And I'm back to Metakitties! A disclaimer: I don't watch Arrow, I don't know what was going on in Arrow while this episode was going down, so if there are inaccuracies…it's for humor and kitties, so. We're getting closer to end game here, guys. I'll say now: this will continue to season two, but NOT until next spring, after the season has finished, so that I can know what to change and what has to stay, and how what's going AU in this will be affecting that etc. that said, there's at least 6 more chapters of this nonsense to come, soo….

This chapter's for Mikkal because she's amazing and deserves many nice things.

Chapter nine

"You really need to stop bringing your cat to crime scenes." Joe told Barry, who shrugged. Nyoom was sniffing at a car tire.

"Joe. I don't bring her anywhere, she follows. I think she learned that phasing trick Wells taught me, too."

"God help us." Joe sighed. "So, cause of death?"

"It—well, it looks like some kind of animal bite or something—not cat obviously, or something big, but, more insect. I'll need to take some samples." Barry shrugged, then noticed Eddie, who jogged over, notepad in hand. "Have you spoken to, uh, Iris?"

"Seeing as how it's not someone else looking over our corpses, what do you think?" Eddie sighed and scratched the side of his head. "Victim's Lindsay Kang. Witness saw her get into her car last night, so whatever it was must have been waiting. This is more Meta-stuff, isn't it?"

"It looks that way. We're gonna take a sample to STAR Labs now, keep canvassing." Joe nodded at Barry, who made a vague protest, but Nyoom was pawing at his leg. She needed her kibble, and he needed a calorie bar, and they couldn't get that by avoiding STAR.

Besides, Barry thought vehemently, Joe trusted Cisco before with looking at the blood samples. They're my friends. Yeah, Wells is their—their boss and hero, but if they were in on all of this….no. They aren't. They stood up against him for Shawna, and…Barry couldn't get the look on Cisco's face, after the kidnapping, out of his mind. There was no way on earth Cisco would betray him by working with Wells, if he knew. No way at all.

Maybe he should try it out on Goldie and Bear. That would work, he'd go over to Iris's later. They really did need to talk, Eddie and him and Iris. He'd probably need to bring Nyoom, and maybe Moose. Hopefully Iris would consider the jail time and not actually kill and/or maim them, but it couldn't hurt to be careful.

"Well, it's Apitoxin," Caitlin looked at the results. "But it's not right. You said there were, what, forty stings?"

"Yeah," Barry didn't like where this was going already.

"And yet, Honeybees can only deposit a tiny amount of venom in a sting and you told us there were no bees found in the car..." Dr. Wells frowned.

"Bees?" Cisco squeaked. "I signed up for a lot of things, but not Bees." Fuzzwhump sensed the agitation and wriggled her way up to his shoulder, using her tail for balance as she patted at his cheek. He lifted her down, absently cradling her.

"Worse," Caitlin shook the sheet of paper. "There was enough apitoxin in her system to kill a herd of elephants. It wouldn't take a lot of stings to kill a person even if they aren't allergic. And—" she looked at Cisco, then at Fuzzwhump, then at Scrap, Nyoom, and the other assorted cats, who seemed to be constantly present now more than ever, as if they were waiting for something, or someone.

"Perhaps we should look into making one of the pipeline cells phase proof." Wells said. "I think we all know that if there is danger, they will try everything in their power, most of them, to come to our aid, though it may be best for them to sit this one out."
Cisco shook his head. "I think the pipeline cells count as closets for Lucy. If that Meta's still loose out there, I don't think we can stop the cats. Maybe Caitlin could soup up an epipen and we can get Faulkner to explain?" He looked greenish.

"Yeah," Barry nodded. "Besides, we still don't know-oh, hi, Nyoom." Nyoom had sprung onto his shoulder with surprising force. Nearby, Cassie was sitting stock still, not even twitching her tail, staring at the door. Barry would have shrugged it off, but Nyoom was getting heavy, even for a speedster. "We don't know how the meta controls them, or amps up the toxicity."

Cisco shuddered again, and Fuzzwhump let out a shrill mew, nosing his hair. "O-kay, well I'm just gonna go get a beekeeper suit, in that case, who else wants one?"

"I think Nyoom and I can out run a couple of bees, Cisco," Barry shook his head.

"Just don't run into the harbor." A familiar voice came from behind them. "Bees will follow you and wait for—oh my god is that a cat? Is that twelve cats? Ugh, this is so unfair, we don't get cats, we just get Broody McAngsty-Arrows and sometimes mice." Felicity Smoak bent down and tried to coax Cassie over. "Hi, Kitty, c'mere."

"Felicity?" Barry asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Being jealous of the cats." Felicity didn't take her eyes off of Cassie, continuing to rub her fingers together and hold out her hand. Cassie blinked, then started for the door, tail brushing Felicity's arm. "Rude. I think. Cats. Where did you get so many and why do you have them?"

"Excellent questions, Ms. Smoak. Ask us another, if you like." Dr. Wells rubbed his glasses on a slightly orange black sweater. "What brings you to Central City?"

"Oh!" Felicity stood up. "Um, well, it's kind of a long –"

"Uh, Hi. The cat led me in?" All heads turned. "I'm Ray." The stranger waved, grinning sheepishly.

Mostly everyone was gone, and that suited Fuzzwhump Not Fine At All. Wheelman was upstairs, still, and the Nyooman was gone. There was a new human, and Fuzzwhump wasn't sure about him. Cassie seemed to like him ok, but Cassie liked everyone. So while the rest of the cats went off with Nyooman, or the Soft one, or to confer with Goldie and Bear, Fuzzwhump stayed latched to Sco's shirt no matter how much he tried to pry her off.

The last time she had left him alone, people had hurt him and his littermate. Maybe she was only small, but she would fight.

She knew that wasn't much. If only she were like her brothers and sisters, if only she had a way to protect, like Moose, or Spike!
And then Sco said something to the new person, in a metal suit, and they started walking. Down the hall. To the elevator.
Fuzzwhump panicked. (NO CANNOT GO NOT GO WILL GET HURT IS BAD PLACE IS BAD PLACE NO NO NO NONONONONONONO) Her fur, getting longer, fluffed out, her ears flattened and she hissed. Sco had to listen, why wouldn't he listen?

"Fuzzwhump, chill out, hey, hey it's ok." Cisco put a hand on her head, then drew her down for a cuddle, trapping her. "What is with you?"

"Is she always like that?" Ray asked, extending a finger to pet the kitten.

"Lately," Cisco said as Fuzzwhump took a swipe at ray, kitten claws extended. Ray startled backward. "I think she might be sick or something, she's been really edgy. It would help if we knew what her powers are. So far it's mostly just her and Apricot that we don't know about. We have theories about the others."

"I still can't believe, I mean, I knew things were weird here. Felicity told me about the Flash and the metahumans and all, but…it's weirder with cats. I mean, I guess it makes sense, though, that it wouldn't just be humans who were affected. Maybe it's not even limited to cats. Metabees, maybe?"
Cisco winced, and Fuzzwhump, who had settled some, recognized his discomfort. "I hope not. I really, really don't like bees." He held up a hand "I know, we need them for the environment. But we don't need them within evil stinging range of me."

"Agreed," Ray sighed. "So you think we can fix my suit?"

"Think? Pfft. Of course we can."

Fuzzwhump found it difficult to remain perched on Sco's shoulder with his constantly reaching up or down or around the metal-man suit, and though she hated to, she founda place to sit on the desk, watching with fearful eyes. The room was big, and there was the metal platform that had hummed and buzzed, but Sco wasn't acting like he remembered what had happened. No one seemed to. Even Wheelman seemed like he'd always seemed. That scarred Fuzz. She knew she was right, but what if it had been like Cassie? What if she had seen a thing before it happened?

The new person was talking, and Sco was talking, excited but not scared or nervous. It was like when he built a New Thing. Fuzzwhump purred, she liked it when Sco built New things because it made him happy, and made the anger-sad-scared that so often filled up the building go away, lots of the time.
She didn't stray far, though, sniffing around for toys. She'd had a catnip mouse down here the day that Sco had been hurt, but now it wasn't here. There was dust under the table, she wished at it with her tail and paw, confused.

The others would know, they were bigger, older, maybe they could figure it out.

She hadn't strayed far and suddenly she was glad. Human speak was a mystery to her, aside from some names and a few words, Home, and No, and Treat, and Down. But the sounds sometimes were familiar, she could understand that a thing had been said before even if she didn't know what it meant.
and the New Human who smelled so friendly was looking at Sco, and said sounds that froze Fuzz's ears straight up and made every bit of fur stand up. The Wheelman had said those words before, and then he'd hurt Sco.

Sco was frozen, his face pained, and his heart went fast and scared and Fuzzwhump leaped.

It took five minutes of soothing reassurance to get Fuzzwhump to let go of Ray's ear.

"I don't think your cat likes me very much," Ray groaned.

"I'm sorry. I should have known, I thought she was doing better, I thought I was doing better, but—"

"Wait, what?" Ray blotted at the bite mark. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"I'm fine, I just—headaches. Not enough sleep. You know how it is." Cisco winced again at the sight of the red spots on the paper town. "I'm sorry."
Fuzzwhump growled from the desk drawer Cisco had been forced to stash her in. "I'm gonna go upstairs with her, see if Caitlin can figure this out. Or something."

They were interrupted by a killer bee attack across town. Cisco really, really hoped it wasn't Metabees after all. The kittens were proving to be hard enough.

Iris read the text from Barry again, an invite to dinner with Eddie, plus Felicity and her boyfriend. Well, that sounded fun. She probably shouldn't make puns about his clearly being the Flash in front of civilians though. She snorted.

"Eddie's a cop, yet he's the civilian in thi—oh, no." Eddie had fought with the Flash, as in, on his side. At Christmas, then when Caitlin had been kidnapped, even last night according to the statements from the diamond thieves she'd glanced at for an article she wanted to write. Eddie, how long had Eddie known? Did Eddie know?

"Goldie, I have tuna," she called.

"Meerrp." Goldie didn't even bother to come out from the bedroom. Iris sighed.

"Goldie, Eddie knows Barry's the Flash."

All Iris heard was purring. Ok, that does it. She needed a battle plan. A busy restaurant and witnesses wouldn't work, and if someone else was paying for dinner she wasn't going to turn that down, but something had to be done. Maybe she'd invite Barry over, say it was to interview them both on recent cases, and sic Goldie on them. That would work.

The time for mind games was over, she wanted answers. And fear. Maybe guilty apologies, too, she knew she'd get those out of Barry, at least, who knew just how swift and terrible her wrath might be, particularly when she was feeling creative.

Under any other circumstance, Barry would have been horrified at the "danger at STAR" alert he received. He was still horrified, obviously, because Wells was there, his mother's killer was there, with Caitlin and Cisco and the cats, what if any of them discovered something and he hurt them? But that horror warred with the relief of escaping from the awkwardness that was being a fifth wheel, in a totally empty but for them fancy French restaurant. And escaping from Iris. The conversation had turned to work, and secrets, and keeping secrets and while Felicity and Ray had tried to avoid the questions as best they could, Barry shared a brief, desperate glance with Eddie.

Iris was going to kill them all when they confirmed what she'd clearly guessed.

So he ran, lightning under his feet, and burst into STAR's cortex just as one of the nightmare-inducing creepy bees dodged a laser blast from a weapon Cisco was carrying and turned on Dr. Wells.

Barry lunged forward, half out of self preservation, his mind racing (if Wells reveals himself now we're all dead I can't fight him yet), and half out of instinct, every fiber of his body screaming "protect."

He didn't catch the bee.

Apricot did. She hissed as it stung her, and swatted at it. It crunched as it hit the floor, and everyone froze.

"Oh, god," Caitlin whispered, racing forward, her hand fumbling for an epipen they weren't even sure would work on the cats. But the marmalade cat, seated on the floor, only batted at the bee, which made a metallic clicking noise. Caitlin knocked it away with the pen and bent to look at the kitten, as everyone else held their breath. Even Wells's face was set, lined with what Barry thought might be concern.

"There's a puncture, but…but no swelling. Or anything. I need to do a blood test, right now, I have to make sure there's nothing in her system."
Sighs of relief went up from everyone. Apricot mewed in protest. (What big deal? I want my toy back! Let gooooo I want my toy, am fine!)

A blood test and a few other brief tests later (as well as a large amount of takeout from the Big Belly Burger because Barry hadn't even gotten past the first tiny course) Caitlin determined that Apricot was fine. She'd been stung, there was even a droplet of the toxin caught in her fur near the wound, but for whatever reason her body had not been harmed by it.

"Well, that's new." Cisco muttered, glancing at the Bee-that-was-apparently-a-robot. He was still glad it wasn't metabees. Fuzzwhump poked her head out of the large pocket on the inside of his hoodie. "No, you stay there. You're still in trouble, you can't keep trying to kill people. That's rude."

Fuzzwhump gave a short mew, and pressed her nose to Cisco's wrist. He rubbed her ear, trying to stay stern. Was it the dreams he kept having? Was she sensing them, maybe?

He hoped that wasn't it, because if it was, he'd need to explain that to Caitlin and Barry, and how could he? The dreams were terrifying and ridiculous, impossible.

Felicity found herself mobbed by cats when she and Ray walked in, the black and white one called Cassie and two of the others. "And who are you?" she asked them, glancing up at Caitlin.

"Santiago and Spike," Caitlin told her. "Troublemakers, both of them."

"Really, they seem sweet. What do they do, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Santiago chewed through a steel door because he was bored. And as for Spike…guess."

"Oh, yikes. Dangerous kitties. I bet you'd fit right in at my—oh!" Santiago butted his head into Felicity's knee, trying to get her to sit down. She sat, and he curled up on her lap. Not to be out-done, Spike climbed on top of him.

"Someone's popular," Caitlin quirked a smile.

Barry was not looking forward to the "important meeting" Iris called in Joe's living room, and wondered if he could just live at STAR Labs for the rest of his life, hiding from her. Then again, if anyone could get into STAR without notice, it was Iris.

"When were you going to tell me?" she asked, standing up so that she towered, just slightly, over the three of them. Goldie and Bear were corralled into the room. Joe looked at Barry. Barry looked at Joe. Eddie raised a hand.

"I only found out the day before yesterday," he said.

"Thanks for shoving me under the bus, dude," Barry muttered.

"It's your bus!"

"Look, Iris, Honey—" Joe started.

"No, honey is what you put on oatmeal. Honestly, how hard would it have been? For either of you? "Hey, Iris, just so you know, Barry has superpowers!" Did you not trust me? I had to learn this from my cats!"

"I knew those cats would be trouble," Joe muttered.

"It's not my cats's fault that you both lied to me for—for months! Actively lied to me! How does that feel, huh? That a cat is more honest than the police? There's a newspaper article for you." She paused. "No, I wouldn't write that, I'm not stupid, even if you seemed to think I was. I know what happened to Caitlin with Snart, and the Tony thing…but seriously. Give me some credit. Can you look me in the eye, all of you, and honestly tell me that I was safer not knowing? Stumbling around piecing things together instead of being prepared?"

There was a long silence, courtesy of Bear, broken by Barry's phone. Knowing that it was likely his own death sentence to ignore Iris, he still checked it, and went pale.

"Look, Iris, I really have to go, someone's going to die if I don't you can kill me later ok?"
He left, then returned to grab up Nyoom.
Iris glared at the space where he'd been sitting. Eddie and Joe both swallowed nervously.

"We should...probably go help with…" Eddie started. Iris turned on him. "or…not?"

Fuzzwhump watched from her pouch in Sco's hoodie as they rescued the New Person, all sparking and wet. He'd crashed into the van, and she didn't like the van, but everyone was happy to see him and she'd seen some of what he'd done on Sco's little screen.
He'd done good things. He'd gotten rid of the nasty bugs that scared Sco, made sure they didn't hurt people. And he hadn't hurt Sco.
Now that she thought about it, he hadn't hurt Sco before. Just said similar words. That still didn't mean she liked him.

Except that Sco liked him, but—but Sco liked the Wheelman, so maybe Sco didn't know who to like and who not to like and it made her kitten brain go fuzzy like fur. She didn't want to think about worry, she was sick of worry. She wanted to play Got Sco's Toes and steal-share his breakfasts, not mew him out of nightmares. Maybe she could, maybe, because the others were keeping watch. They would all work together. She purred at her human, nuzzling his hand and squirming out of the pocket to cuddle next to his , and he held her as everyone clambered out of the van.

She saw the bee a heartbeat after Cisco did, already running forward.
(SCO,) she shrilled as he dropped her, falling. (Sco, no! No! Sco, get up, please get up, please.)

He didn't. The Soft one tried to shood her away, tried to put her hands on Sco's chest, but Fuzzwhump wouldn't move, trying to find the heartbeat, it had to be there. The Soft one knocked her aside, and the New human caught her, holding her gently. He said her name, and set her down next to Sco's head as the Soft one did something, pressing down and saying words Fuzz knew, the same things she'd mewed.
She let the new human keep a hand—suddenly a comfort—on her back as she pressed her face against Sco's throat and mewed, over, and over, and over.
And then the Nyomman was there, urging everyone back, his hands sparking lightning and Fuzzwhump pressed closer. (No! Needs me! I stay! I stay!)

Cisco coughed hard, the world swimming into some semblance of focus, a light-pollution tainted sky, his friend's worried faces, Fuzzwhump licking his face. Before even allowing anyone to help him sit up, he pulled her to his chest, hugging her. "S'ok. S'ok." He promised her. She squirmed, and licked his nose.

Barry hid out at STAR Labs the rest of the night, under the pretense of making sure Cisco was ok. Which was mostly true, it just happened to have the added benefit of helping him avoid Iris for a little longer under a validish excuse. Ray and Felicity, however, left by dawn, in an effort to beat traffic. With them went Felicity's new shadows, Cassie, Spike, and Santiago.

"Felicity?" Oliver asked, looking around. A fluffy cat was sitting on his quiver.

"Yes?"

"Explain."

"You know how I went to Central city? Well, Barry had cats. Magical cats. And these ones are ours!"

"No."

"But they'll be useful. For therapy, because trust me. We all need therapy. But for other things, like catching mice. Or finding bugs. Look!" she pointed at the cat seated on the Salmon Ladder. Oliver cursed inwardly. Three cats. Three. Weren't things crazy enough? "This one's Spike, you'll get along great. He likes pointy things, too. He is one, a lot of the time, I think my cat still has puncture marks in the seats…"

"Felicity!" He tried to shoo the cat off his quiver to no avail.

"And this one can chew through solid steel. Just think how useful that would be if we ever got locked in a dungeon or something" Felicity grinned.

hope you liked it. ~awkward shrugging~