YEARS AGO:
The Watcher looked down at the past as a young Mary Parker was taking a young Peter Parker to school. Since her husband got a job at STAR Labs, she and Richard moved back to Central City after a few years in New York. It was an easy move as they didn't have much back home and still had family out here in the city. It was Peter's first day back to school since the move, and Richard had to leave for work early, so he couldn't be there.
"Okay, you sure you'll be okay?" Mary asked Peter, worried for him as he's not good in new environments.
Peter nodded, carrying an Iron Man-inspired backpack. "I'll be okay."
Mary nodded and fixed his hair a bit at the last second. "Okay. Go on."
Peter nodded and ran off to make it to school in time. Mary watched as he started to make his way into the school and made sure that he was safe.
"Have a good day, sweetie!" A fellow parent said near Mary, and she saw someone with short black hair and a smile as her daughter ran off. She had a daughter who had long black hair but looked similar to her mother in many ways.
"Your daughter?" Mary asked her.
"Yeah, she's been going through a rough time since we lost my husband." She said and sighed before turning to Mary. "I'm Lori Baumgartner."
"Wow, that's a mouthful," Mary commented, earning a laugh from Lori. "That's gonna take some time repeating before I get it right."
"You're not the first," Lori said as she gestured to her vanishing daughter. "That's my daughter, Lana. That was your son?"
"Yeah, that's our little miracle, Peter," Mary said with a grin as she looked and saw Peter making his way inside. "What happened to the father?"
"He died about a year ago," Lori tells her. "We've been getting along fine."
"Sorry," Mary said again and gestured to the cars. "Want to grab some coffee?"
"Sure." Lori shrugged and saw that it would be nice.
The two then walk off and make their way back to the cars. They were talking more about their families and mostly led back to their kids most of the time. Mary talked about her job and Lori mentioned how she worked for Roxxon on experiments to try and create powered people.
PRESENT DAY:
"It just doesn't make sense," Bobby said as he and Peter made their way through the halls at the end of their school day. "If he lives the same day over and over, and the aliens do the same thing, then how can he always be a step ahead?"
They had recently seen the new film called Edge of Tomorrow, and both had mixed opinions on it. Peter thought it was a decent film, while his friend on the other hand couldn't follow it.
"Because it was him who was reliving the day." Peter tried to explain it to his friend. "They can't predict it until they die. But only a few of them have the power to reverse time."
"Why not give that to all of your soldiers?" Bobby asks.
"Probably because then it'd be anarchy with all of the aliens." Peter guessed as they kept walking and Peter bumped into someone passing by. He took a quick look and was shocked when he saw it was an old family friend of his Lana Baumgartner. "Lana?"
"Oh, hey, Pete." Lana greeted him, surprising Peter as this is the first time that he's seen her in a year. "How are you doing?"
"I'm doing fine." Peter guessed. "What happened to you? I haven't seen you since-"
"I was injured from the particle accelerator." Lana quickly explained to Peter, placing her hands in her pockets. "Spent some time recovering."
"Oh, glad to hear that you're okay," Peter said and looked to Bobby, who was confused about who this was. "Bobby, this is Lana Baumgartner. She's an old friend of mine."
"Hey." Lana greeted Bobby.
"Hey," Bobby replied.
"Well, I'm gonna be meeting my mother to run a few arons, so I need to get going," Lana said as she started to walk towards the doors. "But it was great seeing you again."
"You too." Peter agreed and watched her run off.
"How come you never mentioned her before?" Bobby wonders, never hearing of Lana before.
"She just wasn't really much of a priority over the past year. We had too many things to deal with recently." Peter admitted, as he never had a moment to think of Lana. Not to mention much about his family since Ben's death. "Besides, we only knew each other from our mothers. After she died, we just grew apart."
"Fair." Bobby agreed. "You didn't know she was injured?"
"Her mother is...in a word, protective." Peter tried to find the best word to describe her mother. "She is an ex-convict."
"Oh." Bobby started to put some of it together.
"So, you were saying?" Peter asked as they started walking off.
Wells made it into his vault that night and was curious about what was going on now. He didn't have any reason to suspect, he was just making sure that the timeline was still going in the right direction.
"Gideon. Show me the future." Wells asked if his computer.
"Of course, Dr. Wells," Gideon replied as she then pulled up the newspaper article.
'FLASH VANISHED IN CRISIS'
'SPIDER-MAN NOT SEEN SINCE THE BATTLE'
BY MARY JANE WATSON-PARKER
"The timeline remains unchanged since the ripples." Wells was sorry to say, seeing that his partnership with the Goblin didn't fix anything. "The Green Goblin's attempts to slaughter the hero show the same results. Failure. If I told him who the hero was, if he knew that he was Peter Parker, it would raise too much suspicion. I can't tell him. I just have to hope he gets Spider-Man out of the way soon, so the timeline will be corrected."
Peter had just made it home and didn't see MJ, surprising him as he would usually run into her on his way inside. But he shrugged it off to say she was out or had other plans. Just because they're in a relationship doesn't mean their lives need to evolve around each other.
"Hey, May," Peter said as he made his way inside closing the doors. "How was your day?"
"It was great," May said as Peter met her in the living room. "Mr. Li gave me a promotion!"
"Oh, that's great," Peter said, walking up and hugging his aunt. "I'm so happy for you. What are you doing now?"
"I'm head of kitchen detail," May said with pride.
Peter smiled and just held onto May, happy for her. "Well, I'm happy for you."
"Thanks, sweetie," May said when she got a sniff of Peter and gaged in disgust. "Ugh! What is that smell?"
"Yeah, I was chasing these robbers and they ended up flinging me into a sushi restaurant trash," Peter admitted as he backed off. "I'm gonna go take a shower."
"Yes, you will." May agreed, ushering him towards the stairs.
After Peter was done with his shower, he made his way back into his room and started looking for a change of clothes. Opening his closet, he tossed his Spider-Man suit inside to wash and looked for any clothing.
But as he was searching, he found an old box he had tucked away in the back. Reaching out to take a look, he noticed it was some of his old stuff from when he lived in New York.
Looking through the items, he noticed a few old photos of him as a kid with his parents. As he moved around the photos, he found one when he and his mom (Mary) got settled into her home. He knew plenty about his father, but his mother was someone that nobody really knew much about. His father was a scientist, that much he knew. He used to work with Connors, but nothing really much as to recent jobs.
His mother, on the other hand, she was mostly just a stay-at-home mother as far as he could remember. Then he decided to let it go, as it's been ten years since they died in that plane crash. He needed to let them go.
YEARS AGO:
Mary Parker was just returning home after dropping Peter off at school and getting coffee with Lori. She sighed and dropped her purse on the table and made her way into the kitchen. But on her way, she watched as her watch in a casing on her started to bleep.
Sighing, Mary pushed the face of the watch and activated a video call. "I told you, I'm out. I told you to never call me on this again."
"You're out when I say you're out." Someone on the other end informed her. "I need you for one last mission."
"No," Mary stated. "I have a family now, people who rely on me."
"This directly affects your family."
Mary then looked terrified and wondered what they were talking about. "What?"
"I need you to look into someone for me." Then a hologram of the person she is supposed to look into showed up. "He is a high-class priority."
"What's he done?" Mary wonders.
"It's not what he's done, it's what he's going to do."
The photo was of Harrison Wells at his recent press conference.
PRESENT DAY:
The next day, Barry and Iris got coffee to catch up after coming from a crime scene where someone seems to have just vanished from his cell.
"So, how's it going with the reporting?" Barry asked Iris as he took a drink.
"Well, my editor wants me working on the Flash. Only the Flash." Iris said in annoyance.
"Is it really that bad?" Barry wonders.
"I don't know, I just don't want to be known as just the Flash PM flack," Iris explains to him. "But... I did get an idea for a new story thanks to Mary Jane Watson."
Barry choked a bit on his coffee and had to take a moment. "Mary Jane as in MJ? As in the same girl Peter's seeing?"
"Yeah, she came to me with the idea of unmasking a certain someone," Iris said and showed Barry the information and photos she got. "The Green Goblin."
"Goblin?" Barry asked in fear, wondering what she or MJ are doing looking into this. "What are you doing looking into him?"
"It's something that isn't related to the Flash. And discovering who he is could potentially save lives." Iris was explaining when Barry's phone went off and he saw it was a message from Joe. "You gotta go?"
"Yeah." Barry was sorry to say and started to get up. "We're gonna talk about you and this Goblin business later."
"Looking forward to it," Iris said with sarcastic joy as he left.
While Barry went to have a word with Henry in Iron Heights, Peter was racing through the city after hearing alerts of a bank robbery going down. Without being able to get into contact with his brother, there wasn't anything that they could do to get help. Bobby was also unavailable as he was stuck with tutoring for a subject in school that Peter couldn't help him in.
Inside the said bank, a teen girl was walking around while a whole room of people was terrified of her. She wore a complete pink one-piece suit with black outlines around her arms down to her hips. She wore a big black arrow that looked like a bomb exploding in the middle of her chest. Her hair was up in a ponytail, and she had a black mask over her eyes. Her suit also had white outlines across her suit everywhere. On top of all of that was a white jacket with black stitches around her shoulders and elbows.
"Nobody move and this will be over before you know it." She promises all of them.
Just then the doors were kicked open and Peter came in swinging. He landed in the middle of the bank and was expecting the damage and alert to come from a gang with bombs. But instead, he was met with someone who looked to be his age.
"Uh..." Peter looked behind her and saw the looks of terror on the people's faces. "Is there an adult with you or something?"
"Yes." She admitted as she noticed how confused he was. "What? Expecting someone else?"
"Yeah. Someone much, much more threatening." Peter admitted as he started to walk up to her. "So, how about we just take this easy and-"
But then his spider-sense went off, followed by the girl's hands glowing and sending a blast that hit Peter in the chest. Not expecting where the attack was coming from, Peter was taken by surprise when the blast exited her hands and sent him flying.
An explosion also came from the impact, and he was sent flying out of the bank, causing people around to scream and run away in terror. Peter flew across the street and smacked into some passing cars before running into one of the parked ones, impacting the window.
"Ow." Peter groaned as he tried to get back up. "Okay, that girl is quite the bombshell." Then he lit up at the name and pointed at her. "Hey, that's a cool name for you. Bombshell."
Then the girl started to walk out of the bank and towards the hero. "I don't wanna do this. Why can't you just let me go?"
"I'd love to, lady." Peter agreed as he crawled out of the car and got back up. "But you just blew up an entire street corner. So I gotta take you down."
She sighed and knew that it wouldn't be that easy. "I'm sorry, then."
Bombshell then sent another one of her sonic blasts towards Peter and he jumped out of the way as the blast hit the car. Once the car was hit, the vehicle was sent flying and was heading towards pedestrians. Peter then decided to give the Bombshell a break and went to save the people.
He shot out several strands of webbing to wrap around the car and caught it before it could crush anyone. "And who said it's impossible to catch a cab in this city?" Then he saw nobody was around to react to that comment and sighed. "The one time I'm funny, no one's around to hear it."
Then Peter was shocked when he looked back at the bank, he saw an adult walking out of the bank. She wore a similar outfit to Bombshell, just so it could fit an adult. She then walked over to the child with a duffel bag around her shoulders filled with money.
"Lana, let's go." She tells Bombshell.
"Lana?" Peter heard the name and was shocked, believing that this could be Lana Baumgartner. She does look the height and age, the hair was the same, and the eye colors were the same. "It can't be..."
And when the two of them noticed the hero getting back up and stumbling towards them. Lori then looked behind the hero and saw a gas truck and then at her daughter.
"Lana, sweetie, do mommy a favor and hit that truck," Lori tells her daughter and saw the hesitation. "Take him out."
Peter then looked back and noticed the truck and started to freak out. "Oh, go-" Lana then sent a blast to hit the car before he had the chance to finish his statement. "AHH!"
His suit took most of the explosion and was scorched in the back, but he saw no real damage to his skin. His front also had bruises and scorch marks from Lana's blast at his chest just moments ago.
Luckily, he received just a few burns that should heal up in the next hour or two. As the smoke started to clear, he looked and noticed that the two of them managed to vanish out of sight.
Peter made it back to STAR Labs and was getting his back checked out by Caitlin whilst Cisco looked over the suit to see if he could patch it up. He saw the blasts and was amazed that Peter was able to get away with just a few scratches.
"You're lucky to be alive," Cisco commented as he put the suit aside. "That suit looks like it took a bomb to the back.
"It took a gas truck to the back." Peter corrected him. "My chest got the impact of her."
"Now this is a change of pace," Wells commented as he looked over the footage. "A young woman with the metahuman makeup."
"Yeah, she has the power to shoot blasts that are like bombs when they hit something." Peter did his best to explain her powers. "The weirdest thing...I think I know her."
"You do?" Caitlin asked, letting Peter go as he walked to their computers.
Peter typed in a name and pulled up the file on Lana and Lori Baumgartner. The four of them looked over the list of crimes that the mother had accomplished in her younger years.
"Burglary, assault, grand theft auto, a false bomb threat." Cisco is listing off the criminal record.
"But her daughter doesn't have any current or past criminal activities," Wells commented and looked to Peter. "What makes you think this is them?"
"I saw her," Peter explained why he suspected them. "I heard her name. Lana is an old family friend of mine. But...there was hesitation in her through the whole fight. I don't think she wants to do this."
"You thinking her mother is making her use her powers for her benefit?" Cisco asks.
"That's what I'm thinking," Peter said as he got an idea and started walking away. "I'll see you guys later."
"Where are you going?" Caitlin wonders.
"I'm gonna talk to Lana," Peter explains as he started to walk off.
"I need to step out for a moment," Wells said, taking a stroll, wondering about what this girl could mean.
"I'll see you later," Cisco said as he also left, leaving Caitlin alone.
Just as she thought she was alone, Barry walked into the Cortex and found her all alone, sipping her tea.
"Oh!" She swallowed in a hurry to talk to him. "I was analyzing the particles that Clay Parker and Shawna left behind, and I found something very interest-"
Normally he would have let her finish, but she looked so good in her white blouse, hair curled, and that "Doctor gleam" in her eyes. He pressed her up against the desk and attacked her mouth with his. She squeaked in surprise but responded quickly.
All too soon, however, she was pulling away. "Barry... I was talking."
"Sorry, had to do that. Keep going." Barry apologized as he straightened his shirt and sent her an innocent look.
Caitlin rolled her eyes and just went back to it. "As I was saying... I found something very interesting. When Clay's cells come into contact with Shawna's, they adopt her properties."
"Huh." Barry looked down at the tablet, then back up at her. She was biting her lip, which he picked up on she doesn't when she's bothered by something. "Is something bothering you?"
She gave him this wide eyes, surprised look, her lip coming free of her teeth as she said, "Why would you ask?"
"You're doing that biting your lower lip thing you do when something's bothering you," Barry explained.
Caitlin looked surprised and felt a tingle shoot up her spine and the intensity of his gaze. "I'm fine." She looked away and glanced at her screen.
"Ok." Barry looked down too, and there was a pause in the conversation.
Then Caitlin straightened so suddenly she startled him. "Cisco said I don't have a life."
Barry got that infuriatingly cute and annoying smirk on his face. "You really don't, do you?"
"I do!" She cried, but she was grinning. "I cook and I eat and I... read, I help raise Bobby, and I help you...and sometimes we go out to dinner..."
"So what you're saying is you do everything that has nothing to do with having a life." Barry was just teasing her now, seeing how riled up she could get. "And you make Bobby sound like some sort of a pet."
Caitlin mockingly glared at him. "You don't have to be rude about it."
"Hey, I'm not doing much better," Barry admitted with a sigh. "My social life consists of running at superhuman speed and Netflix, then the occasional day out with my baby brother. And you, of course."
She tilted her head, her voice going soft. "We are quite the pair, Mr. Allen."
"Yes, we are, Dr. Snow." He agreed. He probably would have backed her against the desk again, but her computer beeped.
"There's an armed robbery in progress." Caitlin squinted at the screen. "2 suspects, male and female, in their 20s. Looks like our metahuman Bonnie and Clyde are at it again."
"Time to ruin their social life," Barry smirked. She grinned in response, and Barry pecked her lips and zoomed out.
Peter already knew where Lana and Lori lived as he's visited their house a few times. But he walked to her place wondering what he was going to say. If she was being pushed around by her mother, then there might be a way that he could talk her out into attacking again. But then there was the question as to how.
How to explain to Lana how he knows who she is.
"This is going to be the moment of truth." Peter could see that he can't talk her out of it without explaining everything. He needed to tell her who he is. She needed to know he was Spider-Man. "Lana?"
Lana was sitting outside when she heard Peter and looked to see him. "Hey, Peter. I wasn't expecting you to stop by."
"Yeah, I wasn't expecting to either," Peter admitted and scratched his chest. "But then you sent a supercharged punch at me."
Lana became confused and was wondering what he was referring to. "What are you talking about?"
Peter sighed and saw this was the first time he was telling someone about who he is. At least someone outside of his own family and friends. Technically Lana was a friend, but he was taking a huge risk.
"This," Peter says as he lifted his sleeve and showed his Spider-Man suit underneath. He grabbed it on his way out and threw it on just in case something happened on the way.
Lana was shocked to see her oldest friend was the man she shot through the bank just a few hours ago. "Oh, god."
"We have a lot to discuss." Peter could see.
The cut was small, just a little indent in the back of Barry's neck, but the part that scared Caitlin was that it was there at all.
"This is a bullet wound," Caitlin told him gravely as she finished cleaning it. "You're lucky it just barely broke the skin." She had seen him too many times already in the "unlucky" stage.
Barry nodded and rolled his shoulders once before shrugging up his sweatshirt. Then he turned to grin at her. "I guess I'm a lot faster than a speeding bullet."
The eye roll that came from Caitlin after he said that was predictable, but his smile was contagious. She kissed the top of his head and turned to put her swab away.
Wells came into the room, wheeling down the ramp in his chair, and Barry filled him in on what had happened. "Shawna Baez. She can teleport."
Caitlin glanced over her shoulder. "As in, Bead me up, Shawna?"
Barry shrugged, and Wells nodded his head. "Yes, of course. Forman entanglement." Barry wrinkled his nose. "The ability to interconnect particles over an infinite distance." He ran a hand through his hair. "Or, as Einstein put it: Spooky action of distance."
"Every time I got close, she'd disappear," Barry grumbled. "It was like we were playing a game of-"
"Peek-A-Boo!" Caitlin interrupted. The two men turned to look at her. "Come on, can't I name one?"
He shook his head in amusement. "How am I supposed to catch her if I don't know where she's gonna be?"
"Everyone has limits, Mr. Allen," Wells said wisely. "Now that we know Shawna's powers, we'll focus on those limits." He began to wheel backward out of the room.
"Alright, let me know." Barry ran his fingers over the back of his head. "I have to change. Gotta go help Iris."
"What's going on with Iris?" Caitlin wonders.
"She's working on a story with Mary Jane apparently," Barry said, surprising Caitlin. "Something about trying to find out who the Green Goblin is."
"That sounds...dangerous," Caitlin commented.
"Yeah, I'm trying to talk her out of it," Barry explained and sped off to do just that.
Back with Lana and Peter, she invited him inside so the two of them could talk. Lana had just explained how the particle accelerator explosion caused her to gain powers. But not just any specific powers. Seems that her mother used to work for Roxxon and in exchange for her pardon, she had to be exposed to experiments to give people powers.
But the experiments were a failure, and she was released to go back to her family. But then she learned she was pregnant with Lana, and the accelerator exposed the powers through her daughter.
"And the weird thing is, they only really work when I'm around my mom. It's like she's my power source of sorts." Lana tried to explain.
"Wow." Peter didn't know how to digest everything he was told. "But...why are you guys robbing banks?"
"My mother...she went into business with a woman who profited off of people like me," Lana explains to her friend.
"Who is this woman?" Peter wonders.
"I don't know her by name. But she's dangerous. I didn't know what my mother went into business with her, but she isn't going to stop." Lana explains to Peter. "And if I'm caught...I don't know what they'll do to me."
"The people she works for?" Peter wonders.
"No. The cops." Lana explains.
Peter never considered that part as that's nothing that he considered happening to people like them. Since he was the only kid (aside from Lana now) with powers, he didn't think of what governments or scientific industries would think of them. And every other person with powers he's come across had already been caught and detained.
"I never thought of that," Peter admitted.
"Just...stay out of our way," Lana asked her friend. "We have to do this, and if we're caught, I won't survive the night. And I don't want to hurt you."
Peter sighed and reached out to hold her hand. "What if I told you I could help you?"
"How?" Lana asked him. "If I am in the city, this woman will find me. My mother won't tell on me, but she most likely will."
"I can possibly get you out of the city." Peter offered her a way out. "You can get out of the city; I have a friend who could help you out for a while. Just until things cool down and call you back."
"Then what?" Lana asks him. "I go through the system, and they can discover who - or at least what - I am."
"I could find a way around that." Peter thought of a few ways he could help his friend. "Just give me a day."
"You better hurry," Lana warns him. "She has been ordered to take down the incoming bank transport tomorrow."
"I can possibly get her out of the way and get you to safety by then." Peter nodded and looked around the room to notice a photo of them and their mothers when they were younger. The reminder of how close they were as kids brought a smile to Peter's face.
"God, what happened to us?" Peter wondered.
"Your world got turned upside down, and then we both got powers," Lana said as she saw where he was looking. "You know what happened to your folks?"
Peter was surprised she was never told what happened to his parents. "You don't know?"
"Mom told me a bit, but not much," Lana admitted as she thought back to what she was told. "They died in a boat accident or something."
Peter only got more confused to hear what she was told. "They...died in a plane crash."
"They did?" Lana asked in shock. "That's not what my mom said."
Peter then became confused as Lori was there at their funeral and should have known how his parents died. But he thought nothing of it, feeling it was just a case of bad memory, and got up to head out. He had a lot of work to do before the attack Lana and Lori are planning.
"See you tomorrow," Peter said and looked back on his way out. "Also...try to pull your punches."
"I'll do my best," Lori assured him with a smile.
Peter then made his way out and as much as he tried to shake it off, what Lori told Lana about his parents got him thinking. He didn't really look deep into their deaths, but now he started to wonder about it.
YEARS AGO:
Back when Peter was a child, he and Mary were just setting up for dinner when Richard came home. He walked in and took off his jacket after making his way home from the stormy night.
"Hey." Richard greeted them as he made his way over and kissed his wife. "How was your day?"
"It was...something." Mary decided to go with and waited for Peter to leave. Once Peter left the room to get some cups for dinner, she became serious and worried. "We need to talk."
Richard didn't like that tone as he learned that meant something serious. "What is it?"
"Something big is going to happen," Mary explains to her husband. "It involves STAR Labs."
Richard became worried about what is going to happen where he was working. "What?"
"The particle accelerator. I think Wells rigged it so it is going to explode." Mary explains to him as they kept their voices down for Peter. "For what reason, we need to find out."
Richard nodded and saw that something big was going on in STAR Labs and wondered what it was. "I thought you were done with this."
"I was. But..." Mary looked at Peter and saw that this would be the last mission. She had a personal attachment to this mission and was willing to do anything to finish it. "If either of you can get hurt, then I want to help. This is the last mission. I promise."
PRESENT DAY:
The whole thing with talking to Iris turned into a bust when it turns out that she forgot she had plans with Eddie and his mother. That meant that Barry had some time to kill and wondered maybe if Caitlin wasn't busy. But it's sad to say that he knew she wasn't doing anything
Caitlin could hear the sounds of a very drunk singer as she opened the door. She was wearing a very short, very skimpy, shiny black bar dress, and had curled her hair perfectly. Complete with the highest black heels she owned and a handbag, she was very pleased with her appearance.
Barry was sitting at a table by himself, smirking at the singer. She click-clacked up to him. He looked up. "Hey..." His smile faded into one of shock, and he ran his eyes up and down her body in a way that made her shiver.
"What?" She asked innocently.
"What? Nothing!" He insisted, tearing his eyes away from her long legs to rest on her face. "You just look... really good. Like really good."
She grinned. "I don't always dress like a high school principal."
He laughed, then glanced around the bar. "So, this is where Shawna and Clay used to hang out."
"At least according to their files." She sat down next to him and glanced around. "I thought we could kill two birds with one stone. Look for them, and have some fun together. Without Cisco."
He smiled. "We have quite the romantic life. Fighting bad guys-"
"Nearly giving me a heart attack every week-" Caitlin added.
"Spending our alone time watching stupid movies while Joe is still in the house-"
"Getting kidnapped-"
They both started to laugh, and Barry kissed the top of her head. "What is wrong with us? We're in our 20s! We should be having fun, going on lots of dates, real dates, not crime-fighting ones."
Caitlin giggled. "Maybe we can make a push to go on real dates after this one."
"Ha, yeah. Like that'll happen."
The black on her dress sparkles as Caitlin raised her glass. "Well: Here's to that hope." She chugged the glass back.
"That is... very fast... and you drank all of it." Barry shook his head in amusement.
Caitlin then suddenly felt very light and floaty now. "Excuse me!" The bartender turned around. "I would like to start a tab." She turned to Barry and grinned. "Might as well have some fun!"
"Excuse me. Hey, dude!" The guy at the bar was completely ignoring him. He was about to try again when heard a very familiar voice yell:
"MR. BARRY ALLEN! Come on down. Or up! Come up here, with me!" Oh no. He turned slowly to find Caitlin on the karaoke stage, beaming and looking adorable... but very drunk.
He shook his head vehemently, but she only smirked. "Oh, come show 'em watch you got. Come on. Barry! Barry! Barry!" Soon the entire bar was yelling his name.
Barry closed his eyes and rubbed a hand over his face in mortification, but he ran up the steps to Caitlin. The last thing he wanted was some other guy going up there with her, and singing with her, and possibly bringing her home in this drunken state-
He got up to the stage, and she placed her hand heavily on his shoulder. "Oooh, look at you go, you're so fast- oh SHHHH!"
"I'm not much of a singer." He muttered in her ear. "And you are not much of a drinker.
"We are gonna bring this place down," Caitlin assured him.
The music started, and Caitlin bopped back and forth in a way that made Barry wish that he had a video camera.
"Get ready..." Caitlin told him. "Summer lovin' had me a blast." She was completely tone-deaf. Barry wasn't sure if it was because of the alcohol, or if she just couldn't sing, but it sounded awful. Not that he would ever tell her that. "Summer lovin' happened so fast."
"I met a girl, crazy for me." Barry sang. His face was red, but this was actually kind of fun.
"I met a boy, cute as can be." She grinned at him and whispered. "Like you!"
Barry had to bite his lip to keep himself from laughing. "Summer days, drifting away."
She wasn't singing, so he gestured for her to join in and it became a duet between the two of them. "Doo wap, oh the summer nights. Oh wella wella wella uh."
YEARS AGO:
Richard and Mary were currently in the car while they were talking over the phone with someone. Peter was in the back of the car, fast asleep as he was supposed to be spending the next few days with May and Ben. Their house had just been broken into, and they had a suspicion of who it might have been.
"Thanks, Hartley," Richard told his contact which confirmed their worst fears. "We'll report your findings when we get there. We'll stop Wells, I promise."
Mary drove them down the streets and looked to her husband as Richard hung up the phone. "Rathaway confirm our suspicions?"
"Wells is up to something," Richard confirmed her contact's suspicions. "He wants that accelerator to fail."
"But...why?" Mary still doesn't understand as she drove through the rain.
"We'll have to ask him after we have him in for questioning, I suppose." Richard guessed.
Then they arrived at May and Ben's place, where they took Peter's suitcase they packed for the weekend and brought the two of them inside. They talked with Ben and Mary to explain that they were going out of town to talk to someone about something. They were more than happy to watch Peter, not knowing what was going to happen.
"We'll be back by Wednesday at the latest," Mary promises Peter. "We'll just be there a few days and we'll be right back, you got it?"
Peter nodded, understanding they needed to go. "Okay."
"Hey." Mary tried to cheer her son up a little. "We'll be back." She then grabbed her watch off her wrist and handed it to Peter. "I'll be back for this. You better take care of this until I get back."
Peter nodded and knew how much this watch meant to her.
Richard then walked over and tapped Mary on the shoulder. "Come on, we have to go if we wanna catch our flight."
Mary sighed and pecked Peter on the head. "I love you."
"Love you, too," Peter said as his parents left.
Peter then waited for them to leave before he then looked over the watch, not sure what made it so special. She said that it was of great importance, but he never saw why. Turning it over, wondering if there was some sort of engraving, he saw that there was some sort of metallic like an eagle with the number 19 underneath it.
PRESENT DAY:
When the song finished, Barry helped a now very tipsy Caitlin down the steps and over to their table. She picked up a glass and sipped. "You're fast and you can sing? What can't you do?"
"Stop you from drinking, apparently." He teased.
She frowned. "I'm not even sure that was mine." He grinned. "I have to go to the bathroom," Caitlin said gravely.
"Okay." He watched her stumble into the crown with a faint smile. This was a very different side of his Caitlin than he had ever seen. She was more open, less serious, and willing to tease and flirt and have a little fun. He liked it.
"Barry... I don't feel good." She gave him her big puppy dog eyes, face pale, and he was on his feet, grabbing his stuff, and flashing them outside before she could blink.
While she threw up in the parking lot, Barry held back Caitlin's long hair and rubbed her back soothingly. After a lot of panting and trying to compose herself, she gingerly straightened.
"You good?" Barry asked.
"No." Caitlin slurred out.
Peter thought back to the day that his parents left him with Ben and May. He hadn't thought of that day for a long time. But then he thought back to that watch. Swinging into his room, he opened his window and changed out of his suit, seeing he needed to sew it back together.
Cisco even offered to make him a few altered versions of the suit. Something Peter could bounce off on if he got his suit destroyed for a second time.
But he wasn't focused on that as he made his way to the computer and started to do some research on his parents. Looking into their deaths, he confirmed that they were indeed allegedly killed in a plane crash.
Allegedly.
All of the bodies in the flight they were on were too burned or disfigured that they were impossible to figure out who was who. They had to go off of information from the airport and the seating arrangements to confirm who was who.
And the two people who were sitting in the spots that Richard and Mary were sitting in were supposedly them.
Supposedly.
Seems that the plane crashed due to a malfunction that was missed and was caused by the fuel tank bursting midflight. But something like that shouldn't just happen. They do checks on things like that after every flight.
Something doesn't seem right.
After everything was said and done, Caitlin removed all of the food from her stomach onto the streets. After that was done, Barry sped her home so that she could sleep off the vodka. Luckily, he knew where she lived thanks to her license and brought her home. When they arrived in the hallway she looked around.
"Are we still running?" Caitlin mumbled dizzily.
"No, we're here," Barry assured her as he walked her through the home.
The run seemed to have sobered Caitlin up some. "Vodka and Super-speed- Not a good combination."
He laughed softly and eased the coat off of her shoulders. Caitlin tottered into her apartment, throwing her shoes in the corner. Barry then started to look around and wondered where Bobby was.
But just as he was wondering it, Bobby was awoken by the noise and noticed the two in Caitlin's room. The first thing he saw was Caitlin drunk, and that was something he thought that he would never see.
"What the heck is going on here?" Bobby was worried to ask.
"I have discovered that Cait can't handle liquor," Barry explains to him as Bobby looked back at Caitlin.
"Just remember I'm next door," Bobby warns them and made his way to his room.
Barry turned around awkwardly, hands rubbing his neck, as she unzipped her dress. Little help please?" He turned to see Caitlin standing with her dress caught around her midsection, black bra completely revealed.
"Oh, um, yeah, yes." He used his super-speed to get it done as quickly as possible, locating her PJs, and changing her.
Caitlin tilted in surprise for a second, then glanced at the dress on the floor. "Huh. There you go again. Saving me from that evil dress."
Barry smiled as he shook his head fondly at her drunken antics. "Get into bed."
As he pulled back the covers, she had to ask something. "Did you sneak a peek? At my goods?"
Oh gosh, his face was so red. He hoped for her sake that she didn't remember any of this in the morning.
She was definitely his girlfriend.
"I would be much of a hero or a boyfriend if I did," Barry stated.
"Yeah..." It sounded like there were 8 e's in the word. "But it's ok if you peeked a little. You deserve a peek of all that good stuff, you do."
He leaned forward and gently kissed her forehead. "Drink lots of water."
"Thank you for tonight." She blinked sleepily. "I sang..."
Barry laughed quietly. "Anytime."
He turned to leave the room, but her voice, suddenly small and afraid murmured, "Barry? Will you stay with me until I fall asleep?"
It jarred him. For a moment he didn't see his confident Dr. Snow, but a vulnerable girl, lonely and needing him. He nodded mutely and sat down on top of her covers.
"You can come in." She patted the bed beside her. "It's ok."
So he laid down and curled his arms protectively around her. And they both fell asleep.
Back with Wells, he went into his vault and looked for any anomalies in the timeline. Too many things were changing, and he needed to check it out.
"Gideon, show me the future.
Then what showed up instead of the usual photo was a completely different one.
Instead of the photo of the Flash, there was a new one of a completely different set of people wearing suits. There were a few wearing Spider-Man-styled suits and a few wearing Flash suits. Then there were a few several dozen other people wearing unfamiliar suits.
'The Ultimates gets new members'
'The Flash & Spider-Man create a new generation'
By Mary Jane Watson-Parker
Wells then started to get worried when he watched the byline change again.
"This is bad," Wells commented, running a hand through his hair. "Parker is changing the timeline."
The more he spoke, the more the timeline continued to flux.
'Spider-Man & the Flash defeat Kang the Conqueror'
BY MARY JANE
'Ultimates return'
BY NORAH WINTERS
'Avengers rise'
BY IRIS WEST
The next day, Peter put everything into place that he needed to do for Lana to be able to get out of the city. Then all he needed to do was wait for the attack to go down on the truck.
Joe was able to get the information of when and where the truck was coming and going, giving Peter the chance to plan ahead on where to go.
Peter and Bobby started to follow the truck in secret while Barry was nowhere to be seen. If what Bobby told Peter about last night was any indication, then he was snuggling with Caitlin.
Not like this mission really had many purposes for Barry. This was Peter's mission. This was his friend's life that was on the line.
"I spy with my little eye..." Bobby was passing the time at every checkpoint they went to by playing I, spy. "Something...blue."
"That pond over there," Peter guessed, not even turning to look.
"How?" Bobby was shocked he managed to get it.
"I'm smarter than you," Peter said mockingly.
Then before Bobby could reply, they noticed what looked to be an explosion closing in on them.
"Hey, looks like it's starting," Peter said as Lana and Lori landed in the middle of the street. "Get ready."
Lana then hesitantly shot a blast at the truck, sending it flying over their heads. Peter quickly jumped into action, shooting a web out to latch the door and ripping it off. Once the door was removed, he made his way into the truck where he grabbed the driver and leaped out the second door.
By the time the car flew over their heads as it crashed, Peter was far away along with the driver while the truck skidded to a halt. Lori looked around, feeling she saw someone around, but Peter was too fast for her.
Lori walked over to the truck and saw that it was protected. "Blow the lock."
"I know." Lana sighed as she hated that she was being forced to do this. She then punched the door, sending the debris flying.
Lori then looked and saw the entire truck was filled with jewels and money in giant bags. "Grab what you can and let's go. This is a big score for us."
Lana sighed and hoped Peter had a plan as she was being handed bags of money. "Yeah, for us."
But before they could make their escape, their eyes were webbed shut by strands of webbing that were followed by Peter swinging in. "Hey, ladies, the bank opens in another hour. You couldn't wait until then?"
"Spider-Man?" Lori asked in anger. "Again?" Then she looked at her daughter. "Blow him up!"
Lana was sorry she needed to do this to sell the act and sent several blasts toward Peter. But luckily now Peter knows how this works and jumps out of the way and allowed his partner to do his thing.
Bobby came sliding in on an ice slide he was creating and blasted a cauldron of ice around Lori to keep the two separated as he remembered what Peter said about their powers. Peter then saw the only thing left was to get Lana far away from her mother so they can make their escape.
"Keep her here, Cisco should be here soon," Peter told Bobby, knowing he could handle Lana.
"Got it," Bobby said as he leaned on the cauldron.
Lana then charged up a jump as Peter came running towards her and the two met in the middle. Peter grabbed onto Lana as she sent the two flying and sent them into the city.
As they were in the city, they ended up slamming against the wall, stumbling onto another part of the wall. Then the two ended up landing in a dumpster.
"Ow," Lana commented as she climbed out. "I think I broke something."
Peter then climbed out aside her and groaned, dangling off the side. "How do you think I feel? I took that head on."
"Sorry." Lana apologized. "I did hold back."
"Come on," Peter said as he helped Lana out of the dumpster. "I'll get you home and get you on the first bus to New York."
"What will I do there?" Lana wonders.
Peter then holds out a phone for her to take, and she did so. "You're gonna meet up with a woman named Ava Ayala." He said as he handed her a change of clothes to get out of that getup. "She'll put you up for a few months as an exchange student."
"Thanks for doing this, Peter," Lana said as she threw some clothes on and then ripped off her mask. "You're an amazing friend." She then walked over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek in a friendly manner. "Let's get me the hell out of this city before my mom's boss finds me."
"Good idea," Peter said and the two made their way through the city.
As Peter was taking care of Lana and getting her to the bus station, Bobby had to drag Lori back to STAR Labs and place her in the pipeline himself as it seems Cisco did something. Caitlin came into the Labs wearing a long sweater and a scarf and sunglasses as she carried her coffee in.
When she walked into STAR Labs an hour later, Barry was waiting for her at the door. "Hi!"
"So loud..." Caitlin muttered. Her head was pounding like there was no tomorrow.
Barry breathed out a laugh. "Oh... I just wanted to make sure you were ok."
"Let's just say I envy your inability to get drunk." Caitlin hissed, moving very slowly down the hall. "I don't remember much from last night." She did, however, remember the important parts. Like the part where Barry told her that she was his girlfriend.
"Yeah, that's probably for the best." He got the adorably devious glint in his eyes. "Summer Lovin'..."
"Oh, god, that I do remember." Caitlin groaned.
Barry laughed for real this time, and she gave him a weak smile in response. They finished the walk to the Cortex together and came in on Dr. Wells and Cisco. Barry's smile faded.
"What's wrong?" Barry was afraid to ask.
"Cisco has something he needs to tell you." Wells ground out.
"Hartley's gone," Cisco muttered.
The blood drained from Caitlin's face. No.
Barry seemed to be in the same state of shock. "He escaped from the pipeline? How is that even possible?"
There was a long silence where Cisco seemed to be working up the courage to speak. "I- I let him out." He turned to Caitlin. "Are you mad? I can't tell with those glasses on."
"I'd like to yell and wave my arms, but I think I'd throw up." Caitlin ground out. How could Cisco do such a thing?
"I'd like to yell and wave my arms, but I'm afraid I'd throw up," Caitlin tells him and they hear by her voice that she was angry.
"Why? What were you thinking?" Barry asks surprised at his friend. "You know how dangerous he is."
"Hartley said he knew what happened to Ronnie," Cisco explains his actions.
"I thought I asked you to let it go and stop looking into it," Caitlin states as she remembered talking about this a few nights ago with him.
"I wasn't doing for you, I..." Cisco stops and thinks about what to say. "If I had just waited..."
"What happened that night wasn't anyone's fault," Caitlin states to her friends. "Now, come on. Don't we have a teleporter to catch?"
"We do have a teleporter to catch and fortunately, we do have a promising theory," Wells explains and pulls up Shawna's cells again. "This is the normal behavior of the particulate that Shawna left behind. Watch what happens when we remove the light."
Wells shows and the particulates stop moving.
"Shawna can only become entangled with something she can see." Barry realizes.
"Correct, take away her ability to see, she can't teleport." Wells finishes.
"So, we just have to get her into a dark space." Caitlin clarifies. "How do we do that?"
But then Barry's phone went off and he answered it, getting worrisome news. "What's wrong?"
"It's dad. He's been stabbed." Barry explains.
Peter wasn't allowed to visit his dad in the hospital since he was underage. But during the talk, Barry learns some intel and needs to get some answers and calls on Peter for some interrogation.
Barry speeds into the cell and brings Julius, one of Marcus' boys, out for the interrogation.
"Evening, Julius," Barry says and sees Peter standing behind him, ready to beat the man for hurting his father.
"How'd I get out here?" Julius asks them.
"You escaped." Peter answers and Julius sees him, shocked to see him. "Evening."
"You. If they catch me trying to escape, they're gonna add five years to my sentence." Julius tells them in worry, looking back and forth between the two of them.
"Ten, actually." Barry corrects him.
"I suggest you start talking," Peter informs him as he walked up and grabbed him by the neck. "Tell us where Marcus Stockheimer's next job is happening, or you'll learn what happens when I'm not so friendly."
They hear the alarms going off and they learned he escaped and Barry fake gasped. "Oh! Guards will be here any second." He warns the criminal. "I'd start blaming if I were you."
"Okay! It's a TDK and money transfer truck coming from the federal reserve bank in St. Louis. Supposed to be millions." Julius tells them. "It's supposed to be happening around eight."
"Another truck?" Peter groaned, remembering the truck from just this morning.
"We better get going," Barry said as he sped off, grabbing Peter on the way but leaving Julius behind.
Barry and Peter are making their way and see an armed car and another car behind them, and they go into a tunnel. Barry speeds ahead of them and drops Peter off as the two stands tall and ready to end this.
"Remember, she can't see, she can't teleport." Peter reminds Barry as Shawna appears in front of them.
"Why the hell do you two care what we do?" She asks them. "Are you cops or something?"
"More something than a cop. I mean you think cops would wanna show their faces wearing these outfits?" Peter quips as she starts teleporting, but Peter can sense where she's going to be and counterattacks every time. She eventually gives up on him and looks for Barry and can't find him.
As they were fighting, Barry was running down the tunnel and breaking all of the lights and the lights on the car. Shawna tries teleporting and she can't, so Peter takes the opportunity to web her hands to stop her from running off.
Peter then suddenly got night vision, surprising him he didn't know about this and saw Clay trying to run for it. Having some fun with him, he shot a web net that formed in front of him, and he landed inside his net.
"That's just funny," Peter commented.
"Nice one," Barry said as the two fist-bumped.
Shawna had been locked up, the grief that her lover abandoned her still showing itself on her face. Barry and Caitlin turned and began to walk out, while Cisco closed the door.
"Crazy day, huh?" Barry asked Caitlin.
"Crazy is right," Caitlin agreed.
Barry smiled at her. "Some people are worth being crazy for."
Caitlin bit her lip. "Uh, I'm sorry if I was a bit of a drunken mess the other night."
"Actually, it was pretty fun." He had the note in his voice that he got when he was teasing her, but she could tell he meant it.
She honestly had to agree with him on that. "Yeah, it was. And, about what you said-"
"Oh, good. You remember that." Barry looked relieved. "You are my girlfriend, Cait. I'm proud of that. And if you're ready, we can tell the team."
Caitlin leaned up to kiss him. "I'm glad I have you. I don't know what I would do if I didn't."
"Oh, you'd figure something out." Barry smiled gently. She shrugged, and he hugged her.
"I'm gonna start wearing a bell if this keeps happening," Peter commented, causing the two of them to split apart.
"Will you stop that?" Barry asked Peter.
"Stop having make-out sessions in the middle of the room if you don't want me spotting this," Peter stated, walking away from the two.
The Watcher eyed the two of them and smiled. "Love. The most powerful thing in the multiverse. Always there and would always send those on the right side on the right path. But...there are secrets in this life, that even they do not know about."
YEARS AGO:
Richard and Mary had just arrived at the airport and started to check into their flight. When they were heading to their gate, Mary started to feel a little lightheaded and droopy.
"You okay?" Richard asked, worried for his wife.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Mary assured him. "I'm just gonna go use the rest stop before we get onto the plane."
Richard then watched as she left for the bathroom and made his way to the gate. But what he missed was Harrison Wells himself was already there. He stood there in the middle of the walkway and saw the two of them separated.
They knew of his plans.
And they wouldn't live to tell a soul.
Kristen Bell as Mary Parker