It's Like Thunder ⚡︎ Barry Allen

13

Barry sped the both of us around the city trying to look for Joe as the team back at the labs looked for him virtually. Cisco spouted off an address to some old warehouse and Barry raced there quicker then I could take in a breath of air. He set me down and I fell to my knees heaving, not totally used to being carried at hundreds of miles per hour.

"Oh jeez, are you alright?" Barry asked quickly. I set my hands to the damp ground and absorbed some water, instantly feeling better. I nodded my head and breathed in slowly, exhaling shortly. Powers are weird.

"Let's go get this meta-bitch," I whispered and Barry opened his eyes slightly from shock. Shrugging, he helped me up and steadied me with a hand on my back gently. Although Cisco's suit was shock proof, I felt faint tingles and was slightly dizzy at his touch.

"You alright, Arielle?" Caitlin asked through the comms. I turned away from Barry and blushed, muttering a quick 'yeah' and starting into the warehouse.

The warehouse had a bunch of giant computer systems and cables running along the floor into hard drives. I felt the water surging through my suit anxiously, like a gun in my hand with a finger on the trigger. I heard voices from deeper in the warehouse, and as I was walking I saw a poster. I pointed it out to Barry and he whispered,

"Channel Nine News Networking Station- oh hell."

"If she can figure out how to override a network, she can broadcast to the whole city and mind control everyone," I whispered back to him. My anxiety spiked even more and Barry gasped. "What?"

"Your hand... it's smoking?" he stated. I looked down and my hand was indeed smoking. But not dark fire smoke or hot steam smoking, it was like a dry ice kind of smoke. The idea struck me like lightning, and I realized my powers were connected to my emotions in a way that I could manipulate. Due to my anxiety, I apparently was able to manipulate the temperature of water in a negative way- literally.

"What? What's going on?" Wells asked in my ear. I didn't respond, and neither did Barry.

"Let's go, Allen, we have to find Joe before they figure out how to broadcast." There was noise through the comms but I ignored it. "Look, at the ceiling!" I pointed and Barry smiled.

There was a sprinkler system connected to the fire alarm in the ceiling. The warehouse had long been shut down, but there was still water in those rusty pipes. I focused on the water in the ceiling and felt the invisible hand feel around the building for any sign of people. Subconsciously I started walking to the door of the room in which they were in, and I could hear the madwoman's voice yelling out commands to Joe. I signaled to my partner that they were in there and somehow, though there were no words spoken, we immediately knew what each other was going to do.

Barry opened the door, grabbed Joe and ran out as I shot ice cold water and the woman, willing it to freeze as it wrapped around her. She screamed in pain as it froze around her hands like handcuffs, and room temperature water covered her eyes like a blind fold, unable to look at anyone directly and control them.

"You're done for," I said to her and she laughed.

"That's what you think. There's so much more that you don't know," she cackled. Curious, I pressed.

"What are you talking about?" She smiled evilly when I took the bait. Before she could answer I spoke again, "What is your name? Why did you try to take over the city?"

"Because I want authority! My whole life I was pushed around, meant to conform to society's ideals for women. I won't stand for it any longer," she snarled, water dripping down the side of her face and onto her chin.

"What is your name?" I asked again.

"Oh, that's not important. It never was before, I don't see why it is now. You can call me MindFreak," she panted after her rant, and I rolled my eyes at the cliché bad guy name. I pressed a finger to my ear,