Hello there everyone. Wonderful to see you all again. Let me just say I hope you all enjoy what I've been leading up to for season 4 because we are almost done. Next week is going to be the season finale and then I'm back on my hiatus. Thanks to my co-authors Brightburn1985 and ThomasMarieAmell2.0.
Disclaimer: You know I don't own The Flash.
"We've got something on Devoe!" Cisco shouted excitedly. "He signed in at CCU. Guess he's still trying to keep up appearances."
"Okay, the four of us are going to get to him. Suit up, guys. This might be our best and last chance to get him. In public, he might not have his bodyguards with him to send us packing, especially when he's not expecting us." Barry said to Cisco, Caitlin, and Ralph.
Barry sped into his suit and changed Caitlin into hers as well to save time. Ralph always kept his own on hand and could easily put it on. It was like a second skin for him. Cisco was the one to take the most time, but that was remedied by the fact he could instantly appear at the scene.
"I'll take Caitlin. Ralph will come with you Cisco," Barry said. With that, Barry picked up Caitlin in his arms and ran the two of them to the university.
Barry ran through the university until he found Devoe in an empty gymnasium. Barry dropped Caitlin back to the ground to face him. A breach appeared beside them that spit out Cisco and Ralph.
Looking at the scene, any other person would have cowered at the sight of the four superheroes, especially when the assailant was confined to a wheelchair.
Devoe just looked at them with a cold calculating gaze. "I'm impressed your arrival was so prompt. I expected to have a few more seconds of peace, but I suppose that was simply a fruitless hope."
"You know, for a guy who boasts about having such intelligence, it was pretty stupid for you to come out in the open when you know we were looking for you. You didn't even bring some muscle to protect yourself. You just put yourself in a very bad situation," Barry said.
"Thomas Hardy says, 'And yet to every bad, there's a worse.' In this case, you're to experience the worst," Devoe said.
"Quit talking nonsense," Cisco shouted. "You don't have any powers that can save you here. Give up and we won't hurt you. Your operations stop here."
"Oh? I do believe Mr. Allen has something to say to that." Devoe smirked as his gaze fell upon the speedster.
Barry stepped forward, which the team thought was Barry going to apprehend the man. Barry stopped right before the man and paused.
"Hello Flash," Devoe greeted him. He turned his stare to the three others. "Get rid of them,"
The Flash turned around with a blank expression on his face. His body tensed as lightning ran along his body, coating himself in electricity.
"What are you doing?" Cisco asked.
The Flash sprang into action and charged straight at them. Caitlin and Cisco ran to the side, but Ralph was still plagued with confusion and so didn't get out of the way in time.
Any physical attacks would have been useless against him and The Flash, even in his current state, knew that. Instead, he grabbed his arm and ran off. The arm stretched out, leaving Ralph behind whilst his hand was still in The Flash's grasp. The Flash went after Caitlin and wrapped her in the extended arm.
Caitlin was too slow and couldn't help her capture. Normally she would have frozen her bindings and shattered them when they were brittle, but this is Ralph's arm. If she did that, she would be amputating it and she didn't think Ralph would appreciate that. And the knot was too tight for Ralph to untangle himself.
Ralph was apologizing profusely, but Caitlin didn't blame him. She didn't know how, but Devoe had to have gotten in Barry's head.
The Flash made his way towards Cisco and Cisco tried to shoot a vibrational blast at him. The Flash sunk into the floor to avoid the blast and shot out of the ground directly beneath Cisco and landed an uppercut on his chin. When Cisco was briefly in the air, The Flash grabbed his forehead and forcefully slammed the back of his head into the ground.
The floor was now stained with blood as it was flowing out the back of Cisco's head. The Flash fisted the collar of Cisco's suit and lifted him so Cisco was now eye-to-eye with him. "Barry," Cisco weakly mumbled.
The Flash didn't respond and proceeded to pummel Cisco's face in. The Flash continued his assault until he felt the body go limp.
The Flash stood up from where he was previously crouched to survey his surroundings. He saw that Ralph was currently trying to untie Caitlin from his arm, but wasn't making much headway with only one hand working. To put that attempt to a halt, The Flash ran and grabbed Ralph's head and ran out the door with it. He ran all the way outside where he then tied Ralph's neck around a lamppost. Now that he wouldn't be aware of what was going on, that would stop him for the time being.
The Flash made his way back inside to see Caitlin crying her eyes out at seeing her husband acting like this. "Barry, why are you doing this?"
"Don't you see it yet?" Devoe stated. "The man you once knew is gone. All that is left is my will,"
"You're stronger than this baby. You're stronger than him. You can fight this," Caitlin pleaded.
"I'm afraid, Mrs. Snow-Allen, that it is already too late. The Flash belongs to me."
Caitlin shook her head. "I refuse to believe that's true. Barry, my Barry, is still there. This can't have happened. This isn't possible."
"Yet the impossible is just another Tuesday in Central City," Devoe smirked in victory. "Oscar Wilde once said, 'The truth is rarely pure and never simple.' You just need to accept this as your new reality."
The Flash stepped forward and gripped Caitlin's neck, lifting her into the air and strangling her. Caitlin was in no position to fight him.
"No, leave her alive," Devoe commanded. "Let her live with the fact of her own stupidity. That it was her own fault for leaving you in my hands for even a second and not expecting some repercussions. That for all her attempts, she is weak."
The Flash dropped Caitlin to the ground where she lay having a coughing fit to try to regain her breath.
"Let's go. We have much to discuss," Devoe said, and The Flash whisked the two of them away.
"This can't be happening," Caitlin mumbled to herself. "This just can't be happening right now,"
"Caitlin…" Joe tried to comfort her.
"Why does this keep happening, Joe? Why does my Fleet Feet have to suffer through so much pain? Why can't it be someone else's turn? When is it their time to suffer so he doesn't have to?" Caitlin cried into her father-in-law's arms.
"I don't know, but we're going to get him back, Caitlin. I promise. I don't care what Devoe did to my son, the man I raised is still in there and we are going to save him."
"And how are we going to do that? Devoe needs to be stopped and we can't do that without Barry. But we can't get Barry back with Devoe in the way." Caitlin shakily took a breath. "I hate him, Joe. I hate Devoe. I hate that he's able to make me feel this way and I'm letting him,"
"We all hate him, Caitlin," Cisco said with a groan as he was nursing a giant bruise on his head as well as a broken nose. "He took your husband and warped him. But no matter what, we can get through to him. What you're feeling is completely natural."
"Devoe has taken so much from other people. He's ruined their lives with nary a thought and now he's taking away our's." Caitlin cried out. "I hate him so much, and what scares me is the fact that I want to destroy Devoe. Not just his operations, but I want him dead! I want to crush his head under my foot. I want to cut him up into little pieces and bury him across several graves. I want to make him feel just a hint to the devastation he makes others feel,"
"You think you're the only one who wants him dead?" Cisco asked. He tried to stand but immediately lay down in his bed again from a bout of sudden dizziness. "Believe me, there are so many people who want him gone. The friends and families of the people he's taken, and they probably don't even know it's him. I want him dead as well. I'm tired of having this guy ten steps ahead of us, and I don't want him getting any further. But we're going to do it together, and we're doing this right,"
Caitlin shook her head in dismay. "This is never going to end." Caitlin proclaimed. "We take down Devoe, there's going to be another and another. Why does the world keep making less sense?"
"If things were simple, we'd all be out of a job," Ralph joked.
"What are we going to do about Barry? How are we going to stop him?" Caitlin asked.
"Well, luckily we have plenty of experience going up against speedsters. The problem is that most of the time, we had our own speedster to go up against them." Cisco said.
"We could get Wally or Jesse here. Maybe even Jay Garrick would be willing to help out," Joe suggested.
"We could ask them, but Jay and Jesse have their own worlds to worry about. And Wally's actually been off the radar for a little while." Julian told him.
"What? Where is he?" Joe shouted, worried about his other son who had gone missing.
"Iris said he'd decided to take a little vacation for himself. Nothing to worry about," Julian assured him.
"So, it's probably just going to be us against Barry. Well, at least we've got an ice witch here to help us on that." Cisco pointedly looked at Caitlin for that.
Caitlin helplessly shrugged as she looked over at the rest of the team. "I don't want to do that. Please don't make me do this. You guys are asking for way too much,"
"You two used to get into fights all the time, and now you're telling us you're not going to do it? You guys went into literal fistfights for every little thing before, not to mention training exercises. What's stopping you now?" Cisco asked incredulously.
"Everything! Everything has changed. Why can't you understand that? Things are different now. We were just stupid kids back then. I can't do this," Caitlin shouted as she stormed off.
Joe went to follow her and found her huddled on a couch in a lounge. "I didn't know STAR had a lounge,"
"Cisco and I used to come here for our coffee breaks. Believe it or not, this place used to be busy enough to warrant a lounge." Caitlin reminisced about the old days. Before all this weirdness. Before Barry.
"You know we're going to get him back. There's no way that it isn't happening."
"I know that. But I'm scared as to what capacity he's going to be returning." Caitlin sniffled. "It's not fair."
"I know it isn't. But it is what it is,"
Caitlin sighed and put her head in her hands. "I'm going to have to face him, aren't I?" she mumbled through her fingers.
"I don't want to say you don't have a choice in the matter," Joe tried to say. "But most likely, the choice isn't going to be up to you."
"Hey, glad to see you're back. We've gotten several reports of missing people. Taken in broad daylight. People are saying they were taken in a split second." Cisco reported when Caitlin and Joe had returned. "Guess Devoe couldn't wait to test out his new puppet,"
"And how much do you want to bet all those people were metahumans?" Joe said.
"Why hasn't he come for us yet? We're metas too." Ralph asked.
"Probably saving us for last. Torturing us with the fact that he's got Barry doing his bidding and we can't do anything to stop him," Caitlin said.
"So how do we stop him?" Julian asked.
Caitlin took a moment to think. With Barry gone, that made her the de facto leader, being the most experienced of the group. "We need to find where he's going. If we do that, we cut him off and bring him back. Is there a pattern to his abductions?"
"None that I can see. Barry's running all over the map," Cisco said.
"Well, he's not Barry, so we can't be thinking about this like Barry. We need to be thinking like Devoe," Caitlin said. "Do any of the abducted have connections to Devoe?"
Cisco started looking up information on all the confirmed people who had been taken by Barry. "Nothing that stands out."
"Any relation to the university Devoe works at?" Caitlin asked.
Cisco looked through the records once again. "Yahtzee. Students, alumni, and staff. All of them were at CCU for some time when Devoe was working there."
"Devoe must have seen them at the school and figured out they were metas, or at least had the potential to be a meta. Kept tabs on them, but now that he's got Barry, he doesn't need to wait around. He can just grab them in an instant." Joe realized.
"Well, that's all well and good, but how does that help us?" Ralph asked.
"It helps because that means he's probably watching us too, and we know what he wants. Devoe is a businessman. He's doing this for the money. We can use that to our advantage." Cisco says.
"What are you suggesting Cisco? I actually go buy my husband back?" Caitlin asked.
"We've got money," Cisco shrugged. "Devoe wants money. It's worth a try,"
"That actually might work. Pose as a prospective buyer. When Devoe shows himself, we take him down." Joe said.
"How are we going to get a message to him?" Caitlin asked.
"You just leave that to me," Cisco cracked his knuckles and went down to business. After a few moments, he'd sent his message. "There. Hopefully, Devoe takes the bait and answers."
"What did you say?" Julian asked.
"A game isn't played until both sides know the rules. Time and place. What's it going to take?" Cisco read off the message he posted.
"Are we even sure Devoe is going to be able to understand the message is for him? It is a little vague," Ralph stated.
A ping sounded, alerting them the message had a response. "Nothing seems to be too vague for this guy. The meet will take place tonight at 8. Ferris Air Testing Facility."
"Are we sure that's him? Can we track down the user?" Joe asked.
"Burner phone. Probably dumped it already too. He's too smart to leave us a bread trail."
"Time to get into character. We're all going this time," Ralph said.
With that said, everyone began their preparations for their meeting with Devoe.
Caitlin and Cisco were at the setup station where they were when Barry first came to them asking for assistance in his newfound powers. Cisco wouldn't be taking part in this fight, still healing from The Flash's assault earlier. Ralph, Julian, and Joe were hiding on the side, Julian and Joe each with a laser gun that was set to stun Barry should be given the chance.
The moment the clock struck 8, the telltale sound of a speedster came rushing through the air. The lightning filled their eyes before receding. There stood The Flash with a blank expression on his face, but he wasn't The Flash. It was clearly Barry but in a new suit. Caitlin could practically hear the grinding of teeth from Cisco beside her.
It was dark, but Caitlin could still make out the fact that the new suit was primarily grey with red streaks running across the body. The lightning symbol was at least still being proudly presented on his chest.
As Caitlin walked over, fixing her cold glare at the speedster, she began the conversation. "We're here to talk a deal. How much is it going to take for you to release Barry?"
"You misunderstand. I'm not here to talk a deal." Barry's body was speaking the words, even making the sadistic expressions, but it wasn't Barry. "I came because there's just one more test to try out and you are the perfect subjects,"
"And what is that?" Caitlin couldn't help but ask, readying her powers at a moment's notice.
"Do try to put up a decent fight. The best results are when you're giving 100%." The Flash said. The streaks on the suit suddenly began to glow, and it was like something was moving in them, flowing through them like blood in the veins. Actually now that Caitlin was thinking about it, she eyed the pattern of the streaks and found that they actually mimicked the path of most of the major arteries in Barry's body. What was that about?
Through the process, Barry grunted in discomfort, squeezed his eyes shut and threw his head back. His fists clenched in pain. When the suit's glow was gone, the sensation must have stopped because Barry took a deep breath as if to steady himself.
"Barry?" Caitlin cautiously approached him, thinking this momentary weakness might be Barry returning to his senses.
All of a sudden Barry's eyes opened with lightning filling them with such power, it was as though it were a bright yellow glow. His body vibrated and electricity was running up and down his body. The Flash pushed himself forward and Caitlin was forced to react. She shot her ice to the ground to reduce traction so The Flash would trip himself.
The Flash simply jumped over the ice. And once he was in the air, he hung suspended mid flight. The Flash smirked down at her shocked expression. It must have shocked the others too because nobody was moving. The Flash seemed to just soak up their apparent awe.
"You can fly? How can you fly?" Caitlin whispered.
"Wouldn't you like to know." The Flash sneered at her. "That's not all I can do now," The Flash took in a deep breath and let loose a stream of flames from his mouth.
Caitlin reacted instinctively and absorbed the flames before they could do any damage.
The Flash plummeted to the ground and smashed the ice apart. He stood up without a single scratch on himself. Behind him, The Flash heard the sound of a gun going off. Internally smirking at the sheer ridiculousness of managing to catch him off guard, The Flash raised his hands and the ground trembled at his will. Cracks appeared, creating a ring around him and Frost, the cracks too clean and smooth to have occurred naturally.
With nary a thought, the ring rotated so he and Frost were now on opposite ends. The projectiles meant for him were now heading directly towards Frost.
Caitlin didn't have time to react when she felt the sting in her back from where she was shot with the lasers.
Caitlin had to take a knee. The frantic sound of feet and cries of her name told her the rest of the team was coming for her. Although all she could really think about was how The Flash could have gained all these abilities at once.
"Do you see what I did? Do you see it?" The Flash said, but the words were all Devoe.
"What did you do to him?" Caitlin asked, her voice barely a whisper.
"The Thinker has made some improvements to myself. I'm sure you noticed the new suit. As The Flash, I've piqued his interest not because of the powers, but due to the potential. Do you know what that is?"
"You've somehow been given multiple powers." Caitlin started by stating the obvious.
"Yes I have. Excuse me for a moment," The Flash turned to face the rest of the team who had since gotten here. The suit glowed once again and Barry flinched in pain. As soon as it came though, it was gone. The Flash reached for his belt that Caitlin somehow hadn't noticed until now and pulled out several tiny figurines. His fists glowed with a combination of colours and he threw them in the air.
The figurines grew into life size figurines. When they landed, the objects moved as though they were alive. They each took a separate target and ran off in a burst of superspeed at another member of the team. Now all they could do was run away.
"Dwarf Star, a little Vitality, and a jolt of Speed Force. Makes for quite an interesting recipe, doesn't it?" The Flash said as he looked at his statues chasing down the rest of the team.
"How are you doing that?" Caitlin asked. Caitlin stood up and manifested twin ice daggers in her hands. She slashed them at the speedster, not looking to harm him, but to take him down all the same.
The Flash skillfully maneuvered himself out of the way of her attacks. "Powers in a suit. Now normally the human body wouldn't be able to handle the exposure to excessive amounts of dark matter. Too much and the body begins to shut down. Too little, and it's not going to have much of an effect. You want that perfect middle ground. The one where there's just enough dark matter to begin the process of evolution."
The two moved in and out as if they were in a dance. Caitlin slashed with her icicles and sometimes tried to see how much he was paying attention by chilling their environment, but whenever it got too much, The Flash would just breathe flames to warm their surroundings again.
"An attempt with any other meta, and they probably wouldn't have survived the initial injection. Even now, it's a trial, but as The Flash, I was the most perfect candidate. With accelerated healing and years for my body to acclimatize to the dark matter in my system, my body could take the strain of too much exposure to dark matter, but eventually if my body were to be injected with too much for too long, my body would begin the process of decay as well.
"That's when The Thinker came up with the solution. The suit is filled with various amounts of dark matter, each of them mutated in different ways, collected from different people, possessing different powers. Tiny samples that The Thinker could spare. Choosing which to inject and when. With such tiny amounts, the effect isn't permanent, but gives me temporary powers of each, combining them. Don't you see now? The Thinker has created the perfect metahuman in me."
Caitlin just looked at him with a look of horror. "That's too much power. You're going to be destroyed from the inside out. You may not succumb to the effects as fast as others, but you will eventually."
"Who cares? If The Flash couldn't handle it, then that just means I wasn't perfect and it's time for The Thinker to move on to find his newest subject." The Flash shrugged.
"You're going to get hurt. Being injected with so much dark matter at once, even if it eventually wears off to normal levels, those moments are filled with pain as the body struggles to maintain such power!" Caitlin shouted at him.
The Flash shrugged once again. "No pain, no gain. And I have certainly never made any complaints. Have you heard any?"
Caitlin grunted in frustration and she tried to lung at him, but The Flash leaped out of the way with ease. With a wave of his hand, the ground began to slowly swallow Caitlin, trapping her.
"As much fun as this is, I've got business elsewhere. Enjoy yourselves. But if it's any consolation, if it turns out I can't handle what The Thinker demands, you can have what's left of me back." The Flash crouched and jumped into the air at superspeed, a lightning trail following behind him before it disappeared into the sky. The sound of his cold laugh haunting Caitlin.
With the distance too great, the connection the objects had with the Speed Force were gone. At that point, they were just like normal people and were easily taken down by the team.
Caitlin escaped by freezing the ground around her and shattering through like it were glass. She didn't know why she hadn't done that before now.
"So this just went from bad to worse," Cisco stated.
Who saw that coming? Devoe has turned The Flash into his puppet. Injected him with all these new powers that would ravage any other with the sheer radiation if not for Barry's healing factor. And even then, the powers has to be temporary or Barry would succumb to it.
I'll see you all next week for the finale. And then who knows when I'll be back? I certainly don't.