Hey everybody. It's great to see you all here. We're winding down to the end of the season so I hope you're all prepared. My co-authors are Brightburn1985 and ThomasMarieAmell2.0.

Disclaimer: You all know I don't own the Flash

Today started as an average day. There was an attempted bank robbery, but the robber, a fire meta, had been apprehended before he could. Now they were just trying to get in touch with one of the witnesses who'd managed to slip past the officers. Matthew Kim, a coroner. Caitlin had even accompanied Barry and Joe as she was unwilling to let Barry leave her sight for even a second.

They entered the coroner's office where Kim was supposed to be working his shift to see something peculiar. Matthew Kim was looming over a dead body with his hand wrapped around their throat. There was a subtle glow at the point of contact. In another hand, he had a jar that seemed to be filling up with energy.

"Excuse me?" Barry called out.

The asian man looked up in surprise and released the corpse. He then tried to make a run for it. Joe tried to reach for his gun but Kim had already made it to the door before he could draw it.

Kim grabbed Caitlin and Barry's shoulders to part them away so he could leave and ducked down the hallway. The moment he touched the couple, they felt something, but it was so quick they didn't think much of it.

"Don't worry Joe, I'll catch up to him." Barry started to run, but was shocked he wasn't already out of the building. He was feeling slightly chilly, but that shouldn't have hindered him that much. There was only one explanation. "I lost my speed,"

Caitlin suddenly felt the urge to move, the pent up energy within her bursting out. Her hand literally began to vibrate. She raised it to show her two companions. The sound of her buzzing hand drew their attention. "I think I found it,"

The team had congregated in the Speed Lab where ice blue lightning was swirling around in the track, while Barry was now sporting white hair and blasting a training dummy with ice particles.

They both stopped and looked at each other with an excited grin. "This is awesome!" they both exclaimed.

"Well, glad to see someone is happy about this," Joe muttered.

"You have to admit, this is cool." Barry said with a smug grin, mist coming out of his hands.

"I'm getting tingly all over," Caitlin vibrated to allow brief sparks to fly off her body.

"Oh god, there they go with the puns," Cisco groaned.

"I'm more concerned about whether we can reverse this," Joe stated.

"Well, we might have been able to transfer Barry's speed back to himself using the device we used to take Barry's speed last time, but with Caitlin's powers in the mix, there might be some unforeseen complications," Cisco told him.

"How are you two not more concerned about this?" Julian asked the couple.

"Well obviously we want our powers back, but it's more like-"

"For the time being, we get to share the most intimate parts of ourselves with each other."

"So do we even have any idea of how to get your powers back to the right person?" Joe asked.

"Right now, we don't have the right equipment to safely exchange their powers again. I mean, every test we've conducted shows nothing dangerous. The bonds between their DNA and dark matter have been broken and swapped where they fused again. The most efficient way to fix this is to find the guy who did this in the first place. Until then, they're stuck with each other's powers," Cisco said.

"Which means we're going to have to put you two on the bench until we either get you switched back, or you get a handle of each other's powers. Cisco and Ralph are going to have to take over protecting Central City in the meantime." Julian said.

Everybody nodded in agreement. After so long with their own powers, it'd take some time for them to get used to having another set of powers. So Barry and Caitlin would have to train with each of them coaching the other.

"So it's not just about running really fast, you also have to take in everything around you. Your perception of the world has been altered. It'd have to be, or else you'd never understand what's going on around you. Despite that, your body is still human, and it takes a strain, even if it has been lessened with your powers. You need to be able to keep up and not let how you think you're supposed to view the world slow you down." Barry tried to explain.

"You need to feel the water particles around you. Even though you can't see it, you need to remember it's there. You control that, you manipulate it to become what you want. Your powers lower the temperature in your vicinity enough to freeze those water particles, but you need to be able to shape it to become what you want. You still retain a limited amount of control over it though, no matter which state it's in, so you should be able to decide which direction it goes and how long it remains in which state." Caitlin told him.

Back and forth they went, trading advice and suggestions on how to get a better handle of each other's powers. For them, it was like living a day in each other's lives which just brought them closer. The rest of the team spent their resources locating Matthew Kim in order for him to reverse what he'd done and get some answers as to what he'd been doing when they walked in on him.

In the pocket dimension that housed the meta trafficking operations of Clifford Devoe, Clifford Devoe was not having a good day.

"You severed the connection between The Flash and his speed?!" Devoe yelled at his underling.

"I didn't mean to. They surprised me and I reacted."

"I need him to be whole. He's no good to me if his powers have been ripped out of his body!"

"I put them inside the girl. They're not gone. Caitlin Snow is the speedster now," Kim lowered his head as he tried to explain.

"Her DNA may contain The Speed Force, but she hasn't had time to adjust. It's a swirling mess where her genes are now trying to accept this new dark matter in her system. No, Barry Allen's DNA was perfect. Having years, his DNA has adjusted to be able to withstand the strain The Speed Force places on it. That's why as time goes on, he's able to access more Speed Force energy and gradually become faster. The secrets of The Speed Force were open to him, and if you don't fix this soon, it'll be too late and I'll have to wait years before this opportunity comes again!"

"I'm sorry. I didn't know. I'll go and fix this immediately. I promise," Matthew Kim squeezed his eyes shut and lightly sniffled in fear.

Devoe regarded him silently. "Cease your pitiful snivelling. You're fortunate I excuse failure. But fail to restore The Flash soon, and I will have you replaced regardless."

Kim nodded his head fretfully and ducked out, heading to activate a portal that would return him to Central City.

Once Kim was gone, Devoe floated away to a more secluded section. The place where he kept his wife's body after discovering her suicide. He'd seen this coming. He'd expected this to happen. Sooner or later, she was going to betray him. Despite her Stockholm Syndrome, he knew she'd take the opportunity to escape when given the chance. But now that the moment was here, he didn't know what to feel. It was confusing.

Devoe bit the inside of his cheek and contemplated what to do next. He couldn't leave the body up to his associates. Too sloppy. If the body were to be discovered, all signs would eventually point to him. It'd attract too much attention. No, he'd have to get rid of this body himself. But how? Cremation was appealing, but acid seemed more efficient. Decisions decisions.

But there was that small part of his brain that refused to let go of her.

Well that just meant he had to get rid of the body now. If he was getting sentimental over something like this, perhaps it was better she was gone. She was making him soft. Who knew what else would happen the longer she was around.

"We just got a hit back on facial recognition. Matthew Kim is back and he's at Central City Park walking a dog," Cisco said.

"Should we go out there? It's a public place, so there are going to be witnesses and we don't have an outfit for each other." Caitlin asked.

"Not so fast." Cisco said before he left and reappeared with two new suits. A speedster suit for Caitlin and a dark blue outfit with a snowflake, designed like a business suit, for Barry. "I figured we would run into a situation like this one day,"

"What, that we would switch powers or our genders would be flipped?" Barry asked.

"Either one. I figured to whip these babies up just in case the situation called for it," Cisco said.

"Isn't that just Trajectory's outfit? And didn't you give it to Jesse when she became a speedster?" Caitlin pointed out the similarities. The only main difference was the addition of The Flash symbol.

"Okay, they're based off of it, and it's a copy, not the original. What do you expect? There's only so much to add on to something that already works when it's not in much use." Cisco defended himself. "How about a little appreciation? Stop criticizing what I do in my free time,"

"I feel like we should be slightly worried about the fact you sew in your free time. Maybe this is why you can't get a girlfriend," Barry said.

"Sewing is not a waste of time. It is a valuable life skill. The amount of time I took into learning the difference between a cross-stitch and a lock-stitch- and I'm starting to see your point."

"Either way, we greatly appreciate this Cisco," Caitlin said. "We'll just take these and go,"

The two changed into their new outfits and Caitlin sped them away to the park to confront this new meta.

When they arrived, Matthew Kim was just sitting on a bench with a dog by his side. "Matthew Kim. You're going to come with us to answer some questions," Caitlin yelled out.

"It was about time you got here. I was starting to get worried."

Barry and Caitlin looked at each other warily. "You were expecting us?"

"I made a mistake. I never meant for this to happen and now I need to fix this. That's why I came out of hiding. I'm going to reverse what I did, and I promise you will never see me again," Kim said.

"That's all well and good, but you still need to answer some questions, like what you were doing to that body when we walked in on you," Barry said.

"Just forget about that, and we can get this over with sooner," Kim shouted, but the two heroes could detect a hint of desperation in his voice. Kim needed to get their powers switched back as soon as possible, but they weren't sure why.

"Answer some questions first." Caitlin said.

"I don't have time for that," Kim muttered loudly. He released the dog from its leash and scratched it under the chin. "Sick 'em,"

Kim's hand glowed and it seemed that power transferred into the dog. When the glow dimmed the dog rushed forward at them. It leaped into the air and at once it transformed. Its size grew several times and its body morphed. Spikes travelling down its back and teeth protruding from its mouth. What was once just a calm dog was now a giant slavering beast that was eying them with some unknown emotion.

The dog was still charging them and Caitlin grabbed Barry and pulled them out of the way. Once they were at a safe location Barry tried to keep it that way. He raised his hands and froze the ground between them, trying to make it harder for the meta dog to reach them. That didn't seem to matter though when the dog's paws jutted out razor sharp claws that dug into the frozen earth. The ice wasn't hindering it at all.

Caitlin ran them out of the way again. She dropped Barry off at a farther distance since he was more at risk at being pounced by this pooch. She circled the creature, trying to build up the energy to fire off a lightning bolt. She was still inexperienced at this and couldn't fire off lightning like Barry by just charging his arms. This was the easiest way she could in the limited amount of time they'd been practising.

When Caitlin felt charged enough, she grabbed the end trails of her lightning and grabbed it to fling at the creature, but it was as though it could sense where she stopped because it turned its head to face her and howled unlike before. The sound waves met the lightning and they clashed together, cancelling each other out.

The creature seemed to have had enough of their games because it revealed another trick. It split in two, creating a duplicate that was going after Barry. Caitlin couldn't do much as she was still preoccupied with her own copy. She just had to hope Barry would have better luck than her.

Her creature let loose another sonic howl that she was forced to dodge. It followed her, the sonic howl was constantly following her, leaving trenches wherever it went. Caitlin was just glad everyone in the park had run at the initial sight of the giant dog.

Barry had been trying to fight Kim when Caitlin dropped him off. Icicles in the shape of daggers in his hands and he was slashing at Kim, trying to incapacitate him, but Kim was proving to be fairly good at dodging. He didn't seem to be able to utilize his powers in any combat orientation, which probably meant he was able to store and transfer powers, but wasn't able to use them in any capacity for himself. He was just a middle man. In fact, he might just be the thing that Devoe was using to sell his meta powers. It made sense. Kim was a mortician. He had plenty of access to dead bodies. Some of them must have been metas that he'd stolen and bottled up for Devoe. Barry wouldn't put it past Devoe to have a backup system, but it would make sense for Kim to be the one mainly transferring powers.

Kim could be the final key they needed to take down Devoe if Barry could just capture him.

But first, he needed to get him to stay still. Barry channeled his powers and froze the ground once more. He was able to freely traverse this terrain, but Kim wasn't as fortunate. Kim slipped and slid around on the ice. Barry took a deep breath and exhaled as sharply as he could, encasing Kim in a block of ice.

Barry was barely able to have a moment to relax before he was blasted off his feet by a sonic wave. He was slammed into a tree and grunted in pain. Barry tried to get up but a giant paw pinned him to the ground. His eardrums were still ringing and he thought he felt some liquid drip out of his ears.

In the distance he could still hear the tell tale sounds of another fight. That was confusing. Barry turned his head and saw that Caitlin was fighting against another creature. There were two of them? When did that happen?

The answer was given when the creature in front of him split into two perfect copies. One was still pinning him to the ground while the other veered off in order to free its master from the ice cube Barry trapped him in.

The monster stared Barry down and opened its maw to let loose another sonic howl. Barry grimaced in pain. He stared at the giant paw that was keeping him in place. He had to get that off him.

The monster howled in his face once again and it was beginning to give Barry a headache, but Barry was able to focus enough that an icicle manifested on his chest and continued to grow, piercing the creature's paw.

The monster whined in pain and released him. It was limping now, only walking with three legs, keeping the fourth in the air to not agitate the wound.

Barry coated himself in a layer of ice as protection. One of them was out for the count, but the newest one had freed Kim and was now coming at Barry again. It was charging at Barry. Barry knelt down to touch the ground with his hands and put all the power he could into it, shaping the terrain to how he imagined it. The ground was covered in ice and ice spires as obstacles. Wherever the creature went, Barry would create a new one. He controlled the environment now.

So it came as a surprise when another sonic howl came from behind Barry and sent Barry tumbling into one of his own ice spires. The impact knocked the wind out of Barry. Stupid, he'd completely forgotten about the one with the injured paw. It snuck up behind him when he wasn't looking.

Caitlin was running out of steam. She couldn't keep up this cat-and-mouse chase much longer. Especially when she was the mouse. It seemed the creature had the same idea and duplicated itself rapidly, circling her in an instant. All together, they released their sonic howl. The pain was indescribable, being bombarded with the sound from all directions. Caitlin was forced to her knees. She only had one escape route now. She vibrated and her body was phased into the ground. There she was safe from the worst of the sounds. But now she was stuck.

She'd have to create a distraction. So she came out of the ground twirling. She needed to blow these pups out of the way. Her motion was creating a small tornado, but she needed it to be bigger, so she kept going. The tornado was sucking in everything; leaves, branches, some pieces of ice that Barry must have created. The winds were picking up strength, and finally it seemed the creatures were either running or being pulled into her tornado as well.

Finally she stopped, or at least stopped using her speed because her dizziness finally started to kick in. Her balance was off, and unfortunately that made her an easy target for these creatures.

Her head was still spinning when she fell to the ground and one of the creatures picked her up in its jaw.

The numerous creatures combined back into one as it dropped Caitlin next to Barry, who was trying to catch his breath.

"This would have been so much simpler if you just listened to me, but you two just had to be difficult. I can see why you two like each other so much," Kim said, lightly shivering from the cold he had to endure and pressed a hand against both Caitlin and Barry. Their own powers were restored to each other.

"Alright," Kim said, the creature returning to his side. Kim patted it on its head and his powers activated once more, taking the powers from the creature and it returned back to its normal body. "Let's go," they walked away from the utter destruction that was once Central City Park. The Flash and Killer Frost laying on the ground.

The breach opened up and Cisco and Ralph appeared in the hero garments to help their comrades. "Now you show up? After we just got our asses handed to us?" Caitlin asked.

"You guys were the ones who needed to confront Melting Point, not us. And it worked, even if it got a little out of hand." Cisco said, surveying the destruction of the park.

"Melting Point?" Barry asked.

"He breaks the bonds between dark matter and DNA, which can usually only be accomplished at a specific melting point, so yeah." Cisco said.

"Let's get you two out of here to recover. We'll fix you two up in a jiffy," Ralph said as they entered the breach again.

Barry and Caitlin were recovering in the Cortex, mostly due to exhaustion. Despite the mess they made, they'd accomplished their main objections; to get their powers back to the right person. Getting Kim would've just been a side bonus.

"So, what's the plan now?" Joe asked.

"Devoe is coming for me, coming for all of us eventually. I don't want to wait around for him to make a move. I refuse to run on his schedule," Barry said. "I want to take the fight to him."

"But how would you do that? You can't go back to that place. He's in control there. Never fight on your opponent's turf," Cisco said. "There, he has access to all the metas and the powers he's collected for close to four years. We won't stand a chance."

"Then we need to take him when he's out of there. Devoe can't stay cooped up in that pocket dimension forever. Sooner or later, he's got to come out, whether it's to maintain his cover as a professor, or to continue his reign as the crime boss. Either way, we need to keep an eye out for when he returns." Barry said.

"Listen Allen, this isn't going to be as easy as you might think it is. Devoe isn't like your other big bads who have used brute force to get their way. To answer that, you had to match them with brute force." Julian warned him. "Devoe used his mind to get to where he is. He's been building this up for years and has got an army to prove it. If you want him, you're going to have go through all of them first,"

"I've dealt with smart people before Julian. The Reverse Flash planned his attack for 15 years, carefully setting up the pieces. Zoom brought an army of metahumans from an alternate world that we had to take down." Barry said. "We can stop him,"

"I'm not saying we can't stop him, I'm just saying this might need a different approach than you're used to." Julian said. "It's going to take time. He's utilized his intelligence to their full potential. We take him, we're going to have hundreds coming after us,"

"So what are we supposed to do? This guy is out there, he's got hundreds of people doing his bidding with his connections all over the city. We take out the root of the problem and all is solved," Barry exclaimed.

"It's more complicated than that. Devoe is smart, he has a plan. At this point, he's the only thing holding back this army of metahumans, and without him, they're going to run rampant. Devoe has spent years building his empire and he's not going to let it all go to waste," Joe piped up. "If we take him now, who knows what's going to happen when we do,"

"So we just let him get away with this? No way in hell," Caitlin said.

"We need to work our way up first. Take down the army to get to the leader. It's going to take time, but it's our best bet if we want to avoid collateral damage. Who knows what that man is capable of,"

"I am not going to stay here, twiddling my thumbs while Devoe is out there ruining people's lives. I promised his wife I would stop him. I promised on her deathbed." Barry said.

"And you will Barr. This is just going to take some time. The fact is, we can't get to Devoe. We need to make him come to us,"

Devoe watched on the monitor in amusement. These people really had no idea what to do with him. He expected better. The people tasked with fending the city from threats like him and they were nowhere close to figuring him out.

But that just left the question of what he should do.

He could honestly just stay here in this pocket dimension indefinitely. With the money he had and his operatives out in the field fetching him whatever he could need, he could hide out here forever. But that just left the same problem that got him in here to begin with. He'd get bored out of his mind. He wouldn't be able to stand doing nothing. He had to break this stalemate. A confrontation of some sort.

Devoe couldn't operate in the shadows. Any movement he made out of this place would call Team Flash towards him in an instant as out in the open was when he was most vulnerable and their best chance of taking him down. So he needed a spectacle. Go big or go home.

It was with a grin that a plan was beginning to form in his mind. It was time to call for his ace. The one thing they'd never expect and break them all at once. He looked to the side to see the special suit he'd been constructing. It would finally see some use now.

But first, he needed to send the signal that the wait was over.

On the computer, he typed out his message. 'There is no terror in the bang of the gun; only the anticipation in it.'

With the message sent, he sprung into action and opened a portal that would take him to his desired destination.

Hope you all liked that. I particularly enjoyed combining powers into the dog. I had a bevy of abilities to choose in order to fight off against a reverse Flash and Frost. And as you can all tell, Kim is working with Devoe. The dog is just a little taste of what is in store in the future.

Nobody guessed my inspirations of Subjects 1 through 7 from last chapter so I'll just tell you. They're the Umbrella Academy with a few minor alterations.

Who do you think Devoe sent that message to? You'll find out next week. Hope to see you all there.