Chapter 3

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"I still can't seem to reach Barry. I am getting really concerned." Cisco told the group. They had reached the bottom floor with Martha, and had encountered no sign of him either.
"I cannot seem to get any phone service here," Diggle told them, "I am going to make a phone call so I will catch up with you all after." Martha did not seem concerned in the slightest as John Diggle stepped away. He brought his phone to his ear and spoke through the earpiece that was connected to his ear, to Cisco and Felicity.

"Give me Barry's final coordinates and I will look for him," he told them, under his breath. Cisco did as he was asked and wished him luck. He came to the location that Cisco had given him and felt around for cracks in the walls and floor. The varnished floorboard felt hollow beneath them. John ran his foot along the bottom of the wall and heard a click and then a swish as the floorboards by his feet parted, revealing a staircase.

He made his way down the steps, slowly. The room below him was dark. As he made it to the bottom of the staircase the floorboards above sealed up again. To his surprise, the room lit up automatically, it was some sort of corridor with rooms on either side.

John clicked his switch on his ear piece. This signal had been lost. He tried his phone. There was no service. He went back up the stairs to try and reopen the floorboards from above him. There was no switch to reopen them. Barry must have been down here. Diggle stepped back down the steps and followed the hallway, searching within the rooms for any sign of Barry.

"Great! And now we have lost Dig!" Felicity said through the open channel to the rest of team. Oliver sighed. "I'm hungry, when do we stop for lunch?" he asked Martha Kent. He needed a chance to break away to look for Barry and John. They needed to work fast and to get them back as soon as they could. "I am eager to look for Mr Luthor before the day is over," Astrid said. They both knew that Martha would have to accompany either one of them. The other could search for Barry and Diggle.

"I will call Lionel to see where he is." Martha told them, she took a few steps back from them.
"How could we lose both Barry and Mr Diggle so quickly?" Caitlin asked Ollie and Astrid quietly, so she wouldn't be overheard.


"I don't know." Astrid whispered, "we need to find them. They wouldn't just disappear without telling us. "No, they wouldn't," Oliver replied, "Judging by their conversations with Cisco, they clearly went below ground. They could be trapped, so we might have to find another way down. Felicity? Can you find anything at all that might take us underground?"

"No, Ollie... and trust me I have been looking, ever since Barry asked." Felicity told him, "I have cameras and heat sensors all over the place. Nothing is coming up... give me a few minutes and I will see what I can ... oh wait, Cisco what's that?"
"That looks like a secret room behind a book case... There is heat radiating all over that baby." Cisco replied, "Only you will have to access Lionel Luthor's office to get in."

"Ok." Martha's voice broke into their conversation. "Lionel will come see you now."
They only had to wait a few moments until Mr Lionel Luther finally showed up. He had blonde shoulder length hair, he wore a very expensive suit and was roughly the same age as Astrid's father.

"Miss Sutherland, it's nice to finally get to meet you, and you must be Mr Oliver Queen. I met your father once or twice. A very good man, might I add. And whom may I ask is your friend?" he asked, referring to Caitlin.

"This is Dr Caitlin Snow. One of our brilliant minds at Sutherland Labs." Astrid introduced them. Caitlin held out her hand to shake Lionel's though he didn't return the gesture. Instead he brought his attention back to Oliver.

"So Mr Queen, what brings the two of you to Luthor Corp. Miss Sutherland told me that it would be of some sort of benefit to me..." he spoke directly to Oliver.

"We really shouldn't be chatting in this hallway. Do you have some where a little more formal?" he asked him, in return.
"Oh, where are my manners?" If the three of you would like to follow me to my office. I am sure Mrs Kent would be delighted to bring in some refreshments." He waved Martha away and then led the three of them to his office.


Barry awoke and found himself coming in and out of consciousness. He was reminded of the bed that he had woken from his coma in, back in Sutherland Labs. Only he wasn't in Sutherland Labs. And he wasn't in a bed. What had happened to him and where was he?

The room that he was in was a large dimly lit laboratory, he was tied to a chair. The last thing that he had remembered was finding the secret compartment under the ground. He had lost communication with the rest of the group and then someone had hit him in the back of the head, knocking him out.

There were people strapped to beds around him sleeping, but he could not see any doctors. Though someone had knocked him out and had tied him here. But where were they now?

Barry tried to phase his hands free, but for some reason, his powers would not work. He realized that he wasn't wearing his earpiece. Whoever had brought him here had clearly removed it. Or maybe it had fallen and they had not yet found it. He could only hope.

He heard someone cough, it startled him. A man had woken up from the bed and was trying to break free from the straps, he wasn't having any luck in doing so, either. He was roughly the same age as Barry.

"You weren't here before. They must have just brought you down here." The man called out to Barry.
"No, I wasn't. I don't know what happened. Someone knocked me out and brought me here." Barry told the man groggily. "No, that doesn't make sense. They don't normally bring new people down here, unless... You must be special too." the man said.

"What do you mean?" Barry asked him, though he had a feeling that he knew the answer. Clearly whoever had brought him here had seen him using his speed. Barry had thought that Felicity had overrode all the security footage so that no one would see him. It was clear that Luthor Corp was onto them and he had no way of informing his friends.

"My name is Dr Martin Stein. Not that names matter much here." The man said, "These scientists are playing God. They did something to one of my old associates, and now he is just... not even human. They even took over my own project and..." Martin Stein focused his hearing to one of the doors at the far end of the room. "Shh. Someone is coming."

Barry look down into his lap but watched from his peripheral vision as a doctor in a white lab coat entered the room. He was shocked as he realized just who the man was. It was Robert Sutherland, Astrid's father.

Barry gasped, but to his dismay, it was loud enough to grasp the doctor's attention. "Barry Allen, is it?" the doctor began, "My host tells me that you are a friend of his daughter's." Dr Robert Sutherland told him, menacingly.

Barry looked up at the man. This man had been his hero for a very long time. But there was something about this man. And why did he refer to himself as the host?

"Mr Sutherland. What happened to you?" Barry asked him.
Robert diverted Barry's question. "I saw you use your gifts, Barry, and for a moment I thought we were of the same kin. Though this room has dampened your abilities. So I know that is not the case. You are just a lowley human. Just like all these others." He gestured to the sleeping patients on the beds.

This being standing before Barry was not even human. But for someone who believed in the impossible, even he was having a hard time in believing what he was seeing.

There was a sudden ringing from Dr Sutherland's pocket. He pulled out the phone and answered it. "Yes, Lionel. I will sort it out immediately." He ended the call and left the room quickly.

"You remembered Mr Sutherland, didn't you?" Martin spoke again. He had pretended to be a sleep the whole time. "I did. He... Robert was my friend's father. We need to do something fast.


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