Second Chances: Impulse

Chapter 6

Dinah took a deep breath as she prepared herself for Jesse's arrival and sure enough, she did.

"Dinah, it's good to see you again, I was getting concerned about how long it's been." Jesse said and Dinah sighed.

"Trust me, it took me a while to find anything useful, especially without drawing your father's attention. I've been working around the clock, but it was worth it to finally find something." Dinah said.

"Okay, what do you have?" Jesse asked as Dinah handed her a file.

"Are you aware of the clinics that have been popping up all over town?" Dinah asked.

"Yeah, Sagittarius Clinics, why?" Jesse asked.

"Well, I did some digging and the place is not what it seems. Especially since your dad is the owner of Sagittarius. Through a bunch of shell corporations of course." Dinah said and Jesse rolled her eyes.

"Typical. But why would he be interested in a nonprofit organization? After all, that man's only ambition is greed." Jesse said.

"I'm glad you asked. Apparently every person who's gone to one of those clinics has donated blood under the guise of some kind of study, then certain people are contacted saying that they found something wrong in the blood tests and they need them to come back in and in those cases, every patient is injected with something, each one told the same general thing, that it's a cure for whatever problem they have, though no patient ever has the same problem." Dinah said.

"Okay, so, what do you think is really in this so-called miracle cure?" Jesse asked, since this was definitely a scam if she'd ever heard of one.

"My best guess, something that turns these innocent people into metahumans, since I did some checking and every single person who received this injection possessed a dormant metagene until whatever was in this vaccine somehow activated it." Dinah said.

"So my dad is trying to create some kind of metahuman army?" Jesse asked.

"Or worse, metahuman mercenaries for sale. I don't know what he's up to, but I also found this. Clearly he's not working alone." Dinah said as she showed Jesse a picture of her father working with Godspeed.

"Great, so he's working with an evil speedster." Jesse said.

"Yes, the same one who attacked your boyfriend on his run to Central City didn't he?" Dinah asked with a smile.

"What are you talking about?" Jesse asked and Dinah chuckled.

"I'm a very good PI. Did you really think I wouldn't figure out that your boyfriend is the mysterious speedster in yellow that's been running around the city and helping people. By the way, he needs an actual hero name, since he's gotta costume, he needs a name to go with it." Dinah said, even though she already knew the name Wally would take on both from the old reality and the fact that she was from the future.

Jesse sighed, since she should've known the jig was up, but honestly, having someone with Dinah's skills on the team could be helpful.

"Believe me, I've been trying to figure that myself and I think I've got an idea." Jesse said.

"What is it?" Dinah asked, even though she knew.

"I'll tell you once Wally gets back from Central City. In the meantime, why don't I show you our base of operations." Jesse said and Dinah nodded as she proceeded to close her office for the day.

At the same time as this was happening, Godspeed, aka, August Heart, ran into a secret lab built into a tunnel network underneath Keystone, only to come to a staggering halt as he felt his speed giving out and he fell to the ground as he came to a stop.

"Well, well, look who's back." a new voice said and Heart groaned as he got to his feet and removed his mask to see Joseph Carver walking up to him.

"I'm not in the mood to deal with you right now." Heart said and to his surprise, Carver just chuckled.

"You know, if you still had your speed, I'd be intimidated. But you don't. Honestly, I don't know why I agreed to work with you, considering the fact that you're disobedient." Carver said.

"I don't work for you Carver and if it weren't for me, you wouldn't even have everything you do now." Heart growled, since like Dinah, he was from the future, only the year 2049, and he'd been the one to provide Carver with the future science tech that had allowed him to gain everything he had now.

"And that is the only reason I'm not killing you for going rogue and revealing yourself to the other speedster in this town." Carver said.

"He's the key to my eternal speed. I saw an opportunity to get what was rightfully mine and I took it." Heart said, not at all sorry.

"Well, I hope it was worth it, since all it did was prove to me that I need to keep a tighter leash on you until the goal is complete." Carver said as he snapped his fingers and suddenly two of his thugs, Vincent Sobel and Jeremy Tell walked up to Heart and gripped him tightly.

"What the hell?" Heart demanded.

"I'm giving you what you want. Just a slightly modified version." Carver said as he pulled out the same kind of syringe Heart used to inject himself with the velocity drug that gave him his speed.

"This isn't your usual Velocity Drug. I've been studying the trace amounts of the formula that you've left behind every time you've used my equipment to manufacture the drug and it turns out that if this drug isn't prepared properly, while it will still give you speed powers, that same speed will also start killing you." Carver said.

"You wouldn't." Heart said.

"It's clear that you need a bit more incentive to remind you how this arrangement works. Including the fact that you use my resources, your ass is mine." Carver said as he injected Heart with it.

"If I'm gonna die, then you'll die first." Heart snarled.

"But don't forget, you need my resources to get what you want, which is also the only permanent cure to your condition. But luckily, your actual Velocity formula can temporarily reverse the damage. But now I control when you get it. I hope you enjoyed your free reign while you had it, because until we achieve our goals, you'll never know freedom again. The only time you'll leave this lab is when I allow it. Is that clear?" Carver said.

"Yes." Heart growled through gritted teeth.

"Yes what?" Carver asked.

"Yes sir." Heart said as Carver signaled for his men to let Heart up.

"Take him to his new lab. His new babysitter is already there waiting for him." Carver said and Vincent and Jeremy nodded.

"But first, one last thing, to make sure you don't get any ideas." Carver said as he locked a power dampening collar around Heart's neck.

"Consider this your new dog collar. It dampens your artificial speed and tracks you everywhere you go. You attempt anything, and you will be zapped with enough electricity to knock you out cold. Now get moving." Carver said as his goons dragged Heart away.