Oh, the one-shot obsession! I think there should be more 'Cisco is the Vibe' stories out there, so I wrote one. I would like to thank mosylu for letting me use her idea. If any readers have any ideas for a sequel maybe or any changes to the story, please PM me.
DISCLAIMER- I DO NOT OWN THE FLASH OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS!
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Like most, Cisco's life had taken a turn both for the better and the worse when the Particle Accelerator exploded. For some, like Caitlin, the love of her life had died (but in this case was really alive the whole time). Dr. Wells had lost the use of his legs, and what was supposed to be the biggest night of his life turned on him like a pack of wolves, leaving him a former shell of his previous self. And Barry was in a freaking coma for nine months, while his crush of fourteen years began to date another guy.
But they each gained things as well. Barry had adjusted to his speed and felt lost without it, it was such a big part of his life. Caitlin had found a new family, meeting new people and creating a closer bond with Cisco than before. Dr. Wells… well, to be honest, he wasn't sure what exactly he gained, but if he had to guess, it would be a new purpose in life. He had proved essential to the team, even if Cisco didn't fully trust him, especially after the dreams he had been having.
His head shot up as the microwave timer went off, signaling that his favorite food was ready. He mentally shook off the thoughts that clung to his mind like a stubborn spider web. In reality, he spent a lot of time in his head thinking, it's just when he was around other people that his mouth started to take over. When he was alone he could control his mind, but the constant chatter of other people drew him away from his thoughts.
He frowned as he stared at his plate of nachos, a pile of sour cream and cheese and hot sauce and jalapenos dumped on top on the crispy chips. There was once a time where he wouldn't have hesitated for a second before diving in, but as he sat at his kitchen table, he found himself pushing around the strange concoction into an unappetizing mess of red, green, and yellow.
He pushed the plate away from him, wincing as the ceramic created a harsh scraping noise, bringing an awful taste to his tongue. He got up and glared at the plate, his sleep deprived eyes dry and gritty as he walked to the sink. He filled his glass to the brim, sighing as the soft gurgling of the water calmed his frustration and sent the image of a serene blue to his mind.
He sighed once more, remembering when he had started to notice the aftereffects of the explosion on people's lives. On his life.
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A month had passed since his world had been turned upside down. Walking through the curved concrete hallways to the center of the building (the Control Room, as Cisco liked to think of it) he wondered if anyone else was going to stay. Only a handful of S.T.A.R Labs employees remained, and most of them already had plans to leave once the final reports were done. Dr. Wells, the head honcho of the team, was finally out of the hospital, just to go straight to a wheelchair.
As he walked through the hallway, he whistled a merry tune, nodding his head to the beat. He had taken it upon himself to keep the cheer alive in a rather desolate place. He entered to roughly circular room, his pace stepping up as he saw Caitlin in the corner. She was alone, sorting through several papers.
As he looked at her, there was a pang in his heart when he saw the defeated expression on her face. He himself was guilty of sealing her now dead fiance into the pipeline, in turn saving innumerable lives in the process. He had learned long ago that, for him, the best way to deal with pain was to crack a joke, no matter how cheesy. But now was not the time for that.
"Hey. You okay?" he asked gently. She broke her look of concentration to focus on Cisco's face, nodding quickly.
"Yeah. I'm okay. Just tired." she said, waving him off. He frowned and narrowed his eyes, the undertone in her voice telling him otherwise. She started to walk off, the click-click-click of her heels bugging him slightly.
"You sure?" he questioned, carefully putting his hand on her arm to stop her.
She jerked her arm away, her cold disposition turning into frost bite. "Yes. I'm sure." Cisco shook his head, contradicting her. Loud and clear, he could hear the catch in her voice, the ever so slight waver in pitch.
"No you're not. Don't think about lying again." he said. She sighed, her eyes tearing up. "Hey hey hey, don't cry. What's wrong Cait?" he said softly as she brushed a drop off her cheek. If anyone else had tried to call her that, she would have tried to bite their arm off (figuratively of course). But ever since Caitlin had taken him under her wing on his first day at S.T.A.R. Labs, they had shared a special kind of relationship. They were a kind of brother and sister, best friends through the thick and thin.
She shook her head, breaking down. Immediately, Cisco put an arm around her, just holding her as her body shook, sobbing like he had never heard someone sob before. She gasped out, "Ronnie…", then fell silent again. He didn't say anything, gently letting her cry. It wasn't the first time she had broken down, but it was never this bad before.
Soon, it subsided into quiet shudders, and she sniffed as she pulled away. She wiped at her eyes, only saying a small, "Thanks." He could hear the warmth in her voice, and he knew that she really meant it.
"Anytime, Cait. Anytime." he replied. She straightened up, regaining some of the professional air about her and said, "I'm gonna go check on Barry." Out of the four remaining employees, only himself and Caitlin had plans to stay, to take care of Coma Dude. The poor guy had been struck by lightning and sent into a coma, but that wasn't all. They had some suspicions about the effects of it, but wanted to go into depth when only Dr. Wells, Caitlin and himself stayed.
He followed her and resumed his whistling. It seemed to echo much more loudly, but he imagined when the place was filled to the brim with papers and people, the noise drowning out any whistle echo. He shrugged and bounced into Bartholomew's room. He sniggered, wondering why anybody would name their kid that.
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It had been a long day for Cisco, and about to become even longer still. Caitlin was sick with the flu, and Dr. Wells was out on a business trip, so it was his job to watch over Barry. He had been in the coma for seven months now.
He didn't see what the big deal was, it wasn't like he was just going to get up and walk away ("But what if he wakes up?" Caitlin protested) but he was forced to stay overnight and through the morning.
He stopped just outside of the guy's room, plopping his pillow and blanket on the floor and setting down his laptop. Hey, might as well make it a movie night and splurge on candy. Nobody was there to stop him. He unwrapped a candybar and unrolled his blanket.
Hours later, he yawned and shut the laptop down. His eyes swam with multi colored lights, and he rubbed them to get rid of the dancing swirls that had become more and more common. They faded fairly quickly, as they usually did, and he settled down for the night, scrunching his blanket up between his arms. He had been noting that colors swirled at the edge of his vision, but he always ignored them since he didn't notice them until he was really focusing.
It was nice. For once, besides the regular beeps coming from the heart monitor, it was silent. Nearly everyday, he was surrounded by noise. Even in his apartment, there was always something making a sound. He slowly drifted off to sleep, ignoring the blips from the corner.
Cisco woke up sharply. He looked around to see what had gotten him up. As far as he could tell, there was nothing in the room besides Barry and the equipment. The bleeps were still steady, the A/C slowly humming in the background. He got up to check what time it was.
Ugh. 5:30 in the morning. He was about to go back to sleep when something in the corner of his vision caught his eye. It was purple-ish, and very faint, like looking through a glass window. He blinked and stepped forward, trying to figure out what the heck he was looking at. As he got closer, it became more and more opaque until he could hardly see through it, pulsing and fading, then regaining it's color. He was about to take another step when he almost crashed into the heart monitor.
Beep. Beep. As he looked at the… thing, he noticed that it held a steady beat to the sound of the monitor. Almost as if they were connected.
He said, "What?" out loud and froze when a burst of red swamped his vision. He turned his head toward the A/C, a light gray hue emitting from it. He slowly turned in a circle, colors and sounds coming from various places. He looked down as he stomped onto the concrete floor. A wave of orange rippled from his foot.
He smiled. Cool.
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Cisco was going to tell them. Really, he was. He had learned that he had synesthesia, when some your senses get all mixed up and you can feel purple and see sounds. His condition was the latter, though he often wondered what lilac would taste like, but he knew what it sounded like. It was interesting to see when visual colors and sound colors would coordinate (like the sound of water was most often blue) and when they clashed (wind was light yellow/green).
His plans, though, were interrupted by the awakening of Barry Allen, and the chaos that had followed. They had been busy with months of dealing with meta-humans, and the return of Ronnie with Stein along in tow. He had forgotten about his plans, and when they did return to his mind, he told himself that he would explain it when everything calmed down.
In the midst of everything that was happening, Cisco had gotten better at recognizing the different patterns of color and sound, and, as he discovered one day at a party, taste and smell too. He had fun listening to the radio, the colors, smells, and tastes providing no chance for boredom to emerge. He often reflected on what Ariana Grande's voice tasted like, and what different string instruments' color was based on size. Needless to say, he was having fun.
One of the only drawbacks was that his hearing seemed to be getting better, and that was pretty cool too, except when the noise was already too loud. Standing in a crowded room for a few minutes gave him a headache, so he rarely went to coffee with Caitlin anymore.
"Come on Cisco, it will be fun!" she said, so different than she was just six months ago. More outgoing, more relaxed. But he just shook his head at her offer, turning back to the upgrades he was working on.
That was a week ago. Now he was in what used to be Barry's room, working on a project of his. It wasn't big, but he hoped that the defibrillator he was installing in the suit would prove to be useful. Just in case Barry's heart would ever stop for some reason. The heater was turned up, the smooth sound a warm green filling the air.
He set down his tools and stood up, wincing as he put all his weight on his left leg, which had fallen asleep. He hissed as the pain shot up, walking a few steps, pausing, then walking a few more.
As he was doing so, he let his mind wander to nicknames. He had been experimenting with some, in case there was anyone in the future he could apply it to. Snart had lead to his sister, and he wondered if there was a girl meta that could control ice. That would be cool, and soon he came up with the perfect name. Killer Frost.
He also frowned when he thought back to the people who had named themselves, like the Trickster. He hated it when he didn't have a chance to try out his skills. Like Hartley.
Oh, he hated him with a passion. Not only was he rude, mean, and the biggest jerk of all time, he looked like Harry Potter, which was not cool man, not cool. Ever since that first day, he had made it his mission to torture the newbie, often making fun of his heritage and long hair.
He clenched his fist, still angry at his attempted escape and obnoxious attitude. However, as he did, the familiar colors present in the room turned to their opposite color on the color wheel. He stopped. There was nothing in the room besides himself, nothing that could have done that.
Except… He thought back a few mental words. Himself.
He made a fist again, watching as the colors and tastes changed for a split second before relaxing. Everything returned to normal. He raised his hand slowly, watching as the sensations became bolded, then lowered it as everything faded. He smiled, clapping his hands together softly, the trying to direct them at the wall.
Nothing happened. Taking a breath, he raised his hands, palms out, and concentrated. He wasn't sure what exactly he was trying to do, but a few seconds later, light blue was emitted from his hands, a hum filling the air. Experimentally, he shoved his hands forward. A loud crash was heard as a glass was broken, the vibrations causing it to break.
Oops.
"Cisco?" Barry called from another room. "Everything okay?" With a sheepish look on his face, he yelled back, "Yeah, sorry. I dropped something."
He looked at his hands, amazed. One of the first things that popped into his head was a name. He thought for a moment, then used his super special skills to come up with the perfect name.
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He sipped at his water, glancing at the clock. It read just after two in the morning.
To put it simply, he couldn't sleep. His hearing had become even sharper, to the point where it was almost impossible to get any sleep in a building next to a busy street. Noise boxes didn't work, as he could hear the internal mechanisms working. And noise boxes were almost all electric.
He tried noise cancelling earbuds once. Big mistake. The sound would bounce off the earbuds, but he could still hear the tiny vibrations bouncing around. Even feel them, he had become so sensitive. All he gained from them was a big fat headache that didn't let up for three days.
Nothing seemed to work. He had barely gotten any shut eye for the past week and it was really taking it's toll on him. Instead of a gift, it seemed more like a burden.
He set the glass down and shuffled back to bed. He didn't bother turning on any lights, not when the barely audible footsteps he was making echoed around the space and sent back a mental picture. Biosonar, yet another thing the explosion had given him. He now acknowledged it.
He was a meta.
He wasn't sure how he felt about it. He was clearly a good meta, maybe in the future he could team up with Barry. But until he could get his stupid powers under control, he was stuck.
Right now, he could do nothing more than raise and lower the pitch of something and increase and lower the frequency of the air around him. He had tried to make a cup of sound to cover his ears, but that ended in a disaster. He knew he could do so much more, but 'more' usually meant things breaking. He wanted to ask for help, he just wasn't sure how.
He sighed a very un-Cisco like sigh, rubbing his eyes and trying, hoping, to fall asleep for more than two hours.
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He had no such luck.
He got, at most, three hours of sleep that night. He was exhausted, almost stumbling into the control room. Team Flash looked up at his arrival.
Caitlin was the first to speak. "Oh my gosh Cisco, you look terrible. Are you sick?" She ran over and placed a hand on his forehead like his mamá did when he was younger and he had a fever. He pushed her off.
"Hey, I'm okay, I just didn't sleep that well last night." he protested. She frowned. "Cisco, I think you should lay down. You really don't look good. He shook his head. She sighed. "Cisco, just go lay down please." At his doubtful look, she added, "For me?" He trudged over to Barry's old room, which was nice and dark. He lied down and blinked, the soft sound of his breath giving him the general shape of the room and the things inside of it.
Barry walked in and Cisco raised his head. "Hey, sorry to do this, but we have to test out the fire alarms. Today is the last day we can do that before the inspectors come."
At the words fire alarm, he shot out of his bed. Caitlin was just about to activate them electronically when he burst out, clinging to the door frame as the blood rushed to his head.
"No, don't turn them on!" he shouted. Dr. Wells frowned at his expression, as did Caitlin.
"Cisco, it's going to be over in less than a minute. You'll be fine." she said, and then she pressed the enter button.
Pain. All he remembered was pain.
As soon as the alarms started to scream, he covered his ears and shouted, "No! Make it stop! TURN IT OFF!"
Red overtook his vision. He could smell and taste a sick metal, kind of like pennies, the copper making him nauseated. Vibrations usually pressed against him softly, but now it pounded against his head, like jackhammers into concrete.
He leaned against the door frame, sinking to the floor as he muttered over and over again, "Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop."
After about ten seconds, Caitlin shut it off, out of concern for her friend. Cisco was huddled, his chin to his knees, still muttering, "Make it stop."
He felt like he was going to throw up. He started to retch, coughing every few seconds. Barry used his speed to grab a trash can and set it next to him. He threw up, pushing the can away after a few seconds. He tucked his head between his knees, starting to cry softly. He was visibly shaking, his breath shuddering.
Dr. Wells pushed the joystick forward on his wheelchair to get closer, but Cisco immediately said, "No, don't make any sounds. Just, for one minute." His head pounded, making him light headed. Just the gentle hum of a wheelchair made him feel like he was going to puke again.
Slowly, he stopped crying, but he stayed in his current position. A minute had passed, and Barry softly asked, "Cisco, what's going on?"
He didn't reply, shutting his eyes tightly, as if he could make them disappear. Barry sat down cross legged a few feet away from him, and Caitlin did the same. She set her hand down on his shoulder, pulling back when he winced.
"Come on Cisco. What is going on?" she asked.
He looked up, his face wet. Sniffing, he took a shuddering breath.
"You have no idea how lucky you are."
They looked at each other. What did that mean?
"You guys can't hear every single little thing. You guys can't see the things that I have to live with every moment of every day. You guys can sleep through one stupid night without being woken up by something five stories up." He wiped his eyes, the pain in his head subsiding.
"You guys have no idea about the power of silence." he finished. Barry and Caitlin looked at each other, seeing if the other had any idea of what he meant. Barry shrugged and Caitlin shook her head.
Barry said, "Cisco, what does that mean?" he asked, becoming more confused by the minute.
"I have synesthesia." he admitted. Caitlin immediately felt bad.
"Cisco, I am so sorry, I had no idea, I-"
"But that's not all." he interrupted. "Ever since the explosion, my hearing has gotten way better, a lot more enhanced. It's kind of cool, except when there are loud noises, it sounds forty eight times louder for me." He had figured it out a couple weeks ago, with an app he designed himself.
He fell silent as they processed his words. Barry gasped. "Oh my gosh, Cisco…" he trailed off. He couldn't have imagined the kind of pain that he had gone through. Fire alarms by themselves were painful, but with enhanced hearing ever since the explosion…
Barry frowned. Ever since the explosion?
He continued, "Sometimes I can control it, but I have to be really focused, and I kind of panicked, so I couldn't do it."
Caitlin reached the same conclusion as Barry. "Wait. Are you…?"
He nodded. Silently, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of metal in the shape of an upside down T. Placing it on the floor, he asked, "Can someone get some tape?" Barry sped off and returned a second later with a roll. If he didn't tape it down, it would just slide against the floor. He had made it to try and control his powers, taking a piece of light metal and bending it.
He taped it to the floor with the stem sticking up. Barry wanted to ask what he was doing, but he waited.
Placing out a hand, he sighed, concentrating. Long before anyone could hear it, he saw a silvery wave rise from the thin metal. A low hum buzzed through the air as it vibrated, blurred to the eye. With his left hand, he raised and lowered the pitch. After a few seconds, he stopped.
"Woah." Barry breathed. Caitlin's eyes were bigger than the moon.
Cisco sighed. "It's just I can't stop the noise. I've tried everything but nothing works." His eyes teared up again as he fought to keep from crying.
Barry extended a hand, pulling him up. Then he reached out and gave him a hug. Caitlin joined in, wrapping her arm around the two of them.
"Cisco." Barry said. "You can do this. We're gonna get through this. Together." He let go to see Cisco smile.
"Thanks." The words were smokey, a warm orange filling his vision.
Dr. Wells rolled up. "And don't forget about me." Cisco nodded. Wells paused. "And, because it is your thing, I must ask, what is your name?"
He laughed at his predictability. The name he had chosen was purple, tasting like cool mint and sweet chocolate on his tongue.
"My name is Vibe."