11 A Bump In The Plan

Barry was running on the speed treadmill, but he was running very slowly even for a regular person.

"Wow, he runs even slow for a normal person," Cisco stated.

"You can't just lose your powers. Your DNA was transformed by the Particle Accelerator blast. There is no way to untransform DNA." Caitlin stated.

"Yeah, tell that to the Uber driver who charged me 65 bucks to take me here. I had to tell her that I was coming from a cosplay party." Barry retorted.

"So we were wrong. This metahuman doesn't Electrocute people; He siphons Electricity, thereby removing your power." Dr. Wells stated.

"Is this temporary or..." Barry asked but cut himself off.

"We will have to run some tests." Dr. Wells replied.

"There was someone else there also," Barry said, which grabbed the attention of the other three.

"What did they look like?" Dr. Wells asked.

"They were covered in red and silver armor. They also had a red beetle horn with a blue visor." Barry replied. Everyone was in thought, especially Dr. Wells because he had a hunch of who it was.

"I've got to warn Joe," Barry said while getting up from the treadmill and walking towards the door.

"Barry, we will find a way to restore your speed. I promise you that." Dr. Wells said to him before Barry left. Barry was sitting down at his desk along with another man sitting on his desk. It was an African American man with a shaved cut, goatee, and a replica of Jesse L. Martin. They stared at each other for a moment, then Joe grabbed a red coffee mug and tossed it into the air. It fell and shattered into multiple pieces,

"That was my favorite cup!" Barry shouted.

"I thought you would've caught it," Joe said in shock,

"What does an evil metahuman stole my power don't you understand." Barry retorted.

"Barry, nothing you do makes any sense to me," Joe said as he walked around the room. "What did Dr. Wells say?"

"He said that he is working on it," Barry replied.

"Barry, you have to get your speed back. Who is going to protect people from other metahumans." Joe said.

"Joe, the CCPD can't confront this man he is very dangerous," Barry said.

"Who is dangerous?" a feminine voice asked. The two turned their heads to the source and there was an African American beautiful woman that walked in. She was a replica of Candice Patton and when she got close she grabbed onto their shoulders of Barry.

"Just some thief, baby girl." Joe quickly responded.

"Well, the CCPD has the best officers in the world, and if you can't defend this city dad. Then I know the Flash will." She replied.

"But what if he can't?" Barry asked. She just looked at him weirdly. "I mean what if he couldn't do what he could do before," he added but then Joe nudged him in the shoulder.

"Barry, don't you have somewhere to go?" Joe asked. Barry nodded and walked away. The woman then looked at the ground where the shattered mug was,

"Aw, Barry loved that mug," she said. Barry was walking down the stairs and noticed that Johnathan was there talking to one of the officers. He walked up to them,

"Johnathan, what are you doing here?" Barry asked.

"Barry. Well, it's quite embarrassing. After I walked out of the bar, I was mugged by some people and they took my wallet so I have no way of getting into my hotel room." Johnathan replied while scratching the back of his head.

"Well if you don't have a place to stay. I can ask Joe if we have some room at the house or Dr. Wells if there is a spot at Star Labs." Barry said.

"Barry, you're a lifesaver," Johnathan said and hugged Barry. They both went to the elevator and two officers and a cuffed-up person with clock-like glasses.

"Hey, Barry you got the time?" Johnathan asked.

"Yeah," Barry said and looked at his watch.

"That is a nice timepiece there, young man." the cuffed-up person said to Barry.

"Uh, thanks," Barry replied.

"They took mine, all of them." the person said.

"Well, you shouldn't have done whatever you did," Johnathan added. the person just nodded at the response. Then Johnathan and Barry left together and headed for Star Labs. Dr. Wells was seen inside a futuristic room and there was a hologram of a newspaper.

"April 24, 2024. Return to Sender U.S. Post Office shuts down permanently." Dr. Wells just rubbed his eyes in frustration.

"No, No, No. This can't be happening." Dr. Wells shouted out and began to throw a fit. "Gideon, run a search on anything referencing the Flash."

"Zero references on the Flash," Gideon replied,

"Look again." Dr. Wells commanded.

"Zero references."

"Run any references to Barry Allen."

"Zero references to Barry Allen."

"Look again!" Dr. Wells shouted out in anger.

"I've searched 3,452 times, Dr. Wells. There's nothing." Gideon replied. Dr. Wells let out a heavy sigh,

"Show me any references to a red and silver armor man." Dr. Wells commanded.

"Six references found," Gideon replied as six images popped up on the hologram. Most of them read "Superman faces off Kabuto once again!", "Kabuto! Hero or Villian!", "The Scarlet Speedster vs The Lord of Speed!", "Who is Kabuto?".

"Yes, I remember him now. Kabuto never followed any rule, but why is he here now. I remember my first encounter with him doesn't happen until 2021. I never understood how he can be faster than me and the Flash. He doesn't even have the Speed Force nor the Negative Force energizing him. Nevertheless, he will not ruin my plans and maybe I can find out his identity this time." Dr. Wells thought to himself. He closed the hologram and walked back to his wheelchair so that he could make his way back to the main room in Star Labs. Johnathan and Barry walked into Star Labs which surprised the people within it.

"Johnathan!" Cisco shouted.

"W.w.what are you doing here?" Caitlin stuttered out.

"He needs a place to stay. So we came here to ask Dr. Wells if there was a room available." Barry stated.

"I'm sure that we can find a room here for Mr. Takahashi." Dr. Wells said.

"Thank you very much, Dr. Wells. Sorry to bother you guys about this." Johnathan replied.

"No this isn't a problem at all," Caitlin said in a hurry.

"One of the most popular movie stars can't find a place to stay that is something that surprises me," Cisco said.

"Tell me about it. I mean even if I don't have my ID. My face is technically everywhere. I am even in the biggest shows right now." Johnathan replied. Everyone just laughed at that, but an alarm went off on the computer showing that someone was outside.

"Dr. Harrison Wells! I need to see you! I know you're inside there! I just want to talk!" the pale man shouted out.

"This can't be happening," Cisco said with a facepalm.

"Caitlin, get Johnathan and Dr. Wells to safety. While Cisco and I distract this man." Barry ordered. Caitlin nodded and grabbed Johnathan's hand, while Dr. Wells followed behind them on his wheelchair.

"What is going on?" Johnathan asked,

"It's a long story, but have you heard of the recent attacks of people called Meta-humans," Caitlin replied. He nodded his head,

"Well, this is what is happening now," Caitlin said. As they ran towards the garage, Johnathan noticed that Dr. Wells disappeared.

"Caitlin, where did Dr. Wells go?" Johnathan asked. Caitlin looked around in panic.

"Dr. Wells, where did you go?" Caitlin asked as they both looked around. As they began to look around, they didn't notice another pale person walking up to them.

"Where is Dr. Harrison Wells!" the pale man shouted towards them. Johnathan and Caitlin looked at the man in shock.

"We don't know," Caitlin said.

"I don't believe you." the pale man said and electrical energy surged around his hands. "Don't worry, I'll find him soon enough, but I'm going to need a quick snack," he said as he began to aim at Caitlin. The pale man shot out the electrical surge at her, Caitlin closed her eyes and waited for the shock. Instead, she felt something push her away and she opened her eyes to witness Johnathan getting shocked by the electrical surge.

"Johnathan!" Caitlin shouted then ran over to him,

"That was fulfilling." the pale man said and began to walk away to find Dr. Wells. All of this was captured on the security camera's so Barry and Cisco witnessed the whole incident. Barry clenched his fist so hard that his nails began to dig into his palms.

"If only I had my powers, I could've saved Johnathan and stopped this man before any of this happened," Barry said in anger. Cisco put his hand on Barry's shoulder to comfort him.

"This was unexpected and there was nothing you could do about it. We couldn't expect this to happen. Now let's finish this device so that we can stop this man before anyone else gets injured." Cisco told Barry and they continued to finish putting together the anti-meta cuffs. The pale man decided to take out the generators so that it would be easier to find Dr. Wells and harder for them to escape. On the other side of town due to the power outage, the whole town lost power and even the police station. The captain of the police walked out of his office and walked up to Joe,

"Joe, I'm going to need you to stay for me until the shift change. There is only one headline, Prison transfer William Tockman." The captain said.

"No worries Captain Singh, I have you covered," Joe responded. They both looked over to William and he just smiled at them. After a couple of minutes when captain Singh left the power lights fully went out and William Tockman took the chance to grab the pistol from one of the officers and shot that same policeman. Due to the gunfire, the civilians panicked and the officers all went for their pistols.

"Guns on the floor now! It should take everyone three seconds to discard any idea of rebellion and comply. I take it I don't have to count out loud." Tockman ordered. As Tockman walked around and closer to Joe, another officer tried to pull out his gun but Tockman was faster and shot the officer killing him instantly.

"Hmm. Striking resemblance." Tockman said as he got a closer look at the woman behind Joe. Within 15 minutes, outside multiple SWAT teams and other police officers were assembling.

"Captain, it seems that Tockman has at least 10 hostages and two officers are down." a swat member informed Captain Singh. That was when Captain Singh's phone went off,

"Hello?" he answered.

"Captain, It's Barry. I've been trying to get in contact with Joe or anyone at the precinct, but nothing is going through." Barry said.

"There is a hostage situation, Barry. Joe is inside along with his daughter. I'll call you when I know more." Captain Singh said and then hung up. Barry, on the other hand, was shocked,

"I need to get my powers back," he stated while Cisco was still working on the device. That was when Dr. Wells showed up at Cisco's lab.

"Dr. Wells, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be with Caitlin and Johnathan?" Barry asked.

"I have a theory about getting your powers back but it is untested." Dr. Wells stated.

"I'm willing to roll the dice now," Barry answered back quickly. Dr. Wells nodded his head,

"You've lost your speed, but nothing has changed inside you on a subatomic level. In other words, your cells are still primed." Dr. Wells said.

"They just need a jumpstart!" Cisco added with got an approving nod from Dr. Wells.

"Ok, how do we do that? How do we jumpstart me?" Barry asked.

"We need to replicate the initial jolt to your system." Dr. Wells said.

"But that would mean a peak current of at least 20,000 kilo-amps," Cisco added.

"Are you insane that's more electricity than they give people in the electric chair," Caitlin shouted from the door? The trio looked at her in surprise.

"How did you get here? I thought you guys escaped?" Cisco asked.

"When Mr. Zappy shut down the power, the doors couldn't open so I had to leave Johnathan is one of the safe rooms. While I came here to try and find something to save him." Caitlin replied.

"If Barry can get back his powers, then he can most likely save Johnathan with a jump start to his heart." Dr. Wells said.

"Ok, we need to do this quick because I don't think he has long," Caitlin said.

"The spare generator's offline. If we reboot it, we could get a charge that big." Cisco stated.

"We need something that can transmit that load from the generator to Barry's body without shorting out." Dr. Wells added.

"The treadmill, my baby could take the charge," Cisco said.

"But what if Barry can't?" Caitlin asked the important question.

"That is up to Mr. Allen." Dr. Wells replied. Barry began to walk towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Cisco asked Barry.

"I'm going to try and talk with the guy," Barry responded.

"What!" the trio shouted out.