And now another bedtime story for you wonderful readers… Plus a very, very Happy New Year to you all.
Wish you all the best in this new year. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday with friends and family despite the global pandemic and follow all the safety guidelines.
Small note: There's gonna be scenes I've cut from this episode as they were… sorta boring.
And I should also apologize for placing the wrong title on the last chapter, was way too worked up and made a mistake but I fixed it before.
Now to answer some reviews:
Ultimatrix bearer: Oh yeah, mate, she definitely does. Thanks.
Starpottergeek: Thanks, man, and hope you enjoy this chapter, hopefully answer a question or two, maybe.
Igcasas: Thanks for the suggestion man, will take it into consideration for sure.
Guest: Will think about that, got some other ideas for her actually, to be honest.
…
…
So, without further ado…
ENJOY!
Chapter 33: Versus Zoom
Flipping in the air with a demonic battle cry, Magenta crossed her arms, each appendage morphing into long sharp rapiers. Landing on the ground, she crouched in a running position before charging her father.
Venom growled and stomped the ground under his feet, igniting flames around his arms before charging his daughter. His right arm reeled back before thrusting forward to strike his daughter.
When the day began, Matt had to help Harrison and Cisco make the tachyon enhancer back at S.T.A.R. Labs. The other two mutants decided to move to the Badlands with the three girls to train. Olivia trained Evelyn and Ruby in the Badlands along with her brother training Frankie. Iris decided to come along with Caitlin to observe the training.
It got intense to say the least.
Like a hammer, Seth brought down his blazing hand. Stopping an inch before the arm, Frankie performed a spin, using her father's large arm as a platform and ran up the side of it before jumping into a spin. Her rapiers lashed out and repeatedly slashing her father's face with the momentum in her spin.
Groaning in annoyance at the blades connecting with his skull extension, Seth pulled back and looked for his daughter. But he couldn't find her anywhere no matter who much he looked. He narrowed his eyes in realization. Magenta turned invisible. "Where'd you go, daughter?" He cackled sinisterly, his tongue flickering the air as though he's a viper searching for her scent.
Iris shivered at that tone he used. Facing the doctor beside her, she said. "With a voice like that, it's no wonder Frankie turned invisible."
Caitlin frowned her face before nodding her agreement. "Yeah, but it's a way for Seth to act like a villain. To set the mood, I guess."
"Well…" Iris clicked her tongue. "He's doing a pretty good job of that, that's for sure."
"Yup." Caitlin nodded again as they returned their eyes to the large elemental who continued looking around.
His search came to an end when he heard the sound of gravel scattering behind him. Instantly, he swung an adamantium arm down in the direction. But all his fist connected with was the ground. "What the-"
His sentence was cut short when a spiked mace slammed against the side of his face, flinging him down to the ground. Venom shook his head, facing the direction of the face and saw his daughter appearing out of thin air with a large mace.
"Not bad." Venom stated impressively.
"Not all I got!" Magenta crossed her arms, her eyes shining brightly with magenta and focused on his adamantium arm. Taking hold of his metallic arm, she swung her arms to the sides and flung him down on his back.
She rushed, jumping into the air before slamming her spiked mace down on his face. Managing to break out of his daughter's magnekinetic hold, Seth lifted his metal arm and blocked the mace from connecting with his face.
Taking the opportunity to up their training, Venom raised his feet and kicked his daughter in the stomach, pushing her away. Jumping into a flip, he landed on his feet. Stretching out his arms, he then thrusted them into the ground, splitting them into tendrils under the ground.
Magenta looked around urgently, her eyes scanning the ground to see any signs of the tendrils coming towards her. "Gotta take Dad's trick on this one…" She thought out loud before her senses expanded to detect anything around her.
But they didn't sense the tendrils, allowing them to strike from the ground and surround her in a dome-like shape. The tendrils turned into adamantium and lashed down for her.
Cupping her hands over her head, they morphed into a large circular shield that took on the adamantium tendrils. But they continued their assault, retracting before striking down on the shield again and again, each repeated strike forced the young magnekinetic down a knee.
Frankie felt herself dig into the ground inch by inch by each incoming strike. She had to fight back. White pseudo eyes shined brightly magenta. Pointing her eyes upwards, she forced the metal tendrils away from her shield with a tilt of her head. Forcing the tendrils away, she directed them to strike her father again.
Mentally smiling at his daughter's display, Seth couldn't be prouder that his daughter was turning into such a formidable fighter now.
But Seth couldn't let himself be defeated just yet.
The handle of his crystal sword stuck out of his back before tendrils shot out of his shoulders, wrapping around it before yanking it out of his body. With the tendrils swinging his sword, he blocked his own adamantium tendrils with the side of his crystal blade.
Feeling her control stopping, Seth retracts the tendrils, reforming his arms and grabs his sword with his right hand. "Come on, kid."
Magenta narrowed her eyes, forming jagged swords out of her arms. "Bring it, old man!" She ran towards him.
Venom swung his sword, and it clashed against his daughter's swords. They pushed each other away before jumping towards each other again, their swords meeting each other repeatedly with each connection. Their faces brought closer to each other, showing wide smiles of joy.
They jumped away from each other and the elemental got down on a knee, he sighed and panted his shock and exhaustion. "Not bad, Frankie. You too, Magenta."
"Thanks." Magenta giggled. She reformed her arms and walked over to her father. "Is the training done?"
Before Seth could answer, Caitlin jumped in. "It is now!" She shouted and walked over to them, both retracting their symbiotic forms and looked surprised at her. "I know, I'm only here to make sure no one gets hurt, but I am not a fan of seeing my boyfriend attack our daughter." She sent a glare to her boyfriend.
Feigning defense, he held up his hands. "Sorry, but got too excited and too into it."
"Yeah, me too, Mom." Frankie admitted with a smile.
"Excited or not, honey, I don't like the sight of your father attacking you with a sword that can destroy breaches." Caitlin confessed. The two of them laughed at her reaction and Iris walked over to them.
"Father fighting daughter in the Snow-Fury family takes family fighting to a whole new level. Makes me miss the fights I used to have with my dad over him taking my stuffed turtle away, actually." Iris admitted.
"My family gets crazier and crazier." Caitlin jokingly confessed.
But they had to divert their attention elsewhere when they heard a rumbling coming from afar. They saw what could only be described as eruptions of gravel and dirt thrust up into the air repeatedly with each rumbling coming from the same direction.
Iris gulped at the sight of those rumblings. "What is going on there?"
"That's Livy..." Seth chuckled. "Training Ruby and Evelyn."
X
Appearing out of a veil of shadows, Eclipse landed on the ground, rolling in the gravel before pushing herself into a crouched position. She raised her bow and pulled an arrow out of her quiver, placing it on her bow before pulling it back.
Taking aim at the psychic before her, she exhaled and let her shadowy and bright elements wrap around her arrow. She lets go of the bowstring, shoots the arrow and watches it make its way towards her aunt.
Seeing the arrow coming her way, Angel Fury's entire body released psychic energy. Lashing her arms forward, her energy acted in kind, making the pulse of energy convert to the palms of her hands before taking the form of a sphere.
Like her niece, she took aim and shot the orb after the arrow. The energy object met the opposing projectile and caused them to explode. A smokescreen followed as the aftermath but through the smokescreen, three new arrows paved their ways through the smog.
Grabbing hold of her whip, she cracked it on the ground before swinging it after the three arrows. As her psychic energy wrapped around her whip, it collided with the arrows, deflecting them and shot into the ground around her, causing more eruptions of gravel.
Olivia turned to the smokescreen, looking to the smokescreen. But her eyes widened when she couldn't find Evelyn anywhere. "Glad Evelyn doesn't have your brain, Seth." She couldn't help but insult her big brother.
But a single glance to the ground, and she saw a poof of shadows appear over her with a sword. She swiftly turned around, dodging her niece who appeared with a sword of light.
Eclipse spines, swinging her sword for her aunt again. "Not bad, kiddo." Olivia dodged another strike. "You managed to incorporate close-range fighting and not only rely on long-range too… That's smart, really smart." She said while dodging another two sword strikes. "I'm proud."
"But!" Evelyn expected her to say while dodging her attacks.
Smirking behind her mask, Olivia thrusted her palm forward and sent a psychic pulse from it, pushing her niece to the ground. "You've gotten better, sure, but I'm way better."
"Wanna say that again?!"
Olivia turned the direction of the scream and saw Destroyer thrust her hands out, releasing an immense gravitational wave that came storming towards her like a tsunami pacing its way through the gravel and pushed it everywhere. Her eyes light up with psychic energy before that same energy emanates all over her body, forming a barrier around her body like a dome.
The gravity way pushed against her barrier, pushing the psychic back a bit but her barrier withstood the gravitational blast. She lowered it and saw Ruby rushing towards her with her hand reeled back but only for a second before it was thrusted forward and threw her Chakram blade.
Locking onto it with her eyes, enveloping it with psychic energy, Olivia changed its trajectory, making it fly around her body. Reaching a full circle, she hurled it back towards her niece with greater speed. The gravity manipulator pressed a gravity wave on the blade, pushing it down into the ground.
Turning impressed by that, Olivia saw her niece coming towards her in a rush. She spun around and lashed out her kick. Angel Fury coated her left palm with psychic energy and blocked the foot. Grabbing hold of it, she telekinetically increased her strength and threw Ruby into the air. "Bon voyage!"
But surprise hit with the suddenness of a lightning strike when she saw Ruby spin in the air and suddenly come to stop… mid-air.
"Damn…" Olivia said impressively.
Ruby smirked behind her mask. "Remember, I did look up to you and your family."
"And you stole my trick?" Olivia scoffed. "Not bad, kiddo."
"That's not all I can do!" Ruby launched herself from the air, shooting herself downwards and raised her foot high.
The psychic raised her right arm and covered it with energy and blocked the foot when it came down on her. What Olivia didn't expect was that the gravitational wave that followed the strike, pushing the psychic mutant's feet deeper into the ground.
Olivia groaned and gritted her teeth in pain when she felt the gravity fly through her armor and connect with her skin.
Eclipse widened her eyes. "Ruby, stop! She's pregnant!"
"Oh shit!" Ruby realized, jumping away and landed on the ground. She walked over to her aunt who pulled her feet out of the ground. "Sorry, Aunt Liv."
"Are you okay?" Evelyn took off her mask and rushed to her aunt's side with her sister.
Olivia, her face devoid of her mask, snapped her eyes back and forth between her two nieces and rapidly asked. "You two know too? How? Did your mom tell you?"
Evelyn surprised her with a shake of her head. "Nah, Frankie told us."
"Frankie knows too?" Olivia inquired.
Ruby nodded. "She told us. And mom already knows?"
"She was the first one to know, well find out, actually." Olivia explained with a sigh. "And now Frankie and the two of you know too…" Her eyes widened. "Wait, does this mean-"
"Don't think Dad knows." Ruby answered before the question was stated. "But why won't you tell Dad? Isn't he, like, a mutant doctor?"
"He is… But… I'm waiting, I guess." Olivia slowly said, rubbing her stomach.
Evelyn smiled. "You know the gender yet?"
"Nah, we don't…We're waiting for the day they come out." Olivia replied.
"They?" Ruby smiled. "You're having twins?"
"Yup." Olivia chuckled at her reaction. "Yeah, you're gonna have a pair of cousins-" She covered her mouth, her cheeks bulging.
"Aunt Liv?" Evelyn asked.
She didn't answer and walked away from them and bent over, throwing up her stomach contents. Gagging and coughing, Olivia forced the rest out. Evelyn and Ruby walked over to her sides, covering their noses because of the smell.
"You okay, Aunt?" Ruby asked out of concern.
Straightening herself, Olivia wiped away the last vomit from the corners of her mouth. "Don't worry, it's part of the process."
"Doesn't nausea usually strike a month after you become pregnant?" Ruby noted.
"Leave it to Seth's kid to know bio." Olivia chuckled. "But yeah, that's true, I read the same books on my honeymoon. But those books were made for humans, not mutants." She shrugged. "Guess recurring cases of nausea is common for mutant females."
"Oh shit… But are you okay, Aunt?" Evelyn couldn't stop her concern.
"I'm fine, honey. All I get is hunger pangs and nausea… You don't have to worry about me." She assured her but she held her right forearm with her left hand.
"Hey!" The three of them looked to the side and saw Seth, Caitlin, Frankie and Iris walking towards them. "What's going on? Thought things went quiet around, wondered if you died or something. What happened?"
"It's called taking a break, dummy." Olivia sniped. "How'd it go with you and Frankie?"
"Pretty darn awesome." Frankie giggled before walking over to Ruby. The two leant close to each other and whispered to each other.
While he did take notice of it, Seth focused his attention on his sister's forearm which she held. "What's going on with your arm, Livy?"
"Nothing." Olivia assured him.
Knowing her better than to trust her, Seth walked over to her and took hold of her arm. Pulling the gauntlet off his sister's arm, he narrowed his eyes on the bruise on her arm. "Nothing, huh?" He quipped and his sister smiled innocently. "Okay, let's go back and I'll check this out."
"Sure." Olivia accepted.
"We have to go back anyway." The reporter got their attention, waving her phone with a message from Barry. "Looks like the Nerd Squad finished that speed thing for Barry."
"The tachyon enhancer?" Seth surmised.
"That one, yeah." Iris confirmed.
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs)
"Take a seat." Seth nodded to the gurney for his sister to take when they returned, and they walked into the medbay. "And take off your gauntlet."
"Will do, Doc." Olivia quipped, taking off her gauntlet and showed her bruised arm, the discoloration and swelling of it still visible.
"Doesn't look like it's gotten worse, that's good." Seth noted before taking out a bandage roll and an ice bag. He gently placed the bag on her swelled area. "We've come a long way from how I used to treat you when you were a kid."
"Yeah." Olivia remembered that with a chuckle. "No more lame "Knock-Knock" jokes."
"Lame?" He questioned as he checked the bruising again. "You laughed your ass off when you heard those as a kid."
"Painkillers." Olivia defended.
As he applied the bandage to her arm, he said. "God… Haven't looked back on that in a long time."
Olivia watched his expression, and even without her telepathy, she knew what was going through his mind. "Hey… I'm sorry for not spending more time with you since you got back, Bro. It's just… Just been crazy is all."
"Don't think about that, dummy." Seth said as he tightened the bandage around her arm. Taking a seat beside his sister he stated. "You're married now, and yet you're still spending time with my family so much… I always knew that you'd stop spending time with your boring old big brother."
"Old? No. Boring? No." She assured him with a smile. "But when we've defeated Zoom… How about we split ice cream again like we did when we were kids again?"
"Might need our own separate buckets." Seth laughed and she joined him. "But yeah, let's do that…." He chuckled unsurely before asking. "Hey, you doing okay?"
Olivia looked at him. "What do you mean?"
"I don't know… You've…" He gestured to her. "You seem different."
Having prepared for these questions from her brother, she quickly answered. "Well, it's because of… My honeymoon with Matt." Seth narrowed his eyes in confusion. "You do remember he's Tony Stark's son, right? At every hotel we've been to, in every destination we've been to, we found a… entertainment box by Tony, made especially for us-"
"Stop it!" Seth whispered loudly. Whether it was intentional or not, his words came out as a sneer.
"Smart choice, cause we k-"
Seth slammed his hand over her mouth, cutting her off. Any more information… He'd blew his lid and beat her with it. "For the love of all things good, stop it."
"What's going on here?" Caitlin asked as she walked into the sibling squabble. Neither of them said anything and the native doctor said. "Want me to give her a last checkup, Seth?"
"Don't think she needs one? Do you?" Seth wondered.
Rolling her eyes, Olivia made it clear for her brother. "That's her way of asking you to leave so we can have a girl talk."
Seth locked eyes with Caitlin. "Oh, that's what you meant. Just say that next time." He added before walking out of the medbay, quickly kissing Caitlin and left the women alone.
Making sure he was out of earshot, Caitlin quickly walked over to the psychic. "Are you okay? Matt's been hounding me to check up on you and then I hear from my daughters that you threw up?"
"They're not wrong." Olivia admitted, scrunching her nose in disgust when smelling her breath. "I need a mint."
"Lie down on your back, I'll check you, okay?" Caitlin instructed. "But I think it would be better if Seth was the one doing this, he knows about mutant physiology more than me."
"Most of the important stuff is in Seth's head, sure, but other stuff is on Jarvis' drive. Don't worry." The psychic assured the doctor.
"Okay." That was helpful. Caitlin took the nearest tablet and held it in her hand. "Jarvis, give me everything about mutant pregnancy from Seth's files." She instructed the AI before getting on the task.
X
Stepping out of the medbay, Seth saw Cisco and Iris at the console and checking everything as Barry was far away from them, ready to test out the tachyon enhancer.
But the elemental's attention was diverted to his best friend who was gnawing on his fingernails like a beaver going through wood. "Matty." He walked over to the nanite mutant.
Briefly glancing at him, he asked. "What?"
"What are you nervous about?" Seth inquired.
"What makes you think I'm nervous?" Matt asks, his teeth biting his nails with each word coming out.
Seth nodded to the nanite mutant's fingers. "You're biting your nails again. You do this when you're nervous. Pretty sure you bit through your skin when you saw my Aunt Carol in her suit the first time."
Matt glared at him; his cheeks blushed to no ends. "You can't keep bringing that up, man. One time! I was a kid."
"Sure… But seriously what's going on?" Seth asked with a chuckle.
"What?"
"You're nervous and you're watching Livy like a hawk. What's the deal? Don't try and bullshit your way out of this." Seth sternly said.
"…" Much like his wife, he was prepared for questions that might come from the elemental if he were to get suspicious and ask questions. "What can I say? Things are different now that I'm married. I'm constantly worried about her."
"That's how she feels too. Marriage is a two-way street. Chances are you're both feeling the same way, without knowing that." Seth stated. "What you're feeling is completely normal, Matt. But remember, she's not made of porcelain, she's not fragile. My baby sis can go four rounds with The Thing, for God's sake."
"Yeah… Oh God, it's just constant worry about her." Matt sighed heavily.
"That's part of marriage." Seth smiled and tapped his shoulder before walking to the console. "Cisco, is Speedy there?"
"I'm here, you guys!" Barry's voice came through the comms. "You got my location?"
At those words, Cisco asked. "You're good? You don't need to, like, stretch or something?"
"Where is he exactly?" Seth asked, directing his words to the nervous nanite mutant.
Matt snapped out of his nervous reverie. "You remember that place with the Keystone City sign?"
"He's gonna run that?" Seth asked. Matt nodded. "Curious to see if that device can work?"
"At least this one won't poison him." Matt said confidently. "Hopefully." Somewhat confidently.
"Seriously?" Iris asked worriedly.
"No, no, no, I'm good, I'm good." The speedster assured them.
Cisco excitedly stated. "Let's take this tachyon enhancer out for a test drive."
"Get going, Speed-Freak." Seth stated challengingly before taking a seat at the console, opening up the speedster's vital signs.
"All right." Over the comms they could hear the enhancer placing over his chest, emitting a whirring sound as it attached to his body. "Yeah. I feel that."
"You should, Speedy." Seth said as he took in the scans. "It's the enhancer on your chest powering up the Speed Force inside of you. Think of it like a quick charge battery."
Curious about the effects of this type of enhancer, Matt walked to the console. "How do you feel? Not sick or anything?"
"Different." Barry said.
"Let's see how long it takes you to get back here." The mechanical engineer smiled. "On my count."
"Jarvis, keep a scan on him, follow his path through the city." Matt instructed.
"As you wish, Mr. Stark." The AI accepted.
"Three… two…one." Cisco counted down. "Go!"
Through the comms, they could hear the immense, almost-deafening sound of his lightning echo throughout the entire Cortex. "What the fuck?!" Olivia asked in shock at the deafening thunder sound.
"Calm down, Bubble, it's just Barry speeding." Seth assured his little sister.
But Cisco couldn't agree with that. "Speeding isn't even close to what he's doing now… Damn… This thing got him cruising." The viber declared as he watched the speedster run into city limits.
"How fast does he normally go?" Iris asked.
"Not this fast, that's for sure." Matt answered.
"Not even close." Cisco looked to the mutant doctor. "Are his vitals okay? Not turned into jelly or something?"
"That'd be a horrifying death." Seth chuckled and faced the scans. "They're a-okay."
"Cool. It's like having a pit-stop attached to your chest." Iris said.
"Everything's good on this end?" Caitlin asked as she and Olivia moved back into the Cortex.
"So far, he's doing better than good." Seth replied. He was really impressed how the speedster was speeding around in the city at incredible speed.
"Guys, I can go faster." Barry admitted over the rushing wind.
"You waiting for an invite or something? Do it!" Matt shouted.
Seth raised an eyebrow. "If he does get dangerously too fast, he might just turn into a pile of ash in a red suit."
"Oh dear." Jarvis suddenly stated.
"What's wrong, Jarvis?" Matt asked out loud at Jarvis' exclaim.
"It would appear Mr. Allen… Never mind, sir." The AI corrected himself. The nanite mutant grew confused, his attention turned to the computer, which he walked to, and began typing away on the keyboard, bringing up Jarvis' scans on the screen.
WHOOSH
The group looked up when they saw Barry speed into the Cortex. He spiraled around, pulling his cowl off and locked eyes with them. "I'm back." Seth and his "other" noticed the high level of confusion in his voice. "What… How long was I gone?"
"What?" Seth let out in shock and confusion.
Cisco smiled enthusiastically, getting up from his chair. "Let's put it this way, you just annihilated your old record."
"Really?" Barry smiled.
Pushing his own shock and confusion to the side for now, Seth nodded to the enhancer on Barry's chest. "With that thing on your chest, you just went four times faster than you have ever been."
"Four times?" Barry asked in shock and clarification. "That's as-"
"Fast as Zoom." Harrison finished his sentence as he entered the Cortex, a cup of coffee in his hand. "Well, faster actually." He clarified.
"Not bad for a test drive." Seth admitted.
"No kidding." Matt nodded. His attention was instantly turned to his wife who stood beside Caitlin.
As he walked over to them, Barry took off the enhancer. "Hey… Do we think that…" He looked to Harry. "… We can get this thing smaller? It kind of sucks."
Harry placed his eyes on it. "If it sucks, then yeah." He grabbed the enhancer.
Barry smiled, facing the rest of his team. "All right, so now all we have to do is figure out how to get back to Zoom."
"Oh yeah, that shit's still on the table." Seth voiced his thoughts.
Cisco had to be the bearer of bad news. "Yes… Just a minor issue. We closed all the breaches and have no idea how to reopen them."
"We don't…" Barry looked to Matt. "Matt, you got to have something, right? Your end created portals 600 universes apart."
"That was because of Seth jumping into an unstable portal with lightning erupting from him." The nanite mutant said, his attention on his wife.
"Seriously?" Barry groaned.
Before the idea even popped into the speedster's mind, Seth reprimanded. "And no, we're not creating an unstable gateway here."
"I wasn't gonna-" Barry stopped and faced Harry. "Wells?"
"Yeah, I have an idea, Allen." Harry started. "Let's keep the breaches closed forever. Forget about the breaches. Forget about Zoom."
That statement caught Barry off guard. "Wait, I'm sorry, I thought that you were on board with this."
"No." Harry shook his head, walking towards the speedster. "No. I said I would help you get faster… Preferably without Stark poisoning you." Matt frowned in hurt. "I did not say I would help you give the man who kidnapped my daughter and tortured her a chance to do it again."
"Hey, we are not gonna let that happen." Iris pitched in defensively.
Harry gaped his mouth in mock surprise. "Oh, you're not gonna let that happen." He looked sarcastically. "Gosh, I wish I'd known that the first time. You don't understand that Zoom is different than us. Zoom is not tied to anything. Zoom does not care for anyone." They looked to understand his reasoning. "I do. My daughter's out here on this Earth somewhere. I have to find her. We all have people that we care about. Zoom will use that against us. Believe me."
To further his point, Harry looked between Caitlin and Seth. "Snow. Fury. The two of you understand." He locked eyes with the mutant. "Zoom held you captive in a cell for six months. You had to survive seeing your two daughters and my daughter be hurt the entire time. And when you escaped, you were hunted by him." He looked to the female doctor. "Snow, this man had your daughters in cells like trophies and the love of your life was fighting for his for over a year. Far away from you and your family… You two want this maniac back in your lives again? On the same Earth… So, he can kidnap your children again."
"That's a low blow, Harry." Caitlin said. "And of course not. Like you, we're the last people to ever want this maniac back on this Earth, Dr. Wells." She looked to Seth and assuredly said. "But I know that Seth will stop him from ever nearing our daughters again."
"Damn right." Seth cracked his fingers. "If he shows up again, I'll take care of him. He's gonna need an army to get through me, Wells. He's never gonna come near them."
"He's not gonna be alone." Matt added.
Seth smiled. "He's gonna have to go through the two of us before even coming near my daughters, before coming near your daughter, Wells."
"That's reassuring…" Harry admitted and faced the Scarlet Speedster again. Gesturing to the male mutants, he said. "… Cause these two fought Zoom and managed to hurt him, on multiple occasions, unlike you, Barry Allen, who only ended up as Zoom's personal punching bag the one time you fought him, and he dragged your beaten body throughout the city to display you like another sick trophy. So far now, how about you listen to me or Snow-Fury, who're the parents here, and don't want their children in Zoom's claws again!" He practically shouted before walking away to work on miniaturizing the enhancer.
"Maybe Harry's right… Maybe we should leave it be." Caitlin suggested.
"No, no. Look, no." Barry swung his eyes between the mutants and the others and Harry. "Look, we're- We're not turning our backs on another Earth. We're not gonna let Zoom get away with everything that he's done."
Harry reminded him sternly. "Right now, there is no way to another Earth, Allen. Fury destroyed the last breach to my Earth when he returned to this Earth, just in time before Zoom killed Snow and also chased Zoom away after fighting him." He stated each word with a strong tone, hoping that his words would act as a knife and drive into the speedster. "We closed them all, let's keep it that away." He walked away.
Olivia chortled. "Think that's the first time Wells ever mentioned your name, bro."
Caitlin held the elemental's hand. "Guess he's starting to respect you now, Seth."
"They're both parents." Matt noted.
"Father to father, I know how he feels." Seth admitted. "As parents, we're supposed to keep dangers away from our children no matter what."
But Barry wasn't convinced and remained adamant on his plan. "We're getting back to Earth-2. With or without his help."
"You sure about this?" Seth stepped closer to Barry. "Like Wells just said, he pummeled your ass with ease in your last fight. The enhancer on your chest might just…. I don't know, maybe entice him." He didn't see it but behind him Caitlin was holding the side of her head, rubbing it with her fingertips.
"I am 100 percent sure, Seth. Besides, you're back with again. This time, we're at full strength and we're gonna beat him." Barry confidently said. "Trust me on this, and I thought you'd be first to leap at this idea."
"Leaping is my thing, sure, and I do like the idea of pummeling Zoom's ass after what he's done to the team and to Earth-2." He sighed. "Hope those guys are alright."
"You mean, the Earth-2 folks?" Barry asked.
"Yeah." Seth nodded. "You know four people on that end, but I know a shitload more and they're on that Earth fighting Zoom. It worries me."
"Then you're-"
"But I also have to think like a parent, like Wells." Seth interrupted the speedster. "I'm all for fighting Zoom, but I'm not gonna be an idiot and just open the one and only gateway to our backyard that a speedster like him can use. That's like taking a bath with a toaster."
"It's not suicide, it's tactics." Barry countered.
"Made by a toddler." Seth countered. He looked back to Caitlin and saw her stagger. "Cait?"
Before she could reply, she lost her balance and almost fell to the ground. But Olivia caught her quickly. "Caity?!"
"Cait!" Seth rushed to her and held her up with his little sister. "Caitlin, are you okay?"
"What happened?" Iris asked.
"Is she okay?" Cisco asked urgently.
Caitlin shook her head, shaking off the feelings in her before getting back on her feet. "I'm fine… Just tired, I think. I've been working too much, I think."
"You have." Seth said. He's been watching all this time. When she wasn't with him or helping out with the family, she was helping Harry make the tachyon enhancer. She's got too much on her plate. "You stay here in the lab, take a nap. If the guys need medical help, I'll put on a lab coat and take care of them."
"A nap does sound good." Caitlin admitted. "What about the girls? I have to pick them up soon."
"I'll ask Evie if she can shadowport them back home and then swing by later." Seth said and held her hands. "You just relax and take a long nap, alright?"
Caitlin smiled. "I will. Thanks." She let the elemental escort her back to the gurney.
"Hope she's okay." Olivia said.
"She'll be fine." Cisco said. He looked at Matt. "Matt. You're not Caitlin, but can you help me out while she's getting her beauty sleep?"
"Hurtful that I'm the second choice, but what the hell?" Matt shrugged and walked with the native engineer.
"Let's go to work." Cisco said.
Olivia looked around. "Guess that means I can go and pick up Big Belly Burgers for me and Caity when she's waking up." She stated her excuse for her hunger pangs and walked to the exit.
Iris turned around and took her jacket, walking to the exit as well. "Hey, where are you going?" Barry stopped her. "We could use your help."
"Ahhh…" Iris faced the speedster. "Yeah, I would. It's just… I have a date with Scott."
Barry turned intrigued. "That's the editor?"
"Yeah, yeah." Iris replied.
Smiling he said. "That's good. No, I'm good that you're finding a way to move on without anything holding you back. You deserve that."
"Yeah, and well, I would have been able to do it without your support." Iris confessed. "It means a lot to me, so…"
"Of course." He nodded without looking at her.
"Thanks." She expressed.
"Yes, for sure." Iris said. "Well, hey, I mean, if you don't get this breach problem fixed by tonight… Bets me on for tomorrow?"
He smiled. "I can do that."
"Okay." Iris said before walking out of the Cortex.
X
After a while of shopping for food, Olivia returned to the facility with takeout food from a great Chinese place and the nearest Big Belly Burger. She brought enough for herself, her three nieces and her brother and Caitlin.
Passing through the threshold, the psychic saw her nieces around the gurney where their mother was sleeping. She also saw her brother sleeping beside her in a chair. Frankie was on the ceiling above the seated Ruby and Evelyn and they saw their aunt entering with food bags. "Hiya girls! Got food." Olivia greeted them, holding up the bags.
"Nice." Evelyn expressed.
"Thanks, Aunt." Ruby said back.
Placing the bags on the nearest table and taking out the boxes of food from within, Olivia looked upwards to see Frankie looking down at her mother in the gurney. "Frankie, there's a bag of chocolate chips here for Magenta."
"Thanks, Aunt Liv." A pink tendril sprouted from her back and shot into the bag. It pulled back to the magnekinetic's body with the bag of chocolate chips. She turned her eyes to her aunt. "Is Mom okay? She's never passed out like that before."
Olivia took a seat, a burger in hand. "She's been working like crazy, honey. With you crazy kids, with this team, with being the team doctor…" With her burger she gestured to the sleeping elemental. "Especially with that snoring dumbass being gone before…. And yeah, my situation too." She pointed to her stomach. "Right now, your Mom, girls… She might just be the busiest person on this entire team. Heck maybe, even in the city."
Frankie perked up. Well, down in her case. She dropped down to the ground and stood in her full height beside her sisters. "Mom's overworking?"
"Looks like, yeah." Olivia responded and threw her a burger. "I mean, the signs point to it anyway."
"Aunt Liv?" Ruby got her attention as she took hold of a Chinese takeout box and chopsticks. "Do you think she's worried about us training to fight against Zoom?"
Evelyn picked out a spring roll. "You think she's against it?"
"We're talking about Caitlin Snow, doctor and mother to three powered girls, two of whom are from different universes. Heck yeah, she's against it." Olivia knew. "Any mother's gonna be against the idea of having their children on the frontline for sure." She looked directly at both Ruby and Evelyn. "Especially when two of her children were once Zoom's prisoners."
"She's afraid of us being back in his grasp…" Evelyn trailed off with a gulpy. "I'm still scared of that happening again."
"It's good to be scared, it keeps you alert and on guard out in the field." Olivia stated after eating her burger. "But don't worry, you three are gonna be with your uncle and your father out there. They're powerhouses in the field."
"Pretty annoying our powerhouse of an aunt can't join us." Ruby chuckled.
"Sorry to ruin your childhood, kiddo." The psychic jokes, alluding to the former assassin's childhood admiration of her and the other mutants. "But I'm busy with some personal business of my own for now." She rubbed her lower abdomen to empathize. "I'm hella of terrified."
"We're there for you, Aunt Liv." Evelyn smiled with a mouth full of spring roll.
"Glad to know, girls." Olivia smiled as she picked out another burger from the bag. She took out another one, looking at Frankie. "Frankie, heads up."
Frankie quickly lashed out her hand and grabbed the burger her aunt threw her. "Sorry, Aunt."
"Eat." Olivia stated. "You need your strength, kiddo. So, dig in."
X
Seth yawned loudly as he walked through the corridors. "Finally realized something." He was still sore from sleeping in a chair, and felt like he slept through the entire night.
"What?" Venom asked.
"Big Belly Burger on his Earth and Earth-2, they taste exactly the same." Seth declared.
"Oh yeah… Never noticed." His "other" admitted.
"You never would have." Seth groaned. After waking up in a chair beside his sleeping girlfriend, and after sharing a takeout meal and Big Belly Burger meals with his sister and daughters, he slowly and quietly walked out of the medbay so Caitlin could continue sleeping in peace. Their daughters needed to relax too as did his sister, so he walked towards Cisco's workshop alone.
But as he did, he noticed Barry walking ahead of him. "Bar, what's up?"
Barry twirled around in surprise. "Hey, you're still here?"
"Had a good night's rest, so yeah." Seth said.
"How's Caitlin?" Barry asked.
Seth replied. "Sleeping still. She's been working overtime with everything that's on her plate, she needs the rest."
"Yeah… Seth, how do you really feel about me and this plan about going to Earth-2?" Barry asked.
"Thought I made that abundantly clear before." Seth stated. "But why you asking again?" He crossed his arms over his chest.
"When I was having dinner with him before, Joe said he doesn't like the thought of me going back to Earth-2. Even though I'm faster now. Faster than I've ever been. Faster than Zoom." Barry said.
"And Joe's worried about you going back and kicking the hornet's nest again." He rather stated than questioned. "Well, it's understandable, he's your father, after all. He doesn't' want you back in the lion's den."
"Even with you guys?" Barry asked.
"We're strong, Barry, but we're not invincible. We got limits." Seth reminded him. "But what are you doing back here by the way?"
"That's something I realized from speaking with Joe." Barry stated.
The elemental turned sceptic. "Joseph West whose mind goes blank by anything he calls "science-y", gave you an idea? Isn't that like a sign of the Apocalypse?"
"No, man, it's a good idea." Barry said before walking to the workshop with the mutant who doubted the speedster's definition of a "good idea." They walked into it and both gasped in shock at the board filled with equations.
"Holy moly." Seth asked in shock. That sight reminded him of the times he visited Doctor Conners' lab as an intern. Cisco was banging his head on the board and Matt was opening the dimensional transporter that his father made him. "So, you guys got any ideas?"
Cisco pressed his face against the transparent board. "Well, the best plan we've come up with so far is to set off a nuclear warhead next to the city's electrical grid, so…"
"We're not gonna do that." Barry stated.
Seth raised an eyebrow, turning to the nanite mutant. "For real?"
Matt removed his eyes from his work, looking at his brother-in-law. "Trust me, we had to come to this. We crossed off Gamma Bombs."
"Smart. Last thing this world needs is an Earth-1 Hulk." Seth confessed.
"What was that?" Cisco asked intrigued.
"Nothing. Never mind." Seth stopped him. This facility was responsible for creating metahumans with dark matter, last thing it needed to create was gamma radiated humans who can turn into green titans when triggered.
Barry looked to the nanite mutant. "Matt, your device can't do anything? It opened a portal to Earth-616."
"Keyword: portal. Not a breach. The science is different." Matt dropped the tools. "If I could maybe get the frequency of Earth-2 via a breach, I might be able to get my device to connect to it. But until then, we got squat."
"Not exactly." Barry said. "I think I thought of something though."
"This should get interesting." The symbiote stated.
"Uncomfortably and recklessly so, yeah." The elemental thought back.
X
The four of them moved to Harry's lab and saw him hard at work at his desk. The Earth-2 scientist quickly greeted them before resuming his work. But as he did. "What do you guys want?"
Barry stepped forward. "Tell us everything that you know about Cisco's doppelganger."
Seth scrunched his face. "You want to talk about Reverb?" The speedster looked surprised at his words. "Remember I spent a year on that Earth. I faced him multiple times."
"Okay." Barry nodded.
Matt wanted to pitch in, but he saw Cisco with a distant look on his face. Like he was… paralyzed and incapable of moving.
"What were Reverb's powers on your Earth?" Barry asked.
Harry answered. "Reverb… He could tap into the multi-dimensional energies between Earths. He could see through dimensions."
"He could vibe too." Matt deduced.
"Yup. Find breachers, like Ramon." Harry clarified.
"That's not all he could do." Seth stated. "He could project these powerful vibrational bursts from his hands. They were pretty painful."
"Oh yeah, I remember that." Matt recalled their fight back on Earth-2. "But what does this have to do with opening a breach to Earth-2?"
The speedster answers. "I-I mean, Reverb had the ability to somehow manipulate that multi-dimensional energy."
"What's your point, Allen?" Harry impatiently asked.
"My point is… If his powers are linked to the energy that ties together the multiverse, if he can manipulate it-"
"Then theoretically, he'd be able to open a breach to any Earth he wants." Seth finished the metahuman's sentence.
"And if Reverb could do it…" Matt turned his head to Cisco who continued wearing a vacant look.
"I could do it too." Cisco realized.
Barry smiled. "Cisco, I think the way back to Earth-2 is you."
That did not ease the vacant expression on the mechanical engineer's face.
X
Stirring in her sleep, Caitlin opened her eyes and sat up. She looked around and found herself in the medbay. "What the…"
"Caity, you're up." Olivia got the doctor's attention when she walked into the medbay. "You're okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." She swung her legs out from the covers. Exhaling sharply, she closed her eyes and rubbed her head. "Don't know why but I feel really tired."
"It's understandable, Caity. You've been working like crazy, after all." Olivia sat beside her on the gurney. She raised her hand, holding out a bag of Chinese takeout for her. "Got you some Kung Pao Chicken with spring rolls. Sorry, no pizza pockets." She remembered her favorite snacks.
Caitlin giggled. "It's okay, thanks." Before she even reached for it, she realized. "Wait, what about the girls? Did they eat?"
"Calm down, Momma Bear." Olivia joked, placing the bag of Chinese order on the doctor's lap. "I bought them some as well, even for Seth. He was sleeping in a chair beside you. Now with this," she nodded to the food in Caitlin's lap. "I've officially fed your entire family."
"Thanks." She said, pulling out the box and chopsticks. Opening the box, she relished the smell of fried chicken and rice before taking the chopsticks and began eating. After her first bite, she appreciatively told the psychic. "God, I needed this."
Olivia chuckled at that. "Easy there, Doc. You're eating like it's your last meal on Earth. It's not going anywhere."
Covering her mouth, mostly on the account of her chuckling with a mouth full of spring roll, she wiped off sauce from the corners of her mouth. "Sorry, just hungry is all."
"Aw, don't worry." Olivia sighs before speaking. "Hey, I'm sorry for what I've done." Caitlin worriedly snapped her eyes around her lab, worried the psychic messed with any of her equipment. Following her eyes, and quickly piecing everything together the mutant assured her. "I didn't mess with your lab."
"Then what are you sorry for?" She asked while biting down on a spring roll.
"For increasing your workload." Olivia tapped her stomach, referring to her unborn bundles of joy. "These goobers have been taking up all of your time, and you've been checking up on me repeatedly because of them. You got your plate full with your daughters and Seth and the team… And you're still helping…"
"And I will always help you." She held the psychic's hand and squeezed it comfortably. "Those twins in you are my family too, and I'll always help my family, just like their stubborn mother who helps my family."
Remembering an old quote from an old friend of hers from Earth-616, Olivia recited her words. ""You help someone, you help everyone.""
"What's that?" Caitlin asked when hearing that sweet saying.
"A wise woman on 616 keeps saying that at a homeless shelter she helps out at." Olivia chuckled. "Just thought about it after you said that." She wrapped her arms around the doctor and embraced her in a hug. "Thank you, Caitlin. It means a lot that you helped me and my goobers out so much."
"I'm not stopping, you know. You're stuck with me." Caitlin quipped.
"And here I thought that was my brother." The mutant replied.
Her eyes snapped open in realization and she pulled out of the hug. "Wait where is Seth?"
"Down in the Breach room with Barry, Cisco and Matty. They think Cisco's powers can also open breaches now." The mutant informed.
"Seriously?" Caitlin asked after she wiped her mouth clean.
"Yup." Olivia got up. "Wanna check it out?"
"Course." Caitlin followed the psychic out of the medbay.
The lights from the lamps shining over the bed and shined on the completely empty box of Chinese takeout that the doctor just emptied. Not a grain of rice or cube of fried chicken left behind. Everything in the box… Was completely eaten.
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Breach Room)
"I feel like us testing our powers went easier than what Cisco's doing right now." Ruby admitted from the platform with her sisters around her. The three of them watched as Cisco pointed his hand to the last breach's latest location with his eyes closed.
"For once, I agree with you, Rubs." Evelyn agreed.
Frankie chuckled at her sisters' antics. She turned her eyes to her father. "Dad, can't you, like, do something to grease the wheels? Cisco's not getting anywhere, you know."
"I'm hungry. Buy bacon!" Magenta whined.
"We just ate." Frankie reminded her partner.
"Not enough. You're skimming. I don't need a diet." Magenta countered.
"Wouldn't be wrong if you started one, you know." Frankie countered.
"Hey!"
Frankie physically had to hold her head when she heard her "other" scream like a banshee. Seth noticed his daughter's abrupt reaction and laughed. "Baby, careful when you talk about grease. It's like a trigger word for symbiotes, and then they get hangry as hell."
"Thanks for the late warning, Daddy." Frankie quipped.
"Wow, you really know how to prepare your daughter for a life with symbiotes." Venom disappointingly states to his host.
"Guys, quiet down." Barry shushed them. "Cisco's concentrating."
"If you say so." Ruby mockingly said, not all taking the speedster's words seriously.
"Be nice, Rubs." Caitlin announced as she walked back into the Breach Room with Olivia. The doctor wrapped her daughter into a hug and looked to Seth who immediately moved up the stairs and got to her side. "I'm fine, Seth. Don't worry." She quickly said before he said anything.
"Yeah, like that's ever gonna happening." Seth said before asking. "Are you really okay? I was gonna stay awake, but I fell asleep in the middle of it."
"I know, but bright side? We both got our beauty sleep." She quipped before locking lips with the elemental.
"Ew." Evelyn shuddered at her parents' display of affection.
Pulling out of the kiss, Caitlin shook her head before asking the mutant. "How's it going down here?"
"Yeah, give us the update, bro." Olivia added.
Gesturing to Cisco who kept concentrating, Seth said. "This is the update: Nowhere. Cisco's been concentrating like this, trying to tap into the dimensional energy of the multiverse like Wells said, but so far… We've gotten nowhere."
At those words, Caitlin looked to Olivia. "Liv, don't you tap into some other power when you use telepathy or telekinesis?"
"Yes and no." The psychic started. "I tap into my mind's power, yeah, but it's not like I'm tapping into some dimensional energy that ties the multiverse together. Mine's closer to home and Cisco's…" For some reason, she began waving her hands around with her hands. "Everywhere? Someone help me. I don't know what I'm saying here."
Matt jumped off his seat. "Plus, with this being of a universal element, it's thousands times harder than it could be with tapping into mind's powers."
As if on cue, Cisco's concentration dropped, and he lowered his hand. "I got nothing."
"Try again, okay?" Barry encouraged his friend.
With an inquisitive look on his face, Matt faced the two doctors. "What are the chances that he can't do it because he thinks he can't do it?"
"Possible, and there's also the fact that both he and Reverb are completely different. One's a villain deadest on destruction and he's one of Zoom's lieutenants. And our Cisco is…." Seth unsurely pointed to the viber. "A lovable engineering genius with his head filled with movie references."
"For real, dude?" Cisco looked back at him.
"Sorry, man, I was on the spot, best I could come up." Seth shrugged. But Cisco accepted it with a nod.
"You forgot to include goofy like a cartoon character." Venom reprimanded his host.
"Guys, he can do it." Barry countered, facing the mechanical engineer again. "You can do it."
Cisco turned back to face the middle of the stabilizer rings. He raised his hand again, pointing it to the middle of the rings. Closing his eyes, he concentrated and tried to tap into the dimensional energy of the multiverse.
But he couldn't…
He lowered his hand and groaned.
"You- It's gonna work, okay." Barry assured the engineer. He walked to the front of the stabilizer rings and suggested. "Maybe we're just not in the right place."
"Or maybe I'm just not the right man for the job. I mean, Seth might be right." Cisco gestured to the elemental. "I'm different from Cisco-2, from Reverb. We're different. He's evil, I'm not… Right? Let's go." He walked away.
"Cisco." Barry called out.
"Leave him alone, Barr." Seth stopped him. "He... Let him calm down for a bit."
"It's gonna work, Seth." The speedster said confidently.
"Maybe, maybe not…. One thing's for sure, it comes down to Cisco." Seth said before looking to his family. "Let's go home, guys. It's getting late." They nodded and walked after him, walking out of the facility.
X
When they got home, Caitlin and Seth watched their daughters immediately running towards their bedrooms.
Seth raised an eyebrow and faced his mate. "You don't think they're getting tired, are you?"
"Well, let's go over everything." Caitlin raised a finger. "Their father and their aunt have been training them so much, swinging swords at them, shooting psychic blasts, even throwing them."
"One time, Cait. And Frankie asked for it." Seth defensively said with hints of embarrassment.
Caitlin chuckled, continuing with another finger lifting up. "They've been doing this same thing for the entire week." A third finger raised. "And they've only eaten junk food and takeout for the last few days, which is a big, big no-no."
"Kinda sounds like you're against that more than me throwing our daughter." Seth noted surprisedly.
"Course not." Caitlin countered adamantly. But Seth narrowed his eyes on her mouth, her lower lip captured between her teeth.
Knowing what that meant, he turns his eyes back to her eyes. "But…" He knowingly asked with a smirk.
"But what? There's no "but."" Caitlin stated, but her lip was still captured.
Getting closer to her, he nodded to her lips. "You're doing that biting-your-lower-lip thing that you do when something's bothering you." He watched her face blush a storm. "So, either something is bothering you, or you're sleepy, which is the only time you're doing that. The last one's really cute. I love it."
"Stop it!" she playfully slapped his chest before clearing her throat. "I'm…" She didn't speak for a few minutes. But when she did, she confessed. "Guess everything that's going on is too much, maybe. I mean, we're really, really risking the same man, who captured our daughters and you, coming back to this world… I'm not a fan of that. I mean, we're literally showing him a gateway. What's next, we're rolling out the red carpet."
"I'm not a fan of it, either. I swear." He took hold of her hands and rubbed the backs of them with his thumbs. "I know I'm the one training them, and I've even told them they'll be on frontline with me and Matty… But I meant that for every battle that's not against Zoom… But parts of me also think they should join us."
"Really?" Caitlin inquired in shock.
"You've seen them train, Cait. You've seen them improve, time and time again, and you've seen them only get better from there." Seth said. "And I'm proud of their training… And if we say that they can't after all this training-"
"They're gonna feel like all that training was wasted." Caitlin realized. Seth nodded his agreement. Inhaling sharply, she said with a shrug. "I hate how I can't help them out there."
"What on Earth are you talking about?" The mutant asked her and ran his hands up her arms, to her face and stroked her cheeks. "Every time we're out there, you're in our ears and giving us instructions and keeping us safe with advice…" Taking hold of one of her hands, he placed it on his chest, over his heart. "Every time we're out there… You're in here, in our hearts. We keep all the family in here, forever and always."
"…I hope you know, from that position… I will keep you guys safe and sound with everything I have in me." She brought his face closer to her own.
"I never doubted that…" Seth leant closer to her face, an inch between them before their lips would meet. "If I did, you-"
"Stop talking." Caitlin caught him off, placed her lips over his.
Their worries vanished the moment their lips connected. They lost themselves in the kiss and they just stood there in the middle of their living room and enjoyed this kiss. Their days are filled with supervillains, maniacs who want to destroy the city and rogues who want to steal anything that has even an ounce of value.
But… ever since they met… ever since they reunited… the moments they spent with each other like this one… They just simplify their lives immediately…
… With one simple affectionate display… It was like their problems disappeared…
And they could just love each other, limitlessly.
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)
The next day, Seth and Caitlin walked hand in hand to the Cortex. At this time of the day, their daughters had to go to school, so they were alone and went to the facility to check out things on their end. They walked in and saw Matt and Olivia sitting by the console.
"Hey you two." Caitlin greeted the married couple.
Olivia turns in her chair, a bag of chips in her lap, facing the two doctors. "Hey, you two."
"What took you so long?" Matt asked.
"We have kids we have to drop off, you know." Seth reminded him.
Matt turns his head. "Thought Evelyn would use her powers to drop them off. It's easier and cheaper that way."
"They're kids who fight supervillains." Caitlin stated. "Think they deserve some time in a car with their parents, like a break."
"Understandable." Matt returned to his work.
"What are you guys doing?" The elemental asked.
Eating a chip, Olivia answered. "Matty's working on upgrading Jarvis' functionality, and I'm eating."
"Clearly." Seth noticed. He looked to Matt. "Thought you'd be working with Wells and trying to improve the enhancer."
"More his area than it is mine. And I think it's a good idea that Jarvis can work to see if he can… at least detect someone moving at superspeed." Matt said.
"Smart." Caitlin admitted. She looked to the side lab and saw Harry in there. "Let's check on Dr. Wells." Caitlin suggested to the elemental.
"Sure." Seth walked with to the side lab.
Harry looked at them. "Hey."
"Yo, Wells." Seth greeted him, his mate greeting him with a nod.
"Snow, you doing okay? You passed out yesterday." Harry asked while focusing on working on the enhancer.
"I'm fine, Dr. Wells. Thanks." She glanced at the mutant beside her. "I had a pretty great doctor watching over me."
"You know, he snores, right?" Harry smirked.
"Bite me, Wells." Seth sniped.
"We do the biting in this partnership." Venom declared.
Rolling his eyes, Seth walked forward and looked over at the Earth-2 scientist's work. "That thing going well?"
"Yes, it is." Harry nodded.
Barry entered and asked. "Hey. What do we got?"
The device blinked and Harrison answered. "It's your tachyon absorption enhancer upgrade. Retrofitted from when it was used to steal your speed, or supposed to anyway, to now give you more of it."
"Oh yeah, Matt switched out the devices." Seth recalled.
"Yeah. I used some of the same designs for this and… Almost done." He said as he recalibrated the device.
Barry looked appreciatively. "That's amazing. Thanks."
"You're welcome." Harry said.
Barry looked to Seth. "Hey, is Cisco back yet? Have we seen him?"
"We haven't seen him, no." Seth answered, Caitlin agreed with a nod.
Harry pitched in. "Check his workshop."
"Let's go." The three of them walked out of the side lab, just at the same time Joe and Iris walked into the Cortex. "Yo, Wests." The elemental greeted them.
"Hey." Joe said.
"Hey." Iris said. "We just came by to see if you guys needed some help." She sent a look to the elemental. "Or maybe see Seth throw his daughters again."
"One time, Iris. It happened one time." Seth defensively said.
"Brother, your head is messed up in every way." Joe admitted with a frown. Seth stuck out his tongue.
"But yeah, we can always use an extra set of hands." Caitlin told Iris, pointing a finger to the medbay. "Do you want to help me in the medbay?"
"Yeah." Iris accepted and walked with her.
"Matty, Livy, you guys still working on Jarvis?" Seth wondered.
"Yup." The nanite mutant answered for them both. "But we can check on Cisco in a minute, if it is?"
"If you're not busy, sure." The elemental nodded.
Joe walked to the elemental and the speedster. "Some advice?" He asked of the two.
"That's a new thing for you to do." Seth chuckled. "Thought you were the sage of this entire team, the person we go to for advice of any kind. Like a hermit."
"I ain't no damn hermit, you quack." Joe countered angrily. Seth and Barry chuckle at his reaction. Calming down, the detective asked. "This whole Wally thing… He won't let me help him."
"What do you mean?" Seth asked.
"He's not living on campus anymore because room and board became too expensive for him, so he's doing laundry at my place." Joe said. "I offered to help him out with that, figuring his money's tight after paying for Francine's medical bills, but he said no. I can't figure that kid out sometimes." He groaned
"Sure, you're asking the right way?" Seth asked.
"What do you mean?" The detective asked.
Barry clarified. "Think what Seth means is, it's probably cause you're not offering the right kind of help." Joe looked confused and the speedster answered. "Wally doesn't want your help paying for a place to live."
Seth added. "Wally wants you to offer him a place to live."
Joe felt like a brick of awareness hit his face. "Why didn't he just say that?"
"I don't know." Barry shrugged.
"So, he does want to live in the house?" Joe said.
"Obviously." Seth noted. "But take it from a guy who's never lived with his father before his teen years, Wally's never lived with his father before."
"That is a big deal." Barry stated.
Joe understood them both and locked eyes with the speedster. "And you're okay with it?"
Barry hummed his agreement. "I mean, you know, it's been you and me for so long, and I love that, but having Wally around would be cool too. Just we won't get to have as much pizza from Keystone."
Seth feigned hurt. "Geez thanks for the invite, West. Thought we were friends."
"Oh, we are, but you're a lunatic, I'm a detective and I can only handle your daughters." Joe mocked defense.
"Yeah, he's right." Barry admitted.
Seth glared at the speedster. "Wanna say that again, Speedy?"
X
Caitlin and Iris watched the three males interacting and sharing a laugh, even though the speedster abruptly shivered in fear. The doctor was seated by a chair and the reporter was seated on the gurney.
"They really have a special bond, don't they?" Caitlin noted.
"Yeah, they sure do." Iris nodded. "Ever since Seth… Died, my Dad missed his best friend. Somehow, he still managed to find the time to help you and your family. But now that he's back, he's happy again, glad that his friend is back."
"He's not the only one who's happy…" Caitlin dreamingly said, her eyes locked onto the mutant's form. Managing to shake herself out of the trance, she looked to Iris and saw the look of sadness and conflict on her face. "Are you okay?"
"I don't know what I am." She confessed honestly. Caitlin gave the reporter her full attention. "Last night, I was supposed to go on a date. My first real date since Eddie died, but… At the last second, I just… I couldn't do it."
Caitlin narrowed her eyes. "Is it because of Eddie… or because of Barry?" Iris looked like a deer caught in headlights. "I've noticed the way you've been looking at him recently."
"Is it that obvious?" Iris asked.
"Only to a woman who's been through the same thing." Caitlin admitted with a nod to the elemental, the person her eyes were glued to for a long time and still are.
"Guess you'd understand, Caitlin." Iris said. "Everything seems to be telling me that Barry and I are meant to be together. I mean, on Earth-2 we're married. In the future, we're supposedly married. And now that I'm finally ready to move on, I just wonder if that should be with Barry. You're in the same situation with Seth, too. The two of you are supposedly married in the future too."
"Yeah… Everything seems to be pointing in that direction." Caitlin said, her eyes locked onto the mutant who's crouching above the console as he converses with his sister and brother-in-law.
Iris smirked. "Do you believe in destiny, Caitlin?" She asked while the doctor kept her eyes on the elemental.
"… I do… Cause destiny brought Seth back to me and brought me my daughters…." Caitlin thankfully said, as though she was thanking destiny itself for bringing back the love of her life.
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco's workshop)
Cisco was working on the goggles, a meaningless distraction. It was the only purpose it served after what happened yesterday.
He and Barry walked into an abandoned hospital, an area with the highest concentrations of residual trans-dimensional energy. The speedster assumed that with those levels around, it'd be easier for the viber to tap into the dimensional energy and reopen the breach that used to be there.
Barry promised him that he wouldn't ask him again about this if he couldn't. Cisco held him to that and tried to tap into the energy, but he couldn't do it. Then in a bragging fashion, Harrison Wells from Earth-2 showed up with the solution.
His arrival shocked the speedster who was sure that he wouldn't help them with his plan to open a gateway to Earth-2. But Harry was only helping them to make sure they wouldn't get killed. He revealed the goggles that Reverb used on Earth-2, recalibrated to the electromagnetic frequency of this Earth.
With those goggles on his head, it should help Cisco access enough of the trans-dimensional energy to manipulate it… Just like Reverb.
And with them over his eyes… it happened… Cisco's hand was cloaked in a white-ish blue shroud of trans-dimensional energy… Before it projected a spiraling vibrational blast and slowly opened a swirling portal… the breach slowly opened up… but it stopped quickly…
Because he couldn't do it, and he begged them not to do it again… before storming out of the abandoned hospital.
Cisco didn't want to do that again… it'd mean something horrible… and he wouldn't let it happen on this Earth…
"Yo, Cisco." Matt asked as he stepped into the workshop. He saw the native engineer briefly glance at him before returning to his work. Leaning against the desk nearest to him, the mutant asked. "You doing well there? Heard things were a bit… Breach-y yesterday. Nice job, by the way."
Cisco didn't say anything.
Matt clicked his tongue. "Is this about Zoom? About him getting in your head?" He didn't get a response from the viber. "… Or is this about… Reverb?" The nanite mutant saw his body tense up for a second.
Dropping the screwdriver from his goggles, Cisco turned in his chair and faced him. "How'd you know?"
"You were scared of these powers in the beginning, they let you see these horrible things, remember? You were seeing things that you didn't want to see." Matt stated. "And after seeing Reverb on Earth-2, you saw who you might have become."
Nodding his response, Cisco confessed. "It's like right now I'm Anakin Skywalker. I got the midi-chlorians. I've got the goods. The force is strong with me. That is something I can feel." He placed a hand on his chest. Matt took a seat as he continued. "But if I start opening breaches into other worlds, doing all this other crazy stuff Reverb was doing, then… What if this is how I become Vader?"
"Dude, to become Vader you have to think you killed the love of your life, who's with children, and fight your mentor and lose your legs before being saved by an evil wrinkled old quack in a cloak." Matt humored. Cisco didn't see that. "But you're never gonna become Vader."
"You don't know that. That is what happened to Reverb." Cisco countered. "He learned how to use his abilities, and when he felt that, when he felt that power, he succumbed… to the Dark side."
"What did you do when you got the ability to vibe?" Matt questioned.
"What?" Cisco asked in confusion.
Matt leant forward in his chair. "What did you do when you found out you could vibe?"
"… I… I only told you and Stein about it… after Sand Demon showed up and kidnapped Patty." He informed slowly.
"And how did that benefit the team?" Matt asked.
"We… We saved Patty from Sand Demon, we learnt that he'd use a bomb to maybe trick Barry because of my vibe." The viber said.
"Precisely." Matt nodded. "Now does that sound like someone who's going to the Dark Side?" Cisco was speechless. "I know it's petrifying to know that with these powers, there's the possibility of you going bad. Especially when seeing someone who was the personification of that possibility, yeah."
"Yeah…"
"But it's not going to happen to you." Matt said confidently and he pointed to himself. "Cause you got me, Livia, Barry, Seth and Caitlin… We're gonna be there at every step of the way with you… Just like you were there for us. Something Reverb never had behind was a team of friends who'd back him up and help through the tough times. Reverb had minions who feared him… But no friends who are gonna look out for him…. Unlike him, you got a family."
"You really think so, Matt?" Cisco had to ask.
"Yup." The nanite mutant nodded. "So why not go on, put on those goggles again and let Vibe soar?"
"Let's go." Vibe nodded.
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)
Matt and Cisco returned from the workshop a while back and they watched Harry Wells place the tachyon enhancer on the back of the Flash symbol before placing it back on the suit's chest plate. Barry watched from behind the two engineers.
Caitlin and Seth stood by the railing, their daughters had long since returned from school and stood with their family.
"You're all set. He won't even know it's there." Harry informed the team.
"Cause whoever said aesthetics aren't important." Cisco said.
Harry glared at him. "Not me." They shared a narrowed-eyed look. "Let's go."
"Riveting conversation." Ruby sarcastically said.
Frankie faced her sister. "Do you, like, not have the capacity to be nice or what? It's confusing with you sometimes."
"I do, but I shut it off on more than one occasion." Ruby countered.
"You mean always?" Evelyn smirked.
"Say that again and I'm gonna-"
Ruby was cut off when a black tendril covered her mouth. Seth stated sternly. "No threatening each other, you three."
"If you guys continue threatening each other like that, we're cutting off any more hero activity, and that includes training." Caitlin added as her mate pulled back his tendril.
"Yes, Mom." Ruby said in an unconvincing tone.
"Glad they love each other, not so loving the entire threatening thing." Seth admitted.
Evelyn narrowed her eyes. "Didn't you and Aunt Liv threaten each other when you were kids?"
"And she also threw you and vice versa?" Frankie jumped in.
Seth dropped his arms. "Awesome, my sister's been running her mouth."
Flipping him the bird from behind the screens at the console, Olivia stated. "Screw you, elemental bastard."
"You first, psychic dick." The elemental said back. He looked to Caitlin and saw her with a nervous look. "Cait, I know it's hard to still be onboard with our daughters fighting Zoom, but we're gonna stop him and he's not getting anywhere near our children."
Caitlin nodded. "I know, and I want to be supportive. I just… I can't believe this is still Jay. Or whatever his real name is."
"What does that mean?" Seth asked his mate. Overhearing their conversation, Barry's interest was piqued.
"Remember how I told you I was looking for his doppelganger, right?" The female doctor asked him.
"Yeah, one of the many conversations we shared after I returned. But I also remember you saying you couldn't find him." The mutant remembered.
Frankie hopped onto the railing and spoke. "Because there's no Jay Garrick on this Earth."
"His doppelganger's name is Hunter Zolomon." Ruby continued.
Just like before, that name sent shivers down Evelyn's spine and she hugged herself, tightening her fists on her shoulders.
Seth and Caitlin noticed her reaction along with Ruby and Frankie. All four of them got worried at the sight of her shaking like a leaf.
Once again, she shook at the name when Harry asked. "Hunter Zolomon? Are you sure?" He was alerted by that name; he didn't think he'd hear it on this Earth.
Caitlin nodded. "Yeah, why?"
"Sweetie, are you alright?" Seth wrapped an arm around Evelyn and pulled her close, fearing she might be sick.
"Not exactly, Dad." Evelyn shook her head in her father's chest.
Harry understood the young metahuman's reaction to that horrific name and opened his wrist watch, typing away. "Well, because on my Earth, Hunter Zolomon was a convicted serial killer." He brought up the mugshot of the killer and an article from Earth-2 Central City Picture News.
Everyone widened at the title of the article and the mugshot.
"Notorious Serial Killer Caught" Seth read the title of the article out loud before turning to the mugshot. He'd seen pictures of Jay Garrick before and could definitely see his face through the long hair and thick facial hair that covers the face of the man in the mugshot.
But those eyes in the mugshot… Those reminded Seth of the green eyes of those that were in Cletus Kasady's eye sockets. It made him pull Evelyn closer to him in a protective manner and he could feel her calm down in his arms.
"That's Jay?" Caitlin asked in shock.
"That's him? Seriously?" The psychic asked in shock.
"No, that is Hunter." Harrison corrected the two women. "Last public photo of Hunter Zolomon." Cisco and Matt came to them and took in the photo. "Instantly recognizable. And people from my Earth… On my Earth, serial killers are an anomaly, so a lot of media attention to this."
"Wait, that can't be right." Seth pitched in. "I faced off against two serial killers on your Earth, and in your city."
"You're thinking of Dollmaker and Blackfire, right?" Harry asked. Seth nodded. "Understandable, Fury. But those two were always on the move. Dollmaker disappeared into the wind as soon as he killed someone. Blackfire always stayed away and his victims were never found until two weeks after he moved away from the city."
"Seriously…" Seth asked in shock and clenched his free hand.
Harrison continued his revelation. "There was a podcast about this man. When Hunter was 11, his father killed his mother… right in front of him." That piece of information shook them. "Father sent to prison; Hunter grew up in the foster care system."
Seth narrowed his eyes on the article, reading a section before surmising. "Years later he was convicted on 23 counts of murder."
"23?" Cisco mixed laughter and gasps together. "That's, like, some real Hannibal Lecter type level."
"Compared to Cletus Kasady… Fuck this guy might have become like Carnage." Matt muttered.
"Maybe." Seth said under his breath.
"After the trial," Harry nodded to the mugshot and article. "Hunter was sent to the Saint Perez Mental Asylum for the Criminally Insane… Given daily electroshock therapy. Cure him of his urges and then faded from view."
Evelyn added with a gulp. "Until the night your particle accelerator exploded."
"That's right." Harry said. "The same dark matter that turned Evelyn into a metahuman crept into the mental asylum. I had thought…" He took off his glasses. "Piping the explosion underground would limit exposure. I was wrong. All it did was create an unstoppable monster." They could all envision the serial killer in a chair and get shocked by electricity… Only to be hit by the dark matter wave that changed him into Zoom.
Seth recalled his daughter's past on Earth-2 and faced her. "Evie, is this why you're so scared?"
"… Some of the cops that got close to me, the ones that weren't Iris on Earth-2… They said that when they've caught me, they're gonna throw me into that same asylum as Zolomon." Evelyn shivered.
"What a bunch of psychopaths…" Olivia sneered when hearing someone talk like that about her niece.
"That's not gonna happen, honey." Caitlin stroked her daughter's long red hair. "We're here."
"Thanks, Mom." Evelyn smiled.
"But one thing's for sure now…" Seth smirked.
"He's not unstoppable." The speedster stated.
"We got the advantage now; Jay doesn't know that we know who he really is." The elemental confessed. "As far as he knows, his past is a secret."
"So?" Cisco asked, his eyes going between the elemental and the speedster.
"I think I have an idea of how we can stop him." Barry admitted.
And Seth had the same idea.
X
"You ready, Buddy?" Barry asked the viber. The others had gotten to their positions back at the facility, ready for the fight that's to come. Caitlin, Iris, Olivia, Harry and Joe take shelter in the Time Vault as Zoom supposedly can't enter it.
"Yeah." Cisco nodded. "You, Matt, Seth… Everyone on the team believes in me."
"You got this, Vibe." Venom stated over the comms.
"Let's get this show on the road." Magenta said after her father.
"You got this, Cisco." Iron Knight said.
"They're right… You got this, pal." Flash encouraged his friend.
Cisco placed his goggles over his eyes, the device emitting a small whirring sound before they turned blue. He raised his hand, pointing it to the middle of the abandoned hospital and projected a spiraling trans-dimensional vibrational blast. It connected to the middle of the hospital room and opened a breach…
And unlike before… The blast didn't stop and expanded the breach…
And unlike before… Zoom jumped out of the breach and landed on his feet.
Vibe lowered his hand and the breach closed. Flash pushed him away, and the viber listened.
Zoom cracked his neck while the blue lightning crackled over his form. "Reverb's doppelganger… has increased his powers."
"Hatred is a strong motivator." Flash countered.
"You were unwise to reopen the breach." Zoom said. "Venom would understand."
"Bad for you then, cause we're not gonna let you terrorize another world anymore." Barry told him.
Zoom cackled. "Without your speed, you won't be able to stop me."
Flash smirked. "Let's see."
WHOOSH
Barry speeds away.
Zoom laughed at the other speedster's pathetic attempt.
WHOOSH
The evil speedster ran after him.
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs)
Zoom tried to catch up to The Flash but thanks to the tachyon device Barry was able to gain the upper hand and outrun the evil speedster. They ran into the facility and stopped in the lobby.
The evil speedster sighed from exhaustion but then let out a short laugh. The two speedsters circled each other, their eyes focused on each other. "You've gotten faster. Good. There'll be more for me to take."
Barry stopped. "You want my speed?" They glared at each other; their attention undivided. The Flash phased, faking move away. The evil speedster reacted the same. "Catch me." He dared Zoom.
WHOOSH
The two speedsters sped into the basement level of the facility… and they ran around in the room, repeatedly. The evil speedster trying to catch up to him but was struggling to reach the Flash.
But as he tries to catch up to him… Zoom comes to an abrupt stop when a dummy figure pops out… in the figure of his father, James Zolomon. He came to a stop and remembered his father handing him his silver kettle helmet…
… before he killed his mother in front of him…
While completely paralyzed by that vision… Venom appeared behind him, interlocking his adamantium hands and raised high into the air like a sledgehammer, lightning sparking over his hands. Letting out a roar, he slammed the sledgehammer down on the evil speedster's head and brought him down to the ground.
Grabbing hold of the metahuman's left leg, Seth swung Zoom over his head and brought him down on the ground again. He repeated the same action and flung him down on the ground, the flooring cracking with each slam.
Switching it up, the elemental hurled Zoom into the air.
A pair of thrusters flared, and Iron Knight thrusted out his palms, blasting repulsor beams at the evil speedster repeatedly. Each beam connecting with him made the metahuman scream in pain. Matt's thrusters flared, propelling him forward and grabbing him by his face.
Matt's thrusters directed upwards, thrusting him downwards and he slammed Zoom into the crackled ground. Backflipping into the air, he crossed his arms over his chest and formed missiles on his back. Using his HUD, he locked onto the speedster before unleashing his arms and shooting out the missiles.
Each of them connected with the speedster's body and exploded, his body digging deeper and deeper into the ground. But through the smokescreen, Zoom managed to get back to his feet and shake off debris. He looked for the two mutants but couldn't find them anywhere.
"Where are you?!" He screamed.
Instead of the two mutants, he found the Scarlet Speedster smirking at him. Growling in anger, he charged for the other speedster. But he came to another stop when another dummy figure popped out. This one… showing a figure of his late mother…
…before she was killed before his very eyes.
Distracted by that vision… Magenta appeared over his head from a leap and stretched out her arms, each limb split into tendrils and wrapped around his arms. She pulled him into the air and slammed him into the ground.
Landing on the ground, she faced the evil speedster with magenta bright eyes. Crossing her clawed hands, she forced two warehouse shelves into pieces before wrapping them around Zoom's body. He tried to struggle out of them, but he failed, and Magenta clenched her fingers, tightening the metal around his body.
"Good luck, dick bag!" Magenta growled.
Zoom glared at her before phasing out of his metallic confines. "Stupid girl."
"Girls." She corrected the evil speedster smugly.
A moment of confusion came over the speedster before he felt an invisible force push him down to the ground, forcing him down on his stomach. Destroyer appeared with her Chakram Blade in her right hand whilst her left hand pointed at him and pinned him to the ground. "This… Is for those six months!"
Thrusting her left hand, she projected another gravitational wave and forced his body deeper into the ground. Zoom turned his eyes and pointed them at her. "I am… Not weak!" He cackled and phased out of her gravitational hold.
WHOOSH
He sped forward, grabbing the two girls by their throats and pinned them to the nearest construction shelf. "Insolent girls!" Zoom screamed in their faces.
"We're not two, dumbass." Ruby smiled behind her mask and raised her blade, cutting the back of his arm and made him scream in pain.
Zoom screamed in greater pain when he felt two sharp projectiles tear through his suit and flesh and pierce his left thigh. He let go of the two girls and turned his eyes to the arrows penetrated through his limb. The evil speedster turned his head, facing the metahuman of light and darkness who ran towards him.
Gritting his teeth in anger, he rushed to her, but Eclipse disappeared in a shroud of shadows. He didn't see it, but he appeared over him with her blinding sword and slashed his back. Zoom screamed in pain again. While distracted by pain, Evelyn made her sword vanish before thrusting out a light orb, slamming it into his chest and sending Zoom to the ground.
The three girls readied themselves for another battle with the evil speedster. Zoom returned to his feet and growled at the girls.
But he was caught off when a metallic device wraps around his right thigh and shoots out anchors, pulling him to the ground while electrifying his body.
Iron Knight landed beside the evil speedster, pointing his thrusters at them. Eclipse aimed an arrow at him. Destroyer had her Chakram blade out and ready for a fight. Magenta formed jagged swords and pointed them at him. Venom landed on the ground before the evil metahuman and held his sword to his head while he tore off the speedster's mask.
Hunter Zolomon was surprised to see him and the others not showing any surprise at the sight of his real face. For some reason, Barry decided to be the bully and push him down to the ground.
Shifting his eyes between them all, he asked. "How did you figure out who I was?"
"You made a mistake." Venom's mouth opened up, showing Seth's face. "You told Caitlin and our daughters who your doppelganger was."
Scoffing at that statement, Hunter said. "I had to do something to get her to stop trying… to fix me." He glared at the elemental. "She's a smart girl."
"And you… used her…" It took everything in his power to not just drive his sword through Zoom's heart right now. But he had to… To keep his promise. "Venom, is it-"
"You can't do it now, it's not ready." The symbiote informed his host.
"And that I was Zoom?" The evil metahuman asked.
Barry took off his cowl, crouching before the evil speedster. "The Velocity-9. When you run fast enough, it turns a speedster's lightning blue." Zoom chuckled at that. "We would have helped you. We would have done anything we could to save your life."
Hunter lifted his eyes, pointing them at the other speedster before him. "Not everything."
Seth pressed the crystal sword to his throat, the blade drawing blood. "Caitlin… She found a cure for you!"
Unflinchingly Hunter looked to him. "A temporary one! I'm dying, Seth! There's only one thing that can get me what I need."
Nanites swarmed over Matt's repulsors, forming two elongated cannons. "And you just don't care how many lives you destroy trying to get it? How many people you kill?!"
"No, I don't!" Hunter screamed. "That feeling was taken from me a long time ago."
"You bastard." Ruby growled.
"He's a maniac." Evelyn stated.
"…" Magenta couldn't say anything other than release an angry growl.
Zoom looked to Barry. "We're not so different, you know." He briefly locked eyes with Seth. "Although Seth and I might be closer, actually." Seth didn't react to it; he wouldn't give the evil speedster that satisfaction. Hunter looked back to Barry. "What happened to us when we were kids. You could have just as easily become me."
Barry shook his head. "No. I'd never become like you."
Hunter chuckled and tried to stand up. "I got to say… That was smart using… My parents against me." He briefly glanced at the dummy figure of his late mother. "Oh, family. Such a weakness."
"Don't think we're like you." Hunter looked to Seth. "Not all of us are like you. Some of us fight for our family. They're our strengths. We can fight for them endlessly and we won't ever back down from an opponent that might threaten them… You see them as a weakness, we see them as our greatest source of strength."
"Well, that's where you're wrong, Venom." Hunter scoffed. "They're a weakness for sure." He nodded to the three girls. "You ended up with a sword through your chest because of your daughter, you ended up with a mangled arm because of your daughter, you ended up with a burnt arm because of your daughters… Without them in the mix, you'd been fine."
"Without them… I'd be dead right now." Seth countered. "You wouldn't understand anything like that… Cause you're a pathetic weakling who only fights for himself and no others…"
"Well… Agree to disagree." Hunter loved to see the flame in Seth's eyes burst into an inferno. "It's time I get what I came for."
This time Barry chuckles humorously. "You're not getting anything from me. You're not getting anything from anybody ever again… On any Earth."
With a vacant look on his face, Hunter said under his breath. "You can't lock up the darkness…"
"What was that?" Seth demanded.
Pointing his eyes upwards, facing the powered males. His eyes turning completely pure black as he demonically says. "You can't lock up the darkness." Despite the cuffs on his thigh, he vibrates his hand like a blade and lightning crackle over his chest.
"Stop him!" Magenta shouted.
Zoom was too quick, cutting the cuffs off his thigh and ran out of the facility.
"No!" Barry sped after him.
"The fuck…" Magenta said as she saw him run away. Venom clenched his hands in anger.
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)
"We should have killed him right then and there." Matt groaned his anger as he paced back and forth in the Cortex.
"Calm down, Matty." Seth told him. The nanite mutant stopped pacing and looked at him. "We failed, but we can get the drop on him."
"Bro, he broke free of the BOOT cuffs with ease." Olivia told her brother. "How're we gonna defeat him now? Hunter is not like the other metas we've faced. He's a serial killer with powers. Like Carnage. He's big game."
"And our training wasn't enough to defeat him." Ruby groaned her disappointment, inwardly contemplating punching a nearby table with all of her might.
Caitlin walked over to her daughter and rubbed her arms. "Wanna know my opinion?" Ruby faced her mother. "You and Evelyn were once Zoom's prisoners, and you still managed to stand up to him tonight and you hurt him… You two should be proud of yourselves."
"Mom's right." Frankie agreed with a smile. "You and Evie are badasses for standing up to that maniac."
"Guess we got that in common then." Evie nudged Frankie's shoulder. "Now, we've all faced off against a serial killer."
Turning her eyes to Seth with a smile, Caitlin chuckled. "Can't believe our babies are gushing over fighting a serial killer."
"Yeah…" Seth faked a sniffle. "I'm so proud of them." He even faked wiping a tear.
"Only Papa Venom would think that." Olivia joked.
Sighing heavily, he looked around. "Where's Barry?"
Matt answered. "He went back home with Joe and Iris. Think they're checking in on Wally, seeing if he's settled in okay."
"Right, Joe just gave him a room in the house." Seth remembered. As the others began conversing with one another, the elemental initiated a mental one with his partner with a schooled expression on his face. "Venom, you sure it didn't shine?"
"Unfortunately, yeah. It didn't shine. It wasn't the right time for it." Venom groaned. "If it did… This thing would have been over by now."
"I know… If it did… This would have been over by now." Seth mentally breathed in regret. He hated how the marble-sized crystal didn't shine back in this fight against the evil metahuman…
But it just meant this wasn't the right time… But it made him wonder when the right time would be… And how many defeats his team would face before it would… and how much Earth-1 and Earth-2 would suffer because of it…
Seth was brought out of his trance when he felt his phone vibrate. Taking it out of the pocket, he saw it was Barry calling him. "Barry, what is it?" He asked when accepting the call. The others heard him talking with the speedster. But they turned worried when they saw his eyes widen in concern.
"What?!" He screamed.
X
(West Residence)
"YOUR SPEED FOR WALLY"
The message was clear to anyone who read it.
Seth read the message that Zoom left them after kidnapping Wally West and ransacking the entire living room downstairs. Barry, Iris and Joe walked back to the house after failing to catch Zoom and found the house completely thrashed, and found this mess.
Barry called the others to the scene and checked everything.
The elemental decided to check out Wally's bedroom and found the message itself. "Zoom got desperate then."
"And this way he has leverage." Matt added. "If Barry doesn't give his speed to Hunter, he's gonna kill Wally."
"Yeah…" Olivia said. "What do we do now?"
"Don't know." Seth turned around, facing his family members. "This is Joe's family; they have to decide this." He sighed. "Let's go down and check on them."
They walked out of the room and down the stairs to the living room. They found the others in the living room. Barry was standing by himself. Cisco was sitting on the couch, rubbing his head to get the thoughts going. Harry was standing in front of him, trying to work out a solution to this mess. Joe and Iris are talking in the corner while the detective drank from his coffee.
Caitlin stands by the wall, her teeth biting down on her finger as she is thinking. Seth walked to her side and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay, Cait?"
Relaxing at his touch, she said. "… I really don't know. We had a chance to defeat Zoom and we lost it… This is our fault."
"If anything, this is my fault, Cait." Seth stated. "I had the sword to his throat and could have taken him down, but… I didn't."
"Don't worry." Caitlin kissed his lips. "… We just weren't prepared for this."
"We'll get him back." Seth said. This topic was tough for them both, he changed it. "Where's the girls?" He asked Caitlin.
"Back home, just thinking like us." Caitlin said.
"What if we could stop Zoom through a vibe somehow?" Cisco suggested. "We could weaponize the goggles-"
"Not enough time to weaponize, Ramon." Harry said.
Caitlin had an idea. "Okay, what if we modify the pulse rifle to emit a low-level EMF?"
"We don't have the equipment to modify the pulse rifles now." Harry looked to Matt. "With Stark's tech, maybe. But still an issue of time."
"Damn it." Matt said.
"Then we do another snatch and grab mission." Cisco desperately stated.
Harrison countered. "By the time we scale those cliffs, Zoom could already-"
"I need a minute!" Joe shouted, putting a stop to all ideas. They accepted his demand with a nod of their heads. The detective gave his coffee back to his daughter before walking up the stairs.
Patting his shoulder, Caitlin got Seth's attention. "You wanna go talk to him? Friend to friend?"
"Honestly, I want to…." He sighed. "But think this is something his son should look at."
Barry nodded and walked up the stairs.
X
The speedster found Joe in a room, sitting on the bed with a solemn look on his face. He wasn't moving an inch. Barry entered the room and took a seat on the chair by the desk.
Joe knew his adoptive son had walked in even without looking. The detective sniffled, retracting tears. "Barry, I know you… Can't give up your speed to that monster, but…" Barry listened to his foster father speak from his heart. "I also know that I want to get my son back, and I don't know what to do."
He was desperate right now. Joe had just lost his wife who just returned to their lives. Now… He might just lose the son that he just started connecting to. His son that just became part of their lives… Only to be taken out of it.
But Barry… He made his choice.
"I do." He got the detective's attention. "Wally, he's… He's part of the family. He's… He's a part of… of our family. And we do whatever we have to… To keep the ones, we care about safe."
Joe followed his train of thought and didn't like it. "No, you… You can't give up your speed."
But Barry shook his head in disagreement. "That's not your decision." Joe broke down in tears at his son's confession, he couldn't hold back the flood. "This is the only way, Joe."
Barry Allen… He's gonna lose his speed and the city's gonna lose The Flash.
X
(S.T.A.R. Labs)
Standing in the Cortex, everyone looked at the speedster who's holding the silver kettle helmet. Seth and Caitlin spoke with each other a bit away from their daughters who stood with Matt and Olivia.
"What are Mom and Dad talking about?" Frankie directed to her aunt and uncle. "They keep looking over at us." She noted when her parents looked over at her and her sisters.
"No idea." Matt said.
"I don't like it though." Ruby added.
"Maybe they're worried about us or something." Evelyn suggested.
Olivia noticed her father and mother turn their eyes to her and husband
Seth sighed and asked his mate one last time. "Are you sure about this? Last chance to back out…. For both of us."
"For the children, it's the best choice." Caitlin admitted. Sharing a final nod, they walked towards their daughters and the two mutants. Caitlin started, her eyes looking to Matt and Olivia. "We have something to ask you two."
"Shoot." Olivia said.
Inhaling deeply, Seth shot his daughters a look before stating to his best friend and his little sister. "We need you two to go to 616 with the girls right now, before Cisco vibes Jay over here."
"What?!" Frankie screamed in disbelief, her sisters gaping their mouths in the same disbelief.
"Why?" Matt asked in disbelief. "We can help."
Before Seth could answer his question, Caitlin answered. "It's only for a short while, and it's not about you guys not being able to help." She sighed and faced her daughters, speaking for both her and her mate. "It's about me and Seth being parents."
"But Mom, we can help." Ruby countered.
Seth crouched down before her, cupping her hands and rubbed the healed surfaces of her hands which were burned in the past. "Honey, you and Evie… You were captured by Zoom. You were literally hauled away from 600 universes, from the future of my world… And your hands were burnt. That life in that cage… It was hell."
He turned his eyes to Evelyn. "You were hunted and abandoned by your friends and family because your city thought you had killed your own birth parents… You saw them die before your eyes and you were captured by Zoom and thrown into a cell…."
"I saw the two of you in that cell and the last thing either me or your mother want is for the two of you to end up in that situation again." Seth confessed.
Caitlin stroked Frankie's long hair. "The three of you have grown so, so strong these last weeks… You've even grown closer as a family." She sniffled. "But the last thing we want is to see you girls in Zoom's grasp… And it's not because we don't trust you…"
"It's because we're your parents." Seth stated. "And no parents want to see their children in danger, especially within arm's length of this maniac." He got back on his feet and looked to his best friend and his sister. "And we need the best people on this task."
"You want us to take them away from here?" Olivia wondered.
"You two are the only people we trust enough to do this and protect our children." Caitlin admitted. "Please."
Matt gulped. "Are you two sure?"
"We wouldn't be asking if we weren't." Seth said.
"Fine." Olivia shocked them with her decision. "We're going away, but not to Earth-616. We're staying on this Earth, just far from Zoom and you guys, far from S.T.A.R. Labs. The girls are gonna go ahead, stay at a place that not even Jay or Hunter knows about. I'll be with them and Matt's gonna be here till Joe and Iris get Wally back. He's gonna escort them and get him away from here."
She stepped closer to her brother. "I know you and Caity have to be their parents, I get that. But we're your family too, so we're gonna play our parts too and help out in different ways. Even if they're not what you guys thought."
"Where're you gonna stay?" Caitlin asked.
Olivia quickly thought up a location before stating. "Matt and Seth went to an off-site lab last year to make the Venombuster armor. Zoom wouldn't know about that one. Felicia could show us the location and we'll be set."
"Good idea." Seth nodded.
"Wait, Venombuster?" Ruby asked, inwardly intrigued.
"It was this suit that Uncle Matt designed to kill Dad." Came the casual reply from Frankie.
"Wait!" Evelyn screeched.
Seth wrapped his arms around her. "Long story, sweetie. Long story." He kissed her head. He did the same with her sisters. "I love the three of you."
"So do I." Caitlin mimicked his action and kissed her daughters' heads.
"We love you, Mom, Dad." Frankie spoke herself and for her sisters who nodded their agreements with that statement.
The elemental looked to his sister. "Thanks."
"Don't die or do anything stupid that's gonna get you killed." Olivia quipped.
"Well, there goes that plan." Seth quipped.
"Don't die… Any of you." Olivia directed to the entire team before holding her nieces' shoulders. "Let's go, girls." She looked to her husband. "You come as soon as you can."
"I will." The nanite mutant nodded.
The psychic walked out of the Cortex with her nieces beside her.
Caitlin and Seth held hands as they watched their daughters walk out of their field of vision. They… They really hoped this wouldn't be the last time they see them. That'd hurt more than anything they've been in their lives. It'd hurt more than a sword drive through their hearts…
It'd hurt more than their hearts shattering into a million pieces…
Seth sighed heavily. He turned to face the speedster who continued holding the silver kettle helmet. "You sure about this, Barry? You do this… No more Scarlet Speedster… No more Flash. You really sure?"
"I'm sure, Seth." Barry nodded again. He looked to Cisco with the Vibe Goggles in his hand. "Cisco… Your turn."
"I mean, we don't even know if he'll be able to hear me." The mechanical engineer said.
"He'll hear you." Barry confidently said.
Cisco got a nod of confirmation from Matt and Seth and Caitlin. Following their confirmation and agreement, he walked towards the helmet, donning the Vibe Goggles, and touched the silver headgear.
The vibe was brought to him, quickly.
X
…
Cisco found himself in a blurry and darkened version of Zoom's lair in Ascension Cliffs on Earth-2.
He walked forward a few steps… And his eyes instantly caught sight of Wally. "I see him." He conveyed to his friends while seeing Wally in the cell that once held Jesse Wells. "Wally's alive."
"Thank God." Cisco heard Joe say out in the real time.
"Cisco, do you see Hunter anywhere in there?" Seth asked the viber.
Vibe turned his eyes to the side… Immediately finding the evil speedster with blue lightning emanating from his body. "I see him…" He noticed Zoom turn his head in his direction. "He can sense me." Cisco deduced. "Jay?" He called out to the speedster.
Zoom turned in his direction, facing the viber. "Vibe."
Cisco informed. "He'll do it… Barry will give you his speed."
Zoom… Nodded…
…
X
After a while, they had to be prepared for the evil metahuman to arrive with Wally. Seth's entire body was enveloped by the symbiotic mass and he turned into Venom while holding his crystal sword. Nanites spread over Matt's form and he formed his Iron Knight suit. Joe held a gun high up in the air, giving a spare one to his daughter and Harry held his energy rifle up. Barry stood ready in his suit.
Venom faced Matt. "Remember… You go with the Wests when Wally is handed off."
"Can I say I hate this plan?" Iron Knight sarcastically asked.
"Not the only one." The elemental confessed. "But… Flash made his choice…"
"His last one as The Flash." Matt added under his breath.
WHOOSH
Their conversation came to an end when Zoom sped into the Cortex, holding Wally West in his hand. Everyone pointed their firearms at them. Venom stood in front of Caitlin and Cisco protectively.
"Dad?" Wally exclaimed, trying to break free of Zoom's hold. But to no avail.
"Wally, hold on." Joe told his son, his gun trained on the evil metahuman. "Let him go."
"Let… Him… Go, Zoom." Venom sneered, his fangs reddening.
Zoom narrowed his eyes menacingly, turning them to the Scarlet Speedster. "We had a deal."
The Flash walked around, till he stood in front of the evil speedster. "My speed for Wally's life. Hand him over, and it's yours." He spoke with a vibrating voice to mask his identity.
Zoom released Wally, who ran to his family who embraced him. "You okay?" Joe asked urgently.
"Yeah." Wally pantingly told them.
Joe held up his car keys for his eyes. "You need to get out of here now."
Wally looked reluctant to do so but he didn't say anything, and he could feel Zoom's black eyes drill into him from behind. "Okay." He took the keys.
"Go fast." Iris urged him.
The detective looked to the viber and Matt. "Cisco! Knight!"
"Move!" Matt walked in front of Cisco and Wally, his repulsors trained on the evil speedster until they walked out of the Cortex.
"Let's get this over with." Barry spoke with his real voice.
As everyone cocked their firearms, the evil speedster took off his cowl… Showing everyone his face.
Seth's face appeared out of the symbiotic mass and Barry took off his cowl.
The elemental narrowed his eyes on the evil speedster's smug and confident expression. He found it… out of place. Zoom just lost his leverage and… yet he was confident.
"Why so smug, Zolomon?" Seth got his attention. "You just lost your leverage, and you still look like you're at the top of the world."
Hunter smiled, practically smirked. "Give me some credit here, Seth. You really think I'm that stupid…" Seth widened his eyes. "Try giving Matt a call then."
Pulling out his phone, Seth called Matt and placed it on speaker. He didn't know if Wally was there or not, so he covered his mouth with the symbiote to mask his voice. "Knight?"
"Was just about to call you! Do not kill Zoom!" Iron Knight screamed on the other end.
The smirk on Hunter's face widened and Seth saw it. He asked the other mutant on the other end. "Knight what is it?"
"It's Wally." The viber jumped in. "Zoom put some kind of an implosion bomb on Wally's chest. We've been going over it and it looks like it can be remotely activated."
"Oh, it can." Hunter smugly assured them. "See, I can't afford to underestimate you Seth, you of all on this team…. I knew the moment I'd let go of Wally, I'd lose my leverage and you'd definitely skewer me or worse. Had to have a contingency in place. Matty found it."
"Bastard!" Joe aimed the gun at his head.
But Seth wrapped his arm around the barrel and pointed upwards before the detective could shoot. Joe gave the mutant an inquiring look. "Knight, is there a chance that thing has a dead man's switch?"
"Possibly. Hunter's no idiot." The nanite mutant shouted urgently.
"First compliment of the day… Yay." Hunter chortled. "But that's not why I'm here… Am I, Flash?" He said with his eyes on the Scarlet Speedster.
Seth raised the phone to his ear. "Knight, check that thing over."
"On it!" The nanite mutant hung up.
The symbiotic mass removed from his body entirely, retracting into his form. "You're one son of a bitch, Zolomon."
"Got that from both my parents, Fury." Hunter smirked.
X
They moved into the side lab. Cisco returned a while back, leaving Matt to hopefully disarm the bomb on Wally's chest. Harry walked to the evil speedster, holding the device he made to steal speed and an injection vial. "This thing is how I was supposed to steal The Flash's speed the first time."
"Until Matt figured you out and made that thing that poisoned me." Hunter sniped angrily.
"Good riddance for that." Seth admitted. Hunter growled at his words.
"This one…" Harry waved the device around. "Will do what it's supposed to do. Now all he needs to do is run, and his Speed Force will transfer into this vial… But only as long as I calibrate it." He attached the vial to the injection gun.
Hunter countered. "Get to work."
Harry inhaled sharply, raising his energy rifle and pointed the end of the barrel to his face. But Seth rushed forward and placed his hand on the barrel, pushing it down again. "Wells." The mutant stopped him. Harrison glared at him. "Remember he's got Wally's life in his hands right now… Calm down, you're not the only one who wants to kill this pathetic junkie. Just… Keep it down."
Hunter narrowed his eyes at that insult.
The Earth-2 scientist looked around, seeing the others look at him with his pleading look, wordlessly telling him to consider Wally's life. He lowered his energy rifle and sneered at the evil speedster. "One day… I'm gonna knock that smug expression clean off your face."
Seth let go of the rifle and Harry walked away to calibrate the device. The mutant stepped back to stand beside Caitlin.
"So, this was your plan all along?" Barry said.
"Ever since the skies parted, Seth was dropped down to my world, battered and damaged and showed me another world with another speedster." Hunter started. "Once I saw you, I came here, figured out what I had to do."
Iris asked. "How are you still alive? Before Seth showed up, we saw you die."
"You did." The evil speedster assured them.
Cisco followed up. "So, what was that? A speed mirage?"
Hunter laughed at that. "Speed mirage? No. Even I'm not that fast." He took a seat on a chair. "I knew that I couldn't be on two Earths at the same time, so I went back in time and… Met another version of myself."
Seth quickly thought to himself. "Your time remnant." He looked to the others. "Like that time, you guys encountered the Reverse-Flash."
"You know about that?" Cisco asked.
"I've been briefed." He gestured to Caitlin with a nod.
Hunter continued. "I also know that the only way to make Barry become faster was if you all witnessed your old pal Jay die."
"And when did you exactly decide to do that?" Seth asked sneeringly.
"Oh, once you closed all the breaches, went to Earth-2 and Seth got back." Hunter chuckled at his next thoughts. "Believe me, getting my time remnant to agree to me murdering him took a bit of convincing. But once he saw the… Well, the genius in my plan, he was all for it."
"Crazy bastard." Seth stated. He recalled the other prisoner in the evil metahuman's lair. "The man in the iron mask, who is he?"
"Oh, you wouldn't believe me if I told you." He vaguely said.
"Why the charade?" Joe asked. "Running around dressed like The Flash?"
"To give people hope, Detective." Hunter said, facing the detective.
"Hope?" Joe inquired.
"So, I could rip it away from them." The evil speedster clarified with an evil smirk. Seth clenched his hand in rage, he was barely keeping the inferno from blazing and enveloping his body. "It's so fun… Pretending to be a hero."
Caitlin adamantly stated. "You are no hero." Hunter faced her. "You're nothing but a monster."
Hunter cackled at those words. "That's funny, Caitlin…" He nodded to Seth. "Seeing as you're in love with a monster yourself." He stepped forward, the mutant jumping in front of his mate in a protective stance. "You know this guy on your team… He killed many of my people on my side, grunts mainly and one… Annoying human smuggler. And he even took something from me, last I checked."
"You stay away from my daughters…" Seth sneered demonically. That shocked his team members as he didn't don his alter ego's form to speak and spoke like Venom. "A pathetic junkie… is never coming close to them… AGAIN!" He emanated flames and lightning from his body
"You mean…" Hunter's eyes turned completely black, blue lightning emanating from his entire body. "My trophies?"
Joe raised his firearm again. Iris mimicked her father's move and pointed their weapons at the evil speedster who stared off with the elemental mutant. For a second Cisco and Barry wondered if they should step in.
But Caitlin walked forward and placed a hand on Seth's shoulder, despite it emitting crackling lightning. The instant her hand touched his body, his elements dimmed down, and he faced her. "Don't let him provoke you, Seth. He's not worth it."
Seth sighed and nodded. Out of everyone on this entire team, maybe this entire city, this world even… She was the only one who could calm him down. If he were ever to go overboard; she'd stretch out her hand and bring him back to safety.
Caitlin smiled when seeing him step back. She then faced Hunter. "Seth… Is nothing like you, Hunter. He's not weak to let darkness swallow him up. He uses it as a weapon, like light and fights for those who can't fight for themselves…. He's not a monster, he's a Lethal Protector… And you're never getting close to our daughters again." She finished before walking back to Seth.
Hunter narrowed his eyes to slits at her words. Harry entered the lab and informed them all. "It's done."
X
Barry stepped onto the specialized treadmill that Cisco made a year ago. The team and Zoom watched as he stepped onto it from the other side of the class panel. Seth and Joe had their respective weapons pointing at the evil speedster.
Harry attached the injection vial to the machine that would transfer Speed Force from the Speed Force Draining device on Barry's chest. He gave a nod to the speedster in the other room. Barry accepted it and started the treadmill.
The treadmill started and his body vibrated with yellow lightning sparking all over his form as the speed increased and he had to run.
Seth looked to the computer in front of Harry.
"SPEED FORCE TRANSMITTER" He read to himself and saw that the device was activated. Beside it was a 2D model of the injection vial, which was slowly filling up with Speed Force energy. A percentage beside it was increasing quickly.
"Are we doing the right thing?" Seth asked when he saw the percentage quickly increase from 36 percent to 41 percent.
"It's for Wally's life… So, we'd hope so, yeah." Venom unsurely answered as the percentage easily exceeded 80 percent.
"I don't know." Seth thought as he saw the lightning around Barry's body fade.
He respected that Barry chose to sacrifice himself for Joe's son, for family. But he truly wondered what would happen to the city without The Flash. He was the only one who could easily reach one point in the city and travel to the next one in a matter of seconds.
He really wondered what would happen now.
Iris was horrified by the sight of him losing his speed, the lightning diminishing. "He's slowing down." She said in even more horror.
"The Speed Force is leaving his body." Harry informed as he slowed down to an almost human level.
"He's becoming human again." Cisco said in horror.
"The Flash… Is no more." Seth released through gritted teeth.
Harry heard the chime from the computer and saw that it had taken all of Barry's Speed Force.
On the other end of the glass, Barry pants and sweats bullets before falling off the treadmill and sitting on the ground. Iris rushed into the room, pushing the door open and rushed to Barry's side. Joe followed as did Caitlin and Seth.
"Barry, are you okay?" Iris asked.
He nodded. "I'm okay. I'm okay." He told the reporter.
"Not the best time to lie, Barr." The mutant told him. Barry gave him a dry look.
Harry attached the vial, filled with Speed Force, to an injection gun. Hunter pushes him away, yanking the injection gun out of his hand and pressing the gun to his forearm, pulling the trigger and injecting the yellow lightning into his body.
He closed his eyes in euphoria at the feeling of pure… Natural… Speed Force lightning coursing into his system… He let go of the gun and it shattered on the ground, his eyes turning black and he opened his mouth and released a hiss like a snake. Blue and yellow lightning sparked all over his body, mixing with one another in an aura. He let out a shrill as his lightning remained blue as ever.
WHOOSH
He sped into the treadmill room and wrapped his hand around Barry's throat. Hunter lifted the speedster and pinned him to the wall. "Thank you, Flash!" He feigned appreciation.
"Let him go!" Seth shouted, pointing his sword at him.
With his free hand, Zoom yanked off his emblem and revealed a small device with a button on it on the back of the lightning symbol. "Never had a dead man's switch on this, Seth… Just a trigger." He pushed it off the symbol, landing on the ground. The evil speedster shattered the device with a stomp of his foot.
"Let him go, now Zoom!" Seth shouted.
While he choked the other speedster, while hearing the energy rifles cocking around him, Zoom cackled in realization. "I just realized something:" He leant closer to Barry's face. "You're no threat to me like this, Barry Allen. You're not The Flash anymore… You're just a man with a dead mother… Not worth my time."
He threw the CSI scientist behind him, making him grunt in pain when his body crashed into the treadmill.
"But you, Seth?" Hunter faced him with a smirk. "Last I checked… You stole something from me… How about I…" His eyes turn black. "Return the favor."
Seth's eyes expanded, facing the love of his life. "Caitlin, get awa-"
WHOOSH
Before his sentence could end, the evil speedster sped forward and grabbed Caitlin… Speeding away.
"NO!" Seth screeched in rage, anger, pain and hurt…
Zoom just stole his breath.
To be continued…
And that's a chapter, peeps!
Seth lost his breath… Zoom took Caitlin from him right in front of him as revenge for him saving the two young girls in his captive that would be his daughters. Things are taking a strange turn for the team.
Caitlin and Seth's daughters trained, fighting against Seth and Olivia who trained them. But Olivia's training session with Evelyn and Ruby was cut short because of her nieces stopping in fear of hurting the pregnant mutant who was shocked to hear that her three nieces know of her pregnancy, something that her brother doesn't even know about.
She and her husband kept it a secret still even then. But Caitlin checked on her repeatedly to make sure the psychic and her unborn children are okay. And whilst the latest checkup was taking place, Barry Allen tested out the tachyon enhancer and sped away from Keystone City and ran four times than he's ever run.
Something else happened, but that's for another time, right? ;)
But he was happy to hear that he was now faster than Zoom, and felt ready to finally run against him again and win. However, in fear of their children ending up in Zoom's hands again, Harry, Seth and Caitlin disagreed to that plan and wanted to keep the breaches closed.
Barry was against that and wanted the others to work on it still. Iris had other matters to attend because she had
Suddenly, Seth had to divert his attention to Caitlin who almost fell to the ground when she almost passed out for some reason. Her family assumed it was due to overwork. The mutant brought her into the medbay so she could properly sleep.
After an inspiring dinner with Joe, Barry realized another way to Earth-2: Reverb's Earth-1 doppelganger, Cisco Ramon.
After an informational conversation with Harry about Reverb's powers, Barry and the mutants realized that Cisco could do everything his doppelganger could, specifically manipulating the dimensional energy in the multiverse. They tried multiple times, but failed at every attempt until they found a locale with the highest concentration of residual trans-dimensional energy. At this locale, it worked, with Vibe Goggles, and a breach formed, but Cisco stopped.
Caitlin woke up from a long nap, and got incredible takeout meals that Olivia bought for her and her daughters. But the psychic was shocked by how the doctor was wolfing down the food. She didn't pay any mind to it afterwards.
Immense news hit the team when they found out that Jay, Zoom's real identity is Hunter Zolomon, a serial killer from Earth-2. Seth was shocked when Harry explained that serial killers are an anomaly on Earth-2 which was surprising because he faced off against two serial killers.
With new information dropping into their lap, the team had a plan now to defeat Zoom… but it backfired immensely. Hunter Zolomon took Wally hostage, forcing the Scarlet Speedster to give up his speed.
Barry agreed to do it, and gave up his speed.
And now that he was cured, Hunter wanted to get payback from when Seth rescued his "trophies" by kidnapping the love of his life.
Stay tuned and find out what happens next!
Until next time, peeps!
