Chapter Summaries

Yang Ming arrived in Central City and used Bruce’s help to secure a forensic scientist position at the police department so he could recruit future allies. On his first day, he met Barry Allen and recognized signs of his newly awakened speed.

• Yang Ming read about a red blur rescuing eighteen workers from a warehouse fire and identified the hero as Barry Allen.
• Yang Ming asked Bruce to arrange a job for him at the Central City Police Department, and Bruce secured the position through the mayor.
• Yang Ming arrived at the department, where Inspector Singh welcomed him and introduced him to Joe West.
• Yang Ming caught an autopsy report after Barry Allen stumbled out of the Forensics Unit, then recognized Barry’s abnormal speed and a scorch mark on his cuff.

Yang Ming began his first day as Central City Police Department’s Forensic Consultant and helped investigate the deaths of the Martinelli Family. After recognizing the killer as a metahuman, he left Joe and Barry to seek help from S.T.A.R. Labs, while he secretly watched them and waited for his plan to draw them in.

• Yang Ming met Barry and took over a workstation, cleaning the cluttered desk and warning Barry not to run in the lab.
• A police officer reported that twenty-three members of the Martinelli Family had died during a family dinner, and Joe, Barry, and Yang Ming went to the estate.
• Yang Ming determined that a colorless, odorless toxic gas had caused the deaths and identified the likely source as a metahuman.
• Joe and Barry suspected a metahuman was responsible, and Yang Ming left the scene so they could contact S.T.A.R. Labs without him.
• Yang Ming watched Joe and Barry head toward S.T.A.R. Labs from a parked Chevrolet and waited for his plan to bring them to him.

Barry, Joe West, and the S.T.A.R. Labs team investigated Kyle Nimbus, a killer who could become poisonous gas, while discussing a metahuman prison. Yang Ming stopped Kyle from killing Joe and Barry, leaving the unconscious men for emergency responders and taking Barry’s suit to protect his identity.

• Caitlin explained that the Martinelli Estate victims had died after someone replaced the air around them with a lethal gas, and Wells proposed converting the Particle Accelerator’s underground isolation area into a metahuman prison.
• Barry learned that Kyle Nimbus, a criminal Joe West had arrested who disappeared during a prison transfer, was the suspect and rushed to warn Joe.
• Kyle entered Joe’s home as green gas, revealed his vendetta against Joe, and overpowered Joe and Barry when Barry arrived to help.
• Yang Ming struck Kyle with armament Haki, forced him back into solid form, and killed him with a final punch.
• Yang Ming injected Barry and Joe with antidote, called emergency services, removed Barry’s red suit, and left.

Barry and Joe recovered in the hospital after an unknown person killed Kyle Nimbus and treated them, leaving them to question whether the rescuer was Yang Ming and what they wanted. Doctor Wells watched footage of Yang Ming confronting Kyle and concluded that Yang Ming did not belong to this timeline.

• Barry woke in the hospital and learned from Joe that Kyle Nimbus had been killed by a single powerful blow.
• Iris and Eddie visited, and Eddie reported that Kyle had died about twenty minutes before the rescue team arrived, with strange gas in his lungs and no ordinary human tissue.
• Eddie revealed that the mysterious rescuer had left deep footprints and injected Barry and Joe with an unfamiliar antidote.
• Joe suspected the rescuer had known Kyle would attack, while Barry wondered whether the person had been tracking Kyle and might be Yang Ming.
• Joe ordered Kyle's body kept under separate custody, and Barry specifically warned against letting Doctor Yang near it.
• Doctor Wells watched surveillance footage of Yang Ming striking Kyle and said Yang Ming did not belong to this timeline.

Yang Ming noticed that someone had searched Barry’s desk and warned that the intruder had reached inside the precinct, while Barry kept his suspicions about Yang Ming to himself. Barry responded to a diamond-truck robbery as the Flash but was frozen by Captain Cold, until Yang Ming appeared in front of the fleeing robbers’ SUV.

• Yang Ming spotted signs that someone had searched Barry’s desk, and Barry realized Nora Allen’s case photo had been turned over.
• Yang Ming discussed Kyle Nimbus’s poison and metahumans with Barry, while Barry questioned whether Yang Ming had saved him at Joe’s house.
• Barry left the precinct as the Flash to stop armed robbers hijacking a diamond transport truck on Westside Highway.
• Leonard Snart introduced himself as Captain Cold and used his freezing gun to trap Barry in ice.
• Yang Ming confronted the robbers as they prepared to leave, calling Barry his colleague.

Yang Ming defeated Snart and his robbers, recovered the Cold Gun, and revived Barry after the freeze nearly stopped his heart. He admitted to Barry that he had also saved Joe and Barry before, but left the highway as Joe and the police arrived without explaining who he really was.

• Yang Ming dodged Snart’s Cold Gun, disarmed the robbers, and knocked Snart down with a Haki-coated punch.
• Yang Ming bound Snart and the other robbers, confiscated the Cold Gun as evidence, and used warming equipment to revive Barry.
• Barry recognized Yang Ming as the person who had saved him and Joe, and Yang Ming confirmed it.
• Barry asked Yang Ming whether he was a good person, and Yang Ming said his earlier rescue should make the answer obvious.
• As Joe and the police arrived, Yang Ming told Barry he was returning to the police station but did not want to give a statement.

Yang Ming took the Cold Gun from Snart and later told Barry that he had approached him because he wanted his help in the future and hoped to become his friend. Barry remained suspicious, especially after finding Yang Ming reading Nora Allen’s case file, but Yang Ming promised he would help Barry arrive in time when future dangers came.

• Yang Ming kept the Cold Gun rather than handing it to the police, while Barry thanked him for saving him and Yang Ming asked for dinner in return.
• Joe West arrived at the highway and questioned Barry, who fled into the woods before explaining what had happened.
• Barry found Yang Ming reading Nora Allen’s case file at the police station and demanded to know his motives.
• Yang Ming invited Barry to lunch, where he admitted he wanted Barry’s help in the future and wanted to be his friend.
• Yang Ming told Barry that his willingness to save people was why he had approached him, and promised to help him reach future crises in time if Barry trusted him.

Yang Ming began training Barry at S.T.A.R. Labs, showing him that speed alone could not make him an effective fighter. After defeating Barry and teaching him anatomical strikes and improvised weapons, Yang Ming left Barry with a new approach to combat.

• Yang Ming criticized Barry's lack of awareness during their meal and brought him to S.T.A.R. Labs for combat training.
• Yang Ming challenged Barry to attack him, dodged every strike using Observation Haki, and knocked him unconscious with precise nerve strikes.
• Yang Ming explained that Barry had been trained to run fast rather than stop opponents efficiently, and taught him about vulnerable anatomical targets.
• Over the next two days, Barry studied anatomy and practiced striking specified nerve points with precision.
• Yang Ming demonstrated that Barry could use his speed to launch ordinary objects as weapons, and Barry began trying the technique.

Yang Ming trained Barry to use the Speed Force with precision, pushing him through a chaotic battlefield simulation until he successfully hit a moving target without harming a nearby hostage. Doctor Wells questioned Yang Ming about his abilities, while Yang Ming recognized him as Eobard Thawne but concealed that knowledge.

• Yang Ming set up stationary, moving, and hostage targets to teach Barry precision, but Barry’s first coin barrage destroyed the training area and triggered the hostage alarms.
• Yang Ming told Barry that his poor judgment could endanger innocents, and Barry asked for another chance.
• Yang Ming ordered Cisco and Caitlin to add drones, smoke, lights, and noise, forcing Barry to keep training through repeated failures.
• Barry used the Speed Force to sense movement and calculated a precise coin throw that disabled a moving target without damaging the nearby glass hostage.
• Doctor Wells praised the training and questioned Yang Ming about his abilities, while Yang Ming privately identified him as Eobard Thawne and chose not to expose him yet.

Barry overcame his fear of his childhood bully Tony Woodward and defeated him by using speed and careful analysis. After Barry credited Yang Ming for teaching him, Doctor Wells secretly studied Yang Ming and decided to find him a real opponent.

• Barry thanked Yang Ming for his combat lessons, and Yang Ming told him to respond to the bank robbery alarm.
• Barry confronted Tony Woodward, recognized his former bully, and initially retreated as old fears overwhelmed him.
• Remembering Yang Ming’s advice, Barry focused, struck Tony’s knee, and used a supersonic vortex and resonant punch to defeat him.
• At S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry told Cisco and Doctor Wells that Yang Ming had taught him the winning technique.
• Doctor Wells secretly reviewed footage of Yang Ming and decided to find him a more formidable opponent.

Yang Ming’s methods helped Barry become a more capable protector, but a metahuman who drove bank crowds into violent rages overwhelmed him. Barry reunited with Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle, and the groups agreed to work together on the cases of Roy G. Bivolo and Captain Boomerang.

• Joe West confronted Yang Ming over Kyle Nimbus’s death and warned him to stay away from Barry, while Yang Ming offered to treat Tony Woodward’s worsening condition for a fee.
• Over several peaceful weeks, Barry used Yang Ming’s training to stop criminals efficiently, and Cisco and Caitlin grew to trust the doctor.
• Roy G. Bivolo repeatedly robbed banks by using light from his eyes to inflame people’s anger, leaving Barry occupied with restraining the crowds while Bivolo escaped.
• Cisco identified Bivolo’s power, and Yang Ming suggested blinding him before Joe objected to his violent solutions.
• Felicity contacted Barry about Oliver and Diggle’s pursuit of Captain Boomerang, George Harkness, and Barry proposed that their teams join forces against both criminals.
• Felicity persuaded Oliver to accept Barry’s offer to work together, and Barry rushed back to inform his team.

S.T.A.R. Labs argued over whether to work with Oliver Queen and his team, as Joe West opposed involving a former killer while Barry and Yang Ming stressed the need to catch Rainbow Raider. Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle arrived, but Joe and Oliver remained hostile as the chapter ended on Oliver’s claim that winners draw the line between heroes and murderers.

• Barry announced that Oliver Queen could help the team, but Joe rejected working with a vigilante who had killed criminals.
• Caitlin and Cisco argued that Oliver’s team could help them catch Rainbow Raider and Captain Boomerang, while Joe warned Barry against crossing the line into killing.
• Dr. Wells suggested a limited collaboration, and Yang Ming supported it by arguing that Central City needed Oliver’s help.
• Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle arrived at S.T.A.R. Labs, where Joe told Oliver he was unwelcome.
• Cisco and Felicity bonded over her tactical tablet as Barry tried to persuade Joe; Oliver answered Joe’s accusation by saying winners drew the line.

Yang Ming settled the argument over Barry and Oliver’s methods by arranging a no-kill duel at an abandoned steel mill. Barry adapted to Oliver’s traps using Yang Ming’s lessons, but Oliver’s grappling-hook arrow left Barry in danger as the fight continued.

• Oliver argued that Barry’s refusal to kill endangered innocents, while Joe defended Barry and challenged Oliver’s willingness to decide who lived or died.
• Yang Ming proposed that Barry and Oliver fight to determine whose approach should guide them, and Dr. Wells supported the duel; both men agreed.
• At the steel mill, Oliver used flashbangs, tripwires, an electric net, oil, and smoke to keep Barry off balance.
• Yang Ming coached Barry to seek weaknesses rather than charge blindly, and Barry used a screw and a supersonic clap to disrupt Oliver and press an attack.
• Oliver avoided Barry’s strike and unleashed a sedative arrow, then fired a grappling-hook arrow at Barry’s chest emblem while Barry was recovering.

Barry and Oliver fought to a draw, with both suffering serious injuries, before Yang Ming stopped the duel and criticized their tactics. The two teams joined forces at S.T.A.R. Labs and began tracking Roy G. Bivolo and George Harkness.

• Barry took Oliver’s grappling arrow in his shoulder and used the connection to knock Oliver down and dislocate his right knee.
• Oliver yanked the bowstring to stop Barry’s attack, leaving them both injured until Yang Ming declared the fight a draw.
• Yang Ming assessed their wounds, gave Barry medical spray, and pointed out the flaws in both men’s fighting techniques.
• Oliver asked who had taught Barry, and Barry’s respect for Yang Ming revealed him as Barry’s tactical instructor.
• Joe warned Oliver that Central City had a no-killing rule, while Yang Ming defended teaching Barry how to survive.
• Felicity connected her laptop to the S.T.A.R. Labs console and asked Cisco to help trace Roy G. Bivolo and George Harkness.

Yang Ming traced Roy G. Bivolo and George Harkness to the abandoned Carmine chemical plant, while Wells secretly became Reverse-Flash and arranged a trap for Barry and Oliver. The chapter ended with Barry and Oliver caught in a web of explosive boomerangs inside the plant.

• Yang Ming used chemical traces on Harkness's boomerangs and evidence from Roy's bank robbery to identify the abandoned Carmine chemical plant as their hideout.
• Wells left the control room, revealed his healthy legs and yellow costume, and decided to force Yang Ming's hand by creating a crisis for Barry and Oliver.
• Reverse-Flash abducted Roy and brought him to Harkness, then gave Roy a prism to intensify his light waves and urged the pair to ambush the heroes.
• Barry and Oliver entered the apparently empty chemical plant while Cisco and Felicity reported two heat sources inside.
• Barry heard a faint ticking sound and warned Oliver to retreat, but a drum exploded and released explosive boomerangs that sealed off their escape routes.

Barry and Oliver were overwhelmed when Rainbow Raider’s Prism drove Barry into a rage and Harkness poisoned Oliver. Yang Ming left S.T.A.R. Labs to intervene, subdued Barry, and faced Harkness and Roy as Harkness detonated the factory; Yang Ming then appeared behind Harkness after vanishing from the blast.

• Barry and Oliver destroyed Harkness’s explosive boomerangs, but Roy used the Prism’s red light to make Barry attack Oliver.
• Barry broke Oliver’s arm and sent him into a steel column, while Harkness struck Oliver with a poisoned boomerang.
• Yang Ming ignored Joe’s pleas at S.T.A.R. Labs, then used an Anywhere Door to enter the chemical plant.
• Yang Ming pinned Barry down, injected him with a sedative, and covered the poisoned Oliver with a medical blanket.
• Yang Ming caught Harkness’s poison darts, but Harkness detonated the C-4 beneath the reactors.
• After the explosion, Roy and Harkness realized Yang Ming was missing, and Yang Ming placed a hand on Harkness’s shoulder.

Yang Ming defeated Harkness and Roy, rescued Barry, and treated Oliver before Joe West arrived and learned what had happened. As a red-suited speedster disabled the police equipment and circled the warehouse, he suddenly burst through a wall and charged at Joe.

• Yang Ming rescued Barry and Oliver from the explosion, incapacitated Roy with a psychic attack, and dislocated Harkness's arms before tying them both up.
• Yang Ming found Barry sedated and treated Oliver's poisoning and broken arm in the warehouse.
• Joe West and the SWAT officers arrived, but Yang Ming played a recording showing that Barry had attacked Oliver under Roy's influence.
• Joe lowered his gun after Yang Ming explained Oliver's injuries, while Harkness warned that a yellow-clad speedster had promised someone would die.
• A red speedster disabled the police vehicles and equipment, circled the warehouse, then burst through a wall and charged at Joe West.

Yang Ming fought Reverse-Flash in the warehouse, using his Haki and the environment to slow and injure him while protecting Barry, Joe, and Oliver. Joe and Yang Ming rescued Oliver from Reverse-Flash’s attempt to take him hostage, and Reverse-Flash escaped after threatening to make Barry kill someone he loves.

• Yang Ming blocked Reverse-Flash’s attack on Joe, then ordered the SWAT officers to evacuate the warehouse.
• Yang Ming sent Barry and Joe through an Anywhere Door, leaving himself alone to fight Reverse-Flash.
• Yang Ming used scattered steel balls and metal fragments to hinder Reverse-Flash, then struck him with a blow empowered by Conqueror’s Haki and Armament Haki.
• Reverse-Flash tried to seize Oliver, but Joe shot a fire-suppression pipe while Yang Ming’s rubber scrap slowed the speedster.
• Yang Ming sent Oliver through the reopened Anywhere Door, and Reverse-Flash retreated after threatening Barry before vanishing.

After Barry nearly killed Oliver while under Roy’s influence, Yang Ming restricted him from solo missions until he passed emotional control training. As Oliver prepared to return to Star City, he warned Yang Ming that Dr. Wells seemed to be manipulating Barry and gave him an encrypted communicator.

• Joe learned that Yang Ming had prevented casualties at the Chemical Plant, while Barry awoke in the hospital and asked about Oliver.
• Yang Ming told Barry that Oliver would survive but barred Barry from solo missions until he passed emotional control training, and Joe did not challenge the decision.
• Oliver woke and arranged for Star City and Central City to share metahuman intelligence before deciding to return to Star City.
• Yang Ming presented Oliver with a bill for his treatment, and Oliver agreed to pay Queen Consolidated’s charges.
• Oliver privately warned Yang Ming that Dr. Wells seemed to enjoy shaping Barry and watching him lose control, then gave Yang Ming an encrypted communicator.
• Oliver encouraged Barry to learn to control his anger before visiting Star City, leaving Barry feeling isolated.

Barry began training to control his powers after his attack on Oliver, while Yang Ming confirmed that Barry deeply trusted Dr. Wells. Joe reconsidered Nora Allen’s murder and secretly reopened the investigation, suspecting Wells was connected to Reverse-Flash.

• Joe ordered Barry to stay home after securing him a week off, and Barry struggled with guilt over nearly killing Oliver.
• Yang Ming confined Barry to a soundproof room for control training, then told him he could use his powers again once he could endure the noise with a low heart rate.
• Yang Ming asked Barry about Dr. Wells and realized Barry trusted Wells as an emotional pillar, but chose not to reveal his suspicions without evidence.
• Joe reread Barry’s childhood statement about red and yellow lightning and concluded that Reverse-Flash had killed Nora while Henry Allen had been wrongfully imprisoned.
• Joe compared an old newspaper photograph with a recent S.T.A.R. Labs group photo, suspected the man at the crime scene was Wells, and hired someone to investigate Wells’s past and Tess Morgan’s car accident.