Godspeed

12. Tony

It was the next day, around noon, when Barry called up Tori where she was at STAR Labs.

"Hey Bare! Any leads on who Mr. Metal Man is?" She laughs and he chuckles on the other side of the receiver.

"Um, yeah, but I think I should tell you in person. We both kinda...know him" he says nervously and Tori's face turns to worry.

She knows many people, a lot have been bad in her life.

She's had bullies and family who were criminals or bad people in general and having them as a meta human would be absolutely terrifying.

"Well shit, Allen. I'm scared now" she laughs shakily.

"Don't worry, I will never let him hurt you, sweetheart" he says, making her heart flutter.

"Ok. When will you be here?" She says and the speaker is loud with wind before Barry is standing in front of her.

"Like now" he says and Tori chuckles.

"Ok, so who is it?" She asks while hanging up her phone.

Barry sighs before looking away and down and then looking back at Tori.

"Tony Woodward" he says and her breathing stops.

Tony Woodward. He bullied her and Barry back in Middle School.

Barry always took the physical bullying so Tori didn't get hurt but Tony would still verbally hurt her.

He would make fun of her for being an orphan and having only a mother that took care of her, even though she wasn't even her real mother.

Sometimes he'd even hurt her and throw her around when Barry wasn't there.

He was one of the worst of her many bullies from school.

"I know, Tori, I was traumatized too. But I know we can fight him" he grabs her hands as Tori takes a deep breath. Before she can reply, Caitlin and Cisco enter the Cortex.

Barry explains to them what he has found out.

"Your childhood nemesis is now an unstoppable meta-human. That is seriously messed up" Cisco says and Tori scoffs.

"You can say that again"

"I had a childhood nemesis" Cait speaks up,"Lexi La Roche. She used to put gum in my hair"

"Jake Puckett. If I didn't let him copy my homework he'd give me a swirly" Cisco says in thought and Tori chuckles.

"Now that we've established that we're all uber-nerds, what are we gonna do about Tony?" Barry says and Tori starts to laugh, making him look at her.

"What?"

"Nothing, you just-"she laughs,"'uber'" she continues to laugh and he smiles at her.

"We're gonna train you, man. Karate Kid style" Cisco interrupts them, making them look up and follow him into the side room.

"Behold! I call him Girder!" Cisco says excitedly.

"I was not a part of this" Tori whispers to Barry.

"Fighting is physics. It's not about strength. It's not about size. It's about energy and power" Cisco explains.