Tyler stood beside the couch, gently brushing a strand of hair from Tracy's flushed, sleeping face. She looked peaceful now—completely spent and wrapped snugly in the blanket. A soft, satisfied sigh escaped her lips as she shifted slightly.
He bent down and scooped her up into his arms with ease, marveling again at just how light everything felt these days. Her head nestled instinctively against his shoulder, her breath warm on his skin.
With slow, quiet steps, he carried her into the bedroom.
The lights were low, golden shadows stretching across the walls. He laid her down carefully on the bed, adjusting the blanket over her body and tucking it around her shoulders.
He paused, watching her for a moment. She looked… serene. Like she belonged there. Something in his chest twisted, unexpectedly tender. But before he could linger too long in the feeling—
A flicker of orange caught the corner of his eye.
He turned to the window, frowning.
And then—there it was.
A streak of blazing orange lightning, trailing down the street like a comet, vanishing around the corner in a blink.
Tyler's eyes widened. His heart skipped.
"What the hell…?"
The trail hadn't faded. It was still glowing faintly, shimmering like heatwaves over asphalt.
He stared for half a second longer—and then everything in him kicked into overdrive.
"Just like my super speed," he whispered, backing away from the window.
A second later, he blurred into motion, a streak of white light flashing across the room. The wind rustled the curtains violently as he zipped through the front door and into the night.
His mind raced faster than his feet.
Someone else has this power.
Someone like me.
The idea was both exhilarating and terrifying.
"But what do I do if I catch up to him?" he thought, dodging cars in a blur, the wind howling past his ears. "Do I just ask him, 'Hey man, how'd you get superpowers?'"
He scowled to himself. That'd be an instant disaster. If the wrong person heard that…
"No way. I'm not ending up in some government lab. Hell no."
Then an idea sparked in his brain, as quick and bright as a lightning bolt.
"What if… I just vibrate my face?"
Without breaking stride, Tyler focused—and felt the strange, tingling sensation spread across his jaw and cheeks. His skin shimmered, blurred, the outlines of his face distorting like a heat mirage.
"Yes. That should work," he muttered, voice buzzing oddly from the vibration.
His white trail lit up the street behind him like a comet streaking across the night.
Whoever this other speedster was… Tyler was going to find him.
...
The city was now far behind him. The stars above were blurred smears of light as Tyler's white trail cut across the dark countryside. The glowing orange line he had followed burned a path through the fields and over old roads, leading toward an industrial zone on the outskirts of town.
Then he saw it.
A massive tornado, roaring like a wild beast, ripping apart a factory shed. Steel beams twisted like spaghetti. Debris flew through the air like bullets. Sirens blared.
A police car.
Tyler skidded to a stop behind a small mountain of debris. His eyes scanned the scene—and froze.
Two men stood near the shed, trying to retreat—Detective Joe West and Eddie Thawne.
"What are they doing here?" Tyler thought, just as the car's door, ripped off its hinges by the cyclone, was launched straight at them like a missile.
He prepared to move—but someone beat him to it.
A red blur zipped into the scene, faster than even Tyler expected. The figure caught the door with a grunt, absorbing the full force before vanishing again—this time, a few dozen feet away, tossing the door aside.
The man in red turned slightly, placing two fingers to his ear.
His suit was sleek, matte red, with a lightning bolt insignia over both ears. He looked just like a superhero straight out of comics.
"The tornado is heading toward the city! How do I stop it?!" he shouted into his headset, the wind tearing at his voice.
Tyler narrowed his eyes.
He wants to stop that thing?
The other speedster looked up at the roaring funnel cloud.
"What if I just disintegrate it?" he said, thinking aloud.
Then he seemed to realize something. "If I run around it in the opposite direction, I can cancel its energy!"
Tyler blinked. Run around it? He's crazy.
"I know… but I have to try!" the speedster in red yelled, replying to someone only he could hear. Without hesitation, he rushed the tornado.
He started circling it, blinding fast—but the winds lashed out like tentacles. In seconds, the red speedster was hurled back, tumbling through a metal fence.
Tyler exhaled. "Guess I'll have to help him."
He launched forward, white lightning crackling as he joined the cyclone's edge, running in tandem but with his own direction—counter-spinning the storm.
The red speedster's eyes widened from the ground.
"There's someone else like me here! Someone as fast as me!"
"What?" a voice replied in his earpiece.
"That's impossible!" another said.
Tyler's boots scraped the torn asphalt as he ran. And then—he grinned.
Inside the heart of the storm, he saw it.
A man. Standing calmly amidst the chaos.
Controlling it.
"He's like me… and that other guy," Tyler thought, smile twisting into something sharp.
"Let's see who's stronger."
And with that thought, his body split.
Dozens of glowing white clones exploded from him like lightning scattershots, all sprinting alongside him, forming a blinding ring of motion.
The red speedster stared, mouth hanging open.
"He just multiplied!"
"Multiplied?" the voice in his ear said, incredulous.
"Wait, how many are there?"
"More than twenty! He's draining the tornado—all of them are stealing its energy!"
Inside the tornado, the blonde man gritted his teeth, furious.
"What the hell is this? When did so many of those bastards appear?!"
The wind thrashed violently, but the vortex was already collapsing. Losing power. Losing form.
And then, through the dying cyclone, one figure burst through in a blur.
Tyler—face vibrating, unrecognizable—slammed a brutal punch into the man's gut.
The blonde controller was lifted off his feet and blasted out of the tornado, crashing into a distant field. The tornado vanished, reduced to a gust of dying wind.
Tyler absorbed his clones in an instant and zipped forward to finish him off.
But something strange happened.
As he neared, the wind twisted unnaturally around him, reacting to him.
His body tensed, his cells twitched.
That feeling again.
He immediately retreated, streaking away from the scene like a ghost in the wind.
The red speedster stood on a hill, chest rising and falling.
He stared after the retreating white blur.
"…He just defeated him… and ran away," he murmured, completely stunned.
To be continued...
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