Chapter 12: Aftermath
It had been a week since the death of Bette at the hands of General Eiling. August had dedicated this time to improving himself, working himself to exhaustion everyday both in the lab and on the treadmill, pushing his powers to the extreme to make sure nothing like that happened again.
Pushing his powers, the way he did had brought about a new discovery, whatever energy he drew his powers from was malleable. He had discovered it by accident while training one night and he'd slipped on the treadmill due to exhaustion and hunger and he'd almost cracked his head against the ground. He had manifested some sort of beam through his hands that repelled him, allowing him to catch himself safely.
Further experimentation with EVE had confirmed that he could fire blasts of energy from his hands and whenever he ran, he instinctively coated his body with this energy saving him from friction due to wind resistance. He called it the 'friction cushion' and it was the reason why he could catch and run with ordinary humans at high speeds. He also discovered that this was the source of his superhuman durability.
The biggest discovery he had though was what he called 'Energy construct creation.' August had discovered that by focusing, he could use the 'Speed force' as Cisco and Dr. Wells had dubbed it, to create solid energy constructs and he used this to compose his new Suit, since the previous one had been blown to bits by Bette during their first encounter. The new suit followed his previous color scheme. It was pure white, with a full mask that had gold pigmentation around the eyes and lightning bolts on his ears as well as gold gloves and boots. He had also attached a utility belt to the suit that would carry the new inventions he had made for the field. All in all, it had been a really productive week.
A new problem had popped up though. He had not gone as inconspicuous as he'd hoped. Central City was beginning to notice. Recently a blog had popped up with articles about him and even a hotline for stories regarding him or those that he had saved.
August had EVE look into the blog and was able to discover that it was created by a waitress that worked at Jitters, Iris West. Looking at her picture on the screen, he discovered that he had seen her before. She was the girlfriend of the Police detective, Eddie Thawne and in-depth reports by EVE stated that she was always around crime sites and disaster sites hoping for a sighting of him.
At first, he did nothing, hoping that his inaction and the fact that he had not been active lately would make people dismiss himself as a myth or an urban legend and just have a good laugh about the whole thing, but contrary to his expectations, it went rampant instead, soon #TheBlur was trending at the top of the list on the social medias and news reports and Police statements were dug up about a mysterious blur racing throughout the City and began to spread with intensity that even EVE was helpless against it. Social media and blogs were lit up with posts about a blur or a rush of wind racing past them and then criminals being knocked out for the cops or people rescued from burning or collapsed buildings. There was even a story for four robbers that appeared out of thin air in front of a Police Station, trussed up and bawling their sins and begging the Police to lock them up.
All of this brought scrutiny upon August's alter ego 'Godspeed' and made it hard for him to help those that needed help with people putting themselves in danger just so that he could save them.
That was why he had decided to take a break, not go out for a few days and it turned out it was right, hospitalizations went up by 7% with most of them sustaining grievous injuries because they were expecting him to save them.
He walked into the cortex and spoke into the broadcast system inviting the rest of the team down from their labs.
Caitlyn and Cisco came in together, still discussing whatever project they had been working on before he had called them and then a minute later, Dr. Wells wheeled in with a scholastic air around him and a slight, almost imperceptible frown on his face indicating that he had pulled him from important work as well.
Cisco spoke first, "Hey dude, we're all here. Why'd you call us down, is there an emergency?"
August tapped his tablet, prompting EVE to a document to the main monitors. Everybody turned their attention to the main screen. The frown on their brows increasing the further they read.
The article was titled; "Injuries and hospital visits shoot up: Growing Concern."
"Crap!" Cisco as he read aloud. "The recent increase of people visiting crime scenes and dangerous areas around the city is in response to the surge of unsubstantiated reports and blogs of the fabled Streak in Central City. The rumored Streak, as seen in amateur photos of the red and white streaks throughout the city has fueled civilian interest in discovering if the Streaks exist. The amount of information on the Streaks is limited at this point, with a majority of the reports coming from the blog of one Iris West, whose blog is responsible for a majority of the civilian interests. However, this has resulted in numerous visits to the hospital of people searching for a glimpse of the Streaks. The latest tally of hospital visits this path month of people trying to get a glimpse of the Streaks is in the reported hundred although an exact number is hard to determine. The police have yet to issue comment on the existence of the Streaks and what steps are being taken to keep the citizens of Central Safe from the threats of rumors."
"Aw, man. This isn't good." Cisco said as he rubbed his head.
"I heard about this." Caitlyn said. "I was going to bring it up soon. A friend I met the other day said her kids heard rumors of the Streak and she had to do everything she could to keep them from running out there and getting into trouble just for a chance to the blur in action." Caitlyn said, her face white with shock as Cisco rubbed her back.
"This is not what I wanted. I never thought my very existence would put more people in danger than those I actually saved" August said while Dr. Wells patted his hand and smiled.
"It was bound to happen. You aren't invisible and as long as you go out there, doing what you do, this will only be the beginning." Dr. Wells said as sipped a cup of coffee.
"Ok, so what should I do?" August asked and Dr. Wells thought for a moment.
"The way I see it, there are two options. Option 1, you go public and the people of Central City know that the streak is real and meta-humans exist in the city." Dr. Wells said and before he finished, August was already shaking his head as a refusal.
"That's too dangerous, you told me that and you were right. If people learned that meta-humans exist, I'm worried about the public backlash. What's the second option?" August asked.
"Option 2, you find a way to stop these rumours about the Streak. You said that the Detective's girlfriend, Iris, writes a blog." Dr. Wells said. "Well, maybe you should talk to her. Get her to understand the consequences of what she's doing. If she refuses to see reason, then you have an extremely fascinating AI there that can fix the problem." Dr. Wells said as he finished his Coffee and wheeled out of the room.
It was late at night and Iris was at Jitters, having finished a late shift and was spending some time on her laptop to update her blog on The Streak. She typed the last word and pressed post, closing her laptop with a smile on her face. She had left a message for the Streak on her blog. She had information on someone she thought he needed to lock up. She locked the doors and got ready to leave when she was whisked away in a whoosh of air and found herself on the roof of the Café.
"I guess you got my message." She said as she turned and saw him in full for the first time. she was right. He was real. She couldn't make out anything though, because there were lightning running trails up and down his body and it was vibrating. His eyes though, glowed whitish blue, in the darkness just like the lightning flickering on his suit and he looked very intimidating.
"Iris West, we need to talk." August said in a serious tone.
"Oh my god, it's you. The Streak. I saw you once, outside a burning building. You saved everyone there" Iris said as August sped behind her.
"I'm here for just one reason tonight. To tell you to stop what you're doing, Ms. West." August told her as Iris understood what he meant.
"People need to know that you exist." Iris said to him as her cellphone rang with a call. She saw it was Eddie and hit ignore. "What else can you do?"
"This is not an interview." August told her, starting to get annoyed and increasing the intensity of the lightning glowing in his eyes. "I don't do this for the thanks or the fame. The situation is a lot more complicated than you can even begin to understand. You need to stop."
"I'm sorry but I can't. You don't understand that the people of this city need to know about you. You inspire hope to a lot of people that need it. And I'm not going to stop until everyone believes in you." Iris said.
"Even if that means putting yourself in harm's way? I saw the message you posted on your blog. Someone with a grudge was here." August said. "You need to stay away from this, Ms. West. Your blog is attracting danger both to yourself and to this city." August told her.
"I knew him when we were kids. He didn't want to hurt me, he wanted to impress me. But he's fixated on the Streak and not in a good way. And he's different, he can change his body. I saw him turn his fist into metal." Iris said as she looked at August. "He's like you."
"We're nothing alike, Miss. West. He's dangerous. He may want to impress you but if you piss him off, he'll put you in the hospital or worse, in the morgue. That's what you fail to understand, Ms. West is that you may think writing about me is altruistic but, it's putting a lot of people in danger and not just yourself." August told her as she was confused.
"What are you talking about?" Iris asked.
"Your blog has been attributing to the recent surge of hospital visits and injuries in the city." August said as he super sped around and laid a newspaper on a table with the page turned to the article he was talking about. "You may think you're doing a good thing by writing about me but all you're doing is putting people in danger."
"No, this can't be right." Iris said as she read the article.
"It is, Ms. West. So long as you keep writing about me, more people will go seeking me out and get hurt. This is your last warning, stop now." August told her.
"I…I can't. This may be bad but it also means that the people of Central City are starting to believe in you. Believe enough to go out there and see you in action. You may think this is a bad thing but it's good, more than you know. And that's why I can't stop." Iris told him making August shake his head.
"Very well, Ms. West. Then that's why I'm doing what I'm doing." August said as he brought out a device from his utility belt and clicked on it, causing a red light to starting blinking at the top.
Iris's phone got a message and when she checked it, she saw that her blog was having some errors and it then crashed with an error message saying that the web page was deleted and couldn't be found. "What did you do?!" Iris shouted as she tried to find her blog but kept getting the error message.
"What I had to do to protect the myself and the people of this City. Stay away from this, Ms. West. This is your last warning." August said and then before she could reply, lightning struck, blinding the area, when she opened her eyes, He was gone.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
emjason
emjason I'm back people!!!
Thanks to everyone for the stones, comments and your patience.
keep em coming.
Merry Christmas.
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