Paralyzer || Barry Allen (The Flash) Fanfiction

Chapter 11: Moving On

The team spent nearly a week searching for Max to no avail. It was almost like he had simply vanished into thin air, gone without a trace that he'd ever actually existed. I wondered why — and even how — he'd left without a word, but I couldn't dwell on the past. This new Max, this meta-human version of him, was not the same person I had once known. And, to be honest, I wasn't the same person either.

Before the accident I'd been someone who was shy, someone who never strayed from the known no matter how strong my curiosity was. Not even Max had been able to lure me out of my sheltered ways to try something adventurous. Ever since my parents' death I hadn't dared to risk my life simply for the fun others saw in it.

Now, though, I was no longer that quiet, reserved, cautious girl. I was out in the world every day fighting people who held the ability to kill me if I wasn't thinking on my toes. And, strangely enough, I was actually enjoying myself in the process.

The adrenaline that pulsed through my body and made my heart race in excited anticipation — that's what everyone had tried to get me to understand in my normal life. It was almost as if, now that I had actually already died technically, there was nothing left for me to lose. I wasn't afraid of experiencing the bad things in life if it meant that I was saving someone else from having to go through it. I had the ability to defend myself in a way that others couldn't, and I was going to use that advantage to give them the second chance that neither my parents nor Barry's mom had had.

I ran through the streets of Central City as fast as I could. A smile spread wide across my face as I pushed myself harder and harder, racing towards the lab. With the main doors being made of a new transparent material — something to replace the glass that had previously shattered every time Barry and I ran past it — I was easily able to phase through it. I'd been working on honing my other powers, and I had almost mastered my phasing with little to no thought.

I came skidding to a halt in the middle of the cortex and whipped around to look at the entrance. About three seconds later Barry appeared, the big smile on his face not even faltering as he realized he'd lost our mini race.

"How does it feel to be the second fastest person alive?" I teased as I made my way over to the desk, leaning my elbows on the surface and resting my chin in my hands. Barry gave me a fake glare, and I batted my eyes innocently.

"I would have been first if someone hadn't taken a head start," he chuckled as he looked at me with that amused gleam in his eyes.

It was the small things, like that little look, that made my heart flutter and the air seem to escape my lungs. I tried to always compose myself and make sure not to let it show just how much of an effect he had on me, but I knew I slipped up sometimes. After all, I was only human. Well, close enough to it anyways.

"Barry. Haven. Nice to see you both in such a good mood," Dr. Wells greeted us as he wheeled into the room. Even though he said it in as friendly of a tone as possible, I could hear the underlying annoyance lacing his words.

I knew that Dr. Wells was opposed to using our powers to help aide us with normal everyday tasks. He thought we should only use them when absolutely necessary, saying that the more we used them the less human we'd feel. In my opinion, nothing could be farther from the truth. I'd never felt more alive than I did when I ran.

No matter how much his words tried to cut me down my mood was too joyful to be ruined by such a silly matter. I smiled at him and bid him good morning, Barry following my lead and doing the same.

"So, what's on the agenda?" I asked after we'd all exchanged our greetings. Cisco and Caitlin weren't in the room yet which struck me as odd considering they were always the first ones in and the last to leave.