-RANG!!!
Derek winced in pain as he instinctively clutched his head.
"Would you like us to continue, Mr Bond? We're only on the 14th Century." Gideon spoke, her face projected before Derek.
"Just gimme a second, Gideon."
He sat on the same uneven metal chair before the dusty table, however, some time had elapsed since he had started working with Gideon.
'It's only been 38 hours and my brain feels like it's melting.'
He could process this information, but his physical body was still the same. This included his mind.
This surplus of knowledge wasn't supposed to be forced in all at once.
However, with Derek's intelligence stat so high, he could keep up.
'Though I haven't yet reached cognitive overload, I'm experiencing mental fatigue that could result in me losing my edge and not processing the information as well as I need to.'
With this, he rose from his chair, a lethargic groan escaping his lip as he stretched, a few clicks and cracks resounding from his joints.
"Put a pause on the presentation, Gideon."
"Very well, Mr Bond."
With this, Gideon retracted back into the diamond device, returning the small storage room to its quiet darkness, absent of her soft blue illumination.
"Eclipse…"
-BLOP
A small and spherical piece of obsidian slime appeared on the palm of Derek's hand as he leaned closer, whispering something.
"...Get to work, boys." He finished, watching the slime leap off his hand.
When it touched the ground, a small "GLOB" rang out as the slime split into a dozen tiny pieces, scattering and soon disappearing into the darkness.
"Now, it's probably a good idea to see which episode Team Flash is suffering through." He thought, despite already knowing the answer.
***
"This is bad."
Derek walked into the cortex, the main headquarters where Team Flash usually worked, looking around as the scene he'd only ever seen on screen still fascinated him.
He was quick to witness all of team Flash, from Barry to Wells and even Joe, staring at one of the many monitors beside a vertical rectangle on the wall which seemed to stand out from the rest of the wall, protruding outward.
But Derek knew this was just the glass casing where Barry put his Flash suit, hidden from him.
"We need to catch this Meta as soon as possible. It's the only chance we have at helping Eddie."
Joe commented as they all watched the dashcam footage of a blonde-haired man with blue eyes and rough stubble that added a masculine charm to his looks, wearing a suit and standing beside a police officer.
But in the next second, the blonde male, or rather Eddie as they knew him, raised the gun in his hand, shooting the officer then turning to the camera and shooting once again.
'Hannibal Bates.'
Derek thought upon seeing the footage.
He remembered this footage from the episode after the mini crossover between the Flash, Ray and Felicity.
'A Meta who can transform into anyone he touches. "Everyman" they called him.'
However, what Derek was really focused on was how quickly the events of this episode were moving.
'I guess it's because Cisco and Joe were supposed to be out looking for the real Wells' corpse in Starling City, which they find.'
However, because of Derek's interference, Barry hasn't yet told Cisco and Caitlin about his suspicions of Wells, therefore setting back the story.
'Though, I'm sure he'll tell them soon. After they almost died on the railroad trying to help the city and Ray, his trust in them should have increased.'
Because all hands were on deck, they were proceeding quite fast.
Eddie was only framed and put into custody later in the episode after Flash was unsuccessful in catching Bates.
'Though he should have. A lot of people hate the Flash because Barry somehow finds a way to make an overpowered ability just…meh, but things are different.'
'This is no longer a show where writers force plots and are looking to drag out episodes and seasons. His stupidity should no longer be a problem…right?'
Thinking about it, Derek hadn't yet seen Flash in action. But if he played this episode right, he'd be able to get a live performance that he could only dream of in his past.
"Derek, how are you feeling?"
All attention turned to the dazed Derek as Joe noticed him. They hadn't seen each other since the day Ray and Felicity left.
And from the heavy bandages still on Derek's arms and around his head, it didn't seem like he was much better.
Which was true.
Derek's body was still that of a human. He needed time to heal from heavy injuries.
Despite this, he answered with a smile.
"Better. It'd be pretty neat if my Eclipse came with a healing factor. Imagine healing from injuries in just a few hours."
The others all smiled for the same reason as their eyes shifted to Barry for a second.
"Alright, we'll need to split up. Cisco, do you think you can find all records of similar cases to this one?" Barry asked, to which Cisco immediately nodded, leaving to start.
"I think I can make something to counteract the effects of Bates' shapeshifting," Caitlin added, to which Barry nodded.
"Barry, let's go. We have to meet with D.A. Cecile Horton to discuss Eddie's charges. Last I heard Iris was there too."
"What if she left to look for us at home?" Barry opposed, to which Joe's eyes slowly turned to Derek.
"Derek, you need a place to stay, don't you." Joe walked to the boy, pulled out a key and handed it to Derek.
"Welcome to the West residence. Your room will be up the stairs, the first room to your right."
"While you're there, if you find Iris, call me and keep her busy." Derek nodded, smiling rather enthusiastically.
Not because he finally had a place to stay. No, he'd gathered a few thousand dollars from pickpocketing.
And not because he was finally meeting Iris. No, that would have the opposite effect on what he's feeling right now.
Thankfully, he knew she wasn't there.
Instead, he realized this episode would be considerably shorter than it was supposed to be.
***
-CREAK
Derek stepped inside the home, the door creaking slightly, hinting at the age of the abode.
The warmth of the space wrapped around him like a familiar embrace.
The soft glow of the lamps illuminated the cosy living room, where artfully arranged furniture invited relaxation.
He paused at the threshold, taking in the rich wooden beams overhead and the subtle scent of home-cooked meals lingering in the air, which he knew to be Joe's doing since the latter was known to be quite the chef.
"Iris!" Derek yelled just to make sure, closing the door behind him.
But silence prevailed as he continued inward, slumping onto one of the couches.
With a pause, he raised his hand as Eclipse formed on his palm.
With just a thought, Eclipse parted from its centre, revealing a blue glow as Derek was quick to pull out a long vial with a shining blue liquid.
The scene looked almost comical when noticing the vial far larger than the slime was stored inside.
But Derek ignored this as he stared.
'That was quick. I guess I shouldn't be surprised since I had dozens of my Eclipse scouring STAR Labs.'
The Mirakuru Cure.
During the Mirakuru Outbreak last year in Starling City, or as Derek knew it, season 2 of Arrow, Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke created an army of super soldiers to level the city.
Team Arrow sought out help from STAR Labs to find a cure for Mirakuru. This is what Derek had in his hand.
'They also sent STAR Labs a sample of Mirakuru. I wish I could have that instead, but all traces of Mirakuru were wiped from the face of this earth. Oliver Queen made sure of that.'
But he decided to work with what he had.
'If I can somehow find a way to reverse engineer this Cure, I'll have a better chance at creating it.'
Not only that, he needed to modify Mirakuru.
He'd rather not have to deal with the rage-inducing insanity that would come once in his body.
'It won't be easy. Mirakuru is already considered impossible to even create, let alone modify. The greatest minds like Anthony Ivo tried and failed.'
'Not to mention that'll all be useless if a random person can just inject me with this cure and make me a normal human again.'
But one step at a time. First, he had to create it.
-KNOCK KNOCK
Derek paused as he heard a knock at the door. And as he did, he failed to hide his wide smile.
He leapt off the couch, tossing the cure back into Eclipse as he walked toward the door.
'How did Barry get caught? I think it was…'
-CREAK
"Hey, Eddie." Derek spoke subtly with a bland smile on his face upon seeing the blonde-haired man with blue eyes standing at the door.
"Hey..."
Eddie looked down, seeing the boy pointing his index finger straight at him like a gun.
"Goodbye Eddie."
-BLOP
A small ball of slime formed before Derek's finger, and in the next second, it shot out like a bullet, striking Eddie in the forehead as the latter's head flicked backward, unable to react while his eyes rolled to the back of his skull.
'I wonder if I'm breaking some sort of universal law by beating a CW villain this early.'
Derek thought jokingly, standing over Eddie as he stared at him with a mischievous smile.
"You have a nice ability. Let me borrow it."