The Lone Knight (Under The Cowl Book #1)

CHAPTER 39

     Restless, Alec grew tired of looking at the walls of this padded cell.

He hadn't heard the metal on stone scrapping behind the mirror across from him in quite a while. Likely the one-way mirror revealed to his captors who saw fit to gaze upon their captured prize chained to the middle of the floor had enough of their fill.

It was only a gut feeling but Alec felt his speed diminishing ever since he woke up in this chair. It reminded him of what Stephanie had done to him back at the Gotham high rise but at a lower frequency and on a grander scale. The vibration bounced from all sides. He couldn't escape it. And as he felt it aimed at him, something else was happening he didn't want put his finger on.

Like his powers were being stripped from him, something he was promised would never happen.

On the other side of the room a door open. Unaware their was even a door, Dr. Leslie Thompkins entered with two armed guards at her side. "I'm pleased to see you've finally awakened. And you don't seem... despondent."

"I can see you'd think that since I'm chained and locked away in this room, Dr Thompkins. But I make it a habit not to make room for self pity."

"The chains are for your protection."

"You sure have an odd way of protecting me."

"Using your speed in this room would drain you at a much faster rate then I'd like. You have a very interesting biology. Do you mind explaining what I found after collecting your DNA samples?"

"Wrong metahuman. I'm a speedster, not a mind reader."

"Does that mean it would hurt your pride if you said it out loud? An artificially created speedster, that is what you are."

Alec's derisive attitude and expression quickly vanished at the reveal of Leslie's alleged discovery.

"By your silence I'm going to assume I'm right. Why be ashamed? Not many people can withstand the wear and tear the speedforce does to the human body. And when they do take on the power they tend to have a short lifespan. But not you, you seem to be different. Was it luck or is there something I'm missing? I ask because I can't find the reason in your blood test."

"You could let me out of here and I can show you."

"I thought you might take regular injections to maintain your body's stability while enduring something so unstable. But that doesn't seem to be the case either after putting you in this room So now I think it's one of two possibilities. But I can't confirm them unless I speak with you first."

"Oh, you're the mind reader."

"Velocity-9."

Alec could tell Leslie was studying his response, best he keep his cool.

"No, then how about the journals of Max Mercury?"

Unable to hide his poise for a quick half second after hearing a name he figured was myth, Alec could quickly tell it was all Leslie needed to figure out she was on the right path.

"So the Collectors found the elusive Zen Guru of Speed, interesting."

Blasting from above a muffled alarm siren sang the tune of intruders throughout the facility.

Leslie turned to look at her guards behind her, both quick to act upon her gaze to check out what's happening. "If I had to guess, your friends have come for you, a waste. Once I return you will tell me how to find Mr. Mercury."

"And what will you being doing in the meantime?"

"I will have some fun with the speed of yours I've collected so far."

"What does that mean?"

"What some may overlook about the speedster is that they too can open breaches when moving fast enough. It explains why your team does not have a Viber among you and why you only move fastest in one direction at a time. It's quite ingenious by the Collectors of the Fifty-Two. You sit tight now, I won't be gone long."