Sitting in the cortex, Caitlin was listening to HR tell a story about his latest book. He had just got up to the part where a meta had attacked the city using mirror abilities, so she already knew how the story ended, but with HR you never really knew what kind of twist he would put in the story. As he got to the part where the Mirror Master had just locked him in the mirror, the alarms blared. Looking to the monitor Caitlin could see that there was a robbery in progress. Why couldn't metas take a day off
"Is it the Central City Bank?" Barry asked as he rushed in at lighting speed.
Caitlin checked the monitor. "No, it's the jewelry store on Clemson Avenue."
Cisco who had just walked in hurried to the computer. "The police are already on their way l."
Caitlin couldn't help but feel a little bit of dread as Barry changed and zipped to the scene; what if this meta was dangerous? Her mind flashed back to Zoom and all the carnage he'd caused. Shaking her head she forced the memories away and focused as Barry announced his arrival over the comms.
Before Caitlin could say anything HR beat her to the punch, "Do you see the meta anywhere, BA?"
A few seconds ticked by before Barry answered, "Yeah, I got eyes on him." Even though she was safe at STAR Labs, Caitlin couldn't help but feel her heart pounding rapidly in her chest. "It looks like he has some kind of magnetic ability."
"What makes you think that?" Cisco, just like her sounded confused.
"Well because almost all the jewelry is stuck to him along with people's keys."
Cisco and Caitlin exchanged looks.
"What if we got a giant magnet and cancelled out his magnetic field?" Barry suggested, sounding desperate and Caitlin could understand why. If this meta wanted he could bring the whole building down, killing a lot of people. "Guys I really need an answer, he just grabbed a kid hostage."
Feeling the pressure Caitlin turned to Cisco who seemed to be going through the same thing she was. Taking a glance at HR, she saw him thinking really hard about something with his head down and his eyes screwed shut. It was in moments like these she wished Harry had stayed. He would have thought of something. Sadly, he had to go back to his own Earth and his own life.
Surprisingly though, HR sat in front of the microphone and said in a shaky voice, his eyes still tightly closed: "Barry I need you to come back to STAR Labs."
"What? No, he can't just leave." She shouted, feeling anger at the novelist who seemed to be struggling.
He put up his hand to silence her. "I have an idea. Inside the particle accelerator, there is..." He stopped speaking, putting his thoughts into order. Cisco now had his full attention on the man in between them. HR slapped his hand on the desk and continued, "Vacuum chambers contain a metal called Mu-metal that can suck in the magnetic field so it can't go anywhere else." Caitlin was shocked as she stared at the man beside her who seemed to be completely unaware of what he'd just said as he stood up and left the cortex.
"Okay, that was weird right?" Cisco broke the uncomfortable silence but it was short lived as Barry came rushing in asking about the vacuum chambers. "They're inside the pipeline." She watched as the speedster rushed to the pipeline to retrieve the Mu-metal.
With the metal, the Flash ran back to the jewelry store where the robber was trying to make a getaway with his hostage. Caitlin's stomach tightened and hoped that in this rare occurrence that HR was right. She held her breath as she waited to see what would happen. The seconds ticked by like an eternity to her. Please let this work. She didn't feel very useful at the moment. Finally Barry's voice came over the comms, "Guys it worked! We got him." Letting out the breath she was holding, the weight on Caitlin's shoulders lifted. Cisco fell back in his chair and let out a huge sigh.
The woosh of air let them know that Barry had returned. Looking up from where she had been resting her head on the back of the chair, Caitlin could see confusion on the speedster's face. "That was HR who gave me that solution?"
"Yeah. It was weird." Cisco was the first to recover. They all stared at each other, not sure what to do with this new, surprising information. Composing herself she spoke up, "It seemed like he was struggling to think." Caitlin remembered how his eyes were closed tightly and his face was scrunched in hard concentration.
"So what does that mean? That he just had a stroke of luck?" Cisco asked but before Barry or Caitlin could respond, a voice spoke up.
"Who had a stroke of luck?" Feeling startled Caitlin spun around to see HR with a fresh cup of coffee in hand.
"HR, that was genius about the Mu-metals! How did you come up with that?" Cisco was the first one to recover from the shock of the man just appearing out of nowhere.
HR looked at the younger man in confusion. "What? I don't remember doing that." Now that did throw Caitlin through a loop, she didn't know what to say and she wasn't the only one, because Barry looked even more confused than ever and Cisco might as well have been told pigs could fly. Pulling a drumstick from his back pocket, HR waved it around the room and spoke in a soft voice, "You sure Harry isn't around here?" He seemed to believe what he was saying because he started scanning the room for his doppelganger.
Recovering first Barry said, "No, Harry's on his Earth. It was you who told me how to stop that meta."
HR face furrowed into confusion, he shook his head. "No, I left to get coffee."
Thinking that perhaps the man just simply didn't remember, Caitlin spoke up about how it had been right before he left the room.
Which apparently had been the wrong thing to say, because in a very unlike HR way, he snapped at her, "Look I know I'm not as smart as my doppelgangers - but you guys are being very mean right now." He took a deep breath before continuing. "I don't need you guys to make me feel important. Okay, I know I don't bring much to the team, but I know what I've done and haven't done." He stormed out of the room, leaving Caitlin and she was sure the rest of the team with a headache.