46 The Power of Flashing

Thomas had been in Experimental Lab Two with Major General Hughes and the three scientists since his breakthrough earlier. Alan Turing had run into the lab with his strange headpiece that Thomas had to wear when they were monitoring his brainwaves, Bernard Katz came in with all of his complicated charts and papers, while Elaine Schubert was on standby, ready to take blood samples and other things for analysis. They were all excited, having watched Thomas "flash" past the Major General again.

"This is..quite simply amazing. It is just as we predicted when we first began investigating his strange ability to travel between time lines, of course that was involuntary and this...this is all voluntary!" Doctor Katz was spraying saliva everywhere while ranting about how god-like Thomas's abilities were.

"You were right Doctor Katz, my device is reading that every time he activates his power, his Cerebellum is lighting up like a Christmas Tree! It is quite amazing. Usually activities involving the Cerebellum happen unconsciously, mostly during sleep. He is utilizing his Cerebellum consciously and actively to bring about this miracle!" Doctor Turing exclaimed! Doctor Turing was feverishly inputting data into the massive machine he assembled just an hour ago. He was getting more proficient at setting up his new technology which he has taken to calling a "computer". Given more time he could probably simplify it more and then it would just be a year or two before he could fabricate them on an industrial scale.

"Hmm, I wonder if activating his powers, his potential, has somehow altered his blood, or perhaps something else within his body." Doctor Elaine mused as she shifted her stance to lean more against the glass partition they had set up in the lab. "We may see more bodily changes as his body adapts to let him wield this power more fluently, and more frequently as well."

Meanwhile as the doctors were musing, Thomas was becoming more exhausted by profound use of his powers, sweat was gushing out of his body more and more as he used every ounce and every fiber of his being. He found it fascinating how it worked, he didn't tunnel through space, there was no warping of the fabric of reality. He simply thought about being somewhere and he was there. Of course it had to be somewhere he could see, he couldn't simply just appear in his quarters on the other side of the complex. Maybe with more practice and time, he'd be able to appear anywhere he wished as long as he could visualize it, just like his favorite super heroes.

Of course, Thomas couldn't begin to comprehend the amount of stress he was putting on his body. Neither did the doctors for one, they all thought it was marvelous, but in reality, Thomas was actually utilizing his muscles at twenty times their power to shift his mass from one spot to the next, it was instantaneous, much like a speeding bullet, but faster than the eye can see. Invisibly the damage was building up, no power was free, everything came with risks as well as rewards. Just as Thomas flashed one more time, he felt the muscles in his legs breaking apart, the pain was immense and the doctors all stared at him in alarm as he collapsed on the ground convulsing and screaming in pain. For Thomas, the pain lasted for what seemed like hours before he passed out, every muscle and fiber in his legs were stretching and tearing to pieces while simultaneously rebuilding themselves. His Cerebellum was acting at max power, quickly and efficiently utilizing his body's self-repair at a faster rate than normal to build his muscles as quickly as they tear. His legs were strengthening themselves. He passed out in seconds after this occurred.

"QUICK!!! SOMEBODY GET A STRETCHER!!" Doctor Elaine cried as she grabbed her medical tools, she always kept them on hand for emergencies like this. She quickly ran to Thomas and ripped off his shirt, she checked his pulse, it was steady, but there was no time to understand why. She checked his heartbeat and vitals, all steady and slightly above normal. She was absolutely confused, he should have had a far more elevated heartbeat, but something was keeping his body in check. She would need to x-ray his body with the new machine to find out what was wrong with him.

Soon Thomas Conlin was loaded on to a stretcher carefully by two of the strongest soldiers in the base who were then sworn to secrecy by Major General Hughes at the highest levels of security. No one but Eisenhower and the two sponsors in the senate could make these two soldiers ever divulge what happened here. They were now under pain of death penalty should they reveal this to anyone else. They swiftly arrived at the medical facility and Thomas was loaded into the x-ray machine, his body was covered with a new heavy blanket like object. Something Doctor Katz insisted on using, it was made with special materials as he decided the x-ray machine could have radioactive properties, something he and another scientist were studying when they were theorizing about how nuclear power could affect the brain. Doctor Katz would never know how close his theories were to the realities of life and his insistence would save Thomas's body in the future.

As soon as they switched on the x-ray machine they noticed that the bones in his leg were constantly fracturing and rebuilding at an inhumanly possible rate.They all inferred that his musculature must be going through the same thing, they couldn't possibly imagine how much pain he was in at that particular moment. Doctor Elaine showed a trace of sympathy for Thomas before she gathered herself, a needle, and some test tubes. She needed to take blood samples for science of course! Alan was taking in the data at extreme speeds, as much as he could record. Bernard was of course trying to hypothesize why the Cerebellum was acting this way since it was a gateway for dreams, but really he also didn't have an answer, what he was seeing defied every scientific explanation in history. Everything that happened this day would be filed and sealed away for decades under the code-name: Flash. Rumors of what happened today would also spawn a new superhero based on supersonic speeds everyone would all later know as The Flash.