Barry returns to Central City and finds it still bustling, even at night. Returning to a city that he is familiar with feels great after spending a day in Gotham.
Even though the city of Gotham was quite a sight, Central City still feels the best as its home.
The next morning, Barry goes to work, and everything seems fine and dandy. His absence yesterday doesn't seem to have caused any issues.
'Benefits of super speed,' Barry says with a smile, as getting all his work done early ensures he can take such breaks occasionally.
With more new case files on his desk already in place, he begins getting to work again, when suddenly, Joe walks in.
"Where did you go yesterday?" he asks.
"I... just went for a run..." Barry says. He is not going to tell Joe that he ran all the way to Gotham and met the famous Batman, who people still believe is a myth.
"Went for a run? Where?" Joe asks, raising his brows, giving Barry a questioning look.
"Well, I got my work done early yesterday and took a break afterward. Just to calm down my mind, you know..." Barry says.
Joe gives him a weird look, but doesn't question him any further. Instead, he hands Barry another case file and tells him to look into it before walking away.
Barry just smiles and gets back to work.
The next few days go by as usual. Catching criminals, stopping robberies, and putting out fires.
After living in Central City for a few months, Barry finds out that a lot of fire takes place in this city. He had to deal with a lot of fires these past few days.
But having the team flash in his ear made it easy for him to handle. With his speed, Barry started to find a balance between his real work and superhero work.
His relationship with Team Flash was also getting better. His friendship with Cisco was getting stronger as they started binge-watching a lot of sci-fi and fictional movies and TV shows together.
The awkwardness between him and Caitlin was also fading away, as Barry didn't make it hard for her. Sure, he likes her and is attracted to her, but he is not going to chase someone who is not ready. In the end, it was just a kiss.
Though the awkwardness had reduced a lot, there were still some moments where Barry and Caitlin would find themselves in which they couldn't run away from, but overall things were getting better.
As for Barry's relationship with Dr. Wells, he kept his act on about not knowing Dr. Wells's true identity while Dr. Wells continued to play the role of a cripple.
The lives of people around him were also changing very fast. With his new self no longer trying to be there for Iris all the time, she is getting much closer to her boyfriend Eddie than ever.
Every time Barry meets up with Iris, he sees her being happy with her life.
But it's not just the people around him whose lives have changed during these past few months; the people of Central City are experiencing it as well.
Every day, more and more people are starting to believe the flash is real as some of them witness a very fast blur run past them or save them.
Barry has saved a lot of lives till now, and these people are thankful to him.
_____________________
It's been two weeks since Barry visited Gotham, and Batman seems to have successfully dealt with the psychotic clown and returned him to Arkham.
Barry knew this would happen because Batman has better plot armor than Anyone. Even Superman isn't a match for him when it comes to plot armor.
But this made Barry wonder, does he have plot armor? Since he is now a superhero, he should have one, right? Well, he has not experienced it yet because his super speed allows him to take care of most problems with extreme ease.
Done with his day job, Barry runs to S.T.A.R. Labs and meets up with the team, and they continue with his training.
Barry holds back a lot during his training as he doesn't want to alarm Dr. Wells about his massive surge in speed ever since he realized who he really is.
Barry is so fast right now that he believes he can run circles around any speedster.
Suddenly, the crime alert in the cortex starts to blare, alerting the team.
"Robbery at customs warehouse. Looks like it's Grand Theft Auto," Cisco says, smiling as he just named out a game.
Barry smiles back at him, puts on his suit in a flash, and runs to the location of the grand theft auto.
"Alright, Cisco, keep me updated," Barry speaks into his upgraded earphones. Now, he can listen to the team speak to him even when he is running faster than the speed of sound.
"You need to get there quick; the police won't be there for at least two minutes," Cisco said.
"Two minutes? It will be over before they even get there," Barry says cockily and shatters the sound barrier and hits higher speed.
Barry arrives at the customs warehouse and sees something weird. The warehouse gate seems to have been shattered. That doesn't make sense at all, as it's made of metal.
Barry runs in and sees a lot of expensive cars, supercars, luxury cars, custom handcrafted cars, but there is no sign of any perpetrator.
Then, suddenly, something weird happens: Barry loses his footing, and he slides across the entire warehouse floor at super speed and crashes into the wall, breaking it in the process.
"AAAOOQWWWWWW~" Barry grunts in pain, as this is the first time something has caught him off guard. But thanks to his rugged, strong body, he hasn't suffered any serious damage.
"BARRY! What happened? Are you okay?" Barry hears Caitlin's concerned voice in his ear..
"Aaaa, I am fine... just crashed into a wall, nothing serious," Barry says as he gets his ass out of the rubble. He is suddenly hit by a beam of frigid coldness from the back, catching him off guard.
Barry feels pain at super speed. His neurons fire warning signals to his brain that something has made contact with his body faster than the speed of light.
Barry is very fast, and he is fast enough to recognize this danger and run away before whatever hit him does more damage. So, Barry taps into his speed and tries to outrun the thing that has made contact with just the surface of his skin.
But Barry loses his footing again, and he slides across the floor once again before crashing into another wall.
"BARRY!!!" The team gets concerned as they notice unusual spikes in Barry's vitals in their systems.
Barry is confused. He looks down at the floor while he is still down and finally realizes why he is losing his footing every time he tries to run.
The floor is covered with ice, but the layer of ice is so thin and smooth that it's transparent, and with the absence of light, it makes it even harder for Barry to see it.