Ok, the phone number is… uh… Hey, Doct-” The other two’s eyes went wide, and Harrison cut him off with the number before any names could be outed. Best to play this safe for now.
… … … … … … … …
Two hours later, the crew had headed home. He’d gone home as well, but then checked the cameras to make sure no one else was at the lab before running back. This was one of the rare moments when he left that stupid chair. It had its uses, throwing them off from him being a speedster and hiding a generator to help keep his speed stable, but it got annoying pretending not to be able to simply run, especially with the power of speed crackling in his veins. Still, the plan came before his comfort. He’d be home again soon enough… assuming tonight didn’t prove any further complications had occurred.
“Good evening , Doctor Wells.”
“Gideon, I need a timeline search for a metahuman with the appearance of a humanoid turtle…” he paused, something he’d forgotten coming back to the forefront of his mind, was it that simple? Hopefully it was. “And cross reference with information on Russell Glosson.” There was barely a second before the stolen AI came back with results. Sometimes he was impressed with all people could get done in this time period with how slow the computers were.
“The turtle metahuman is not Russell Glosson. His name is Damon Kingsley. He is CEO and owner of Zilog Platforming. While Flash is the forerunner for superheroes and metas in public safety industries, he becomes the main example of metas in private industries. His company hires a number of civilian metas and takes off quite well. His wedding with Miss Raine Calanthe in about 2 years is quite the popular event, despite their efforts.”
No. No, no, no, no! This shouldn’t be happening! “A meta like him didn’t exist previously. He shouldn’t exist like that. Why is he a metahuman?” Even as he asked, he suspected he knew the answer.
“His metahuman status appears to be the result of a temporal alteration ripple.” Eobard slowly let out a shaky breath. There was only one piece of damning facts left to confirm.
“By me, 15 years ago, correct?”
“Correct.” Of course that would be it, who else was messing with time in this city right now? “It would appear when you altered history 15 years ago, there were additional side effects to the timeline, one of which is Damon’s transformation.”
That was… unfortunate. His plans could survive one new metahuman, though. But, something he’d learned before was that changes to the timeline on this scale were never isolated. “How many others are there?”
“I cannot tell.” He gave the holographic face a Look. “All other alterations have not yet stabilized. There appear to be 51 other possible ripple effect areas. 31 of which occur in the 30 years before you left from your time. None of the other possible alterations should occur before you leave, according to your timetable.”
His fist met the wall. There had been unforeseen consequences to his attempt to kill the Flash that night. Of course there were. He should have expected that there would be more than simply superficial changes, even with him trying to put things back towards how they were.
But, that was just it, wasn’t it? He’d thought he knew what he was doing, that he was the only one who really knew how to mess with time without it messing back too much or alerting the Time Wraiths.
Apparently, though, what did he know? Speedsters were not gods, they weren’t immune to consequences, he knew that, but it seemed that perhaps he didn’t truly know as much as he thought he did.
“Gideon, what would be the consequences of removing him now?” It took a full three seconds before they responded. For a system like her, that was a very long time, which was… concerning.
“I am unable to conclusively answer that question. His interaction with the Flash has accelerated his timeline settling, that along with the temporal uncertainty makes running variant timeline possibilities impossible to do with a reasonable degree of accuracy.” Eobard glanced back over at the computer display.
“Why would Barry make the timeline settle faster…” Oh. He realized it and trailed off, but Gideon went ahead and answered the question anyway.
“Since he was the focal point of the alteration you made in 2000, things settle faster as he interacts with them, both due to his status as part of the origination point for the time quake, and as a Speed Force conduit.” Eobard took several deep breaths, he needed to concentrate, to plan. Unless, he didn’t need to revise the plan…
“Gideon, are there any records of him engaging in combat with the Reverse-Flash?”
“Negative. He mostly stays out of the metahuman fights for the next year or so, and then only really gets involved for major crises or attacks on his people.” Well, that was relieving. This new element was likely to remain out of the way until his plan was finished. Well, if they weren’t going to get involved, then there wasn’t any reason to provoke them into getting involved. Seems his plan was safe… for now. He gave the construct a nod of acknowledgement before waving his hand over the platform to close it down. He paused to collect himself and stretch out a bit before he ran back to Harrison Wells’ manor.
“I’ll be keeping an eye on you, your highness.”