Time is an ever fleeting and ephemeral existence. For a normal human being, it was a luxury that they lost every second. For him though, it was different.

A single moment streched for unimaginable lengths. Throughout this duration of time Barry ran. Just like he always had. This time was different though, he wasn't running away from some bully, nor was he late for his work; this time Barry was running for the sake of this world. To stop an evil.

World blurred into background as Barry found himself racing toward his target, aided by instructions that Cisco kept giving him.

Suddenly, Barry came face to face with a disaster. An enormous whirlwind of sand and stone spun in chaotic circle of destruction. His breath caught in his throat, he relayed his visuals to his team.

...

"That's one terrible looking tornado." Cisco gulped his saliva, feeling apprehensive at the sheer scale of his whirling man-made disaster. His fingers thundered on the keyboard as he tried to find a way to help Barry.

"Shit, this is insane." Nathan bellowed from the side, his eyes reading the numbers that flashed on the screen. "Listen Barry, you need to run away from there. It's not something you can run into."

No reply came from the comms and trio worried that he might have run into trouble (no pun intended).

A moment of silence streched between the three of them before it was broken by the voice that sounded from the speaker. "Guys, what if I unravel it."

"Unravel it?" Caitlin looked at Cisco in doubt.

"Unravel?" Cisco typed at his keyboard quickly. "He wants to run in the opposite direction to create enough negative momentum to negate the kinetic energy of the tornado."

Nathan looked at the engineer and asked, "Is it possible?"

Cisco didn't reply and instead leaned into the mic and said, "Listen Barry, what you said is possible. But you need to run 700 miles per hour, can you do that?"

"We won't know unless we try." 

"He will die," Caitlin said from the side. "His body might not be able to handle those speeds."

Nathan had a grim look on his face, these things just kept exceeding his expectations. An F5 tornado was the most destructive tornado, it's winds ranging from 300 to 400 miles per hour. In his opinion, going up against this foe was not going to be easy for Barry. As for him, he would die.

"The suit's holding up." Cisco laughed as he checked Barry's vitals. Nathan had give to it to the man for creating something so physics defying. Suddenly the red line that was making linear progression on the graph fell all the way down.

"Barry, are you alright?" Cisco asked worriedly and Caitlin seemed to be checking his vitals.

"It's too strong, guys," The Speedster voiced his opinion suddenly. "I don't think I can neutralize it."

Nathan shared a look with his fellow teammates and saw a flash of concern cover their visage. Suddenly, a movement sounded and a voice made its presence known.

"You can do this Barry."

Nathan looked at the doctor who appeared like a ghost behind him. He seemed a lot better than he was earlier, no trace of anger to be found.

"You were right, I am responsible for all this." Dr. Wells spoke to the man in red, his voice carrying with it an unfound confidence. "So many people have been hurt, because of me and when I looked at you, all I saw was another potential victim of hubris. Yes, I created this madness, but you Barry, you can stop it. You can do this."

"Now run, Barry, run!"

Nathan stared at the man in shock. For someone who was so insistent a few hours ago, he had taken an entire 180° to this whole situation. And god what confidence, was he not worried Barry might die? What gave him that firm conviction and belief in Barry's abilities when he only met him today - technically.

Nathan decided to let it rest as he saw the computer flashing red. Barry was going bonks with his insane velocity breaking 500 and rising. He clenching his fist in a rush of adrenaline as he imagined himself this fast, what a sight that would be.

Barry hit 700+ and the tornado came undone like a ball or yarn. Dr. Wells had removed his glasses as he stared expectantly at the screen, his emotions unreadable.

Caitlin looked worried and asked, "Barry, you there?"

"I am alright," came the reply.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when another voice echoed through the speaker. "I didn't think there was another one like me."

"I am not like you, you are a murderer." That was Barry, Nathan realised. He felt a worry settle within him when he heard gunshots. "Barry, are you alright?"

"It's over, I'm okay." A collective sigh of relief was released and Cisco smiled. He turned to Dr. Wells and grinned.

Harrison Wells smiled back, this time Nathan had a feeling that it was genuine.

It had been without a doubt a tiring day, Nathan streched on his chair and stood up. "I will be taking my leave, got some work to do."

Cisco looked at him with a cheesy smile, "What's with you leaving earlier these days? Did she finally agree to go out with you?"

Nathan smiled back but didn't reply. He moved through the door, down the lengthy hallway and upto the elevator.

Once outside, he pulled on his hood and took a different path then the one he would take to his home. Moving through the less busy area filled with empty buildings and desolate streets.

His strides took him to a club called [Bluewing Night Club]. Two hulky tall men stood gaurd at the entrance and looked at him with vicious glare. Nathan handed a parchment and the man looked it over. Nodding his head, he handed it back to him and opened the door.

Nathan nodded back, a smile tracing his lips under a black mask that covered his mouth and nose, leaving only his eyes visible from under the hood.

This was an underground club run by Amunet Black, a meta-human of considerable powers. It was only after Nathan had started to actively look for other meta-humans that he had found this place. Nobody knew about it except those who attended it, meaning none among his S.T.A.R Lab associates knew of this.

It was only after he had confirmed that it was safe and in fact an underground council created by meta-humans to keep in touch with others that he had risked joining them. Thanks to that however, Nathan found something else too.

His pace was unhurried as he squeezed his body among the mass of people to the bartender. "One Lemonade Vodka Collins."

The man looked at him and slid a glass before him. He mixed vodka and lemonade, and put some ice in it. Then topping it with club soda he pushed the drink to him.

Nathan took it and left a $10 note behind. He made his way to the door at the back and went through it. If before the noise was boisterous, full of music and madness, then all that was left here was madness.

A chaotic maelstorm of voices hooted with power and frenzy behind it. People wearing all manner of clothes shouted at the top of their lungs, as they watched the bloody fight unfold in the arena before them.

It was an iron cage and two humans, to be more precise meta-humans who went at each other's throat. While one wielded a sharp knife, the other only fought bare-handed.

Nathan trained his sight on the one holding a knife, his curious target that he had been eyeing for weeks now.

The man ran, his speed barely at the peak of human existence and of no consequence to his opponent. The towering man who faced his opponent bare-handed dodged to the side, his fist uplifting to meet his opponent's torso.

The man with the knife made no attempt to dodge and took the fist head-on. His own knife whistled through the air and stuck at the man's arm. A brief wince escaped him after taking the punch, but didn't last longer than a second. Nathan smiled from beneath his mask.

It was a fight between two meta-humans with one bearing inhumane strength and other superhuman endurance. That was how most people saw it, at least.

Nathan saw different from others though. Where people looked at the stout man taking hits like a champ and coming out unscathed, he saw a man who endured the pain and discomfort and fought like a beast. Not because he took no damage from all the hits, but because he healed from those wounds in matter of seconds.

'A self-healing Meta-Human.' Nathan wondered just how fascinating it would be to hold such a regeneration power in his hands. With Barry's passive healing ability he was already better at healing than others, what if he added this onto that.

The fight ended in minutes after it had started and new contestants took place of their previous counterparts. Nathan held no intrest in them so he moved back through the way he came and exited the club.

Once out, he followed a planned out route and stopped in an alley. Soon enough a man wearing a brown coat and black pants came walking into the alleyway. His gaze passed over Nathan standing in the corner but he did not stop.

"Regeneration is pretty damn crazy ability, don't you agree?" It was as if Nathan was asking no one in particular, but none except for him and the man were present in near vicinity. His head tilted toward the man who started back, his brows pressed together.

The man looked to his left and right and then back at Nathan. "Who are you? Have you been following me? What exactly do you want?"

Nathan chuckled at the man. "I not here to fight, but if that assuages your worries, just to - 'talk'. How about it, would you like to have a little handshake as a gesture of friendship."

"Cut the damn sneer off your face," the man bellowed in rage. "How the fuck do you know of my ability?"

"That's a secret." Nathan replied.

"You know, you remind me of someone who sounds just like you, and he was a thief."

"That hurts my pride, I never thought of my behaviour as something people would compare to a thief." Nathan said, his voice carrying a tone of mock sadness.

"Oh, he was a damn good one, so take it as a compliment." The man smiled at him, his canines visible. "Now, this is last time I'm asking this; what do you want?"

The smile faded on Nathan's face and he regarded the man from top to bottom. "I have an ability. It's a bit straining, but I can roughly gouge when someone is using their ability - I can sort of pinpoint the location of dark matter in someone's body when they apply it." His lips turned slightly upward. "Guess my surprise when I find a supposed superhuman whose ability is centered around endurance to only apply dark matter at the only place where they are hit, not guard it–because you don't get hit first and then guard–but to heal it."

"An amusing ability, if I may." The man nodded. "But what's it got to do with this."

"John Kreel, a former thief. Killed a cop in 2010, and was convicted of two rapes." As Nathan voiced one felony after another, the man's face changed from relaxed to strained. His eyes darted to and fro and knife appeared in his right hand. "Now see, I am no angel of justice. But even I can recognise the scum when I see one. However, that's not why I'm here; you killing people or committing crimes isn't my business, but it does give a neat justification to my own actions."

"What do you–" The man never finished his words as a blue flashed past him and he found his head pinned on the ground. A wave of oppressiveness overcame his struggles as he found to his horror his body weakening. A sharp pain laced through his body as he screamed in agony, but his limbs remained immobile, electrocuted as they were.

For first time in his life, Nathan didn't restrain his ability, letting it flow freely. A wave of dark matter coursed through his hands glowing in shades of purple. Nathan felt a liberating feeling wash over him, like a hole had been poked in his being, his dark matter started sucking the very essence of the human being pressed beneath him.

As the screams died out, the rush of adrenaline washed over, Nathan looked at his hands finding his breath ragged and shallow. "Huu..." He turned to looked at the man lying limp on the ground and bent down to check on his pulse. "Dead."

Nathan widened his eyes slightly. Surprised that he had killed the man by taking his dark matter like that. He felt at his own energy and was surprised to find a small lump of foreign energy docilely at the dead centre of his own energy.

"Weird, but I should get out of here first." Nathan took one last look at the body at his feet and left in slightly different route then the one he had taken to get there.