"It's working!"
Joe, holding a cup, watched as his coffee floated up, exclaiming excitedly.
"Whoosh!"
A red bolt of lightning shot out from the portal, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
"Barry!"
Alice cried out in surprise.
Wally quickly jumped off the super treadmill and gave chase.
Cisco, panting and smiling, stopped his vibro-blasts.
Hardy turned to look at his promethium dagger.
He had just seen several red and yellow lightning bolts entwined around the dagger.
The Speed Force… seemed to be absorbable as energy by the promethium.
...
...
"Guys, something's not right here!"
An hour later, back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Alice stared blankly ahead.
Barry, his face covered in stubble, was muttering to himself, tightly gripping a pen and scribbling incomprehensible symbols all over the walls and floor.
"Barry…"
Joe reached out and placed a hand on his foster son's shoulder.
Barry turned around, a silly grin on his face.
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are… Daddy, I can sing Twinkle Twinkle now!"
Joe was even more bewildered.
Hardy silently took out his phone and started recording.
This kind of blackmail material—Barry would definitely be embarrassed when he returned to normal and saw it.
They tried all sorts of methods, but nothing could bring Barry back to normal.
"So… what do we do now?"
Cisco slumped over the table, weakly.
"I ran a full check on Barry's body and brain. He's extremely healthy, but his mind is running at lightning speed—constantly operating at a rate millions of times faster than a normal person."
Caitlin looked at the medical results on the computer and spoke.
"I believe the Speed Force dimension exists outside of time and space and has high-dimensional properties. The amount of information it contains is far beyond what low-dimensional beings like us can handle. Even with the Speed Force's protection, Barry has to constantly use the Speed Force to keep his mind running at super speed to process all that information, which has exceeded the limits of his brain—resulting in cognitive dysfunction."
Cisco scratched his head in frustration.
He never expected things to turn out this way.
"So what do we do now? At the very least, we need a powerful speedster who can defeat multiple mechanical samurai at different locations in a very short time. Wally is fast but not strong enough, and Walter is strong but not fast enough."
"Not necessarily."
Hardy toyed with the promethium dagger and spoke to Cisco.
"I just saw the promethium dagger absorb some Speed Force energy during the Speed Force Cannon's activation. Cisco, do you have a way to activate the Speed Force inside it and transfer it into me?"
Cisco took the dagger from Hardy in a daze and placed it on a scanner.
"The energy signature does match the Speed Force, but…"
"But the Speed Force can't be directly used on you."
Caitlin picked up the conversation.
"Barry and Wally's bodies have been transformed by the Speed Force, so they can withstand it perfectly. But others can't. There was once a woman called Ballistic who stole the speed formula we used to help Barry get faster and became a speedster herself, but her body couldn't handle the Speed Force. When she ran, her cells were completely burned away by the Speed Force."
Hardy was a little disappointed, but Cisco quickly gave him a new surprise.
"Actually, there is a solution."
Cisco looked at the dagger, then turned to Hardy.
"I once interned in Professor Silas Stone's lab, and I know a method of vibrational energy release for promethium. By applying a specific frequency of sonic waves to the promethium, we can release the energy stored inside…"
"…"
"And then…"
Cisco glanced at the large, silver suitcase beside Hardy.
"We'll channel the energy into your armor, granting it the power of the Speed Force."
"Cisco, I knew you were a genius."
Cisco scratched his head.
"But there are still some issues. For example, your dynamic vision and reaction speed might not keep up with the Speed Force. Ideally, you'd have a powerful AI to assist you with control."
"Then what are we waiting for?"
Hardy smiled.
Just then, Captain Cold's voice came through the pager.
"Walter! We're almost done thawing over here! It's time to save Nora!"
Hearing this, before Hardy could respond, Barry—who had been dancing the cha-cha on the floor—suddenly froze.
"Save… Nora…"
A streak of red lightning flashed by, and Barry vanished from everyone's sight in an instant.
Wally had no choice but to chase after him again.
"Nora…"
Alice stared at the spot where Barry had disappeared, murmuring.
Only then did Hardy realize—
Barry's mother was also named Nora. Not only was the pronunciation the same, but even the spelling matched Captain Cold's wife: Nora.
"I can't catch up to Barry! He's gone!"
Wally's anxious voice came through the pager.
As a rookie, Kid Flash's speed was nowhere near Barry's level.
Especially since Barry had spent quite some time in the Speed Force, making him even faster than before.
"Wally, go to Villa 403, Zora Community, Westfield District!"
Joe shouted into the pager.
That was the old Allen family home.
"Cisco, I'll leave the Speed Force armor design to you for now. Caitlin, let's go help Victor treat Mrs. Nora."
As Hardy nodded to Cisco and Caitlin, he flicked out chakra threads, disassembling the large silver suitcase into a dozen modules and handing them to Cisco for research.
Putting Barry's situation aside for the moment, Hardy and Caitlin entered the medical bay.
At this point, the temperature in the medical bay had returned to normal.
Victor had also removed his cold suit, relying only on the chest-mounted condenser attached to his heart to maintain his body temperature, as he held his wife Nora's hand.
"You must be Mr. Walter and Ms. Caitlin. Thank you so much," said the newly awakened Nora weakly.
"Mrs. Nora, due to years of being frozen, your muscle activity has been affected, so you won't be able to move for now. Next, I'll use equipment to temporarily block the electrical signals in your spinal nerves, and then hand you over to Mr. Walter for treatment," Caitlin explained.
Because they needed to treat the nerves, they couldn't use nerve-targeting anesthetics. Fortunately, S.T.A.R. Labs had plenty of advanced technology and powerful equipment, making it possible for Caitlin to block nerve transmission as she described.
"Nora, trust us. We'll heal you!" Captain Cold said emotionally to his wife.
"Victor… I've always believed in you," Nora replied with a smile.