Paralyzer || Barry Allen (The Flash) Fanfiction

Chapter 4: Hidden Potential

"You're losing speed, Haven. Focus."

I had been running on the treadmill for an hour now. Okay, treadmill is an understatement, but it's as close a word as you could get to the machine that allowed both Barry and I to run at our speeds. Still, it was just as exhausting for me as it was for a normal human to run on a normal treadmill for an hour. I was never good at the mile in gym class, and I don't think that dislike of running ever really left me. Except now it was kind of my job to run.

I tried to focus on my feet pounding against the machine, concentrate on pushing myself forward, but the more I thought about the task, the harder it became to move. I felt lethargic, like I was trying to exercise after not eating for a couple of days. I couldn't take it anymore.

My legs slowed down until I was jogging at a normal pace, and even that amount of movement draining my energy. What was wrong with me? Was I really that out of shape? Surely it couldn't just be that or I would've been winded after my first few times of running. Of course, if a normal person hadn't exercised in ten months their muscle development would have deteriorated, but I wasn't normal. The accident had altered my anatomy in more ways than one, and that included my muscles.

Eventually I came to a complete stop, placing my hands on my knees as I sucked in large breaths. My legs shook with the effort to stand, so I decided to sit on the edge of the machine. I was feeling pretty useless at the moment, especially compared to Barry who had been running for a couple hours by the time I'd made it into the lab. And he still had ten times the energy I had right now.

Barry opened the door and came into the room I was in while Caitlin and Cisco remained behind the glass window by the control panel on the other side of the wall. Dr. Wells had been at STAR Labs for an hour or two before leaving to attend some meeting for geniuses. I didn't really ask him too much about it.

"Why'd you stop?" Barry demanded. I whipped my head up and glared at him as our eyes made contact.

"What did you want me to do? Faint? Have my legs give out?" I snapped at him. "It's my first day, Barry. Cut me some slack."

"What if this was you running to save someone's life?" he argued. "Would you give up then, too?"

"This isn't the same--"

"The way you work in here reflects how you'll do out there!" the boy interjected, the volume of his voice filling the space. I was stunned into silence, surprised by the anger in his tone. I didn't know what was up with him right now, but I couldn't stick around to find out. My own temper was on the verge of snapping.

"I need some air," I muttered as I shouldered past him and out of the room.

"Haven, wait! He didn't mean--" Caitlin tried to persuade me, but I wouldn't hear it. I jogged out of the room -- the pace of a normal person, surprisingly -- until I was outside the walls of the laboratory.

The instant I stepped outside and the sun beat down on me I could feel that spark rushing through my veins once again. I'd completely forgotten how the sun made me feel considering clouds had hung over the city the past few days. My body soaked in the warm rays until I felt revitalized once again. But how could I keep up this energy in the lab when there weren't any windows?

I sighed and looked at my surroundings. The science district of the city had become a ghost town compared to nine months ago. No one roamed the streets and admired the labs like they used to, and those who worked in the buildings never came outside. It was as if they were afraid something would hurt them if they did.

The lack of people, however, did give me the privacy I needed. Out here I could train while getting the stamina I needed from the abundant light. I checked around the space one last time before giving it a go.