You're Not Outstanding Enough

After chatting familiarly with Jenson for a while, Alex toured the various functional departments throughout the headquarters building under Jenson's guidance, as well as the vast training grounds behind the police building and the underground firearms training room. As a First Grade Inspector specifically assigned to handle metahuman crimes, Alex actually knew more than Jenson had introduced, but he would need to learn the rest gradually in the future.

Since its establishment, the Central City Police Department had come to oversee numerous specialized divisions, including tactical response teams, police dog training, harbor patrols, air support, bomb squads, counterterrorism, criminal intelligence, organized crime, narcotics, public transit, and housing management. Central City's police department possessed abundant crime scene investigation and laboratory analysis resources, along with a dedicated information unit to assist in combating cybercrime.

Thanks to such an elite police force, Central City had been able to maintain a relatively low crime rate in the DC world.

After introducing Alex to the various department heads and letting them get acquainted, Jenson left.

Alex officially began his work as well.

He came to the eighth floor.

The police department's evidence laboratory.

Alex lightly knocked on the door, then pushed it open. He swept his gaze over the numerous steel racks holding all kinds of items, each marked as evidence for different cases. The evidence laboratory was orderly amid its apparent clutter, maintained at a constant temperature of 20°C, slightly warmer than outside.

There were not many staff members. Alex glanced around and saw only five or six people. Since David Singh, the director of the police department's evidence laboratory, was not present, Alex had not been introduced to him by Jenson.

It was worth mentioning that, in the comics, David Singh was the director of the police department's evidence laboratory, while in The Flash TV series, David Singh was a gay police chief.

That difference also made Alex realize that this world seemed to have little to do with the TV series.

Among the people in the evidence laboratory, Alex recognized two of them.

Upon seeing Alex, Barry Allen approached with a sunny smile, warmly spreading his arms as he said, "Congratulations, Alex. I've always looked forward to working with you."

Alex spread his fingers and pressed one hand against the enthusiastic Barry Allen's chest, stopping him. Staring at him, he said flatly, "Mr. Allen, I don't want to get handsy with you in public, nor do I like people hugging me the moment they meet me. Watch your behavior."

"I'm only here to collect all the evidence examination reports on The Multiplicity."

Alex showed Barry no kindness.

Barry had grown accustomed to Alex acting this way. He could only awkwardly withdraw his arms, not taking it to heart as he smiled and said, "I'll get the report for you."

Before Barry could turn around to retrieve the report—

Patty's delicate little face appeared beside Barry, her expression cold. Her petite frame was wrapped in a white lab coat. She shot Alex a fierce glare, slapped the report folder onto Barry's shoulder, and said coldly, "The Multiplicity's evidence examination report. Barry, give your 'good friend' a proper explanation of it!"

Patty practically ground her teeth around the words "good friend." After glaring fiercely at Barry again, she turned and stomped away in her little boots, her departing back radiating anger.

She had even become dissatisfied with Barry.

Barry caught the report as it slid down his arm and looked at the departing Patty in confusion. Had Patty's period come early? Then when I take her out to eat in a few days, she can't have any cold desserts or ice cream.

"Patty isn't usually like this. She's a very charming woman. Today, you know, she might not be feeling well..." Barry explained dryly to Alex.

"That has nothing to do with me, Barry. I only need the report."

Alex glanced at Barry, pulled the report from his hand, and turned to leave. He knew Patty had come to resent Barry as well, but that had nothing to do with him.

Alex pushed open the evidence laboratory door and spread out the report in his hands as he walked.

At the Wells Fargo Bank branch vault robbery scene, forensic experts had collected clothing fibers that The Multiplicity's body had accidentally snagged. The examination results showed that the fibers were exceptionally ordinary—clothes bought from regular stores, along with leather jackets and clothing that could even be found at secondhand markets. They offered no help at all. It was impossible to identify the target from such common fibers.

If it had been a special material combat suit, narrowing down the target would have been easier. But with an ordinary black leather jacket like this, even searching through every clothing market in Central City would not reveal who had bought it.

Just as Alex prepared to turn to the next page, hurried footsteps sounded behind him. Barry chased out of the evidence laboratory and blocked Alex's path.

Alex frowned.

"Alex, I want to join your team. I want to fight metahuman crime with you." Barry looked at Alex with expectant eyes. He had wanted to work with Alex for a long time, fighting crime and protecting Central City's peace—especially now that Alex was facing metahuman crime alone.

Alex's team would certainly need someone skilled in logistics, support, evidence collection, forensics, and lab work. He was perfectly suited for it.

Alex looked at Barry and considered it. Setting aside his dislike for Barry, Barry was indeed an excellent forensic examiner. He had been noticed and recruited by the police department's evidence laboratory while still in college, and in just over half a year, he had officially become an evidence laboratory expert. Barry's meticulousness and caution at crime scenes were exceptional in the current police department.

But personality-wise, Barry clashed too strongly with him. Conflict would come far too easily.

Barry was too kind, and Alex did not consider this special metahuman response team to be a righteous and glorious team. If anything, it was a somewhat dark team.

Alex did not want Barry to step forward when he was dealing with dark figures and beating confessions out of them, saying they could not treat citizens that way, that even criminals could not be beaten or tortured for information, and so on.

That was a conflict he could already foresee. The longer Barry stayed on the team, the greater the disagreement between Alex and Barry would become.

Alex irresponsibly imagined a scenario: if a metahuman controlled a civilian while fleeing, Barry's first choice would be to save the civilian and let the criminal escape.

Alex's choice, however, would be to refuse to let that metahuman escape and continue harming others, even if it meant the metahuman killed the civilian. He would not yield to threats.

That was also why Alex had grown increasingly unwilling to tolerate Barry over the past few years. Barry was too kind.

"You won't do, Barry."

Alex withdrew his gaze and continued reading the report in his hands.

"How won't I do, Alex? I can do it." Barry asked in confusion. He only wanted to be support staff and help Alex capture metahuman criminals.

But Alex clearly did not see it that way. What he needed was not merely ordinary support staff. He needed someone proficient in interrogation, someone who could face Central City's dark underworld—someone who did not need to be cruel, but at the very least was not foolishly kind. On that point alone, Barry could never become his teammate.

Kindness was fine, but one had to be able to act. Barry could not bring himself to do it.

"You're not outstanding enough."

Alex said it flatly.

Barry's expression fell in disappointment. He had never truly thought himself outstanding. At the evidence laboratory, Patty and several other experts who had joined before him were more professional and more experienced than he was. Compared to them, he really was not outstanding enough in Alex's eyes.

Alex glanced at Barry from the corner of his eye, passed by him, and continued forward with his head lowered over the document in his hands.

The next page concerned the residual components of the explosives used by the robbers. There were obvious traces of nitrogen ions. After testing, molecular air sampling, and forensic analysis, it was highly likely to be a new type of high-tech Nitrogen Ion Explosive, eight to twenty times more powerful than an equal amount of ordinary TNT.

Alex's gaze then swept through the extensive analysis of the residue, finally settling on the note that producing this nitrogen-based explosive was not easy. It required a certain level of physics knowledge and specialized equipment.

"So this bomb matches Danton Black's identity as a nuclear physicist."

Alex's eyes flickered. Combining information from his previous life with the current report's analysis, he could almost certainly conclude that The Multiplicity was Danton Black.

Alex had already begun planning how to capture The Multiplicity.