Artificial Speed Force

For other uses of "Speed Force", see Speed Force (disambiguation).

Artificial Speed Force
Information
Methods of use	Artificial Speed Force machine

The artificial Speed Force, also known as the A.S.F., is an artificial extra-dimensional energy source that was created by Team Flash sometime after the death of the original Speed Force, in order to permanently restore Barry Allen's powers.

The artificial Speed Force was destroyed after Barry damaged the artificial Speed Force machine because it caused him to harm Iris West-Allen when he retrieved her from the Mirrorverse.

On Earth-4125, Ryan Wilder/Red Death created her own artificial Speed Force in order to give herself the powers of a speedster.

Overview

The artificial Speed Force was powered by the multiversal particles that resided inside of Harrison Nash Wells following the Anti-Monitor Crisis.

Since Team Flash didn't want to make the same mistake that Eobard Thawne made with his Speed Force machine, they didn't use emotions to stabilize the artificial Speed Force. However, this caused users of the artificial Speed Force to lose their emotional response and to rely only on logic when making decisions.

History

Team Flash's version

After the death of the original Speed Force, Barry Allen and Team Flash decided to use Nora West-Allen's journal, which contained knowledge of the Negative Speed Force taught to her by Eobard Thawne, to create their own Speed Force. Using this knowledge, they built a machine that would be able to create a new Speed Force.

Later, with Iris West-Allen trapped in the Mirrorverse and Eva McCulloch targeting Black Hole, Barry became obsessed with creating the artificial Speed Force so he could regain his speed. With the help of Chester P. Runk, Harrison Nash Wells, and Allegra Garcia, Barry was able to create the artificial Speed Force, although it cost him Nash's life. The artificial Speed Force eventually caused Barry to lose his emotional response and to rely only on logic when making decisions. After that loss of emotion caused Barry to harm Iris when he retrieved her from the Mirrorverse, he threw lightning at the artificial Speed Force machine, damaging it and destroying the artificial Speed Force in the process.

When Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow discussed the possibility of finding a way to fix the artificial Speed Force machine in order to restore the artificial Speed Force, Barry quickly rejected the idea.

Red Death's version

On Earth-4125, Ryan Wilder was able to create her own artificial Speed Force by mining data from the Flash's suit.

Physical manifestations

Lightning coloration

Once a speedster makes a connection with the artificial Speed Force, their speed is physically manifested through the lightning/electricity that trails from their bodies as they run.

• Yellow: Yellow lightning represents a pure or natural connection to the artificial Speed Force. Simultaneously, as speedsters continue to develop their powers, such as Barry Allen, they eventually begin to exhibit a more orange coloring.
• Blue: Blue lightning generation is the result of an individual speedster who artificially enhances an existing artificial Speed Force connection, or by artificially gaining access to the artificial Speed Force through a strong enough dosage of the Velocity drug.
• Red: After Ryan Wilder created her own artificial Speed Force in order to give herself the powers of a speedster, she emitted red lightning.

The Flash emitting yellow lightning

Frost emitting blue lightning

The Red Death emitting red lightning

Eye transformation

By tapping into the power of the artificial Speed Force, speedsters can cause their eyes to transform in some way, such as by filling them with yellow electricity, which can cause the surrounding skin to glow yellow.

Yellow lightning flickering in Barry Allen's eyes

Powers and abilities

Powers

Speedster powers

The only powers listed below are the ones that differ between the artificial Speed Force and the Speed Force. For all of the powers that a speedster can have, see Speed Force powers.

The artificial Speed Force, like the Speed Force, enhances all movement, momentum, and force exerting capabilities of its user, down to a microscopic level, as well as giving the user conscious control over it. This enhances overall acceleration, agility, reflexes, coordination, balance, and reaction time to inhuman levels. In addition, the body becomes conditioned beyond human potential, allowing them to handle extreme physical exertion and performance, which is also enhanced.

• Superhuman intelligence: Team Flash's artificial Speed Force boosted Barry's intelligence to superhuman levels. This enhanced intelligence enabled him to analyze every variable in every scenario and to solve any problem presented to him with swift accuracy.
• Speed Force dampening: Red Death's artificial Speed Force gave her the ability to temporarily dampen another speedster's speed.

Weaknesses

Speedster weaknesses

The only weaknesses listed below are the ones that differ between the artificial Speed Force and the Speed Force. For all of the weaknesses that a speedster can have, see Speed Force weaknesses.

Like with the Speed Force, speedsters may show one or more weaknesses despite their connection to the artificial Speed Force. Whether this hints towards inherent limitations of the artificial Speed Force itself or just to limitations of its users' control over their connection to it, is not known for certain, but the latter seems more likely.

• Lack of emotions: Users of the artificial Speed Force lose their emotional response and rely only on logic while making decisions. The reason this happens is because emotions were not used to stabilize the artificial Speed Force in order to prevent any emotional fallout.

Artificial Speed Force weaknesses

The only weaknesses listed below are the ones that differ between the artificial Speed Force and the Speed Force. For all of the weaknesses that a speed force can have, see Speed Force weaknesses.

Even though the artificial Speed Force is a powerful, extra-dimensional energy source, it still has some weaknesses.

• Artificial Speed Force machine: The existence of the artificial Speed Force is dependent on the artificial Speed Force machine. If the machine is shut off or damaged, users of the artificial Speed Force will lose their powers. This was seen when Barry Allen used lightning to damage the machine after retrieving Iris West-Allen from the Mirrorverse.

Known users

• Barry Allen/The Flash (co-creator; temporarily; returned to using the original Speed Force)
• Caitlin Snow/Frost (temporarily; using Velocity X)
• Ryan Wilder/Red Death (creator of her own artificial Speed Force)

Appearances

The Flash

Season 6 "The Exorcism of Nash Wells" (mentioned) "Liberation" (mentioned) "Pay the Piper" (mentioned) Season 7 "All's Wells That Ends Wells" "The Speed of Thought" "Mother" (mentioned) "Timeless" (mentioned) Season 8 "Armageddon, Part 2" (mentioned) "Reckless" (mentioned) "Death Falls" (flashbacks) "The Man in the Yellow Tie" (indirectly mentioned) Season 9 "The Mask of the Red Death, Part 1" (mentioned)

Trivia

• According to Barry Allen, the artificial Speed Force is completely different from Eobard Thawne's Negative Speed Force.
  • Cisco Ramon later confirmed this when he revealed that emotions were not used to stabilize the artificial Speed Force, but negative emotions were used to stabilize Thawne's Negative Speed Force.
• As noted by Cisco, the artificial Speed Force didn't just give Barry his old powers back, it gave him a new one as well.