"…I find it remarkable that after once being a timid freshman at Central City University, I now stand before you as the Regents' Choice for Man of the Year. While I deeply appreciate this award, the true honor lies in knowing my work in organ transference has helped give people a second chance at life. Thank you all very much for coming."
Simon Stagg concluded his speech and stepped away from the podium. The room filled with applause.
Barry could not help himself. "You know, Simon Stagg's work in cellular cloning directly led to the recent breakthroughs in organ replacement."
Iris ignored the nerd commentary entirely and grabbed two glasses of wine. "Are journalists allowed to drink on the job?"
"If you are bored now, just wait until the science behind cellular regeneration comes up," Barry said, gently taking the glass from her and setting it aside.
Iris laughed softly. "I've missed this, Barry. It feels like we haven't really spent time together since you woke up from the coma."
"Yeah," Barry said, rubbing the back of his neck. "The last few weeks have been… kind of insane."
"I thought maybe you were avoiding me because of Eddie," Iris said. Barry winced internally at the name. "I know you think it's wrong that I'm dating my dad's partner and—"
"No," Barry cut in quickly. "That's not it. Not at all."
She studied him for a moment, then smiled. "Thanks for understanding, Barry."
She glanced around the room. "So, where's that friend of yours, Victor?"
Across the hall, Victor heard his name and turned. He started toward the sound, and the reaction was immediate. A few heads followed his movement. Then a few more. Conversations dipped just enough to notice.
Most of the attendees were paired off, polished couples in tailored suits and elegant dresses, blending neatly into the crowd. Victor did not blend. Walking alone, he somehow drew more attention.
His white, almost ethereal hair stood out starkly beneath the lights. The tailored suit fit him a little too well, and his relaxed, unhurried stride carried an effortless confidence. People looked twice without quite knowing why.
A woman nearby smiled openly as he passed. Someone else lifted a hand in a casual wave. He caught more than one quiet "hey" drifting his way. Victor ignored most of it and kept moving, faintly amused.
"Wow," Iris murmured, eyes following him. "He's even more handsome than I remember."
Barry frowned, already resigned.
"I'm definitely adding him to my cheat list," she added lightly.
That made Barry turn to her, suddenly serious.
"What?" Iris asked, catching his look. "Oh, don't start." She waved him off and turned back just as Victor reached them.
"Hey, Iris. It's been too long," Victor said, smiling as he pulled her into a brief hug.
"Yeah. I heard you woke up from the coma a while ago," she said. "Still weird that this is the first time I've actually seen you since then."
She leaned back a little, looking him over. "How've you been?"
"Good—"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of gunshots shattered the conversation. Gazes snapped toward the source as a group of armed robbers burst into the hall, firing shots into the air to seize everyone's attention.
"Quiet down, all of you," one of the robbers said, his eyes scanning the room as he searched for Simon Stagg. Failing to spot him, he pivoted smoothly. "Quiet."
"How considerate!" he continued. "You're all wearing your finest jewelry. Almost like you knew we were coming to rob you."
"Now everybody line up."
Panicked and terrified, the guests obeyed, forming a line and dropping their jewelry into a bag with shaking hands. Victor moved behind Barry and leaned in close, whispering to him.
"Understood." Barry nodded, waiting for the right distraction.
Just as the last pieces of jewelry were collected, a security guard foolishly revealed himself, pistol raised.
"Freeze! Drop your guns!"
Idiotic as it was, it was the perfect distraction.
All six robbers turned and opened fire. Before a single bullet could reach the man, Barry had already pulled him out of harm's way. Unlike the original timeline, Barry didn't suffer from a migraine due to hunger; Victor had made sure the problem was solved early on.
The robbers, seeing the guard vanish, immediately turned to retreat. They rushed outside and piled into their van, trying to make a getaway.
However, before the engine could even start, a wave of frost slammed into the driver's side, shattering the glass and knocking the two robbers in the front seats unconscious. Barry had already rushed back after rescuing the guard, then took Victor for the confrontation.
The door of the van was suddenly yanked open. The four remaining robbers, noticing the two, quickly raised their guns to fire, but Barry was faster.
He disarmed them in a blur and followed with a series of speed punches. He made quick work of them, knocking all four unconscious.
When he reached down and pulled away the first mask, he froze. He ripped off another mask, then another. Same face, down to the faint scar near the brow. His shock was written clearly on his face.
Victor, on the other hand, didn't share the same shock, only confusion. His bio senses reached past the scene in front of him, scanning for what should have been there. The real Danton Black was not among them.
~~~
Several minutes later, the scene was already crawling with CCPD. "So he can basically multiply himself," Joe said, rubbing his forehead. "This just keeps getting unbelievable."
"And we still can't be sure if his real body was even present," Barry added, arms crossed.
"That's for you and STAR Labs to find out," Joe said, glancing back toward the scene.
Just then, Eddie walked over, resignation written all over his face. "This case is no longer under CCPD jurisdiction."
"What—why?" Barry asked, clearly caught off guard.
"Yeah, FBI loves to make a mountain out of a molehill… always with the overkill," he added, still in the dark on how the case was metahuman-related.
Victor, on the other hand, simply stared at the scene, lost in thought. Yellow tape crisscrossed the area, cordoning it off completely. The police were already pulling back, leaving the scene in the hands of specialized personnel who moved methodically, securing every inch without delay.
With this, the timeline he knew might as well be gone. Even though the robbery had been foiled, the metahuman had not shown himself, totally different from the course of the original timeline. And now the FBI, or most likely A.R.G.U.S., were already on the case.
The ongoing, unexplainable murder had almost certainly caught their attention. It was clearly supernatural, placing it squarely in their jurisdiction.
"Danton Black. That's him," Barry said, glancing at the image displayed on the monitor.
"He's a biogeneticist," Wells explained. "Specialized in therapeutic cloning—growing replacement organs for patients with failing ones."
"Apparently, Stagg stole his research," Caitlin added, "then fired him."
"We saw Black create duplicates of himself," Barry said.
"That's… kind of ironic," Cisco noted. "The guy studies cloning, and now he's basically making Xerox copies of himself."
"If he was experimenting on himself when the dark matter wave hit," Wells said, "the accelerator explosion could've altered the process."
"Ladies and gentlemen," Cisco said with a grin, "meet Captain Clone."
The room fell into silence. No one looked impressed.
"Okay… I'll workshop it," Cisco muttered.
"At least we finally have a lead," Victor said, arms crossed.
Barry nodded, then turned. "Caitlin, where are we with the other cases?"
Victor barely reacted. He wasn't expecting much.
Then Caitlin spoke.
"Actually… I think I found something." She was already moving toward the monitors, fingers flying over the keys.
Victor straightened instantly.
"I was going through footage from last night," she continued, bringing it up across the screens. "I think it's connected to the murders."
The room shifted instantly, every pair of eyes locking onto the monitors, tension tightening like a drawn wire. The footage began to play. It was night. The alley lay drowned in darkness, with only a few flickering lights doing a poor job of pushing back the shadows.
The footage was shot from a terrible angle, but it was enough.
As the timestamp crawled forward, a man burst into view. He ran like his life depended on it, which, judging by what followed, it probably did. Seconds later, a faint shadow swept across the alley, gliding overhead.
Caitlin froze the frame. "Whatever it is, it can fly," she said, stating the obvious.
She zoomed in, then enhanced the image. The shadow sharpened, details bleeding through the grain. The wing pattern was jagged, uneven. If one looked closely, it almost looked like a man-sized bat.
The screen split in two, pulling up images of the victims. Each one bore the same marks. Puncture wounds, clustered at the base of the neck.
"If I didn't know any better," she said slowly, "I'd say those bite marks are bat-related."
She resumed the footage. Seconds later, a shrill scream ripped through the speakers, raw and panicked. It cut off almost as soon as it started.
The silence that followed was suffocating. No one said it out loud, but the implication was clear. The man never made it out of that alley.
The screen faded to black and for a moment, no one moved. The terror in the man's voice lingered in the room, heavy and chilling. Barry's jaw tightened, his hands curling into fists at his sides. Whatever that thing was, he had to stop it. Before anyone else paid the price.
"So… we're possibly dealing with a Man-Bat," Cisco said at last, breaking the silence. "Just great. Like Multiplex wasn't enough already."
----
Don't be a ghost reader, drop comments and most importantly if you like it so far drop Dem power stones.