This is the chapter where Akiko goes to STAR Labs! thanks for reading!


One year later

My day just got a whole lot worse. So far today I'd had a bedpan, scissors, and a stapler thrown at me, I'd been screamed at, and one patient's family member had threatened to file a complaint against me. Thankfully the doctor had sworn to defend me against any accusations, because the family member was really only angry that I didn't get her a pillow, and had completely overreacted. And still, the world thought that there was still room for improvement on that.

"What is it?" I sighed into the phone.

"You need go get down here, right now," Cisco whispered.

"What's the rush, seriously, I've been training for like, a year on and off, and you never told me I need to go down there. Is there something wrong?" I asked.

"It's the Reverse Flash. Its Doctor Wells. All this time, he's been…never mind. Right now, he's probably going to kill The Arrow, Firestorm, and maybe hurt the Flash really, really badly. Extra help would be really great. So if you can, suit up and get down here," he said.

I froze in place as his words hit me. "Firestorm? And the reverse Flash is Harrison Wells? He did this?"

"Firestorm is the burning man, you might've heard of him? He said everything was part of a plan, something like that. Aki, please, I'm begging you," he said, his voice cracking in fear.

Over the past few months I'd grown fond of Cisco, and the work he did. He saved people, maybe not the way the Flash did, but he was brilliant, funny, and kind. That night I'd gone home and called him, telling him I'd killed three men who were hurting a woman, begging him not to tell anyone, and he'd calmed me down and agreed to meet me behind the library. Of course I'd been wary, but he understood me, and for the past few months whenever we could both have the time he'd been helping me train. I did tell him that if there was ever an emergency at S.T.A.R Labs I'd help, and he promised to only ask me if I absolutely needed to be there. Him calling me was a serious matter.

"I'll be there soon," I said, and hung up.

I didn't have a superhero name yet, because anything Cisco said I'd immediately reject. So far the names pitched were Water-Woman, Aqua Girl, and the Water Wonder. I had threatened to beat him up if he ever used those for me, and true to his word, he hadn't. He did insist that I have a suit though. One meeting about six months ago, he'd come with sketches of a turquoise blue armored suit with a helmet that concealed my face. I'd rejected that as well, pointing out that weapons didn't really work on me, because they'd pass right through, so what was the point of armor?

Instead, I'd insisted on this, my current suit. It was a scarlet red dress, with long sleeves and a skirt that trailed behind me on the ground. The upper body was the red, and the edges of the sleeves that covered my hand in a V shape were edged in gold embroidery. The skirt had many layers of yellows, oranges, and gold.

"I fight with water," I said. "I'm going to dress like fire."

When Cisco argued that the skirt was impractical, I said only that people should know that I'm a woman when I beat them. That shut him up quickly.

I slipped out of my work clothes hurriedly, discarding them and stepping into the dress. I tugged the sleeves on and zipped up the hidden zipper on the front. I put my hood on, and buttoned the face veil that covered the lower half of my face into the snap that was on the inside of my hood. I opened my bedroom door a few inches and walked to the other side of my room. Since I'd been training, I could shift forms more easily, and faster than I could before. Running to the window, I squeezed through the crack in liquid form and fell down to the ground. I went back into my human form quickly, running out to the street. Overall the street was quiet at this point of the night. There were a few cars on the road, and I shifted into my vapor form to hitch a ride on one. There was one going to the labs, so I attached to the roof and reformed. My feet were bare, so I didn't make much noise as I jumped and reformed onto two more cars.

Finally, I reached the chain link fence of S.T.A.R Labs. I shifted into liquid form and passed through, activating the microphone Cisco installed in my suit. "Okay, I'm here, where to next?" I asked.

"Great, thanks so much for doing this. They're around back, by the South Street entrance," he said.

"Who is that?" a woman's voice said.

"Extra help," I replied. I jogged over to the back, where I saw the Flash, a man on fire, and a man in a hood holding a bow and arrow facing me. Harrison Wells had his back to me.

"I don't care how fast you are, you can't fight all three of us at the same time!" the Flash said. He didn't have his mask on, and I could see his face, but ignored it for the moment.

"Make that four!" I said, turning the corner. The man with the bow drew it at me, but I felt no fear. "Cisco called, said you could use some help," I called out.

"The Immortal Hydra," Doctor Wells said with a distinctly evil laugh. "I like what you've done with your skirt."

I walked over to where the other men were. "This is going to be fun," Wells said. He held out his left hand, and his ring started to glow.

I reached out into the air and pulled out the atmospheric water vapor, making it condense into two orbs I held in each hand. The man next to me erupted in flames, and the Flash pulled on his mask, electricity crackling around him. The two speedsters rushed at each other in a whirl of red and yellow.

"Barry, move!" the Arrow yelled.

Firestorm snarled, and I raised one arm, prepared to throw.

"Aki, do not throw anything!" Cisco said.

"I can't get a clear shot anyway!" I cried.

"Don't do the ice thing yet!" he added. I could also condense the water in my hand down into shards of ice, but I knew better than to do that now.

"Calm down, I'm not completely stupid!" I snapped back.

"Who is she?" the woman asked.

"The Immortal Hydra,' I replied, using what Doctor Wells called me.

At that moment the Flash was slammed into the fence and thrown to the STAR Labs sign, glass shattering everywhere. The Arrow shot something at Wells' feet, temporarily immobilizing him, and then Wells moved his arms in a whirlwind motion and threw Firestorm back, causing him to fly through the air. I started toward him, but the Flash yelled, "I got it!" before rushing away.

"Nanites!" The Arrow said. "You're not going to be running anywhere for a while."

Wells looked at us and I froze, momentarily terrified by the hatred in his eyes. He pulled the arrow out of his calf and dropped it with a clink on the ground. Then he rushed at The Arrow, this time with normal speed. There were punches thrown and kicks connecting to flesh, but for some reason he seemed to be focused more on The Arrow than me. I threw some water at Wells, but they only just slowed him down. The Arrow threw Wells onto the pile of construction equipment, but then something strange happened. He started vibrating, and before I knew it his eyes were red again.

"Shoot him!" I called while grabbing another orb out of the air.

But in a flash of red electricity, he was gone. Suddenly The Arrow was on his back instead, hood off, and holy shit that was Oliver Queen.

"The history books said you live to be 86 years old, Mr. Queen. The history books were wrong," a demonic sounding voice said. Wells' arm started to vibrate, and he moved it toward Oliver's chest.

Concentrating, I compacted the orb of water into a smaller block of ice and threw it at Wells' head. There was a sickening crack as it connected, and he was thrown a few feet back. Oliver rushed to his feet and drew another arrow. There was a streak of red and then Barry and Wells were at it again, circling each other. Then the yellow streak broke away and moved up the building's side. The red one soon followed.

I started to move but a hand on my arm stopped me.

"We need to stay here," Oliver said, putting his hood back on. "I don't need to shoot you, do I?" he asked after a second of watching the red and yellow blurs circle the building a few times.

"That wouldn't do much good anyway," I said.

Suddenly Firestorm appeared in the sky, shooting flames to the roof. Wells was thrown off, landing on a car nearby, whose roof quickly shattered. He struggled go get up, but was still laughing by the time Oliver shot him in the shoulder with another arrow. I threw another bigger block of ice at him, just to be sure, and he fell off the car and onto the pavement, still with the arrow in him. Barry and the Firestorm came down from the roof, looking at the motionless body of a man who could move so fast.

"Thank you," Barry said.

"No problem," the Firestorm replied.

Oliver's hood had fallen off again, and Barry pointed that out. "Haircut and an outfit change? Are you alright?"

Oliver nodded. "Trying something different. I might need a favor soon, okay?"

"Wherever, whenever," Barry promised.

The two men moved away. "Thanks for your help," Barry said, turning toward me as he took off his hood. "any friend of Cisco's is a friend of mine." He held his hand out. "Barry Allen," he said.

I took a deep breath and unsnapped my veil, pulling the hood down before taking his hand. "Akiko Kimura," I said. "What's going to happen to him?"

"Let me take care of that. Why don't you go inside?" Barry asked.

Cisco and a woman rushed out at that moment. "Aki!" Cisco said. The woman was eyeing me warily, but I gave her a small smile and nodded. We all started to move into the building.

"Caitlyn Snow," she said. "Physician and geneticist."

"Registered nurse," I said back. She looked impressed.

"You might want to put him in the cell now," she called over my shoulder to Barry, who was carrying an unconscious Harrison Wells wedding style. It was actually kind of funny and I had to fight down my laughter. In a burst of color he disappeared down the hall.

"Cell?" I asked, looking at Cisco. 'So the 'safe place' thing is actually true? Weird."

Cisco looked sheepish.

"Well why don't you change into something more comfortable, and I'm sure we could find something for you to eat," Caitlyn said. "Keep your blood sugar up."

I chuckled. "About that…"