Chapter 4 – In the Shadow of Red Lightning
Smoke still hung in the air.
Walls cracked. Alarms blared, but no one moved.
Not the nurses frozen in fear.
Not the patients tucked away in trembling silence.
Not even Barry Allen—The Flash—who now knelt beside a broken wall, coughing poison from his lungs, blinking against the haze.
Because something had just walked out of Room 219.
No—not something.
Someone.
He didn't speak.
He didn't scream.
He just stood there—in silence.
His eyes glowed faintly with red.
Lightning danced across his arms like veins of fire beneath pale skin. Smoke curled from his back and chest. His breath was steady—unnaturally so, like he wasn't breathing oxygen, but power.
The Flash raised his head slowly.
He didn't know the man standing in the hallway. Couldn't recognize him.
Not with that presence.
Not with that aura.
It was like staring into a storm made flesh.
It was Dante Hart, but different.
Not the janitor.
Not the man who smoked alone in the hallways of CCPD.
This man was something else.
A force.
A god forged in lightning.
Dante tilted his head slightly, eyes trailing over the ruined hallway. His gaze settled first on Barry—who had barely managed to stay upright, his face pale from Toxin's slow-working venom.
Then his eyes shifted.
Downward.
To the kneeling figure of Toxin, whose poison hissed and crawled back into his skin like a frightened animal.
The metahuman trembled. His body shook violently, hands pressed to the floor, unable to raise his head.
Fear.
True fear.
He knew, somehow—instinctively—that whatever had just woken from that hospital bed wasn't something you fight.
It was something you beg.
Dante didn't blink.
---
And then he moved.
No sound.
No warning.
Just a blur of red light faster than thunder, faster than the Flash, faster than the laws of physics would allow.
One moment he stood across the hallway.
The next—
He had Toxin by the head.
Fingers clamped around the skull like a vice. Red lightning coursed through the villain's skin.
Barry barely saw it.
All he felt was the shockwave.
CRACK—
Toxin's body slammed into the hospital floor with a force that cratered the tile beneath him.
Once.
Twice.
Then silence.
His body twitched.
And stopped.
Barry's heart thundered in his chest. His legs nearly gave out.
What he had just witnessed—it wasn't a fight.
It was a judgment.
Dante stood over the corpse.
His hand still clutching the dead man's skull.
The red lightning faded softly from his arms.
And then he spoke.
A voice that sounded like it echoed through stone and fire.
Low. Absolute.
> "Those who use their power doing evil things… shall die in my hand."
The words hung in the air.
Not shouted.
Not roared.
Simply spoken.
And they struck Barry harder than any blow he'd ever taken.
And then—Dante was gone.
Vanished in a flicker of red, as if he had never been there at all.
---
Silence Fell
Barry remained on his knees.
The hallway was ruined—broken tile, scorched walls, flickering lights. Toxin's corpse lay still, his face frozen in eternal terror.
The Flash didn't move for a full minute.
His heart still racing.
His thoughts shattered.
That was Dante… wasn't it?
But what was he now?
He finally stood.
His breathing still shallow.
Then, without another word, Barry lifted Toxin's body in his arms and vanished in a blur of yellow lightning.
---
STAR Labs – Midnight
The body hit the table with a cold thump.
Cisco winced. "Oh my god. Is that—?"
"Dead," Barry confirmed. "Died in the hospital."
Caitlin moved forward, already pulling on gloves. "Cause of death?"
Barry swallowed. "His skull was crushed into the floor. Shattered."
Harrison Wells stood silently at the edge of the room.
"By who?" he finally asked.
Barry didn't answer right away. He walked toward the glass panels overlooking the cortex, eyes locked on the static displayed across the screen.
Finally, he spoke.
> "It was the guy from the hospital. Room 219."
Caitlin blinked. "Dante Hart? He woke up?"
Barry nodded slowly. "But not like we expected."
"He has powers?" Cisco asked.
Barry turned toward them, face pale. "More than that."
"Define 'more.'" Cisco's voice had lost its usual humor.
Barry's hands trembled slightly.
> "He's faster than me."
No one spoke.
> "He moved so fast I didn't even see him move. I just… felt it. Like space warped when he ran."
He paused. The memory hit him again, hard. That roar. That voice.
> "He crushed the villain's head with one hand. Then he disappeared."
"Jesus," Caitlin whispered.
Harrison folded his hands. "What color was the lightning?"
Barry looked up. "Red."
Something flickered in Wells' eyes.
Not fear.
But curiosity.
And concern.
> "Keep an eye on the city," he said softly. "If Dante Hart truly woke up as a metahuman, we need to understand what he is."
Barry didn't answer.
He was still hearing the voice.
Still seeing the red blur.
---
Elsewhere…
Somewhere far from STAR Labs, far from hospitals and chaos, Dante Hart stood alone on the roof of an old clock tower. His clothes were tattered. His shoes melted slightly from the discharge of energy still crackling off him in pulses.
A cigarette burned in his fingers.
He inhaled slowly.
Held it.
Then exhaled smoke that danced with red lightning as it left his lips.
His eyes scanned the sleeping city below.
It didn't feel like home.
Nothing did.
The world was different.
And so was he.
Dante Hart was awake.
But he wasn't who he used to be.
He was something else now.
Something born of thunder, smoke, and wrath.
---
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