I yelp as I hit the pavement hard, roll over, and dry heave, committing every fiber of my being to not throwing up.

"Sorry!" Barry yelps from somewhere above me. "Sorry, I completely forgot to factor in what the G-Force would do to you at that speed – oh my god, are you okay?"

"Do I look okay?" I groan, pushing myself into a sitting position, which was about as much as I could manage between the black spots swarming in my vision and the way the world was spinning like a top right now. "I could have died. Just – splat. No more Ellie. A tragic start to our superhero career. Speaking of, did you call him?"

"Yeah, he should be here any minute. Take your time, stand up whenever you're ready," he advises gently.

It takes about another two minutes for my vision to clear and the world to stand still, and by the time I find my feet again, a shadowed figure is just swinging down onto the roof.

I glance over and grin. "Oliver. Hey."

"Ellie, Barry. Good to see you up and about," the green-hooded vigilante greets as he turns around. "Should you even be walking around, let alone making the 600-mile journey to Starling just to say hello to a friend?"

"Uh, yeah, so…" I scuff a toe on the cement below us. "That's the thing. We need your advice on something."

Oliver gives us a questioning look, and Barry sighs. Together, we start the story from the beginning – everything from the particle accelerator to the accident to the coma, and then everything that had happened since then.

"So, let me get this straight," Oliver says after we finish. He turns to Barry. "You can run at the speed of sound."

"Yeah. I mean, not yet, but I might be able to go faster, we don't know yet. I mean, it's only been a week."

"And you…" he turns to me. "You can…?"

"Hypnotize people," I supply. "I think. It's kinda complicated, I don't know the full extent of what I can do yet."

"Right," Oliver nods, still looking slightly confused. "And the two of you want to become…superheroes."

Barry and I nod simultaneously.

"Do you not think we could do it?" I ask anxiously.

"I have no doubt that the two of you, individually or as a team, could do what I do," Oliver is quick to assure me. "My main question is why you would want to."

"Because…I've got superpowers? What else would you like me to do, go work at Big Belly Burger?" I ask.

The corner of Oliver's lips twitch upwards, and I count that as a win.

"But…what if Wells is right?" Barry asks. "What if we're nothing but two kids that got struck by lightning? What if I can't be you?"

"Don't be me. Be better," Oliver advises. "I don't think that lightning struck you, I think it chose you. Both of you have an opportunity to inspire people in a way that I can't; you can save people and help your city without them fearing you, without having to work in the shadows like I do."

"I don't think that lightning struck you, I think it chose you." That particular sentence forms a loop in my brain as I nod and release a deep breath. "Thank you, Oliver."

The vigilante nods and Barry clears his throat.

"We should head back," he says. "We've got work to do, and STAR Labs is probably expecting us-"

As if on cue, Barry's phone rings, Cisco's name displayed on the screen. I stand by patiently as he picks up, talks for a moment, listens for a moment more, and then hangs up again.

"I've gotta go, they've got something for us at STAR Labs," Barry blurts out in a rush, stuffing his phone back into his pocket.

"Okay, just-" Before I can finish, Barry disappears with a flash of lightning and a gust of wind. "Dammit, Barry! Barry!" I shout, marching over to the edge of the roof and leaning over slightly. "He was my ride!" I exclaim angrily. I look over my shoulder to see Oliver repressing a smile. "It's not funny."

"Of course not," he agrees, his expression solemn and his eyes – even though they were covered by the mask – belying that entirely.

I half-heartedly grumble at him as I return to the center of the roof. "It's probably going to take him a few minutes to realize he's forgotten something, so if you need to go do your thing, don't let me stop you."

Oliver shakes his head. "I've got a few minutes." He takes a seat on a large air conditioning unit. "Want another piece of advice?"

"Hm?"

"Get your own ride."

"No shit, Sherlock," I laugh. "Although, that's probably best in the long-term – I can't handle being carried much longer," I admit. "Not because of my pride or anything, just because my body doesn't like going 600 miles an hour and then stopping suddenly. But it also is a pride thing, don't get me wrong – if I'm gonna be a superhero, my brother carrying me around like some damsel doesn't exactly send the best message, you know?"

"Ellie. I get it," Oliver cuts me off sternly.

"Oh. Right. Sorry," I apologize sheepishly, feeling my cheeks burn. "So, what do you suggest? Ride-wise, I mean."

"I've found that motorcycles generally work," he says conversationally, looking out over the city.

I step up to his side, taking in the view; Starling City and I shared what one might call a troubled past, but even I couldn't deny that the skyline at night was a sight to behold – the bustling streets, the skyscrapers twinkling with artificial stars…the streak of yellow lightning zooming towards us.

"Barry," I hum to myself just before the man himself appears on the rooftop, panting slightly. "You forget something?"

"I am so sorry!" he apologizes profusely. "I was already at home when I realized you weren't there, and I didn't mean to forget you, I swear, and we really have to find a better system to this-"

"We do," I agree, "but I can't do that until we get home. Let's go," I prompt, allowing Barry to wrap an arm around my wait. "See you around, Oliver. Stay safe out there."

"You too," Oliver replies with a nod. "And one more thing: take your own advice. Wear masks." With that, he fires a grappling arrow and swings off into the night.

"That is so cool," I murmur quietly, watching his silhouette until I couldn't see it anymore. Turning back to Barry, I loop my arms around his neck and the world dissolves into a blur.

Barry skids to a stop in front of STAR Labs, and once I was done transferring the contents of my stomach into the bushes out front, we head inside.

"Cisco, we need to find a better way for me to get around," I announce as I enter the cortex. "Remind me to start looking at motorcycle designs when we get a break."

"Noted, but we've got bigger fish to fry right now." Cisco moves to one of the tables, which was stacked high with boxes – file boxes, I realize, marked with the CCPD logo. "This is all that we've managed to gather from the last nine months. The crime rate has skyrocketed, and a good 80% of it mentions 'inexplicable circumstances,'" he explains, complete with air quotes. "Our meta-humans have been busy."

I frown at the guilty look that takes over the other engineer's face. "Hey, don't do that," I chide, crossing the room to poke him in the shoulder. "The particle accelerator was not your fault. You didn't know what was going to happen. Neither of you did," I add, glancing at Caitlin

"Yeah, but now we've got a circus of freaks running around the city, so excuse me if I'm not feeling too good about myself," Cisco gripes, then whips his head around to look at me. "I didn't mean you were a freak-"

"Nah, it's fine." I wave a hand dismissively, leaning over to grab a file from the nearest box. "Some of these freaks have pretty cool powers, like this guy – who is reported as being able to 'summon nearby animals and compel them to attack the mall security guard.'"

"We got a regular Snow White over here," Cisco jokes, a smile retaking his face.

Caitlin, ever the realist, quickly pipes in with, "As cool as that may be, it could be dangerous. Imagine a full-grown deer attacking you without any protection."

"Oh, and speaking of protection," Cisco adds, "I've got something you're going to need if we're actually going to do this. Because, after all, what are two superheroes without their super suits?" he asks rhetorically, crossing the room to a small room off to the side of the cortex and beckoning for us to follow.

The side room's main feature was a large object covered by a tarp, and once Cisco's got the attention of the room, he yanks the tarp off to reveal a dummy clad in a skintight, dark red, leather suit with a cowl and gas mask.

"I've been working on this little treasure to replace the usual turnouts that firefighters wear," the engineer explains proudly. "I figured that maybe, if STAR Labs designed something good for the community, they wouldn't hate us so much."

"Has it worked?" I ask.

"Not really," he sighs. "Anyway! The suit's made out of a reinforced tri-polymer, specifically designed to survive in temperatures up to seven thousand degrees, which means that it can stand up to the friction that's generated when you're running. And it's got built-in sensors and a GPS so we can keep an eye on you from here."

"And it's aerodynamic," I notice, giving the suit a once-over. "Which means you won't have any drag while running."

Barry nods. "Thanks, Cisco."

"And Ellie," Cisco calls, and I look over, "I've got a suit for you, too – equal opportunity for the lady firefighters and all – but it's not ideal. Because your powers are different, I need to make some modifications to the original schematics, but this should hold up in the meantime."

"Got it," I nod before turning back to the cortex. "Right now, though, do we have anything on Mardon? The sooner we find him, the better."

"I've got an idea that might help with that," Caitlin offers. "I've looked at the footage of all of Mardon's heists since the explosion, and I have a theory: if Mardon uses his powers to the extent of what we saw at the bank earlier, wouldn't they cause a massive, abnormal drop in atmospheric pressure specific to Mardon's location?"

"It would," I realize suddenly. "And if we could track the atmospheric levels over the city, then we could pinpoint the anomalies and find Mardon."

"I'll re-task the STAR Labs satellite," Cisco volunteers, darting back to his workstation. His fingers fly over the keyboard as Barry hovers over his shoulder anxiously.

"Yahtzee!" Cisco shouts after a moment of tense silence. "I'm picking up a low spot – it's at a farm just west of the city."

Barry looks up, and our eyes lock from across the room – this was it.

"Okay then," I whisper breathily. "Let's go kick some ass." Barry speeds off, and I run into the side room. "Cisco, my suit?!"

"Left cabinet, second drawer down!"

I yank open the drawer indicated and grab the bundle of red fabric, shouting my thanks as I race into the nearest bathroom – it would have to do, seeing as there were no phone booths nearby.

It only takes me a moment to change into the suit and zip up. I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and pull a face; the suit was far from ideal, but it would do for now. Tearing my gaze away from the mirror, I race out of the bathroom and through the hallways, skidding to a stop in the elevator lobby.

Barry was waiting, and he never looked more like my double than in that moment. "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be," I shrug as I grab on to my brother and the world blurs in a way that was quickly becoming familiar.

Barry skids to a stop and puts me down gently, and I impatiently wait for the nausea to fade and the world to stop tilting on its axis.

Now is not the time to throw up, Ellie, I admonish myself. Keep it together.

"Isn't this where Mardon was hiding out last time?" Barry wonders aloud as I collect myself.

"No idea, but I think we've got bigger problems," I declare, pointing about two hundred yards ahead of us, where a tornado was raging and two figures were crouched behind a police car. "Joe and Eddie. Go!"

Barry doesn't need me to tell him twice – he disappears with a gust of wind, and I take off running towards the commotion. As I ran, I could feel my heart rate increase and the energy thrumming through my veins begin to climb. The same feeling that I had this morning – had it really only been this morning? – wells up inside of my chest and I grab onto it, feeling the electricity in my brain surge.

And just in time, too, as everything seems to happen at once – Barry shoves a piece of tornado debris that was headed straight for Joe out of the way, and Joe uses the opportunity to break cover and raise his gun directly at the tornado…just as Mardon notices him.

"Joe, get down!" I shout, my voice echoes across the field. Thankfully, Joe ducks and I skid to a stop in front of the cop car and turn my attention to the growing tornado, the center of which held Mark Mardon himself.

Mardon, unfortunately, notices me. With a wave of his hand, a blast of wind slams into me, tossing me clear over the cop car and into a nearby barn.

Being thrown through the side of a barn was a new feeling, I had to admit. Pain erupted in my entire back, and I was pretty sure I might've sprained something on impact. A small groan escapes my lips as I push a splintered piece of wood off my torso.

"Ellie, are you good?" Cisco's voice asks in my ear.

I jerk upright with a gasp. "Cisco, what the-"

"Yeah, I forgot to tell you – I installed a multi-link comm unit in both the suits. Are you good? Your vitals spiked for a second."

"Being tossed like a spare tumbleweed will do that to you," I grunt as I pick myself up and shake myself off. "Barry, can you hear me? How are things looking out there?"

"It's gotten a little rough," he reports breathlessly.

I climb back through the hole I'd made to find that 'a little rough' was the understatement of the century.

Mardon's tornado had expanded into an absolute monster; it had to be at least a Category 4, with shrieking winds that tossed dirt and debris around like a giant blender. The cop car that Joe and Eddie had arrived in was tipped onto its side, and I could only see one person moving. Through all the chaos, Barry was only a blur of lightning, darting around the center of the disaster in search of any way to get to Mardon himself.

Quickly deciding that he had that under control, I hurry over to the car and kneel next to the prone figure of Eddie Thawne. "Come on, come on," I mutter desperately as I feel for a pulse. "Iris will kill me if you die on my watch. Not that she'd know it's me of course, but still."

It takes a moment, but I eventually find a steady pulse and sit back with a relieved sigh. "Thawne's alive, guys, but he's out cold."

"We can't get an ambulance there until Mardon is contained," Caitlin informs us.

"We need to end this now," Barry pants. "Before he gets any bigger."

"Agreed," I nod, standing up and moving over to the overturned police car, hoisting myself up about a foot to see over the top. "But, um, how do we do that?"

Silence falls over the comms, the only other sound being the howling winds accompanied the occasional crash as Mardon's tornado continues to grow.

Barry suddenly appears on the other side of the car, chest heaving. "What if I unwind it?"

"Unwind...the tornado?" I ask skeptically. "Do you even you how fast you'd have to run?"

"700 miles per hour," Caitlin supplies. "Barry, your body might not be able to handle those speeds."

Barry, still looking exhausted, looks back at me, at the barn, and then at the tornado before declaring, "I have to try," and disappearing with a gust of wind.

I watch the streak of lightning encircle the base of the tornado with both growing excitement and a sinking feeling.

"What if he can't do it?" I ask Cisco and Caitlin quietly, but with a frantic edge. "What do I do if he can't do it?"

"You could talk Mardon down," Cisco offers.

"It's worth a shot," I sigh and try to find the power I'd felt earlier, but all I come up with is fuzzy, white-noise mental static. "It's not working, guys. Guys?!"

"Ms. Allen, calm down," Dr. Wells suddenly commands. "You're going into shock. Take a deep breath."

I suck in a deep breath and then slowly let it out, repeating the process one more time before the panic invading my chest begins to recede. "Now what? My power still isn't working."

There's a slight pause before a sigh sounds on the comms and Wells says, "Ellie, I was wrong about you earlier. You are not simply someone who happened to get struck by lightning; you are a remarkable young woman with the ability to save this city and right my wrongs. That ability does not hinge on adrenaline - every ounce of this power begins and ends with you. Now, do you want to help your brother or not?"

"Of course I do," I answer without hesitation.

"Then you need to close your eyes and focus on your power. Can you do that?"

I nod, even though he can't see me, and close my eyes, recalling every time I'd used my powers and the way the wave of energy had crashed into me, flooding my system with an indescribable amount of power, completely raw and begging to be harnessed, to be used in some way.

I take a deep breath and visualize that entire feeling as a sphere of energy sitting in my chest. I imagine myself reaching out to grab that energy, pushing it to the surface with every bit of strength I could manage.

My eyes fly open and I inhale sharply as a rush of power suddenly crashes into me, but before I can say anything, a red blur shoots past me and Barry suddenly appears, on his knees and breathing heavily.

"I can't do it!" he gasps. "He's too powerful."

I hop down from the cop car and crouch down next to my brother. "Barry? Bear. Look at me."

Barry's eyes turn silver beneath the cowl as they find mine, and he holds my gaze even after they turn back to green.

"You can do this," I correct him firmly. "You've got this, you hear me? You're smarter and faster than some…" I peer over the top of the car before crouching back down. "Some petty thief with a god complex."

Barry lets out a weak chuckle at that, but he doesn't look entirely convinced. "I can't do this alone."

"If you think I'm letting you have all the fun, you're dead wrong," I scoff. "I'm not letting you do this alone." I open my mouth but pause, suddenly remembering the three other people listening to what I was saying. "Cisco?"

"Here. Whatcha need?"

"I need you to turn the comms off. Just for thirty seconds!" I explain as Caitlin and Dr. Wells begin to protest violently. "Thirty seconds, and then you can turn them back on. Please."

There's a long pause of silence before Dr. Wells sighs and says, "Thirty seconds," and the comms go dead.

"Barry, listen," I sigh, tugging at my collar. "I know…I know we haven't been as close as we used to lately, but if we're actually going to do this, we can't do it alone. We do this together or not at all, yeah?"

"Yeah," Barry nods. "Together."

"Good." I grin and stand up, offering a hand. "Now, let's go kick some punk ass, hm?"

Barry nods just as the comms come back online with a sharp beep.

"Everyone still alive?" Cisco asks lightly.

"We're good," Barry assures him, squaring his shoulders. "I'm going to unwind Mardon's tornado. Once I'm done, Ellie, you take him down."

"Got it," I reply, glancing down at Eddie one last time before I retake my perch on the underside of the police car. I watch with bated breath as a streak of lightning circles the tornado once, twice, three times – and the tornado tears itself apart, dust and debris radiating out from the epicenter like a miniature explosion.

Mardon, now defenseless, is left standing in the middle of an empty field, and to be honest, he doesn't look like anything impressive as he faces Barry.

"I didn't think there was anyone like me," he says, reaching into his pocket for something.

"I'm not like you," Barry counters, both on the farm and through the comms. "You're a murderer."

"Maybe I am," Mardon says, and he brings his hand out of his pocket with a gun primed; he aims it directly at Barry's face, and I lurch into action.

"Mardon!" I shout. "Look at me!"

The meta-human's eyes blink silver as he turns his attention to me, but the effect of my powers doesn't last long, and my heart skips a beat as Mardon raises the gun at me instead.

But before I can act, a gunshot echoes across the field and Mardon drops to the ground with a pool of red blooming beneath him. I whirl around to see Joe standing a few yards away, gun still raised.

I quickly scramble off my perch and across the field, wrapping Joe in a tight a hug as I could manage. The hug was probably disgusting, as I smelled to high heaven and felt sticky all over – plus the suit was beginning to chafe – but Joe wraps his arms around me anyway.

Barry trudges over and turns the whole affair into a group hug, but the body heat we both emitted eventually became too much to be comfortable and we step apart.

"What you can do…it was the lightning bolt, wasn't it?" Joe asks wearily.

"Sorta," I admit.

Joe lets that settle for a quiet moment before sighing. "I'm sorry. Both of you, I'm sorry. For not believing you about that night. I used to think it was some psychological thing, just two kids protecting themselves, but now…"

I glance back at Mardon's corpse. "Yeah."

"I'll take another look at your mom's case, but I need you two to do something for me," Joe bargains.

"Anything," Barry promises.

"I need you to not tell Iris about what you can do," he requests.

I open my mouth to protest – personally, I was all for immediately keeping Iris in the loop – but Barry beats me to the punch.

"Promise."

I side-eye him, but he silences me with a look. I quickly squash down my annoyance, and it leaves way for only exhaustion – I was wanted food, a shower, and to get this suit off, and not particularly in that order.

I turn to Barry to see the same weariness reflected in his eyes, and my lips curve into a hopeful grin. "Looks like our job is done. Take me back to HQ?"

Barry smiles. "My pleasure."