Chapter Text
He should have been doubled over, screaming in agony. He should've been coughing up blood. These are the things that happen when Hartley Rathaway tries to FREAKING KILL YOU using his weird glove frequency things.
However, Connor Owens wasn't exactly normal. He was a metahuman, with the ability to control the 5 senses of anyone and everyone, including himself. And currently, he was preventing his sense of hearing for this special mission.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
(A few hours earlier)
Barry Allen raced through Central City, wearing his Flash suit. It was Saturday, 10 am, and his day off. But of course, when do superheroes get days off?
"Guys! I'm coming up on the street now! What next?" He asked into his intercom, speaking to Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon.
"Turn left at the first alley, that's where they are," Cisco replied.
Barry did as he was told, skidding to a stop as he locked sights onto his target. To his surprise, he was staring straight at a kid. No joke, the boy couldn't be even 18! He had dark brown hair, pale yet still tan skin, he wasn't too tall, and his brown eyes were full of fear. Barry questioned his original thoughts. Was this kid really capable of robbing banks?
"W-what do you want?" The boy stuttered.
"People aren't supposed to rob banks kid," Barry replied confidentially, hiding his doubt.
"I didn't rob any bank!" He shouted frantically.
"Really now? Because you were at the scene, fleeing like....not even ten minutes ago," Barry said, looking at his wrist as if to check a watch.
"I'd have to say, what I heard was that your eyes turned black and, it wasn't too normal,"
"I was chasing after the bad guy. I was trying to slow him down! He got away though," the boy responded, looking down at his feet in disappointment.
Barry took this opportunity to grab the kid, taking him by the shoulders and speeding off to S.T.A.R Labs. When they got there, Barry had already snapped handcuffs on the kid, holding his jacket sleeve. The kid looked even more terrified now as he stood there barely on his feet, his eyes darting around.
"You got him!" Cisco cheered.
"Let's get him into the pipeline first, then we'll talk to him," Caitlin suggested.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The boy now stood in a cell in the pipeline, no longer wearing handcuffs. He pressed his hands on the glass, as if he was trying to push it outwards.
"What's your name?" Barry asked, still in his flash outfit.
"Connor Owens," the boy replied immediately.
"How old are you?"
"16," Caitlin, Cisco, and Barry looked at each other skeptically. Why would a 16 year old kid need to rob a bank?
"Why were you robbing a bank?" Cisco asked.
"I wasn't!" Connor huffed.
"We saw the video of you at the bank. You ran after a guy in a mask, who happened to have a bag full of thousands of dollars. He was your partner I presume?" Caitlin said.
"He was the bad guy! I was chasing after him to stop him! I'm not a criminal!" Connor explained, throwing his hands wildly around in air.
"Stopping bad guys are for the police," Barry said.
"Is that why you stop them instead, Flash?" Connor countered.
"Listen, I have a foster family to get back to," Connor paused. "On second thought, never mind. If they are to notice my absence, why not scare the crap out of 'em?"
Cisco smirked and whispered to Caitlin, "I like this kid,"
"You're not normal, are you?" Barry asked, to which Connor shook his head.
"Not by a long shot. And by what has been proven obvious already on many occasions, neither are you," he replied.
"What can you do?" Caitlin asked wearily.
Connor sighed, looking over to Cisco who was leaning forwards eagerly, a child-like smile on his face. Connor's eyes went entirely black, and Cisco's eyes dilated, and he screamed in shock and fear. "What, what's wrong?!" Barry asked frantically.
"I can't see!" Cisco exclaimed. Connor's eyes then returned to normal, and Cisco calmed down.
"Never mind, all good. That was so sick!" Cisco exclaimed. "Being able to control people's senses. That's even cooler than super speed! No offense," Cisco patted Barry's shoulder.
"What?" Barry trailed off.
"Can you let me go now?" Connor requested.
"Not yet," sounded the voice of Dr. Wells from behind.
Everyone turned, save for Connor who was already able to see Harrison Wells rolling into the pipeline to join the group. Caitlin still looked weary, Barry looked confused at Harrison's statement, and Cisco looked like an excited child.
"Why not?" Barry asked.
"I have a question for him, and a proposition," Dr. Wells replied. Connor looked at him expectantly.
"What gave you the idea that chasing after the bank robber was a smart idea?" Harrison asked.
"I don't know.....an adrenaline rush maybe? My real dad used to work at that bank, so I thought that I could at least try and catch a thief in his honor,"
Barry smiled thoughtfully. This kid reminded him of himself, the reason he became a forensic scientist was for his father. He wanted to catch his mother's murderer. It was sort of how Connor wanted to catch this robber, for his dad's honor.
"I assume your eyes turn black when you are using your powers?" Caitlin began, and Connor nodded. "What were you doing with your powers that the security cameras caught?"
"I was trying to take away the guy's sense of touch. That way I could trip him up. But I couldn't get a good look at his face to do so. My powers only work when I can get clear eye contact with the target," By this point, everyone was interested in knowing more about the teen that they had wrongly imprisoned. Especially Harrison and Cisco.
"Does anyone else feel that this conversation is awkward while Connor is locked up? I think we should talk more upstairs," Barry offered, and Cisco nodded.
Dr. Wells agreed, and Cisco opened the pipeline cell door to release Connor. The boy stepped out carefully, not yet sure what they were going to do to him. He trusted them (sort of), but he was still being cautious. They walked up to the cortex to discuss more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Upstairs, Cisco and Caitlin sat at their computers while Barry leaned against the desk, and Harrison sat in his wheel chair.....obviously. Connor stood awkwardly, shuffling from foot to foot.
"What are your guys' names anyways?" He finally broke the silence.
"Oh! I'm Barry!" Barry said, taking off his Flash mask and extending a hand out to Connor.
"Secret identity," Caitlin coughed, and Barry mumbled 'sorry'.
"I'm Dr. Caitlin Snow. It's nice to meet you," Caitlin said with a polite smile.
"Cisco Ramon, the most interesting one here might I add," Cisco said enthusiastically.
"Dr. Harrison Wells," Harrison said.
Always the formal one. Connor thought. I'm not too sure about him.
"Would you mind if I took a few tests, Connor?" Caitlin asked, breaking Connor out of his state of mind.
"Why not?" Connor shrugged.
Twenty minutes later, Connor still sat on a stool with multiple wires attached to his head.
"Unbelievable," Caitlin muttered, looking at the test results on the computer.
"What?" Barry asked.
"It says that Connor's visual functions should be inactive. Apparently his sight was never developed," Caitlin replied.
"He should be blind," Barry mumbled.
"Oh....right," Connor said, rubbing the back of his neck. Everyone looked over to him, and he said nothing. Instead, he just detached the wires from his head and carefully set them down on top of the worktable.
"Care to explain, Mr. Owens?" Harrison pressed.
"I can see, now at least. But, before the particle accelerator explosion, I hadn't been able to. I was born blind," Connor answered. Everyone was shocked at the news.
"Dude," Cisco breathed.
"That must be the connection to your metahuman abilities," Barry said.
"Meta-whata?" Connor asked.
"After the particle accelerator explosion, multiple people were affected in some way. They developed powers, most use them for criminal purposes. But either way, they're called metahumans," Cisco explained. Connor nodded in understanding, not showing any sign of elaborating on his current state. When he noticed the three other people in the room staring at him intently, he realized that that was precisely what they wanted, however.
"Um, anyway, the night of the explosion, I was out dining with my real parents. We were driving back when the car was struck with some force, sending it flying off the road. My parents died, but I was taken to the hospital. I just had a few broken bones," Connor paused to take in a shaky breath, and Barry could tell it was hard to talk about. The longer Connor was around, the more Barry was reminded of himself. They're motives and back stories were extremely different, yet very similar all the same.
"My mom was a nurse at the hospital, so most workers there knew who I was. When I woke up about two days after, I could see. It was scary and overwhelming, literally being able to put a name to a face and understanding what colors really were. Doctors said it was a miracle.
"I was put into the system after I was discharged. My foster family doesn't really notice my existence much, but that's alright. I like being able to walk around outside alone without overprotective and worried people hovering over me 24/7. I still miss my parents though. I would give anything to have them back, even if it meant not getting powers and always being blind," Connor finished, looking down at his hands as he sat on his chair, fighting back tears.
The room was silent, no one knew what to say to that. For them, it all felt like déjà vu of when Barry explained the night of his mother's murder for the first time. Cisco, always being the diffuser of the sad and negative, decided to clear the air with a cheerful statement.
"What is your favorite color, now that you can understand what they are?" He asked Connor.
"This is going to sound really cheesy but, red. The red of Barry's suit to be specific," Connor replied, wrinkling his nose in embarrassment and awkwardness. Both Cisco and Barry broke out into wide grins.
"Yup. Everybody loves the suit," Cisco announced proudly, chomping on his licorice that he had taken out at some point, and turning away to look at his computer. Everyone laughed at Cisco's comedic antics.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After about 15 minutes of small talk between Connor and "Team Flash" as Cisco referred to himself and the others as, Caitlin spoke up.
"Dr. Wells, you said you had a proposition for Connor?" She reminded.
"Of course, thank you Caitlin'" Dr. Wells responded. "First things first, Hartley has returned," Harrison said, directing his words towards his three coworkers.
"What?!" Barry exclaimed, while Caitlin's eyes widened and Cisco choked on his licorice.
"Indeed. He just recently ransacked his parents' home, although nothing was stolen. I suspect he did that to get our attention,"
"How does this concern me? And who's Hartley?" Connor butted in, and everyone turned towards him. They'd forgotten his presence, Connor could tell because it happened often at his foster home.
"Hartley used to work here at S.T.A.R. Labs before the particle accelerator explosion. He has somewhat of a.....grudge against me," Harrison told Connor, and the teenager nodded.
"He's extremely violent and dangerous," Caitlin added.
"Precisely. And I want your help to stop him,"
"Are you insane? He's just a kid!" Barry shouted. "Hartley will kill him!"
"I'm highly confident that the outcome of the upcoming battle between you and Hartley will not result in Connor's death," Dr. Wells told Barry calmly.
"I don't know about that Harrison," a disembodied voice sneered from the speakers in the room.
"Hartley." Dr. Wells greeted emotionlessly.
Cisco groaned and slammed his head on the keyboard, Caitlin looked scared, and Barry was in between being defensive and angry. Connor wasn't confused like he had been during the first mention of Hartley, instead he was listening intently and fully aware of what was happening. Hartley had hacked into S.T.A.R. Labs (again), and was currently using his skills to spy on them. How long had he been listening in? What to do now?
"This 'Connor' you speak of to me sounds like another pawn in your little game to destroy me. And you and I both know that pawns always get the short end of the stick," Hartley continued. For the briefest of moments, there was an eerie silence. Then Hartley spoke.
"Chess, anyone?"