The Artificial Speed Force was an artificial extradimensional field of energy which was created by Team Flash after they channeled the Multiversal energies of the Harrison Wells' dopplegangers within Nash Wells into the Artificial Speed Force machine which powered the energy source. After Team Flash discovered that the Artificial Speed Force mentally altered Barry Allen/The Flash who harmed Iris West to bring her back to Earth-Prime, the Scarlet Speedster destroyed the machine as well as the Artificial Speed Force.
History
In the aftermath of the death of the Speed Force as the result being corrupted by the Spectre's energy,[2] every speedster, including Barry Allen/The Flash, began losing his powers; inspired by the Negative Speed Force which powered the Reverse Flash, Team Flash began working on their own artificial energy source, an Artificial Speed Force, that would have restored Barry's powers.
Team Flash managed to build the Artificial Speed Force machine and tried to power it up to generate the extradimensional field but, the machine did not work as they expected:[3] as Cisco Ramon discovered that they missed a piece, he left to retrieve it in Atlantis.[4]
After the return of Eva McCulloch, Barry enlisted the help of Chester P. Runk and Allegra Garcia to make the machine work: however, Nash Wells discovered that his life energy and the Multiversal residues of the Wells within him were the only thing that could activate the machine. Eventually, Nash Wells sacrificed himself to channel the Multiversal energy into the Fusion Sphere that activated the Speed Force machine, creating the Artificial Speed Force.[1] By tapping into this energy source, Barry Allen regained all of his powers, including a brand new ability, the speed thinking which made him almost omniscient.[5]
Despite gifting him an enhanced intellect, the Artificial Speed Force deprived Barry from his emotions as he became a cold version of himself who wanted to achieve his goal in any ways: Team Flash realized that there was something wrong with Barry as he decided to sacrifice Kamilla Hwang and David Singh in order to retrieve Iris West that would have helped him defeat Eva McCulloch; they turned against him but were eventually defeated by Barry.[5]
After forcefully extracting Iris from the Mirrorverse which left her catatonic, a broken Barry launched a lightning at the Artificial Speed Force machine, destroying it along with the Artificial Speed Force.[5]
Trivia
- The Artificial Speed Force removed Barry's emotions and gifted him a superhuman intelligence, making him very similar to the Thinker after he was empowered by his cap.