Author's Note: How is it possible that we're already on chapter four...? Hello, summer XD
Alright. So. I had to make a very difficult decision. When I put Iris and Cisco together, I did so thinking that I wasn't ever going to be writing about Gypsy. But now, here I am, re-writing season 4. Gypsy is a HUGE part of that, even if she and Cisco break up. Also... Iris and Cisco are going nowhere. And it creates more drama.
But hey, we'll see where it all goes in later seasons. If Gypsy never comes back, maybe they'll get back together, right?
"What do you mean, you broke up?!" Caitlin gasped, her jaw dropped and her eyes huge as she gaped at her best friend.
Cisco sighed, loudly. "I mean that we broke up!" he said again. "The tension was just too high when Iris started being a Team Leader. We were arguing about everything, because Barry really put me in charge when he left for the Speed Force, but Iris thought that it was dumb to have the Team captain be a superhero at the same time. I honestly don't understand her reasoning- I mean, Barry did it for three years, right?"
"Right..." Caitlin said slowly. "So, instead of talking through it like a couple should you just called things off?"
"We tried," Cisco groaned. "We seriously tried. But we just kind of figured that things weren't working out right now."
"So you turned around and got a new girlfriend, just like that?"
"C'mon, Caitlin," Cisco said, slumping into a chair. "You know I've always kinda had a thing for Gypsy. Besides, I didn't start anything with her until, like, a solid 4 months after Iris and I broke up. That's legit, right? You don't expect me to be single forever, just because one girl dumped me?"
"No, no, of course not," Caitlin said hurriedly. "I just, you know, thought you two were so good for each other. Barry and I were rooting for you the whole way. Not that you and Gypsy aren't cute, of course, you are! It's just, well, Iris has already lost Eddie and everything... I just don't want her to be lonely."
"Iris West is not lonely," Cisco said, rolling his eyes. "Besides, we're still friends. We still work together. We just figured that maybe dating wasn't the best thing, right now. So I'm trying to date another girl, see if it goes better, and she's gonna do whatever she wants to. See? Not a big deal."
Caitlin sighed heavily. "I suppose your right. I really shouldn't be meddling with you and Iris' affairs. As long as you're happy, Cisco."
"I am, really!" Cisco said, smiling widely. "Gypsy's great. A little scary, sometimes, but great. Really."
"Okay," Caitlin agreed. Then she paused. "Are you going to tell Barry?"
Cisco winced. "As long as he doesn't kill me in defense of his sister. Wally almost did. It was scary."
Caitlin giggled. "I'll make sure he doesn't kill you; I promise."
Cisco nodded, and they didn't speak about it anymore.
(My explanation for this breakup is located at the end of the top Author's Note, just in case you missed it and wanted to know why I did this :)
Flash!
Barry filled Joe in on their new leads on the bus metas after an uncomfortable viewing of an interview for a new mayoral candidate. The guy, named Bellows, was extremely annoying, and Barry and Joe were glad to escape up to Barry's lab.
"According to the Department of Transportation over 900 people rode that bus that day," Barry informed Joe as they both looked at the two photos of Killgore and Becky, up on his bulletin board.
"What about the bus driver?"
"That's where things get more interesting. He's dead. Drowned. In his own bathtub."
Joe nodded slowly, eyebrows raised. "That's not suspicious."
"Harry said it was all connected," Barry agreed. "I think he's right. The Samaroid pushing you guys to bring me back; me not coming out of the place you thought I would; the bus being at the exact right place to be hit by Dark Matter..."
"It was planned," Joe agreed.
"Yeah. By somebody smart."
"We're pretty smart," Joe said.
Barry shrugging, grinning. "Well, I think so."
"Well, let's look closer into the bus driver's death," Joe suggested. "It may give us a lead."
Barry nodded. "I'll have Iris pull up the autopsy report from the coroners office."
"That's good," Joe said. He noticed Barry giving him a strange, happy look, and frowned. "What?"
"I don't know," Barry said, wrinkling his nose. "But it's... this morning... you're, like, glowing."
"What do you mean, "Glowing"?" Joe asked, mimicking Barry's hand motion and frowning.
"I just mean you've got, like, a warmth about you. Like a light bright."
"There's no warmth, no glow, and definitely no light bright," Joe countered, sounding rather defensive. "I'll see you at STAR Labs."
Flash!
It was a good thing Caitlin found out about Cisco and Gypsy when she did, because that very afternoon she was introduced to none other than Gypsy's father.
"Why is the scariest person I've ever seen roaming our halls?" she asked, walking into the Cortex with her eyebrows raised. "Oh, good morning, Barry."
"Cisco," Barry and Joe replied as one. "And good morning," Barry added.
Nodding in understanding, Caitlin turned her attention to Iris, who had started speaking. "Okay, so I've got the coroner's report for the death of the bus driver, but it doesn't seem like there's any signs of foul play..."
She trailed off, Joe and Barry leaning over and joining Caitlin in looking at the tablet screen with her.
"Aside from him being the only one who could have told us who was on that bus," Joe commented.
"Now for his personal effects; let's see..." Iris frowned in concentration. "Credit cards, cash, receipts..."
"Wait, go back," Barry said, his eyes catching something on the screen Iris hadn't.
Iris scrolled back to the previous display, which was a card that read 'Ralph Dipney, Private Investigator' with a fingerprint in the center. Next to that was written: I owe you $5 for the ride. 10/10/17.
"Ralph Dipney," Barry muttered.
"I'll be darned," Joe agreed.
"Who was Ralph Dipney?" Caitlin asked. "I feel like that name sounds familiar."
"He used to be a cop," Joe responded.
"Dirty cop," Barry added. "He got kicked off the force. I've probably mentioned his name to you."
"Why'd he get kicked out?" Iris asked.
"It's a long story," Joe murmured.
Iris quickly pulled up a profile and Barry turned to the screen, his lips scrunching. "That's him."
"Oh," Iris tilted her head, considering the picture. "He's handsome in a square-jawed, Oliver Queen kinda way."
Barry turned around and gave his sister a look. "For real?"
Iris shrugged, smirking. "Hey, I can look at who I want, buddy."
Barry rolled his eyes and turned back to the large screen on the wall as Iris zoomed in on the picture of the card Ralph had given the bus driver. "The IOU is dated the same day that I came out of the Speed Force," he noted.
"You think Dipney was on the bus that day?" Caitlin asked. "Maybe he's a metahuman now?"
Barry's lips pinched again unhappily. "Let's pay him a visit."
He was about to stride out when Caitlin caught his eye. "Hey," she said, speaking softly so everyone else in the room knew she was really just talking to Barry. "You seem... something. What happened with you and this Ralph guy?"
"Like Joe said," Barry evaded. "It's a long story."
He leaned down and pecked her on the lips, and Caitlin shrugged, knowing she would find out eventually. She leaned over and whispered to Iris: "Oliver Queen is hot."
"Amen alleluia," Iris agreed.
Flash!
Ralph Dipney had very much been on the bus that was hit by Dark Matter. He now had the disgusting, weird, but very scientifically interesting ability to stretch.
The ability, unfortunately, was one that he had absolutely no control over. After being dangled off the building by a few guys that didn't like him all that much, Ralph's legs had stretched so long that he landed on his back in an alleyway, 5 stories lower. That was where Joe and Barry had found him, his legs a pile of stretch around him and decidedly in shock.
Those aforementioned legs were still just as long as they had been in the alleyway, and were now stretched almost halfway to the STAR Labs elevator, where they led to the Cortex and the medical bed.
Barry and managed to round up Ralph and bring him back to STAR Labs, where he and Caitlin were now trying desperately to calm him down.
A scream echoed down from the corridor, and soon Iris West was barreling into the Cortex. "GUYS!" she cried. "We have-"
"We know," Barry said.
"What is happening to me?!" Ralph demanded, completely flipping out.
"Breath," Barry commanded. He and Caitlin made matching inhale-exhale motions with their hands.
"I am breathing," Ralph wheezed, eyes still locked on his ridiculously long legs.
"Clearly this guy is a meta," Iris muttered.
"This is interesting," Harry commented, seeming very calm with the whole thing. "It seems the Dark Matter has polymerized Dipney's cells."
"What the heck is Dark Matter and why is it my cells?!" Ralph cried.
"You're saying the walls of every cell in his body have elasticized?" Caitlin asked, her face looking adorably intrigued.
"I'm saying they've formed an unbreakable bond at the atomic level. Now you can stretch these cells and stretch these cells..."
"Like silly putty!" Caitlin proclaimed, eyes wide with amazement.
Ralph gave her a horrified look. "I'm silly putty?"
"No," Barry and Caitlin assured him together.
Harry, however, shrugged. "Kinda."
"I'm silly putty?!" Ralph grit out.
"Ralph!" Joe interjected before things could escalate more. "Who were the guys on the roof?"
"Is that really the issue right now?" Ralph asked, gesticulating widely at his legs. "LOOK AT ME!" He reached up, grabbed Barry's coat collar, and yanked him down. "Allen, you and your STAR Labs crew better put me back together-"
"We're trying to help you!" Barry yelled, obviously infuriated at being grabbed like that.
"Yeah ri-"
"Would you shut up-"
"OKAY!" Caitlin yelled, pulled Barry away from Ralph before a fight could break out. She stood in between them, glaring at Barry until he was quiet and then glaring even harder at Ralph. "We can do this later; I just need a sample of blo- AH!"
She had grasped Ralph's arm, prepared to pull it until she could stick a needle into it, maybe a little less gently then she should have. Instead of making him lean over in bed, his entire arm stretched until it was a limp string in her hands. Sick with disgust, Caitlin abruptly dropped his arm, then accidentally stepped on it. When Ralph yelled in pain she stumbled back, put her hand on a depressor for a gas spray, and fell into Barry.
The spray hit Ralph and his entire face twisted.
Then he sneezed.
Ralph's face became liquid goo, oozing into his hands. "OOH..." Ralph groaned, voice coming out weird and muffled, but his lips, which were lying in his hand, somehow still moving. "Is that my face?!"
Joe turned around and vomited.
Flash!
"You gotta fix him, Caitlin," Joe pleaded as they all stood around the Cortex, talking about Ralph's... situation. "My stomach can't take much more."
"I think I could stabilize his cells if I had a sample of his DNA from prior to when he was exposed to the Dark Matter on the bus," Caitlin told them.
Barry turned around from where he had been putting up Ralph's picture on the white board. He frowned. "Why? So he can go out and start hurting people like our other friends here? I think we should lock him up in the Pipeline."
Caitlin raised her eyebrows in an expression that clearly was half excuse me?! and do you really now? "He hasn't done anything," was what she said instead.
"Yet," Barry said. "Trust me. I know this guy. He's a bad guy."
"Barry..." Caitlin responded, her voice trailing off awkwardly. She wasn't enjoying this side of Barry that she was seeing. "I took an oath to help people. I'm a doctor. I can't just leave him in there like spaghetti."
Barry didn't seem to be listening. He had turned and picked up a marker, and, in bold black letters, wrote VILLAINS at the top of the white board.
Iris raised her eyebrows, looking about as unimpressed as Caitlin felt. "Villains?"
"Yeah," Barry said. "Every person that was on that bus is now a thousand times more dangerous than they were before. Dipney included."
"What if he's changed?" Caitlin protested. She didn't know exactly what had gone on with Barry and Ralph, though she vaguely remembered that it hadn't been anything good. Still... everyone deserved a second chance, right?
"People don't change," Barry said, rolling his eyes.
Caitlin shook her head. "I did," she said bluntly. "When I became Killer Frost, you still believed in me."
"You're a good person," Barry told her softly. "He's... not."
Caitlin let out a long sigh, and Iris took her cue. "Barry, how about you and I go to Ralph's office and look for some DNA for Caitlin, alright?"
Telling from her tone that she wouldn't take no for an answer, Barry rolled his eyes and huffed like a petulant child, and the two of them left Caitlin and Joe in the Cortex alone.
Caitlin's shoulders slumped. "I don't understand why he's being like this," she said to Joe. "What happened between him and Ralph?"
Joe shook his head and blew out a breath of air. "I think that's something you should probably ask Barry," he said unhelpfully. "That's his story to tell."
Flash!
Iris and Barry had been ambushed when they went back to get the DNA from Ralph's office. Iris came back and told Caitlin the whole story, ending with, "And that's what it feels like to vibrate through solid matter."
Caitlin whistled softly. "Remind me not to try it," she muttered, before sending a relieved glance in Barry's direction. "I'm just glad you two weren't hurt."
"No thanks to your little buddy in there," Barry said grumpily.
Not this again. "He's not my buddy, he's my patient," Caitlin shot back, patience beginning to wear thin.
"Caitlin, I just don't understand why you're defending him-"
She spun around, her eyes blazing and the truth finally spilling out. "Because I know what it's like to suddenly find yourself with extraordinary powers and be totally freaked out by it! And so do you, for that matter. You and I both woke up in this lab once knowing our lives would never be the same. So how about you give the guy a little sympathy?"
Barry's head dropped, and Caitlin knew she had finally gotten him to listen to her side of the argument.
It was about then that Joe walked in, with the information that Ralph had been calling the Mayor... a lot. Like, 15 times in the past week, a lot. Barry gave her one of his frustrating "I told you so" looks, and they were back at square one.
Sure that she wouldn't be able to keep her cool through another argument with the man she loved, Caitlin took the DNA from Iris and started on making a cure for Ralph.
Flash!
Caitlin's cure had worked, of course. She smiled at Ralph as she finished up his checkup. "You're vitals are fantastic," she reported.
Ralph smiled coyly at her, looking pleased. It was about then that Joe and Barry came in.
"Blackmailing the mayor?" Barry said, shaking his head in disapproval.
"Classic Barry Allen; enters the room and accuses wildly," Ralph shot back.
"We know about the photos, Ralph. Bellows told us everything," Joe said, face drawn.
"Hey. I'm not the one who told him to step out on his wife," Ralph said with a shrug. Caitlin raised her eyebrows.
"That's your defense?!" Barry demanded. "It's his fault that you're extorting him."
"Isn't that a little easy for you to say?" Ralph responded, un-velcro-ing the armband Caitlin had given him to check his blood pressure and all but throwing it at her. "Your fancy lab, your good job, and your hot girlfriend."
"Fiancé," Barry growled.
"People like me are just trying to get from one bill to the next," Ralph continued, ignoring Barry. "And I wouldn't have to be living like that, if you hadn't cost me my job!"
"You got yourself fired!" Barry shouted angrily. "You tampered with evidence! You framed that guy."
So now the story was coming out. Caitlin's eyebrows rose higher.
"Because he was guilty!" Ralph roared. "And he was gonna get away with killing his wife and then you let him go. I was a good cop. I was a good detective! I lost everything." His voice suddenly lowered in pitch, down to a low tone. "The mayor's got plenty of money. He can spare a little. Consider it the pension you cost me."
Barry shook his head. "Good people don't destroy lives and call it noble," he said, his voice even. "You were dirty then. You're dirty now. Live with that."
Ralph's jaw tightened and he started to stride around Barry, towards the exit. Barry grabbed his upper arm. "You're not going anywhere."
"Get off me," Ralph growled, swinging around and trying to punch Barry in the face.
Barry ducked, popped back up, and punched Ralph in the nose.
Ralph's entire face bent and formed around Barry's fist, so for a second his hand was stuck inside the mass of skin. Caitlin winced, stomach turning in disgust.
Finally, Barry wrenched his hand out, looking furious. Ralph shook his head, returning it back to it's correct shape, and gave Barry a hurt look. "Thanks for ruining my life twice, Allen."
Flash!
Ralph decided that he was done blackmailing the Mayor, but instead of appreciating the offer, the Mayor shot him.
Of course, Bellows didn't know about Ralph's new stretchy ability. Ralph's face stretch back, the bullet not penetrating him at all, and he shot it out of one nostril into his hand.
"Bullet booger," Ralph winced. "Super gross."
Before Bellows could shoot again, the Flash arrived. Barry sped towards the Mayor and grabbed the gun out of his hand, moving Ralph at the same time.
It hadn't taken him long to figure out that the Mayor was behind the bomb in Ralph's office. Not only that, but he had sent two men to Barry's apartment and ambushed him and Joe. Barry had been able to save them with his speed, and stop the two henchmen, and now all that was left was to stop the Mayor, too.
"Mr. Mayor," Barry said, vibrating his voice and swinging the gun around one finger. "It's over."
It was about at that moment that a breach opened and Breacher (Gypsy's father) leaped out. He nailed Barry and Ralph with two breaches, one from either hand, and they tumbled backward.
"DIE, Plastiod!" Breacher bellowed. "Die! You will not infest this world as you did mine, Plastiod!"
He stalked toward Barry and Ralph, who were struggling to get up off the ground.
"Plastoid? What?" Ralph blinked in confusion. "Is he talking to me?"
"Breacher," Barry said calmly. "Stop-"
Breacher didn't listen, just blasted them with another vibe. "He dies!"
The Mayor took that opportunity to grab the gun and take off running towards the door. He ran into Joe, and shoved him in. "Get moving, Joe!"
"FLASH!" Joe yelled, getting Barry's attention as he was hustled off and gunpoint.
Concentration lost, Barry was easily knocked back by another vibe-blast. Ralph eyed Breacher nervously. "Look," he babbled. "You don't have to do this!"
"Yes I do," Breacher growled, and lifted his hands. Just as Ralph thought it was all over, Cisco appeared in front of him.
"Leave him alone," he commanded, in full Vibe regalia. "This guy didn't invade your planet- he didn't do anything wrong! He's like this 'cause of me and my Team. So if you've got a problem with him and his powers, then you deal with me."
Even though he was shaking with nerves, Cisco held his ground until, slowly, Breacher lowered his arms.
The sound of a helicopter made them all look up. Barry lurched to his feet, hurrying over to Cisco and staring upward. "The Mayor took Joe," he muttered, horror evident in his voice. "I can't run fast enough right now; I'll never have enough speed to just off. Can you breach me up there?"
Cisco shook his head. "No way. The event horizon would tear that helicopter apart."
"Okay," Barry breathed. Suddenly, he turned to Ralph. "You can get me up there."
Ralph blinked. "Me? How?"
"You can stretch, Ralph!" Barry cried, loosing patience.
"Are you crazy? I can't do that!" Ralph protested.
"Yes you can. Alright? I know that you have it inside of you to help someone other than yourself." Mentally, he thanked Caitlin for her argument; for trying to convince him there was a good inside of everyone. "I know you, Ralph."
Ralph squinted. "How could you possibly know me?"
Sighing in resignation, Barry pulled off his cowl.
"Dude, are you kidding me?" Ralph scoffed. "You're the Flash?! Everyone else gets struck by lightning and dies, and you get superpowers?! I like the Flash. Now I have to hate the Flash-"
"RALPH!" Barry interrupted, grabbing his shoulder. "Focus. I need you to do this. Joe needs you to do this, please. Show me I was wrong about you. You said you were a good cop? Be one. Right now."
Face darkening in consideration for a painful few seconds, Ralph finally turned around and flung his arm skyward.
It stretched, and stretched, and kept stretching until it had grasped onto the bottom off the helicopter. "Hold on, Ralph!" Barry encouraged, before pulling on his cowl and racing up Ralph's elongated arm.
He found himself in the helicopter, in firm possession of the Mayor's gun, seated next to Joe.
Joe turned to him, eyes wide.
"Cecil's pregnant."
Author's Note: Whoops, I didn't end it with Snowbarry :P But there was some stuffez with them, right? Yeah, there was. It was good. We good.
It's gonna get more and more exciting as the season continues... :D :D :D