Chapter 56: It's Marky Mark!

He wasn't one for late night autopsies, but pay was pay and the more work he got done the more time he had to get out of town for his upcoming vacation. Years and years of slaving away, cutting open dead bodies and recording the states and weights of bones and organs, all built up for this one trip to the Bahamas. Sand, sun, and beautiful women as far as the eye could see. A true paradise.

At least, that was what he was thinking about five minutes ago. Now, he'd just be content to live to see tomorrow.

"Please…"

"No." The demon above him shook his finger. Above his other hand was a floating ball of ice, rotating menacingly. "Not until you answer my question: who killed Clyde Mardon?"

He winced, and decided his life was more important. After all, if anyone could stop this demon… "The Flash."

A pause. "You sure?"

"A-Ask Joe West or Eddie Thawne!" He stuttered out desperately. "They were there! They saw the Flash cut his throat!"

The demon seemed to contemplate this for a moment. "Alright. I believe you."

He let out a breath of relief. Safe, finally.

"Goodbye."

His eyes snapped back to his assailant, just in time see the ice ball triple in size, and then -

"Guess what, guess what, guess whaaat!" Barry sang, jumping up and down in front of Iris' desk. His voice was loud and off-key, prompting a couple of glares from the surrounding officers.

Iris, for her part, was unperturbed, far too use to Barry's antics to care. "What?"

"I've got tickets to that Japanese zombie movie!" Her best friend announced brightly, producing said tickets for proof. "Want to come?"

"Seeing as you got two, you already have your answer." Iris answered, slightly amused.

Barry frowned. "Not true. I could've taken Joe or Cisco or Caitlin or even Eddie if I wanted to."

"Barry, Dad hates zombie movies, Cisco and Caitlin prefer not to spend any more time with you if they have to, and Eddie…" Iris paused. "I'm not even going to dignify that with a response."

"… Cisco and Caitlin do spend more time with me than they have to." Barry insisted, ignoring the other two accusations.

"And how much of that is because you keep on intruding on their own time?" Iris retorted, already knowing the answer.

"… You haven't answered my question."

"Yes, I'll go with you."

Barry pumped his fist. "Yes!"

Iris held up a hand, halting the celebration before it could get too out of hand. "There will be subtitles, right?"

Barry snorted. "Of course. How else would we be able to understand what everyone is trying to say?" In this case, he wasn't lying - he hadn't gotten around to learning Japanese yet, just some basic phrases. Not everyone could be a linguistics prodigy, after all.

"Good. Now beat it." Iris said promptly. "I have to finish up the last of these reports and you're distracting."

"Iris is so mean."

"Yes, because Iris has a promotion in the pipeline and as much as she loves Barry, she will not let him screw this up for her."

Barry held up his hands at that. "Alright then. I'll see you later, West."

"Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Allen." Iris called back as Barry walked away.

As the theater patrons poured out of the auditorium, many of them were still shuddering and shivering; the movie had not been for the faint of heart. Iris was no exception. She had a wide-eyed look on her face and was rubbing her arms to ward off a cold feeling, even though it was the middle of summer and unbearably hot.

Barry, however, was.

"Now that was definitely high-up the scale." He stated in glee. "I give it an eight."

"I'm glad someone here enjoyed it." Iris responded, not nearly as enthused as her friend was. "How is it that you can stand watching stuff like this?"

Barry shrugged. "Desensitization." As Iris' incredulous look, he clarified his answer. "From zombie movies, Iris. I've watched a lot of them since I got back."

"Must be a lot of zombie movies."

"Oh, yes. From what I've seen, zombie apocalypses have gotten really popular over the last ten years." Barry tapped a finger on his chin. "I wonder why…"

Iris, knowing where this was going, cut in. "No. I'm hungry and if you continue this any longer, I'm going to lose my appetite and wake up tomorrow at six in the morning craving for a steak."

"Alright, alright." Barry held up his hands in a conciliatory manner. "Where to?"

"There's this new Asian Fusion place I've been meaning to try."

"Then Asian Fusion it is." Barry grinned. "I'll pay."

Iris scowled. "Barry…"

"Iris, I have all this money from you-know-who, and trust me, using it to buy dinner is the least he owes me." Barry said, taking out his wallet and waving it around for emphasis.

Iris sighed. "Fine."

"So, what's up?" Barry asked as he finished up a piece of sushi.

Iris, in the process of dabbing her own with a bit of wasabi, frowned. "What makes you think something's up?"

"Because I know you, Iris." Barry answered, dipping another piece in some soy sauce. "You're tense. I can see it from a mile away. What's going on?"

Iris pursed her lips. "Are you alright, Barry?"

"I thought we were talking about you?"

"You're the reason I'm tense, Bare."

Barry blinked. "Why?"

"You're… just really put together. Everything is peachy for you. And normally, this wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for everything that's happened since you came back." Iris bit her lip. "Almost getting shot, the Undertaking, and that thing we had you do - I don't know, you're taking this way better than anyone else would. You're still joking around after all that. And I'm just worried…"

"… That I'm putting on some kind of act?" Barry finished for her, smirking. "Iris, I'm not suppressing my emotions or anything like that. I'm just really good at processing these things. The island and all that."

Iris' frown deepened. "Barry, about the island-"

CRASH!

Before Iris could finish her sentence, what looked to be a person flew through the glass of the front of the restaurant. Barry and Iris quickly got out of their seats and backed away as the person - a woman - rolled in front of their table.

"What the…"

"Why was she-"

"Look!"

They and the other patrons looked outside the window (now completely devoid of a barrier) to see the park outside in chaos. A man was standing in the center, hands spread wide as wind blew from every corner, surrounding him. People trying to flee were caught up in the gales, thrown in every direction. It almost looked as if it was forming a-

"Tornado…" Iris hissed. She took out her phone to zoom in the prospective metahuman, and cursed even louder.

"Iris?" Barry asked, cautious. Carefully, he placed his hand in his pocket and pressed the button of a small device hidden inside. Thankfully, it seemed no one noticed his strange movements.

"It's Mark Mardon, Clyde Mardon's brother." Iris then turned to the other patrons. "Everyone, I'm a cop! Please leave now while I call CCPD!"

"How are we supposed to get out?" One of the customers demanded, fear belying his anger.

Instead of answering, Iris turned to one of the waiters. "You guys have a back door?"

The waiter, scared out of his wits, nodded shakily.

"Evacuate everyone through there." When the waiter hesitated, she snapped out a "Now!" He gestured everyone to the kitchen, and they left, post-haste.

She then turned to her friend once more. "Barry, go with them."

Barry crossed his arms, suspicious. "And you'll be right behind me?" When Iris didn't answer, he almost snarled. "Iris!"

"I'm a trained cop, Barry!" Iris cried out angrily, pressing CCPD's hotline on speed dial and waiting for the dial tone to end. "They might need me!"

"Iris, you're off-duty. You don't even have your gun on you right now. What use could you be to them other than another body for him to throw around!"

Iris had no answer to that, though she still looked defiant. The dial tone of the phone finally ended, and she instead took the call, informing the operator of the situation. After the call ended, she looked expectantly at Barry.

Barry refused to stand down. "At least take me with you."

"No!"

"Iris, your dad will kill me if I let you go after Mardon alone, especially when you're effectively defenseless."

"And Dad will kill me if I let you go with me!" Iris shot back. "You don't have any training at all, Barry! If I go alone, I might have a shot, but if you go with me, I'll have to watch out for you! If we both go, we both die, and there's no point in having that!"

Barry was about to argue his case, but the sound of ice stopped him. He had a moment of clarity thanks to his speed to see Mardon forming icicles in the air before-

"Get down!"

He threw himself at Iris (using his speed for a quick boost to close the distance) knocking her down to the floor as the icicles flew overhead.

Mark Mardon scowled as the wind continued to howl above him. The Flash should've been here by now! You'd think that a tornado in the middle of downtown Central City would've caught the attention of the fastest man alive already.

His scowl deepened when he caught sight of the police speeding over. He increased the wind pressure on their cars, preventing them from getting out - no need to fall from a stray bullet after all.

What was it going to take? He was already pushing himself with the tornado - was he going to have to bury Central City in a snow storm or something to catch that damn speedster's attention? Or maybe a tsunami? While he'd prefer not to destroy the city - he had shit here after all - that should be enough to get the Flash's atten-

Mark blinked as a blue blur started speeding around the tornado he was trying to form. He quickly realized the blur was doing in the opposite direction of the tornado. Now, he wasn't some weather genius (otherwise this situation probably would've never happened), but it didn't take leap to guess why the blur was doing that… and who the blur was.

Tried for one and got the other. Revenge will have to wait another day.

Proving himself to be at least marginally smarter than his brother, Mark Mardon fled the scene as quickly as he could muster.

Luckily for Mark Mardon, the damage he had done was enough to distract Supergirl from going after him. Instead, she spent the entire time searching for stranded civilians alongside the police and the incoming EMTs. Once she could see that all the bodies, alive and dead, had been located, she flew off.

Iris and Barry, being treated side-by-side at one of the recently arrived ambulances, watched her go as cheers followed her. They both remembered the first time they saw her in person, that night where Tony Woodward had taken both of them hostage.

"How lucky are we to be saved by Supergirl twice?" Iris asked, wondering.

"I'm more concerned by the fact that we had to be saved by Supergirl twice." Barry pointed out, silently rubbing the bandages covering his forearm. "There is no way the Flash would've left Mardon alone when he was causing this much chaos. He had to be doing something else. So, he sent Supergirl in his place. But what if Supergirl hadn't been available?"

Iris grimaced. "He could've sent that Firestorm guy we've seen lately?" She suggested.

"And what if he hadn't been available?" Barry countered. "The Justice League is being stretched thin, Iris. Their goal is sound but they need more members if they're really going to succeed in the long-term. Either that, or…" He looked away, pensive.

"Or?" Iris pressed.

"Caitlin and Cisco have been producing that new technology for CCPD to help combat metas. You should know as you've used some of it." Barry noted. "But they haven't been able to make more advancements thanks to limited manpower. We've tried passing over some of the projects to Mercury Labs for the good of the city, but they've got their own hands full already. If we could hire more people…"

Iris knew where his train of thought was going. S.T.A.R. Labs had finally repaired the damage to the building from the attack months ago, and had gotten most of the restrictions removed. However, hiring was slow-going thanks to the previous owner's reputation, and the current one's refusal to reveal his identity. Barry had his reasons, of course, and they were valid, but that didn't make things easier. While she couldn't help but feel Barry had ulterior motives for pushing this, his reasoning was sound. "I'll talk to Captain Singh about it. He might be able to push something through."

Barry smiled. "Great."

Iris smiled back, but it gradually wilted. A thought had been tugging at her the last couple of hours, and now was better than ever to voice it. "Barry, how were you able to push me away from that icicle so quickly?"

She had thought back on what happened after things had calmed down. Barry had stomped away from her during their argument and had been far from her when the icicles came. Too far. There had been too many to dodge. Even with the leap, he at least would've gotten hit.

But he hadn't. And neither had she.

"Adrenaline, I guess." Barry shrugged, rubbing one of his hands. Iris followed his movements, and frowned deeper. That hand had a cut on it thanks to the shattered glass present on the floor when they landed. While it hadn't been too deep, it had been deep enough to warrant bandages. Except now, the bandages were gone and the hand had been healed.

"Alright then." Iris responded, just a little too quickly, but Barry didn't seem to notice. She wondered, but she didn't ask.

She had a feeling she wouldn't like the answer.

Iris is getting even more suspicious! We have one and a half chapters in Central City before Starling, and I hope you'll enjoy them. I've been looking forward to both these mini-arcs for the entire arc.

Constructive criticism is welcome, flames will be ignored! Remember to update the TV Tropes page! Don't forget the contest!