MTLNOVEL Chapter 17: Hidden
Johnathan could be seen sitting cross-legged in the middle of his room while levitating. Beads of sweat were flowing down everywhere on his body and a red aura could be seen covering him while evaporating his sweat too. Every time Johnathan let out a breath it would be in a giant cloud of vapor, after more than an hour Johnathan was covered in black gooey tar.
"It seems that I've finally broken through to the tenth level of the Dragon Tiger Gate. I can already see the new technique forming within my mind, and it seems like it is a very powerful Body enhancement technique. By the pace it is forming, it should be ready in about an hour." Johnathan said to himself.
"Johnathan, we need you to the main room for a meeting," Caitlin ordered through the intercoms. Johnathan quickly cleaned himself up with a shower and dressed himself up with casual clothing. He made his way into the room and noticed Barry was the only one missing.
"Where's Barry?" Johnathan asked,
"Well, unlike a certain someone, others have to work daily for their jobs." Dr. Wells answered and sipped on some of his coffee.
"Don't worry, he will warm up to you soon," Cisco said to Johnathan while patting his shoulder.
"I doubt that," Johnathan said with a sigh.
"Barry is out on a run, Johnathan," Caitlin answered and continued with her work. Then one of the computers began to go off and the team switched gears. Cisco jumped on the computer and contacted Barry,
"Barry, robbery in progress at Cunningham and Sampere," Cisco stated,
"On it!" Barry replied.
"That's where I bank," Caitlin said while she walked towards the other computer.
"I do too. Well, one of them." Johnathan added while watching the monitors. Cisco and Caitlin just glared at him,
"What?" Johnathan asked and they both just shook their heads.
"Well, I switched to my mattress when super thieves began to show up," Cisco said. As Barry showed up at the bank he noticed that everyone in there was fighting each other to the death. Then Barry noticed a young blonde woman picking up a gun and shooting it at another man. Barry quickly made his way towards them and stopped the bullet from hitting anyone. After the gun went off, everyone in the bank stopped fighting each other and looked confused as to what they were doing. When Barry felt that everything went back to normal, he made his way back to Star Labs. Barry came walking in with his work clothes on,
"Good job out there, Red Streak," Johnathan said while giving Barry a fist bump.
"Thanks, man," Barry replied while returning the fist bump.
"Cisco, see if you could find any traces of any type of neurotoxin that was spread in the bank. Because it seems like everyone in there was going crazy and trying to kill each other in there." Barry stated.
"You got it. Caitlin, I'm going to need your expertise for this one." Cisco said and began to pack up some things.
"May I tag along with you, Barry?" Johnathan asked.
"I don't know how Captain Singh will feel about it?" Barry stated.
"Well, if he asks I'll tell him it's for my upcoming film and I want to learn hands-on about being a forensic officer," Johnathan stated and Barry agreed so they both headed out to the crime scene. Barry and Johnathan showed up at the bank to meet up with Joe.
"Sorry that I'm late," Barry said,
"Busy morning, huh?" Joe asked.
"Yeah, it was. By the way, Johnathan will be shadowing me for the time being. It has something to do with his new film." Barry explained to Joe and Captian Singh. Joe just nodded his head and continued walking while the duo followed. While Captian Singh turned away without a glance.
"So do we know what happened here?" Joe asked,
"Well, when I got here it seemed like everyone here got whammied," Barry replied. Joe looked at Barry like he was crazy,
"Whammied? I know you didn't just say that." Joe stated but Barry just gave him a funny look.
"What else was taken?" Johnathan asked,
"About half a million was stolen from the bank," Joe replied.
"Well, so far all of the witnesses here have said the same thing," Joe stated,
"I don't know what happened, but I felt myself getting angry." Johnathan interrupted Joe which surprised him.
"Sorry about that." Johnathan apologized.
"At least your paying attention like a certain someone," Joe said as he stared at Barry who was in his inner world as he surveyed another area.
"Huh. Did you say something, Joe?" Barry asked as he looked back at the two. Johnathan just began to chuckle,
"Meet you back at the Precinct," Joe said as he walked out. Johnathan waited for Barry to finish up what he was doing but he was taking quite a while, so Johnathan walked out to get some fresh air. That's when he sensed weird energy similar to Barry's and decided to use his new skill the mind's eye to look. With his mind's eye, he noticed a yellow figure standing in one of the windows watching him.
"Ah, I knew that Thawne was going to be suspicious of me for wanting to join the team after meeting them only for a little while. Let's give him a little warm-up." Johnathan said to himself as he turned around to walk into the bank. He walked into the bathroom and called for KZ. KZ appeared from underground,
"What's up, Boss?" KZ asked.
"Nothing much. I just wanted to mess with someone today." Johnathan replied.
"Cool, count me in then," KZ said and flew into Johnathan's hand and he inserted KZ onto the rider belt.
"Henshin!" the rider belt said as the Kabuto rider armor enveloped Johnathan.
"I'm glad we made some improvements to the transformation so that I can go straight to the rider form if I wanted it to," Johnathan said to himself as he hit the left button on his belt.
"Clock up!" the rider belt said as Johnathan sped off to the area Thawne was hiding in. Thawne was standing by the window surveying the area where Barry and Johnathan were at.
"Ever since Johnathan showed up, Kabuto has also. Now with all of my knowledge and experience in these fields. Something is telling me that none of this can be a coincidence. Now I just need to keep an eye on Johnathan so that my plans won't be ruined and I need to keep Kabuto in check too." Thawne said to himself out loud.
"What about me being in check?" a voice said startling Thawne. He quickly turned around and found that Kabuto was standing right behind him.
"How did you know I was here?" Thawne asked Kabuto while slowly exerting energy to his feet.
"Well, it was quite simple, Reverse-Flash. You're just too predictable." Kabuto said which irritated Thawne due to him being always multiple steps ahead of his enemies.
"It seems that I need to capture you to get information. Don't worry though I will be quite gentle in torturing you for everything inside your head." Thawne said as he shot forward towards Kabuto at breathtaking speed. Kabuto countered the frontal assault by angling out 45 degrees and throwing a low kick to Thawne's knee. Thawne realized the danger so he stopped and spun around towards Kabuto's left side to counter with a right hook. Kabuto quickly brought his left arm to block the attack, then he grabbed onto Thawne's fist with his right hand and pulled him into a left elbow that smashed against Thawne's jaw. Kabuto quickly pressed the button on his right belt,
"Clock up!" the rider belt said and Kabuto sped towards Thawne. Thawne felt the change in the speed of Kabuto, so he also charged up his energy to match Kabuto's speed. They began to engage in a speed battle across town. The battle alerted Cisco and Caitlin who were both at Star Labs, so they quickly informed Barry of the two speedsters' battle.
"Where are they now, Cisco!" Barry shouted over the radio.
"They are heading for Crossways and Florian street!" Cisco responded.
"Copy that!" Barry shouted as he sped up to reach the area. When Barry arrived at the area he noticed two figures running beside each other. One had red lighting trailing behind and the other was just a red/silver streak.
"I need answers and they are my only choice," Barry said to himself as he raced after them. Thawne began to realize that he was becoming faster than Kabuto, so his confidence began to rise.
"Tsk...Tsk... Kabuto. It seems that you are not at your fullest yet." Thawne said while chuckling.
"I don't know what you are talking about. Because it seems like you aren't either. Well then again, you do make a wonderful punching bag." Kabuto retorted.
"You detestable bug. No worries I will show you that no matter what you do, you will never outrun me." Thawne replied and began to speed up. Kabuto began to have a harder time keeping up with Thawne this time.
"Shit! I can keep up with his attacks with my mind's eye, but my body can't keep up with his pace." Kabuto thought to himself.
"I told you already. You are just a boy in a man's world." Thawne teased as he began to throw Kabuto around like a rag doll. Thawne finally threw Kabuto into one of the buildings making a crater in the wall. Thawne was feeling very good about finally beating Kabuto at his own game, but then he was caught off guard by Kabuto laughing hysterically.
"What is so funny, Kabuto. Have the beatings finally knocked your head loose." Thawne stated. Kabuto kept laughing and put his hand up to his face while getting up from the hole in the wall.
"Oh, it's just that I have a reason now to test something out plus I have the perfect test subject," Kabuto replied to a confused Thawne. Kabuto stood up straight and began to breathe in deep breaths while a thin red/silver aura began to surround him. The air around the two began to become very dense and unbreathable,
"What is going on?" Thawne asked in confusion as it was becoming harder for him to breathe. Kabuto just chuckled at Thawne's confusion,
"Black Tortoise Flood gate 1 open!" Kabuto shouted as the red/silver aura became slightly denser and a light shade of black outlined it. Thawne could feel something changed within Kabuto and then Kabuto hit the right button on his belt.
"Clock up!" the rider belt shouted and Kabuto sped towards Thawne with speed faster than before. Thawne couldn't react in time and ate a right cross to his face from Kabuto. Thawne tried to regain his footing, but Kabuto was too quick and began to beat him senselessly. After what seemed like an eternity, Thawne finally gathered up enough energy to withstand Kabuto's assault and began to counter-attack. Thawne began to parry Kabuto's strikes and also punched back to regain his composure.
"It seems you still have some surprise in store for me, Kabuto," Thawne said as he began to fight back. "But even with a boost of power, you are still no match for me. The only reason you had the upper hand was that you caught me off guard. That won't happen again, I assure you that." Thawne added. The fight became even once again with neither side gaining an advantage. Barry finally caught up with the two and began to make his way into the battle so that he could question them. But when Barry saw the man in yellow it brought back his childhood trauma of his mother getting murdered.
"You!" Barry shouted as rage began to engulf his senses and he shot towards the man in yellow. Thawne realized that Barry finally caught up to them and it was still too early for them to meet, so he decided that he would end this here.
"I'm sorry, but it seems my time is up. We will meet again, Kabuto." Thawne stated before zooming off. Kabuto stood there knowing that Thawne wouldn't try to fight Barry now because it would ruin his plans, so letting Thawne go was no biggie to Kabuto. Barry chased as best as he could but couldn't catch up to Thawne. So he set his eyes on Kabuto, but he was nowhere to be found either. Barry decided to give up for now and return to the Precinct with Johnathan.
*New Cultivation Technique*