บท 15: You win some and you lose some

Flashback ...

After the particle accelerator exploded, Alex was close to Barry in the lab and was hit by the energy wave that came from the S.T.A.R. Labs. He went unconscious and by the time Alex opened his eyes, he found himself to be admitted in the same hospital as Barry. Alex said in his mind, "System ! ". And there was no reply from the system. He said, "System! " again and the result was the same. He grew nervous as he relied a lot on the system to train and it had not responded to him. He kept trying and trying until half an hour later, he heard knocking sounds coming from the door of his private room and the person who knocked the door waited outside before Alex said, " Come in." Revealing the person to be Henry, his clothes were wet not only with sweat and also with tears and his facial expression was obviously grave and pained. Henry took a chair to sit down before speaking to Alex.

Henry: " How is your head, son? "

Alex asked, " It's fine, dad. The doctor helped me to wrap it with a bandage and has stitched up the wound and I will be discharged very soon. You are not looking good, dad. What happen?" even though he already knew what had happened to his brother.

Henry: " Well, the reason I'm here is to tell you bad news ... Barr was struck by lightning ... And he is in a coma ... Your mom is accompanying your brother in his private room ... And she is quite devastated about it, was crying for around an hour. So when we go there, try not to cause her to cry more. "

Alex nodded his head before a doctor came into the room to do a check-up on him the last time and decided to discharge him. He followed Henry to his brother's room and as he opened the door, he saw his mother and Iris West as well as Joe West in the room. He could hear slight sobbing sounds from Nora and Iris and walked slowly towards them and hugged both of them. They felt a hug from their behind, turning their heads and saw it was Alex. Alex then told them that he will be doing all his power to help Barry to come out from a coma and asked his mom to go back home to sleep. Iris then volunteered herself to stay behind to watch Barry over the night. Alex wanted to ask Iris to go back too, but after seeing the hard resolve in her eyes, he let Iris take the first night.

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The day after being discharged by the hospital, Alex went to set up a non-government/ private organization using his own money.T he organization is set up in the purpose of helping those who were harmed by the particle accelerator such as supplying food and drinks to those who were affected financially, providing temporary housing (tents) and repairing the damaged houses. At first, many people doubted Alex and his organization, thinking that it was a scam; however, as time passed by, the doubts were washed away by Alex' efforts and the contribution from his organization and more and more people join in and volunteer for this organization. All sorts of people were involved in this organization: some wealthy individuals donated large sums of money, whereas those who were from poorer family backgrounds but were kind-hearted came and volunteered to help out. Soon, the charity organization was running smoothly and many people were grateful to Alex.

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Back to the present ...

It was 8.00 pm and Alex had just returned to his villa from working in his private clinic. During the past week when he was not managing his charity, he went around Central City, purchasing a villa and a shop that was later renovated into his private clinic. He was mentally tired and was lying on his king-sized bed as he was now unable to be physically tired owing to his 'One with the Power'.

Alex: " I still can't access the system... Haizz ... What happens to it when I was struck by the energy blast and went unconscious. Although the system can't be accessed, I can still able to use my powers. But the still the question is ... When will the system be back online? "

He continued, " Although, I do feel stronger and faster. Let's do some testing. " while walking down to his basement, reaching a dead end. Alex placed his hand on a nearby wall and an eye scanner appeared in front of him. He adjusted his eye to the level of the scanner and the hologram of the wall was turned off, revealing a metal door which was then opened. Alex continued walking and enter his test room, that contains much equipments, but the stand out one was an upgraded version of treadmill that was designed to withstand speed of more than Mach 400. He stood on the machine and started running, slowly speeding up...

Alex said, " I can still speed up ... (straining himself more)" and he reached Mach 900, which was higher than his previous maximum speed. Alex then slowed down and finally stopped, telling himself, " I still feel that I can run at faster speed, but I can't seem to able to. Maybe it's just my imagination? Guess it's about time for my debut as a superhero. " He looked at a clock in his test room, finding out it had already been 12.00 am.

Alex said, " Gotta go visit Barry in S.T.A.R Labs tomorrow in the early morning... 'YAWN'... Gonna have some shut eye. " He walked out and headed to the shower before collapsing on his bed comfortably.