Paralyzer || Barry Allen (The Flash) Fanfiction

Chapter 41: Coping

I didn't even need to hear what Jay had to say anymore to understand why he was so adverse towards Harry — Cisco's nickname for the Earth-2 Harrison Wells since it just felt too wrong to call him Dr. Wells. Without any more probing on our part, Harry had told us his entire story. I wasn't sure whether it was out of hope for gaining our trust or sheer bragging, but at least we knew the backstory now.

    Unlike on Earth-One — the earth that the rest of the team and I lived on — the Particle Accelerator on Earth-2 had gone on without a hitch, probably because they didn't have an evil futuristic speedster manipulating everyone's lives and purposely creating havoc. However, Harry had still released waves of black matter deliberately, just like the Harrison Wells of Earth-Prime. Nevertheless, Harry's reasoning was slightly different than his counterpart's.

    Harry had released the matter with the sole intention of creating a superhuman race. At the time, he was aware of the consequences of creating such a powerful race and, surprisingly, he had thought of the necessity to create a new line of defense against these beings. And that's what spurred the creation of Eclipse and the Flash.

    However, he had no say in who would receive the powers — unlike Eobard who had already known where and when Barry would be struck by the lightning that gave him his powers — and that was a problem when it came to Eclipse. In Harry's mind, Eclipse was supposed to be his most extraordinary creation. However, his greatest dream ultimately transformed into his worst nightmare. All because he hadn't accounted for the anomaly of another, more powerful speedster created by the dispersal of the dark matter. Hadn't accounted for the strength of Zoom's persuasion and the easily changeable mind of Eclipse that essentially transformed the city's shining hero into the vicious malefactor that was the Phantom.

    In response, Harry became more intense with the Flash, became more frustrated with the hero for not being able to do more to stop the formidable duo. This created a rift between Jay and Harry, and ultimately, when Artemis joined Jay's side, Harry's frustration with Jay spread to Artemis as well. In Harry's eyes, the superhero pair were practically powerless against their rival opposites. And that thought soon became reality when both the Phantom and Zoom stole the Golden Flacon's and the Flash's powers.

    And now, after a night of rest, I was back in the cortex with the tenseness of yesterday's discussions and events still hanging in the air.

    I was sitting at one of the computer monitors currently, searching around the internet for what exactly I wasn't sure. Maybe something that would explain to me my newfound powers and how to use them? Yeah, right. Like the internet had information on superpowers...

    Barry was sitting next to me actually doing something productive as he typed up the scientific report for a homicide we'd dealt with the previous day. Even though he seemed cool and collected from an exterior perspective, I could feel the anxious, distraught vibes he was putting off. I had a feeling I knew why, though he'd hardly allowed time to discuss it seeing as every time I brought up the topic he changed the subject.

    Well, Barry's unwillingness to think about the matter wasn't going to stop me from continuing to try and get him to vent about his feelings. We'd learned a while ago that pent-up rage for a speedster like Barry translated into dangerous and potentially deadly actions committed by him. We weren't going to even try and get close to going down that road again, which was why I was so insistent on talking with him about this because I knew this wasn't something he could possibly be fine with.

    "How are you?" I whispered as I looked away from my screen to give him my full attention. "I mean, are you coping okay with Wells-2 being here and all?"

    For a split second, I could see the reluctance to have this conversation, but it was ultimately pushed aside. Barry sighed, his shoulders slouching a bit as the weight of the situation rushed back to him.