Adelia Snow stepped into S.T.A.R. Labs, nerves evident on her face.
"Adelia!" Caitlin said.
"Hey." Adelia greeted her twin sister. If it hadn't been for Adelia's shorter hair and their different styles of clothing, it'd be nearly impossible to tell the two apart.
"You excited?" Caitlin asked leading Adelia down the hallway.
"Nervous." Adelia corrected. "But that too, I guess."
It was Adelia's first day at S.T.A.R. Laboratories, whereas Caitlin had been there for almost half a year now. They were working on a huge project, a particle accelerator, and Adelia was joining the team working on it.
"Good morning, Dr. Snow, Ms. Snow." Harrison Wells said, passing the two young women.
"Good morning." the two replied in unison, not stopping as they continued to walk down the halls. Caitlin led Adelia into a room that was buzzing with people, moving round to make calculations or run tests on whatever it was each individual was working on. However, Caitlin led her into a side room, where only a few people were working. One was completely ignoring everyone in the room, not even sparing Caitlin or Adelia a glance as they entered the room.
"Hey, Caitlin." the other two said, glancing up at the two brunettes entering the room and pausing their previous conversation.
"Hey, guys." Caitlin said. "This is Adelia. Adelia, this is Ronnie Raymond, structural engineer, and Cisco Ramon, mechanical engineer, he's also new here."
"I am not new." Cisco protested.
"You've been here for barely two weeks." the third person in the room finally spoke, and there was definite dislike in his tone. "I'd call that new."
"Nobody asked you." Cisco said.
"That's Hartley." Caitlin said, pointing at the third man. "You can just ignore him."
Hartley scoffed, and opened his mouth to say something, but didn't get the chance, and Caitlin began speaking again.
"You'll probably going to be working with these three a lot." Caitlin said.
"I'm sorry you have to be stuck with these idiots." Hartley said, gesturing to Cisco and Ronnie
"I'm sorry that you're stuck with that jerk." Cisco said, pointing at Hartley.
"Cisco or Ronnie, could you help Adelia get settled in. Hartley, can you please be nice, just today?" Caitlin requested, tilting her head slightly to the side.
"Not possible." Cisco commented.
"You too, Cisco. Behave." Caitlin said, giving the two men a stern glance, before leaving.
Hartley waited until a minute had passed after Caitlin had left, then he stood up and wordlessly left the room.
"Okay, well, welcome to S.T.A.R. Labs." Cisco said. "It's best if you just ignore Hartley, like Caitlin said."
"Got it." Adelia stated, nodding with a small grin forming on her lips.
"That's it? You's think there'd be a loud bang." Cisco said as the particle accelerator went active.
"If there was a loud bang, we'd all be in trouble." Ronnie said.
"Take it from the guy who helped build it." Caitlin said, smiling fondly at Ronnie.
"Hey, I helped build it too." I said.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we did it." Wells said, a smile clear on his face. All the scientists gathered in the room began applauding. Ronnie and Caitlin kissed. Wells opened a bottle of champagne, the cork making a pop as it flew out. Adelia caught it mid-air when it flew in her direction.
"There's your loud bang, Cisco." she joked. Cisco lightly punched her arm as Wells lifted the glass bottle into the air. Adelia's eyebrows furrowed as the champagne began to float out of the bottle. Silence filled the room, so when the champagne fell to the ground, you could hear the splash. An alarm began blaring. "What the-"
The rest of Adelia's words were cut-off by a loud bang.
"Was that-" Cisco began, cutting himself off.
"The loud bang." Ronnie confirmed.
"There's an anomaly in the core chamber." Cisco said, discovering the issue.
"The ring's structural integrity is holding." Caitlin said.
"It started a chain reaction. The system's collapsing. We need to shut it down." Wells said, looking at Cisco.
"We can't ram down the accelerator from here. We need to do it manually." Cisco said, throwing his hands in the air.
"Go!" Wells said, pointing at the door. Cisco and Adelia turned to rush down to the Pipeline.
"I'll come with." Ronnie said, turning to follow the two.
"Ronnie, no." Caitlin objected.
"I'm the lead engineer and I know how to operate the shut-down valves." Ronnie said, turning back to look at Caitlin.
"It's not safe-"
"Cait, I have to go." Ronnie said, and gently grabbed Caitlin's face to kiss her, then he ran after Cisco and Adelia.
"Okay, you two stay here." Ronnie instructed. "We've only got a few minutes before this thing blows. And if I'm not back in time, you need to initiate lock down."
"No." both Cisco and Adelia protested.
"No way. We are not closing this door. I'm not gonna be able to open it again." Cisco said.
"Cisco, D, if you don't seal off the blast, everyone in this building will die, including Caitlin." Ronnie said. "Okay, now promise me." Cisco nodded.
"I promise." Adelia said reluctantly.
"See your watch, set it for two minutes." Ronnie said to Cisco. Cisco's watched beeped as he pressed the buttons. He pointed at Ronnie.
"You're coming back." he said. Adelia sighed as Ronnie ran into the Pipeline. She leaned against the wall, biting her lip as she and Cisco waited. Cisco kept checking the timer on his watch, until it finally began beeping. Neither moved to shut the door for a moment, before Cisco reached up, and started the lock down. Adelia stared blankly at the now sealed door.
"I need air." she whispered after a moment. Adelia pushed herself off of the wall and walked down the hallway. Caitlin ran past her in the direction of the pipeline. Adelia found the nearest doorway that led outside to the side of the building. She walked past an older man, the cool air outside causing her to shiver. Wishing she'd grabbed a jacket, Adelia rubbed her arms. Adelia sucked in the fresh air, the coolness of it piercing her lungs as she shut her eyes. Ronnie was going to die. Her sister's fiance was about to die. A weird sensation passed over Adelia. But before she could process what had just happened, a flash of light illuminated the sky as a lightning bolt hit Adelia Snow.