Cisco was fiddling with his glasses in his lab. Over the last few weeks he managed to made them work in such a way that he could vibe whenever he needed and over whatever distance. His capacity to open and close breaches at will had increased as well, he did not try to open breaches to anywhere else except Earth two. He had gotten the frequency of the vibrations off Harry.
Harry on the other hand while everyone was being all happy and cozy at Christmas, managed to break into the CCPD on his earth and gather all the data he could on Zoom. He found out some things and from that he was able to kind of pinpoint the location of his lair, but he would need confirmation. He also managed to use Thawne's speed equations to build our two heroes rings where they could store their suits, which was a very welcome addition and the two thanked him for it.
Barry and Caitlin decided to ask Oliver to take care of Central for the time they would be gone to Earth two. They knew that the archer couldn't do that much against the metahumans that were prowling Central City, but with the help of Joe and Eddie and their metahuman capture gear they stood a chance. The two speedsters had promised Harry that they will help her save his daughter. With that Harry came to their side and started to tell them about what Zoom told him to do.
The STAR Labs crew found out something even more interesting. Jay was looking for his doppelganger on earth 1 to see if he could repair his cells that were damaged because of the Velocity that Harry invented. The crew kept searching, but there was nobody named Jay Garrick on their earth. Which gave Caitlin an idea even back when they found out that he didn't have a double. She had Bette use Felicity's face recognition software to look for someone with Jay's facial features. Much to their surprise … after quite a long while of searching a newly arrived person in Central City triggered the facial scan. His name … was not Jay Garrick. It was Hunter Zolomon.
Harry recognized the name immediately. Hunter Zolomon on his earth was the only case of a serial killer that Central City had had in a decade. He was supposed to have died the night the Particle Accelerator exploded, then the scientist realized that if he didn't die then the power of the explosion must have given him speed. Just like it did with Barry and Caitlin.
Jay wanted to stay and help the city and keep using the Velocity, but after the flashes that Barry had, nobody really trusted him and he was always kept at arm's length by Bette when he was in the lab. Also the couple did not give him access to the more sensitive areas which was clear as to why. Seeing that nobody is interested in helping him regain his speed and that Harry was going back to earth two, he helped Cisco in developing dimensional bombs that would collapse the breaches in Central City.
One after another all the breaches were closed except the one in the STAR Labs basement which was now the only way to and from Earth two. They suited up and Barry ran first with Cisco and Jay through the breach and Caitlin followed soon after with Harry. They were on a new earth, some of the technology they saw was something new to them. Something that on their earth had been only theorized but not yet materialized. The first person they met was quite a surprise. Henry Hewitt, who they had locked in the pipeline for being a real angry version of Firestorm, was the first that greeted them, causing the three to cringe but not say anything. Jay went on his way and the four were left sitting around Harry's office.
"Cisco, time to put on your magic glasses. See if you can tell us where Zoom is hiding, with a higher degree of accuracy that just guesswork" Barry told his friend.
"Ok. Let's test out these bad boys" Cisco put them on and ... nothing happened. "Somethings off. They aren't working here"
"Of course they aren't" Harry almost face palmed "Your vibes must work on frequency. The glasses are calibrated on the frequency of your earth not mine. That's why they don't work"
"Guys, without Cisco's visions we're up a creek without paddles right now. All we have is Harry and whatever he managed to get from the CCPD. Which isn't telling us much" Caitlin said a bit despaired.
"Harry can you search Caitlin and I's doubles on this earth? Maybe we can impersonate them and get some more information out of people" Barry told the scientist. He nodded and started to look up the information on the two.
"There we go. Barry Allen. Director of the CSI department at the CCPD. That should be useful. He should have the access to the information we need" Harry commented. "Let me look Snow up" after a few minutes the same thing popped up "Caitlin Snow, detective at the CCPD" Barry and Caitlin were a bit stunned by the detective bit. "They seem to have files that I cannot break the encryption to. There might be more to them than we think"
"I know it's far-fetched but have you ever thought about you as a cop?" Barry inquired staring at his fiancée.
"I did, quite a few times. When I was young I wanted to put people like my mother behind bars. She was a total bitch and could not care about her children" Caitlin stated quite bluntly.
"Can you look up the others as well? Maybe they are people that we can ask questions about the state of affairs in this dimension" Barry continued
"Joe West, singer, Broadway actor, producer and musician. Not really helpful. Iris West. This is strange, this file required level 5 access with a fingerprint" Harry told them
"Who's fingerprint?" Caitlin asked.
"Barry's apparently" Harry told them and dragged Barry over to put his thumb on the screen. "There we go. Oh … my" his face went a bit red looking at the picture that appeared on the screen "Iris West, also known as Fire Bolt. Working for some unknown organization that helps Zoom conduct his terror attacks, she is a metahuman with the power over fire" Harry looked at the two strangely.
"That's … interesting. In this reality I don't have any sort of powers and Iris is a metahuman? And not even a good one, she's a murderer? Where the hell did we end up, Barry?" Caitlin asked with a surprised look on her face.
"This will be even more of a surprise then. Her partner in crime is someone the papers call Death Storm. Look familiar to you, Snow?" Harry asked turning the monitor over only to see her gasp. Barry looked at it as well
"Barry, that's Ronnie. He's alive in this universe" she managed to utter.
"Not only that but it appears he managed to shack up with Iris. This is really stranger than fiction" Barry commented.
"You two get your doubles over here. Talk to them, if they can't seem to agree on what you need just taze them and lock them in the back room. They should be out for a while and you will be free to roam the city" Harry commented while going over to Cisco to help him adjust his glasses. The two speedsters did exactly that, bringing their doubles back into the room that now was empty.
"What happened?" Earth 2 Barry commented. "How did we get here?" He was wearing a pair of glasses and apparently he was a big nerd. Which was fitting because Barry was one as well.
"Honey, I have no idea where we are. But this isn't good" Earth 2 Caitlin commented and pulled out her gun. The moment she saw the two earth 1 people standing there wearing their exact faces they both froze.
"Honey? That's new. You never called me that" Barry quipped
"I don't like telling sweet things to people. Or at least not in public" Caitlin winked at her fiancée. "Hello you two. You`re a bit confused aren't you?"
"Who are you?" she asked pointing her gun at the two speedsters only to be taken away and deposited on the table behind them in a trail of silver lightning
"We're you. Only from another parallel earth. I'm Frost and this Flash. Look, we need your help and I know you`re smart people. I would rather not have to taze you so we can go about our business through the city" Caitlin told their doubles.
"What kind of help?" Earth 2 Barry asked.
"Simple, we need to find Zoom's hideout. As you might have seen we are speedsters as well. Zoom is holding someone very important to us captive and we would like to rescue them. But we don't have enough data, which means we need your help" Barry told them
"Are you here to kill him?" Earth 2 Caitlin asked.
"We are superheroes, Caitlin. We do not kill people. Worst case scenario we will beat him up so bad that he won't be able to run and you can take him into custody and do whatever you want with him" Frost responded to her counterpart.
"I'm fine with that. What do you need from us? I won't even ask about the double and the other earth. You guys being here is already giving me a headache" Earth 2 Caitlin spoke while rubbing her forehead.
"First of all, I need you to go to the CCPD and lock yourselves in the CSI lab for a couple of hours. We need to scope out the place and it would be beneficial that nobody sees you while we're out there. Secondly, while you`re in the CSI lab, run every piece of evidence and clue you have on Zoom. Patterns, location where he attacked, movements of the people that you know work for him. See if you can pin down the location of his hideout. That way we can go rescue our friend and maybe even set a trap for Zoom. Third and last, can you tell us where you live so we can go borrow some of your clothes? These suits kind of stand out" Barry smiled at his double.
"Ok. If you are us then that means we can trust you. Here's the key and the address to our apartment. Go get changed first" Earth 2 Caitlin told them. They came back after 20 seconds looking exactly like the persons in front of them, with a few differences. Barry had no glasses and Caitlin didn't have her badge and gun.
"That is freaky" Earth 2 Barry commented "The differences don't matter that much. I sometimes wear contacts and Caitlin is off duty sometimes as well. So you missing those pieces won't make a huge difference. That however, will" he pointed to the ring on Caitlin's finger.
"Why would that make a difference? Aren't you …" she asked looking at her counterpart
"Well this nerd didn't ask, so you going out with that big rock on your finger might start something. You do want to go incognito, don't you?" the other Caitlin replied. The other Barry seemed a bit flustered by the realization of what his Caitlin had said.
"Ok, I'll put it in the suit for now. We have to wear them underneath anyway since there is no place for us to store them. We thought taking the rings that held our suits would stand out even more here. Should we take you back to the CCPD?" Caitlin asked the two doubles.
"Yes. Then you can come out of the lab and close it and we'll be free to do our research. Nobody has the key to the lab except us and people seeing you leave will think we took a day off or something" Earth 2 Barry answered. The two did what they were told and then walked out of the CCPD with people that they knew from their earth or new people that they didn't even meet, greeting them and telling them to have a nice day.
They had talked with their doubles and decided to follow their routine for the day. They went to Jitterbugs, which apparently was a duplicate of their own coffee shot only it was a bar where a familiar face was singing on the stage.
"Look, Cait, that's Joe. I had no idea he could sing that well" Barry told her while sitting down at a table which their doubles told them that it was their regular spot. Joe even gave them a smile. It was obvious he knew them. But their respite didn't last long. Two familiar faces walked in. The two recognized them instantly, Ronnie and Iris.
"We're looking for two breachers. People that should not be here. Give them up quietly and we won't roast you" Iris growled at the people in the establishment. She lit up her hands in warning to everyone. Ronnie lit up as well and started throwing random fireballs that were not meant to hurt people, but scare them into talking.
"Iris? What the …" Barry realized that he had said too much. Not many people knew Fire Bolt's real name. And the only one that was supposed to, was singing on the stage. She threw a concussive fire blast straight at Barry but missed and hit her own father turning him to ashes. She yelled and wanted to burn everyone in the restaurant, apparently her powers were like the initial Killer Frost. But whereas Frost got her power from pain, loneliness and hate, Fire Bolt got her power from anger. The two decided to just handle the situation by speeding the metahumans to the plaza where there was no one around.
"Well hello, breachers" Iris licked her lips
"They're speedsters, babe" Ronnie smiled from beside her "Let's fry them". The evil metahumans started attacking Barry and Caitlin. The two just tried to avoid their attacks and not hurt them, in the end the people that they were fighting had at one point meant the world to them. In the end they had to retaliate in order to at least hurt them enough to escape. Barry formed a tornado that sucked out all of his oxygen. Without that the metahuman just fell to the ground unconscious. Caitlin trapped Fire Bolt into a prison of ice. She made it triple layered so even with her powers it would take her a while to get out of it. The two sped back to Harry's lab cursing in their minds.
"We got found out. Zoom must have some sort of breach detection system because we went to a bar and Ronnie and Iris just jumped us" Barry told Cisco and Harry.
"That's not the problem now. Zoom will probably find out that you`re here and when he does, the death of my daughter will be on your heads" Harry cursed himself for ever agreeing to that plan. They received a call from the other Barry
"We're sending you a location. One of our snitches told us that's the place where most of the metahumans that work for Zoom meet. Maybe you should pay them a visit"
"On our way. Cisco did you manage to get your glasses working?" Caitlin asked.
"Yes, they don't work for vibing, but they still help me channel the blasts I can produce and open other breaches if needed. I'm coming with you guys" He said.
The three friends went straight to the abandoned warehouse that their counterparts found out about. Only to be greeted by Iris and Ronnie.
"Come on, you two were my friends. How the hell do you work for Zoom" Cisco yelled at them
"They work for me. I work for Zoom" a voice in the shadows said while it walked straight toward them. They could see a copy of Cisco just with styled hair and maybe some foundation, to which Cisco made a really nasty face, walk toward them "Yes, Cisco. You know who I am" the Earth 2 Cisco laughed.
"I was sure there was another me here" Cisco said with a cringed look on his face.
"And I knew you were coming, Cisco. Even before you stepped into the breach on your earth. See, we are all connected, Francisco. I can see through different dimensions and times. Your coming here was not a surprise to me" the duplicate smirked
"The name is Vibe" Cisco returned his duplicate
"Reverb" The other one offered looking at himself.
"Not the worst name you could come up with. Not the best either" Cisco quipped.
"I've been watching you for a while, Vibe. I have to say I'm pretty disappointed in you. You haven't even begun to explore the extent of your powers" Reverb snarled
"I can say the same for you. I don't know what's worse. That you`re part of Zoom's gang or that ... samurai situation you got going on the top of your head there" Vibe retorted at his double. Before that exchange was finished Zoom showed up. He got tired of all the talk and when Ronnie tried to attack the Flash, his reward was a vibrating hand through the chest. Next was Reverb, Zoom knew he couldn't be trusted and had his eyes on him for a while, but now, when he chatted with the people he wanted caught instead of bringing them to him… he was useless as a leader. The last attack was him trying to gut Fire Bolt, but he didn't manage. In less than a second Barry was next to him and gave him a massive dose of the nanites that they had brought along with them slowing him enough for the speedster to do some serious damage. Zoom had to retreat, leaving a crying Iris over the body of her now dead boyfriend and the three friends now Looking at each other in surprise. They didn't even imagine that Zoom would do such a thing to his own people. Also Barry seeing the image of Vibe and Reverb talking confirmed that one of his flashes was now real. He was keeping score, the percentages and probabilities might have come in handy later.
"I am going to kill him, He is going to burn to ashes" Iris cried over her dead boyfriend, while her hair and hands were burning something fierce.
"We want to capture him. We need the location of his lair. If you want to kill him at least give us that before you kill yourself. You have no chance against Zoom. You know that" Caitlin told her. Iris lunged at her throwing two fire balls only to be immobilized by Barry in less than what it takes to blink. Caitlin erected a double ice wall that made the fire balls disappear.
"So, what will it be then?" Barry asked Iris holding her down "You can do whatever you like, we aren't here to stop you, all that we require is the location of his hideout"
"He has a lair in the mountains a while away from Central City. Give me a map, I'll show you" She told them. Cisco produced a map and she showed them a point which yielded a series of coordinates from the touch map "There, let me go. I want to go burn that killer for Ronnie" The three could see the fire in her eyes. She was hurting bad.
"Just as long as you understand. You can't beat him. You`re going to your death" Barry told her.
"I know. But a life without Ronnie isn't worth living. Let me go" she asked almost begging. Barry let her go and she ran out the back door.
"She really loved him, didn't she?" Cisco looked at the dead Ronnie on the floor.
"Love makes people do stupid things. Or the greatest things ever" Barry added.
"She knows she has no chance in beating him, yet she is still going. I would call that stupidity, but it's nothing that I wouldn't personally do if Zoom would kill you, Barry. So I'll reserve judgement on her" Caitlin said looking at Barry who should have had a surprised face, but nothing surprised him anymore coming from his fiancée. She knew what she was capable of, because he would have done the exact same.
"Harry, we found Zoom's hideout. Well come get you and then speed out to there. I suspect the entrance will only be accessible to speedsters so you will need us to get in there" Caitlin told him.
"Come get me. I'm at the labs" the voice responded
The two speedsters talking Harry and Cisco in tow went to the location that Iris had marked on their map. They sat in front of a cliff who had a large entrance three quarters of the way up. Only a speedster or someone flying like Death Storm could go in there. Luckily for them, they were both speedsters.
They got into the lair and found Jesse and an unknown person in the cells. In the cell in front of Jesse there was a person wearing an iron mask who was trying to get their attention. The glass was special, Caitlin couldn't freeze it or break it. Barry however managed to phase quite easily through the glass and get both the kid and Jesse out. They now had a problem, there were six of them and two speedsters. Someone would have to stay behind while Barry and Caitlin took the other two down. They didn't have time to choose. Zoom came back and even heavily affected by the nanites, even if he got them out by vibrating they still managed to drain him quite effectively, he still posed a threat. The speedsters got Jesse and the other kid down then came back for Cisco and Harry. Caitlin wanted to use her powers to put Zoom in an ice prison but reading her face Barry nodded at her not to do it. They still had to keep quiet about her powers and since Killer Frost did not exist on this world that was an advantage. Barry used what he had learned from Eddie to put his speed behind one of his normal punches and threw Zoom into a wall leaving him dazed. In the confusion they all managed to go back to STAR. However there was a complication. Both Jesse and the kid were in a deep coma.
"Who is this?" Barry asked. "Can we look him up?"
"His name is Wally West. He's Joe's son… Well Joe is dead and Iris is probably roaming the world looking to kill Zoom. We'd better take him with us. Let's go back home for now" Cisco said.
"Wait. I need to call our doppelgangers" Barry said as he dialed a number.
"Barry, Caitlin. We managed to rescue our friend and severely diminish Zoom's Meta brigade. He will not be a problem for at least a week. I'm sending you schematics for metahuman gear. Cuffs and containment cells that can hold the new metas. You should be able to capture all of them and get them to trial now. I suspect Zoom will be coming for us after he gets his bearings so you should have at least a week to get all that ready. Good luck and stay safe" Barry told their counterparts. "And for god's sake Barry, just ask her to marry you already. You know she wants to. Stop being a wuss"
"Thank you for what you did. We were right in trusting you. Will we ever see you again?" the two asked.
"Probably not. But nothing is set in stone. Take care of yourselves and go get them" Caitlin told them. "Your people are counting on you" they closed the call
"Do you have a speed cannon here too?" Barry asked.
"No, you two are going to have to take us through the breach with your speed. Can you do that?" Harry asked.
"Yes. Let's go" Caitlin took the two comatose people. They made the jump successfully and Joe and Eddie were waiting for them on the other side. The moment the two brought their passengers back, Eddie threw one of the dimensional bombs in the breach and it sealed shut.
"Come on, we need to get these two to the med bay" Caitlin took Wally and Barry took Jesse as they flashed up to the ward. The others followed in a rapid manner. The two tied them to machines and started recording his vitals. Joe however was … surprised at the new arrival.
"Barry, Caitlin, who is this second person you brought with you?" he asked surprised.
"Someone who has no more family on that earth, someone who survived instead of dying, like he did here. Remember, you told me Francine was pregnant when she left. She had a miscarriage, which lead to the whole cancer debacle now. This is Wally West. Your son, which was never born on this earth" Barry told him watching his face fall
"What's wrong with the kids?" Harry asked visibly disturbed by their comatose states. Barry looked over their tests. He had seen this before. Minimal brain activity but with high heart rate.
"I need to see their blood. Caitlin, take a look at their cells. If I'm correct there two are in a Speed Force coma. When they wake up they will become speedsters like us" Barry concluded. He had the most knowledge about a speed force coma from the 6 months that he studied Caitlin's progress.
"Two speedster kids. That's all I needed" Joe said with a bit of a worry in his voice. Caitlin went to get some of Jesse's blood and when she touched her a spark went through them and she woke up. Harry was in tears seeing his baby girl all right.
"Hey dad, what did I miss?" she smiled at Harry that dropped all the jerk act and gave her a big hug.
"Hey, Jesse, what happened to you? You were in a coma when we found you" the scientist asked his daughter
"I don't know. There was a bright light that hit us and after that I don't remember anything. I think Zoom tried to recreate the particle accelerator explosion to obtain even more speed, because the wave looked like something that had come off our own particle accelerator when we had the initial explosion that created all of the metahumans that are now here" She told them. Barry in the meantime touched Wally who woke up as well. He was very confused, his system did not adjust yet to the fact that he had been in a coma for a while.
"Where am I" he asked. "Dad? How are you here? Why do you have a gun?" Joe could not stop himself from crying "What's happening here. Where am I?" He continued to ask.
"You are no longer in your own world, Mr. West. This is a different earth. I'm sorry but the family you had back on your earth has died. Your father was killed by a metahuman and your sister ... well you know" Harry told him bluntly
"How can that happen? There are other parallel earths?" He inquired with a surprised face.
"Joe, can you take Wally and talk to him about our world?" Caitlin asked "I suspect he has a lot to ask. You are welcome to stay here if you so wish, Wally"
"We might even be able to help you get back to your earth eventually, but not right now. We need to take care of Zoom. We don't want to send you back in a world where a mad speedster might kill you at any moment" Barry told him. The kid understood and went quietly with the man he now knew that wasn't his father, but was. It was a strange world.
"Barry, you were right. Their cells show signs of rapid regeneration. The Speed Force is present in their systems, but it's not stable" Caitlin spoke from the other side of the lab.
"That won't be a problem. They can stabilize as long as they don't use the power for a while. Your cells were like that at the beginning, Cait. You were in a coma so your powers managed to stabilize given time" Barry smiled. He did not however see coming the large hug that Harry, the resident jerk, gave him.
"Thank you for getting my daughter back safe and sound. Both of you" He smiled.
"Safe, yes. Sound, we need to keep an eye on her and Wally. Just to be sure they're all right" Caitlin interjected
"I wouldn't know. I'm a physicist and an engineer. How about I leave that to the medical brigade to take care of" Harry smirked
"There is something that bothers me. Why did Zoom recreate another Particle Accelerator Explosion?" Barry asked. "That doesn't make sense, unless he is losing his speed or something happened to his connection to the Speed Force"
"Barry, I think you might be right. While I was helping Mr. Garrick regain his speed, the color of his lightning had changed from Orange, like yours, to blue. It returned to being Orange after he got his speed powers back but …" Harry told the group
"Harry, you developed the drug. What would happen if a speedster would overdose on it?" Caitlin asked.
"I suspect he would acquire great speed but the drug isn't finished so his cells would continue to die. The more he took, the more Speed Force he would need for his cells to stay alive. I can't believe I was so blind. I think Zoom is dying. That's why he's trying to get your speed by any means necessary. Without it he will eventually die because his cells won't regenerate anymore" Harry said with a surprised look on his face.
"So what are you saying? That if we keep the breaches closed and him without any sort of access to the speed force he will eventually die?" Barry asked.
"Well, yes, but the problem is, how long would it take him to die? He can do a lot of harm in that time. He can even damage the multiverse since he is fast enough to jump universes. He will go to another universe and find another speedster to feed on. No... We need to put him down. Or at least lock him up" Caitlin came to a conclusion.
"Harry, can you give me some help? I got Reverb's glasses and it has some components that mine don't. I might be able to keep an eye on Zoom with the upgrades since my evil double told me he had been keeping an eye on me for a while. Can you help me reverse engineer them?" the engineer asked,
"Yeah. I suspect his glasses were more advanced, since he could also use them to vibe between universes. We can get to work on it if you want right away. Barry and Caitlin will take care of Wally and Jesse" Harry smiled at the engineer who was shocked. Since he had arrived on this earth, Harry had never smiled. Just his pompous smirk. Cisco had never told him but he did admire the man, even if he was a jerk. Barry and Caitlin were left in the Cortex to fend for Jesse who was still in bed.
"So you two are speedsters, like the Flash in our world" she inquired.
"Yes, we got our powers from a lightning bolt. I can run and my fiancée here can run and do really cool stuff with ice" Barry told her visibly proud of the woman that was working on the other side of the lab.
"And now you think I might be like you?" She asked.
"We don't think, we know. Only your power hasn't stabilized yet in your system. Until it does I suggest you don't try running anywhere. You might end up hitting your face at Mach 2 in a wall and dying or even worse, you can vibrate uncontrollably and go through a wall and die instantly when you de phase. So for now, Jesse. You will take it slow. Understand?" Caitlin told the girl smiling.
"How do you know?" the girl asked with a smirk
"Let's just say the first time Caitlin discovered she could move fast, the first thing she did was run into a door frame and dislocate her shoulder. That was something easy compared to what someone with unstable power can do. Which is why we told you to go slow. For now. If I'm right then the power should stabilize in your systems in a few weeks and then ... we'll see. You might want to go back to earth two with your dad and be a hero there. Or just be a normal girl. But until then we'll make sure you don't disintegrate or run into any walls. All right?" Barry told her with a smirk.
"All right. And thank you for coming to get me. I know dad tried, but he was no match for Zoom" she commented.
"You are welcome. Now get some rest. We can talk later" Both the speedsters left the cortex and let her rest for the rest of the day. Joe and Wally were outside on a bench talking. Wally had been crying visibly. The two speedsters left them to their devices mentioning to Joe that Wally will need rest so when they finish they should go back to the cortex and he can have Cisco put the young speedster under the machines so they could monitor his progress as well. Joe agreed. Barry and Caitlin decided to take a nice long walk together to watch the sunset. It was something the both preferred and didn't have time to do in a while.