And now another bedtime story for you wonderful readers.
Once again love all the great messages and reviews I've received from you, means everything. I hope you're all safe and sound, following the safety guidelines and everything.
Sorry for the long wait.
Now to answer some reviews:
Jason Hunter: Funny you're asking, man. I was already thinking up ways for future chapters, crossovers specifically, and just pictured how Seth would play a role in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
And now, to another matter.
Recently, I finally had the time to watch the finale episode of the best CW TV Show, Supernatural and I absolutely loved it. The entire show was a masterpiece. You guys should watch it as well, it's freaking the best!
And also, hope you guys heard that the MCU is planning big plans in regard to TV Shows. I mean, heck, there's dozens of announcements on various websites. I'm really excited about this. What about you guys?
…
…
So, without further ado…
ENJOY!
Chapter 31: Trajectory
Letting out a peaceful stir, Caitlin Snow's eyes opened up and she let out a pleasurable yawn. She stretched out her arms with another yawn, before facing the other side of the bed.
Her eyes snapped right open and she shot into a sitting when she saw the other side was empty, devoid of the elemental that she spent the entire day and night with. For a moment, she thought the entire last week was a lengthy figment of her imagination…
… her very vivid imagination…
Shaking off the heat coming over her face, Caitlin ran a hand through her hair. Eyes widened when she did feel her hair was a complete mess… but also… wet?
Curiously, she removed her hand from her disheveled hair and looked at it, seeing water dripping down her fingers. "What the…" She asked, rubbing her fingers together in confusion.
"Morning, gorgeous."
Caitlin turned to the door and saw a bare-chested Seth Fury standing with two mugs, steam coming out of each one and the smell of coffee emitted from them. The corners of her mouth curled upwards, forming a wide smile at the sight of the mutant.
"Hey, handsome." Caitlin said dreamingly.
The sight of him made the memories and all the overwhelming feelings from nightly activities return with full force, her face turning redder than a ripe tomato. She rubbed her neck, feeling the bite marks from him yesterday gradually healing. It saddened her that they'd be gone soon enough, but… chances are she could get some more soon enough.
Feeling her bed drop, she looked upwards and looked into the elemental in front of her. "I thought it was a dream. I got scared when I didn't see you on the bed when I woke up."
"Thanks for finding me dreamy." Seth quipped and Caitlin playfully slapped his arm. He had to secure his hold on the mugs to assure he wouldn't spill. "I'm not going anywhere. I woke up a little earlier than you, maybe two hours earlier."
"What'd you do with that time?"
"Hit me myself." Caitlin tilted her head in confusion. Seth nodded to her. "Don't be surprised, that beautiful face in the morning… Even bank robbers would drop everything to see it. I had to punch myself out of a trance to even get out of bed."
"Thanks?" She said unsurely.
Seth rolled his eyes. "Don't judge me, I haven't seen you in over a year." He held the coffee for her. "But I did make you coffee."
"Thanks." Caitlin said surely, grabbing hold of the coffee. Before taking a sip, she confessed. "Last night… This entire week was amazing."
"Yeah…" Seth nodded. His vision was cloaked when he saw black smoke cover his eyes. Embarrassedly, he snapped his head downwards and saw his body emitting the black smoke. "Damn it!" He blew the smoke away with his hand.
Thinking back to the first time they had intercourse, Caitlin examined their bedroom.
She could see some of the pillows torn to shreds. The blankets and bedsheets in similar states, bearing burnt holes in them in the size of fingers. Facing the headboard, she saw that it had a crack right in the middle. As she continued the examination of the bedroom, she looked around confused. "Did… Did the bed get lower or is that just me?"
Looking around them, Seth leant over the side and found the box-spring and mattress resting on the floor. He gulped when he saw the bed frame and posts laying completely totaled around them. "… yeah… we broke the bed…" he said, facing his mate who gave him a narrowed eyed look.
"We?" She questioned behind her coffee mug, knowing full well that she incapable of damaging the bed.
"Okay, I broke the bed." Seth confessed, completely embarrassed by this as he drank his coffee. Removing it from his lips, a smile took place on his face. "But in my defense, I couldn't stop myself. Not near you."
Caitlin leant closer to him, capturing his lips in a quick but passionate kiss. When removing herself from him, she said. "That makes two of us." She smiled.
The two spent the next few moments just staring into each other's eyes. But that changed when Caitlin suddenly coughed into her drink with a look of instant realization. "Hey, hey, hey, what's wrong?" Seth asked her worriedly.
"The girls!" She whispered loudly. "They're gonna find our stuff out there, the meals we didn't eat and-"
Seth stopped her, pressing his lips to her own and managed to stop her. Retracting from her, he explained. "Remember, I woke up two hours before you. I got rid of any evidence of our shenanigans." He assured her, making her sigh in relief. "But I was thinking…"
"What?" She asked when he trailed off embarrassedly.
Seth sighed. "Since we're all together for once… Wanna go and make breakfast together for the girls?"
"Definitely." Caitlin got up, covering her body with a blanket before moving to the closet. "Mind heating the stove while I get dressed?"
"Sure." Seth standing up, a white shirt covering his chest as he picked up Caitlin's mug. "I'll put the coffees out by the kitchen counter." Caitlin nodded as she lowered the blankets and pulled out a dress from the closet.
Seth closed the bedroom door behind him as he moved into the living room. He half-expected to find Matt in his living room, eating his cereal without a care in the world like last time. He scoffed his relief. One time was enough for him.
"Idiot!"
The elemental snapped around in shock. "Jeez, Venom. What is it? Too loud or something last night?"
"That too, didn't sleep a wink with you two rabbits going at it!" Venom complained. "But look to the ground, dumbass!"
Feeling his partner mentally point his eyes in another direction, Seth followed and saw what he was looking at. His eyes widened at the size-of-a-marble crystal ball on the ground. "Shit!" He looked around, making sure no one else were there, before shooting out a tendril from his right palm. Attaching itself to the ball, he yanked it into his hand. "Hope, none of the girls saw it." He thought to himself as he pulled the ball into the pocket dimension of his "other."
"Doesn't look like it." Venom chimed in as his host moved to the stove. "We know you want to tell them-"
"But we have to keep our end of the deal." Seth sent a mental nod. "Hate it, but a deal's a deal. We have to keep our word."
"Unfortunately, and painfully, yeah." Venom agreed.
He reached for the stove, intending on turning it on. But a smaller hand wrapped around his from behind, and stopped it. Feeling her presence, Seth made a show of tensing due to her presence. But he relaxed when he felt her place her head on his left shoulder. "Got dressed?"
"Yeah." Caitlin answered, kissing his cheek. For a brief second, she was worried he might end up smoking again.
But that didn't happen. Instead, he turned his head, facing her and saw her clad in a dark blouse and a matching pair of jeans. "Nice…" He kissed her lips.
When he pulled away, Caitlin revealed. "Hey, I got waffle batter ready in the fridge, we could make peanut butter and jelly waffles."
"That is a new combination I have never heard you say before." Seth confessed as she walked to the fridge to pull the bowl of waffle batter out. "Where'd you learn it?"
"It's what I loved for breakfast as a kid. My dad, Thomas was the same way. We just loved this." She spoke.
"… Cait?" Hearing his serious tone, she faced him. "About this thing with your father-"
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about him before, Seth." Caitlin cut him off. "I just thought it'd be too painful-"
"Caitlin." Seth cupped her hands. "I was gonna say it's okay for you to unload some of your heavy thoughts. You're allowed to share them with those close to you." He rubbed her shoulders comfortingly. "I'm not angry at you, I'm just telling that you can talk about it even to a guy who doesn't his birth parents and only has a one-eyed parent who wears a trenchcoat 24/7."
Caitlin smirked. "Thanks… But I was worried it might make you feel… maybe sad or something…" She saw his reassuring smile and pulled out the waffle maker from the drawers. "My dad, Thomas Snow, had multiple sclerosis. Every day for years, I watched this amazingly strong man fight for his life… and he lost… it hurt both me and my Mom. But she became cold…"
"You and your mother talk much?" Seth wondered.
Shaking her head, Caitlin replied. "Not since my Dad's death, no. My Mom, Carla Tannhauser's actually a well-known biomedical engineer and CEO of Tannhauser Industries."
"Like mother, like daughter huh?" Seth quipped as he plugged the waffle maker into the wall.
"Guess, but that's where the relations ends." Caitlin said as she took out jars of jelly and peanut butter. "She's not happy about me working at S.T.A.R. Labs. She would rather have me stay at her world-class facilities."
"World-class?" Seth frowned as he checked the temperature of the waffle maker. "Sounds like you would have had more toys if you stayed with her."
"Maybe, but all of my work would be in the shadow of her reputation." Caitlin sighed. "So, I took the job at S.T.A.R. Labs, worked with Harrison Wells, who turned out to be Eobard Thawne, as you know, to try and make a name for myself. But then… Poof." She mimicked an explosion.
Seth knew what that meant. "Particle Accelerator explosion."
"Yeah… but I stuck around." Caitlin smiled, giving him a loving smile.
"Glad you did." Seth nodded. "Team wouldn't be the same without you."
"You are too." Caitlin said as she poured the batter into the waffle maker before taking scoops of jelly and peanut butter, placing them in the batter before adding more batter on top. She closed the maker and it immediately emanated a sizzling sound.
"What smells so good?" Evelyn asked, shadows fading away from around her body.
Seth gave her a strange look before facing Caitlin. "She always just teleports into the living room?"
"Cisco calls it "shadowporting" and yeah, she does. Every morning starts out this way. Pretty sure, I'm the only one who uses the stairs." Caitlin said.
"Love you too, Mom. You too, Dad." Evelyn said. "But what smells so good?"
"A childhood favorite of your Mom's, peanut butter and jelly waffles." Seth announced as the first waffle was done. Caitlin and he poured the batter into the waffle maker, preparing a second. "Where are your sisters?"
"I'm here!" Frankie said, landing on the ground in a soundless crouch.
"Same." Ruby said, actually using the stairs to come down. "Wow, that smells good." She said at the smell filling the air in the living room.
Seth smiled to Caitlin. "Looks like your childhood favorites are becoming their favorites pretty quick."
"They really are our kids." Caitlin quipped as she prepared plates. "Okay, girls, take a seat."
"And I have the food ready." Seth declared as he brought out the waffles and placed them in the middle of the table. "So dig in."
"Oh Seth, remember we have to be by that canyon outside the city later with the others." Caitlin reminded him as she placed waffles on the girls' plates.
"Right, Barry needs our help." The mutant said with a groan.
"Where are you guys going?" Ruby asked.
"Later today, while you guys are in school, we're to help Barry so he can get faster for round two with Zoom." Seth explained. "But at this point, maybe he could try and do something other than running."
"Like what?" Evelyn asked as she bit into her waffles.
Ruby chuckled. "He means that he could actually take the time to learn how to fight instead of run."
"Point one for Ruby." Seth said. "But whatever he needs, we'll go and help him out if we can."
"But in the meantime…" Caitlin trailed of unsurely, she didn't know what to do before the speedster's training.
"I have to meet up with a friend at the cemetery." Seth surprised them.
"Why at the cemetery, Dad?" Frankie asked.
Seth shrugged. "To pay my respects to fallen friends."
X
(Central City Cemetery)
Around an hour or so passed and Seth found himself walking through the high iron gate of Central City Cemetery located just outside of the city. Venom having shifted his host's clothes into a dark-blue t-shirt and black pants as he closed the door gate with his free hand, his other one holding two pink roses. He walked amongst the gravestones, seeing the various names on them and took them in.
Despite being the last place for dead to rest in peace, it was well-kept. Beautiful. Even the gravestones were cleaned, recently cleaned. Looking to the side, he saw a church close by. Must the ones who keep this place in check.
Scanning the gravestones in his eyesight, he found the ones he sought out. Moving towards them, carefully bypassing the other headstones and the flowers placed on them, he said to himself. "Funny, didn't expect your stones to be so close to each other."
Kneeling down one leg, he took one pink rose and placed it on the grave to the left. He did the same with the other grave to the right. While kneeling he bowed his head in prayer. Minutes passed by in silence, continuing to his respects to the fallen heroes before with only the sounds of crickets around him.
Venom did the same, silently offering his prayers to the fallen heroes before them, knowing their sacrifice saved this city.
Even though, they offered their prayers, the mutant felt like he had to say something to both. "It's been a while since I saw you guys. More than a year ago, yeah… But it didn't mean you guys left my mind, you know. I wanna thank you both for what you did… because of you, our city's still standing, and Thawne is gone… or as gone as he can be, according to Joe's stories." He sighed. "Thanks for everything you two and rest in peace."
Seth's ears perked up when he heard feet step on the grass behind him, crushing the grass straws. "Long time no see, Ace."
"You too, Cat." Seth said, knowing full well who's behind him.
Felicia Hardy walked closer to him from behind. "First time I see you again, you have us meet up in a cemetery of all places. You really upped your game after all the time on that other Earth."
"Thank you." Seth stood back up before turning around to face the cat burglar. "And thank you for helping Frankie become a better hero."
"Didn't need much help that one." Felicia quipped. "She has a good father in you and a good mother in Caity."
"And a good teacher in you." Seth said back. "And thanks for meeting me here." He faced the headstones. "I needed to pay my respects."
"No problem." Felicia said.
Seth nodded his thanks to the stones before turning around to walk away with the cat burglar. "Wanna go out for a quick bite or something?" He offered. "Could be good to hear about what you and Frankie's been up to in your sessions."
"I don't say no to free food." Felicia turned on her heel, walking towards the entrance of the cemetery.
"Over a year, and she's still expecting me to pay for her food…" Seth shook his head in disbelief before following Felicia.
The sunlight rained down on the stones, illuminating the writings carved into the surfaces:
Ronnie Raymond. Beloved Friend – A soul that will never be forgotten.
Eddie Thawne. Friend and Fiancé – A hero of this city.
X
After some time now, came the time for the speedster's training. The group consisting of Seth, Barry, Cisco, Harry, Caitlin and Olivia readied themselves for the Flash to jump canyons.
The mutant didn't know if this was a good idea as he and Cisco and Barry stood near the ledge and looked down at the canyon. The streaming waterfall beside them roaring and surging loudly, almost filling their minds with nothing but the sound of crashing waves.
They had set up tents to have somewhat of a makeshift workstation here. Olivia and Seth used their powers to set up the tents and tables for them to use. Caitlin watched the mutant working with a smile on her face. Most of them time, the elemental did put on a show for her by showing off some of his stomach.
She very much liked that.
But after that, Seth joined Cisco and Barry and visually measured the canyon. "Damn…"
Just to test it out, Cisco reeled a hand back before swinging it forward, throwing a rock. He and the powered men watched as the rock fell forward, connected with the water beneath them. They saw it break the water surface, but the sound was drowned out by the crashing waterfall.
"Whoo-hoo-hoo." Cisco exclaimed nervously. "Uh, it didn't look this deep on the map."
"Fun fact about a map: Everything looks small on a piece of flat paper." Seth chuckled.
"Seth's right. This is, like, 1.000 feet deep." Barry said nervously.
As he walked to the tents, Cisco said. "Well, you want to get faster. Maybe plummeting to your death is the motivation you need."
Twisting his head in thought, Seth admitted in agreement. "He wouldn't be wrong, situations like that pumps you full of adrenaline. Might be what you need to get over the edge." He gestured to the canyon. "But not over the edge of a canyon."
"It's gonna be fine." Cisco waved off his concerns.
Caitlin walked to her mate. "You think this is a bad idea?"
"Chances are Barry's healing powers are gonna be put to the test if this thing goes wrong." Seth answered.
Olivia chuckled. "Always the optimist, huh, Bro?"
"Wasn't trying to be." Seth clarified. "Where's Matty? Thought you two would be stuck with each other since you tied the knot."
"Said he had some research to do back at S.T.A.R. Labs." Olivia answered. "Seemed urgent and decided to stay behind for some reason."
"Seemed weird when he didn't help out against King Shark." Caitlin chimed in. "Is he okay or something?"
"So far he seems okay. But I'll talk with him, see if he's got something going on or what not." The psychic assured them.
"Good, if not, call me, I can punch his daylights and the answer out of him if I have to." Seth smirked.
"Good thing I have you on speed-dial then." Olivia tapped his shoulder before going to the table and opened her paper bag, pulling out a BLT sandwich. "Come to Mama." She took a seat before taking a big bite of her sandwich.
Seth looked to his mate. "Is it just me or is she eating like a hibernating bear?"
"She's… grown a bigger stomach." Caitlin joked. Inwardly she did find it hilarious that he made the same joke as she did when noticing the psychic eating in large quantities.
"Yeah, looks like." Seth chuckled with a shake of his head. "Well back to the training course, then. Wells, you got anything for us so we don't have a Flash-sized pile of flesh and blood before the end of the day?"
"Lovely image, Fury." Harry said writing down the equations and calculations in his notepad. He walked over to the speedster. "So to reach escape velocity, you're gonna have to go… that fast." He bluntly said, revealing his calculations to Barry.
Barry widened his eyes. "Well, that fast is impossible. I can promise you that."
"Ah," Harry disagreed. ""Nothing in life is promised except death.""
"Edgar Allan Poe?" Barry expected.
"Kanye West." Harry corrected him, closing his notepad with a flip.
Cisco then pitched in. "If it makes you feel any better, Evel Knievel cleared a line of cars that was twice this long, and he didn't even have superpowers, unless you count that sweet-ass ride." Cisco quickly added with a longing look.
"Cisco. Listen to yourself, just once." Seth suggested.
"What?" Cisco asked. The elemental gestured to the speedster. Cisco nodded his realization and faced him. "Look, you're gonna be fine. I'm 80% sure of it."
"Okay." Barry nodded.
"76." Cisco quickly corrected, the mutants, Caitlin and Harry looked at him with disbelief. "Like a strong 72-"
Before he could utter another number of percentage, Olivia wrapped psychic energy around his lips, binding them and keeping from talking. "Keep a lid on it, Cisco."
"Powers haven't changed you a single bit, has it, man?" Seth commented.
Caitlin playfully tapped his shoulder. She then suggested to the speedster. "If you don't feel ready, you probably shouldn't do it."
Seth nodded his agreement. "Cait's right, you jump into this thing half-sure, you're gonna end up doubting yourself the entire way and fail miserably. You might just… need to take a scooch back and not do the jump."
"Not helpful, you two." Cisco said after the psychic released her hold on his mouth.
"Look, Zoom's still out there." They knew that. Barry continued. "And once I find a way back to Earth-2, I have to be faster than him. And, I mean, right now… I wasn't even fast enough to save Jay." Seth watched a shower of hurt and pain come over everyone here. "I have to try."
"Barry, we're talking." Seth walked to him.
"Not no-"
"Yes, now!" Seth interrupted him, pulling him to the side by his arm. "Sidebar, guys. Just continue talking."
"Sure…" Cisco skeptically replied, facing the elemental's sister. "What are the chances he's gonna punch, hurt or maim Barry?"
"Hell, if I know, he's my brother sure, but I don't wanna peek into his god-awful head the entire time. Chances are I'm gonna see images of him eating a human as Venom or something worse." Olivia casually replied.
Harry wondered if this guy was really a good person despite how he saved his daughter.
X
"Ow!" Barry said as the mutant finally let go of him. "What's with you and grabbing me all the time?" The speedster complained as he held his sore forearm.
"You've been through worse, quit your whining." Seth said once he was sure they were out of earshot. "Stop doing that."
"Doing what? You're the one hurting me all the time." Barry countered.
Seth sighed. "I meant this thing about you bringing up Jay's death when you want to bring the team onboard with your plans." He stated bluntly.
"I don't do that." Barry denied.
"You sure about that?" Seth held a finger. "You brought up Jay's name when we had to handle King Shark, the others jump onboard."
"So did you." Barry jumped in.
"Because I had a bone to pick with that jackass fish." Seth continued, raising a second finger. "And now when the others are unsure that you'll make this jump, you bring up Jay's death to squash their questions and concerns."
"I have to be stronger, so I don't lose another friend to him." Barry argued.
Pointing a finger towards the direction of the others, Seth reminded him. "How do you think they feel, huh? Cisco might have powers, but he's still growing into them. Harry doesn't have any, Caitlin neither. Liv does have them, but nothing in her arsenal can keep up with a speedster. Not to mention the same goes for Matt, Iris and Joe, and my kids. You weren't the only to see Zoom kill Jay, others did so as well. They saw it too, and they were just as powerless as you, even more actually."
"I know that-"
"You don't." Seth cut him short. "I know you're pissed; I know you want to tear Zoom a new one. Believe me, so do I. I spent a year on that Earth, got friends on that end and they're dealing with Zoom right now. But you can't guilt the others on our team, our friends and family into helping you improve. You guys all share the same pain because you knew him and got to know him. I didn't do that so I can't say anything. But you share the same pain, that means you have to help each other soldier through it together, not intensify the pain and take advantage of it."
"…" Barry sighed. "I just hate the fact every time I've fought Zoom, I haven't been able to do anything against him. But you and Matt have fought him, and you actually managed to hurt him more than I could… I got to get up to that level."
"Well, much like you, and other speedsters, Zoom knows how to run instead of stand his ground and actually fight, which is more of Matt's and my specialty." Seth said. "If this jump doesn't go well, lay off the others a bit, and try to tackle this problem from another direction. You can try other methods than running all the time, like close-range combat."
"Maybe… But you'd teach me how to fight?" The speedster inquired.
"Me, Liv, Matt. Heck my daughters have more fighting experience than you." Seth admitted.
"Think you're overestimating them." Barry argued.
Seth raised an eyebrow. "You think you could defeat Frankie or Ruby in a hand-to-hand fight? Like for real, defeat a symbiote-bearer with greater superhuman strength than me and a HYDRA trained assassin?"
"… Maybe Evelyn might be best option?" Barry shakily suggested.
"Not gonna be better." Seth shook his head.
Barry turned confused. "Why?"
"Hurt my kid, you'd have to deal with me." Seth tapped his shoulder before walking towards the others again.
"God… I do not wanna piss him off." Barry said before following him.
They met up with the others again. The speedster pulled his cowl over his head again and readied himself, getting into position.
Caitlin looked to her mate who enveloped his form with symbiotic mass and turned into Venom. "What are you doing?"
"In case things go wrong." Venom answered.
They then watched the speedster start his run. Rushing towards the ledge with lightning trailing behind him. When coming to it, they saw him jump off of it. With the momentum he's gathered from running, he launched himself off the ledge and travel across the air.
"He's gonna make it." Cisco excitedly said.
However, as he came close to the other side of the canyon… the momentum and speed he gathered faded and he descended.
"No!" Caitlin screamed
"Oh, damn." Harry calmly said.
Olivia gulped. "Oh shit. You got that bro?"
He didn't reply with words but instead jumped over the ledge in a leap. Lashing out a hand, he stretched it outwards and wrapped it around the speedster's body. Shooting out his other arm, he grabbed onto the rocky wall and pulled himself to it. Placing his feet on it, he stuck himself to it and pulled the speedster into his hand.
Olivia sent a smug look to Cisco. "And you thought we needed those drones."
"Okay, okay, I get it. Your brother can get stretchy-stretch when he wants to, I get it. But those drones needs some exercise." Cisco said in his defense.
"ARGH!" Barry screamed when he came flying over the edge and landed before their feet. Venom jumped up and landed before them. The speedster wiped off sand residue from his face and looked to the mutant. "Why do you gotta throw me all the times"
Shrugging his shoulders, he apologized. "Sorry, old habits."
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)
Matt kept himself in Caitlin's private lab, working desperately as though he was defusing an atom bomb on a time limit. He kept analyzing the blood sample he got from the elemental during their last fight. But none of the analyzes he started up didn't work a single time.
"What am I doing wrong..." He asked himself, wondering what he was doing wrong with this analysis.
From inside of the Cortex, as she watched TV News from this world, Jesse asked him after shoving popcorn into her mouth. "Something wrong there?"
Shaking his head, Matt lied. "Nah, just trying to upgrade Jarvis' core. But the damn thing doesn't work so well."
"Thought you'd be angry with Cisco removing your Guardian protocol." Jesse mused.
Chuckling sarcastically, he said. "Implemented it once, just had to implement it again. Beside that protocol saved our team's asses, better than his pawnshop-security."
"Amen, Hallelujah." Jesse agreed.
Closing down the program, Matt got up and walked into the Cortex. "At least you guys have that on your end too."
Jesse nodded as she listened to the news channel.
"Signed projects, including releases of solo albums. Pop music would never be the same after Beyonce left Destiny's Child."
"Wait, that doesn't make any sense." Jesse said with a scrunched face. "They mean Senator Knowles?"
"What?" Matt tilted his head.
WHOOSH
She gasped and the nanite mutant widened his eyes when they saw a familiar flash of lightning run into the Cortex, passing by them before getting to the mannequin. The other joined shortly after, Olivia, Cisco and Harry walking through the entrance and Seth and Caitlin jumped down the skylight, the former carrying the latter in his arms.
Lowering Caitlin from his arms, Venom's head retracted as did the rest of his body, slithering back into the mutant's body till Seth stood amongst his friends. The elemental watched the speedster angrily straightened his red jacket.
"Sup, Matty." Seth greeted his brother-in-law.
"Hiya." Matt greeted as he hugged his wife who walked over to him.
"Scooch." Cisco directed to Jesse.
"What?" Giving him a strange look, she got up. "So how'd it go?" She asked.
"Yeah, did Barry make the canyon jump? Are we gonna see his face in the next edition of Guinness World Records?" Matt quipped.
Harry pointed to the elemental. "Well, he's not a red splat on the side of a mountain thanks to Fury."
"So yeah, not good." The psychic clarified.
"That's our new definition of success?" Cisco wondered as he took a seat.
"It's one of them." Harry casually replied.
"So, you didn't make the canyon jump?" Matt inquired.
"No. What else can we try?" Barry asked.
Seth sighed, resisting the urge to actually slap himself in the face. "Mamma Mia, here we go again." Caitlin heard him and walked over to him.
"What you want a bigger canyon or something? Thought you're supposed to be smart." The psychic quipped.
Barry gave her a dry look, making her feign defense and raise her hands.
"Okay, fine, no more canyons." Cisco admitted.
"I know I can crack this." Barry confidently said. "I've just been going about it wrong. I need to find my leg up. Have we factored in drag? Wells, can we rerun the simulation?"
"Let it go for now." Harry hoarsely said.
"Zoom's still out there." Barry reminded him. Now Seth really felt like slapping himself. "He's terrorizing a whole world full of people, your world. You know, I'm not doing this for fun."
"Barry, maybe consider trying another tactic." Matt said.
Gesturing to his brother-in-law, Seth agreed. "Listen to that, another person thinking the same as me."
"You were thinking Barry should try another tactic?" Caitlin asked.
"Yeah. His greatest strength is without a doubt his speed, sure, but instead of sticking to the same one-trick pony thing he's got going for so long, he could use the element of surprise and learn other tricks to overwhelm Zoom." Seth argued.
"Seth's not wrong on that, Barry." Olivia agreed. "Both you and Zoom are speedsters, but he's faster than you so he might be able to predict what you're gonna do next."
"Maybe… but for now, this is the best option." Barry argued.
Seth sighed. Caitlin rubbed his hand and then told them all. "Guys, we've been working on this all week. We're all tired from working on this. Aside from our daughters." She turned to her mate. "For some reason, they got enough fuel in them to outlive the rest of us."
"Don't blame me, you're the one who's been feeding them all this time." Seth chuckled before kissing her.
Cisco gestured to the happy couple. "Yeah, aside from all that parental love from those two, what we need is some downtime. Downtime leads to increased productivity, ergo we have to have fun." Those words echoed in the nanite mutant's head whilst the native mechanical engineer got a flash of inspiration. "And the best way to have fun is for us go out to the club. Am I right, Team Flash? Let's get turnt!" he excitedly clapped his hands.
"He's right, we need a break." Matt thought that with a break, he'd be able to work on his analysis again and figure it out.
"You know, I think Cisco's right," Caitlin brought their attention to her, gesturing to herself. "and if I'm saying we need a break, then you guys know it's serious." She lowered her head in realization, before seeing a similar look on her mate's face. "But…"
"We can't do anything because we got kids to take care." Seth said.
Olivia didn't like that. "No way, the two of you are joining us."
"How, Liv? We got three daughters we have to take care. We can't leave them alone." Caitlin inquired.
"Why not?" Cisco asked, wondering the same as the psychic.
Seth scoffed and answered sheepishly. "Well, we got a daughter who can control metal with her mind or with flexes of her body, another one who's got temperamental issues and quickly resorts to violence, and finally a daughter who instinctively pops around the city and steals stuff."
Caitlin nodded her agreement. "We got complaints from some teachers about Ruby and one time we did find Evelyn sleeping with the neighbor's dog."
"So… that's a maybe." Olivia smiled.
"They need therapy." Barry told them.
"That's my kids you're talking about, Barry." Caitlin sternly told the speedster.
"Then bring them along." Matt said, the parents of the three girls shot to him with disbelief. "What, not the craziest idea."
"Yeah, bringing three seventeen year old girls to a club, genius idea, Matty." Seth said sarcastically, wondering why he haven't punched him more in the past. "Now, do you want to die here or in your own bedroom."
"Calm down, Master of Disaster." Olivia held up her hand to calm down her brother. "You two come along, bring the girls, and me and Matty will be the babysitters. We'll keep anyone shady away from them, you know us and know we can handle that, right?" She could see them with conflicted expressions. "Come on, you two have had a great week together sure in the house, but you two need to be social again, right? You also helped JC and her dad, not to mention your kids with their school problems, you have to celebrate. Come on!" She whined.
Seth was unsure but he faced Caitlin for some guidance. "Cait, if you're onboard with this, I'm game. Chances are I'm gonna watch them like a hawk."
"…" Caitlin looked to the psychic and nanite mutant. "You two promise me that you'll watch them?"
"Cross my heart and hope to die." Olivia swore.
"Ditto, no one's coming near them unless they kill us. They won't drink anything." Matt promised.
"Then I'm game." Caitlin agreed.
"Guess it's official, we're going out tonight." Seth said in a cheer.
"Hell, yeah!" Cisco cheered before walking away.
"Oh yeah." Jesse said, snapping her head to her father. "Can I go?" Harry didn't say anything and walked towards the exit of the Cortex. "Dad?" Jesse called out, but she didn't get an answer. She then walked after him. "Dad?!" She called out.
"That's gonna be a fun conversation." Caitlin chuckled. Seth nodded his agreement. She looked at her watch, checking the time. "Oh, the girls should be home by now."
"Their school ended early today?" Seth asked and Caitlin nodded in response. "Wanna go and see if they're home?"
"Sure, still a couple of hours before we bring them with us." The female doctor told him as she picked up her jacket. "Maybe if we're lucky, we'll find them busy or something."
"Maybe they're with friends." Seth thought out loud as well.
X
(Caitlin's Apartment)
Caitlin and Seth returned to their apartment building and walked towards the entrance of their apartment loft. As they walked through the building, Caitlin noted something and stated. "At least we're not seeing any more missing pets or items posters on the walls."
"Yeah, that's improvement." Seth chuckled as he reached for his keys. But he came to a stop when he noticed something.
"What-"
Seth held up a finger to his mouth, indicating her to be quiet. The mutant lowered the finger, pointing it to gape between the bottom rail and the threshold of the door. Caitlin followed, and like the elemental, she saw shadows moving on the other side, more than three.
"What's going on?" She whispered her question to the mutant.
Shrugging his shoulders unsurely, Seth covered his limbs with symbiotic mass underneath his clothes. Taking out his keys, he slowly placed it into the lock and twisted it. The sound was barely audible. But the moment he heard the locking mechanism click, he swung the door with Caitlin following him.
SCREAM
Both of them were instantly assaulted by overlapping female screams and shrieks. Seth even heard his "other" scream in shock. When the screams finally died down, Caitlin and Seth managed to see who stood before them.
Frankie and some of her classmates are sitting on the couch, the former gulping at the sight of her parents. "Dad, Mom, you're home?"
Caitlin narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, honey, we still live here. Don't tell us you forgot about us already?"
"More importantly, why didn't you tell us about your friends coming over?" Seth asked, gesturing to his daughter's classmates.
Frankie giggled sheepishly as her parents and her friends turned to her. "Sorry, Dad. Forgot to tell you and Mom, that'd we'd have some friends over." She clicked the roof of tongue unsurely before asking. "Mind if they stay over tonight?"
"Like a sleepover?" Seth wondered as he looked around as Caitlin walked over to her daughter and kissed the top of her head. Frankie nodded while blushing. "Fine." he agreed when getting a nod of confirmation from his mate. "But before that where's your sisters? You didn't leave em behind, right?"
"No, of course not Dad." Frankie assured her father.
Emma, the head cheerleader from school, nodded in the direction of the bathroom. "They're in the bathroom. Dr. Fury."
"Why?" Caitlin directed to her daughter.
The answer came when the bathroom opened up and Evelyn and Ruby stood on the other side, both wearing bathroom towels wrapped around their hairs. They saw their father and the secret metahuman gasped at the sight of her father and the former HYDRA assassin raised a surprised eyebrow.
"Remember the times you performed autopsies in front of Liv? She screamed and gasped less than any of these girls." Venom bemusedly said.
Forgoing his partner's comments, Seth looked to his daughters with a finger pointing to their heads. "What's going on there?"
Evelyn gulped, fearing she might have done something she shouldn't have done, at least not without permission. Seeing her sister's reaction, Ruby explained. "I wanted to rebleach my hair and Evie said she wanted to dye her hair red. So we did… not so good, at least." She pulled out a strand of her half bleached hair to prove her point.
"Sorry, Dad." Evelyn apologized.
"Honey, there's nothing to apologize for. You've seen your aunt, right?" Seth reminded them. "But… That doesn't look completely good." His daughters nodded. "Want me to fix it for you guys?"
Evelyn turned shocked. "You can dye hair, Dad?"
"Who do you think took care of your aunt's hair back in the day?" Seth quipped before reaching into his pocket. He faced his mate. "Want me to take care of them?"
"You work your magic on those two, I'll fix up some snacks for our guests." Caitlin stated before walking to the kitchen to make bagel bites.
Nodding he pulled out his credit card. "Frankie?" He got the magnekinetic's attention. "Head's up." He threw her his credit card which she grabbed with one hand. "Your mother and I are going out with the others tonight. So order some pizzas for you and your friends later. No going out for alcohol and most definitely no boys. Stay on the ground floor. Other than that, knock yourselves out."
"Dad, come on." Frankie whined as he moved to the bathroom, her friends laughed.
"I'm gonna ground you and your sisters if there's a boy in the home." Seth threatened as he spun his daughters around, pushing them into the bathroom. "Let's go, you two." He closed the door behind him when passing through the threshold.
Thirty minutes passed by in silence and the female doctor was in the kitchen.
Emma faced Frankie. "Your parents are pretty cool."
"They're the best. Mom's nice and cool, Dad's always cool and generous, well aside from Dad's entire "no boys" rule." Frankie said. "Kinda hoping they'd ease up on it, so I could invite Reuben over."
"Ooh, Frankie's got a crush." Emma teased, tapping her with foot. "So when are we gonna see you two sitting in a tree and kissing?" She made kissing gestures.
"Stop it, Emma!" Frankie complained, pushing her foot away. "I do not have a crush on him."
Sarah, another girl from her class, gave her a disbelieving look. "You sure about that? Cause we heard you saying his name seven times since we got here."
"I don't have a crush on him." Frankie whined.
"So invite him and tell him that to his face." Emma dared her.
"No, that's just mean." Frankie countered.
The bathroom door opened up and the girls faced the direction. They saw Ruby walking out with rebleached blonde hair. Then came Evelyn out with long deep-red hair. When she saw her friends, her sister and her mother looking at her with shocked eyes, she twirled around and let her hair fly up.
"Nice job, Seth." Caitlin told him.
Seth walked out, cleaning his hands with toilet paper. "Not to toot my own horn, but that went way better than when I dyed my sister's hair." He wrapped his arms around his daughters and pulled them. "And I'm proud." He laughed before letting them go. He saw the plate of bagel bites on the table for the girls to enjoy.
But before he walked over to join Caitlin in the kitchen, he gave Frankie a look. "Frankie, keep boys out of the house." She and her classmates turned shocked. "Oh yeah, I hear everything in this house, guys. I see a boy in here, I'm gonna cut you and your sisters off of your college funds." He finalized before walking towards the kitchen.
As he walked away, Ruby gave her father a strange and bewildered look.
X
Seth saw Caitlin cleaning up the kitchen. He walked up to her from behind her, wrapping his arms around her and hugged her tightly, bringing her closer to his body. She smiled at the feeling of his body close to hers and turned her head to see his smirking face.
"We got guests, Seth. Keep it in your pants." Caitlin teased.
The mutant narrowed his eyes, he leant closer to her ear. "Okay." He playfully bit her earlobe, forcing a moan out of his mate. "But later tonight, I'm not making any promises." Caitlin giggled when she felt his lips place a kiss on her cheek before pulling away. "When are we leaving again?"
Shaking off the sensations she got, Caitlin answered. "In a couple of hours, I think. Maybe earlier if we're meeting up with Cisco and the others." She turned around, giving him a plate and a towel. He accepted and cleaned the plate as she added. "At least Matt and Liv don't have to play babysitters in a club tonight."
"Yeah, no kidding." Seth nodded as he finished the plate, continuing to the next plate. "Remember the last time you and I went out?"
Caitlin's face went through all shades of red when she felt the memories of their first date returning. "God I got so drunk."
"So drunk and very, very singy." He reminded her with a teasing smile, her face blushed a storm in response. "That was so fun… we gotta go out like that again sometime." He chuckled.
"Oh God, please don't let that happen again." Caitlin pleaded. "I can't handle another memory of me throwing up with you nearby."
"You looked gorgeous, even though you puked." Caitlin gave him a glare, her hands placed on her hips. "Not helping. Noted." He nodded rapidly when realizing his mistake. "But don't worry, tonight's all about having fun, few drinks, good friends, and dance…"
"You danced on our second date, our mutant date." Caitlin remembered.
"Yeah, sorry I can't freeze the nearest lake and dance on it like that last one." Seth winked.
"Dad?" Ruby got her parents' attention.
"Hey, Rubs, what's wrong?" Seth asked when seeing the confused look on his daughter's face.
"Did something happen…" Caitlin trailed off, gesturing to her classmates in the living room.
"Nah, after Dad threatened every boy in the class, we've become the cool kids. Lot of the girls began hanging out with us and asking us to hang out after school too." Ruby informed. "But it was more about what you said before, Dad." Seth turned confused. "You said… college funds."
Seth nodded. "Yeah, during this week, your mother and I set up college funds for you and your sisters… But parts of me didn't want to make them." He confessed with his lower lip bitten.
"Why?" Ruby asked.
"We've barely had a week together, kiddo. Not like we've had a lifetime together." Seth said. "We want the three of you to go to college, sure, but not leave us too soon."
Caitlin nodded, taking her mate's hand and clutching it tightly. "We're your parents and we love you all, but maybe-"
"Mom, Dad." Ruby cut them off, fearing they might let out the waterworks or something. "Love you both, but we're still in high school. You gotta take it down a scooch. We're not leaving any time soon, I promise. And maybe… when things are less crazy in the city, we could go out for a vacation together."
"That's a good idea." Caitlin agreed. "We talked about it before-"
"Before a black hole opened up and sent me rocketing into another universe?" Seth deduced.
"Yeah, that." Caitlin chuckled. "But when we're done with Zoom and everything with Earth-2, we'll have some family time and go on a trip."
"Deal." Ruby nodded. "Oh yeah, you guys are going out tonight, right?"
"Yup." Seth smiled.
X
Nighttime finally rolled in and the team had already gathered into the place. The club they had chosen was already packed. Drinks given to customers. Music blaring out. Lights shining all over the entire place. Most importantly, people are dancing and swaying to the music. A lot of the customers were dressed to impress, including the team.
Olivia, Caitlin and Jesse all chose dark dresses for the occasions. Cisco and Barry wore shirts with jackets over them and simple pants. Seth chose to wear an open an open black leather biker jacket, dark-blue jeans underneath and a red T-shirt under it. Matt chose to wear a black shirt and brown jeans over his legs.
The seven of them of just stood at the bar counter and enjoyed their drinks, mostly drawing circles in them with their straws. Except for Matt who kept glaring daggers at the bartender who kept eyeing his wife from the other side. He knew Olivia saw it, but she probably didn't care, even though she and the other girls kept getting free drinks.
Seth nudged his brother-in-law with his elbow, getting his attention. "Calm down, they're getting free drinks." He said, despite seeing his little sister only drinking water.
"Wait till you marry Caitlin, then you're gonna feel different, pal." Matt said. Thinking quickly to himself, he asked. "Speaking of different, how are you feeling after everything? Liv told me she found you surrounded by black flames after that episode with Frankie."
"She wasn't wrong." Seth nodded. "But I'm okay now, I talked it out with Frankie."
Matt asked curiously. "That black flame… did it affect you or something?"
Looking around to make sure no one looked in their direction, Seth slowly pulled the sleeve of his right arm. "Something at least." He said as inches of charred skin revealed itself for the nanite mutant's eyes. "First time I was attacked by those flames, this happened." He pulled his sleeve down again. "Now, whenever I use it, I get black lines on my body." He quickly showed the skin under his left sleeve.
"…Did anything else happen when you used those flames? Or when you absorbed them?" Matt asked.
"Nope." Seth took a swig of his drink. "Just hardcore painful black lines whenever I use them." He added.
"Well, at least you're okay." Matt clang glasses with the elemental. "But seriously, I am two seconds from beating that bartender into the ground." He sneered at the bartender who kept eyeing his wife.
Seth sighed. Placing his drink on the table, he snapped his fingers and got the bartender's attention. "Dude, you don't get paid for ogling." He gulped and walked away towards the storage.
Olivia chuckled, looking towards her brother. "Really, bro?"
"Blame your hubby, he's jealous as ever." Seth joked and the nanite mutant elbowed him.
As he laughed from the elbow blow, the elemental caught Caitlin's eyes. She sipped on her drink, biting the straw while making eye contact with him. When she was sure no one turned in her direction, she gave the mutant a wink.
And, just from that alone Seth's heart went off like an earthquake, beating like crazy in his chest. He felt like a cartoon character with his heart about to burst out of his chest. "Caitlin, the things you do to me."
"Calm down, horndog." Venom sighed his annoyance, he really got tired of his host's affection for his mate, especially after he felt those exact same feelings every day of this last week!
Humans and their libidos are the worst attributes.
The speedster felt peckish and reached for the bowl of peanuts. But it brought his hand close to Jesse's metahuman alert watch, that her father gave her, and it started beeping because of Barry coming close to her.
Jesse pulled her hand back. "Oh, God, sorry. It keeps doing that. My dad made me wear it."
Barry picked up a peanut. "Don't worry about it. it's all good."
Caitlin noticed the gears in the elemental's head turning. "Don't give that watch to our girls." She told him, making the mutant pout. Chuckling she faced the Earth-2 girl. "I'm really glad you came, Jesse, even though this place is less than ideal." She told him just as the bartender placed seven shots in front of them.
Olivia pushed hers away and raised her glass of water instead.
"Hey, toast?" Barry suggested, handing out the shots to the others.
"Perfect." Seth said as he took his. But he did find it odd his sister chose not to partake in it.
Cisco raised his shot. "To Jay."
Olivia chuckled. "I wonder what Jay would say if he was here right now."
Cisco smiled and asked like Jay would. ""What's a Kamikaze?""
"And then Caitlin or Frankie would spend ten minutes explaining it." Matt added.
Caitlin followed up. "And he'd say, "Just kidding. We have those on Earth-2.""
"I'd be pretty worry if my daughter knew what a Kamikaze is." Seth confessed.
"She's got the internet, Pentagon Security, you can't keep that one from her." Matt reminded him before downing his shot with Cisco.
"Challenge accepted." Seth dared as he locked eyes with Caitlin. The two raised their shot glasses before downing them in one gulp. Caitlin shuddered at the strong alcoholic drink pouring down her throat. She saw Seth remain cool as ever as he smirked at her reaction. She stuck out her tongue in retaliation.
"Eh-eh, I'm sorry, Miss Underage." Barry stopped Jesse from taking her shot. "None of us plan on getting murdered by your father tonight." He downed his own drink.
Jesse waved off. "Oh, whatever, he's all talk."
"That part I believe." Seth said. Unlike the speedster and Cisco, he didn't find Harry Wells scary in the least.
Olivia finished her water, ordering a second one with a wave of her hand. In the corner of her eye, she got surprised when she saw Iris, Wally and Felicia walking towards them. "Guys, hey."
"Yo, guys." Iris greeted them. "What's up?" She greeted her friends.
"Hello, guys." Felicia gave a flirty wave to them, making eye contact with Seth and Caitlin.
Barry and Cisco turned around to greet the three. Iris and Barry embraced each other. "Glad you could make it."
"Hey, Cat." Caitlin hugged Felicia.
"Hey, Caity. Thought you and Ace would bring your little hellraisers?" Felicia asked.
"They had other plans." Olivia jumped in, hugging the cat burglar. "But it's okay, means me and Matt don't have to play babysitters tonight."
"Or people give us strange looks for bringing teens into this… place." Seth stated. This club wasn't exactly ideal.
"Oh yeah." Caitlin agreed with her mate.
Barry unwrapped his arms from Iris, facing Wally. "What's up, Wally?"
Wally nodded his greeting. "Hey, interesting choice of venue. The tic-tac-toe theme is cool."
"Barry picked it/ Cisco picked it." Cisco and Barry overlapped, pointing to each other accusatorily. Olivia and Matt chuckled to themselves when they heard them blaming one another.
Seth walked over to Caitlin who smiled as he came closer to her, close enough for her to place her head on his shoulder.
Cisco looked offended, peering at the speedster. "For real?"
Barry confessed. "Yeah, I picked it. I don't go out much. it had four stars on Yelp, so…"
"Okay, fair enough." Wally nodded.
Jesse got intrigued by the sight of Wally. "So who's this?"
"This is Wally." Barry started. "He's my…" He trailed off unsurely. "…foster, or step… adopted…"
"Just stop." Seth stopped him. He thought he was about to vomit for some reason.
"He's my new friend." Barry finalized. He placed a hand on Jesse's back. "This is Jesse."
Raising her hand to pull back her hair, Jesse's watch beeped at the speedster's presence. "Oh, hi." She lowered her hand quickly.
"Hey." Wally greeted. "So, Jesse, are you new in town?"
Felicia threw a glance to the elemental which practically said. "Understatement of the year." To that look, nodded agreeingly.
Sheepishly, Jesse answered. "You, you could say that."
"Yeah, me too. Are you from far away?" Wally asked.
"Like you wouldn't believe." Jesse chuckled. After everyone shared a knowing look between themselves, clearly seeing the sparks going off between Wally and Jesse, the Earth-2 girl's watched chimed. "Oh, you know what? Would you just excuse me? I just need to go powder my… watch." She sheepishly answered before walking past the drag racer.
Iris and Barry walked to the counter, conversing all the way.
"Wow, that's something." Seth chuckled.
Cisco nodded his agreement. He turned his eyes to Caitlin. "Hey, so I know I'm practically your brother, and I'm, like, half Seth's size," Seth wondered if Cisco found him fat or something. "but you want to dance?" He held out his hand.
"Sure." Caitlin took her clutch. But she did glance at Seth. "I'll be expecting one from you too, you know."
"Meet you on the dance floor." Seth assured her.
Cisco smiled. "Come on, let's go." Caitlin took his hand and they walked to the dance floor.
Seth kept watching Caitlin all the way.
X
Jesse walked into the disgusting club toilet stall, closing the door with a frustrated sigh. "Stupid watch." She muttered to herself, really hating how her father forced her to wear this stupid thing. She pulled the pins out of her hair, making sure they're sharp enough to use as makeshift tools to hack into the alert watch
The Earth-2 girl took a seat on the toilet. "All right, buddy, you have beeped your last beep." She pulled the screen up, and began plucking away at the watch with her hair pins. Smilingly, she managed to pry open one of the small panels.
She plucked away in that open area.
Something unexpected happened… a whirring came out… followed by her father's recorded voice…
"Something else rising also…" Jesse raised her watch to her face. "Some dark instinct about what I would do to the person who had taken you… the things I would do."
Paralyzing fear came over the Earth-2 girl…
Did her father kill someone?
X
"Bottom's up!" Felicia called out as she and the elemental downed their fourth shot of tequila together. As Caitlin and Cisco were… "killing it" on the dance floor, the two of them decided to drink lots of shots and enjoy themselves.
Placing the shot glass back on the counter, Seth shuddered after that shot. He faced Felicia who exhaled sharply. "Remember you could handle the burn back on 616."
Felicia waved the bartender over, holding up two fingers to order up two more shots. "Been a hard year for someone lonely as me." She pouted in mock hurt as the bartender poured two new shots for them.
"Never found anyone interesting?" Seth wondered.
"I did." She smirked, looking up and down the mutant. "Problem is, he's taken."
"Lovely." Seth chuckled. "Maybe we should invite Peter over to this world, have him show up on your radar again?"
Felicia smiled at that. "Oh yeah, wouldn't mind some Parker action. He was fun." She licked her lips. "But last I checked he's real serious with Watson."
"Oh that's right, Mary Jane Watson." Seth remembered the red-haired investigative journalist. "God, it would be cool to see her again."
"You were friends with her but you had already fallen head over heels for Silver Sable." Felicia sniped.
"What can I say, like this world, our world's full of tough and strong women, and yeah, I had a thing for her, alright." Seth nodded. "But yeah… have you ever thought about looking for someone so you could settle down or something?"
"Maybe, maybe not." Felicia shrugged as they took their fifth shot. "But instead of worrying about me, how about you worry about your girl who's out with…" She pointed towards the dance floor. "That." she sheepishly added as they saw Caitlin and Cisco.
Suffice it to say, Cisco's dancing was… impossible to call… "dancing." It looked like Cisco was swinging his hair left and right in an attempt to show off his skills, but it was a horrific attempt. Matt and Olivia laughed at the dancing they showed off.
Olivia smiled. "Hey, I just realized something."
"What?" Matt leant closer to her.
"Your Dad, Tony Stark, is gonna be a grandpa." Matt paled and Olivia smirked. "Yeah, our kid's gonna get an AI or something as their best friend by the time they can talk."
"God…" Matt felt all his blood leave his body.
Olivia smiled and placed her water on the counter. "Let's go."
"Where?" Matt wondered as his wife took his hand.
"Dancing." Olivia gave him a sultry look as she pulled him out to the dance floor.
Seth and Felicia walked to another table, occupied by Barry and Iris. "Yo, Iris, how's it going with your little bro?" The mutant asked the reporter.
"He's good, he's just diving into his schoolwork." Iris answered.
"Good." Seth answered. His face fell. "Oh, God." He said when he saw Cisco swinging his hair left and right and Caitlin gave him an unsure look, she couldn't explain his dancing.
Felicia nudged him, garnering his attention. "I take Cisco, you take your girl, huh? She looks like she's in a tight spot."
"Thanks Cat." Seth said as he stride towards his mate with the cat burglar following behind him.
Felicia spiraled around him, grabbing Cisco's hand and spun him around to follow her. He gasped when he looked at her. "Mind if I have this one…" She slid her hand over his shoulder and yanked him close, making him gasp again. "Mr. Ramon?"
"Uh, uh…" Cisco struggled to find the right words.
"I'll take that as a yes." Felicia tilted her head to the side, looking to Caitlin and blew her a kiss.
Caitlin chuckled and crossed her arms. But she came to a stop when she felt an absence in her hand. Turning to it, she saw that her clutch was gone.
"Looking for something?"
She twirled around and saw Seth waving her clutch around in his hand. Caitlin crossed her arms. "You're taking a page out of Felicia's book, huh?"
Seth playfully smirked, placing both hands behind his back. "Whatever do you mean, Caitlin? I didn't do anything." He teased.
Caitlin walked closer to him and wrapped her arms around him. Unsurprisingly, she couldn't find her clutch behind him. Meaning it had sunken into his partner's pocket dimension. "Well, since you don't have my purse…" She smiled coyly. "Wanna dance?"
"Thought you'd never ask." Seth said as he took her hand and spun her around. Caitlin stopped, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulled him close just as he placed his hands on her waist.
Even though they were in a nightclub, loud party music blaring all around them, the two stared into each other's eyes and swayed as though they were listening to slow music. They leant closer to each other, puckering their lips before they met each other in a lip lock. Even though some people stared at them, they didn't care and deepened their kiss.
They were in a world perfectly made for themselves…
Iris looked at them and told Barry in quip. "Promise me if we ever do get married, you better do that dance at our wedding."
"So Cisco's dance is off the table?" Barry smirked.
Laughing at his joke, Iris said. "I better hear you promise not to do that dance at our wedding, Barry Allen." She spoke with mock seriousness.
"I promise you that." He spoke. "I mean, not the wedding, the dancing." Barry clarified. For a moment, the two watched Seth and Caitlin slow dance despite the blaring loud party music. Iris laughed and the speedster inquired. "What?"
Recalling what Barry had tearfully said to her and her father before, she confessed. "I don't know; I just think it's weird that we're married in the future and on Earth-2."
Barry smiled. "I wonder what our married doppelgangers are doing tonight."
Playing along, Iris stated. "Probably Earth-2's equivalent of "Netflix and chill.""
"Sounds nice." Barry nodded. "I mean, for them."
Spinning around, Caitlin backed up against the mutant and gave him a smirk. Seth gulped when feeling her body heat against his own body. "You're very, very, flirty tonight."
"Got the right motivation." Caitlin quipped spinning back to face him. "And… it's good to see you again."
"Heard it all week, but I never get tired of it." Seth said, leaning forward again, intending to capture her lips again and share another wonderful kiss with this even more wonderful person.
"Behind you!"
Seth pulled away, turned around and saw an impossible sight happening before him. "What the?" He muttered as he saw…
…familiar yellow lightning speeding around in the entrance…
Before he had time to react, same lightning ran to him and Caitlin. Standing in front of his mate, the lightning blur smashed into the mutant and sent him flying to floor. "Seth!" Caitlin rushed to him.
"I'm okay!" Seth pushed himself up and saw the yellow lightning speed around in the club.
Other guests, customers and staff members were in similar situations, pushed off the floor and into the ground, other people or even into walls. The cashier at the bar was pushed to the ground and, a second later, the open cash register was emptied.
Matt pushed his wife up against the wall, standing protectively in front of her. "Stay behind me!"
"Whatever!" She absentmindedly answered as she focused on the streak of lightning running amongst the other customers before moving towards the exit, getting out of the building.
A blonde woman in a pink dress exclaimed in shock. "It was The Flash!"
"My wallet's gone!" Her date said.
Cisco saw her Felicia looked around her body. "What's wrong?"
"Someone took my purse." Felicia answered the viber's question.
"Seth, are you okay?" Caitlin asked as she helped the love of her life back to his feet.
Twisting his shoulders and craning his neck, he answered. "Slowly, but yeah, I'm okay." His concern showed itself on his face as he faced his mate. "What about you? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I am." She assured him.
Seth looked to his brother-in-law and his sister walking over to him. "Both of you alright?"
"We're good." Olivia said. "You?"
"Peachy." Seth looked around and saw that the other natives were in good condition. He shared a nod of agreement with the Scarlet Speedster before looking to the other mutants. "You guys got your suits?"
"Nope." Matt shook his head, his wife pointing a thumb downwards. "But you don't."
Seth chuckled. "Take care of Caitlin, me and Barry got a Fake Flash to hunt."
"Fake Flash, really?" Caitlin commented.
"I'm not good with nicknames, Cait. Sue me." Seth quickly captured her lips in a kiss before running out of the club.
Barry quickly made an excuse and walked out the other side before following the mutant, in his suit as The Flash.
Looking around and seeing that he was alone in the alley, Seth jumped onto a wall. As his form expanded with the black mass covering his body, he leaped from wall to wall till he reached the top of the wall as Venom. He lashes out a hand, shooting out a tendril before swinging towards the faint lightning running far ahead of him.
"Gotta go fast on this one!" Lightning sparked all over his body and wind emitted from him in gusts before swinging faster and faster as he tried to catch up to the new Scarlet Speedster.
But as he swung towards that one, the old one came behind, speeding below his feet and making his way to the other speedster.
Managing to make his way in front of the two speedsters somehow, Venom landed on top of the bridge arches, and saw the two streaks of lightning coming towards the bridge. Jumping off the arches, he landed in the middle of the bridge and reeled an arm back. Flexing his muscles, the entire limb turned into adamantium.
He readied himself to strike the second speedster. But he was completely shocked to see the second speedster run ahead of The Flash, outpace him even easily and coming closer to him.
Narrowing his eyes, lightning erupted from all over his body and he increased his reflexes to meet the second speedster. But all he got…
… was a glimpse of a smiling face…
… and the sight of the speedster jumping into the air in a spin…
His eyes barely moved to see a foot when it slammed into the left temple of his head. Venom and Seth felt a tremor coursing through his head, and the force of it sent his head into the ground and the rest of his body followed, the ground cracking with his body embedding into it.
The second speedster ran away again, once again outpacing The Flash.
Barry came to a stop near the elemental who pushed himself out of the ground. "Are you okay?" The speedster asked the mutant pantingly from exhaustion.
Venom held his head. "Better question: Who the hell was that?"
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)
"You don't have a headache or anything, right? No spinning sensation?" Caitlin listed off as she checked his head.
"Nor do I have mild confusion, nausea, Cait." Seth added as he gestured to his head. "A bit ringing in my ears but that's about it, I promise." Caitlin lowered her hands. "Remember, I'm a doctor too, beauty."
"I know." Caitlin nodded.
After the new speedster ran away from them, Barry returned to the scene and Seth and the others returned to the facility. Olivia and Matt wanted to check out the city to see if they could the new speedster while they others talked about this new speedster.
Caitlin decided to check on her mate in concern. "But you're sure that's all you feel? Nothing else?"
"I promise." Seth said, getting off the gurney. "But damn that was one serious kick from that speedster." He said, rubbing the side of his head.
Leaning against the gurney, Caitlin asked. "You get a good look at the speedster?"
"No, sorry. Only saw him or her smiling but that's about it before being kicked in the head with enough force to send me into the ground, head-first." Seth answered. "But one thing's for sure with this one: They're faster than Barry."
"Really? Like Zoom fast?" Caitlin worriedly asked.
"Never seen him or Barry run after each other, but it's safe to assume that could be possible yeah." Seth nodded. "Where do you think this one came from?"
Caitlin then asked. "You mean, Earth-2 origin or Particle Accelerator-origin?" Seth nodded. "Guess we know the plan for tomorrow then."
"Yeah, research." Seth nodded.
"But first, let's go home and make sure our kids haven't burnt down our loft?" Caitlin suggested.
"That's a good idea." Seth nodded as they walked hand-in-hand towards the exit.
X
The next day, Barry and Joe walked into the club that was robbed by the new speedster last night. As they walked into the establishment, which was filled to the brim with other officers, the detective was on the phone with Seth.
"Joe, I'm positive my daughter didn't whoosh through a random club and steal." Seth repeated.
"I know, man, I know, just a joke." Joe assured his friend.
"Good. Otherwise, it might be your son, seeing as he's the residential speedster." Seth added.
"Yeah, will tell my son that you suspect him of theft." Joe joked with a glance to the CSI scientist beside him. "Okay, thanks, man. Watch out already, you can get to higher vantage points than me."
"Sure." Seth said before hanging up.
Joe closed his phone and faced his adoptive son. "What happened last night? I know you didn't rob these people unless Seth is right."
"No, I was bored. Thought I'd have some fun and Seth was there, too." Barry stated. "Maybe Evelyn popped around last night?"
"No, she was with her friends last night at Seth's, and she doesn't have speedster powers." Joe reminded the speedster. "Well, look, whoever did this, they got everyone within a ten-block radius in under six minutes. I got reports of both you and Seth trying to stop them, but not how it ended. Neither of you could catch them?"
"No, this speedster's faster than me, I guess, and strong enough to actually kick Seth into the ground, believe it or not." Barry told his adoptive father.
"Unbelievable." Joe said in shock. He couldn't imagine someone being faster than his son and strong enough to kick Venom. Looking up and saw his daughter walking towards them with a phone in her hand. "Hey, babe."
"Hey," Iris greeted them before pointing behind her, "so I spoke to that girl over there. She snapped a photo of the red blur." She showed the phone screen, showing a crackling red blur. Barry snatched the phone, bringing it closer to his face. "Look familiar?"
"This is not good." Barry muttered in fear. If this gets out to every news station, all the things he's done as The Flash will go down the drain and he's gonna be painted as the newest and fastest criminal in Central City.
Iris nodded. "I know, it looks exactly like the photo I took of you last year." She said as her father looked over the photo himself. "Don't worry, we'll figure it out. We always do." Her father gave her the phone when it chimed. "Oh, it's work. I've got to go. Keep me posted, okay?" She walked away.
Barry looked to the detective. "Joe, I don't want people thinking The Flash is a petty thief."
As they walked, Joe stated. "Well, we need to get to work squashing those rumors before they spread."
X
(CC Jitters)
"Two Venoms and three Magentas for Seth!" The barista at CC Jitters called out.
"That's me!" Seth replied as he walked up to the cashier, handing her the cash as well as a generous tip. "Keep the change." The barista smiled as he took his drinks. Turning away, he walked towards the table with his family surrounding it in recliners and chairs.
The Snow-Fury family decided to have some relaxing downtime, sipping and drinking incredible drinks. Although Seth did doubt their credibility when they said he had got a drink named after his alter-ego. But when they arrived, he immediately saw that Caitlin was true to her words.
Seth took a seat on a chair beside Caitlin, placing the plastic cups and mugs on the table as he said. "Can't believe I got a drink named after me. Pretty bonkers." His three daughters took their Magenta drinks while he handed Caitlin her Venom drink.
"Well, you did jump into a black hole, honey, so of course you'd get a drink named after you." Caitlin chuckled.
"I didn't have to do that to get my own drink." Frankie said as she bit into the chocolate bar.
"I'm not jumping into any black hole, at least not for a drink." Ruby confessed as she drank from her drink.
Evelyn mixed the whipping cream and frappe coffee together with her chocolate bar. "When are we gonna get our own drinks?" She pouted.
"How about we enjoy the drinks we already got before anyone else in the family jumps into danger?" Caitlin stated, she didn't want to see any of her kids jumping into any danger. They do that enough as it is now. She looked to Seth, seeing him slowly sip on his coffee with a strange thoughtful expression. "What's wrong Seth? You don't like what you're drinking?"
"The drink's good." He assured her. "But… It's just been weird is all, I guess."
"What is? The New Flash?" Ruby asked. "Didn't think speedsters scared you, Dad?"
"Not a speedster out in the multiverse could ever scare me." Seth said. Shaking his head, he answered. "It's because of Matt."
"What's wrong with Uncle Matt?" Frankie worriedly asked.
But Seth waved off her concerns before saying. "I don't know, but he seems different."
"You two have been training the entire time, right?" Caitlin recalled.
During this past week, when Seth wasn't with his family or helping train Barry, he and the nanite mutant would train together, to help improve the elemental's swordsmanship. It also helped so the two of them could reconnect after more than a year apart.
When that didn't always happen, Caitlin took the time to thoroughly examine Seth's wounds. She was very scared to see his right arm charred but he promised her that it was nothing more than a side effect of absorbing the abyssal pitch-black dark matter flames. She also looked over the rest of his body. Though she did wonder why one of his friends on Earth-2 would ever pierce his stomach, leading to the three healed holes on his torso.
The elemental nodded. "Yeah, but he's been different, I guess. It's like he's holding something back."
Schooling herself as best as she could, Caitlin said. "Maybe… He's just thinking of how to better train you. You're more into close-range hand-to-hand combat than weapons-combat, which is Matt's specialty."
"Best way he can train me, is not to hold back. Best thing about friends, they help you out whenever they can." Seth revealed. He gestured to the girls. "Speaking of, how'd it go with your friends yesterday?"
Evelyn smiled. "Yeah, went pretty good. A lot of the girls have been asking us if we have any plans this coming week, cause they're thinking of holding some sleepovers themselves and they want us to join them."
"That sounds good." He glared at them. "No boys, otherwise, I'm storming in there, guns blazing and all before dragging you out of there."
"Funny, Dad." Frankie quipped.
"Hey, Frankie."
Frankie blushed when she recognized that familiar voice. Spinning up to her feet, she turned around and saw Rueben standing there with a smile on his face. "R-R-Rueben, hi?"
"Hey, Frankie." Reuben repeated. Coughing to himself, he looked to her family. "Hey, Ruby, Evelyn." He greeted his other classmates. He turned to the parents. "Hey, Dr. Snow, Dr. Fury." Caitlin gave the nice wave whilst her mate gave a nod of acknowledgement.
Venom laughed in Seth's head. "Cute how this boy is so nervous around Frankie."
"…It's something…" Seth thought. He let his eyes drift downwards, seeing Rueben's shirt. "Nice shirt, kid."
Rueben smiled, pulling his jacket to the sides and show off his black Venom-themed T-shirt, showing off his new head look with a skull head and red eyes. "Thanks, Dr. Fury. I'm a huge Venom fan. He's so awesome and his new look is so badass."
Seth was beginning to like the kid.
Ruby narrowed her eyes and asked. "What about Magenta and the other two heroes? You think the same of them?"
"Totally." Rueben instantly answered. He failed to notice the blush coming over Frankie's face, only her family noticed that and they tried to keep themselves from smiling. "The four of them are my favorites no doubt. The Flash is cool, sure, but he doesn't have many tricks for fighting."
"Huh…" Seth can't believe a kid Frankie's age can see that Barry needs some training.
"Anyway…" Rueben swallowed. "There's that carnival at the pier … and would you like to… you know…"
Frankie was worrying that her blush was showing itself. "You mean… with you?"
"Yeah." Rueben asked. He swallowed a gulp, swinging his eyes to her parents who watched the two teenagers cautiously. "If it's okay with you, of course, Dr. Fury and you Dr. Snow."
"Least the kid's polite." Seth thought.
Frankie snapped around. "Dad, Mom, can I… please?"
Seth made it painful for the two teenagers, by narrowing his eyes and running them up and down the boy's form like he was examining him….
And the young boy felt like a shark was circling around him, just waiting to see if he was worth chowing down on.
But then Seth eased his expression and looked to Caitlin. "He seems fine, but what'd you think?"
Caitlin mulled it over before smiling to her daughter and Rueben. "Fine, have fun later. But be back by 8, alright?"
"Promise Mom." Frankie said gratefully to her parents as she snatched her drink before following Rueben.
Seth looked his mate. "I'm so tracking her."
"Wouldn't be you if you didn't, honey." Caitlin quipped.
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs)
As that was happening, Jesse walked through the hallways of the facility. Her entire being was filled with determination as she sought out her father so she could talk about her findings, about the recordings in his watch. She was scared, scared than ever before…
Even more so when she was in Zoom's clutches… something she couldn't believe was possible…
At least not with her father…
She walked into the room her father and her use, finding her father by the table with the large screen. Harry glanced at his daughter. "So… Fun night?" He asked with his eyes on the screen. He clarified. "Before all the chaos broke loose?"
Jesse didn't with her words. She used her father's with the flip of his watch on her wrist and a press of a button.
"Then I would do anything to get you back, including killing a man."
Harrison Wells paled… knowing that his daughter have gotten into his audio logs, hearing what he'd do to get his child back...
When she was sure that everything was said, Jesse demanded to know. "Tell me I'm not hearing this right."
Fiddling with his glasses, Harry looked into his daughter's eyes. He saw walls built up in her core, able to shield her from any lie that he might utter. He couldn't lie to her…
"No, that's true." Harry confirmed. Jesse didn't know how to process that piece of information. "Zoom had you… I didn't trust Fury yet… Zoom needed The Flash's speed…" He gave her his full attention. "And it was him or you." Walking closer to his daughter, he said. "And I… was not going to lose you."
"You know, you were my hero." Jesse said, but hints of anger and resentment were clear as day in her voice. "My dad, the brilliant scientist who could accomplish anything he put his mind to. He taught me I could never dream too big. But now…" She couldn't believe the person before her now; it was something else. But definitely not her father.
"…Now you're a killer, and I barely recognize you at all."
"Jesse-"
"No, no, no." Jesse stepped backwards, out of her father's arm's length. "Don't- Don't worry. I'm not going far." She assured him as she walked out of the room.
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)
"So, we still have no idea where this new speedster came from?" Seth asked from his crouched position on the ceiling, looking down on Caitlin, Olivia, Matt. Evelyn and Ruby were there too, checking their phones like real teenagers.
Caitlin looked up. "Nope, nothing."
"Great." Seth rubbed his head. He looked Olivia who scoured through security footage near the club last night. "Nothing on your end either Bubble?"
"Hate that nickname, but nada." The psychic answered. "But you and Barry didn't find see anything useful when you fought them?"
Detaching from the ceiling, Seth landed on his feet and declared. "Only thing I know is that this speedster is faster than Barry and would probably have cracked my head open like an egg if I didn't have Venom around me."
Ruby looked suspicious at that. "Can speedsters really be that strong?"
"It's basic laws of physics at that point, honey." Matt started. "The energy that a speedster generates when they run is all around their body. They use it when they run, and when they stop moving, the energy has to go somewhere else. This speedster took that residual energy, placing it in their foot and kicked the thoughts out of your Dad's empty head."
"Really wanna go there, Scrapheap? Only thing ringing in your noggin are bolts and screws." Seth countered.
Evelyn followed with a nod. "So, like Aunt Liv and Ruby can take their psychic and gravity powers send it to their hands or feet..." She trailed off.
Her father picked up. "This new speedster converts their speed into their limbs, and strikes, thus augmenting their offensive powers. One punch from this one, juiced with speed, is gonna be like a cannon firing off in your face."
"Barry could learn a thing or two from this one." Ruby admitted.
"No argument, honey." Olivia agreed. Curiously, she looked around. "Wait, where's Frankie?"
"On a date with a boy she likes from our class." Evelyn answered and she could practically hear her father gritting his teeth in anger.
"That couldn't have been easy." Matt directed to Seth.
"She stays out a minute longer with that boy, I'm gonna start hunting." Seth promised with an evil look.
"Calm down, you. She's a child, you can't keep her from growing up." Caitlin rubbed his arm.
"All I know is that blur made 60 smackeroos off of me." They heard Cisco state in the hallways. "Ridiculous." He said with a lollipop in his mouth, pointing to the speedster beside him.
Barry greeted the others with a nod of his head before suggesting. "Maybe it's another one of Zoom's henchmen somehow?"
"The breaches are closed, except for what Seth did to the one downstairs." Cisco stated, gesturing to the elemental with a wave of his hand.
"You're welcome, by the way." Seth sarcastically said. "Those black flames are a bitch to control."
That did nothing to help the confusion in the minds of anyone in The Cortex. Matt asked. "Then what are we missing? The only other way to become a speedster is from a particle accelerator explosion."
His words made Caitlin gulp in fear and Olivia in slight hate.
"Okay, but then why only make yourself known now?" Cisco stated the question. "You see what I'm saying? We'd have had to see them in action before."
"Not always." Seth argued. "I mean, you might have powers, but that doesn't mean you have to use them. I've seen kids, adults even who goes on with life without using their powers because they're afraid of what they might do to them. Powers can flip their personality like the flick of a switch. They'd be terrified."
"Why would they? Barry's a role model for good power use." Cisco pointed to the speedster.
"You might wanna rethink that one." Seth stated in disagreement.
Barry jumped in. "I'm not saying it makes sense; I'm just saying that's the only other way to become a speedster."
"That's not entirely true…" Olivia sent her eyes to Caitlin. "Right, Caity?"
Seth followed her eyes, remembering the anger and hate brimming in his sister's eyes before looking to his mate who gulped and looked fearful. "Cait, what is she talking about?"
"There's another way… to become a speedster." Caitlin slowly said. Her words only made more confusion rise up in their minds. Abruptly, she stood up and walked out of the Cortex. Without hesitation, Seth followed her along with Matt, Olivia, Barry and Cisco.
The psychic told her nieces to stay behind for now.
"Cait, what is it?" Seth asked as he followed her closely through the hallways.
"…Something…" Caitlin didn't know how to state her project to him. They entered the back room with an incinerator and storage lockers. She walked to the nearest locker which she opened.
Looking past her, Seth saw Caitlin standing before a singular vial with a golden component held in a tube rack. She took hold of the tube rack, holding it before her eyes just as the four others entered the room. "It's called Velocity-9."
"Ooh, that's a sexy-ass name. What is it?" Cisco asked.
Before he could inquire a question of his own, Seth saw Matt clench his hands with an angered expression on his face and his sister was trying desperately to conceal her own frustration but to little success. He didn't like their expressions because it reminded him of something he hadn't seen in a long time…
"It's a speed drug." Caitlin turned around, walking towards the hallway again. "To help my daughters fight, Jay took it when you were on Earth-2 to save the city from Geomancer, the metahuman who almost leveled the facility before."
"You… made a power enhancement drug?" Matt almost sneered. But then he felt a grip tighten around his wrist and made him see a look of anger on Seth's face, telling him to tamper down his hate. His wordless sentence didn't affect the nanite mutant who shook his hand out of his grip.
Seth walked in front of him and his sister, following his mate intently and protectively.
"What?" Barry threw his two cents in. "How could you not tell me this? Could any of you not tell me this?"
They walked through a side entrance of Caitlin's private lab, quickly making their way back to the Cortex through the side lab. "I promised Jay I wouldn't, Frankie was there too." Ruby and Evelyn looked confused and saw their mother
"Jay, what do you- Why?" Barry asked.
"Cait, please, what's going on here? Why do you guys have a speed enhancer here? A power enhancer at all?" Seth asked. "Obvious reasons, aside, why did Jay want this one out of Barry's hands?"
Harry answered. "Because Jay knew how dangerous this drug is."
When the Earth-2 scientist said that, the elemental asked. "You know this, how?"
"I should know, Fury; Snow and I worked on it together." Harry revealed.
"I can't believe you guys made this shit!" Matt raised his voice.
"Told you it was a bad idea, Caity." Olivia agreed with her husband.
As he saw their words drive into Caitlin's core, he snapped his eyes to them, Seth's blue eyes slithered with black symbiotic mass. "Calm down…" He sneered murderously to his family, the others facing them and growing concerned.
"What's going on?" Ruby asked when she saw her father threaten his best friend and his sister.
"V9." Evelyn said, she shuddered when hearing her uncle and aunt turn on her mother.
And by the sounds of his next words, Barry had some thoughts of his own. "Guys, I have been busting my butt out there, pushing myself to the limit, trying to get better, trying to be faster, and you're telling me that there's been something this whole time that could've helped me? This could've helped me take down Zoom. It could have helped me save Earth-2 people in danger…Save Jay."
"It wouldn't have." Olivia said, calmer than her husband and her brother right now. "He was sick."
While she stood behind her mate, Caitlin nodded with a gesture to the tube rack with the Velocity-9 serum. "The drug that he took to regain his speed was also causing cellular degeneration."
Seth snapped his head to her in shock. "It was killing him."
Caitlin nodded shakily. "I tried to help, I tried to find a cure, but in all my experiments, the effects were just temporary. The V9 is deadly."
Barry rubbed his head frustratedly. "Why not tell me this? Why keep me in the dark?"
The elemental could see her struggling with this as she stood near the display with Jay's helmet and walked over to and placed both hands on her shoulders. "Cait, it's okay." He tried to comfort her.
"It's not okay, Seth!" Barry screamed. "I could have gone faster! I could have become-"
"Weak!" Seth snapped around to face the speedster. "So, quit… your… bitching!" He growled in his face.
Cisco walked to Caitlin, placing his hand on her shoulder to comfort her. "Caitlin-"
But to his surprise… like a series of flashing lights, a vibe was brought to him…
X
Cisco found himself in a colossal pitch-black overshadowed room…. flickering lights around him…
… Cisco looked around. "Where am I?" He looked in search…
WHOOSH
Cisco snapped his head around when hearing a familiar crackle of lightning…
… To his surprise, he found Zoom standing there… his physique blending with the shadows around them…
Without the blue lightning… his form would have been one with his surroundings…
Zoom stood there for a moment… before running away again
X
Cisco was brought out of his vibe, letting out a gasp that made everyone look at him.
Seth shifted his eyes between them all. "What's wrong, Cisco?"
"Are you okay?" Caitlin asked.
Matt narrowed his eyes. "Did you vibe?"
"That's how he vibes?" Seth raised an eyebrow in confusion.
Ruby understood her father's feelings. "That was not the expression you'd get when you see if for the first time."
"Ruby, mind out of the gutter, thank you." Seth chastised his daughter.
Evelyn looked to Cisco. "Cisco, what did you see?"
Harry pitched in. "Ramon, what was it?"
"Uh…" Cisco hesitated confusedly.
"Cisco, we're waiting. Please make it today." Olivia impatiently asked, her hormones rocketing again.
Before anyone could either ask him to hurry it up or let Cisco answer, the alarms chimed over their heads. The native mechanical engineer knew that sound. "Metahuman." He rushed to the main console. "Yeah, social media app for the win." He announced when he saw the notification on the screen.
"You made a social media app?" Seth asked surprised. An eerie feeling rained over him. "Don't tell me you made a metahuman Tinder app or something?"
"No, I didn't!" Cisco exclaimed in his defense. "More importantly, Bad Flash is back!" Barry sped into his suit before running out again. "Bad Flash… What? No, I'm losing my touch over here."
"Dad, want us to go too?" Ruby directed to Seth.
"Nah, you and your sister stay here. Me and your uncle are going out for now."
Matt turned surprised. "Why?" Seth gave him a knowing look, the nanite mutant scoffed his disbelief in response. "You're joking, right? You don't trust me."
Seth got closer to his face, close enough till his breath touched his face. "Like this, I don't have any good reason to… So, you're coming with me, because we need someone who's a flying arsenal, willingly… or I'm dragging you out of here. Choose."
At that moment, Matt knew he didn't have a choice. He placed his reactor on his chest, forming his armor before flying out of the skylight.
Olivia looked to her brother. "You didn't seem to hold back, you know? Not even with your brother-in-law. Wowza."
"Considering his and your attitude, can you blame me?" Seth said knowingly, the psychic giving him a passive look. "I know why you're like this, trust me I remember it all. But don't take it out on others." He pointed to the mannequin behind him. "Otherwise, you'd be no better than the moron who displays his suit on that thing."
The symbiote form slithered over his form before jumping out of the skylight to follow the others.
"What did they mean?" Ruby looked to her aunt for answers.
"Stuff, honey." Olivia vaguely said.
X
Fully clad as Venom, Seth ran along the side of a glass building on all four like an animal. People inside of the building, on the other side of the glass, saw him running and took thousands of photos. Lashing out a tendril, he attached it to the side of a building and pulled on it, catapulting him to the building.
Venom had to spiral into a flip because Iron Knight came flying towards him, making the elemental jump over him before sticking to another building. The two ran and flew by each other in silence.
But only for a second before the nanite mutant faced Seth, his comms device shut off. "Can't believe you didn't trust me back there, Seth."
Jumping off the building, he leaped over a high distance before sticking to the building in front of him, allowing him to look face to face with his brother-in-law. His own comms device was shut off so he could speak freely. "With the way you and Liv were talking, we couldn't risk the two of you in the same room as Caitlin."
Coming to an abrupt stop, Iron Knight glared at him. "You thought I was gonna hurt her?"
"No." Seth shook his head. "But we didn't want our children to see their uncle and aunt try to tear into their mother because she made this drug."
"You know how we feel about artificial power enhancements." Matt clenched his fists.
"If we didn't know, Matty, you'd still be at the facility with the others." Venom countered. His best friend faced him. "Caitlin used the frustration she had buried in her from when we didn't tell her our condition with Carnage's poison."
"She told you she used that frustration to make a speed drug?"
"She didn't tell us, but she did say she tried to use that pain to help a friend. We pieced it together that it was this Jay guy." Venom narrowed his eyes. "But whatever her reasons, she's a good person. Cut her some slack. When we're hurt, she's the one who patches us up. She cares about the entire team more than the rest of us combined."
"Fine…" Matt groaned. "But I can't promise it's gonna happen immediately."
"It will." Seth confidently said and Matt thought it came out as a threat. But a look to his face made him realize it wasn't. "You're much, much better than let some petty anger take over you."
Iron Knight nodded. "I'll try."
"Guys!" Cisco's voice screamed into their heads. "What are you two doing? Barry's going to meet Bad Flash alone. Shake a leg! He's coming up on Fifth and Everett."
"Time to work." Venom said before jumping into the air again and swinging towards their next destination with Iron Knight flying behind him.
In short time the two mutants looked down on Fifth and Everett and saw the Scarlet Speedster take a stand in the middle of the lane.
WHOOSH
"AAAARRGHHH!"
But in the blink of an eye, the new speedster slammed into The Flash, flinging him off of the road and into the windshield of a parked taxi.
"What the hell?" Matt said in shock while Barry rolled off the yellow vehicle and made eye contact with the other speedster. The new speedster turned their head upwards, seeing the two mutants looking down on them.
WHOOSH
"What's wrong boys?"
Iron Knight and Venom snapped their heads to the cackling soft feminine voice and saw the speedster. The female speedster clad in a similar red suit with golden accents and thick padding. Her brown hair pulled into braids and wrapped into a bun on the back of her head. Her eyes covered by a red domino mask. "I'm a big girl, I can handle a few guys at the same time."
"That include missiles?!" Matt pushed himself backwards, crossing his arms and forming missiles on his back before shooting them out, making their way towards the evil metahuman. The female speedster smirked before disappearing in a flash of yellow lightning. Iron Knight spun his eyes around. "Where'd she go?"
A cackle behind the flying knight. Matt turned around and for a brief moment, with Jarvis' upgrades, he saw the female speedster throwing his missiles back at him. All of them exploded in his face, shooting him onto the rooftop of the building behind him. His body skipped across the surface and he groaned with each skip.
"Knight!" Venom called out.
But he couldn't say anything else when the female speedster jumped into the air, slamming both of her feet into the side of his face. The blow was filled with additional speed, coursing to her feet and traveled into the elemental's form. The force was like a cannon, bursting into him and shooting Venom through the side of a building.
Dozens of employees ran away when they saw Venom crash into an array of desks, getting closer and closer to the middle of the floor. He came to a stop. One desk flipped into the air, landing in his open maw when he panted. Lifting his head, Seth saw past the escaping employees and saw the female speedster laughing at him.
"Well, if that doesn't beat a gag, then I don't know what will." She cackled, holding her stomach even from laughing too hard. "But it looks good on you."
Out of erupting anger, his teeth reddens a second before catching flames and the mutant bites the desk in half. Feigning shock, the female speedster covered her mouth with the tips of her fingers. "Oh, scary boy. Does someone need a new binky?"
"Piss off!" Venom swung his right arm, splitting it into his tendrils and shooting them after her. With ease, she dodged them, appearing beside the mutant with yellow lightning crackling over her entire form and jumped into the air. With a spin, gathering up more speed she brought her foot down like a thunder-cloaked battle-axe, slamming it down for him.
Even though he covered his entire form with lightning, Venom couldn't escape it but thankfully he crossed his arms with adamantium skin to block the foot that was brought down on him. The foot felt like close-range thunderbolt, striking him through the floor and her lightning traveled all over the floor, short-circuiting every computer and electronic device on the floor.
Seth found himself embedded in the floor. Coughing, he spit out pieces of the floorboard and he pushed himself up. He grunted as he looked upwards, through the hole that she made. Murderously, he narrowed his eyes on the female speedster who laughed at his defeated form.
"Think of that as a welcome-back gift, Venom." She blew him a kiss. "Toddles!"
WHOOSH
And with that… she disappeared in a flash.
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)
"Dad! Uncle Matt!" Frankie shouted in the Cortex when she jumped through the skylight. She had to cut her date with Reuben short when she saw the live news footage of the new speedster fighting Venom and Iron Knight. She looked to the side lab, finding her father and uncle on separate gurneys, her mother checking on them both.
Barry sat in a chair beside them. Her sisters stood near the entrance to the side lab with Joe and Harry.
Seth looked to his daughter. "We're okay, honey."
Matt removed the ice pack from his hand and chuckled. "Banged up, but fine, yeah."
"More than a bit, yeah." Barry said.
The psychic doubted that. He was tackled by another speedster; her husband was sent flying after his own missiles exploded in his face and her brother was kicked through the floor by another speedster.
But Cisco was excited by this revelation. "A lady speedster? It only took us two years, but we finally got one, a lady speedster."
Tapping his shoulder, Ruby corrected him. "A powerful lady speedster. Heck, she kicked Dad through a floor with ease."
"How're you feeling after that?" Evelyn asked in concern.
Shrugging his shoulders, Seth answered. "Pretty sure I'm seeing stars." He smirked, looking into Caitlin's eyes. "But that might just be because of your mother. I mean she is in front of me."
Caitlin smiled and playfully slapped the side of his face. "Tone it down, silly."
Cisco then jumped in, a question of his own coming to the forefront of his mind. "Hey, here's a question for you guys, purely scientific, was she good-looking?"
The detective chortled. Evelyn then said. "Dude, rethink your priorities."
"And get a girlfriend." Frankie stated.
Seth turned to his sister. "Did every dude on our team get hornier while I was gone?"
"With the exception of Joe, Matty and Wells, more or less, yeah." Olivia nodded. "Single life is hard for some of them." This time she had force back tears desperately.
Barry chuckled. "Think we were a little busy getting our asses handed to us, so we didn't really notice."
Cisco understood, rapidly nodding his head. "Right, right, right, but, you know, next time, for science?" He accompanied with a finger pointing to his face.
Matt chuckled. "Okay, yeah, next time she punches us in the face, throws missiles into our faces, or kicks us through a floor, we'll be sure to get her number." He sent a look to Seth. "Unless this one got all her attention somehow."
"Excuse me?" Caitlin raised an eyebrow.
Seth shrugged. "Don't look at me. I don't know what comes out of his metallic head."
Olivia looked to her husband. "Our Fem Flash has taken a liking to my brother?"
"Looked like when I scanned the building." Matt revealed. "She even blew him a kiss." He cheekily said.
"Screw you." Seth said.
"Dad, you attract all the wrong girls, aside from Mom, of course." Ruby chortled.
"You and your sisters are grounded." Seth sniped.
"But stay away from her, please. I want to have a shot." Cisco pleaded and the elemental nodded. "There you go."
Joe asked, returning to the important matter. "But the question remains, who is she?"
"I have no idea." Barry started, getting up from the chair.
Harry removed his mug from his lips. "We could run her through the facial recognition."
"Shitload of help that's gonna do, she had a mask on. A domino mask of all things." Seth said as they all moved into the Cortex.
Olivia scoffed. "Around two years, and six heroes in this city have full-on masks, yet the villains chooses to wear domino masks. That's crazy."
Joe then admitted. "But what I don't get is how someone could catch your missiles?" He pointed to the nanite mutant. "And…" He turned it to the elemental. "How could a speedster kick you through the side of a building and a floor with ease?"
"Not exactly with ease." The mutant started. "You know, how Barry can throw lightning?"
When Joe nodded, Barry looked confused. "You know about that?"
"Matty and Cait gave me the rundown on the things you guys have been through." Seth answered. "But it is kinda the same principle: Barry runs, comes to a stop and lets the lightning pass over him, which he can direct and…" He whistled and swung his arm. "Throws at his enemies."
"Yeah, I got that." Blessed be ignorant and confused Joe. The detective pointed back to the elemental. "But how is that the same as kicking an eight feet tall bastard through the floor of a building?"
"As we already established this speedster is faster than Barry." Matt chimed in, pointing to the speedster.
"Thus, she's able to generate more lightning when she runs." Seth continued. "That lightning she emits around her body, and she runs, increasing it more with more additional moves, and she stops and coverts them into her body."
"The lightning she generated, she converted into her foot before she slammed into you, which was painfully powerful enough to drive you the floor." Caitlin finished off.
Joe didn't look any less confused than before. Olivia tried another tactic. "It's like a pile bunker."
"Ah!" He understood. "That I got." Joe confessed.
Another question popped into Cisco's mind. "What was her suit like?"
Caitlin reprimanded him with a slap to his shoulder. "Hey."
"What? It's a valid question." Cisco defensively said.
"You gotta get a girlfriend." Matt stated matter-of-factly.
But Harry saw the logic in the question. "It is, actually. How was her suit constructed?"
"Pretty good, actually. Like…" Seth gestured to the suit on the mannequin. "Barry's suit. Designed to conceal his identity and more importantly, able to resist high temperatures and abrasions."
"So, it's made by someone who understands the needs of a speedster." Matt deduced.
Evelyn pitched in, deducing further. "Which means that would be someone with access to high-tech and a facility like this one."
Frankie looked around. "We know anyone who might fit onto that list?"
"Oh, no." Caitlin got their attention. "I'm having a very bad thought." She walked towards one of the nearest computer and began typing, bringing up the chemical structure of Velocity-9 which was followed by the picture of a brown-haired young woman with green eyes.
Long since attached herself to the ceiling, Frankie looked down at the screen. "Mom, she looks familiar."
"You met her a few times at Mercury Labs, honey." Caitlin cleared up her daughter's confusion. "When I designed V-9, I was having trouble formatting the extracellular matrix, so I called a colleague of mine at Mercury Labs for some assistance."
At those words, Frankie realized. "Oh yeah, it's Eliza!" Seth was shocked to hear such an excited reaction from his daughter. "She was so cool whenever I was allowed to come with you to work, Mom. She let me mix chemicals and use some of their machines. She also gave me a chocolate bar when I did well. Also taught me some cool"
"Yeah, you really loved her." Caitlin remembered.
"Guess I have to thank this Dr. Harmon for being an amazing person to our family." Seth admitted. "But Cait, are you saying she knows how to make this speed drug?"
"Great, more V on the streets." Matt rubbed his eyes. Seth didn't hold back, hitting him with an adamantium elbow.
"Ease down." Seth told him as he retracted his elbow while Matt held the side of his ribcage.
"Don't worry." Caitlin assured the nanite mutant, turning around to face them all. "I followed the protocols of information compartmentalization. I only gave her three of the eight components necessary for V-9's structure."
"Okay, so she didn't have the full recipe." Barry said in relief.
But Harry squashed that relief. "Unless she reverse engineered her own V-9."
Turning to his mate, Seth inquired. "Can she do that, Cait? You know her the best, after all."
Walking around the console, towards the computer, Caitlin replied. "Eliza's a genius, but that's way out of character for her."
"Well, it's worth taking a look." Joe admitted.
"I'll go see her." Caitlin said, taking her jacket off the chair back.
"Hey, want me and Frankie to come with?" Seth offered as his daughter detached from the ceiling. "I mean, she's your friend and she helped out when you worked at Mercury, might as well say thanks and all."
"Sure." Caitlin nodded. "Ruby, Evelyn, you two go back home, alright?" They nodded before the metahuman shadowported them out of the facility. "They love shadowporting."
"No kidding." Seth said as he and his daughter took their coats. "One day, Evelyn's gonna port off somewhere else." Before walking away, he looked to the nanite mutant. "And you, calm down."
"Fine, I will." Matt said.
"Hey, I'm coming too." Joe chimed before following the three of them.
Barry scoffed. "Great." He walked away. "I'm gonna go train."
As he walked away, Harry and Matt let his eyes drift down to the tube rack.
The single vial that was there… missing…
X
(Mercury Labs)
"Damn, last time I was here was…." Seth trailed off as he followed Caitlin and Frankie into Mercury Labs.
"Back with that killer robo-bee lady, Brie Larvan." Joe reminded him. "Interesting lady."
Frankie nodded. "I remember that one, strange lady."
"Honey, you're probably one of the strangest teenage girls in this entire city." Seth alluded to their family, consisted of residents of this universe and two other universes. He noticed Caitlin's silence and directed to her. "What's wrong with you, Cait?"
"Nothing." Caitlin assured them as they walked into an elevator. She pressed the floor that she and Eliza worked together on before she returned to S.T.A.R. Labs. "Just skittish to see an old friend."
The doors closed and her daughter gave her a dry look. "Mom, me and Dad have symbiotes, we're living lie detectors."
"Kiddo's right." Seth ruffled her hair. "But seriously what's wrong?"
"You two really asking?" Joe asked in surprise. "She's hurt because of Matt and Liv acting… hostile." He said for a lack of a better word.
"Cait, that's true." Caitlin saw her avert to meet his gaze. Seth leant against the elevator railing, crossing his arms. "It's not because of you, Cait."
"Doesn't sound like what Matt and Liv said before. Sounds like they hate me." Caitlin argued.
"It's because of what that drug is." Seth assured her.
"What do you mean?" Caitlin asked. Joe and Frankie let the two talk between themselves, they'll just lean against the wall and let them continue without interruption.
"That drug is, by itself, artificial enhancement." Seth pointed to himself. "…Like what happened with us as kids."
It finally clicked in Caitlin's mind. They were angry at her because she had constructed a way to give temporary speed, temporary powers to those who do not have any. And to those who have powers already, her drug would increase their speed without resorting to training them to get better.
And the three mutants' powers were forcibly enhanced when they were younger, which is why they're angry at her.
Seeing the gears in her head turn, Seth continued. "Matt and Liv don't like artificial enhancements because it reminds them of our past. It… grinds their gears."
"But not you?" Last thing Caitlin ever wanted was for her mate to hate her.
Shrugging his shoulders uncertainly, he answered. "Guess it doesn't affect me that much anymore. I worked with chemical components for years since the experiments, so I guess I've begun to see how they can help. But I don't make power enhancements, that's a promise I made to myself a long time ago."
"You make drugs or chemicals that tamper their powers so your patients can have normal lives." Caitlin realized. "Matt does the same with tech, Liv with her psychic powers." She rubbed her face. "And now because I made this, they're gonna hate me."
"Not everyone's gonna be a fan of nitrous oxide for speedsters." The mutant quipped and Caitlin laughed. "They don't hate you, Cait. They're just… They'll get over this."
"I hope so." Caitlin said hopefully. "I miss having them as friends."
"They'll come around…" Seth told her confidently. "But why'd you even make this drug to begin with, Cait? To help Jay become a speedster again?"
Their daughter answered in her mother's stead. "Wells tried to make it himself, but he kept thinking of it like a mechanical problem. Enter Mom, she shows that it's to be seen as a biomechanical problem. Without her, it wouldn't have gone anywhere."
"Wells… huh…" Seth muttered.
Caitlin knew what he was thinking. "Calm down, Seth." She walked closer to him. "I helped Wells, he didn't force me to or anything."
"Yeah… Just his face isn't one you can easily trust." To him, Seth couldn't help but compare Harry Wells to Eobard Thawne as he wore that same exact face. "I'm trying."
"Good." Caitlin kissed him. "All I'm asking for." The two nodded when separated.
The elevator came to a stop. "Looks we're here." Frankie said with a smile. The doors opened up, and they walked out.
The four walked down another hallway, taking a turn and walked into a lab. Caitlin saw her old colleague working hard. "Knock-knock." She got Eliza's attention.
Eliza perked up at the voice, glancing behind her and smiled at the two familiar faces there. As she removed her security glasses, she jokingly greeted. "Am I hallucinating, or is that disgraced ex-Mercury employee Caitlin Snow and her cute daughter, Frankie Fury?"
Caitlin smiled. "Eliza Harmon, burning the midnight oil."
Frankie chuckled. "Don't' you ever take a break?"
Eliza chuckled back to the young girl. "Well, you know what they say Frankie, these thiocyanate ions won't bond themselves." She waved the small vial. She embraced the young girl. "God, I missed seeing you, cutie."
"You too, Eliza." Frankie hugged her back.
The Mercury employee feigned hurt, turning to Frankie's mother. "You. I thought I told you get your kid to call me "Auntie Eliza.""
"Well, we both know this one doesn't listen that often." Caitlin joked before hugging her old colleague again. "Hi."
"Hi." Eliza said with one arm wrapping around her. Opening her eyes again, she looked past her and saw the two men. Pulling out, she inquired. "Who are your handsome friends?"
"Detective Joe West, ma'am." Joe started.
"Seth Fury." Seth followed up.
Eliza snapped around at that last name. "Seth Fury." She gazed at Caitlin. "The infamous Seth Fury that you couldn't stop talking about, Caitlin?" She got her answer when she registered the blush on her friend's face. "Oh wow, and here I thought I'd never get to see you."
"Infamous, huh?" Seth sent a playful look to his mate, who blushed again. Suppressing a chuckle, he faced Eliza. "Pleasure to meet you, Eliza. I heard you've been a blessing in disguise to my family, and for that, I'm thankful."
"No need for that, Seth. Your daughter is lovely, and Caitlin is amazing." Eliza said. "Say…" she looked to Caitlin. "You got new kids, wasn't it?"
"Two teenagers, Ruby and Evelyn. You'll love them." Caitlin answered with a wide smile.
"I better meet them, or I'll get angry." Eliza faked a stern look. The two parents nodded while Frankie looked happy by that. She looked to Joe. "And Detective West, was it?" The detective nodded. "What brings you around these parts?" she moved to another desk, placing the vial in a tube rack.
"Well, that's a funny story." Joe vaguely answered.
Seth then continued. "Can we assume that you know a speedster's been wreaking havoc in the city?"
Nodding, Eliza said. "Yeah, I heard The Flash went nuts. Fame will do it to you. I guess some people can't handle the limelight, right? Well, Venom might be able to. He's gone for over a year, shows up again with a whole new look."
"You like it?" Seth wondered.
Caitlin sent her mate a narrowed-eyed look as Eliza answered. "Well, what can I say? Sometimes the evil looks good."
"But regarding the speedster, we happen to know it was someone else, someone who's not The Flash." Joe informed her. "That's why we're here looking into this."
Eliza piqued up, looking to Caitlin. "Wow, how very "Law & Order" of you, Caitlin. That make Frankie and your boyfriend your assistants?" She joked as she walked between them to get to another table.
Following her old colleague, Caitlin asked. "Do you remember that formula that you were helping me with a few months ago?"
As she continued to work, writing down results from her last experiments, Eliza answered. "Yeah, vaguely."
Frankie then answered. "We think that it was somehow involved."
"Really, Frankie?" Frankie nodded to Eliza's question. "How? What did your mother have me working on?"
"Um…." Frankie turned to her parents for direction. Eliza used that opportunity to look into her microscope.
"It's classified." Seth answered, helping his daughter out of a situation. "But we can say that it was some sort of an enhancement."
"And we're afraid that my research was stolen." Caitlin stated.
"Not from this lab." Eliza said. She removed herself from the microscope and turned to Caitlin, walking closer to her. "Okay, between you and me, the place is pretty vulnerable."
"What do you mean?" Seth asked, jumping into the conversation.
"You heard about the break-in from a few months ago?" Seth nodded his confirmation. "Well, ever since that, some of us think McGee hasn't' sufficiently stepped up security, but I kept my research on lock and destroyed the originals when it was given back to your better half." Eliza gestured to Caitlin, which made both her and Seth smile in appreciation. "But hey, you guys are free to look around my lab if you want."
"What do you think, Uncle Joe?" Frankie asked the detective.
Shaking his head, Joe answered. "I don't think that'll be necessary."
"Sorry. I wish I could be more help." Eliza expressed apologetically.
"It's okay. It's actually kind of a relief." Caitlin told her back. "Will you call me if you hear anything, though?"
"Of course. That's what friends are for." Eliza and Caitlin hugged. "But seriously, I wanna meet the rest of your clan, gotta spoil those two new kids of yours."
"Promise, when the work's done and everything, we'll invite you over, right, Seth?" Caitlin asked.
"Definitely." Seth assured her, extending a hand to the Mercury scientist. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Eliza."
"You too and welcome back, Seth." Eliza said as she shook his hand.
"Bye, Auntie Eliza." Frankie said, hugging her.
"Oh, there's my cutie." Eliza embracing the younger girl and pulled her tightly into a bearhug. "Bye, cutie, come back soon, okay?" Frankie nodded as she and her family walked out of the lab.
Having past the threshold of the entrance, Caitlin looked to the detective and the two symbiote-bearers she asked. "So, what do you guys think?"
"For now, we take her at her word." Joe started.
"Strangely enough, Venom didn't say anything." Seth said, rubbing his head unsurely.
"Neither did, Magenta." Frankie answered with a conflicted look.
Seeing the look on his daughter's face, Seth asked. "Honey, what's wrong?"
"I just really, really hope it's not Eliza. She's a great person." Frankie said.
"If it is her, honey, I swear with all my powers we're gonna stop her and not kill her." Frankie turned hopeful at her father's words of promise. "She helped out this family, like many have, I do have to thank her somehow. If she's in this mess, we can help her out somehow." Seth said while pulling her daughter into a one-armed hug.
"What now then?" Joe inquired.
"We go back to S.T.A.R. Labs, and wait." The elemental suggested.
"We have to, I have to talk to Matt and Liv." Caitlin said determinedly. The others nodded their understanding and continued to walk out of the facility.
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)
The four of them returned to the facility. Caitlin immediately saw Olivia and Matt in the side lab, standing over a computer. She inhaled at the sight of them, trying to ready herself for a conversation with the two mutants.
Seth walked up to her, patting her shoulder. "You want me to go with?"
"No, I need to do this myself." She answered steadfastly. "But thanks." Seth smiled his reply before watching her walk towards them.
"Fury." Harry got Seth's attention. "We need to talk." He said, nodding towards the other medbay to talk in private. The mutant nodded and walked to him as his daughter went to her sisters' sides.
Caitlin stood at the doorframe of the side lab. She knocked on the doorframe. "Knock-knock." She got the mutants' attention. "Am I interrupting?"
Matt quickly closed the program before facing her. "Not really."
"How'd it go with Eliza?" Olivia asked.
"As far as we think, she's in the clear and said she destroyed anything related to V9." Caitlin said. She walked into the lab. "More importantly, I owe you two an apology." The two mutants listened. "Seth told me about why you two hate me now, and I'm… I'm really sorry guys."
"It's okay, Caitlin." Olivia said, walking closer to her. "You didn't know about us having issues with artificial power enhancements, about how our past is still stuck with us… and we can't be mad at you for not knowing that. So, we should be the one to apologize to you."
"She's right." Matt agreed. "You didn't know, and we lost our cool." Olivia arched an eyebrow at his words. "Okay, I lost my cool and my shit and even more. And for that, I'm really, really sorry, Caitlin. Even more, we know you only made Velocity because you wanted to protect your daughters, their home, your home after all. We know that to protect a city, you have to take desperate measures, even if they are ugly and unethical even."
"It's okay and thank you for understanding." Caitlin exhaled in relief. She was truly and utterly worried that her friends would hate her and wouldn't talk with her anymore. She thought she had lost two close friends, family members even. But she was happy to know she wouldn't lose them. "But if there's anything I can do to help you out, just ask."
"Actually… There is." Matt started, sharing a look with his wife who nodded.
Caitlin widened her eyes. "Oh God, did something happen to your baby?" She cupped her mouth in fear.
"No, no, no. The baby's fine." Matt whispered, assuring the doctor. Surprise hit him like a lightning bolt when registering her words. "Wait, you knew?"
"Yeah, Liv wasn't exactly good at hiding it and then she told me." Caitlin pointed to the psychic.
Matt looked to his wife who giggled sheepishly. "I may have let it out to Caity while you were on Earth-2."
"And you didn't tell me why?" The nanite mutant awaited an answer.
"I never told you?" Olivia thought out loud. "Huh… Must have slipped my mind."
"Pregnancy brain?" Matt directed to the doctor. Caitlin nodded. The nanite mutant sighed before returning to the matter. "Caitlin, could you maybe look at a DNA analysis and compare it to past results of the same sample?"
"Specific." Caitlin noted. "But yeah, should be easy. You could do the same."
"Tried but failed more than a few times." Matt said as he brought up the program. Caitlin looked over and saw the DNA sample. "Liv and I tried to make it work, but no dice-"
"That's Seth's DNA." Caitlin interrupted him.
"What the hell?" Olivia asked.
"How'd you know that?" Matt asked.
Scoffing at the question, Caitlin placed a finger on the 3D DNA sequence. "That's fire-based component, unknown to the human-body." She pointed to another place on the string. "That's rock fragments made of crushed rock." She placed it on another place, pointing to metal cells. "That's level of metals that humans shouldn't have. Adamantium-level." Finally, she pointed to a string of crackling cells. "And I know that's lightning."
That did clear up some of their confusion, but not entirely. Seeing that, she continued. "I memorized Seth's DNA after that entire mess with Carnage after he fell into the Cortex, writhing in agony."
"You memorized your boyfriend's DNA?" Olivia inquired confusedly.
"You have your hobbies." Caitlin countered. She was about to continue but then her eyes returned to the screen. "What… is this?"
"You see something we don't, don't you?" Matt deduced.
"Where did you get this sample? No, when did you get this sample?" Caitlin directed to Matt. "This looks nothing like his old DNA sequence."
"It's a new sample, right after he got back from Earth-2." Matt answered. "When we had that little brawl over the facility, I cut through his symbiote form. Nicked his real body, and tried to analyze the blood. But I didn't get squat."
"Because of his black flames?" Caitlin asked and Matt shrugged. "Then what is it?" She took a seat in the chair, sitting in front of the computer and got to work, typing away on the keyboard. "And… strange their activity is way lower than it was before."
"It is?" Olivia asked worriedly.
"Yeah… lower than I've ever seen…" Caitlin said.
"Seth… Didn't you know this… Or don't you want to tell me…"
X
(Mercury Labs)
Blurry vision, like she was losing the ability to see itself slowly. The entire lab was shaking and shifting, making her feel as though she's losing her equilibrium. Eliza managed to shake away those feelings as best as she could, she had to continue her work.
Otherwise she'd fall back again.
She placed her eyes over the microscope. "I'm so tired…"
An inner voice… replied…
"Oh, well, you've been pushing yourself too hard." The voice echoed in her mind…
"No, not hard enough." Eliza countered, removing her eyes from the scope. "I'm sick of always being passed over for the grant, for the promotion… I'm underpaid and understaffed and six months behind on my research." She confessed.
Her frustration grew and grew. Like a seed it grew and in short time, it became a red flower of resentment. But it didn't stop growing… Oh no, it was gonna keep growing it became a tree.
"That's why I started all of this." Eliza gestured to her unfinished work.
"Your problem is you're too much of a perfectionist." Eliza placed her hand on her forehead, trying to push back the echoing voice in her head, trying to keep it from influence. "You don't have to be. There's beauty in chaos."
"I don't have time for chaos. This was supposed to fix things, and it ended up making it worse." Eliza stated.
"Oh, silly girl." Her inner voice giggled like a little girl, but it was anything but that. "You know it makes you feel better to blow off some steam."
She let go of her clipboard and almost shouted to the voice in her head. "You will say anything for a fix. It's your fault we're hooked."
"It's Caitlin's fault; if she didn't want us to find out what she was working on, she shouldn't have made it so damn easy."
Eliza snapped her eyes to a small lab refrigerator on the shelf, her eyes focusing on the last vial of… Velocity. She walked to it, opening it up, no longer able to stifle the craving. She took the vial and held it in her hand.
Her eyes moving towards a mirror on the other end of the room…. Her green eyes meeting a pair of identical green eyes through the openings of the mask…
"There's not enough for both of us." Eliza stated her argument. "We- We need to save it for an emergency."
Her inner voice… her daker voice had a better argument.
"You take it now; worry about getting more later. You'll thank me."
Eliza couldn't hold back anymore. She unscrewed the cap before frantically pulling her sleeve. Pressing the end of it into her arm, she pressed the button on the back of it. The pain of the small needle didn't even register in her… because she could feel the delightful…
… lightning crackling in her body… and she relished in it… when she felt the yellow lightning thundering in her eyes…
She walked towards the mirror… standing before it… dropping the injection pen… as she listened to her other part… standing fully clad in her suit in the reflection…
"I know what's best for us and where to get more." Trajectory assured Eliza Harmon who hungrily smiled her agreement.
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs)
With the last vial of Velocity-9 in his hand, Barry determinedly walked towards a safe space that would allow him to test it without interference. Not many place like that in this facility, but he'd do it no matter what. To get faster than Zoom.
"Whatcha doing?" Harry asked as he knowingly followed the speedster.
Barry glanced at him. "Training."
"Training?" Harry knew better. "Allen, don't be stupid." Barry fastened his pace, walking into the Breach Room with the Earth-2 scientist following him. "I know you took the V-9, Allen." He revealed to the speedster who walked down the small staircase.
"No, I haven't." Barry stated.
"Oh, no?" Harry skeptically said.
"No." Barry faced him with a shaking head. He lifted the vial. "I took it, but I haven't taken it yet."
"Good." Harry crossed his arms.
"Tell me why I shouldn't." The metahuman demanded.
Letting out a scoff at that absurd question, the Earth-2 scientist stated. "Figure it out."
Barry released his frustrations. "If the game is already rigged, why can't I level the playing field? I mean, if everybody else is cheating, how can…" Harry scoffed at that child-like rage. "I want to be fast enough to stop Zoom and any speedster that tries to hurt my friends. Shouldn't I use everything in my power to do that?"
"You want to take a shortcut; is that right? You want to take a shortcut? Remember this:" Harry started. "You lose a chunk of your humanity every time you compromise your values."
Barry laughed. "Sorry, that's really good coming from you."
"So, don't be like me. Be better." Harry stated, turning around and walked up the small staircase. "Be like Jay." He said over his shoulder before walking out of the Breach Room.
"And die, huh?" Barry said to himself as he looked at the vial of Velocity serum. He knew that one injection of this drug could make him stronger than all of his training ever could. Despite what just Harry told him… he couldn't let himself die at the hands of Zoom like Jay…
He had to be faster… no matter what…
He unscrewed the cap, throwing it away, and looked at the injection needle.
Before he could even raise it to his skin, a tendril wrapped around it and effortlessly yanked it out of his hand. "What the…" Barry trailed off when seeing where the tendril went.
Retracting the tendril, Seth clutched the vial in his right hand. "Just when I think you got smarter; you prove me hundred percent wrong."
Barry held out his hand. "Give me the vial, Seth."
"Wells told me to go with him when he saw the last vial go missing." Seth scoffed. "Can't believe he was right."
"Give me the vial!" Barry demanded, considering speeding into him to get the serum.
Not reacting to the speedster's raised voice, Seth waved the vial. "That's what you're gonna do now? Take a shot of this shit whenever you don't wanna work. That's downright pathetic, and I really can't imagine Joe teaching you to take the shortcut when nothing else works. You wanna get better, you dumbass, you train hard and harder till you bleed and can't move and then do it all over again. Not resort to drugs!"
"That's funny since Caitlin was the one who made that drug! And you're the last person to say any shit like that!" Barry shouted.
Seth gave a lifeless glare. "Caitlin made this so your home would be still be standing when we'd return, and don't forget this is her and my daughters' home. And you can't compare what happened to me to what you're thinking of, I didn't have a choice in the matter, but you do and you decide to shoot yourself up with Velocity!" he roared.
"Give me the vial, Seth!" Barry demanded.
"Had a small, small suspicion that Wells' talk wouldn't work for you and correct I am." Seth slid the vial into the inner pocket of his coat. "Good think I was prepared for that." He outstretched his right hand, symbiote mass slithered out of his palm. Slowly his crystal sword slid out of his body till he held in his hand.
Barry looked confused, slowly mixing with fear. "What are you doing, Seth?"
Twirling his sword around, he took a battle stance as lightning sparked around his body. "If words don't work on you, guess I have to beat it into you."
"With that thing?" Barry pointed to his sword. "Thought you liked to use hands?"
"All doctors do, but to get the job done they have to use certain tools." Seth smirked. "Besides, when I'm not helping your useless ass get faster or spending time with my family, I train with Matt to improve my swordplay. How about I show you what results you get from hard work?"
"You wanna fight me?" Barry scoffed. "I'm faster than you."
"And I'm stronger and better trained than you. Guess we're even." Tightening his grip on his handle, the elemental stated. "Last time we fought, you were whammied by Rainbow Raider and I had to save your ass. Guess this time I'm gonna have to put you on the right track this time."
Barry knew his words wouldn't get him anywhere now. "Aren't you gonna suit up?"
"I don't have to wear Venom to be Venom." Seth countered. "So you gonna talk, Flash or wait for me to hand out your first fix, the first step to becoming a speed junkie?"
The speedster charged, speeding towards the elemental. Seth's entire body was clad in lightning over his and his eyes narrowed on him. Raising his symbiote-clad left hand, he stretched it upwards like a whip. Barry came to an abrupt stop and saw the hand.
Using that moment of distraction, Seth swung his sword, twisting it so the flat side slammed into Barry's stomach and sent him rolling on the ground. As though it was a whip, he reeled back his left arm and swung it after the rolling speedster.
Barry jumped back to his feet, and time slowed before his eyes, allowing him to see the tendril slowly snake towards. Spinning around, the speedster ran forward. He thrusted out his left shoulder, intent on tackling the mutant.
But lightning continued to spark over his body, allowing him to react to the metahuman's superspeed, and Seth jumped off the ground and landed a wall. Jumping backwards in a series of backflips, he landed on the ceiling with both feet planted on it. Barry followed and ran up the side of wall. Flexing his body, the mutant turned invisible.
For a second, Barry looked around in search for the mutant. His search came to an end when he felt a hand clutch his cowl. "ARGH!" He screamed when he felt his feet leave the ceiling and he hung in the air.
Seth reappeared, looking at Barry upside-down. "Wanna continue or are you going to listen for once?"
"I need to get faster. Velocity can help me do that!" Barry let out his frustration.
"And how would your Mom take it?" Seth saw the speedster stop struggling and faced him with serious eyes. "Yeah, I went there. How'd Nora Allen take it if she knew her baby boy had to resort to drugs to get better? How's your father gonna take that news? Or Iris even?"
"Low, low blows, man." Barry growled.
"Make an omelet, break eggs and all that. Sometimes you got to say a few harsh words to get the message through." Seth declared. "Believe it or not, I do care about you Barry."
"You do?" Barry wondered in surprise.
"Yeah, I do." Seth detached himself from the ceiling, dropping to the floor with Barry who he let go of. "Despite all the crap, which is a mountain-size of it that we've been through. Difference between me and the others in this building, I don't mind being a hard ass to state my point."
The mutant dug his sword into the floor before pulling out vial of Velocity-9 out of his pocket. "You can't take this." Barry looked skeptical. "Powers change people, they twist and turn people into something they're not. Wells was right, you lose a chunk of yourself, your humanity when you take the shortcut. But taking a drug like this will take out more than just a chunk. This will turn you into a vampire, who's gonna crave more and more of Velocity till you're nothing but feral."
"That won't happen." Barry argued.
"Sure about that, CSI Allen?" Seth countered. "You're a lawman, Barry, like Joe, you know what drugs does to people. They turn into addicts when they can't fight it off anymore. Sure at first, it's about surpassing your limits, but what about after? You're gonna want to clear those limits all together, be better than the person you were yesterday. But one wrong turn is all it takes, and you're gonna become one of the metahumans we need to stand against." He waved the vial. "This is the wrong turn in your path, take it and it's a trip straight into darkness itself."
"What do you want me to do?" Barry asked.
"No idea." Seth shrugged. "You decide that… But remember: Wrong turn, I'll be fighting to stop you full-force." He threw the speedster the Velocity serum. The mutant turned around and walked up the stairs after plucking out his sword. "Let's see if what you're gonna do now, Flash. Be a hero, or a junkie on speed."
Barry couldn't help but let those words sink in, everything he had said right now. How his parents… How Joe… How Iris…
How would the people he love take it if he chose this path?
Fibers in his body told him to listen to the mutant's words, worried that he'd just became… a junkie on speed.
He let go of the vial… letting it shatter on the floor… the serum spilling over his feet…
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)
Cisco looked to Jesse who stood in front of the pedestal with Jay's helmet. He watched her focusing on it like her life depended on it. "Are you okay?"
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine." Jesse said, but her facial expression was saying something else entirely. She looked to the side and saw the Fury siblings standing in the medbay. Her mind returned to some of the stories that she heard from Seth back on Earth-2.
How a bloodthirsty mutant with more advanced symbiote powers better than his own took Frankie hostage and threatened to kill her if he didn't meet him for one final battle. And Seth, donning the armor as the Lethal Protector, ended that monster's life and saved the life of the girl that'd be his daughter. But he said he had to kill her… otherwise his life and the life of his friends would be short.
And her father… he did something unthinkable to save her as well…
Jesse got curious and walked towards them. "Hey guys."
"Hiya, Whiney." Ruby smirked.
Evelyn chuckled. "You got to drop that name sometime?"
"Not on this Earth." Ruby quipped.
Frankie rolled her eyes before turning to the Earth-2 girl. "What is it, Jesse? You look… tense?"
"Downright troubled and uneased." Magenta pitched in from within her mind. "It's like she's got something twisted in her head."
"We're not eating her." Frankie disciplined her "other."
"I didn't say anything about eating her!" Magenta countered. "Plus… I'm full."
"Awesome." Frankie thought back.
Jesse then replied. "It's about… Your dad and mine, in a way." The Fury sisters looked confused and let her continue, hoping it'd clear up their confusion. Directing her head to Ruby and Evelyn, she asked. "Remember when Seth told us about that guy with similar powers to his own."
Eyes widening, Frankie snapped to her sisters. "Dad told you guys about Carnage?"
Nodding her head, Ruby replied. "While we were on Earth-2, yeah. But what about him?"
"Actually, it's more directed to Frankie." Jesse faced the girl in question. "Your Dad said he had to kill that guy… to protect you."
"That's right… I used to get nightmares about him after that, but Dad was there. Some days, I'd wake up and find him sleeping on a chair right outside of my room." Frankie chuckled. "Actually saw him sleeping outside my room a couple of days ago."
"Same here." Ruby laughed.
"Ditto." Evelyn nodded.
"But… Did that change anything for you?" Jesse got their attention.
"What do you mean?" Frankie turned confused.
Jesse looked back, making sure her father wasn't anywhere near her and the other girls before asking. "I mean… Were you ever afraid of your Dad because of that? That he killed someone for you?"
Frankie surprised her with an immediate shake of her head. "I was a foster kid for so long, each one bad and didn't care about me a single time. I was in a very bad one before, one with two foster parents who didn't care about me. I wanted out of there so long. Every day I would even sneak out and not come back till the morning. One night… I was out alone and was attacked by two muggers. I thought they were gonna kill me but then… Venom showed up, saving me and brought me back home."
"The only guy to… ever care about me, was a demon. He kept watching over me like a guardian angel. Even when he had lost his powers and was riddled with bullets, he fought against a crazy criminal without fear. Even during Christmas, he swung by and gave me a gift." She said, rolling her crystal bracelet to empathize. "After that… Carnage showed up on my doorstep, attacked me and I fought back. I lost and he took me hostage. Dad killed him so I could be free… and I got adopted into great family."
"But that doesn't answer what I asked." Jesse said. "I'm happy for you and all, but aren't you afraid of him? He killed a guy."
"He killed a monster who makes Zoom seem like a pleasant daydream." Frankie adamantly stated. "And he gave me a family… I could never be afraid of him. Not in any possible way, could I ever be afraid of my Dad."
"Something going wrong with your Dad?" Ruby stated rather that asked. Jesse shot her a surprised look and she responded. "You wouldn't be asking something about our Dad unless something was off with your own."
"There's nothing wrong with my Dad." Jesse assured her.
But Frankie's "other" knew otherwise, making that clear with a mentally fake cough. "Liar!"
The magnekinetic sighed. "Jesse, you can't lie to a symbiote-bearer."
"Things… are rocking." Jesse confessed. "But nothing to worry about, I mean it."
Evelyn pitched in. "You might want to talk with your Dad, otherwise that boat's gonna be rocking for a very, very long time till things or one of you go over board and sink in deep cold ocean."
"That's dark." Ruby chuckled. "Which book did you steal that from?"
"Haha, funny." Evelyn quipped.
A thought came to her mind when she saw their antics. "That reminds me, why did you and Frankie fight in the middle of the street?" She remembered reading an article of them fighting.
"Frankie thought I was getting slow." Ruby sent a glare to her magnekinetic sister.
"And Ruby thought I was getting weak." Frankie glared back.
"No fighting, you two!" Caitlin called out from the other side lab. Her daughters eased down, tampering their fighting instincts.
Seth entered the Cortex at that moment. "Who's fighting?"
Matt sent him a calm look. "Your daughters thinking of tearing into each other like vultures."
"That's my daughters." Seth chuckled. "Matty, got a sec?" he saw his brother-in law send a look to Caitlin and Olivia before walking over to him. "Got a bad feeling about this new speedster?"
"Why, I thought your visit to Eliza Harmon didn't pan out?" Matt nodded to his head. "Unless Venom got something else?"
"He didn't find anything unusual with her." Seth chuckled. "Though she did find Joe handsome, so that might be suspicious."
Joe chortled and looked to him. "I'm still in my good years, pal. Don't knock me out of the park yet."
"Sure thing, partner." Seth countered. "But back to matter, when you worked on Frost-Flame, that armor you used to fight Rathaway, did you make… I don't know, small scale weapons with the same capabilities?"
"Burst into flames or burst into ice?" Matt asked intrigued.
"Ice, but not to hurt, to capture. Encase." Seth clarified his ideas.
The gears in his head turned rapidly, ideas forming in his head. "I did think of making sort of like ice bombs that I could deploy from my suit… But I couldn't figure out to how to make them precisely."
"That or you didn't know how the design would turn out?" Seth stated, knowing full well what's going on in his head. Seeing the paling expression on his face, the elemental knew he was right. "Knew it. But can't you make something like that?"
"If I apply the fuel, the principle, the weaponry from the Cold Gun and turn them into small-scale bombs. Increase some of the output of the absolute zero blast, and it could theoretically encase the target in a block of ice." Matt smirked. "Why'd you wanna make this even to begin with? You could just off this speedster."
"Not if it turns out to be Eliza." Seth nodded to Caitlin and his daughters. "She helped my family out too much, and I don't want her to be hurt… She seems to be a good person, that my daughter like… I don't want to see her hurt."
Matt smiled deducing. "You promised Frankie." Seth nodded and then a confusing expression formed on the nanite mutant's face. "But why even make a weapon? You could freeze her in place instead."
"Yeah, cause my ice can go absolute zero." Seth sarcastically quipped. "No chance in hell of that happening. I can't reach that level of coldness. So far the only thing we know for sure that can stop a speedster somehow, plus slow down their healing is absolute zero ice."
"Sounds like I should suit in Frost-Flame." Matt chuckled. "But what about you? You fine? I mean, not like you to take precautions with a speedster."
Seth gave him a dry look. "With one that's faster our speedster, maybe on same level as Zoom, and can knock me through a floor, not to mention a friend to my family, so yeah… I think it's better to take precautions."
"Valid…" Matt trailed off doubtfully.
A fact that didn't go unnoticed by Seth. "Something up with you?" He received a shake of head in response. "So my sister's acting strange and so are you… What else did you guys do on your honeymoon that made you so… weird?"
"Nothing." Matt shivered. "But my Dad did send us some very hands-"
"Stop." Seth cut him short. "Before I throw up all my meals from this entire day and Venom as well."
"That's a comforting image." Harry added as he walked into the Cortex, giving his daughter a look which she averted. "You talk with Allen?"
"My version of it, yeah." Seth nodded.
Then the speedster in question walked into the Cortex. "Hey, any luck locating our speedster since Eliza checked out?"
"No dice." Matt said with a shaking head.
Cisco added. "I'm still working on it, but-"
Before he could continue, sparks went off over their heads.
"What was that?" Seth asked out loud with his partner slithering under his clothes and he walked closer to his girlfriend and his daughters armed themselves.
"Jarvis, status report" Matt called out. Normally he'd get an instant reply from the AI. But now, he didn't. "Jarvis!" Barry pulled his cowl on.
"He's been shut off." Olivia deduced.
"How?" Evelyn asked.
"One guess." Ruby sent a look to Cisco as more sparks kept going off.
"Not me this time, I swear." Cisco assured them.
WHOOSH
A crackling flash appeared, taking Barry… and Seth's daughters away.
"Girls!" Caitlin screamed.
"No!" Seth screeched. But inwardly his rage was mixed with confusion, swirling together in a vortex that grew bigger and bigger and more violent.
Cause he really couldn't see or understand why this speedster would take away his daughters. He couldn't see any reason for it. With the Flash sure, but not his daughters.
X
WHOOSH
The female speedster sped into the pipeline, over the bridge and dropped Barry into one cell by himself and crammed the three sisters into another one.
"Hey!" Flash shouted, rushing up against the glass door and banging it. He wanted to phase through it, but he couldn't thanks to the power dampeners.
Eliza Harmon, standing before them as Trajectory, cackled. "Time to have some fun."
Evelyn and Frankie tried to use their powers but got the same result as the speedster. Ruby looked through the glass and saw the female speedster in red suit with yellow accents and thick red padding. "Who are you? What are you doing?"
Twirling around like a ballerina, Trajectory faced the former HYDRA assassin. "Don't you worry about a thing, honey. I'm just gonna go ask your Mommy and Daddy for some medicine. Now stay put, and don't be naughty. Santa doesn't like that." She blew them a kiss. "Toddles!" She ran back.
WHOOSH
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)
"Hey! Cisco! Hey, Joe! Hey, she's got me in the Pipeline!"
Everyone heard Barry's voice screaming through the speakers. Seth looked shocked. "What the heck?"
"Mom, Dad we're here, too!" Frankie shouted.
"The girls are in there, too?" Caitlin questioned confusedly.
"Dad, Uncle Matt, be ready she's coming to you!" Ruby informed them with an exclaim.
Matt took his armor, quickly equipping it and Joe took out his firearm. In crackling flash, a blur of a lightning slammed into the two of them, the detective's gun falling to the ground, as they were sent flying and through glass walls, shattering instantly.
Olivia snapped her head to her groaning husband. "Matt!" She shot down to him.
Seth swung his sword when seeing the lightning charge towards him. But instead of hitting something, he felt his sword leave his hand and shot into the air. The mutant was then knocked to the ground by a thunder-cloaked foot, slamming him to the ground.
The mutant gritted his teeth when he felt the foot grind into his chest, the lightning coursing down her leg and running over his body. "Stay there, sweetie." Eliza chuckled as she quickly snatched the firearm from the ground before Harry could get to it.
When seeing the gun being cocked and pointed at his face, Harry asked. "What do you want?"
"Seth are you okay?" Caitlin asked her mate as she saw him be pinned down by the speedster.
"Gotta admit… This is really not that comfortable." Seth confessed.
"Oh, don't be like that." Eliza mock pouted before turning to Caitlin. "Where's the V9, Caity? I need a fix."
Facing the speedster, Caitlin saw the face and she couldn't believe that she instantly recognized that face. "Eliza, is that you?"
Tilting her head left and right, Eliza corrected her. "Oh, Eliza's not here right now. My name is Trajectory."
"Oh, why do the crazy ones always name themselves?" Cisco sighed.
Seth chuckled through the pain inducing lightning coursing over his form. "Pretty good name, actually."
"Well, I'd hope so from you, Venom." Trajectory smirked. Seth widened his eyes in shock as did the others. "Oh, don't be so shocked guys. I know everything. I even know that the boo and beau back there is Angel Fury and Iron Knight." She nodded back to the mutants behind her. Turning back to Caitlin, she stated. "I even know that you send out your own children to fight the big baddies in this city, Caity. Why? Not the best way to get Parent of the Year Award, you know."
"Leave my daughters out of this, Eliza." Caitlin sternly said.
Waving her gun around like she was thinking about it, Trajectory conceded with a fake sigh. "Fair enough, but at least remember that Auntie Eliza gave her input, okay? Kay. But about you give me the V instead?"
"Don't do it, Cait!" Seth screamed from under her foot.
"Now, now, Sethy." Trajectory clicked her tongue disapprovingly. "The girls are talking; you just lie there, stop talking and stay pretty."
"Like I got a choice in the matter!" Seth screamed in his head.
"Look, Eliza, Seth's right, Velocity-9 is very dangerous, okay?" Caitlin tried to change his mind. "It made a friend of ours very sick and he already had the Speed Force in him."
Matt woke up again, lifting his head off the ground and looked to his wife. "You okay, Livia?"
"Peachy, compared to you, at least." Olivia laughed as she stroked her husband's cheek.
"Where's Seth?" Olivia nodded to her brother under the speedster's feet, the direction the nanite mutant followed and his eyes narrowed suspiciously at the sight. "What the heck?"
"Yeah… Something's wrong with Seth." Olivia agreed.
Caitlin then tried to explain to her old friend. "Look, your cellular system-"
"Enough!" Trajectory cut her off. "You are boring me to death." She whined. Swiveling her head downwards, she asked the elemental. "Is she always this boring?" Seth opened his mouth, but Eliza snapped back to Caitlin. "Hand over the V."
Stammering with her hands held up defensively, Caitlin replied. "I'm a physician. I took an oath. I can't give you anything that will hurt you."
"Your boo here took the same oath?" Trajectory wondered.
"Yeah. Kinda." Caitlin answered.
"Thanks a lot, Caitlin!" Seth said as he felt the lightning make his arms and legs go limp.
"Right, so either hand over the V, or the cat guy gets it." Eliza casually points the gun near Cisco, pulling the trigger and let a bullet fly. The mechanical engineer hid behind the pedestal.
For some reason…
A… vibe came to him…
X
Once again, Cisco found himself in the same colossal pitch-black overshadowed area… flickering and flashing lights around him…
Cisco saw Zoom look around… once more...
The evil speedster stood there with flashing blue lightning over his entire body…
Cisco tried to better understand this… but his vibe… ended quickly…
X
Cisco was brought back to the real world, his mouth agape. Trajectory saw his reaction, ordering him. "Hey, you're not getting an invitation! Move now!" Nodding to her, the mechanical engineer moved away.
Seth couldn't let her take control of this situation. Fighting back the lightning coursing over his body, he dug an adamantium hand into the ground. The lightning from the female speedster's foot traveled over his body, converging to his arm and into the ground. Feeling himself regain control of his limbs with flexes of the digits, he decided to strike again.
Grabbing her leg, Seth pushed her foot away and sent the speedster into a spin. Jumping back onto his feet, he stood before Trajectory who whined in mock disappointment as she kept the gun trained on him. "What, I thought you liked me on top?" Caitlin really didn't know how to feel about Eliza's attitude.
"Guess again, Speedy!" Seth ignited flames around his arms before swinging them for her. Casually Trajectory threw her gun into the air and dodged each of the fiery arms.
Twirling around on her feet with lightning sparking over her form, Eliza swung her arm around Seth's neck and pulled him back. "Careful, now! You just got back, wouldn't you to die too soon. But this is more for the ladies, so… Stage exit!"
Increasing the lightning around her body, Trajectory spun Seth around before throwing him into the side lab. Matt barely returned to his feet before his vision was filled with the elemental's form as it crashed into him and send them both flying through the wall behind them and into hallway.
"Oh, come on!" Olivia groaned before rushing to her brother and husband.
The gun fell back to Eliza's hand and she pointed it at Harry who held up his hands. "Do I need to ask again, Caity?" She mockingly asked.
Her concern for her mate was clear as day, but Caitlin returned to Eliza and stated. "Look, all the flasks are gone. There's nothing left."
She sighed. "Hey, I was really hoping you wouldn't make me do one of those "I have to kill you each one by one until you give me what I want." I mean I did get your kids out of the way after all, cause I still wanna get to know them over dinner." With each word, she stepped backwards and got closer to Jesse. "Oh well."
Harry saw the evil metahuman snatch his daughter, who cried her eyes out instantly when she saw the gun pointing close to her head. "Wait!" The Earth-2 scientist shouted, taken over by his concern and fear of losing his daughter. "Wait…. You want V9? We'll make it for you."
That brought a smile to Eliza's face, which faded when Jesse said. "Dad, no you can't!"
"Quiet, kid, the adults are talking." Trajectory demanded of the girl.
Caitlin added. "We have all the ingredients."
Rapidly speaking, she informed. "I'm not a patient person, so better move fast."
"Caity…" Olivia got the doctor's attention. "Don't." She replied with a shaking head.
But Caitlin had to do this even if meant her friends' hate and anger returning tenfold. She and Harry moved back into the medbay to work up another batch of Velocity-9.
X
Clenching her pink fist with pitch-black and holy-white veins Magenta thrusted her into the glass panel for what felt like the thousandth time. Unlike the previous attempts to break the glass, she saw her fist actually leave a crack.
"Seriously?! A crack!" Magenta swung her head around to her sisters in disbelief. "I've broken down a floor once! And I can only crack this dumbass cell!" She shouted, kicking the glass door repeatedly.
"Calm down, sis." Evelyn patted her symbiote-clad sister's shoulder. "This thing was designed to keep metahumans in, after all."
"Yeah." Ruby smiled with realization. "It's designed to keep metahumans in…"
Her sisters faced the former HYDRA assassin. "What about it?" Frankie asked confusedly.
"Stay back." Ruby stepped in front of her sisters. Placing her hands on the glass she concentrated on an image. Picturing it in her mind, she saw the glass wall before her eyes cracking, intensifying the crack that her sister made.
And she did…
Through her body, through every cell and fiber of her body, she converged gravitational force into the glass panel. She focused the gravitational waves towards the crack and in response the crack grew, the glass crackling frantically and uncontrollably.
SHATTER
Almost instantly, the glass shattered before her. As shards fell to the bottom of the accelerator ring, Ruby stepped towards the edge of the cell with a smirk. "Cell 0, Ruby 1." She announced the score.
"How the heck did you do that?" Frankie asked.
"You heard what Evie said. This things like the other cells, are designed to keep metahumans." Ruby turned her smirk to her sisters. "I'm not a metahuman, and against gravity powers, this thing's a tin can in comparison."
"Nice speech." Evelyn quipped. "But we have to help the others now."
"We can't hurt Eliza." Frankie stopped them, her sisters looking confused by her words. "Guys, please. She's a friend… I don't want to see her hurt, please."
Ruby listened to her sister's plead and answered. "Fine. But chances are we can't fight her properly since she's faster than Barry. Let's hope Dad and the others have her by her neck or something like that."
Wrapping tendrils around her sisters' waists, Magenta jumped out of the cell with her sisters behind her. They landed on the bottom of the accelerator ring. "Let's go!"
As they walked through the exit, Barry watched through his cell and banged on the glass to get their attention but nothing he did worked, and they kept walking back into the facility. "Oh, come on!" He groaned.
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)
"Seth… Bro… Wake up!"
Hearing the loud whisper in his ear, Seth opened his eyes and looked up, seeing his little sister looking down on him from a crouch. "Livy?" He groaned while rubbing his head.
"Finally." She continued to whisper and lifted his head. "You were out cold for a while; thought you bit the dust."
Nodding his head to the unconscious nanite mutant beside him, he replied. "Had one hell of a cushion to break my fall." Seth looked to his sister. "You okay?"
Olivia shrugged unsurely before discreetly nodding to Caitlin and Harry in the side lab. "Eliza wants more Velocity, Harry agreed to it when she had Jesse's head at gunpoint."
"Figures." Seth silently pushed himself to look at Caitlin. She saw his eyes on her and continued to work while maintaining eye contact as best as she could. Mouthing the words, he asked silently. "You okay?" She responded with a nod of confirmation before resuming her work.
"We have to do something…" Olivia whispered.
"Gonna be hard without risking Jesse's life." Seth admitted. Without looking he relied on his partner to search around. "Venom, if you're there, can you see if we can use anything?"
"Not unless it's made of our limbs or elements, no." Venom stated. "What's the plan then?"
"Hate to say it… but let Wells handle this. It's his daughter's life on the line… Again." Seth informed his "other" as he saw Caitlin and Harry walk back into the Cortex, the latter carrying a tray with vials and an injection gun with another vial in it.
When she saw the vials with Velocity came near her, Eliza snatched them immediately. Harry stated, hoping for his daughter's salvation. "It's what you wanted. Now let her go." He nodded to his crying daughter on the ground.
"Easy, bucko." Eliza took the injection gun. "Slow and steady, you're a smart man, right?" She shifted her eyes to Caitlin. "How do I know the two of you didn't lace this with a sedative to put me on my ass? Would make for an interesting topic for that dinner, Caity."
Olivia narrowed her eyes in confusion and intrigue. "She keeps mentioning… dinner…"
"We wouldn't do that." Harry told her. He wouldn't risk his daughter's life like that.
Tilting her head around, Trajectory argued. "You can never be too safe, right?" Lightning flickered over her eyes with her mouth forming a smirk before she jammed the gun against Jesse's neck and pressed the button, injecting the drug into her body.
"No!" Harry slapped the injection gun out of her hand.
But Eliza kept the Earth-2 girl at gunpoint still and they all watched her intently, Trajectory more than the others. A smile formed on her when she saw nothing happened to Jesse, making her turn to Caitlin again. "Thanks for the fix, Snow."
WHOOSH
With the drugs in her pocket, she ran away in a flash of lightning and a gust of wind blew up papers around them.
Caitlin rushed to side lab, checking on the Fury siblings and Matt. "You guys okay?"
Seth returned to his feet and helped his sister up. "We're okay. You?"
Nodding she looked to Jesse. "We need to check on Jesse." Seth nodded and followed while his sister tried to wake up her husband.
Harry turned to Cisco. "Get Allen!" Cisco rushed to the console, tapping on the screen and opened the speedster's cell.
Caitlin looked to the girl on her knees. "Are you okay?" Jesse didn't answer. "Get the girls out too, Cisco."
"We're already out." Ruby announced as she and her sisters returned to the Cortex. "What'd we miss?"
Barry sped into the hallway, sliding to a stop. "Well, good job on the cell, Cisco. And thanks for nothing, girls."
"Like you'd have been any help." Ruby sniped.
Their attention was diverted to the middle of the Cortex when they registered a thud. "Jesse!" Caitlin screamed when Jesse went into shock, falling to the ground, seizing and foaming at the mouth.
"Oh shit." Seth rushed down to her side.
"What happened?" Barry asked when seeing the Earth-2 girl on the ground with the two doctors around her.
"Turn her on her side." Caitlin directed to her mate who obliged, gently rolling Jesse onto her side.
As Harry kneeled beside his seizing daughter, he answered Barry's question. "Eliza shot her up with V9."
"And what's happening to Jesse?" Evelyn asked in concern.
"She's going into shock from that." Seth answered. "But why? What's wrong with this batch you and Wells made?"
"It's too pure." Caitlin deduced.
"Stay with me, Jesse. Stay with me." Harry chanted.
"We got to do something?" Frankie shouted; her body now devoid of the symbiote.
"What do we do?" Cisco directed to the two doctors.
"We got to get the Velocity-9 out of her body. We'll have to flush it out." Seth deduced.
Nodding her agreement, Caitlin said. "She needs a blood transfusion. The new blood will definitely flush the drug out of her." She snapped to Olivia who stood up with Matt and saw the scene. "Liv the blood kit!"
The psychic looked behind her and used her powers to levitate it to the female doctor.
"What blood type is she?" Barry asked.
"PZ negative." Harry answered.
"Yeah, that's not a thing on this Earth, man." Cisco reminded him.
"He's her father, Cisco, chances are he's a match." Seth explained before facing the Earth-2 scientist. "Are you?"
"I'm a match." Harry assured him as he pulled off his sweater.
Caitlin opened the kit and looked to her mate. "We got work to do."
Seth nodded. "Time to work, yeah."
X
After a couple of hours, Caitlin and Seth managed to place Jesse on a gurney before continuing their work. They hooked her up to the blood unit and had Harry seated beside her to let the blood flow through her to flush out the Velocity drug.
After that, the team decided to clean up the Cortex and the side labs as best as they could after Trajectory's attack.
"Can't believe this happened." Matt said in regret as he returned to the Cortex. He hated that he was defeated so easily by the female speedster.
Seth rolled his eyes. "Before asking why your boxers are in a bunch, to which I know the answer, I will ask about your whereabouts."
Scoffing Matt called out. "Jarvis?"
"I am back, sir." The AI replied.
After Caitlin woke up Joe, made sure he was okay, she walked out of the medbay and inquired of the nanite mutant. "You brought Jarvis back?"
"When Eliza ran into the building, she emitted so much lightning from her body that it practically short-circuited his system. Had to switch out a few pieces and then start up the thing again." Matt replied as he saw Barry and Cisco sweeping up glass shards.
Following her husband's eyes, Olivia nodded her agreement. "Yeah, Cortex's seen better days, for sure."
"Hell yeah." Seth agreed. "Speaking of, didn't you have security protocols in place, Matty?"
"There is." Cisco shot the nanite mutant a shocked look. "But they only activate if Jarvis is turned on."
"So, when he's kaput, so are the protocols?" Ruby stated her deduction.
"Can't believe this happened." Matt rubbed his head.
Cisco gave him a hurt look. "You can't believe this? You upgraded our facility without consulting me."
"You do realize that saved Iris and my Mom's life, right?" Evelyn reminded him.
"Okay, one good time." Cisco returned to his sweeping.
"But damn… things are hectic with that Eliza girl." Seth said and saw his daughter Frankie looking at him with pleading eyes. "Don't worry sweetie, she's not gonna be hurt. She's a friend of the family, after all." While those words assured his daughter, it also made his sister's gears turn in thought.
At those words, Matt directed to Seth. "Speaking of hectic, she's not the only one."
Seth saw his eyes pointing to him. "What's with the death glare, Matty? Your head ringing or something?"
"No." Matt shook his head. "It's about you."
"Me? What'd I do?" Seth wondered.
Caitlin took over. "It's about what you didn't do?"
"Babe, that doesn't' clear up the cloud." Seth admitted. "What didn't I do?"
Caitlin got strange looks from Seth, her daughters, Barry and Cisco. Getting nods of confirmation from Matt and Olivia, she sighed before calling out to the AI. "Jarvis, bring up the previous results from before."
"Certainly, Dr. Snow." Jarvis agreed before bringing up the doctor's scans.
Two screens lit up on the wall, showing two separate DNA sequences. Seth widened his eyes when seeing his name on the corner of each one. The one to the left had his results from a year ago and the right one showed results from… a week ago.
"What the heck are you guys doing with my DNA? And why are you guys testing it?" Seth realized what this meant and faced Caitlin. "You tested it didn't you, Cait?"
With a nod of her head, she confirmed it. "I'm sorry, Seth, but Matt brought it to me and I tested it."
"What is going on here?" Frankie asked.
Matt answered his niece. "It's because in the past, your Dad could easily have blasted flames from his mouth and shot a speedster off his neck. But instead of doing that this time, he let it just happen."
"And we wanna know why." Olivia added.
"You… You're weaker?" Barry asked.
"What happened, man?" Cisco asked.
"Dad?" Seth faced Frankie and saw her look of confusion. "What's going on?"
He saw a similar look on his other daughters' faces and their looks hurt him. It was like a stone was stuck in his guts and it was grinding against his organs without mercy and it wasn't going to stop anytime soon.
"Seth…" Caitlin got his attention. "What's going on? Didn't you know or what?"
Sighing his concede, Seth confessed. "I did know about this." They looked confused and shocked at the same time from his words. "But for a good reason, I had to agree to this."
"Agree to what?" Caitlin inquired.
Symbiotic mass covered his right hand before shooting out and wrapping around the handle of his crystal sword stuck in the ceiling. Yanking it back into his hand, he stated. "To this." Tightening his hold, he erupted black flames around his hand that traveled up the sword and enveloped the crystal blade. His friends and family stepped back at the sight.
As he let his abyssal flames dance over his blade, he continued. "You guys never asked me this when I used this sword and these black flames to destroy the breach downstairs. You never asked me how I got this ability. Not something that can be trained."
"Who taught you that?" Barry wondered.
"That's a bit hard to explain." Seth vaguely said. "But I got an offer… Someone would teach me how to use my black flames and my sword in unison, allowing me destroy breaches, in exchange they removed my ability to discharge elements."
Matt widened his eyes. "So no more-"
"No more throwing lightning, water, wind, fire. No more long-range ice attacks or flamethrowers. Or even release them in explosions is off the table, which I'm happy about because exploding in nuclear explosions sucks ass. Most I can do now is what I could do in the past." Seth answered for his best friend.
"Close-range elemental combat." Olivia finished for her brother.
"Yup." Seth nodded. "Bonus, they told me where the breach leading directly back home was and they also told me that you guys were on Earth-2 for some reason."
Cisco turned shocked. "Hold your horses, Seth Fury, Dimensional Explorer." Seth did not like that name. "Does this mean you purposely and willingly let yourself be weakened to get back home?"
"I did." Seth made eye contact with Caitlin who smiled. "And I'd do it all over again if meant coming back to the most important people in my life." Shrugging with a smirk he turned to face the others. "Sorry for not saying anything about it, guys."
"Why didn't you say anything about it, man?" Barry asked.
"Didn't see the point, I guess. If I just stuck with close-range combat, which I am more comfortable with." Seth answered. "But again, I'm sorry I didn't say anything about it."
"It's okay." Matt nodded. "And I'm sorry for investigating you."
"Oh, you're gonna sorry, alright." Seth showed an evil smile.
"Down, boy." Caitlin held him off and he pouted, following up with a dog-like whine. She walked around the console with a chuckle, getting closer to him and hugged him tightly. "I love you."
"Love you too." The elemental said back before kissing her on her lips.
"Get a room, you two." Matt teased.
Pulling away from his mate, Seth glared at the nanite mutant. "You're on borrowed time, Matty." Matt flipped him the bird. "Oh yeah, Matt. Think you could get on with this bombs while we clean up?"
"On it." Matt nodded before walking to the exit.
"What bombs is he talking about?" Cisco narrowed his eyes.
"Nothing." Seth childishly said.
X
The others continued to clean the Cortex and Harry sat in wait as his blood continued to flow into his daughter's sleeping form. With the blood transfusion going on as it is, the Velocity drug should be flushed out of her body shortly.
But while that was happening, he heard the elemental mutant talk about his decision to willingly become weaker, agreeing to lose the ability to launch his elements for long-range support. He'd get a new ability to destroy breaches and get the location of a breach to return home in exchange of losing one ability.
Father to father, Harry couldn't help but recognize and admire his iron-will to return home… to his family.
Hearing the ruffling of bedsheets beside him, Harry saw his daughter's eyes fluttering open and turned shocked when seeing herself on a gurney and facing her father. "Hey." He softly greeted her.
"What happened?" Jesse asked as she saw her body hooked up to the blood unit.
"We… You're fine. You're- you're gonna be fine." Harry stammered. "We got the drug out of your system."
Jesse nodded. "Looks like you saved the day again."
He knew there's more to her words. "Look, honey, I know that this isn't enough. I promise you, though, I'm going to spend the rest of my life making it up to you for the…" Harry couldn't even name it in front of his daughter. "…For that terrible thing that I did."
"Yeah?" Jesse asked.
"Yes." Harry assured them.
"And how many more terrible things are you gonna do to protect me?" Jesse let out, starting to break the dam of questions that's she had to hold back.
For a smart man of his caliber, a genius of maybe two worlds, Harry struggled to comprehend that question. "What does that mean?"
"I mean, everything that you do and everything that you have done for me… it's so dark, and… and you don't even see it. I mean, you didn't even hesitate out there." Jesse blurted out.
"Of course not." Harry answered after a moment of hesitation. "I'm not going to lose you, Jesse."
Tearfully, she continued. "Okay, but you just gave that crazy speedster everything she wanted without even blinking, without even thinking what other lives could be at stake."
"It is my job to keep you safe, to project you; that's my job. That's any parent's jobs. That's all that matters to them." Harry said.
"Well, maybe it shouldn't be." Jesse argued.
"How is this different than what Fury did for his kids? When he fought for you?" Harry wondered.
"I don't know… But one thing is clear: Seth sees his darkness, you don't." Jesse finished off, turning her head away so she wouldn't look at her father anymore.
X
Cisco poured the glass shards into a trashcan. As he did, he told the female doctor. "Caitlin, I know she was your friend, helped you and Frankie and all, but homegirl has gone cuckoo bird."
"Hey!" Frankie chastised Cisco as she stood on the ceiling. "Not nice to call her that, Cisco."
Making eye contact with Caitlin who applied a band-aid over Joe's scar, the mechanical engineer asked. "Did I just hear your cannibalistic teenage daughter tell me to mind my manners? For real?"
Seth threateningly looked to Cisco. "Wanna repeat that for her even more cannibalistic boyfriend?"
"No thank you." Cisco frantically shook his head.
Smiling approvingly, Seth returned to his clean-up duties. Frankie did the same and cleaned the ceiling as best as she could. Evelyn picked up pieces of broken lab equipment and threw them into a container. When returning to her full height, she saw her aunt looking in a thoughtful trance.
Following her gaze, Ruby saw Olivia in a deep trance. "Aunt Liv?" The psychic blinked her eyes before turning to her niece. "What's wrong? Did Eliza hurt you or something?"
"Never came close, honey. Closest she came to me was when she hurled my hubby through the air." Olivia quipped. "But I'm fine, girls, don't worry."
Falling to the ground and returning to her full height, Frankie countered. "Aunt, I can tell you're lying. What is it?"
"Something about Eliza didn't seem right." Olivia returned to her train of thought, keeping it to herself. "She was…. I don't know something about her seemed in conflict."
"Whatever that means, she's now out there with more V-9." Barry argued.
Caitlin smiled when finishing applying the band-aid on Joe's head. "What she doesn't know is, I put in a micro tracker in the drug."
"Awesome job, babe." Seth stated.
"That's a brilliant idea." Joe stated.
"So we got a way to find her…" Matt stated his presence, returning to the Cortex with two metal suitcases. "And a way to capture her too."
"What do you have in those?" Cisco pointed at him with a box, waving it at the suitcases.
"Toys." Matt stated, placing the two boxes on the table and opened them. Turning them both around, the other saw the boxes filled with blue-metal plated spheres with shining blueish-white energy. A button was on top of the middle. "Ladies and gentlemen, say hallo to the Blizzard Bombs."
"Cool name, I approve it." Cisco instantly said, jumping to the suitcases and picked up a bomb. Examining it in his hands, he widened his eyes in realization. "What a minute, you made these with the Cold Gun specs didn't you?"
"Yup." Matt nodded. "Push the button on the top, wait five seconds and throw them at a speedster. They won't kill them or hurt them too badly. Instead, upon impact, they'll release a blast of subzero cold that will freeze them in cage of ice. It should be powerful enough to catch Trajectory without hurting her."
"And it'll keep her incapacitated so we can haul her back here and into a containment cell." Seth deduced.
"Bingo." Matt confirmed.
"And you're sure they won't hurt her?" Olivia surprised them all with her question.
"Yeah, I'm sure, yeah." Her husband nodded.
"Livy." Seth placed a hand on her shoulder. "What is it?"
"I think Eliza has a split personality, this Trajectory chick." Olivia shocked them all.
Caitlin walked over to her and made eye contact with her. "What makes you say that Liv?"
"Frankie when you and your sisters were sped into the cell in the Pipeline, did Eliza say anything about a dinner with your family? Your entire family?" Olivia asked.
"No, she didn't. But I thought it was weird she even put us in there at all." Frankie answered.
"Eliza also mentioned she wanted to get to know the girls over dinner and even that she put them of harm's way, too." Caitlin remembered.
"That's another thing." Olivia pointed out. "For some reason, Eliza, Trajectory, or whatever, she kept mentioning dinner. That means part of her, her Eliza-part, is still in control and wants to know your new crazy kids, to know the entire Snow-Fury clan."
"So, Aunt Eliza is still in there somewhere." Frankie deduced.
"That's theory at least, and the signs are pointing to it." Olivia admitted. "And Caity, I'm guessing Eliza is an insecure perfectionist and workaholic?" Caitlin nodded. "Must have put tremendous pressure on those shoulders of hers, and when you presented her with the unfinished formula of a speed drug, that could literally accelerate her work… She took it and have developed this Trajectory character in her head."
"So I created Trajectory." Caitlin surmised and everyone formed shocked eyes and raised their eyebrows. "I did this to Eliza. If I hadn't-"
"Made Velocity so Jay could save people's lives?" Seth jumped in, pressing his mate who turned in disbelief to him as did the others. "Cait, you made this drug so Jay could become a speedster again and he used his speed to help his friends on this team and saved the people when Geomancer attacked the city. You asked for Eliza's help, not give her the drug so she could become Superior Flash."
While it was a serious conversation, Cisco inwardly approved of that name. He had to keep his giddiness inside.
"You didn't expect her to find the missing components of the formula and complete the drug or that she'd use it because of her split-personality. Nor did you tell her to use it and go on a massive speed theft streak." Seth pointed to Caitlin. "So again, how is this your fault? These things just happen. Most the of the time we have no control of the outcome. You can't let the guilt control you, it's gonna eat you up otherwise."
"… Thanks… Thanks Seth." Caitlin smiled, and had to wipe away tears.
"But what's the plan for fighting this Superior Flash now?" Frankie said, liking the name that her Dad had come up with now.
"We find her, Barry knocks her out for a moment, the four of us and Matty too, we'll jump in and bombard your dear Aunt Eliza and turn her into an iceberg." Seth answered.
"You think I can do that?" Barry wondered.
"You have to." Seth countered. "With Velocity in her system, Eliza can knock me through the ground, throw Matts missiles back in his face with ease. For now, we're gonna have to a reply on a speed vs speed dual, Flash vs Trajectory. This way we can see who's the fastest speedster. Worst case, you lose and we'll take care of her somehow. With greater numbers we might be able to handle this."
"Let's find Eliza first then, huh?" Caitlin quipped as she walked to the computer screen on the console with Cisco. "Girls, you heard your father. Suit up." They nodded before walking away to suit up.
The mechanical engineer took a seat and opened a program, showing a virtual map of the city. "You can run, but you can't hide."
"I got Eliza into this mess, so I need to help fix it." Seth looked to Caitlin who assured him. "Don't worry, I trust you and our daughters to find her and stop her."
"There's plenty of blame to go around, Snow." Harry declared his presence.
"Ray of sunshine as always, Wells." Matt sarcastically quipped as he placed his arc reactor on his chest, letting the nanites swarm over his form to form his Iron Knight armor.
"What's her location?" Seth asked before his head was engulfed by the symbiote and he took on the form of Venom.
"Central City bridge." Cisco answered.
Turning to the monitor which showed the same virtual image of Central City bridge, Olivia asked. "What is she doing?" She saw the female speedster running back and forth on a bridge.
"She's running back and forth?" Caitlin questioned.
"Villains gonna vill." Cisco quipped.
As Magenta, Destroyer and Eclipse walked back into the Cortex, Barry realized Trajectory's plan. "She's creating friction…"
"…and at that vibration and speed…" Harry trailed off.
"What?" Joe asked.
"She'd destroy the bridge." Magenta realized.
Venom snarled. "And every single person on it." He looked to Matt. "Get those bombs ready."
X
Complete chaos.
Cars rammed into the railings on both sides. People rushing out of their vehicles, scrambling to get back to the mainland. Some, if not more, fell to the asphalt and their bones broke. Those who were injured or worse had to be carried and or hauled by those who weren't.
All the while they did that, they had to rush to the sides when the blinding and impossible-to-see flash of lightning that kept running back and forth across the bridge, creating overwhelming friction that shook the bridge.
Venom arrived at the scene, landing on the asphalt and seeing the people in dismay and chaos. Iron Knight came to witness the same, hovering beside the elemental. Magenta landed on her father's back, looking around and taking in the sight with disbelieving eyes. Appearing in a mist of shadows, Eclipse and Destroyer snapped their eyes around as well.
"It's chaos right now." Venom stated grimly while withdrawing his sword out of his body as Barry sped to them. "This is crazy."
Parts of him couldn't believe that this was because of a woman who helped his family so much while he was thought to be dead. But that also made the flame of wanting to help Eliza in him blaze even more. He was gonna help her no matter what.
"Ready for a work, Venom?" Seth inquired of his "other."
"Time to work." Venom chuckled his readiness.
"Iron Knight, what's happening?" Ruby asked, taking out her Chakram blade.
"The bridge is coming down." Matt noted.
"Guys!" Barry screamed into his earpiece.
"Guys, there's about 200 people on that bridge right now." Cisco replied to all of them.
"Seriously?" Magenta shouted, considering slapping herself in disbelief.
"Knight, anyone who flies off the edges you catch them. Destroyer, you get people off the bridge from this side. The other side we're leaving to you, Eclipse. Magenta, you and we will go to the middle, pick up as many people as we can. Flash?" Venom looked to the speedster. "You know what to do?"
"Speed across, take the ones you guys can't get to." Barry nodded.
"And knock out Trajectory…" Seth reminded him while holding up a handful of Blizzard Bombs. "So we can trap her."
"Think we can?" Barry wondered.
"Not with that attitude." Evelyn shouted. "Get going!" The Scarlet Speedster obliged, speeding into action.
The others followed. Eclipse disappeared amongst shadows, landing on the other side of the crackling bridge. Emanating light and darkness in a mix of the elements, she swung out her hands and released tendrils of onyx darkness that wrapped around the closest people, bringing them out of harm's way. Remaining where she is, Destroyer embedded her blade into the ground before outstretching her arms, her powers activating and bringing the nearest civilians to her side. Those unfortunate enough to be sent over the railings were rescued by Iron Knight who spiraled around the bridge. Lucky cars that were driving off the ledge were pulled back by symbiotic tendrils that dug into their rear. The passengers were pulled out of them by Venom and Magenta. The passengers didn't have a single moment to express their gratitude when Flash sped and got back to mainland.
But the moment Barry released the civilians he turned around and was met with Trajectory's lightning cloaked fist. As he hit the ground, Eliza stated. "You're ruining all my fun."
"Oh no, you don't!" Matt shouted, forming a blade and swinging it for the female speedster. Eliza saw it and dodged it, jumping into the air and kicked Iron Knight's chest with a lightning-cloaked foot. Like it did with Venom, it shot him into the side of a building.
"He's ruining my fun. You're ruining my fun. Leave me alone!" Eliza shouted before releasing lightning all over her body before running across the bridge once more.
Evelyn got a bad feeling and disappeared in a blast of shadows again.
Barry got back on his feet and Matt pulled himself out of the wall and both saw the speedster traveling across the bridge, the friction being too much for it in its current state and was brought down instantly. The water under it loudly splashed as humongous chunks of the collapsed bridge fell into it, breaking the water surface.
"Seriously?" Matt said in shock. He widened his eyes when remembering. "Wait, where's Seth and the girls?!"
"Here!" Eclipse stated, appearing near them with her father and sisters.
"Thank God." Matt lowered himself to the ground. "How'd you get away?"
"Eclipse got us out." Venom said but then he diverted his eyes to the other side of the collapsed bridge. "She really brought down the entire bridge."
"Aunt Eliza's too strong." Magenta confessed.
"We can still defeat her." Ruby confidently stated.
"Destroyer's right!" Venom agreed with a confident nod of his head. "We have to."
"Trajectory's too far away. You won't get to her running across the river." Cisco stated regretfully.
"I hate Cisco right now." Ruby didn't like how he was becoming the bearer of bad news lately.
"First time anyone's ever said that, huh?" Matt bemusedly thought.
Barry got back on his feet, his eyes taking in the huge gap between them and the female speedster. "I will if I jump."
"Barry, to make that jump, you'll need to go… Mach 3.3, but only for a second." Harry informed.
"Okay." Barry formed a doubtful expression.
Venom saw that and looked to his family. "You four get over the gap with flight and Eclipse's powers, hold. I need to have a talk with this idiot." They nodded and took flight and teleported to the other side. Facing the speedster, he said. "For a smart guy, you still haven't proven your intelligence yet."
"What does that mean?" Barry asked in hurt.
"You traveled through time, didn't you?" Seth reminded him. "Compared to that, this gape is a cake walk. Stop doubting yourself and remember to just run? That's your specialty, so get to it!" He held up an adamantium fist. "Don't make us punch you."
"Think I can do this?" Barry wondered.
"Doesn't matter what we think, you have to be the one to think it to do it." Venom jumped backwards, landing onto the side of a building. "We'll hold her off till you decide to jump." He jumped off the building, landed on the huge floating chunks of the broken bridge in the water and used them to jump across the water.
X
"ARGH!" Matt groaned as he was sent into the air, spinning around due to another lightning-enveloped kick. Wings formed from his back, blazing and propelling him down to the ground and he landed in a crouch position.
Turning his eyes back up, the nanite mutant saw the female speedster giggling at the sight of his panting form. "Guess your wife's not the only woman to wear you out, huh?" The entire time she spoke, laughed and stood still bright yellow lightning kept crackling over her form.
"Shut your mouth!" Iron Knight growled before thrusting out both palms, shooting repulsor beams.
Fake yawning at the display, before the beams reached her, Eliza sped out of the way and appeared behind the nanite mutant. Barely getting the chance to say anything, she grabbed him by his arm and spun Matt around before hurling him into back into the air.
"Heavy fella that one." Trajectory laughed as she saw him flying.
"Eliza stop!" Magenta said, dropping down to the ground and stood before the female speedster who faced her. "Stop doing this. You don't have to do this." She wanted to appeal to her human side. The part that is still Eliza Harmon, the woman who helped her and her mother through a hard period.
"Sorry kiddo." Eliza shook her head. "I don't have to do this, sure. But I want to."
Frankie fought back tears at those words. She then formed a determined expression. "Then I know what I have to do." Her point was empathized with both hands morphing into jagged swords.
"Kitty's got more than claws. Not bad." Eliza feigned impress.
"She's not alone." Eclipse appeared, holding up her bow and pulled an arrow back.
"Not by a longshot." Destroyer said holding out her blade.
"Let's go then, girls. I wanna learn everything about you!" Eliza performed a spin, pointing a finger to them all.
Eyes glowing magenta, Frankie tilted her head back and forced a car off of the ground and shooting towards the female speedster from behind. Eliza saw it coming in slow-motion. Time slowed to a crawl and she ran towards it. Jumping she ran on the car itself like it was stepping stone and landed on the ground.
Time returned to normal and it continued flying, this time shooting towards Frankie. Magenta raised both her bladed arms, crossing them briefly before uncrossing them she cut the vehicle in two and the halved pieces landed on both sides of her body.
Ruby jumped into action, swinging her blade left and right for the speedster who dodged them with ease. Deciding to throw in other moves to create an opening, she swung her foot high up for her head. But Eliza grabbed it and tightened her hold on the limb. Noticing the lack of reaction, Trajectory stated. "Not bad, kid. Not good enough though."
"I know." Destroyer said, smirking behind her mask. "But don't forget about my sister."
Evelyn released her hold, the bowstring launching the three arrows imbued with darkness and light. They traveled through the air, closing in on the speedster. With her free hand, Trajectory plucked the three arrows out of the air with ease. "Seriously girls?!" She whined. "This is pathetic. Caity's girls can't be this dumb."
"You're forgetting something?" Evelyn smiled, one that Ruby mimicked behind her mask.
"We're the daughters of Venom, too!" Magenta reminded her in a shout, thrusting out an arm and splitting it into tendrils. They wrapped around the speedster's form, tightening their hold on her body and made her groan. "Eclipse, you too!"
Attaching her bow on her back, Eclipse lashed out her hands and shot out onyx darkness tendrils that surrounding the speedster. Ruby felt the grip on her foot loosen and she jumped backwards. She watched Frankie's tendrils hold onto Trajectory and the darkness tendrils surrounded her, obscuring her form.
"You guys got her?" Asked Ruby, remaining in a battle stance.
"Not sure." Evelyn flicked her eyes to the magnekinetic. "Magenta?"
"I… I can't feel anything." The confusion in her voice was clear as day.
"Course you're not!" The three sisters snapped their eyes to the side and saw Eliza childishly waving at them. Retracting their tendrils, they pointed their weapons to her again. With a roll of her eyes, she reminded them. "You wanna try that again, really?"
"Try this!" Venom declared, swinging his adamantium arm for her head. But Eliza dodged it, running to the side. Continuing his assault, he swung his sword for her when she was close proximity. When that stopped, he jumped backwards and got close to his daughters, out of earshot. "You girls okay?"
"Okay, sure. But pissed off a lot." Ruby growled.
"Not the only one!" Matt announced as he landed on the ground beside them. "What's the plan?"
Narrowing his eyes, Venom whispered as best as he could. "Matty, you and we will hold her off till Flash shows up. Girls, take the Bombs and stay back for now, when we give the go-ahead, you throw them all."
Taking the Blizzard Bombs into their hands, the three sisters nodded and stepped back to allow the mutants to stand before the female speedster who giggled at them. "When the last time we fought together?" Matt smirked behind his mask, lashing out his arms and forming elongated cannons around his arms.
"Too long ago." Venom sneered his response with a twirl of his sword.
Cracking her neck, Trajectory excitedly said. "Come on, boys!"
The two mutants charged the evil metahuman. Jumping back into the air, Iron Knight shot a wave of repulsor blasts for the speedster who dodged them by running in a zigzag pattern.
Running on the adjacent wall, Venom jumped off it. A flex of his body, every part of his body turned into adamantium before he dropped down like a meteor strike on the ground. Eliza ran away, dodging the strike and watched the ground crack.
Before she could dodge them, she felt adamantium tendrils shoot out of the ground and wrap around her feet. Feeling a pull on them, she fell to the ground and looked up to see the mutant over her form, looking down on her with menacing eyes.
"Our children considers you part of the family, Eliza. Stop this now, and we can move on from this mess." Venom stated.
Eliza smiled, showing what looked like a heartwarming smile. "Thanks for the offer, Seth. But I can't." Lightning embraced her fists and, one after the other, she thrusted them into the demon's face. Each blow made his head jolt upwards, but the last strike sent him into the air and onto his back.
Flipping back onto his feet, Venom swung his sword and managed to hit her and pushed back into the middle of the lanes. Iron Knight put his cannons side by side before shooting out a combined repulsor blast at the evil metahuman, forcing her to the ground.
The two mutants were about to move in again for another strike but then they saw a familiar streak of lightning jumping over the gap left behind the collapsed bridge.
Venom smiled. "Nice job, Flash."
Before either of the mutants could do anything, they saw Flash drop to the ground and slammed into Trajectory. They saw the two speedsters skipping across the ground like a stone on water, before they both smashed into an electrical power box which blew out and emanated sparks.
Venom landed on top of the smashed power box and Iron Knight hovered in the air, both looking down on the two metahumans who groaned and panted. The Flash managed to push himself back to his feet while Trajectory remained on the ground, struggling to get back to her feet.
"The Velocity's faded." Venom noted. If things went well now, they might not have to put her on ice.
"Let's hope so." Iron Knight skeptically stated, she still had more vials on her person after all.
"It's over, Eliza." Barry stated pantingly.
Eliza faced the other speedster. "It is never over." She brought herself to her knees, pulling out an injection pen with Velocity.
"Wait!" Venom shouted. "Stop doing this, to yourself!"
Barry agreed with a nodding. "You don't actually want to hurt anyone."
Despite feeling the drawback of the Velocity serum, Eliza laughed. "None of you know anything about me."
Venom argued, landing on the ground before her. "We know you're a good person. A bad person wouldn't have helped my daughter or Caitlin when they were going through a rough period. This is the V-9 in your body making you into this, into Trajectory. This is not you Eliza Harmon!"
"We know what's it's like, me especially." Barry jumped in. "I know what it feels like to want to be the best. It makes you feel like there's not enough time to accomplish things in the right way, but it's a cop-out."
"Look at yourself." Venom pointed to him. "The drug is killing you. You're not well!" Eliza panted; her eyes closed from the immense exhaust she felt hitting her like a ton of bricks. "Eliza…" Seth got her attention, his hand outstretched and the claws retracting. "Let us help you."
Their words echoed in her head, bouncing off the walls of her mind. Her eyes focused on the outstretched hand, but it was blurry at best. But she could still see it. Accepting that hand… their help… She might be able to overcome her addiction, beat it into a pulp that'd never get up again, never tempt her again. She would be the undefeated champion.
Accepting their hand… would mean she'd be able to take right way…
But… she had a hunger… a big, big, big… Hunger…
A desire to be the best…
One that she couldn't stop or tamper down…. Not that she'd ever want that…
She pressed the injection needle to her thigh, pressing the button on the back and injected herself with more Velocity. Eliza sighed in ecstasy and the others watched in defeat, Venom withdrawing his hand.
Trajectory returned to her feet, lightning crackling even more frantically over her form. She faced them. "That is all the help I need." She faced Venom. "Tell Caity I'm gonna have to take a raincheck on that dinner date." She faced The Flash. "How does it feel to know that I am faster than you will ever be?"
Venom sent a discreet nod to Matt who sent a message to Evelyn and her sisters ahead of them on the road.
Strangely enough, something mixed in with the yellow lightning, showing itself with a different color.
"See you around." She quipped before speeding away.
Barry got their attention with a nod. "The lightning… it's turning blue."
"We have to stop her." Matt said.
Nodding Venom held up his sword. "Shoot this into the ground, we're gonna make her trip."
"Got it." Matt nodded.
Leaping into the air, Venom swung his arm and threw his sword, making it spin like a disc into the air. It didn't come close to the speedster, of course. But Matt changed that with a combined blast of four repulsor blasts that sent the crystal sword further into the air and somehow, ahead of the speedster.
The blasts changed its trajectory, making it spin and then get lower to the ground, causing it to slash the asphalt and open a hole in road. Trajectory didn't see it, and her foot got caught in it and she tripped and incredible speed. Her body rolled and skipped on the ground again and again, the force of which caused it to crack.
"NOW!" Venom screamed.
Finally coming to a stop, Trajectory's body emanates complete azure-blue lightning, she looks up from the ground and sees the three girls in the air, their arms reeled back before thrusting downwards in her direction and launching objects after her. The spheres coming her way shined bright blue…
Before…
EXPLOSION
The middle of the road was instantly cloaked with white-bluish flames in an explosion. Series of explosions followed. What would normally be black smoke was now cold white smoke that continued to grow bigger and bigger with the Blizzard Bombs exploding.
"Not bad, Matty." Venom said impressively while shielding his eyes because of the bright cold explosions.
"That's what I do. Make stuff, then make them boom." Iron Knight shrugged. He saw the explosions die down. "Let's go!"
The three males made the short way towards the huge smoke that was left behind the explosions. On their way, they saw Eclipse, Destroyer and Magenta standing in the middle of the road… standing before what could only be described as a small iceberg… in the road.
And in it… was Eliza Harmon encased in ice. Somehow even her blue lightning was encased in ice.
"Nice ice sculpture." Matt joked.
But Venom didn't laugh or react in any way to that joke. Instead, he walked forward and examined the speedster trapped in ice. He widened his eyes in shock when seeing Eliza's face… which, around the face…
Secreted some kind of blue particles… and pieces of her skin was missing.
His mouth opened up, splitting open and showed Seth's face. "What is going on here…?"
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs)
The next day, Harry walked through the corridors of the facility for what felt like the hundredth time, scouring through every inch of S.T.A.R. Labs to find his daughter, Jesse. He had to find her and explain his intentions, reason with her so they wouldn't be too far apart anymore.
Coming across Cisco, he asked. "Hey, have you seen Jesse?"
"No." Cisco said while rubbing his hands. "Been busy helping Matt and Seth-"
"Yeah, don't care." Harry cut him off before walking away.
In hurt, Cisco stated. "Okay." He walked ahead to the Cortex.
Harry continued walking through the corridors, coming to a stop when standing before his and Jesse's room. His ear piqued at the beeping that comes within the room. He recognized the beeping, remembering that it originates from his high-tech watch.
Walking into the room, he did indeed find his watch beside a bunch of glasses. After a look around to find his daughter, he picked up the watch and turned on the device.
The audio file in it started.
"Hey, Dad. It's me." He heard his daughter start. "Listen, your job over the years has been to shield me from harm. But now it's my turn to go out into this new world on my own, no shield, and discover what this Earth can offer…."
"You know… You are the best teacher I've ever had, but I don't know what more you can teach me. I love you… Please, don't come looking for me." The watch beeped as the audio file ended.
Harry… didn't know how to feel about his daughter running away now.
X
In the Pipeline, Matt and Seth panted heavily as they stood before the ice-encased Eliza Harmon in her containment cell. Their heads sweating bullets and their eyes almost sunken as they looked at the hole they made throughout last night.
Holding up the piece of ice they managed to carve out, Seth groaned. "Only took one night to cut through this damn awful ice cage." He examined the strands of hair encased in ice.
"Actually, Dr. Fury, you and Mr. Stark spent seven hours and forty-three minutes to extract a sample of Dr. Harmon's body."
Matt groaned. "Jarvis, I love you, but sometimes you got to stop being so literal. Don't take everything serious."
"Neither you nor your father programed with that functionality, sir." Jarvis countered.
Seth dropped his head. "Seriously, J? You're awful." He managed to stand up again. "Anyway, we finally managed to get this."
"What's the plan with that, anyway?" Matt asked, nodding his head to the piece of ice in his hand.
"Gonna analyze this, her, Eliza." Seth answered, his head gesturing to the frozen DNA sample and the frozen speedster. "Something about her… it seemed weird as hell."
Matt understood. "Her lightning turned blue."
"Yeah, but not just that." Seth raised his hand, pointing to the speedster's face. Following the finger, Matt saw him pointing at the sides of her head which were… dissipating into blue particles. "I don't know why but it was like she was… disintegrating."
"Is that even possible? For a speedster, human, metahuman to disintegrate?" Matt inquired.
"That's what I'm hoping to find out." Seth playfully threw the ice sample up in the air before recatching it. "From this." A tendril sprout of his shoulder, swiping over the screen on the wall and closed the Pipeline entrance.
"Hey, about this entire analyzing your DNA-"
"Forget it." Seth cut him off as they walked down the ramp. "I know why you did it and I understand. It's okay, you dumbass." He laughed to himself in realization.
"What?" Matt asked.
Turning to face him, Seth said while laughing. "Just that you had to get help from both Jarvis and Caitlin to perform a simple DNA analysis. Pretty pathetic, Matty."
"Screw you, jackass. Next time you make the weapon, huh? See if that's so easy for you." Matt countered.
"Why would I need a weapon? I am the weapon." Seth smirked.
But inwardly… He hated himself because he had to let Matt examine him. That fight between him and Matt after the capturing King Shark and sending him back into A.R.G.U.S. custody, he knew that his blood was extracted by the nanite mutant in their fight…
He knew that Matt would test it because of his inability to not hurl elements. He felt really bad that he had to trick his friends and family to cover his tracks.
"We have a promise to keep, Seth. Hard measures had to be taken." Venom told him.
"Doesn't make it any easier, though." Seth mentally sighed.
"Hey." Caitlin greeted them. "Can't believe you guys spent most of last night on trying to extract a sample from Eliza's body."
"Some of it was spent on carrying the damn ice sculpture here." Matt said.
Seth chuckled with a nod. "Yeah, he's right. Took a while to carry your friend back." Facing his mate, he asked. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Just dropped the girls off at school." Caitlin replied.
"No, Cait." Seth stopped her. "I meant, how are you really doing? This is your friend in that iceberg in there, after all." He pointed a thumb backwards and Matt used that moment to walk away. "Are you really okay?"
"I… Despite what you said before, I can't help but feel responsible for Eliza ending up like that." Caitlin confessed. "I can't feel but feel bad about it."
"It's not your fault, Cait." Seth assured her, pulling her into a hug. "It feels like that right now, but like I told you before, you can't feel responsible for something you never could have foreseen. You never made Eliza take Velocity to begin with, you didn't birth Trajectory. You didn't have anything to do with this."
"…Thanks…" Caitlin nuzzles his neck and kisses it.
Immediately, Seth blushed up a storm from her affectionate actions. "Oh God, Cait, you've got to stop or we're gonna have to find an empty room to… scratch an itch."
Caitlin pulled away and captured his lips quickly. "Maybe later tonight, okay?" She winked and Seth was sure he was gonna faint. But her next words managed to snap him back to normal, his normal anyway. "Need help with that?" She pointed to the frozen DNA sample.
"Spending time with you and analyzing a DNA sample? Doesn't get any better than that." Seth quipped and they walked hand in hand towards the Cortex.
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)
In the Cortex, Iris and Joe joined the team and twirled around before asking for confirmation. "So Eliza… You put her on ice and she's in the Pipeline, right?"
"Yup." Seth said as he and Caitlin walked into the Cortex, walking to the main console. The latter opened up a scanner and placed the frozen DNA sample on the panel connected to the scanner.
Joe faced the mutant and his girlfriend. "Don't get why you guys put her on ice to begin with? Why put her on display in the Pipeline downstairs anyway?"
"Seth's idea, but I like it." Caitlin said while Seth started the scanning. "I didn't want to see Eliza get hurt."
The detective understood that. "I remember her helping you out a lot when that idiot was gone." Joe pointed to Seth who flipped him the bird. Chortling he continued. "So yeah I get you guys wanting her to be safe."
"So you two gonna work on saving Eliza?" Olivia asked them.
"That's the plan, yeah." Seth answered with a smile directed to Caitlin whilst the scanning continued. "Hopefully this thing can give us some answers and other stuff."
"Other stuff?" Matt inquired.
"If I'm getting the gist of what happened while I was gone, Jay only took two doses of Velocity, V7 and V9. But Eliza she took a much higher dosage of V9, on multiple occasions. Means we can get more answers from her blood work than we could from Jay's." Seth revealed. "Plus, something about her lightning turned out weird." He said vaguely.
"Smart, but what are you hoping to find out?" Iris asks.
"Let's wait and-" Seth was cut off when he saw the results from the DNA sample show itself on the screen. "What in the name of all hellish universes am I seeing here?" He asked himself with a face devoid of all color, like the blood was drained from his face.
Caitlin leant over to see the results and widened her eyes as well. "Oh my God."
"What's going on?" Matt asked them.
Quickly typing away on the keyboard, Seth brought up the results and showed them on the wall monitors. "Look here." The screens showed Eliza's DNA sequence after capturing her, the sequence completely frozen in white ice and showed… brittle and was really small.
Barry and Cisco looked shocked at it. Iris and Joe didn't understand it, nor did Matt and Olivia.
The psychic turned to them. "Not to be that girl, but not all of us can understand DNA analysis. Explain and remember to dumb it down."
"That DNA sequence?" Caitlin started. "That's Eliza's after she was captured and encased in ice, which is why it's frozen. But what's worrisome about this is… that's so small because of cellular degeneration."
"Her cells decaying?" Matt understood.
"Not just decaying. Instant disintegration." Seth empathized slowly with each word coming out of his mouth. "Had Eliza not been stopped she'd been… Nothing but a temperature-resistant suit would have been left behind." The mutant exhaled in shock. "I've never seen cellular decay this extreme before in my life."
"Not even on 616?" Olivia alluded to their origin universe. Seth gave her a look that spoke volumes. "Holy shit."
"Cellular degeneration… Like Jay's, right?" Barry asked.
Caitlin was the one to nod her confirmation. "Yeah, just like Jay's but on a higher scale."
Cisco then recalled. "Jay warned us that V9 was dangerous. As least now we know why."
"And you asked him to take that drug." Olivia gave a frown which the detective met with a glare. "Just saying, Detective West."
"You pressured a guy into taking a drug?" Seth said intrigued. "Damn Joe. Looks everyone here grew a funny bone while I was gone. Not bad."
Harry walked into the Cortex from the side entrance. Cisco saw him and asked. "You find Jesse?"
"She went out." Harry noticed the DNA analysis on the monitors. "Who's dying cells are we watching?" He deduced instantly.
"The speedster we have on ice." Seth answered, pointing to nametag on the upper left corner of the screen. He looked to the residential speedster. "Something on your mind, Barry?"
When he didn't answer, Iris asked for him. "Barry? What is it?"
Sighing, Barry answered. "It's just right before Eliza was encased in ice, her lightning… it turned-"
"Blue." Seth finished his sentence. "Like Zoom's."
"Seriously?" Olivia asked her brother.
"Jarvis, show footage from Eliza's cell. You know what to show." Matt called out, answering for the elemental. The AI silently obliged, showing live footage from the cell on the monitors, zooming in on the frozen speedster's back which emanated frozen blue lightning. "There's your answer"
"Holy crap." Olivia let out.
"What if it's a side-effect of V9?" Cisco inquired.
"But Jay took V9, right?" Seth looked to Caitlin.
Caitlin nodded. "Yeah, he took it, and his lightning didn't turn blue."
"How fast was he running?" Barry wondered.
Iris deduces. "Not as fast as Eliza."
"And able to utilize her speed and lightning in ways that most speedsters can't." Matt nodded to the elemental who was punched by the metahuman with lightning-cloaked fists.
"All right, but what if V9 is what turns your lightning blue?" Barry asked. "I mean, that would explain why Zoom is so much faster than me."
"If that's true, then that means he's sick, right?" Cisco stated.
"He's dying." Harry quickly realized. All eyes turned to the Earth-2 scientist who looked to Barry with a serious expression. "That's why he wants your speed."
Piecing the pieces together, Seth stated. "He's dying, and he needs a cure."
Like the elemental, the speedster pieced the pieces together. "Same as Jay."
"What?" Olivia asked as realization dawned on them all.
"Jay? No." Cisco shook his head in denial. "See, aside from Seth, he died in front of the rest of us here. Zoom killed him right in front of us."
"Cisco, you're smarter than that." Matt said. "We've seen a speedster be in two places at once before, you know."
The denial and disbelief was still on their faces. Harry then came with a solution, facing the native mechanical engineer. "Then I guess there's one way to find out."
Cisco then confessed. "I guess now would be a good time to tell you all I've been vibing Zoom."
"Come again?" Seth asked in shock.
"What? You-" Harry stopped in surprise. "For how long?"
Making eye contact with Seth, the mechanical engineer answered. "It started when we all saw Seth turn the last breach into a charcoal. And every time it's happened," Cisco looked to the display case with Jay's helmet. "I've been near that thing." They followed the direction of his eyes, locking onto the helmet.
They all had the same dark thoughts swimming in their heads.
"Let's be sure, shall we?" Seth enveloped his arm with black symbiote mass before stretching it out, his fist shattering the glass case and pulled the helmet out of it. As it returned to him, the mutant walked around the console and got to Cisco's side and held the helmet out to him. "You know what to do, buddy."
Cisco hesitated and Barry told him to grease the wheels. "We need to know." Deeply inhaling to ready himself, the engineer grabbed the helmet and stepped away from them all.
Instantly… a vibe came to him.
X
For the third time, he returned to the same overshadowed colossal room…
Lights flickering around crazily…
Cisco didn't want to be here again… Two visits to this place were enough for this viber…
WHOOSH
And just like the first two visits… Cisco wasn't alone and did feel the ominous and menacing presence that was so familiar it actually alarmed him…
…
Turning around to face the evil speedster… Cisco's eyes paled and he gulped when seeing… Zoom reach up to his cowl and took it off…
…
Revealing the unmistakable face of Jay Garrick… the same person who fought alongside them for short months…
WHOOSH
He sped away, out of the area… and Cisco's vibe ended…
X
He returned to the present, his face devoid of emotions and pale. "No." Cisco muttered horrified at the vision he just saw.
"Cisco?" Seth placed a hand on his shoulder.
"No, no, no." Cisco chanted with a horrified expression.
Sharing a look with his friends and family, Seth shook him. "Cisco?" The viber returned to the present time, his hands releasing the silver kettle helmet and dropping it to the floor. A clattering sound echoed through the Cortex.
Matt walked forward. "Cisco?" The viber looked to him. "What did you see?"
"You look like you've seen a ghost." Olivia asked in concern.
Cisco stepped forward, turning around to look at them all. "I say Jay… He's Zoom."
Devastation hit them down… poured over them like an everlasting rainstorm… showering them all with that devasting news, which touched their skin, seeping into their bodies and corrupting their bodies with that information.
It would permanently be part of them…
Barry didn't know what to say…. Just what to do…
WHOOSH
He sped, putting on his suit and ran out of the facility.
"Barry!" Joe screamed after his adoptive son.
"Where's he going?" Iris asked.
"Gonna go and scream his lungs out." Seth answered casually.
That's what anyone would do when realizing that they've been betrayed by a man they've once called a friend… Someone who pulled their strings for their own reasons…
They'd go… and scream their frustrations, directing it to the high heavens if possible.
If only to… damn them for letting this happen…
To be continued….
And that's a chapter, peeps!
Having enjoyed an amazing breakfast with their family, Caitlin and Seth met up with the rest of the team, excluding Matt, at a canyon outside of Central City. They tested Barry by having make the jump over the canyon. But it failed.
Returning to their facility, Seth suggested that the speedster resorted to other methods like close-range fighting, but Barry said he'll stick with running, trying to outrun the evil speedster Zoom. But the team was tired from this entire week, which was spent on trying to help Barry get faster.
Cisco suggested going out together for a break. The team agreed and went to a club that Barry found on Yelp. But their night took a different turn when a new speedster showed up, stealing from every single one in the club.
Without their suits on them, Matt and Olivia had to let Seth and Barry take over. The two managed to find the speedster, but they were faster than Barry himself. Seth tried to block their path, but was instead slammed into the ground by a very powerful kick.
They were both confused by this speedster's arrival. The next day, the CCPD investigated the scene whilst the Snow-Fury family enjoyed drinks at CC Jitters. As that was happening, Jesse confronted her father about what he did, that he killed someone for her. She didn't like the answer and couldn't be anywhere near him.
The team discussed that this new speedster was able to do things that Barry wasn't able to, mostly focusing on that they were able to transfer their residual lightning into their fists or feet to attack in an attempt to augment their offensive and physical powers. they were confused as to why this new speedster only revealed themselves now. At those words, Caitlin then revealed something else, another way for someone to become a speedster.
She showed them the Velocity-9 serum, the speed drug that can turn someone into a speedster. Barry, Olivia and Matt grew enraged that she both made this and kept it hidden, but Seth faced them and threateningly told them to stand down and let it go.
The new speedster showed up again on their radar, and Barry and Matt and Seth jumped into action. After having a talk about the nanite mutant cutting Caitlin some slack, they hurried to where Barry was to meet the new speedster. They immediately saw the Scarlet Speedster be tackled with ease by this female speedster, who also defeated them with her tactics.
Returning to S.T.A.R. Labs, the three powered men talked about this new speedster, revealing that it was a woman that defeated them. They dwelled deeper into her powers and her suit, which was similar to Barry's.
Caitlin revealed it might have been Eliza Harmon, an ex-colleague of hers from her days at Mercury Labs, who was this faster and new speedster. Along with Joe and Frankie, both Caitlin and Seth visited her to get some answers. But she was clean in their eyes. When returning back to the facility, Caitlin went to apologize to her mutant friends about making this drug.
They accepted and asked for her assistance, showing the DNA analysis of Seth's blood. As that happened, Seth had to reprimand Barry with a harsh lesson before he crossed the line and injected himself with V9.
Frankie and Jesse had a deep talk about their fathers in the Cortex. Seth inquired Matt about his Frost-Flame armor in regard to making small scale weaponry.
Barry returned to them and then Trajectory, Eliza Harmon showed up, placing Barry in a containment cell and threw the mutants away before holding Jesse hostage, demanding more V9. When she got it, she injected Jesse with it to test its authenticity. She was happy with it and left them, but Jesse went into shock. And despite her father giving her his blood to flush out the drug, she didn't want anything to do with him.
The others had to clean up the Cortex, but Matt demanded answers from Seth when he didn't do anything against the female speedster like unleash his elements in bursts. The others accepted that and then looked for Eliza's whereabouts.
They found her trying to bring down a bridge, which she did. But even though she took another dosage of V9, and tried to run away after getting her fix, she was still defeated and encased in ice thanks to Seth's daughters throwing Blizzard Bombs after her.
They saw her body released blue lightning… similar to Zoom's, making them realize that the evil speedster was dying because of Velocity overdose… something that Jay also took.
Cisco vibed the silver helmet and saw Zoom take off his mask… Showing that it was Jay Garrick all along.
Stay turned and find out what happens next!
Until next time, peeps!
