Barry and Tony had jumped over the school fence, they had no choice in this regard, as even though Barry was allowed to leave considering he still had to make the reclassification test, Tony should have been in class, so the front entrance wasn't the place to go.
"Are you really going to... Allen, my dad was a corrupt cop, he might be old and retired now, but he is fucking dirt, he can beat the crap out of us with his eyes closed." Tony tried to talk Barry out of this, he was touched and very happy that someone was willing to stand up for him, as the police never did anything when he called them due to his father being a former officer, but he didn't want someone he knew to be the next victim of his father.
"Relax, I'm much tougher than it looks on the surface, we will get to your house, we'll talk to him, and if that doesn't work, I'll let my fists do the job, then-" Before Barry could finish his words, his phone started ringing on his pocket. "Hold on a sec."
He picked up the phone, but before he could even say anything, Tess Morgan's voice came from the speaker, and she was definitely desperate for help. "Barry! Please, come to S.T.A.R. Labs, I know it's too much of me to ask that, but I need your help in something, and if needed, I can even pay you to-"
"Wow! Stop right there, Mrs. Morgan, I was not raised to be an ungrateful person, you helped me out first, the least I can do is give something in return, right? It's as they used to say, quid pro quo, right?"
"You know Latin? Wait, that doesn't matter, get here quickly, the more time we waste, the more lives are lost."
Hearing her words, Barry became serious and said. "I'm on my way."
"What is it?" Tony asked at the side.
Barry looked at him for a moment, he then looked around to make sure no one was looking, although he failed spectacularly at noticing the guy who had been following them from the restroom, but who instead of jumping to the other side of the fence, actually used it to climb on top of a nearby tree where he camouflaged himself in between the foliage.
"Since you're my friend now, I'm gonna trust you, Tony. And I hope you won't betray my trust because this is something that not even my parents are aware of, got it?"
"... Yes." Tony gulped.
Barry's speed increased in an instant, his movements leaving behind a dark trail with yellow lightning behind.
Before Tony could say any other word, the world around him became blurry for a moment, and when he came back to himself, all the air in his lungs seemed to have escaped, and he fell on the ground panting heavily, and if that wasn't enough, when he saw the tools, the highly advanced computers, and holograms, he passed out. In his mind, nightmares of having been abducted by aliens started to play out...
"Well, I wasn't expecting that... Mental note, don't carry someone too far or they will pass out." Barry nodded to himself as he used the fire extinguisher on his now destroyed shoes. "I'm gonna need new shoes..."
"Barry, who is he!?" Morgan crouched and started feeling his pulse to make sure he was still alive.
"A friend... A new one at least." Barry sat down on a chair, as he waved towards Dr. Caitlyn Snow, who simply ignored him and kept... watching the champions league?
"What? Can't a girl like sports, or is it because I'm a nerd?" Caitlyn asked incredulously as she looked towards Barry who coughed and avoided her penetrating gaze.
Due to so much happening in a single second, he didn't notice at first the guy who was just literally in front of him. He held a chocolate donut in his mouth and was frozen in place as he looked towards Barry, his black smooth hair swaying with the breeze of the air conditioner.
Barry blinked his eyes and coughed. "Uhm... Hi?"
The guy shook his head, with a smile he straightened his back and said with a deep and slightly worn-out voice. "Welcome, young Allen, I have been expecting you. You no longer need those clothes... nor shoes..." The guy hit a button on the wall, and a table came down from the ceiling, in it was a mannequin wearing a black suit with a yellow belt and stripes around it. "I'm looking forward to completing your training, in time you will call me, master." He completed with a very excited smile on his face.
"Did you just... quoted Star Wars, and... using it so well too..." Barry looked startled towards him.
The man chuckled as he reached his hand for a handshake. "Man, you're so fricking cool! Name's Cisco, Cisco Ramon, nice to meet you!"
Barry laughed, it was his first time meeting someone so cheerful, he shook his hand and said. "Nice to meet you, Cisco Ramon, I would have introduced myself but you clearly already know that."
Cisco smiled, as he took his Ipad and sat down on another chair.
"Well, it looks like he's fine..." Morgan finished checking up on Tony and stood up. "I'm glad you two became friends so fast..." She looked at both Barry and Cisco, who laughed hearing her words. "But now we have more serious business to talk about."
"I came as fast as I could Dr. Morgan, what do you need?"
"First, wear the suit on the table."
Barry walked towards it and admired the details, the suit had an embossed texture forming hundreds of squares across its surface, especially on the arms, chest, and leg areas. Starting from the head, there were two golden wings where the ears were and on the chest, there was a golden circle with a white background, and a lightning figure made out of what seemed to be gold in the center of the circle, at least, he thought he could make quite some money if he took it out of the suit to sell it.
Before he could even ask why Cisco approached and started talking. "It was designed to replace the turnouts the firefighters traditionally wear, I wanted to do something good for the community, but I never managed to make it cheap enough for mass production, so it ended up just as a prototype for the future."
"And, why do you want me to wear this?"
"I'm sure you have experienced the combustion of your clothes when you go past certain speeds, the thing about this suit is that it's made of a reinforced tri-polymer. It is heat and abrasive resistant enough to withstand you running at high-velocity speeds, and the aerodynamic design should help you maintain control and stability while running. Plus, it has built-in sensors so we can track your vitals and stay in contact with you from here. I also wanted to make a heads-up display, but unfortunately, I had already spent five months of my salary on the suit, and I had to pay my apartment bills or get kicked out, otherwise, wearing this thing would be like getting inside a video game."
Barry blinked his eyes and gave Cisco a startled look as he recomposed himself and said. "Sorry, I was a little bit too excited."
"Okay... I got it, this thing would allow me to run freely, but why are you asking me to do it."
Hearing this, Morgan looked towards Caitlyn who nodded and after typing for a moment on a keyboard made the transmission of the Daily Planet who was the only newcast on Central City's military headquarter appear on the big screen within the lab.
After watching it for a moment, Barry opened his eyes wide. "Gorilla-of-steel? What the hell is this, a primate ripoff of superman? Is... Is that Grodd!?"
"Yes, I need you to stop him."
Barry looked at her as if she was crazy. "Look, I know I'm fast, but I don't have super strength, how do you expect me to put down something that... is bullet and missile proof?"
"Grodd is not as powerful as you think, he can only protect himself from what he can see, because he has telekinesis, people think he has been hit by the bullets and the missiles but he was not."
"Wait, is he a telepath?" Barry raised an eyebrow.
"Actually, he is a telekinetic Gorilla, telepaths can... you know, talk with just their minds and things like that." Cisco corrected him. "And, although he is fairly stronger and more resistant than most Gorillas around the world, by using your super-speed, you should still be able to fight against him, just do try not to get hit, you would have to stay a day in bed to recover consider your accelerated healing."
"My what?"
"You know, healing, the first time you broke a rib after a punch and it was good as new in just a few hours."
Morgan patted him on the shoulder, she gave him a reassuring gaze and said. "Barry, you don't have to do this if you don't want to."
Barry looked at her for a moment and shook his head. "It's fine, I owe you at least this one, but... If I'm going to suit up, I need a hero name."
"How about... The Streak!" Cisco said.
Barry, however, shook his head. "It's kinda lame, I prefer... The Flash."
"Oh, man... Why didn't I thought of this one? It's much better..." Cisco shook his head and sat down on the computer that was right next to Caitlyn's.
Barry then quickly put on the suit, feeling the material, he smiled and almost laughed. "This is really comfortable."
"You're welcome!" Cisco smiled as he took out a popsicle from his pocket and started tasting the candy.
"Good luck out there, 'Flash.'" Caitlyn gave him a sarcastic smile, making Barry laugh slightly at her antics.
Morgan looked at him one more time before giving her last words. "Be careful, Barry, don't get cocky, Grodd is much smarter than you may think."
"Thanks, I'll remember that." Barry nodded and ran out of the lab. Leaving strong winds behind that messed up an entire pile of documents Caitlyn had finished sorting earlier who were simply thrown into the air.
"Damn you, Barry!"
[/\]
Grodd lifted his hand, in his movement, three war tanks started floating in the air, he closed his fist and they sped towards each other in such power that they got crushed in a matter of seconds, blood dipped from inside as their drivers died on the collision.
"EILING! GRODD WILL KILL YOU!" Grodd's shouted, his words echoing through the HQ, making every single soldier tremble on his foot.
"This... what the hell! How can a Gorilla speak like a human! Just where did this bastard come from?" A man wearing a pilot jumpsuit looked through the cameras as he waited for his fighter to be fueled and verified by the engineers.
"His origins do not matter, what matters is that you get rid of him." A fat man without eyebrows, blue eyes, and white hair spoke as he got within the Hangar. "Grodd is not bulletproof as they think, he was just prepared to face things coming at him, and that's why he blocked all the bullets, but he will never see something coming from the skies, can I count on you, Ace Jordan?"
"Hahaha! I flew through waves of missile battery on the middle eastern, hitting a primate shouldn't be as difficult as that, you can count on me but I hope this extra-official job gets a reward because I'm putting too much at risk by doing this for you, Eiling."
Eiling frowned as he looked at the man, he never liked Jordan, and honestly, if he could he would have gotten ridden of him already, the problem was that he a too skilled of a pilot to expel from the military right now, even more so since they are still at war, and freaks like superman appears every day to cause trouble, they never know when someone like him would be needed.
"Jordan, I'm done now, did some of my magic to your F-22A, roll, yaw, and pitch, everything should be better now with my adjustments, make some good use of the improved maneuverability."
"You know what, I don't understand why your nickname is 'Scrap Queen' Avril, it should be 'Wizard Mechanic' or something similar." Jordan smiled.
"It's because I can make crap fly better than the trash they usually buy for the air force. Now go, take off before that thing kills everyone in the base."
Eiling sighed and massaged his head, all this headache because a woman can't get rid of the word ethic from her vocabulary... he could have created the perfect weapon, and instead, he has a Gorilla on rampage trying to kill him.