Chris, the Snart siblings, and Mick were able to duck into a side room and hide under a spell while the thugs came in. Sure enough, it didn't take much for Flynn and his new female friend to be captured and subsequently thrown into a pit that was rapidly filling with water.
Once Jerry was sufficiently distracted with the ceremony, Snart and Mick went to work. Namely disabling or disposing of the thugs. They didn't stand a chance against the hot and cold guns.
Meanwhile Lisa and Chris were cataloging and collecting a good chunk of the treasure in the first room.
Chris was also taking plenty of pictures of the relief in the back.
By the time most of the thugs had been dealt with, Jomo, the man Flynn and Emily had helped had managed to get them out, though it didn't hurt that Snart found the lever Jerry used to fill the room with water.
"What's the verdict?" asked Snart.
"We're good to go. Even if this place blows up, at least these will survive," said Chris, holding up his bag full of scrolls from Alexandria.
"The rookie and his girl are dealing with the smuggler," said Snart.
"Which means we don't really need to get involved. Flynn has to figure out how to end this on his own, and if he can't...well, that's what time travel is for," said Chris.
He loved his super speed.
Chris was making kissing sounds behind Flynn's back while he said goodbye to the rather attractive archaeologist. Lisa was snickering next to him.
Mick was in his happy place. He got to set things on fire and he got to watch a volcano partially explode.
Snart was happy because he had been subtly pushing his sister towards Chris, and he was rather pleased that there had been positive results on that end.
He knew Chris wouldn't hurt his sister, and he could easily support Lisa. Chris absolutely hated it when they ran across abuse cases, especially children. It didn't hurt that he had told Snart about his past, or that he had researched the child abuse case in Surrey.
Besides, who would say no to having their sister marry into actual nobility? They had access to all the best things to steal!
Chris made with the innocent face when Flynn turned around, completely unaware that Chris had been mocking him. Emily had seen it, but she had been too amused to say anything.
They were heading back to New York...well, Flynn was. Chris was giving Snart and the others a lift back to Central City. He was already sending out the usual inquiries to the people he had to authenticate the coins for him...after selecting which ones he'd keep for his own collection of course.
Flynn was almost completely settled in for a long nap when he felt something dropped onto his lap.
"What's this?"
"Oh nothing...just some scrolls you'll be translating once you're back home," said Chris far too cheerfully.
"What?!"
"Come on Carson, you are a Librarian. We have to authenticate the scrolls and then see if they're Library material or not. If they are, they'll be put in with the normal collection, if not I'll be making some discreet sales to museums and certain universities within months. How did you think the Library pays us? It's not from a bunch of private benefactors," said Chris.
Charlene wasn't getting any younger, and this was something she usually considered a perfect punishment for when Chris messed up. He had to keep track of the budget and make the discreet sales of book copies in order to keep up the funding of the Library, since the members generally agreed using the artifacts for monetary value was bad form.
Chris was lucky he came from old money, but he still had to learn this.
As a member of Nobility and the owner of a lot of cash, he was one of the rare Librarians heavily encouraged to marry. If not, well a good chunk of his gold would head to the Library before any random relatives tried to claim it.
It was already in his will, written and signed when he started taking missions outside the Library as a proper member.
Flynn did not look happy, but Chris was positively grinning. He had the easy job.
He just had to translate and see if the scrolls were too dangerous for public consumption, in between missions.
Considering they had a high turnover rate of 'assistants' to the Librarian recently, it would be a while before they could have a select staff who could collect the artifacts and give Flynn a chance to breathe.
Chris was in Jitters, borrowing their WiFi with the most secure laptop available (the firewalls were so advanced that they weren't even developed yet and protected by magic) doing his real job and insuring Mick and the Snart siblings were giving their proper share for partially looting the mines before it blew.
If it weren't for his almost iron control of his emotions, Chris would have blushed at the thought of Lisa. He might be practically a monk (thank you lack of real social life) but even he would admit that she was beyond hot and his type.
On the major plus side, Lisa already liked him and her brother had been subtly hinting that if Chris wanted to pursue a romantic relationship with his sister he would definitely acknowledge Chris as "approved boyfriend material" for his baby sister.
Besides, if anyone knew what it was like to grow up in a abusive home life, it was Chris. When he found out what their dad had been like, he hadn't shown an ounce of pity or compassion about the matter.
Instead he started comparing battle scars (both emotional, physical and mental) in a flat voice that said he wasn't looking for any damn sympathy or pity from either sibling...though he was very envious that Lisa at least had Leonard to be there growing up.
It was actually one of the main reasons they just clicked, and why Leonard thought of Chris as practically family. He wasn't going to coddle the kid or treat him special. But he would trust Chris with his back and to be there when he genuinely needed him. Or if Lisa needed him.
It was somewhat sad that the closest thing he came to a family was a pair of criminal siblings from an almost equally abusive household.
He was finishing a sale of a papyrus from the mines to a university when his "public" phone went off.
"Go for Chris. If this is a telemarketer expect bad things to happen to you within a week," said Chris without looking at who it was.
He blinked when he realized it was Cisco. Despite finding out that Chris often worked with Snart, he still trusted him.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what? Could you repeat that at a slower and more clear rate?" said Chris.
A few minutes later, Chris logged out and was already going Between straight to the lab.
Caitlin yelped.
"Don't do that!"
"But how will I freak you out if I don't?" he asked, cocking his head. Cisco and Barry snickered. "So Wells is a time traveling pain in the ass? Future or Past?"
"Future," said Barry.
"Called it. Good thing I never let him find out what I could really do, otherwise this could have gotten worse already," said Chris.
"Wait, you knew?" said Caitlin.
"Of course I knew. There were temporal waves all over the damn city for months now, and generally the only reason they don't dissipate after a month or two is if some poor bastard from the future gets stuck. Especially if a direct ancestor is in the same general area, usually within fifty miles. So who did Wells kidnap?"
"Eddie Thawne," said Barry tightly. "His real name is Eobard Thawne."
"Which means Eddie is his many times great grandfather. Talk about bad luck. I take it you've already cased the city trying to find Reverse Flash or whatever he's calling himself?"
"There's no sign of Eddie anywhere, and Thawne nearly killed us with Grodd."
"Well...not everywhere," said Chris, almost shiftily.
"So what's your meta-name?" asked Cisco.
"Really?" complained Caitlin.
"It's Speed Reader. Hell, even Leonard calls me that," said Chris. Seeing their confusion, he clarified "Captain Cold."
"Speed Reader?" repeated Cisco, as if he thought it was something of a lame code name.
Chris smirked.
Then he held up a single hand and vibrated it in a very familiar manner.
"Speedster. Unlike Barry, I've had years of practice. And since I work in a Library, I got a lot of practice doing research and shelving books."
"Wait, the particle accelerator wasn't even invented until a few years ago. How could you already have..." said Caitlin.
"You're not a time traveler too are you?" asked Barry.
"Hell no. Have none of you seriously wondered why my name is so weird or hard to pronounce? Astraphobos isn't exactly a normal name you know," said Chris rolling his eyes.
"Oh my god. I can't believe I didn't see it before," said Caitlin. She almost looked exasperated for missing something so obvious.
"What?"
"Astraphobos. Phobos is one of the sons of Ares, and is the origin of the word 'phobia'. It literally means 'fear' in Greek," said Chris helpfully.
"Astraphobos. As in Astraphobia, or the fear of thunder and lightning," clarified Caitlin.
"Seriously? Why isn't that your meta-name?" said Cisco.
"I'm a speedster that lives and works at a Library. What better name than Speed Reader? Besides, if Reverse Flash knew about my actual powers odds are he'd kill Barry and use a more experienced Speedster to get him back home instead," deadpanned Chris.
"What?" yelped Caitlin and Cisco.
Chris rolled his eyes.
"Lets look at the facts, shall we? Barry has a family, works around cops and has a stable home life with people who will ask questions if something bad happened to him and is relatively well respected. Whereas I am and English orphan with no real relatives, live alone, and as far as most people are concerned have never been anything more than a janitor. Never mind that I've got more control and a better grasp on my powers than Barry, or that I can time travel with ease considering I've done more than simply go faster. Who makes the more appealing target?" said Chris sarcastically.
"He has a point," said Barry reluctantly.
"Besides, if this Eobard Thawne knew exactly what my job was he wouldn't hesitate to try and make me help him," said Chris cheerfully. "There's a reason why Snart and I have a working relationship that hasn't gotten me a criminal record yet."
"How can a librarian have a working relationship with a criminal like Captain Cold?" asked Cisco incredulous.
Chris snickered evilly.
"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you. So why'd you call me anyway?"
"We need your help transporting the metas in the cells to a remote island. The police aren't going to help, since we're technically holding them illegally," said Joe.
"I'll need to see the island before I can take them Between there. Downsides of being able to go anywhere. I have to know where it is and what it looks like," said Chris.
That and he had other plans for the more...murderous...metas they had in those cells.
"I'll see if Oliver has pictures. Er, I mean..." stammered Barry.
"Dude, I know more superheroes identities than you do. Hell, I even know what a Time Master is and about a pair of very unlucky reincarnating hawk gods and their immortal killer," said Chris rolling his eyes. "Odds are Oliver Queen will recognize me pretty damn fast if we ran into each other. Besides... I make way more than he does with half the crap he goes through."
Joe snorted...before he realized Chris did not look like he was joking.
"Seriously? Queen is one of the richest guys in America. How the hell can you top his bank account?"
"Old blood, even older money and the Queen liked me enough to give me an upgrade when I cleaned house. Besides, it's not like I have anything better to do late at night and I make really good investments. That and my actual job leaves a lot of opportunity to make some serious cash."
Seeing they didn't believe him, Chris smirked.
"Move over for a minute Cisco. I need to check if the money transferred into the right accounts anyway," said Chris.
Cisco dutifully moved over while Barry made an inquiry to Oliver about pictures of the island so Chris could 'teleport' prisoners there.
Hearing Cisco choke, Barry looked at the screen and nearly choked himself. That was a lot of zeroes.
Which only lead to a rather...interesting...moment when Barry sent a picture of Chris to Felicity so Oliver could see who they were talking about, and Oliver sounding slightly hysterical asking them what the hell they were up to that would require him to help them.
Apparently Chris wasn't kidding about Oliver recognizing him rather quickly...
