Barry Allen's fist was already pressed against Jack Kadere's face—at least, that's what Barry thought. He marveled as Jack's eyes seemed to focus on the empty space where Barry had been just a split-second ago. To Barry, the punch should have landed easily. He imagined Jack being knocked back, the victory of using his newfound speed to stop a criminal fresh in his grasp. Maybe he'd even haul this guy down to the precinct, prove himself useful beyond the lab.
But just as Barry basked in the fantasy, he noticed something impossible.
Jack's eyes shifted.
Not only did Jack see him, but a slow, unsettling smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.
Barry's confidence cracked. How? He's not supposed to see me…
The world was still stretched thin, slowed by Barry's perspective, but then Jack's arm—which had been moving sluggishly in Barry's eyes—suddenly accelerated, catching up to Barry's speed in a blink.
Smack!
A sharp, echoing slap rang out, shattering Barry's illusion of invincibility. In an instant, time snapped back to normal. Barry flew backward, the force sending him sprawling into a nearby brick wall. Pain flared across his cheek as his face swelled grotesquely, his vision swimming with sparks. His ears rang, his body ached, and the sting of humiliation cut deeper than the physical blow.
From the ground, Barry blinked through the dizziness, barely comprehending the sight of Jack Kadere, whose body was flickering with crackling red lightning.
"It's you!" Barry gasped, his voice thick with fury. That color—red lightning—he knew it all too well. It matched the blur he'd seen the night his mother was killed. "You killed my mom!"
Fueled by rage, Barry charged. The air bent around him as the Speed Force surged through his veins, the world slowing again as golden light sparked along his frame.
Jack tilted his head, unimpressed. "Funny. Same lightning as Reverse-Flash, huh?" He glanced at the red lightning that danced along his own body and smirked. "Guess I make it look better."
Barry's punch never landed. Jack's hand lashed out, faster than Barry could process, and swatted him aside like a ragdoll.
Bang!
Barry crashed into the wall again, harder this time. His lungs seized as the impact knocked the wind out of him. With two clean hits, Barry Allen—the so-called fastest man alive—collapsed unconscious, groaning before slipping into silence.
Jack flexed his fingers, his smile widening. The Speed Force had answered him, not Barry. And when he copied Barry's abilities, he hadn't just taken the speed—he'd also absorbed Barry's clumsy inexperience. Jack understood instantly what Barry hadn't yet learned: never overextend, never overshoot your movements. If he had stacked too much speed without control, his strike would have missed entirely, leaving him swinging at air. Instead, he matched Barry perfectly—then overwhelmed him.
Barry Allen never stood a chance.
With his new power secured, Jack glanced once more at the unconscious speedster before letting his body dissolve into pure red energy.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The air crackled as a storm of wind ripped down the street. Newspapers and skirts whipped into the air, pedestrians crying out in shock as a streak of crimson lightning blurred past them, vanishing just as quickly as it had come.
Within seconds, Jack reformed on a chair inside his base, the neon glow fading from his frame. He leaned back with a satisfied exhale.
"So fast…" he murmured with a grin.
The thrill was undeniable. His first measurements had put his speed at roughly 370 kilometers per hour. That alone was enough to blur him from the sight of most people, to vanish almost instantly from one point to the next. When he experimented with stacking—doubling his velocity in a burst—he achieved it easily, but the sudden acceleration nearly tore his control apart. He'd stopped before it turned into a disaster.
Barry Allen had just begun to scratch the surface of the Speed Force, but Jack was already ahead of him. Even with the same basic connection, Barry's inexperience left him helpless.
Still, this wasn't anywhere near the upper limits. The speed of light was 300,000 kilometers per second, and Barry's protégé Wally West—Kid Flash, later the fastest of them all—had been recorded in the comics breaking limits that defied imagination, moving faster than thought itself, beyond even trillions of times light-speed. Compared to that, Jack's current speed was a crawl.
But Jack wasn't concerned. He didn't need to be the fastest yet. With practice, stacking, and mastery, he would get there. Infinite acceleration meant infinite potential.
What intrigued him wasn't the velocity. It was the color.
Normally, copying Barry's Speed Force should have resulted in the same golden-yellow lightning that Barry produced. But Jack's energy wasn't gold. It wasn't even blue, like the later evolution Barry and others sometimes achieved. His lightning burned red—like Eobard Thawne, the Reverse-Flash.
Jack's eyes narrowed. "So why me? Why red?"
Was it a sign of corruption? A marker that his Speed Force was somehow different?
He remembered fragments from the source material—the Speed Force depicted in layers, often with colors tied to progression or stability. Red, yellow, blue, black, white, and finally, gold. Red was supposed to be the weakest form, the earliest stage. But weakness didn't fit here. His blows had dropped Barry Allen twice in seconds.
The truth, Jack suspected, was stranger. His Speed Force wasn't Barry's. It wasn't borrowed. When he copied, he didn't just mimic abilities—he replicated them. Which meant his Speed Force might be its own branch, a parallel stream, entirely independent.
If that was true, then the DC Universe now housed two Speed Forces. And that, Jack thought with a grin, would be very interesting.
To test it, he'd need patience. All he had to do was observe. If Barry used his powers while Jack stayed still, and Jack's own connection remained unaffected—then it would prove the separation. If not, well, he'd adapt. Either way, he already had the edge.
"Copying raw power always comes with its growing pains," Jack muttered, standing as the red sparks crawled across his skin again. "But I'll master it. Faster than Barry ever could."
With that, he blurred into motion once more, testing his new rhythm, his steps cracking the air like thunder.
...
At S.T.A.R. Labs
Caitlin Snow was packing up for the evening, intending to head home as planned and wait for Jack Kadere's visit. But just as she zipped her bag, a sudden gust of wind rattled the papers on her desk. She looked up—and gasped.
Barry Allen stood in the middle of the lab. Bruised. Swollen. Bloodied.
"Barry!" Caitlin rushed forward, alarm in her voice. "What happened to you?"
Cisco Ramon and Dr. Harrison Wells glanced over from their stations, both stunned at the sight of him.
Barry swayed slightly, his face still throbbing, but his voice burned with anger and adrenaline. "I… I found him. The man who killed my mom. I just saw him!"
"What?" Cisco asked, incredulous.
Barry nodded frantically. "Red lightning. He has super-speed, just like me—but faster. Way faster. He knocked me out like I was nothing!"
"That's impossible!" Wells snapped, his composure breaking for the briefest moment.
Barry blinked, taken aback at Wells' intensity. Caitlin and Cisco both turned toward their mentor in surprise. Wells quickly adjusted his glasses and steadied his voice. "I mean… the odds of another speedster appearing at the exact same time as you, Barry, are astronomically low. It shouldn't be possible."
"But it happened!" Barry insisted. "Not long after I left here, I ran into him. He looked… ordinary. Some guy in the street. He pretended to rob me, and then—bam—super speed. Red lightning. Twice, he hit me before I could even react. I passed out."
Barry's hands trembled slightly as he added, "It was the same red light I saw the night my mother was killed."
Caitlin froze, her mind spinning. An ordinary man? Red lightning? She couldn't shake the thought of Jack Kadere. He had seemed too calm, too knowing earlier. Could it really be him?
Wells, meanwhile, pushed his glasses higher, his expression unreadable. "If this person truly exists, Barry… then we'll find him. Together."
But his eyes flickered with something else—fear, calculation, maybe even recognition.
The game had changed.