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You were never bored in Central City. Ever since you visited for a college campus tour you’d become enamoured with the city. Your day life involved cups of coffee on bustling streets, browsing used book stores, and biking along tree lined paths. The night life was what you hadn’t expected to love though. You’d never been one for staying out all night at clubs, but something about Central City made you actually love going out with the moon over your head. While you still avoided busy clubs, there were a few bars that you could go with friends to have a quiet drink and catch up on news. Also, the used book stores were open pretty late.
Your love of Central City didn’t change when the accelerator exploded, in fact, it grew. With the disaster came many terrible things, but there were good things to; things like the Flash. You’d been following Iris West’s blog since its inception, and while you weren’t about to admit it, the lightning bolt keychain on your bag may have been bought due to a certain red wearing superhero.
Although an argument could be made that it had to do with the nifty ability you picked up after the incident. One little shock from your computer and suddenly you could throw lightning bolts across the room as well as get travel through anything conductive—it made getting around town a lot easier, but you tended to short out city blocks if you did. So, you stuck to your regular bus route most days.
Of course, maybe if you’d just stuck to your bus route today you would have missed a woman being kidnapped. You’d rounded the corner to stumble upon a woman being held at gunpoint, two men trying to force her into a black sedan. Your heart raced immediately and you felt the electricity bounce between the tips of your fingers.
“Hey!” you shouted.
“Help!” the woman shouted back.
The men each tried harder to force her into the vehicle but she wasn’t giving up, kicking and punching for all she was worth. But it wasn’t much use against two men twice her size, and they were able to lift her legs up and toss her in. You watched as one man raised his fist and struck her inside the car, while the other tried to get in. As he slammed the door shut your felt the burning in your veins. They drove towards you and you reached your hand out, sending a bolt of electricity into their back right tire. It exploded and the car spun out, screeching across the street before smashing into a lamppost. The commotion had caused someone to come out of the building behind you, who you then ordered to call 911 about a kidnapping.
You rushed to the smoking vehicle and wrenched on the back door, hoping you weren’t going to find a gun in your face. You didn’t, but you did find a fist. Large, gloved knuckles came at you faster than you could comprehend and struck you cheek. You stumbled backwards, the pain shooting through your nerves and making stars appear behind your eyelids. As you fell to the ground you heard footsteps, and when you were able to open your eyes that’s when you saw the gun in your face.
There was a click, which you assumed was the cocking of the gun, and you reached your hand out. You let out a burst of electricity and rolled to your right, hoping you could dodge a bullet, but when you stopped rolling the man was gone. You looked back and forth, finding a few more people had come to the street to watch or help, but the man that had the gun to you was gone.
A rush of wind splashed over you, and then you heard a pounding from within the trunk. You jumped as someone demanded to be let out.
You climbed to your feet, going to the back of the car before hearing a groan from inside. You looked through the open back door to find the woman on the floor of the cab, just returning from unconsciousness it seemed.
“You okay?” you asked, offering her your hand. You entire face beat as you spoke. Being punched hurt; how did professional fighters enjoy that?
The woman tried to nod and reached for your hand. You had to lean forward more before pulling her out and telling her to sit on the edge of the seat. She refused and hobbled towards the sidewalk and sat down. You helped her there but she wasn’t speaking, and she didn’t say a word until the police arrived.
She didn’t even give you a “thanks” as the police took her away and you were left to give your statement a thousand times.
“The tire just blew?” the blond detective asked. You were a little dumbstruck by how cute he was, but the disbelief in his voice bothered you.
“Yeah, I guess so?” you replied. “And then I got clocked opening the door.”
“And then they were in the trunk?”
You chuckled at the image of the three men getting pulled out of the trunk, one of them unconscious. But as the pain shot through your cheek and temple you groaned. “Yeah, that’s it. And she didn’t say a word to me.”
“All right, thank you Y/N,” Detective Thawne said, “I think I’ve got everything I need. Do you want someone to escort you home?”
You debated that before shaking your head. “No, I’m only two blocks from here.”
Det. Thawne nodded at you before going to his partner who was observing the car with a CSI. The CSI had caught your eye when he’d arrived, tall with lean muscle, and you noticed he couldn’t stop looking at you. You’d be blushing if you hadn’t just been punched in the face.
Okay, maybe some of the redness in your face was because of him. But it wasn’t like you could just saunter up to him in the middle of a crime scene and get his number, so you turned and started for the line of yellow tap separating you from the general public. When a uniformed officer stopped you, you turned around and watched as Det. Thawne waved his hand to allow you to go. You gave him a small wave of thanks, noting the CSI watching you from the corner of his eye.
When you finally made it home you grabbed an ice pack from the freezer, held it gingerly to your face, and fell onto the couch. There was still a little trill in your chest from facing danger, but you were happy to be safely home. You only hoped that woman would be okay.
You leaned your head on the cushion so that you wouldn’t have to hold up the ice pack and looked to your television. Seeing the remote was on the table, and far out of your reach, you turned the TV on with a flick of your wrist, letting the weather report play for a minute before turning the channel. You kept going through the channels until you found a rerun of FRIENDS, and settled in to watch. At some point you fell asleep that evening to the sounds of studio laughter.
You hung around your apartment for a couple days until the swelling in your face went down, and you could actually smile and talk with minimal pain. But unfortunately your bank account wouldn’t allow you to miss any more work, and you headed out for your first day back; your boss had mentioned your coworkers were worried about your wellbeing after the incident. But first, you popped into Jitters for your daily dose of caffeine. Inside you stepped into line and as soon as you did a person came up behind you to wait.
You didn’t think anything of it until you felt the buzz of an unfamiliar device in their hands. You could feel cell phones and iPods, and tell the difference between just about any kind of technology someone had, but this device felt…unusual. Like nothing you’d felt before. It vibrated across your skin and when you heard it begin to beep you had to turn to take a look.
A man stood there with a box in his hands, dark skin and long hair with warm eyes that stared at the device. When he looked up and noticed you had turned around his eyes widened.
You asked, “What is that?”
He gulped. “Uh, Gameboy?” He quickly tucked it away behind his back.
You furrowed your brow. “It doesn’t look like any Gameboy I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s a retro one, really old, like from the eighties, actually, it’s homemade!” he said, backing towards the door. He bumped into a man that had just stepped into line before moving back towards you and dropping the device to the floor as he crashed into you. You stumbled back and quickly bent down to pick it up but as you gripped the device in your hand it let out a series of sparks and then began to smoke. You dropped it immediately.
“Sorry!” you said. “Oh God, I’m so sorry I don’t know what happened…” It wasn’t your abilities that had broken it, you thought. Probably.
The man reached down and picked it up, waving the smoke away. “Well, that confirms it…”
“Confirms—“
“Next!” the barista called. You jumped and turned, the barista raising her eyebrows at you. You quickly stepped up and by the time you made your order the man with the mysterious device was gone. You frowned.
Brushing off the encounter you stepped outside and began down the street, coffee in hand. Just as you turned the corner you saw him again, the CSI with eyes for you (as you liked to see it anyway). Of course, you didn’t expect him to be standing talking with the guy that had just crashed into you at Jitters.
“You used it on them?” the CSI questioned, running a hand through his hair.
“I needed to confirm the theory,” the other argued. You stopped and watched them, not trying to hide your presence. They weren’t that far away from you but neither of them had noticed you yet, not with so many other people walking around.
“Cisco we agreed that the Flash would talk to them first when they were feeling…” His voice trailed off as you caught his eye. His mouth hung open a moment as the other man, Cisco, looked to you as well. You looked at the broken device in his hand, then back to the CSI as you put everything together. Well, put some of it together; it was apparently no accident meeting either of them.
You pointed over your shoulder. “I’ll just…go the other way to work…” You whirled and started to fast walk away, pushing your way past as many people as you could. But it didn’t take long for the CSI to catch up with you.
“Wait, just wait a minute,” he pleaded.
You back away, eyeing him. Those green eyes and weirdly innocent gaze would only get him so far. You held you hand out, agreeing to his one minute.
“I—we,” he said, gesturing to his friend who came to join, “work at STAR labs.”
“Actually just I work at STAR labs, he hangs out there,” Cisco corrected.
“The place with the accelerator,” you said. There were butterflies in your stomach as things began to fall into place. STAR labs, the accelerator explosion, and your new powers that happened just after—and the fact that the Flash showed up yesterday just as you nearly got your head blown off. You gulped.
“There was a tape of what happened the other day,” the CSI said, “and I saw—“
“We saw,” Cisco said.
“We saw what happened. Just…come with us to STAR labs and I can—“
“We can.”
“We can explain more.” They gave each other a hard look.
Out of nervous habit you were holding onto the strap on your bag when your fingers began to slide across your lightning bolt charm. You wet your lips, looking between both men and wondering what you had to lose. If this was a trick you could easily zap them and run. “Will Flash be there? You mentioned him.” You nodded your head back. “Back there.”
Cisco grimaced while the CSI grinned. “Yeah, he will be.”
“Fine,” you agreed. “I’m Y/N…but I guess you guys already know that.”
“I’m Barry,” the CSI said, “and this is Cisco.”
Entering STAR labs was surreal, something you never thought you would be doing. Honestly after the incident you hadn’t thought much about STAR labs—far too distracted by your newfound ability to travel through telephone wires and work a computer without even touching it.
“This is some laboratory,” you said, looking around at the shiny silver equipment you couldn’t even name. “So you guys work here with the Flash?”
Barry beamed at your obvious affection for the local hero. He quickly stepped forward and opened his arms to show off the lab while Cisco retreated to what appeared to be his desk.
“This is it,” Barry said, smiling. “Cisco tracks crime around the city and relays information to Flash.”
“And Dr. Snow patches him up when he gets his ass handed to him by a meta-human,” Cisco chimed in as a woman entered the room. Her heels clicked against the floor and she hesitated when she realized someone new was there. You gave her a small wave while Barry frowned at Cisco. Cisco smiled and shrugged.
“I didn’t realize we had company,” Dr. Snow said. Despite her obvious surprise and annoyance she greeted you with a smile and shook your hand. “You can call me Caitlyn.”
“Y/N, nice to meet you. The Flash gets his ass handed to him?”
“No,” Barry answered at the same time Cisco said, “More than you think.”
You let out a low laugh.
“So since you’re here do you think I can get a sample of your blood to test?” Caitlyn asked.
You arched your eyebrows at her. “Getting right into it, huh?”
“You can send out bolts of electricity at the same speed of lightning,” she replied, “I’d really like to see what’s going on in your body when that—“
“Why don’t we just do a tour?” Barry interrupted, scratching at the back of his head. “For now. Until Y/N is more comfortable…”
“It’s fine with me,” you said. “You guys work with the Flash so you can’t be evil.”
“We don’t just work with the Flash,” Barry told you. He raced away and when he returned he was wearing the uniform of the Flash, chest emblazoned with the lightning bolt. You gaped a moment when he added, “I am the Flash.”