Through the memory of the clone, Ian saw everything that happened. As soon as the clone entered Speed Force, a black, undead-like creature immediately launched an attack; this creature was extremely fast, and as soon as it touched, the experimental subject was wiped out.
"Time Wraiths," Ian muttered, he knew these creatures. They are similar to Time Custodians in his universe, whose duty is to hunt down any speedster who travels through time and disrupts the space-time continuum.
"Now we are convinced that Speed Force has consciousness and is trying to prevent our actions," Morgana commented. "Are you going to take extreme measures to attack it?"
"Are you crazy?" Ian turned over Byakugan. "Speed Force runs through the entire Multiverse. In other words, it is at least a Eleventh Tier-th entity, and this may even be just a conservative estimate."
In the comics, the speedster has done many things that ordinary Eleventh Tier can never do. But now, the world is fighting the comic Fusion, who knows how powerful it is?
"Then what should we do?"
"We will send as many experimental subjects as we need. We can collect a lot of data from their confrontation with Time Wraiths," Ian replied. "Besides, we still need Barry."
Time passed, and Ian returned to the team, holding a metal briefcase in his hand. Everyone just looked at him, waiting for him to speak first.
"Wow, you are such a happy team," Ian said with a smile. Only he and Morgana knew what he was thinking. Through Legilimency, he knew that these people were secretly investigating him, but so far they had found nothing. Unfortunately, he still could not read the memories of Barry and Wally.
"The technical support team has a gift for you," Ian said, opening the box.
"A new suit?" Barry asked, not hiding his confusion.
"Yes. This suit can absorb the excess heat and kinetic energy released when you run."
"My suit already has this function," he said immediately.
"Why don't you let me finish what I'm saying?" Ian said helplessly. "Not only does it absorb, it can also redirect the energy to increase your speed. According to them, your speed will be increased by 20% to 40%."
"Thanks," Barry said, but his face did not show any gratitude or interest in the new suit. Ian didn't say much.
"Now, we can start working."
"We have nothing to do right now," Sisko said. "This is not a nine-to-five job, and most of the time, the city is peaceful."
"Is that so? In that case, I'll stay in my office."
Over the next few hours, Ian stayed in the office, leaving only for lunch or to use the bathroom. Meanwhile, Barry and Joe went to work at the police station, while Iris continued her work as a reporter.
Harrison Wells is away, leaving only Ralph, Caitlin and Sisko. Elongated Man is on vacation today, so he spent the whole day with Sisko and Caitlin.
At 8 o'clock in the evening, Ian walked out of the office and said goodbye to Caitlin and Sisko. The two just nodded perfunctorily in response. Then, they immediately reported the situation to others.
"We have to find something for them to do," Ian said after returning to the hiding place. "In addition, we can also use this to prepare for the future."
"What do you think?"
The next day, the team had to deal with a new Superman class.
"You guys look like you're in a hurry," Ian walked in and asked.
"A new class Superman has appeared," Sisko explained. "And it's a speedster?"
"How is this possible?"
"That's what we're trying to figure out."
"Let me see."
They showed him a video of a speedster robbing a bank, and Ian frowned. "Why did he only rob $5,000?"
"Does this matter?" Sisko asked.
"No, that's relevant," Iris interjected. "This behavior reveals a desperate desperation and doesn't look like a criminal mastermind at all."
"You're saying our criminals do it because they feel they have no choice?" Joe added.
"Most likely."
"Then we can start from this aspect."
The team quickly took action to try to find out the identity of the new speedster. However, even with the help of Ian, they still found nothing until the speedster committed another crime two days later, this time taking away more than $50,000.
"After getting a taste of it, his or her behavior is escalating," Joe commented. "It won't be long before things get out of control. We have to stop them."
The next day, they tracked the criminal's whereabouts while he was committing the crime, and Barry rushed to the scene. Unfortunately, in the first confrontation with the speedster, who was called [Dark Flash] by the media, he failed to catch his opponent.
"Barry, what happened?" Joe asked. With the new suit, he should have caught his opponent.
"Not only is he a speedster, he also has the ability to clone himself. He used his clone to distract me, and I lost track of him."
Time has passed, and two weeks have passed since meeting this new speedster opponent; Barry did foil a few criminal attempts by the opponent, but that was about it. This speedster would show new abilities in each encounter, causing the team's plans to fail repeatedly.
At the same time, Ian was ecstatic because he had collected almost all the data he wanted from the experiment, mainly from the confrontation between Barry and the opponent he selected.
Today was Tuesday morning, and he walked into the laboratory as usual. However, he immediately noticed something strange. From the memories of these people, he learned that Barry told them that they had discovered something about him, but refused to reveal any information until Ian himself arrived.
He saw everyone staring at him, including Harrison Wells who returned to this earth.
"Is there something on my face? Or on my clothes?" Ian asked while checking his appearance.
"Stop acting," Barry said. "Tell us who you are and what your true purpose is."
"What did you say?"
"I saw everything you did to Wally in the parallel reality I left behind, as well as all those cruel experiments," Barry said through gritted teeth.
"Interesting," Ian sighed. "So, Speed Force contacted you directly? After what happened last year, I should have expected it."
"So, you are not going to hide it anymore."
Barry controlled his emotions, "Are you going to answer my question? Who are you and what is your purpose?"
"You can think of me as a scientist, and my latest research topic is Speed Force."
"That new speedster--did you do it?" Iris asked.
"That's right."
"Since you can already create speedsters, why do you want to break into our team?" Harrison Wells asked.
"I don't want to just stop at creating speedsters - I want to create Speed Force itself," Ian replied, then turned his attention to Barry. "Of all the speedsters in Multiverse, you have the deepest connection with it. Only through you can I truly understand Speed Force and achieve the purpose of reshaping it."
"That's simply impossible," Sisko argued.
"That might be true for you."
"I won't let you succeed," Barry said.
"You can't stop me."
Time suddenly slowed down, and lightning enveloped Barry and Wally; Barry rushed towards Ian at maximum speed.
"Do you think this will stop me?"
"I already knew you were a speedster, but that doesn't change anything."
"I support you," Wally added.
Ian just smiled, and then the two of them realized that they themselves were stuck in slow motion; the world around them suddenly became difficult, as if they were underwater. Then, Ian calmly walked up to them and put a bracelet on each of their wrists.
Plop!
Barry and Wally fell to the ground, and time began to flow back to normal.
"Barry!"
"Wally!"
Iris and Qiao rushed to the two of them.
"What did you do to us?"
"It's just a simple seal that cuts off your connection with Speed Force," Ian explained calmly, and then looked at Caitlin and Sisko who were about to use their abilities. With just one look, they found that their abilities had also been sealed and rendered useless.
"I'll tell you what to do next," Ian continued.