2 An Awkward Awakening

I've forgotten a lot about everyone's character, so lore gods, please tell me. Well, I've forgotten a lot of things about The Flash, and I don't have Netflix anymore, so I can't even watch it...

Anyways, sorry about the awkward chapter. I don't plan for this part of the story to last long since I don't know their characters. So I'll probably have him travel to another universe instead of time-traveling... I don't know.

Enjoy your 2.6k meal

'SHIT SHIT SHIT! I can't believe I had to go and get struck by lightning AGAIN! It's basically impossible to be struck by lightning three times! I Googled this! Here's another year of my life about to be wasted. I don't want to break any records, three times is enough! Is it because I'm an atheist? I swear I'll convert right now.' He thought to himself.

'Ok, I can still feel my body, maybe it didn't arc off of the pole and I'm safe. Unlikely… But getting struck by lightning three times in a lifetime is less likely right?' He thought rationally after a few minutes.

But he couldn't even move a muscle. 

'Fuck.' Was all he could think. He could only assume he was now paralyzed. He couldn't even move his eyelids, or breathe. It was all a machine pumping air into his lungs.

'What am I even supposed to do now? Be taken care of by that thing? Man, if I get the ability to even walk again I'll become a better person, I swear to whatever higher being there is watching.' He thought.

Unfortunately, such a wish didn't seem to be granted. 

He spent days imprisoned in his own body.

He could barely perceive his surroundings. He could feel the thin sheets of a hospital bed, and the insanely cold air. He couldn't feel any nearby heat sources. He found himself being able to sense things with his sense of touch amazingly now. It was insane.

'Did I become a superhero after getting struck by lightning? I'm like Spiderman hah!' He joked.

Eventually, he kind of fell asleep. Only to be awoken by a nearby conversation.

"He's been in a coma for a year now. His brain activity is picking up. He's likely to wake up in a few weeks at this pace. His physique is also advancing far faster than it was beforehand." A woman said monotonously with weird pauses and stretches as if she was writing what she said. 

'Coma? A year? what?' Is all Kain could formulate. 

"His cells seem particularly excited, and calorie intake has increased dramatically these past few days. Further examination is required to conclude this study." The same woman said before she seemingly walked away if the sound of footsteps decreasing in sound was anything to go by.

'What is she talking about? Calorie intake increased? Physique increased? What? That makes no sense. I can understand the calorie intake if it's supposed to help me in healing. But she said dramatically… That can't be good. And what's this about my physique? Was I close to dying or something? I can't believe I'm in a coma. At least I'll get lots of money by writing about my experience…' Kain wondered almost emotionlessly, looking at the grays and black of his situation.

The days went by smoothly. With people having conversations around his bed. There were two men and a single woman. Kain noticed that a man who seemed shorter than the rest was in charge. Considering his voice was closer to his ears. His voice also seemed very mature and deep, in comparison to the other male. Dr. Wells, they called him. The woman's name was never directly said just her nickname, 'Kate'. But the most said name was 'Cisco'. He seemed to be the humor and glue to the group of doctors. 

Kain was touched and concerned that he had his own personal set of doctors. He wondered why they and only they were working with his comatose self. But that thought was quelled when a certain conversation arose. 

"Cait, did you know that a meta-human was discovered yesterday at central park? Apparently, he was levitating! And guess what? I got him in the lab today! He agreed to allow us to understand what, how, and why…" Cisco began to speak gibberish that Kain just couldn't even process.

Eventually, Cisco stopped nerdgasming and addressed Barry. He often did this.

"Oh yeah, Barry, with this, we may understand just what happened to you the night the particle accelerator exploded." Cisco said.

A few days ago, he noticed everyone talking to a Barry, but not him. It shocked him, at first he assumed there was another person in his room, but they never addressed a 'Kain', so he could only think that none of them knew his name. It hurt a bit, but he came to terms with it, perhaps his figure was very disfigured, Kate did say something about his physique improving right? 

This new information though…

'Particle accelerator explosion? Why is that a big deal? Don't most things tend to not combust? So even if it did, it wouldn't be particularly powerful. I remember reading a Quora post about that once… Wait what the fuck? Holy shit my memory is insane! I can remember pretty much everything. Exactly twenty seconds passed since Cisco was talking about a levitating meta-human…'

'What? No no no. What? No actually. What the fuck are they talking about. Is this some organized game that they play or is something wrong right now? Did I actually get fucking superpowers? My sense of touch and my memory is insane!' Kain said, he began freaking out, "I can remember everything, from the way my Pre-K teacher looked, to when Dad introduced me to Iris, and now I remember exactly how the lightning moved when I was struck in my lab… Wait what? No no, I… What? I'm Barry? I can remember Barry Allen. I can remember Dad in Iron Heights, Central City, Mom, The Man in Yellow. I feel like I've seen something like this before as Kain… I remember Kain, and my miserable life. His mom, my friends. My dog Kip. Damnit. Just what is going on?' He thought in the span of a few seconds. 

*Beepbeepbeepbeepbeep*

Some contraptions near him began to beep quickly. Something was definitely wrong.

"Cisco! He's going into cardiac arrest. Get the defibrillator quick." Cait yelled. 

But Kain wasn't bothered, he didn't even notice. He was too busy speed thinking.

'I feel way smarter now. Not smart enough to solve the literal rocket science equation I saw in that Caleb City video. But I can solve equations I previously couldn't… Algebra is so fucking easy. If only I wasn't in a coma. I'm like Stephen Hawkings. Hopefully, I won't be paralyzed.' He thought at normal speeds when suddenly he felt a shock jolt through his chest. Two metal sheets on his chest, thoroughly shocking him.

He could feel the breath of Dr. Wells from his left side. And could almost feel Cait's gaze from the corner. And he could almost imagine how Cisco's body was built from the way the defibrillators were held against him. Physics equations going through his mind, once again speed thinking. Not that he even knew that he could speed think.

He could say that Dr. Wells seemed a bit unhealthy, Cait was concerned, and Cisco was nervous based on their breath, the sounds their movements made, and the fact that he was seemingly going into cardiac arrest.

After getting shocked once again, he felt his left pinky now, he was sure he could move it. It wasn't much but it was enough to twitch it. But he abstained from doing so. 

That situation cooled down. And days later, Cisco came back with a hypothesis. And from what Barry understood of it, Dr. Wells built a particle accelerator that exploded and basically spewed dark matter across the planet potentially. (How far did the dark matter spread? Just central City or was it even further? Google won't give me any answers)

This dark matter somehow resulted in genetic changes in humans. And the human who somehow gained the ability to levitate was proof of that. But many people died from it, which led to Dr. Wells being shunned and losing all of his money. 

And they assume that he also had a supernatural, or as they called it, a meta ability. And that he was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of dark matter in his body from the lightning bolt that struck him and had now caused him to go into cardiac arrest.

That same Dark Matter made him need more calories, heal faster, age slower, and gain muscles. Etc etc. They couldn't come to a conclusion just yet though. Since it seemed that it wasn't his true power based on their studies on that other meta-human.

When he levitated, the dark matter inside of his body interacted with the outside world and his body. And in Cisco's words, "Matt doesn't take fall damage. It's a natural part of his body, kind of like Barry and his healing. Their dark matter doesn't move and interact with the world to create this phenomenon. So we can assume Barry has a meta-ability related to those things.".

To summarize. His healing is a side effect of his meta-ability according to their recent studies.

And he was hyped. Kain was super bored and stuck in his body. With only his mind and other people talking to him to entertain him, to say he was bored was to call lightning bolts kind of painful.

An hour later, Cisco had some sort of breakthrough.

"Dr. Wells! I think I know why Barry went into cardiac arrest now! Previously, we thought that Barry's body couldn't take the dark matter in his body, which led to cardiac arrest. But the readings I see here imply that this is his meta ability!" Cisco said with excitement, clearly leading into a joke or reference. 

"He's like the second coming of Wesley Gibson." Is what Cisco said.

The talk intrigued him, especially the reference to that movie, but when they started using advanced words again, he just gave up on listening to them. 

Days passed quickly now. He was kind of okay with being stuck in his own body. The fact that Cisco talked to him all of the time helped as well. 

But now, someone else was in the room. It was Dr. Wells. 

'He never has anything normal to say. I'm not sitting through this, I'm going to sleep.' Kain thought, prompting his mind to rest.

A special skill he learned by being in a coma. He could control his mind far better now. He could basically sleep whenever he wanted to. But somehow, now it was difficult to stay asleep.

He could hear something. Words. They seemed to be able to pierce the veil of sleep he hid behind. 

Hateful words, a symphony of words that he couldn't manage to ignore. He felt half awake now. And he could feel something very wrong. Someone, a male, was standing next to him. But it wasn't Cisco. 

That made Kain shoot up from his bed instantly. 

*GASP* 

Kain took a breath for the first time of his own volition for the first time in his new body. He blinked for the first time. Used his arms, back, legs, neck, eyes… All for the first time. And for the first time, he saw.  at the crippled form of Dr. Harrison Wells.

*Huff Huff Huff* 

The machine that assisted his breathing seemed to have fallen off, so he struggled to breathe.

Kain observed his room, looking around, and something about this, everything just seemed odd.

Words were spoken, but he didn't pay them any mind, a skill he gained by being in a coma for so long.

He felt a sense of deja vú, as if he had seen this exact scene before.

"...y?" 

He could feel it, but the angle was off.

"...rry…?"

He scoured his memories, he could feel it on the tip of his skull, like an itch in your gums just above your teeth.

"...arry?!"

'Wait a… I remember this! It's the first episode of-'

"BARRY!" Someone yelled, jolting Kain out of his thoughts.

This made Kain jump, or at least he tried, only to kind of pathetically flop out of the hospital bed.

He fell on his butt, and he felt quite a bit of pain from it. Nothing compared to being struck by lightning, so he didn't outwardly display his pain.

"Oh my- Barry! Are you alright?" Caitlyn said.

"Nnh." Was all Kain could say with his weak vocal cords.

"I can't believe you woke up…" Caitlyn began speaking, but the words didn't really reach Kain, he was more focused on more important matters.

'I'm Barry "The Flash" Allen. Vigilante/Hero who has a connection to the speed force, allowing him to do bogus things like running faster than light and time traveling… He has a lot of problems all stemming from one menace of a being. And he's stan- sitting right in front of me. Fuck. Now all of this makes sense. But why was it so hard to recall this shitty show? Was that divine intervention? I could remember the day I was born but not this show… That's odd.' Kain thought, but ultimately concluded that there isn't anything he'd be able to do about that, so he instead began tuning back into the conversation.

"...at caused a storm to form and it struck you with lightning, and the chemicals you were doused in somehow saved your life. But, you were sent into a coma. And we have room to believe you developed a meta ability from this." Dr. Wells summarized and stared at Barry, clearly expecting a question.

But at that, Barry only nodded.

Seeing this, Dr. Wells decided to push harder and said "Look, I know you're confused, you have just awoken from a coma, you don't even know us. But I… We, want to help you. And the first path to help is asking for it. So, will you let us help you, Barry Allen?" 

Kain was tempted to say no. But he also knew he didn't stand a chance on his own. He didn't see much of the flash. He mostly saw small clips of the show of important parts like Dr. Wells telling Barry how to phase, motivational speeches, and a few other things. But he skipped a lot of episodes because of how annoying the early episodes were. So he was missing vital training that Barry would have received.

So reluctantly, Kain simply said "Fine. What do I have to do?" 

That seemed to surprise Dr. Wells if the slight raising of his eyebrows were anything to go by.

"Well… About that-" Dr. Wells said only to be cut off by Cisco.

"You're the only one who can decide that." Was what he said.

"What?" He asked with a frown, "What does that even mean?" 

He felt a little disappointed, he expected more from them.

"Well, we're not sure what your meta ability is, or how it affects you. Our first volunteer to help us figure out how dark matter works didn't stick long enough for us to figure anything out. So we'll be depending on you." Cisco explained.

"That's incredibly vague." Was all he could muster up. 

"Well, we don't really know where to start." Cisco said awkwardly, scratching his chin. "So in the meantime, you'll just have to come here to S.T.A.R labs and let us examine you for abnormalities until we or you figure out your meta ability."