Sparks Fly {the flash}

six

Thousands of unknown faces continuously flashed across the computer screen as I silently chewed my thumbnail in anticipation, the faces only staying for a few seconds at a time before they disappeared for good. I had come into work an hour or so earlier than normal to get a jump on my facial recognition analysis. I had gotten a copy of some of the police artist's sketches of what different people think he looked like, and I was planning on running it through if my initial match up didn't pan out the way I wanted it to. I had already gone through the city's criminal database at this point, and I had just finished going through the national criminal database. Since I came up with absolutely nothing, I was forced to run it through DMV records from the past five years. If I didn't come up with anything at that point, I'd most likely have to send some of the pictures to the FBI so that they could overtake the search with their advanced systems. I didn't want to do that, but in order to find our John Doe, that would have to be the next step. Somehow, I just couldn't bring myself to call him Pied Piper. It sounded too strange to me without knowing the background behind the name.

I hadn't gotten much sleep after I had gone home. I don't know why everything that had happened kept running around in my head like a broken record. For one thing, why would anyone use sound frequencies as a superpower? Yes, it was smart and uncommon, but it was impractical. You would have to be some kind of super genius to be able to figure exactly what frequencies you would need to disrupt the air in front of you, and that seemed like it would take way too much time. Then again, that might have just been my personal bias against it, but whatever. Another thing that had kept me up was why The Flash had saved me of all people, and why had he gone to great lengths to disguise himself? It's not like I was going to be able to recognize him. I mean, there were literally thousands of people--if not millions--living in Central City, and he could be any one of them. The chances of me knowing who he was were, quite literally, one in a million.

It had been relatively silent in the lab since I arrived. I hadn't started playing my iPod yet because I hadn't really had the mind to do it. I was still in my waking up stages, and the thought hadn't even crossed my mind until Joe walked in. "I'm not used to walking into a quiet lab." He chuckled, taking my attention away from the computer screen. "You usually have your punky rock music playing so loud that I can hear it down the hall."

I chuckled with him, wiping my damp thumb on my jeans. "Sorry. I'm a little out of it this morning. I didn't get a lot of sleep once I got home."

"Shaken up from last night?" I nodded as he sat in Barry's chair. "What's on your mind?"

"For one thing, why is this guy named Pied Piper?"

"I'm afraid I can't answer that one definitely. Maybe it just has something to do with his past."

I shrugged. "Maybe. There's something else as well." He nodded, silently telling me he was listening. "Out of all the police officers out there, including you, why did The Flash chose to save me from whatever that guy was doing?"

He went slightly rigid for an unknown reason. "You think he singled you out?" I nodded. "Maybe he thought that you weren't part of the force and that you were just a damsel in distress."

I chuckled lightly. "One thing you will learn about me, Joe, is that I am the furthest thing from a damsel in distress."

He smiled. "I am well aware of that, but he might not know it."

"Who might not know what?" Barry asked, walking into the lab with a small smile on his face.

"The Flash obviously doesn't know that I can handle myself." I shared. "While you were home sick last night, there was a bank robbery down the road from the bar. Some dude called the Pied Piper was causing a ruckus, and your superhero thought that I needed saving from it."