Kindness or Foolishness?

Damn it, the speed force in my mind is definitely linked to Barry's life.

I'm certain now that the night the lightning struck both me and Barry, it forged a bond between us. If the speed force in my brain were to dissipate completely, Barry's life would likely be in jeopardy.

The speed force had momentarily sustained Barry's vital functions by activating and dividing the cells responsible for his rib repair and blood supply, but now it was fading.

Barry's chest and abdomen, still turned inside out and bleeding profusely from the pressure blade and explosive injuries, began to convulse again as the speed mode dissipated.

I stepped out of the nearly frozen world, the last glimmers of speed force in my brain dimming, about to extinguish.

I smiled faintly, my heart buoyed by the extraordinary experience of the speed force mode, knowing now how to maintain Barry's life.

He was safe, at least for now, in my hands.

I placed my hand on Barry's chest, a gory sight with flesh torn open and bloodied by the pressure blade's lash and the pressure ball's explosion.

A faint silver arc sparked in my hand, and I tapped into an inexplicable frequency. Barry's convulsions ceased under my touch, his body finally stabilizing.

Cisco, with a voice tinged with awe, asked, "Are you controlling Barry's biomagnetic field to keep his physiological functions stable?"

I smiled and replied, "I know all of Barry's molecular scanning data. I understand the frequency of his body and can activate the weak current of his cells to form a biomagnetic field that maintains his physiological functions."

Cisco was dumbfounded. "You can do that? That's... that's... insane."

"Alright, Cisco, save your praise for later. There's something you need to do now. Go to the passenger seat and get the electric gun," I ordered coldly.

The electric gun was designed by Cisco to recharge me, originally intended to be a charger. But I felt that just charging and storing electricity was too simplistic, so I worked with Cisco to modify it into a gun smaller than a pistol.

Cisco didn't catch the change in my tone and hurried to the passenger seat to retrieve the electric gun.

He ran back, panting, "What now, Elon? Do you want me to shoot you with it to recharge?"

For a while, whenever I drained my electrical charge during training, Cisco would use the electric gun to shoot me, recharging me from millivolts to microvolts to kilovolts. The gun had been modified several times, finally settling on a 3.5 kilovolt charge.

That voltage could kill a person; the human body can only withstand up to 36 volts.

"Cisco, aim at that guy and shoot!" I said icily. If it weren't for the sudden speed force agitation earlier, I would have killed Clyde Mardon already. Anyone who could endanger Barry's life had to be eliminated. Keeping him in custody, as they do in the TV shows, was too risky. I wouldn't take that chance.

If it weren't for the fact that I needed to maintain Barry's life right now, Mardon would already be dead. I'm no saint.

Mardon, seeing that I was occupied and unable to kill him, scrambled up, gasping for breath, ready to run away.

Cisco, hearing my command, nervously raised the electric gun.

By then, Mardon had already gotten up.

Cisco, his voice trembling, said, "Are you sure about this? That voltage will fry a person."

I shouted, "Shoot!"

Cisco's palms were sweaty with tension, and he hesitated, "Elon, this is murder! It's murder!"

Mardon had already turned his back on Cisco and started running.

I roared, "Look at my wounds and Barry's condition. If we hadn't arrived in time, Barry would have been killed by this beast. What are you hesitating for? He wanted to kill Barry..."

Cisco struggled internally, his mind a battleground of conflicting voices.

Shoot him, kill him, he's a bad guy, he wanted to kill Barry...

Barry is fine, nobody dies, it's wrong to kill, what makes you different from him if you kill? You don't want to be a murderer, he should be in jail, the police will catch him...

The education he had received since childhood had not prepared him for this moment, and he was torn. By the time Mardon had run out of sight, Cisco still hadn't fired. His innate kindness and the values instilled in him from a young age prevented him from breaking through the fear of committing murder.

"I'm sorry, Elon, I can't shoot," he said, lowering the electric gun.

"Cisco, you are a kind person, but today you let him go. He won't be grateful, he'll only hurt and kill more people. Next time, he might come back for revenge. It could be me, Caitlin, Dr. Wells, or even your family who dies. Can you live with the pain of losing friends and relatives?" I said angrily. Mardon's survival might mean a future threat, a risk I couldn't understand.

Cisco's lips moved, but he said nothing. He was uncertain of right and wrong, and the thought of the enemy's revenge, as I had said, losing friends or relatives, was unbearable. He was lost.

I frowned, angered by Cisco's actions. It's foolish, idiotic behavior to wait until your loved ones are gone to understand the dangers of releasing the tiger back into the wild.

We fell silent.

Gradually, people began to return to the street, having been evacuated by the Flash when the fog had rolled in. It was unclear what had caused the fog, but to avoid accidental loss of life, the Flash had moved everyone out. It had been the right decision, as proven by the fact that despite Barry's near-fatal injury, no lives were lost.

The crowd made their way back to Yordem Street, which looked like it had been hit by a typhoon, eliciting gasps of surprise.

"What happened to this street? Was it hit by a typhoon?"

"Oh no, it looks like a garbage war was fought here."

"An alien invasion? Why are all the windows shattered?"

Before the crowd could gather around, Caitlin arrived in her car.

We hurriedly moved Barry into the vehicle and drove back to S.T.A.R. Labs.

"Have you guys gone mad playing superheroes? Do you have a death wish?" Caitlin scolded us upon seeing the extent of the injuries to Elon and Barry. It was as if we had no regard for our own lives.