Episode 6 - The Flash and Thunder are Born

At Jitters Iris is sitting alone writing a new article for her blog. "To understand what I'm about to tell you, you need to do something first. You need to believe in the impossible. Can you do that? Good, because all of us, we have forgotten what miracles look like. Maybe because they haven't made much of an appearance lately. Our lives have become ordinary, but there is someone out there who is truly extraordinary. I don't know where you came from. I don't know your name, but I have seen you do the impossible to protect the city I love. So for those of us who believe in you and what you're doing, I just want to say thank you." She writes.

Iris smiles as she closes her laptop, suddenly she feels a rush of cold air and she is on the roof of Jitters where the Streak and the Machine are. "You're welcome." He tells her as he vibrates his voice, making it have an interesting undertone.

"How did you…" Iris questioned, looking confused between the two. "I literally just hit send."

"Speed reading." Barry summerises.

"It's crazy what you can do to your voice." Iris tells him.

"You need to stop writing your blog." Macanese tells her.

"People need to know that you guys exist." Iris reminds them. They both sigh as Iris fun rings, she looks at the screen and sees it is Eddie, she quickly presses the ignore button and looks back up at the two. "What else can you do?"

"This is not an interview." Barry informs her.

"Come on." Iris complained, looking at them annoyed. "You got to give me something. Hobbies, pet peeves, favourite colour? Wait, scratch that last one. Red, duh, obviously." She says ignoring them.

"You're not hearing us." Macanese argues.

"My hearing is fine." Iris shoots back. "It's just selective. What should I call you?"

"Anything but The Streak and The Machine." Barry complained.

"Fine. Suggestions?" Iris asks.

"You said you were writing about us to bring hope to someone you care about. How would he feel if doing that put you in harm's way?" Macanese asks her.

"He and I aren't exactly on the same page these days." Iris answers. "Besides, you're giving hope to a lot of people, so I'm doing this for them."

Suddenly they hear sirens in the distance. They turn to Iris. "To be continued. Gotta run." They tell her as Barry zooms away.

"Hey! You can't just leave me up…" Suddenly Iris sees violet lightning and she finds herself back in Jitters. "Here. Whoa."

The sound of the sirens lead to a busy road in Central City. A man driving a Humvee was being chased fanatically by the police. Further down the road a police block had been put up and Eddie and Joe got out of their car. "What kind of tool steals a yellow Humvee?" Eddie asks as he sees it come speeding down the road.

"What kind of tool buys a yellow Humvee? Get these people back." Joe orders.

"I need everybody back!" Eddie tells everyone. Suddenly as the yellow Humvee gets even closer a young boy starts to cross the street, unaware of what was happening.

"Son!" Joe shouted, trying to get the boys attention, his fatherly love showing through. "Out of the way! Out of the way!" Before they could be hit by the car the boy was moved out of the way with yellow lightning as violet lightning followed the car. The cops then start to shoot at the yellow Humvee. One of the cops got lucky and managed to go through the window and directly to the driver of the vehicle.

It was going well until the bullet bounced off of him as his body transformed into metal. Eddie stops when he notices it. "Eddie! Eddie!" Joe yelled as the criminal drove faster towards Eddie. Joe pushes them both out of the way as the Humvee drives through the police cars like they weren't there. He was going to get away when Macanese stopped the Humvee with her super strength as Barry stood by her side.

"Step out of the vehicle!" Barry ordered.

"If you say so." The criminal smiled. He leaned on the driver side door as he came out of the vehicle. When he put his feet on the floor the door came off the hinges and he ended up holding it.

"Uh-oh." Barry said as he threw the car door at him, but he managed to dodge it. Barry walks up to the criminal and punches him in the face, but it turns metal as Barry makes an impact on it, and all three of them hear the sound of Barry's arm and fingers breaking as they strike the man's face.

Barry groans in pain as Macanese takes a hit at him, making the criminal groan in pain as well, metal on metal, she had hurt him while also damaging her wrist slightly. Full of Anger fills Barry's veins as the criminal turns his whole arm into metal and wacks Barry across the face, causing him to knock Macanese over and both of them to go flying into the car. "Looks like you were born to take a beating." He was about to hit him again but Macanese zoomed them both out of there.

Later at STAR Labs Caitlin and Cisco were walking towards the cortex. "Check the maths. Your dispersal models don't correlate." Caitlin argues with Cisco as Wells wheels behind them.

"Uh, they do if you factor in the seasonal fluctuations in reproduction cycles." Cisco shoots back.

"What exactly are we debating?" Wells asks them.

"The average number of bugs Barry swallows in a day of running." Cisco tells him with a smile on his face.

"I look forward to seeing you accept your nobel." Wells smirks as they make their way into the Cortex. They all stop when they see a semi-unconscious Macanese sitting on the floor clutching a beaten up Barry to her chest.

"Macanese?" Cisco gasped.

"Barry? Are you okay?" Caitlin asked, kneeling down next to him. She and Cisco moved over to one of the medical beds as Wells helped Macanese stand up.

After a little while Barry woke up groggy on the bed. "13 fractures." Caitlin tells him, securing the metal splint on his arm and hand. "That's a new record, and that's just in your hand. You also have a concussion, three cracked ribs, and a bruised spleen. Even with your powers, you'll need a few hours to heal." Barry sighed.

"What exactly did you hit?" Wells asks him.

"A man." Macanese tells him, walking into the room with her left wrist bandaged up. "A big, bad man. His skin changed when he hit him. Like, it turned to metal, similar to the one on my body."

"Interesting." Wells said. "A man of steel."

"Dude, why didn't you call us?" Cisco asked. "Either of you."

"I didn't know what he was." Barry said. "Besides, I was off-duty and I had Macanese with me."

"You're lucky he didn't knock out your teeth." Cisco told him. "Those puppies don't grow back."

"Mate, he's lucky he has enhanced healing, otherwise I wouldn't be the only amputee in the room." Macanese replies.

"The strange thing is I feel like I knew him." Barry informed them.

"What do you mean?" Wells asked.

"He said something that was familiar, but he's gonna hurt someone if we don't stop him." Barry said.

"So how do I fight a guy that's made of steel?" Barry asks.

"I'm made of metal, and anyway we will find a way." Macanese answers.

"Tonight, you two need to heal." Wells pointed at the two of them.

"Yeah." Barry said as he laid back down and Macanese made her way to Cisco's lab.

The next day Joe is sitting by his desk looking at the interview Barry did when he was kid while listening to what they were saying through earphones. "There was lightning in my house." Young Barry said on the footage. "Yellow and red lightning. There was a man in yellow, then I was on the street. I don't know how I got there. Please, you have to believe me!" Joe quickly closed the laptop and took off the earbuds when he saw Barry and Atchaco come in.

"Hey." Joe greeted. He looked at the two. "What happened to you two last night?"

"We got beat up by a steel-plated sociopath. Good times." Atchaco tells him.

"So he is a meta-human?" Joe asked.

"Yeah. That particle accelerator's the gift that keeps on giving." Barry sighed.

"You two okay?" Joe asked.

"Relatively." Barry replied.

"Good as new." Atchaco told him. "Any idea who he is?"

"Eddie's taking point while I run down a lead." Joe tells them. "I need you to work with him until I get back."

"Wait, why me?" Barry asked.

"Because he saw something impossible that he's got questions about, questions that I can't answer." Joe answered.

"In other words, make up some science-y stuff to throw him off?" Atchaco said.

"Exactly." Joe replies as Barry scoffs as he makes his way into Singh's office. Joe turns to Atchaco. "I think he wants Lady Macanese in there too."

"He stole the Humvee and evaded capture." Singh told them as Barry and Macanese walked into the office. "So pleased you could join us, Mr. Allen, Lady Macanese. Rough night?"

"Uh, just a little beat, sir." Barry replied, taking the file Singh handed him.

"As I was saying, our perp yanked three ATMs after he boosted the vehicle. Atm security cameras caught him on video. We got a hit in the database. Tony woodward." Singh told them Barry and Macanese exchanged glances at the name, they've heard it before. "He's got a history of violence, petty theft, assault, going way back to juvie. Dropped off the radar ten months ago. Looks like he's back."

Barry gets pulled into a Flashback and Macanese, using her telepathic abilities, goes in to see what he is seeing. She looks around to see a younger version of herself with Barry and Iris. "Increased pressure produces increased heat, and if you don't release it, you get combustion." Barry said.

"I don't know how you remember all this stuff, Barry." Atchaco said.

"Because he's a little freak, just like his old man." Tony said, nudging him.

"Don't talk about my dad." Barry stands up for himself.

"Or what? Is he gonna murder me, too?" Tony mocked as he pushed him into the lockers behind him. "Looks like you were born to take a beating, Allen." Tony said as he turned and walked away leaving the other 3 to stare off into space. Macanese gasped before hurryingly leaving his memory and taping Barry on the shoulder.

"Allen. Hey, Allen." Eddie said, bringing Barry back to the present. "Hey. You okay?"

"Hey, yeah. Sorry, Eddie." Barry apologised.

"Listen, I saw something last night. I just can't get my head around it." Eddie said.

"Uh-huh." Macanese hummed. "Something awkward happened that you can't understand, yet you can talk to me, an alien cyborg, and not bat an eye." He glared at her as she smiled and Barry chuckle.

"I fired a dozen rounds at our car thief, and it was like they sparked off of him." Eddie told them.

"Huh, well, I mean, he must have been wearing some kind of body armour." Barry replied.

"On his face?" Eddie questioned.

"Titanium implant in his skull perhaps?" Macanese replied. "Maybe a mask of some sort if it's not that. There are multiple plausible explanations for what happened. Iris then walks up to them.

"Hey. Barry, hey Lady Macanese." Iris greeted them, they both waved and Iris then walked over to Eddie.

"Hi, babe, I saw the news. Are you okay?" She worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine, which you would know if you checked your messages." Eddie replied. Before he walked away he turned back to the other two. "Lady Macanese, Singh wants to see you." He then turned back to Iris and they walked to the side as Macanese walked away. "I tried you three times."

"Sorry. I had to work late." Iris apologised. "Um, so I heard that The Streak saved a kid. Any comments, detective?"

"All I know is our perp got away, but Barry and Macanese here are gonna help me find him." Eddie told her.

"Yeah. Fine. I have other sources. I will see you tonight." She gives Eddie a quick kiss. "Bye."

"Bye." Eddie replies. On her way out

"What is going on with you two?" Eddie asked as he looked at Barry.

"Nothing, it's fine. It's... I don't know." Barry mumbled.

"Okay." Eddie replies as leaves the room. At the same time Macanese walks out of Singh's office with a smile on her face.

At STAR Labs Wells was taking himself towards the elevators when Joe walked out, stopping him. "Dr. Wells." Joe greeted him.

"I guess you heard about Barry and Atchaco's incident last night." Wells said. "If you're looking for him I think he's at the station." He goes to go but Joe stops him again.

"I actually came here to see you." Joe tells him. "I need your help solving an old case of mine."

"What case is that?" Wells asked.

"The murder of Barry's mother." Joe tells him and Wells gasps.

A wee while later all of them were in STAR Labs Cortex. "Your childhood nemesis is now an unstoppable meta-human. That is seriously messed up." Cisco tells them, leaning on the computer console.

"I had a childhood nemesis." Caitlin tells them. "Lexi La Roche. She used to put gum in my hair."

"Jake Puckett." Cisco says. "If I didn't let him copy my homework he'd give me a swirly."

"Arthur Pippins." Atchaco replied, chuckling. "Used to be absolutely annoying. Once we had a presentation together and I only did my half, just never his. He got his revenge by taking my prosthetic arm before dodgeball, and giving it back to me after." Atchaco looked at her prosthetic arm, remembering how she had been an amputee since she was 12.

"Now that we've established that we're all uber-nerds, what are we gonna do about Tony?" Barry asks, clearly the only one actually concerned about what was happening.

"Glad you asked." Cisco said, smiling. "We're gonna train you, man. Karate Kid style." He laughs as they walk into the straining room and he uncovers a metal robot, which was less than pleasing to the eye. "Behold! I call him Girder."

Caitlin leaned over to them "For the record, not my idea."

"Fighting is physics. It's not about strength." Cisco reminds them. "It's not about size."

"Basically don't do what I did." Atchaco said. "I hit him with super strength and promethium bones and still injured myself, it doesn't do anything."

"It's about energy and power." Cisco continues. "Channel your speed the right way and you can totally take this bad boy down. Now obviously your Girder is a moving target. So…" Cisco presses something on the computer and the metal robot starts to move fairly fast.

"Good luck, Barry." Atchaco says, patting him lightly on his back.

"Wait, you're not training." Barry asked.

"Nope." Atchaco replies with a smile on her face, walking away.

"I have ice and bandages standing by." Caitlin says, making Barry more worried.

Cisco turns the robot back on again and Barry uses his speed to dodge it's hit and will also punch it at them at the same time. It all is going really well until the robot places a punch on Barry's back and hit shoulder causing it to get dislodged. Barry stands back and holds his shoulder in pain.

"I'm pretty sure I just dislocated my shoulder." Barry groans as Caitlin and Emma are examining Barry's shoulder.

"Okay, not gonna lie. This is gonna be quick but extremely painful." Caitlin tells him.

Suddenly Barry's phone starts to ring. "Oh, speaking of pain." Barry holds it up so they can see the screen. "Eddie, hey."

"Allen, we found the stolen Humvee in the alley at Fremont and Lawrence." Eddie informs him. "Need you and Macanese down here to do your thing."

"Wait, Lady Macanese?" Barry asked. "How can a cybernetic superhuman help in this situation?"

"Did she not tell you?" Eddie asked. Barry stayed completely silent. "Lady Macanese is your CSI assistant now, that's why Singh wanted to see her, though she does want to be called CyAmze, her Bicain first name."

"Great." Barry said sarcastically while staring at Atchaco, who has a smile on her face. "I'll see you in a sec." He hangs up the phone and looks at the other two. "Okay. Okay. Let's do this." Atchaco helps Caitlin hold Barry down, so that when they go to put the joint back into place he doesn't move too much.

"So Barry, when you said you were off-duty last night, you weren't visiting Iris again. You know, in disguise? 'Cause that would be reckless and a little creepy." Caitlin smiles. "Even if Macanese was with you."

"No." Barry sheepishly replies.

"Good." Caitlin smiles before pushing down on his shoulder and snapping it back into place as Barr screams in pain.

Later, CyAmze and Barry arrive at the crime scene and notice that Tony had never moved the car from where they had both fought him last night.

"Allen, you really need a car." He looks at CyAmze. "You two always arrive together, something we need to know?"

"I usually manage on foot okay, and we happen to be friends." Barry replies.

"What do we got?" CyAmze asks, not wanting the situation to be more awkward than it already is.

"The rig Tony Woodward boosted last night." Eddie informed them. "No sign of the stolen ATMs. Probably got those where he's holed up, though he's gonna have one hell of a time breaking 'em open." He laughed.

"I wouldn't be so sure." Barry told him.

"So, about you and Iris…" Eddie tried to say.

"Look, Eddie, we had a fight, and I just don't really feel comfortable talking about it with you." Barry brushed him off.

"I get that, and I get that you two go way back." Eddie said. "To be honest, I was a little threatened by you at first."

"You were threatened by me?" Barry questioned.

"Sure. I mean, I've seen how close you two are, but you seem like a good guy, and Iris, I just want her to be happy. From my experience, good friends are hard to find." He tells him.

Another cop walks up to them and taps Eddie on the shoulder. "Detective. Excuse me. Sir, we ran the plates on that Humvee…" He tells him.

Suddenly Barry is pulled into another flashback. This time a young Barry with Joe and Iris practising throwing punches as a one armed Atchaco watched them.

Back in the present, Barry is now fully aware of what he is meant to be doing, a smile on his face. "So what do you think?" Eddie asked them.

"Judging by the mud and kegs I'd say he got hammered, stole a big-ass truck, and went joyriding." Barry said as he looked over the scene. "I bet the kegs are stolen, too."

"Rusty Iron Ale, it's a micro brewed right over in…" CyAmze further investigated.

"Keystone, I know the place. Let's check it out." Eddie finished for her.

"Yeah." Barry replied and Eddie walked away.

CyAmze's AI suddenly spotted something that CyAmze herself didn't notice she was talking about. He moves her body and bags the object and hands it over to Barr. "Here, take this for us. We have somewhere to be." Triton says in his rough voice as Barry takes the bag out of their hand.

Back at STAR Labs Joe and Wells were chatting about the murder of Barry's mother. "Barry describes a tornado of red and yellow lightning inside a man in yellow. Then, bam. He's blocks away on the street. Doesn't know how he got there. When I arrived, the place was a wreck." Joe explains to Wells.

"And Nora Allen is dead." Wells concludes.

"Single stab wound to the heart." Joe tells him. "Henry Allen was covered in her blood."

"And despite all the evidence that Henry Allen is guilty, now you believe this... What, man in yellow is responsible?" Wells asked.

"Last night, I saw Atchaco rescue a young boy from being run over, and it looked exactly like what Barry described happened to him. It got me thinking, what if somebody with Barry or Atchaco's abilities killed Nora?" Joe questioned.

"There's one flaw with your theory though, detective, and is that all of this happened 14 years ago, which is long before…" Wells started.

"Your machine gave Barry and Atchaco their powers." Joe finished.

"An accident gave Barry and Atchaco their powers." Wells reminded him.

"Do you think it is possible that somebody with Barry's super-speed or Atchaco's cybernetics could have existed before the explosion?"

"Detective, I deal in probabilities as a scientist, and in this case... It's highly unlikely." Wells told him. "Barry getting his powers was a fluke, Atchaco is an alien who became a meta-cyborg."

Later at the Rusty Iron Ale, Eddie and Barry walk over to a small group of men who were loading up one of the trucks. "Gentlemen, CCPD." Eddie says, showing the workers his badge. "Any chance some of your merchandise was stolen last night?"

"No, I don't think so." The man replied.

"How about this guy?" Eddie showing him a picture of Tony Woodward. "Have you seen him?" The man backs away a little bit, sweating.

"You know Tony, don't you?" Barry asked him.

"Hey." Eddie shouted, snapping his fingers in front of him. The guy suddenly turns around and takes off running, so Barry and Eddie end up having to run after him. Barry uses his super-speed, but forgetting that Eddie was there two. Which when he caught up with the man, led to him getting hit in the face as Eddie tackled him to the ground.

"Allen, you okay?" Eddie asks as he helps Barry stand up.

"Oh, never better." Barry tells him.

"Get up." Eddie orders the other guy.

"I didn't do nothing, man!" They guy pleaded.

"So why'd you run?" Eddie questioned him.

"Look, it was an accident!" He told them.

"What was it?" Eddie asked.

"Tony falling, okay?" They said, "But I swear to God, we didn't kill him!"

"Keep talking." Eddie ordered.

"About ten months ago, Keystone Ironworks." The man told them. "Boss is handing out pink slips. Tony gets his, and he just snapped. He started beating the crap out of the guy. We pulled him off, and then the lights went out. Some kind of power surge. And then Tony went over the railing right into a vat of molten scrap. Just gone."

"Lucky for you he's still alive." Eddie tells him as he cuffs his hands behind his back.

"What?" The man said surprised.

"How'd you get in front of us?" Eddie asked Barry as they made their way back to the car.

"Shortcut." He simply answered.

Atchaco walks into CC Jitters, and she sees Iris talking to someone behind the counter. "I've been meaning to ask you, where's your shadow?"

"What shadow?" Iris asks her.

"Barry." They told her. "He hasn't been in all week."

"Getting his fix somewhere else, I guess." Iris replied.

"Too bad. He's cute, I kind of miss having him around." She said.

Atchaco walks over to Iris. "You and Barry need to talk and make things up with each other." Atchaco tells Iris.

"Hello." Iris greets sarcastically.

"I'm serious about this Iris. What is happening between you is driving me insane, and you being annoying to him just makes it worse." Atchaco informs her. "All we want is for you to stop doing your blog."

"Well, I don't care what people say, I'm not going to stop writing." Iris argues.

"Iris? Atchaco?" A deep voice called from behind him. "Long time no see." The two of them turned around to see Tont standing there. "I got to say, Iris, you look amazing." He looks to Atchaco. "You're a 9/10 for your whole look 'cause you're near perfect." He laughed.

Atchaco smiled. "Yeah, but only 1/2 for arms." Tony chuckled.

"Thanks, Tony. Um, you too." Iris replied.

"Oh, yeah. I keep in shape. I got a gym at my place. Been living out in Keystone on the West Side, and you should, uh…" He looks at the two of them, fidgeting with his hands nervously. You should stop by sometime, both of you."

"So, uh, can I get you a drink?" Iris asks, trying to keep the conversation alive.

"No, I came to see you." Tony replied.

"How did you know she was here?" Atchaco asked with an eyebrow raised.

"I've been reading up on The Streak and The Machine." Tony replied, looking up at Iris. "Found your little blog. Why are you writing about this guy? The Machine yeah, great person, understandable why you write about them. But the guy."

"People say that he's a hero." Iris retorted.

"The cyborg, yeah, but I say he's a coward," Tony told them, which made Atchaco smile a bit. "And I happen to know that he took a beating last night and ran off like a little girl. You should write about that."

"Do you have any idea who the leather boy is, or maybe the cyborg?" Atchaco asks him with a smirk on her face.

"No clue." Tony replied.

"So, um, if you don't want a drink I should probably get back to work." Iris told him.

"Actually I'd prefer to buy you a drink. What time are you off?" Tony asks.

"Thanks, Tony, but I don't think my boyfriend would approve. He's a cop, like my dad." Iris reminded him.

"I never really did like cops too much." Tony complains.

"Iris!" The barista callson her as she motions to the TV. They all look up to see Tony's picture on the news. Atchaco looks back at Tony as Iris takes her phone.

"Well, it was nice talking to you guys, but Eddie is due to come collect me, he's picking me up for the policeman's ball. Wall to wall cops. Can't swing a cab. I should probably call him to see where he is…" She says, about to dial him.

"Give me the phone, Iris. Now!" Tony shouted. He grabs her phone when she doesn't hand it to him, he turns his hand into metal and crushes the phone before placing some money down on the table. "I'm sorry. Uh, for the damage. We'll pick this up some other time."

He then silently turns and walks out of Jitters leaving Iris and Atchaco to look at each other in fear.

Iris breathes heavily and Atchaco places her cold, but comforting, metal hand on Iris's shoulder. "You okay?" Atchaco asks her, concerned.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Iris tells her. "I just need to inform some people about Tony."

"Iris, let the police handle this. Plus how would you even reach them?" Atchaco questions.

"I have a way." Iris turns to face Atchaco. "Plus, I want you to meet him, I want you to know that he is real."

"I already believe in the cyborg and the streak." Atchaco reminds her.

"Please, do this for me. I know you already believe it but I want you to meet the streak with your own eyes." Iris informs her.

"Fine, I'll go." Atchaco gives.

At STAR Labs, Barry was standing in front of Cisco's robot with his hands in his pocket. "Barry! Check it out!" Cisco exclaims as he and Caitlin walk into the room. "The gravel you pulled from Tony's ride? It contains 76.8% hematite. Consistent with the mines at Keystone Ironworks."

"Which closed down ten months ago. It's the perfect hideout." Barry finished off.

Caitlin brings up the tablet she was holding and shows the screen to the speedster. "Barry, do you mind telling me about this? 'I have info about someone you're looking for. He was here. You know where to find me.' Now who could she be talking to?" Barry blushes before walking away.

A little while later a CC Jitters, Iris and Atchaco were chatting together when Barry comes running in. "Told you he was real." Iris tells Atchaco.

"I never doubted you." Atchaco replies.

Iris looks at Barry. "I guess you got my message." Iris tells him.

"Are you okay?" Barry asks, scared.

"Cop's daughter." Iris answers. "I can handle myself."

"Not with this guy." Barry reminds her.

I knew him when we were kids." Iris tells him. "He didn't want to hurt us. He wanted to impress us."

"But he is fixated on you, and not in a good way." Atchaco reminds her.

"Do you know where he went?" Barry asked them.

"He said he had a place out in west Keystone. Bragged about how big it was, but I have no idea where." Iris tells him.

"I do." Barry replies, turning to go away.

"Wait, there's something else." Barry turns around again. "His hand. It transformed like an iron fist. He's like you, isn't he?"

"Yes, and writing about me and my partner is what brought him to you." Barry informed her.

"I know, but maybe I could talk…" Iris tries.

"No! He's too dangerous." Barry argues. Suddenly there is knocking on the window, Iris turns to the other two and Atchaco motions for Barry to leave as she can handle it.

"Damn, that's my ride." Iris says. "Eddie insisted on a detail. I have to…" She turns around but Atchaco is the only one left. "Go." She sighs, a few minutes later Atchaco leaves as well, heading in the same direction as Barry as her body coats itself in its armour, she has to find him, in this state things can go wrong too easily.

At STAR Labs, Barry comes rushing in and heading straight over to the computers. "Barry, talk to us. What are you doing?" Caitlin said, her voice filled with concern.

"Dude, don't run angry." Cisco tells him. "We don't know how to defeat him yet."

Barry ignores them before spreading off. He arrives seconds later at Keystone's Ironworks, and he slowly makes his way over to an exploded tank. He inspects it and he can see footprints on the floor that seem to be made of melted metal. He walks further on, he sees empty beer bottles on the ground. "This is definitely the place." He whispers, when suddenly he gets hit in the face by Tony's strong force.

"You're trespassing, freak!" Tony calls as he sees Barry stumble. "There's nowhere left to run." He taunts. Then Tony turns his body into completely metal as he pushes a metal shelf on top of Barry, pinning him to the ground.

A few minutes later, Cisco, Iris and Macanese come running into the room. "Barry? Barry, where are you?" Macanese calls.

"Caitlin, Atchaco, over here!" Cisco shouts pointing over to the metal shelf. The other two run over to the engineer as Caitlin gasps.

"Barry?" Caitlin says.

"Please, say something!" Macanese asks. "Say something so we know you're okay."

"Ow." Barry groans. Caitlin and Cisco continue to try and pull him out.

"Get him out of there!" Caitlin orders them as Cisco drags Barry's beaten up body out from underneath as Macanese holds it up.

Later, back at STAR they were all standing angrily around Barry. "What were you thinking?" Wells growls. "What were you thinking? I told you that we would figure out a way to deal with him."

"I'll heal." Barry tells them.

"You can't heal when you're dead. He could have killed you." Wells reminds him.

"I know, all right? I know!" Barry shouts. "In the past 36 hours I've had my ass handed to me twice by the guy that tortured me as a kid. I couldn't stop him then, and I can't stop him now! Even with my powers I'm still powerless against him."

"Not necessarily." Atchaco tells him. "Cisco? Any material, if struck at a high enough velocity, can be compromised."

"We ran an analysis on the metal in Tony's footprint." Cisco informs them. "Based on its density and atomic structure, if you impact it at just the right angle, at just the right speed, you could do some serious damage."

"How fast would I have to go?" Barry asks.

"Factoring in the metal's tensile strength, estimated dermal thickness, atmospheric pressure, air temp, you'd have to hit him at approximately... Mach 1.1." Cisco says, looking back down at the calculations.

"You want Barry to hit something at 800 miles an hour?" Caitlin gasps.

"837, actually." Cisco corrects.

"That's faster than the speed of sound." Atchaco reminds them.

"I know. He would create a sonic boom, which, as I've said before, would be awesome." Cisco smiles.

"I've never gone that fast." Barry says. "Nor has Atchaco."

"Yet." Wells says, a small smile creeping its way onto his face.

"I can't believe we're actually entertaining this idea. I mean, he'd need a straight shot from Miles away." Caitlin said, trying to bring his thoughts back down to earth.

"Yeah, 5.3 Miles, theoretically." Cisco tells them.

"Do it right, you'll take him down." Wells says.

"Do it wrong, you'll shatter every bone in your body." Caitlin warns.

Later, at the precinct, Barry walks out of the elevator as Joe comes up to him. "Barry." Joe greeted.

"Joe, I've been beaten up enough for one day. I gotta…" Barry complained.

"Hey, wait." Joe said. "An anonymous tip led us to Tony Woodward's hideout. The place was trashed. What happened?"

"He shows up at Jitters to see Iris." Barry informs him. "I had to go after him."

"Iris, where is she?"Joe asks.

"She's fine, she's fine." Barry comforts him. "Eddie put a detail her to be safe, Atchaco is with her too." Barry sighed. "I thought I could handle him this time. I tried."

"Look, I know what this punk put you through, but you can't let emotion cloud your judgement." Joe reminds him.

Eddie walked up to them with a serious expression. "The tollbooth camera got a shot of Woodward. Stolen car headed out of town. State police are taking over. We lost him." Eddie said.

"Don't worry, Eddie. They'll get him." Joe replies.

"I wanted to take this guy down." Eddie complains.

"Not half as much as I did." Barry reminds him.

"Let's go, Allen." Eddie says as they start walking up stairs.

"Go where?" Barry asks.

"Blow off some steam." Eddie tells him, taking off his jacket. "I need to hit something."

"What?" Barry asks as he looks at Joe with a worried and concerned look.

"I don't think he means to hit you." Joe tells him. "Go."

Barry turns and follows Eddie upstairs. A few moments later they were in Barry and CyAmze's lab. Eddie was repeatedly hitting a punching bag while Barry was holding it for him. "So I heard you and this Woodward guy have a history. Hey, Allen. It's okay. Trust me. I had my fair share of bullies at school."

"Yeah, somehow I find that hard to believe." Barry chulkes.

"I was short, fat, and the son of a politician who closed the factory in my school district, so not so popular." Eddie tells him.

"So what'd you do about it?" Barry asked.

"I got my ass kicked. A lot, until my gym coach took pity on me. She said the key to fighting is patience. Here." Eddie holds the punching bag so that Barry can have a turn at it. "A lot of guys waste energy trying to land the most punches. All it takes is one, but you gotta make it count. Choose your spot and drive through it, like it's six inches behind the target." Barry clears his throat a little and then hits the bag. "Harder." Eddie tells him. Again, Barry hits the bag, marginally harder this time. "Harder!" Eddie tells him again. Barry sighs and puts all of his strength into it, but because of his enhanced speed, he ends up hitting the bag a little too hard and it knocks the air out of Eddie, who was behind it and he coughs.

"The seam was starting to split." Barry sheepishly replies as he sees a hole in the bag that he had made.

At one of the many bars in Central City, Joe and Wells were sitting together at one of the tables. "Appreciate you coming down."Joe tells him.

"Hmm, well these days it's rare to find someone happy to have a drink with me." Wells replies.

"Well, our conversation yesterday got me thinking. You said, as a scientist, you look for the probable?" Joe asks.

"That's right." Wells answers.

"And we both recently have seen things that have redefined what is possible." Joe reminds him.

"Yes, we have, and we both know the direct cause of those things." Wells tells him.

"Your accelerator explosion." Joe sighs.

"Evolutionary leaps follow the creation of new technologies. It's that simple." Wells says.

"Like the Roomba." Joe laughs.

"Yes, like the Roomba." Wells agrees.

"So humour me here." Joe says.

"Hmm?" Wells replies.

"If we know that meta-humans were created by the particle accelerator and testimony shows that a meta-human may have been involved in the murder of Barry Allen's mother 14 years ago, it seems to me that... Way back then there must have been another particle accelerator." Joe therioses.

"Another particle accelerator?" Wells asks.

"Hmm." Joe agrees.

"I can assure you that's extremely unlikely, detective, and if they were I don't recall any dark matter lightning storms before I moved to town. Do you?" Wells questions Joe.

"No, no, I don't." Joe answers. "When did you move to town, Dr. Wells?"

"Something tells me that you already know the answer to that question, detective." Wells replies. "This whole 'help me solve the murder of Nora Allen,' you were never looking for my help, were you?" Wells asks.

"You opened your lab a month after Nora Allen's murder." Joe reminds him. "Would you mind telling me what you were doing in Central City before that?"

"I was starting over." Wells tells him, leaving some money on the table.

"Starting what over?" Joe asks him.

"Here I thought we were just two guys having a friendly drink" Wells says as he starts to wheel himself away. "You want answers, detective? Tess Morgan, look her up." Joe finishes his drink and leans back in his chair and sighs.

Later as the West household, Iris was sitting on her laptop, continuing to write on her blog. Atchaco walks in with two cups of coffee. "I would ask what you are doing, but I feel like I already know the answer to that." Atchaco tells her as she sits in front of her. "And I don't like the answer." Iris looks up and smiles before continuing to write.

Outside of the house, two police officers were standing, watching over the premises so Tony doesn't try and get to Iris and Atchaco again. "Unit 52, this is dispatch. Requesting status update on the West house." The radio chimed. As the officer reached over to answer it, a metal arm, one which the officer didn't recognize as Atchaco's, came smashing through the window.

Back inside the house, Iris and Atchaco stop what they are doing when they hear a sudden noise come from outside. They slowly walk over to the window and see that the cop car that was placed outside the house had been filled over. The two cops were still trapped inside it, possibly dead. The two of them turn back around to see Tony standing there, a smile on his face.

"Hey, Iris, hey Atchaco." Tony grins, causing them both to flinch.

Back at the precinct, Barry and Eddie were still practising punches in the lab. "Nice, Allen." Eddie complements.

"Yeah." Barry agrees with him.

"All right." Eddie says, stopping.

"Okay." Barry replies as he stops as well.

"Hey, next time work on your speed." Eddie tells him.

"Yeah, I'll do my best." Barry chuckles. Suddenly an officer walks over to them, a solomon look on his face. "Thawne, Allen. The unit watching Joe's daughter, they've been attacked. Iris is missing, so is Atchaco." Barry and Eddie look at each other in terror.

"Go, all right? I'll call Joe." Barry tells Eddie as they both walk out of the room.

Back at STAR, Caitin and Cisco were working on how to increase Barry's speed, so that he can hit Tony better. "Let's adjust the impact angle by 2 degrees, up the speed to 838." The two of them watch the 3D model version of Barry hitting Tony and him turning to dust. "Bam. Ouch." Cisco says.

"Ouch?" Caitlin replies.

"Guys, are you there?" Barry asks.

"Yeah, man, what's up?" Cisco answers.

"Tony took Iris and Atchaco, and Atchaco can't show her other forms in front of Iris, so I need you to do whatever you can to help me find them. All right? Satellites, security cameras. Hack 'em all, hell, hack Atchaco if that helps."

"We're on it." Cisco tells him and Barry hangs up.

Joe walks out of the elevator at the precinct, and sees that Barry is worried about something. "What's wrong?" He asks him.

Late at night, Tony brings Iris and Atchaco to their old school. "Remember this place?" He asks them.

"So what's the plan here, Tony? You finally gonna go for that G.E.D?" Atchaco mocks.

"You want a plan? How's this?" He turns towards Iris. "You used to write about The Streak, right? Now you're gonna write about me." Tony tells her.

"You just abducted me, Tony. Why would I do that?" Iris asks.

"Because The Streak is dead." Tony informs her, keeping his heartbeat steady.

"No." Iris gasped.

"Squashed like a little bug by me." Tony laughs. "All that's left now is to get rid of the cybernetic speedster." He stops. "So if you don't want the same thing to happen to you, you're gonna tell the whole world that there's a new big man on campus! And I'm just getting started."

"You could have anybody write about you, Tony. Why me?" Iris asks him.

"'Cause I like you, Iris. Always have." Tony tells her.

"You should have said something." Iris replies as he walks over to them. Atchaco takes off her prosthetic arm, and uses her other arm to hold it so she can reach the fire alarm and she quickly smashes the cover. The fire alarm blars as the two of them make a run for it. Suddenly, Tony grabs Atchaco's flesh arm and pins it behind her back, then he throws her prosthetic to the side so she can't fight him. "Atchaco!" Iris screams.

"Don't move, Iris." Tony ordered her. Iris stops where she is standing, fear written on her face.

"You try anything like that again and I'm gonna leave more than a bruise!" Tony warned Atchaco as she groans in pain. Tony reaches over and rips the fire alarm off, causing the noise to suddenly stop and he drags Atchaco and Iris away, Iris coming willingly so that nothing bad happens to Atchaco.

Back at the precinct a worried Joe and Eddie were frantically trying to sort things out. "Eddie, anything yet?" Joe asked him.

"We have roadblocks on every major artery. Units are searching." He tells him. "We will find Iris and Atchaco, Joe."

"Atchaco was like another daughter. You don't think he'll hurt her, do you?"

"Sir, sir, we got a fire alarm call at Carmichael Elementary." An officer hurryingly says to the captain.

"Dispatch the fire department." Singh tells him. "We'll send backup when we can."

"That's the school you, Atchao and Iris went to." Joe said, turning to Barry.

"And Tony." Barry sighed.

"Go." Joe told Barry, already knowing what he needs to do. Barry nods and hurryingly walks away.

Back at the elementary school, Tony drags Atchaco and Iris across to the display case and drops them on the floor as Iris hands Atchaco her fake arm back, which she doesn't reattach. "Tony, turn yourself in before things get worse." Atchaco told him.

"It's not too late." Iris reminds him.

"Yeah, it is." Tony replies. "Cops are already looking for me, so get ready to cover the showdown of a lifetime because I'm not going out without a fight."

"Good, 'cause you just found one." Barry says as speeds in behind them.

"You just won't stay dead." Tony complains. "Come to save your little fan girl and damsel in distress?"

"This is between us. Let them go." Barry tells him.

"Oh, I could, but I'd rather make them watch while I break every bone in your body." Tony chuckles. Barry runs towards him as Tony goes to swing a hit at him. Barry slides under his legs and moves Iris and Atchaco out of the way. Barry turns and runs back to Tony and dodges every punch that he tries to throw at him.

"Too slow, tin man." Barry mocks. "I've known guys like you. Peaked in high school. Never got over it. All these powers, and look at you! Bully then, bully now." Barry said. Barry grabs one of the flag poles and tries to hit Tony with it but he just catches it. Tony picks Barry up by his leg, and with the flag pole he smacks him repeatedly with it, Cisco and Caitlin who are getting a constant view of his vitals gasp.

"He's hurt." Cisco says.

Tony then swings Barry really hard against the wall. "No!" Atchaco screamed. Barry looks up at Tony and gets a flashback of what Joe had told him when he was younger. "If you do come up against somebody you know you can't beat, be smart. It's okay to run the other way." Barry whispers to himself.

"There goes your hero." Tony taunts Barry as he runs out of the door.

"He made it out." Cisco cheered.

"Barely." Caitlin reminded him. "Why did he stop?"

"He's miles away. 5.3 miles away." Cisco says, realising what he is doing.

"Barry, wait!" Caitlin shouts into the mic as she realises.

"No way. He's gonna do it! Go, man, go!" Cisco cheers for him.

The alarms on the cars blare as Barry runs past them, speed and electricity building with every step. Until suddenly a sonic boom could be heard. Barry comes charging into the school and punches Tony hard across his face with all the force that he had collected. This led to Tony flying across the room.

"Supersonic punch, baby" Cisco cheered, raising his hands into the air! Meanwhile Barry was on the ground as he moaned in pain. All of a sudden Tony stands up, grunting, as he starts to walk towards Barry. When he gets hit in the face, this time by Iris.

"Nice cross." Barry compliments her.

"Yeah, I think I broke my hand." Iris tells him.

"Oh, me too." Barry replies.

A wee while later, Tony wakes up to find himself in one of the cells in the pipeline, deep in the basement of STAR Labs. "Hey! What is this? Where the hell am I?" Tony shouts.

"Somewhere you'll never hurt anyone ever again." Barry tells him.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Tony asks him.

"You know who I am." Barry says, stepping out of the shadow, so Tony can see him.

"Allen?" Tony gasps.

"The thing that happened to you, Tony, it happened to me too." Barry tells him as Atchaco comes walking in, her Macanese form showing, but he face recognisable.

"To all of us, Tony." Atchaco tells him.

"Atchaco." He gasps in disbelief.

"But it didn't just give us abilities. It made us more of who we are. You got strong. I got fast." Barry reminds him.

"I got cybernetics." Atchaco informs him.

"Fast enough to beat you. You used your gift to hurt people. Not anymore."

"To all of us, Tony." Atchaco tells him.

"Atchaco." He gasps in disbelief.

"But it didn't just give us abilities. It made us more of who we are. You got strong. I got fast." Barry reminds him.

"I got cybernetics." Atchaco informs him.

"Fast enough to beat you. You used your gift to hurt people. Not anymore." They both walked back into the shadow.

"Allen! Macanese!" Tony shouts as he turns into metal and bangs on the glass door. "Allen! Macanese!" He screams again. "Allen, don't walk away from me, Allen! Macanese! Hey! Come back here! Allen! Macanese! Allen! Macanese!" He screams one last time and then Caitlin shuts the door to the pipeline.

Barry does a fist bump into the air. "Dude, that had to feel great." Cisco tells him.

"You have no idea." Barry replies.

"Almost as good as proving me wrong about the supersonic punch?" Caitlin asks.

"Actually, that part hurt. Like, a lot." Barry answers. "But I couldn't have done it without you guys."

"All I want to know is which childhood bully are we gonna take down next?" Cisco asks. "Mine, Atchaco's or Caitlin's?"

"Okay, yeah. I vote for mine." Atchaco says. "What? Guys, this is not a joke."

Back in the Cortex Wells was sitting by himself when Joe came walking into the room. "Doctor." Joe greets him.

"Detective. Are you here to make more accusations?" Wells says without expression.

"I'm here to make amends." Joe tells him. "I looked up Tess Morgan. I'm sorry for your loss. You two were research partners in Maryland?"

"Yes, we were. We were... Married to the work as much as to each other." Wells answers. "After the car accident... I could not go back to work. Could not go back to our lab."

"So you moved here." Joe finished.

"Where no one knew me." Wells angrees. "Where no one could remind me of what I had lost, and, um... I... I found it difficult, starting over, rebuilding, and what took me 14 years Tess could have done in 4, believe me, she... She... At the time of Nora Allen's murder, the particle accelerator that I would eventually create was but a notion, much less a reality, and so whomever or whatever is responsible for her death, it did not originate from me or from my work."

"I'm sorry I doubted you, but I hope I can still count on your help." Joe apologises.

"You don't give up, do you?" Wells chuckles.

"Nope." Joe answered. "Not till I get my man. I owe that to Barry and to Henry."

"Barry is lucky to have you on his side, Joe." Wells tells him.

Later a Jitters, Iris was cleaning up from the day when she feels a little gust of wind and hears the door open. "Hi." She calls. She stops what she is doing and turns around to see Barry and Atchaco standing there. "Oh, I thought that you were someone else."

"So Atchaco told me what happened." Barry told her. "How's the hand?"

"Not broken, so that's something." Iris replied.

"I should have believed…" Barry started to say.

"I'm sorry I said…" Iris stopped. "I've missed you."

"Yeah, I've missed you too." Barry said. "When I heard Tony took you guys, I... I just... I don't know what I would do if anything happened to you both."

"Well, my guardian angel's looking out for us." Iris reassured, turning to Atchaco.

"We did tell you so." Atchaco inferred.

Iris chuckles and shakes her head. "Do you want to hang out and catch up?" Atchaco nods in reply.

"Yeah. I would like that, yeah." Barry tells them.

"I promise not to talk about The Streak and The Machine tonight." Iris says as they sit down at one of the tables.

"No, I want you to. No, I mean, I want... You can... I want you to talk about whatever you'd want to talk about. We know it is important to you." Barry replies.

"Good because it's not just The Streak and The Machine." Iris informs them. "There are others out there that are like those two. I've gotten scattered posts about this guy that's on fire, except that he doesn't burn up."

"Okay, so wait. Wait. You're trying to find The Burning Man now too?" Atchaco asks her.

"Yeah, why not? I mean, a lot can happen in a week, especially with The Streak and The Machine." Iris reminds them as Barry sighs.

"I've been trying to get answers from them." Iris tells them. "Where do they come from? How do they do what they do? But he dodges everything. Literally, with this super-speed power. When he moves, Barry, you don't even see him. Atchaco you saw, he comes and goes in the blink of an eye, in a…"

"Flash?" Barry asks.

"In a Flash." Iris agreed. "What about the machine, I saw them once? They were strong and powerful like…"

"Thunder?" Atchaco questions.

"Exactly." Iris agrees again.

Later Macanese and Barry are zooming around town as Iris sits down in Jitters as she writes her blog. "Today, I was saved by the impossible. A mystery man. The fastest man alive. Then some friends gave me an idea for a new name to recognize our heros, and something tells me it's gonna catch on. On the screen in big bold letters it says 'SAVED BY THE FLASH' and just underneath it it says 'WELCOME OUR NEW HEROES… THE FLASH AND THUNDER.' Just after Iris wrote that she started getting loads more followers on her blog, more believers in the impossible.

Later at the West family home, Joe was sitting down in the living room as he looks over the files from the case of Nora Allen's murder. All of a sudden the power shuts off engulfing the room in pitch black. Joe sees a streak of red lightning come running across the room and he manages to see a man in yellow. And just as quickly as he appears the yellow man leaves and the power comes back on. He quickly looks around the room and sees that all the files have been stolen. He continues to look and sees a knife stabbed into the picture of Iris's smiling face.

He walks over to it and sees that 'STOP OR ELSE' has been written on the photograph. Joe just stares at the image, terrified and frozen to the spot in fear. For once in his life he had no idea what to do. This man in yellow didn't want him to investigate into Nora Allen's murder, but why?