The Lantern Bearers

chapter 8: zeus's mighty bolt

Zeus.....it was a name given to me not on my birth, but as more of a nickname when my power was discovered....

Thawne is the name of my...."father".

He had always seen me as a problem, ever since i was born. As a baby, he run my mother ragged with shit to do and the lazy pile of shit would just sit on his ass, listening to the radio. We all lived in haven 39, the higher the number, the further you were from the capital, which mean the slummier it is.

Conditions were borderline intolerable, especially for children like me. When i was able to walk and talk good enough, that bastard slave drove me like he did mom.

His punishments were, unique. He was a tainted, just like me, but at the time, he didn't know. He would heat up a spoon, pin me down, and pressed the red hot spoon or whatever metal thing he could get his hand on, to my bare backside. He'd either do that, or beat me to death with a belt, buckle first, that was of course, heated up.....juuust for me.

One day however, i had enough, and activated my power while he was beating me and electrocuted him.....but it was far too weak to do him in. Upon seeing this act.....he did the most despicable thing, and decided to sell me so he would get out of haven 39 and move to the inner havens!

My mother tried to stop him, but he would make me bear witness to him, literally beating her to death and stabbing her lifeless body countless times. He grabbed my birth certificate and yelled at me that-

"You're my property, you're my seed! I can do whatever the fuck i want to with you!"

He would sell me on the market, bound and gagged. Sold off as an mere object to a bunch of strangers....

The.....
Actual hell began....

Strapped to a table.....
Poked.....
Prodded.....
Injected.....
Tested.....
Isolated.....

I wasn't made into a slave like most tainted, but i became an experiment....a lab rat.

It wasn't official government personnel either, it was a rogue research institute, out of reach of the government basically, beyond any havens.

No matter how much i screamed for help.....
There wasn't going to be any.....

I was a lab rat, along with other subjects, for two whole years, each one feeling like a century has gone by. The only nourishment we were given was dirty water and mutant meat. It wasn't even cooked meat, it was just a carcass flung down into our cells......but who are we to be picky?

Something unexplainable would happen though....

There was a loud rumbling outside and everyone above was freaking out. Said rumbling started low, then shook the cells we were in, as if the world was falling to pieces.

The ceiling began to fall on me, but i used my electrical powers to destroy the debris before it could. The door was off it's hinges too....i would escape

I would look into my cell mates cells, but would find dead bodies. Almost all of them died by the ceiling collapsing on them. As i went up the stairs, the building had collapsed on all the mad scientists and a lantern was spared from the building collapsing.

However, though i could escape, it was too hot outside to step foot. So, i had to wait for it to cool.

After hours rolled by, i would follow the trail, with lantern lit, to find a haven.

A lone survivor scientist would shout at me.

"YOU'RE MY PROPERTY!! YOU COME BACK HERE ZEUS!!"

I chose to ignore him as his voice faded from my earshot range. He only had a lightbulb to keep him safe from the void....he probably starved to death back there for all i knew.