Sep

Who's still around?

@Fuzzybootz oh look who it is, my lovely daughter. How you keeping?

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

Sep over here carrying this entire OOC on his back.

@Retired

Anyone seen MB? I want to give him it back.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

@Pacifista

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

APARTMENT OF IRIS WEST // CENTRAL CITY

Iris groaned out of frustration, then threw her hands up in the air before bringing her hands down from her forehead till her fingertips rested on her chin. Iris was sat with two laptops, a tablet and her phone at her desk, each with various searches. Google, Bing, LexSearch and even AskJeeves. More tabs open than she dared admit, and yet there was no trace of this mysterious speedster that she had seen in the video.

Even YouTube had failed her, the only trace she could find of the speedster was in the documentary footage, and nobody on any forums she found seemed to notice him. She had gotten quite a lot of flame for suggesting she had noticed something other people hadn't. 'Typical liberal women, thinking she;s so much better than us men who are experts'. The doorbell rang, and she ran up and checked the peephole. By the time Barry noticed the door was open, Iris had already sat back down at the desk with her cup of fresh coffee.

"I will never get used to that."

Iris smiled. "I'm not used to people showing up unexpectedly at my door." Barry rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

"Yeah, sorry about that, he's a good man I just didn't expect-"

"The famed Harrison Wells to break several laws and code of ethics and track me down?"

He chuckled awkwardly. "Well you are truly fascinating-" Barry walked over and took a seat in the living room. "-scientifically I mean." Barry leaned back in his chair and looked over to the work she was doing, the various freeze frames and the forums.

"Any luck on your speedster?"

"Argh-" Iris spun around in her chair. "Nothing. No reference anywhere. Nobody else has even noticed him." Iris passed the tablet over to him. "That's the best screenshot I can get of them."

Barry squinted as he looked at the photo. "This is just a blur?"

Iris let out a sigh. "I know! I can see him when I play the video, but I can't pause it fast enough." Barry was about to speak, but Iris beat him to it. "Yes, I understand the irony. It's a technology issue."

"So no leads?"

Iris shrugged. "Kind of?" She picked up the tablet and slid it over to Barry. "Victor Sage. He was the archive researcher for the documentary. He wrote a bunch of pieces for various newspapers until he became blacklisted after a particularly scathing article about the Mayor."

Barry nodded. "I remember it. Wasn't that well over a year ago?"

Iris winced. "That's the kind of part of the lead-" She leaned over the top of the tablet and swiped on the screen. "-he worked for Starrstruck Media for a short period and then, went missing... and is still missing."

"So you want to solve a mystery, by finding a missing person?"

Iris stood up, pacing back and forth. Needing to burn off some of the nervous energy. "It's not ideal, no, but I can't find anything on any of the other people credited as part of the production. He hasn't been reported as dead, so I'm hoping that he just went underground, trying to fly below the radar."

"I mean, I can see if I can pull up anything at the precinct. See if a report has been filed."

Iris stood up and walked to the closet in the far corner of the room, using her speed she quickly stripped down, and pulled on her 'super suit'. Throwing other clothes into a backpack, zipping it closed. She couldn't help but blush as she realised that she had just stripped down to her underwear, and changed, in front of Barry. Not that he had seen anything but a blur, but still.

"Going a trip?"

"Well I'm not going to figure anything out here, I'll chase some leads down in hub city-"

"As the Flash?"

Iris shook her head. "No, I'm just fed up of losing sneakers and clothes, and I have a shift tomorrow so-" She shrugged. "-May as well use what I've got."

"Cheat." Barry chuckled, standing up and clapping his hands together. "So we've got a mission?"

"We've got a mission, I'll call you from Hub City."

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

I'm going to work on a post tonight as the final day of my extended weekend. I'll either get it up before I go to bed, or I will finish it and put it up tomorrow after work. I'm going to try and get out a handful of posts out the next two weeks instead of my current pace of once every fourteen days. I don't want to make any promises on that, but I do feel I'll have the motivation to do so this month.

I will also get another page or so read of the IC.

@Retired

Promises, promises.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

<Snipped quote by Sep>

Good luck I'm in your walls

@Pacifista

My walls aren't very thick, you should eat more.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

Quick, everyone cheese it!

@Master Bruce

Yeah no more getting away with no posting.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

@Pacifista How do you do it? How comes you're always the first person to react to my posts?

I will beat you at some point, I'm going to post at a time you're not around.

---

Now that I'm back, you guys better get posting.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

FORMER SOVIET PRISON // UNKNOWN LOCATION

1150HRS. Steve fell like a brick. Using his momentum to twist himself, he positioned the shield between him and the ground. Tucking as much of his body behind the vibranium disc as possible. He winced as he slammed against the ground, with enough force that would have at the very least put a normal man out of commission, at the worst, there would have been substantial internal injuries. Pushing himself onto his feet he made a beeline for the logging section of the yard, he had never known exactly where it was. Even in his early days in the prison, the old warden had had the wherewithal to keep Steve away from actual weapons - this was before he had later been banned from any form of prison labour that required a tool other than his two hands.

Getting over to the woodshop he looked over his shoulder. He couldn't see any guards yet, however it was just a matter of time. Picking up an axe he ran over to a pile of kindling. Resting the shield down at an angle, he raised the axe above his head with two hands and then brought them together crashing against the shield. There was a mighty clang as the axe collided against the impenetrable shield, sparks went flying everywhere. The kindling barely smoked. At this point he could hear shouting, he didn't even dare look back as he raised the axe again.

With the second strike he stripped paint, and the kindling started to smolder. The third time a small flame appeared, dropping the axe he crouched and began to blow. The flame took, and without hesitation he grabbed one of the uncut logs and using the axe head carved an archaic symbol into the wood. Putting the wood onto the fledgling flame, symbol side first, he almost lost his eyebrows as the flames suddenly grew in intensity. Instead of the pitiful little fire, the pile of kindling was now ablaze in a bonfire of impossible size. A shockwave followed a boom, he heard guards knocked off their feet as he pushed himself against it.

Steve grabbed his shield, and with all his hope he cast it into the flames. The last thing he saw before it disappeared was the paint the Russians had defaced it with being burned away. He got a glimpse of the shield as he knew it, before it disappeared into the flames. From what he had been told, many, many years ago about this ritual is that he could have stepped through the flames themselves without injury. Steve couldn't do that though, there were good people here. Good people who didn't deserve to be here would either leave together or would all remain.

He turned to see the current Red Guardian, Nikolai, walking towards him. Steve raised his hands in the air, a sly grin on his face. "So, that concludes our training for today-"

SMACK.

Steve saw the punch coming from a mile away, he allowed it to take him onto the ground and he rolled over as Nikolai was upon him. Grabbing Steve by his jumpsuit in the middle of his chest to pull his torso up, Nikolai right arm was raised ready to strike.

"What did you do?"

"I just had a little fire-"

SMACK

"What, did, you, do?"

"Honestly I just wanted to cook some marsh-"

SMACK

Steve could feel the heat in his cheek. He winced through the pain. "Fine, you want the truth?"

Nikolai grip on Steve slackened a little.

"I made a collect call-"

SMACK, and out went the lights.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

That is us on our way home now. I'll get these posts formatted and up once I'm home