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***
Three months later.
After the Singularity and Firestorm's death, time flew by. Helping the hard-hit city helped my new company make a name for itself and showcase our capabilities. Hartley created some much needed tools for debris removal and building repair, and I hired people and sponsored the whole thing. It could be considered charity, but it paid off handsomely. The company was well regarded, especially by the common folk. Flash, of course, didn't miss the opportunity to get involved, and dealt with the rubble in another part of the city. To me, he would have been better off doing a normal job rather than this kind of nonsense, a hero after all. Without the meta people, Flash isn't much use, he even stopped catching criminals.
I put on the mask and stopped hunting, for the water from the spring had been very useful during those months, so there was no need for it. It was not interesting to catch thieves and murderers, so my suit was just lying there useless. Of course, I knew it wouldn't last long, but in a couple of months Zoom would show up, and then I'd have an excuse to wear the suit again.
Arrow was gone, on his honeymoon with Felicity, and the rest of his team continued to work in Star City. It was busier there than it was here, especially with a new criminal gang. The Hive was making plans and growing. Damien Darhk had decided to set up a base in the city or something, so it wasn't as boring as it was here. Barry didn't even move, fuck knows why he didn't care. I didn't bother either, I don't care about Star City at all, they'll figure it out for themselves. Even though I'd promised, to who knows who, that I'd keep an eye on Central City and Flash's crew, that didn't mean I was going to do it forever. It would be enough to pay off my life-saving debt and do a couple good deeds, and then I could be free of this delusional promise. Damn my conscience, what's a life saved? Why was I throwing words into the wind? Well, I can't go back on my word, so I'll have to keep it. I'll have plenty of opportunities to get rid of this load, and Zoom will give me a good one. And when the new metas show up, it'll mean I can get stronger again. I've already planned the catching of some of them, I just have to wait for the fish to arrive.
When it comes to strength, it's ambiguous. On the one hand, I'm constantly developing, but on the other hand, the growth is not very noticeable. Constant training doesn't have the same effect as eating the marrow of meta-humans. Rainbow Raider has only provided me with his bone marrow a couple times and each one was pretty good. Oddly enough, I got stronger after each ingestion, but his main ability only increased a little bit. I could summon anger from people, but the time increased only slightly from the original. It used to be some ten minutes, but now, it had gotten to half an hour, which was not bad at all. According to my calculations, after it was fully absorbed, I would be able to influence people for a few hours at least, which was good. There doesn't seem to be much difference between full brain absorption and absorption in parts. Well, I'm in no hurry, so I'll hold this guy for another six months and then decide what to do next. If there's no progress, I'll just get rid of him, and if there is, we'll see...
Other than that, I just kept myself in shape and developed all my acquired powers. I read books, studied the history of this world and wondered a lot. Everything was different here, many moments from my past world simply didn't exist, many books, movies, music. It was a good opportunity to realize my knowledge and make money on it. Maybe in the future I will do it, now I was busy with the development of the company, so I didn't get to it.
My company, with my support and Hartley's work, has been able to establish itself well in Central City. Star Labs used to be the absolute leader here, but now it's Mercury Labs. We're a long way from them, but we're already a second-class company, which is not a bad thing. We couldn't even count on that before. The staff has been recruited from good people, even managed to find some good talent. Hartley took over their training, though he wasn't happy. He likes to grumble and whine, but he can be reasoned with. If everything goes right, we'll be able to compete with Mercury Labs very soon. We just need to find a lot more talented people and get some money and new technology. Money and technology may be less of a problem, you can steal them and make money, but people.... I think we just need to work harder and look for them, and everything will work out there. If we offer good conditions, we will surely find more....
I had an idea to recruit Caitlin, but I turned it down, she'd be better off elsewhere. She's a bio-engineer, and we don't specialize in that yet, we'll get to it in the future, but it's a little early. And she'll be back on Barry's team soon enough, so there was no point. I've been keeping an eye on her, but she's had a hard time since Roni died. She seems to have come to terms with it and it's been easier for her, but maybe that's just at first glance....
The only person I had contact with was Cisco. He didn't know who I was, so I wondered how he'd react when he found out the truth. Caitlin was the only one on the Flash team who knew who I was, but the rest of them were in the dark. Oliver and Felicity must have told them about me, but they couldn't show me my face. They could have described it, though. It's weird.
I've had a couple of drinks with Cisco, without Hartley, of course, because he's got a grudge against him, or Cisco's got a grudge against him, who knows? I never told Ramon who I was, masked or unmasked. To him, I'm just a guy with a cool car who's not boring to drink with. Cisco doesn't have many friends, especially after Barry broke up the whole team.
Otherwise, everything was normal, the League of Assassins didn't bother me, no enemies were declared. Though, all my enemies are dead, so that's normal. I kept an eye on the city, like the rest of the Flash team, though I'd done that before. But now I think I'll even change the canon a bit so they don't get hurt, it'll be a kind of payback. When I do that, I'll finally be able to breathe easy, all these delusions of communication make me very nervous. I want to get rid of them first.
Okay, the fun is about to begin, we just have to wait. New meta people, new power, I can't wait...
***
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