Burst Apart!

"Wells, let me in..." Outside STAR Labs, Farooq had just absorbed a massive amount of electricity and was trying to force his way inside.

Farooq's actions had not only disrupted STAR Labs' power supply, but affected all of Central City as well.

"I have to get my speed back as soon as possible. Those doors won't stop him." Seeing Farooq on the surveillance feed, Barry was suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness.

This was no longer about whether his future self could continue being the Flash. Several lives were in immediate danger...

"Metahumans do not simply lose their powers, so your speed should still be there. It has merely been affected somehow. You can still recover it." Dr. Zhang appeared before Barry with a disc-shaped device in his hand.

"Dr. Zhang, is that true? What do I need to do?" The moment Barry saw Zhang Tianran, he felt as though he had grabbed hold of a lifeline.

Rather than answering, Zhang Tianran turned his gaze toward Cisco, who had just arrived.

Cisco nodded at Zhang Tianran, then went to the STAR Labs control console and tried to activate several security doors to hold the enemy back.

But clearly, STAR Labs, having lost most of its power, could not stop an enraged Metahuman.

"Barry, it's too dangerous. According to the calculations, to reactivate your body, we would need at least..." This was not Caitlin's field of research, and she could not give an exact figure right away.

But clearly, Barry did not care.

"I know it's dangerous. I might die, but if I don't try, all of us could die here... I'm willing to take that risk!" Barry Allen did not hesitate in the slightest.

Whether it was the crisis at hand or the temptation of running at super speed, Barry would not give up, no matter how great the risk was.

"Cisco, forget about that. There isn't enough power right now. STAR Labs' defenses are too weak. They can't stop this guy at all!" Zhang Tianran took another set of components from Cisco and finished assembling the device in his hands.

"Barry, this is a tester I just finished. It was originally meant to test how to restore your abilities, but now it can at least provide you with a little protection."

As he spoke, Zhang Tianran pressed the disc-shaped device directly against Barry's chest. Though it had no fastening mechanism, it remained remarkably secure.

"Get ready to recover your speed..." Zhang Tianran glanced over his device, then spoke calmly.

By then, Farooq, having absorbed an enormous amount of electricity, had already stormed into STAR Labs. Though STAR Labs was quite large, the situation had become extremely dangerous.

Seeing this, the group immediately set off to restore Barry's speed.

"Dr. Zhang, where are you going?" Caitlin was startled when she saw Zhang Tianran heading in the opposite direction.

"I'm going to buy you some time. Hurry up," Zhang Tianran replied.

Caitlin's first instinct upon hearing that was to pull him back. But before she could say anything, Zhang Tianran had already vanished through a doorway.

"Stay safe..." After hesitating for a long while, Caitlin finally turned around to help Barry, leaving behind only that blessing.

Zhang Tianran did not hear Caitlin's words. Once he reached a place where no one could see him, he used the Speed Force and arrived beside Wells.

At that moment, Wells was releasing Iron Man. It seemed the two had already reached an agreement.

Iron Man, who was not exactly quick-witted, had not noticed that Wells was not sitting in a wheelchair.

"Has Barry's side been arranged?" Wells watched Iron Man leave, then turned to Zhang Tianran and asked.

"Is it necessary to send that guy to his death?" Zhang Tianran looked at Iron Man's retreating back,

feeling a little soft-hearted.

The moment Wells stood before Iron Man, whether Iron Man survived his confrontation with Farooq or not, his fate had already been sealed: death.

"Barry needs someone to sacrifice themselves to remind him. Besides, we need someone to stall for time right now."

Zhang Tianran did not argue after hearing that. Though it made him uncomfortable, he had no intention of interfering.

"I'll leave this matter to you. I don't intend to get too involved. If anything goes wrong, handle it yourself." Zhang Tianran spoke coldly, then disappeared.

A trace of displeasure flashed across Wells's face, but it quickly vanished. He got back into his wheelchair and slowly moved forward.

"Hey, Farooq. I'll give you one chance: leave this place." Zhang Tianran appeared behind Farooq with a gun in each hand.

This country was already overflowing with firearms. Although Zhang Tianran did not intend to stand out too much, he still needed to have an easily obtainable gun license and standard firearms.

"You're... Wells's adopted son. What, do you think guns can do anything to me?" Farooq seemed to have been driven senseless by the electricity, completely ignoring Zhang Tianran's armed threat.

Without much hesitation, Zhang Tianran immediately opened fire. In just a few seconds, he emptied both magazines.

Unfortunately, Farooq was completely unharmed.

Not a single one of Zhang Tianran's bullets hit him. He had put on a real-life display of shooting an outline around a person.

Actually, that was normal for a beginner. Zhang Tianran was twenty or thirty meters away from his enemy. Unless someone was skilled with a gun, most people would not hit anything at that distance.

In games, pistols were highly accurate weapons with low damage. But in real life, handguns had a very low hit rate.

Looking at Farooq more than twenty meters away, Zhang Tianran immediately tossed away his pistols and turned to run...

Farooq seemed to have been startled by the barrage of gunfire. Only after Zhang Tianran began running did he realize that he had not been hit.

"Fuck!" Cursing in lingering fear, Farooq immediately hurled a long stream of lightning after him.

Naturally, the lightning did not hit.

Zhang Tianran had been shooting from around a corner in the first place. The moment he ran out of bullets, he fled. Farooq's lightning was powerful, but it could not turn corners.

The same applied to Zhang Tianran's bullets. Other than at the beginning, he had not even seen his enemy. He had merely been firing to scare him.

Before long, the two magazines Zhang Tianran had brought were empty, yet Farooq never caught up...

After waiting for a while, STAR Labs' power suddenly returned, causing Zhang Tianran to abandon the idea of using the Speed Force to check on things.

After passing through the Particle Accelerator, Zhang Tianran took a long detour back to the control room. On the surveillance feed, he saw a grand scene playing out in STAR Labs' basement.

The star of that scene was Wells. His heartfelt performance deeply moved Barry, successfully awakening the Speed Force within him and causing Farooq, who had absorbed the lightning, to burst apart.

Because of this incident, the Flash became even faster.