This chapter is a birthday gift; you know who you are. :)
I don't own Flash or Trollhunters
Please enjoy! R&R! WORDS!
Chapter 4: Barry's an idiot and more people ask about Jim's tail; But let us not forget that Barry is always an idiot. :)
Jim stopped Barry, his ears twitched, picking up voices from the other side of the building. "They're yelling about some… mass panic, down town, people screaming. Barry, it's a meta."
"Come on, let's get back to the cortex." Barry disappeared with a woosh. Jim looked back and forth from the door to the hallway, not wanting to leave Claire. He got on all fours, and ran, following Barry's scent through the concrete maze they called S.T.A.R. Labs, finally reaching the Cortex. Joe and Iris were gone.
Barry had the suit on now. "You wanna come?" He asked Jim.
"I can't, the sun, the people, and I won't leave Claire." Jim listed. Barry only nodded before he disappeared.
"Don't worry Jim, you can be there virtually." Cisco stated from his computer chair. "Come over here, this monitor shows you where he is, this one tracks his vitals from the suit. You can use this mic to talk to him. Barry, you read me?"
"Loud and clear, Jim you there?"
"Trollhunter reads Flash, loud and clear, over." Jim said leaning over the mic.
"Oh… you know how to have a good time." Cisco smiled, with a sucker in hand.
"Where's Caitlin?" Jim asked
"She's preparing her medical stuff for Barry." Cisco sat in his chair.
"Why? Barry's been doing this for months, right? Shouldn't he know how to handle a dangerous situation?"
"You would think, but he usually just runs in without thinking."
"It's the Dark Lands all over again, but on a daily basis…" Jim whispered to himself and ran a hand up his horn. "Barry, make sure you know what you're running into, you don't know what's going on…"
"Pht… I got this, Jim. It's nothing I haven't handled before."
"You are an idiot!" Jim Growled, "You're being arrogant! Don't show off."
"This is normal, and a good day. He'll be more humble after he gets his butte handed to him." Cisco said, rolling his eyes.
"And this is routine?" Jim asked, not believing what he was hearing. Cisco nodded with the sucker in his mouth.
"Don't be arrogant, Flash," Jim said.
"I don't see what arrogance has to do with anything, Jim," The Flash said. Jim watched the moneter, as he neared the point of the screams. The coastline.
"Arrogance gets you killed. If you make it back alive I'll explain rule number one."
"I'm not sure your rules apply."
"I'm still alive aren't I? And I thought you wanted some tips." Jim moaned.
"Later, after I take down this freaky meta." The Flash paused, "Wait, everyone is, like in a trance, they are all screaming, or crying… they all look scared. What's going on?"
"I don't know, I'm not there. Tell me what you see, smell, hear… what's going on? Cisco are there any cameras that could show us what's going on?"
"Sorry blue dude." he said shaking his head, with the sucker still in his mouth.
"Um… The meta, it's a woman, in a brightly colored leotard I think. I don't smell anything… I don't have crazy strong senses like you. I don't hear anything unusual."
"Your super villains don't dress up do they?" Jim asked.
"Not normally. I think the only one that dresses for the occasion is Captain Cold." Cisco said.
Jim pinched the bridge of his nose and ran his hand up his horn. "Of course you name them… You and my friend Toby would get along great. Wait what's this?" Jim asked a rhetorical question, and pointed to the screen with Barry's vitals. Some of the bars fluctuating, and spiking.
"Oh man, he's being stupid again." He said. "Caitlin, come out here quick."
Caitlin ran out of the smaller glass room, around the desk to look at the screen. "That's not right, Barry, what's going on?" She asked frantically. When nothing happened Cisco typed quickly and skillfully on the keyboard, suddenly the group was able to hear what was going on past the comm.
"It… It's not possible. You're dead!... No, It's not my fault!" They heard Barry say.
"Barry? Barry what's going on? Barry!" Caitlin said.
Over the comm, they heard barry gasping, and getting the crap beaten out of him. Then a woman's voice. "Fastest man alive, and you can't fight back. Not while facing your nightmares at least." He gasped as if he was kicked in his stomach. Then silence. The monitor with Barry's vitals showed several spots where he was hit on the pictogram of his suit. The adrenaline levels spiking high.
Barry ran back into the cortex, collapsing in the middle of the floor. Covered in blood. Cisco and Caitlin ran to him, struggling to get his limp body off the floor. Jim sedarls, and walked around the desk, and easily picked Barry, holding him behind his knees and shoulders. His nose wrinkled at the smell he was covered in. And walked him into the small medical room. Caitlin started, to fuss over him. Jim put out his hand blocking her from Barry.
"What are you doing, I need to treat him!"
"All of his wounds are superficial, and he should be fine in about an hour if he really does have super fast healing. You can't run to pick him up every time he falls. It's part of the reason he's so arrogant. It's easy to get cocky when you have a great team behind you. But if you race to him every time he's never going to learn." Jim said, staying surprisingly calm.
"Then why is he passed out?" Cisco asked.
"Didn't you see his stats? He's having an adrenaline crash. It's not bad, he just needs a minute. His brain was lighting up like a christmas tree. The hypothalamus mostly, his glucose levels where extra high too, that plus the adrenaline…"
"I should have seen it! Oh my gosh, of course. A fear induce coma." Caitlin said, face palming.
"I get that she understands that stuff, but you're like 17…" Cisco said.
"My mom's the best doctor in Arcadia. When I was younger I used to help her study, a lot of it stuck with me too. That and he wreaks of fear."
"Eh, it's weird that you can smell fear. But you sound way too much like an adult when it comes to some of this stuff."
"Too much experience, too many mistakes." Jim shook his head.
"At least you learned from them. He does this on a weekly basis." Cisco said scoffing.
"Heh, I learned after I ran in blindly to another dimension and was stuck there for a month. If you don't learn after that you gotta be some kind of special."
"So what are we going to do with him in the meantime?" Caitlin asked.
"Leave him here, he'll find us when he wakes up." Jim said.
"And what do we do with us in the meantime?" Cisco asked.
"You said you were hungry?" Jim asked, they both nodded. "Lucky for you, I'm a pretty fantastic chief; if I do say so myself. And there was a kitchen in the lounge where Claire's sleeping." Jim's tail sat lazily behind him.
"You do mean human food right?" Cisco said nervously.
"Hahaha, yes, human food." Jim laughed deeply. His eyes lit up, Caitlin and Cisco walked comfortably with Jim to the lounge. He shifted his ears to listen for Claire. "She's still sleeping, but she's a heavy sleeper so we're good to talk." They walked past the couch that Claire was asleep on into the small kitchen. Jim opened up the fridge to check what he could work with, he found half of it full of high sugar energy drinks. The rest with regular ingredients, he pulled out some chicken, some bell peppers and then searched the cupboards, and pulled out some spaghetti noodles. "You got the makings for some good stir fry." Jim smiled a toothy grin.
"Wow." Caitlin said
"What?" Jim asked, he glanced around him.
"You just... have a really nice smile. I just wasn't expecting it."
"Not something you would expect from something with tusks and horns," He smiled again tilting his head then returned his ingredients. His tail swaying behind him.
"Hey, Jim," Cisco said.
"Yeah?"
"What's the deal with the tail?"
"Well, that's a popular question today. What about it?" Jim said, he flicked it.
"Just seems, really strong, for a tail. And you do weird things with it."
"Well, It's strong enough to arm wrestle with. And what weird things?" the tip of his tail twitched.
"You kept wrapping it around Claire's arms and legs, and her waist. What's that about?"
"Instinct, and affection. If you have other questions, ask Caitlin. Claire and her talked about it while you drooled over my armor."
"You heard that?" Caitlin said, turning red.
"Most of it, but it's fine. Besides, Barry did the same thing. Just know, I can hear just about everything in the building."
"I'm lost, what am I missing?" Cisco asked.
"Nothing. And it's none of your business." Jim grinned as Cisco mumbled something incoherent. Jim worked on the food, boiling water for the noodles, chopping up peppers and other veggies, and cutting the chicken into cubes, eating one every once in a while. Spinning the chief knife expertly in his hand. After several minutes Jim broke the silence.
"Alright, so let me see if I've got this dynamic right. Caitlin, you're the doctor and the one with common sense, and as the only girl on the team you try and stop these two from making boneheaded decisions but ultimately fail most of the time, because they are idiot men.
"Cisco, you're the fun tech guy, you encourage the bad behavior half the time then the other half of the time you side with Caitlin, still failing because Barry is incredibly stubborn. You are also like the nicest guy, super understanding, and non judgemental.
"Berry, is the so called muscle. He's been doing this for months and still acts like it's his first day on the job. He relies heavily on you both. It's not a bad thing in general but if he finds himself without you he won't be able to function. He's stubborn and arrogant. If that doesn't change he may find himself without his head.
"Normally I'd move on to the mentor, but Joe sounds like he barely understands Barry and there isn't any one else that I'm aware of. So, that sound about right?"
The two nodd from their seats at the table, "Freaky analytical skills dude." Cisco said.
"A hero should be able to read any situation without having much information, something Barry obviously needs to learn. Just by using one's intuition and observational skills, and for me, my senses. For instance, both of your heart rates spiked at a mention of the mentor figure. That tells me that there was one. And he's now gone. But I'll leave that up to you to decide if you want to tell me. It's your business not mine. Another thing Barry needs to learn, not butting into others business… and why did Barry launch into an incredibly personal and dark story hours after meeting me?"
"I know right? Like what's with the tragic backstory?" Cisco said.
"You seem right about a lot of things, including the mentor thing." Caitlin said. Idly messing with a fork left on the table.
"Anyways... away from dark and depressing. That smells amazing!" Cisco said.
"Yeah, and it's about to wake up sleeping beauty. Fair word of warning, don't say anything about her hair if you want to live." Jim laughed. Moments later a waking yawn could be heard from the couch. Claire got up off the couch and stretched. "Mmm, Jim you made breakfast? It smells so good." she moaned.
Caitlin mouthed the word 'breakfast' to Cisco who just shrugged.
"If you want to call it that, no pancakes though, sorry babe." He said. Claire walked into the kitchen, wearing a hamlet T-shirt her black leggings and socks. Her hair looked like a birds nest gone wrong.
"Any of your cooking is the best, these guys are in for a treat. Oh stir fry." She walked up to Jim to give him a hug. Jim gave her his full attention, pulling her close with his arm, and lovingly squeezing her waist with his tail as it moved to brush some stray strands of hair out of her face.
"Sleep good?" he asked, returning to the cooking.
"Yeah. Sleeping on a couch is almost as good as an actual bed. Forget the sleeping bags. But now my hair's messed up." she said.
"I'll fix it for you in a bit, unless you want me to do it now?" Jim asked, but gestured to Caitlin and Cisco sitting at the table.
"Later is good." She smiled. As she went to sit at the table she slid her hand down Jim's tale releasing it at the tuft of fur. Jim couldn't help but purr a bit. She giggled and sat down.
"So what did I miss?" She asked.
"Well, Barry pulls minor darkland stunts and a regular basis, comes back bloodied and bruised. He's also incredibly arrogant. And is currently passed out in the Cortex."
"Oh, sounds like he's going to get a mouth full from someone ten years younger when he wakes up. It also sounds like he needs it. How do you think he's gonna take it?"
"Barry doesn't do well when he's getting told." Cisco said.
"He, does not handle constructive criticism well. I don't know how he'll react to getting it from Jim." Caitlin adds.
"Well, he's going to get more than just a mouth full," Jim said, handing out glasses of water.
"What do you mean by that?" Caitlin asked.
"Jim is going to lock himself in a room with Barry, where he can't get out and force him to train with him until he listens to reason." Claire said, then took a long drink.
"You can't be serious?" Cisco asked.
Jim nodded.
"Ok, but how did Claire know?" Cisco said.
"It was implied." She shrugged.
"How was that implied?" Cisco asked, however, was ignored.
"Please don't break him," Caitlin said.
"Look, I have every intention on roughing Barry up a bit," Jim gave a shaky laugh, "mostly because he needs to learn that his speed won't help him from a more skilled opponent, and I'm not going to do anything permanent. He just needs someone to knock it into his head that he can't enter an environment thinking that 'he's got this.' or one of these days, he's going to end up dead." Jim growled his words. He set the pan in the middle of the table and handed everyone a plate and fork, then sat down next to Claire.
They dished up their food in silence. Then started eating.
"Oh my gosh. This is great! I wish I had more taste buds to taste this with." Cisco said.
"This is amazing! What did you do, use magic?" Caitlin asked sarcastically.
"Mm, babe, this is fantastic. Thanks for the food." she leaned over and kissed Jim's cheek.
"Glad you like it." he smiled.
"Like it is an understatement," Cisco said shoveling food into his mouth. "Like, I need a dictionary to describe how good this is." He pointed with his fork then reached for more. Only for his hand to be slapped away by Jim's tail.
"Leave some for Barry, he's going to need it if he's going to stay conscious for the training session I've got planned."
"You both keep saying train, but why does it sound like that's not actually going to happen?" Caitlin asked.
"Well, he's going to learn something. And that's a part of training. Anyways, is there a room I could use for that?" Jim asked.
"I could move the treadmill out of the way and you could use that room. It's got electromagnetic doors and super bullet-proof glass. We use it as a safe room sometimes, so if you want to lock yourself in with an agitated ball of nerves that can break the sound barrier, go ahead. I will gladly watch that episode… I might even have popcorn in here." Cisco said.
Jim just got a devilish wide grin on his face and said, "Perfect."
"Don't do that Jim, you'll freak them out." Claire laughed.
Jim's ears twitched listening to Barry waking up in the cortex. 'What the crap happened? Caitlin? Cisco? Oh my head' he moaned 'Jim, I know you can hear me. Jim!' He heard him run out of the cortex.
"Incoming" Jim said, just before Barry entered the room, out of the red suit. Still covered in his own dried blood.
"Woah, cool." Cisco said, mentioning to Jim's warning of Barry's arrival.
"Barry, what happened out there?" Caitlin asked.
Barry just stood there, unsure what to say. Mouth opening and closing again.
"Wait to answer that Barry. Come sit down have some food first." Jim said, a smile on his face, watching him closely. Jim's eyes trained on to him, even as Barry sat and got some food and ate it, marveling at the taste. "Now that you've got some food in your stomach, how are you feeling?" He asked.
"I'm feeling just fine now. Could you hand me an energy drink from the fridge?" Barry said, Jim aggressively tossed him a can from the fridge. Barry drank it in under a second. Jim took it from Barry and smashed it in his hands making Caitlin, Cisco, and Barry jump. Then Jim ate it.
"Good, now that you're feeling better care to tell me what happened?" Jim said softly.
-Leaning over to Claire, Cisco whispered. "If Jim was just talking about knocking some sense into Barry and such, why is he being so nice. It's kinda freaking me out."
"He's luling him into a false sense of security. After Barry tells Jim about what happened, Jim is gonna... teach him some stuff. You said something about popcorn?"
"Yeah, but why is Jim doing that? Barry already trusts him."
Claire nodded and whispered back, unable to keep the devilish smile off her face. "Jim's the predator, Barry's the prey. And until Jim feels that Barry's learned his lesson Jim's gonna be on edge around him. If you watch his tail, it'll give away how he's feeling. See how it's twitching from left to right?" Cisco nodded. "That tells me that Jim is calculating, the longer he's like this the more agitated he's gonna be, just watch. He's going to start snarling a bit more in the next few hours."-
Barry remained silent, the mumbles between Cisco and Claire could only be heard by Jim.
"Barry. We heard some of what happened, you were yelling at someone, before you got beaten up by a girl in a leotard. What did you see?" Jim asked, his eyes steady, and set in a firm ellipse shape.
"I don't think it was real, it couldn't have been." He said.
"What was it Barry?" Caitlin asked firmly.
"It was… Eddy… it was Eddy and Rony."
