Happy New Year to y'all, readers! 2025 has been both a blast and a mess, but we made it through. Here's to carrying the good vibes forward, learning from the chaos, and making 2026 even better, brighter, and more unforgettable. Keep reading, keep dreaming, and let's see where this new year takes us together. ✨📖💛
In the quiet outskirts of Central City, a lone figure flickered in and out of existence. Victor's blurred silhouette vanished, only to reappear several meters away, as if reality itself struggled to keep pace with him.
He was experimenting.
The abilities he had accumulated were becoming impossible to ignore. For too long, he had been stacking power upon power, collecting them like trophies, yet rarely stopping to polish any single one. Raw potential was impressive, but unrefined potential was sloppy, and Victor hated sloppy.
Of course, he had biokinesis, his most broken ability. It granted him a deep, fundamental understanding of any power he came into contact with, along with precise control over it. Knowledge, however, was not the same as mastery.
He could activate any of his abilities at will, but using them efficiently and tactically was a different challenge altogether. Theory only went so far. Active training was the only real solution.
Victor's figure darted between the trees at superspeed, leaving nothing behind but distorted air and snapping branches. Then the blur vanished entirely, only to reappear moments later several meters ahead.
Superspeed combined with short-range teleportation.
The synergy was brutally efficient. Against slower opponents, it was overkill. Against enemies who could match or exceed his speed, its true value would finally shine. Another calculated advantage. Another contingency.
And, more importantly, another trump card against Eobard Thawne.
The next moment Victor vanished, only to reappear beside a thick, towering tree. His fist was already cocked back, vibrating violently as power condensed into a single point.
He struck.
The impact was instant and brutal. The tree's bark detonated outward, splintering into a storm of wooden shards that flew off into the distance. His fist drove deep into the trunk, meeting barely any resistance, as if the tree had forgotten it was supposed to be solid.
Victor pulled his arm free, unimpressed, and studied the damage with a detached gaze.
"Not even my full strength," he thought, mildly satisfied.
He had used roughly half his physical power, and that was without stacking any additional abilities into the strike. The result was effective, but hardly satisfying. And that was before getting creative.
For example, layering kinetic nullification, which at its core functioned as thermal nullification, with cryokinesis. The combination would instantly flash-freeze the target, stripping away all kinetic and thermal motion in one brutal sequence, bringing temperature Infinitely close to absolute zero.
Victor exhaled slowly. That particular combo was less a punch and more a quiet suggestion to reality that something should stop existing.
If he had truly gone all out, the tree would have disintegrated on contact. Reduced to dust before the impact even finished registering.
Impressive, yes. But not enough.
Victor wasn't satisfied. The abilities he possessed were undeniably powerful, brutally useful in the right hands. Yet power alone did not equal invincibility. Anyone with competent control over the fundamental forces of the universe or equaly overpowered abilities could still give him trouble, maybe more than he liked to admit.
The thought was sobering, but it didn't linger. If there was one advantage Victor had, it was time. Time to refine, to optimize, to close the gaps before they could ever be exploited.
His focus shifted to the timeline instead. Today, Barry would likely encounter Mardon. Weather Wizard Junior. A small ripple with consequences far larger than it looked on the surface.
Satisfied with his tests for now, Victor wrapped up his business and turned toward the distant glow of Central City. The city was moving forward, unaware as always.
----
On the quiet streets of Central City, Barry and Iris could be seen leisurely strolling. Barry's expression was grim, an unmistakable mix of pain and disappointment. Seeing the girl he liked kissing another man was a bitter pill to swallow.
"You can't tell my dad, he doesn't know about me and Eddie," Iris said, a sigh escaping her lips.
With her hands in her jacket, she turned to Barry, hoping, knowing Barry would keep her secret.
"Doesn't seem like anyone is in on the secret," Barry responded, his tone filled with barely concealed pain.
"I was gonna tell you," she paused, "when you were in the hospital, Eddie covered Dad's shift so we could both be with you."
"I thanked him with a cup of coffee, and things just kind of happened… and it's good," she said, an infatuated smile on her face. The smile shattered any hope Barry had left in his heart.
Victor's words, his advice, all came rushing back. Still, stubborn as ever, Barry pressed on. "Dating your partner's daughter, isn't that against department regulations?"
"Why are you so upset?" Iris asked, confused by Barry's unusual sharpness.
"I just don't like having to lie to your dad," Barry said, his sharpness dimming slightly.
Just then, a few meters from where the two were talking, a CCPD car came speeding toward them, having lost control during a high-speed chase. It drifted wildly across the street, barreling straight toward where Barry and Iris stood.
Barry reacted instantly. With inhuman reflexes, he yanked Iris out of the way as the car tore past them. The collision that followed sent glass raining across the street, the sound sharp and sudden, but Barry was already focused elsewhere.
His gaze locked onto a rapidly escaping black Mustang, its engine screaming as it fled the scene. Surprise flickered across his face.
"Mardon? Wasn't he supposed to be dead?" Barry thought, confused.
The shock lasted only a moment. A single, impulsive thought took over. He had to stop Mardon, especially now. With his abilities awakened and his confidence at an all-time high, hesitation had no place.
While Iris was still reeling from what had just happened, Barry took advantage of her distraction and bolted. In the blink of an eye, he was gone, sprinting after the car.
It didn't take long.
Barry caught up to the Mustang with ease.
When he finally caught up to the car, the first thought that crossed Barry's mind was to ram straight into it. Thankfully, traffic was sparse. Mardon reached for a gun, but Barry, once again acting on instinct rather than strategy, didn't use his superspeed.
Instead, he flipped the car over.
The crash sent sparks into the air, glass and shrapnel flying in every direction. Trying to avoid a direct confrontation, Mardon scrambled to escape, but Barry recovered just as quickly, shooting to his feet and blocking his path.
"Hey! Mardon!" Barry called out, confronting the supposedly dead, wanted criminal.
Mardon turned at the sound of Barry's voice. His gaze alone spoke volumes, filled with arrogance, pride, and a confidence that belonged to someone who believed they had transcended mortality.
Raising his hands, Mardon activated his metahuman ability, the power to freely manipulate meteorological phenomena. Fog formed out of nowhere, instantly blurring everything from view.
Barry was stunned for a brief second and couldn't react in time. Futilely, he dashed toward Mardon's disappearing figure, but his hand closed around nothing but air.
"Damn it!" Barry cursed, clenching his fists in frustration.
He was still processing what he had just witnessed when a panicked horn snapped him back to attention.
Barry spun toward the sound just in time to see another car collide with the one he had overturned during the confrontation with Mardon. The impact triggered a violent explosion, flames engulfing the speeding vehicle and sending it flipping through the air.
Instinct urged Barry to flee, but Victor's repetitive advice rang in his ears.
"If you can move at superspeed, then your mind is even faster..."
The wording varied, but the meaning was always the same.
Barry focused. His mental muscles tightened, and the world snapped into slow motion. The car was still moving, but sluggishly. His physical speed remained at its base level, yet it was more than enough.
His attention locked onto the driver. Multiple injuries were immediately obvious. The man's head was slamming dangerously close to the side of the wreck, but at this distance, it was still salvageable.
Barry rushed forward, barely managing to pull the unconscious man from the car in time. The man was badly injured, but with medical intervention, he just might survive.
----
Meanwhile, Victor was in the Cortex, chatting with Cisco. "What do you think of this?" Cisco asked, turning his sketch toward Victor.
Victor let out a deep sigh, glancing at the horrendous supersuit. "That looks… okay," he said, offering a faint comfort before immediately dousing Cisco's spirit. "But try something else."
Cisco sighed, defeated, slumping back into his chair. "Why do we need suits for?" Caitlyn asked, her brows raised in curiosity.
"One word, Super…hero," Cisco said, gesturing with his arm.
Caitlyn's expression tightened, her logical side kicking in instantly. "Are you serious?" she said, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"You're talking about putting yourself at risk, in danger, because what? Because you have powers? Last time I checked, you weren't bulletproof."