Summary: Hartley Rathaway wasn't supposed to be on that bus. And he's proving to be an unexpectedly potent thorn in Clifford DeVoe's side as a result.
Notes: I do take a few events slightly out of order towards the end, but by then Hartley's well and truly wrecked the timeline anyway.
Spanner in the Works
Hartley wasn't supposed to be on the bus that day. He had a perfectly good car, took excellent care of it. It wasn't flashy, but it was reliable and the paint was custom dark green which was about as much car related vanity Hartley could really manage. It got him from point a to point b and wasn't likely to get stolen. That was all that really mattered.
The thing was... his car's battery died.
He got into the car like normal, put the key in the steering column, and... nothing.
Hartley had checked all the car settings. But the switches for the lights were all set to either off or 'door open' so they hadn't been on all night. The dial that controlled the headlights was off. As far as Hartley could tell, nothing would have prematurely drained the battery that night in particular. He did, however, remember a light left on inside the car overnight earlier that month and headlights the month before.
The car itself was used, so it was entirely possible the battery had been nearing the end of it's life even without Hartley's unfortunate lapses in attention to the car's various lights.
Reluctantly, Hartley called into work to take a half-day off and then flagged down a neighbor thinking he could just jump the battery and drive to the nearest auto parts store for a replacement. Unfortunately the jump didn't work either.
The battery was completely toast.
So Hartley wrote down all the pertinent details of what type of battery his car utilized, took a few minutes to locate the closest store with the most efficient route there and back, and then headed out for the bus stop. According to the Central City Public Transit website he ought to be able to take the next bus two stops to an AutoZone and then he'd have to walk a little ways to a different stop to take a three-stop trip back to his apartment complex.
It's on the way back that things go a bit pear shaped.
The Flash streaks out of a breach in the sky and the bus breaks down immediately. An EMP burst from the breach kills all the phones on the bus at the same time.
Hartley pulls the battery out of his phone, says a little prayer, and then plugs it back in. His phone boots up - cranky, but there didn't appear to be memory lost... though he'll probably need a new phone now anyway if the screen's bad behavior is any indication.
He calls Cisco once he's out of the bus. They're not exactly close by any stretch of the imagination, but Hartley had been one of Cisco's consults for building the tech to pull Barry out of the Speed Force. While the location of Barry's return was likely... not ideal, it seemed congratulations were in order.
And, hey, who knew. Maybe Hartley could guilt trip Cisco into buying the new phone for him.
(He does not get a new phone out of Cisco. But he does get to confirm for Cisco that Barry is definitely back, which apparently Cisco hadn't known. It's kind of nice to be the bearer of good news for STAR Labs for a change.)
It starts as an itch at the back of his throat.
Hartley thinks he's coming down with something. A cold? The flu? Bad allergies and hay fever? No telling yet.
He drinks extra soothing tea that night with honey and chamomile and goes to sleep early. The itch is worse in the morning, though, so Hartley calls in sick and goes back to sleep. It's a Friday, so he can take the weekend to get better and be back on Monday no problem... right?
It's even worse on Saturday, but Hartley still doesn't have a fever. He can barely talk, his voice painfully raspy to his ears and he practically drowns himself in tea and throat lozenges but none of it helps. On Sunday, Hartley can't talk at all.
Monday morning, Hartley breaks his tea mug and damages his countertop with his voice.
... at least his throat didn't hurt anymore.
Hartley would probably be a lot happier about still being able to communicate via sign language if anyone at STAR Labs knew it. Dr. McGee did, so when she dropped by to check on him, he at least had someone he could talk to without having to write out everything using his phone which had been frustrating him all morning with Caitlin and Cisco.
But eventually Tina had to go back to Mercury Labs and that left Hartley at STAR Labs running tests and breaking shit every time he tried to verbalize something.
Oddly enough, sighing was still fine. As were frustrated noises... which Hartley made a lot of.
(Also he may have 'accidentally' destroyed the Samuroid head after his warnings that it was clearly a bug went unheeded. And then, oh hey guess what? Cisco found in the wreckage of the robot head that it had still, in fact, been recording audio and video.
Hartley would treasure Cisco's apology for pretty much the rest of the day.)
By the time Barry joined them that evening, Hartley and Caitlin had a working theory of what was going on with Hartley's voice and Cisco was working on creating a device that would help modulate Hartley's vocal cords so that he wouldn't have to rely on his ability to stay silent in order to not destroy everything around him. Because Hartley was opinionated and sarcastic and could not stay quiet to save his life.
Of course, Barry finally asks the question. The one Hartley's been studiously avoiding since destroying his favorite mug that morning.
"What do you think triggered this new meta ability? Because shouldn't any secondary abilities have shown up at the same time your hearing was enhanced?"
Hartley signs 'yes it should have' and 'personally I blame you' and he didn't have to wait to write it down for Barry to understand.
Point in the Flash's column for having already learned sign language.
"So you think it was the breach that released me from the Speed Force that triggered this?" Barry asked, getting sharp looks from his clueless compatriots.
Hartley shrugged. It was the only trigger he could think of and he signed that response.
"Which could mean that everyone else on that bus is potentially now a meta too," Barry theorized.
"If they've got the gene, then they could be," Cisco theorized, looking some combination of worried and guilty. "This is my fault, Hartley. I'm sorry." He ran a hand through his hair, looking frazzled.
And hot. Cisco really had no business looking that attractive with his hair all mussed like that.
"And what does this mean for people who are already metas?" Cisco continued to fret. "Does this mean every time we're exposed to dark energy, we're risking developing additional powers?"
Caitlin hummed thoughtfully and then shook her head. "I doubt it. What happened to Hartley might be a special case? We've seen that there are several different genes at play when it comes to meta abilities. Maybe one gene activated during Hartley's first exposure to dark energy and then a different gene - or sequence of genes - activated this time."
Hartley nodded and then made Barry translate for him. "Or it could be that I had a lesser exposure the first time around - compared to someone right at the center of the accelerator or who was affected directly by the storm itself - and so my meta abilities were only partially activated by my first exposure. Either way, it could mean that some metas might develop secondary abilities on subsequent exposure but it's unlikely you - Cisco - or Barry would have to worry about that personally."
"This probably won't be finished until tomorrow morning," Cisco told Hartley apologetically and Hartley wanted to tell him to stop blaming himself.
Cisco's guilt complex gave Hartley hives.
As it was, Hartley knew it'd only be done in the morning if Cisco worked through the night. So he made Barry tell Cisco that the afternoon would be fine and that he'd better fucking sleep that night instead of guilt-spiraling like a moron. Barry left out the insults but his obvious amusement told the other two that he'd clearly edited something.
As it was, Cisco did sleep that night. And Tuesday afternoon, Hartley's first words spoken with a silver choker around his throat was, "thank you, Cisco."
"Well, I owed you. Still owe you, for the Samuroid head's destruction. And don't tell me that was an accident," he added, amused smile tugging at his lips. "You destroyed it because I was disagreeing with you and you're exactly that petty."
Hartley just laughed.
The theory that Barry's return exposed the bus to dark energy seemed proven when two others from the bus began exhibiting meta abilities.
Hartley recognized Kilgore from when they'd exited the bus afterwards. And Becky Sharpe, the down on her luck black jack dealer with the unmistakable outfit.
Barry was less than pleased when Hartley confirmed that Ralph Dibny had been on that bus too. Hartley had offered the PI a ride to wherever he wanted in exchange for helping Hartley carry the car battery the two blocks from where the bus broke down to his apartment's parking garage.
(Hartley, of course, was pleased to agree with Iris and Caitlin that Ralph Dibny was very, very attractive. Though Hartley deliberately failed to mention that Dibny's attractiveness waned the longer the man was allowed to speak; Barry's pouting was too hilarious to risk putting an end to so quickly.)
Cisco stared blankly into his refrigerator for a long while before closing it. He couldn't remember if he'd opened it to decide on dinner, grab a beer, or both. So he did none of it instead.
He'd broken up with Cynthia today. And he's still not sure why.
She had a vision of them breaking up in the future and decided that instead of working to fix the problems that led to their breakup that the answer for them was to just... end things now.
"It'll be easier this way on both of us," Cynthia had insisted. And that, it seemed, was that.
His first real relationship in years and... she gave up on him without a fight. Cisco's not sure how to take that - were their problems so insurmountable that Cynthia couldn't see a way around them? Or... had she concluded that a relationship with Cisco wasn't worth fighting for?
He doesn't really feel hungry. And getting drunk isn't all that appealing. He probably ought to call Barry or Caitlin or Iris.
He probably shouldn't be alone right now.
But Cisco doesn't pick up the phone. He crashes on his couch and pulls the blanket draped on the top down onto himself, absently flipping it open and then flailing a foot to make the bottom half of it unfold properly. Then he flips on the tv to a rerun of Hogan's Heroes on one of the local stations, marveling at how well done the HD remaster was. It's like a whole new show.
In the end, someone else calls Cisco.
He sits up sharply and stares blankly at his phone long enough that the call goes to voicemail. Cisco grimaces, grabs the phone off the coffee table, mutes the tv, and checks the missed call log. It's Hartley. No voicemail, so it probably wasn't important...
But it wasn't like Cisco was doing anything worthwhile. So he called back.
"Hey, Hartley. Everything okay?"
"Yeah. The choker is working fine. I mean, I had to work on my will power not to use my new sonic shriek against an idiot coworker who nearly blew up my lab today, but I managed not to give in to the temptation."
Cisco snorted in amusement. They'd included an emergency shut off that would either shut it off entirely for a short tap or temporarily shut it off with a long press, allowing Hartley to use his powers in bursts similar to the Canary Cry Cisco had once made for Laurel. Cisco had no doubt Hartley would refrain from abusing his powers, but choosing not to do so didn't mean the guy couldn't fantasize about it anyway.
"I'm sure you'd have been totally justified," Cisco drawled teasingly.
"No jury would've convicted me, so long as they had to spend five minutes alone with the guy. Think Kavanaugh from Stargate Atlantis." Hartley paused, then said, "no, he's not entirely awful. Think Frank Burns from MASH."
"Ouch. That's mean." Cisco smiled in amusement. "Funny that, looks like MASH is the next show on the channel I'm watching. Finishing up a Hogan's Heroes episode right now."
"Crittenden is competent, compared to this guy," Hartley sighed, referencing one of Cisco's favorite guest characters. Of course, Colonel Crittenden was extremely incompetent, but that was what made him so entertaining.
"My girlfriend broke up with me," Cisco said abruptly. "Right before I came home, actually. Honestly, I could have used an explosion after that as a distraction."
"Do you want company?" Hartley asked cautiously. "I haven't had dinner yet... I could grab a pizza and we can watch MASH or whatever comes on after that?"
"I think it's another MASH episode," Cisco said. "Also, yes. Company would be nice."
They've never really done this before - hanging out socially, that is - and Cisco is a little wary of it, but...
Hartley shows up with the pizza and they spend a few hours watching whatever came on TV and trading funny work stories. It's fun and pressure free and Cisco actually manages to forget, for a little while, to be sad about his break up. And when Hartley leaves around ten, they've got tentative plans to hang out again next week.
Cisco thinks they might actually be friends now and the thought sends him to sleep with a smile.
Ralph is kind of an asshole, but the worst part is he's starting to grow on Cisco. Just a smidge.
Cisco whines about it to Hartley who just laughs at him and teasingly points out how hot Ralph is. Which... Hartley's not exactly wrong, but Hartley finding Ralph attractive really annoys Cisco. Really, really annoys him.
It isn't until Cisco is maybe a little tipsy one evening after they'd finished off a pizza and were watching the Star Trek reruns that came on after MASH that it began to dawn on Cisco just why he might find Hartley being attracted to someone else irritating.
Cisco had been distracted by Hartley's hands. The way his fingers wrapped around his mug of hot cocoa. And then... the mug was raised up to Hartley's lips and...
Swallowing hard and tearing his gaze away, Cisco stared blankly at the screen while Bones put an arm around Spock's waist - ostensibly to help hold the Vulcan up, but there's no way it was a one hundred percent heterosexual move - and tried to work out what just happened. Because... Hartley.
Attractive, yes. Brilliant. Less frustrating than he used to be. Still thrived on sarcasm, though. That Hartley.
Since when did Cisco want to lick the chocolate fuzz off the other man's upper lip?
But once he acknowledged the thought, Cisco couldn't unthink it. He just... didn't know what to do about it. Yet.
Mina Chayton scowled at Lisa and Hartley imagined the woman was thinking she didn't need them telling her how to steal back her people's artifacts. Honestly, Hartley's not even sure why he's here. He was never really one of the Rogues, he'd just... done a few hacks for Lisa after Lewis Snart died.
"Look, if you keep this up," Lisa told the other woman, "you're going to attract the Flash's attention."
And that was when Hartley realized he recognized the other woman. She'd been on the bus with him, hadn't she?
"What do I care if I catch his attention?" Mina asked, tone sharp, arrogant.
"Look, the Flash is a bleeding heart," Hartley interrupted. "If all you're doing is stealing priceless artifacts to return them to their rightful owners, then he won't care. But last night you put a security guard's life at risk and the only reason you're not a murderer is that, lucky you, Lisa was there on her own job and not only saved the guy but did so in a way that no one will suspect meta powers were involved in the thefts. Now, maybe you're okay with murder. In which case I look forward to the Flash sticking you behind bars. But if you'd rather keep that particular sin off your conscience then consider that you're being offered a chance to learn from the best."
"Who, you?" Mina sneered.
"No. Lisa," Hartley corrected, gently.
Lisa preened at the compliment. "If the Flash thinks you're outside of his notice then you can steal with impunity," Lisa told her. "Every single artifact that belongs to your people? Yours for the taking... if you run a clean job. In and out, no fuss and no endangering other people's lives. You'd be a Rogue, if you worked with me.
"If you don't, then maybe you'll get a handful of your targets before either the Flash, Vibe, or their new protégé, that stretchy guy, take you in."
"And if I have targets outside of Central City?" Mina asked, trying to look shrewd and failing. Even Hartley hadn't been that transparent as a newbie... probably.
Lisa smirked.
Hartley took that as his cue to go make some tea and become fully engrossed in his phone. Once Mina was gone, Hartley said, idly, "why am I really here, Lisa?" as he shut off the phone's screen.
"She was on a bus the a few weeks ago. With two other people who've since manifested powers and gone on to be arrested. There's... interest in these new metas. Amunet Black wants them. Wants you."
Hartley cursed softly, under his breath. "Being on that bus didn't make me a meta," he said, because it was technically true. Lisa already knew about his hearing.
"I'm aware," she said dryly. "I'm also aware you've been sporting a very fancy new piece of jewelry lately. Showed up after you were sick one weekend and you haven't been seen without it since." Lisa gave him an arch look. "If you need help disappearing outside of Central," she told him, "all you have to do is ask."
"Let's just say I've got a new speech problem and could probably fit in as an honorary Star City Canary these days," Hartley offered with a shrug. "Assuming they'd let a gay guy into their currently all girls club."
"Do you think they're lesbians?" Lisa asked, perking up with interest. "Because they're hot and I wouldn't mind a trip to Star City to verify..." She laughed when Hartley rolled his eyes at her.
"I think you're going to have your hands full with Mina," Hartley told her. "That one's trouble."
"Sexy trouble, my favorite kind," Lisa agreed with a smirk. "Seriously, though, Hart. If you need help, I'm there."
"Thank you, Lisa. Even if tonight's little meetup did end up making me an accessory to various thefts."
"You're my favorite accessory," Lisa teased. "Take me to dinner? You can tell me how Cisco's been doing. I hear you two have been spending a lot of time together lately."
Hartley blushed. Not that there was anything to blush about, but, well... a guy could wish, right? That there was something to blush over...
"So, you have the look of a person preparing to do something very stupid thing," Hartley observed, smirking when Barry glared at him. "So you think DeVoe is this year's overarching villain," Hartley continued, "and you're getting no support from the super fam because they think you're drawing parallels between one guy in a wheelchair and another guy in a wheelchair?"
"I'm not, though," Barry insisted through clenched teeth.
"Of course you're not. You were right about the fake Jay Garrick being untrustworthy. And they said the same thing then, that you were just drawing parallels between one speedster mentor and another." That had been about the same time Harrison 2.0 had shown up, though, and Hartley hadn't been interested in sticking around to deal with him. He'd stayed in the team's periphery, though, helping whenever Cisco asked.
Now, however, was not the time to stay in the periphery.
"The DeVoes are baiting you, Barry. They tried to spy on you and your team. They successfully manipulated Team Flash into bringing you out of the speed force at just the right moment to turn a specific group of people into metas. They have been a step ahead of you all this time and you are literally about to fall into their trap. If you go investigating their house, they'll have you on camera. Barry Allen, not the Flash. And then what happens to your job?"
Hartley took a deep breath and plowed on. "Lisa reached out to me because there's a black market for metas and apparently someone is paying good money to collect all the metas who were on that bus."
"Why? Do you think it's DeVoe?"
"I have no idea who it is yet, though DeVoe is as good a guess as any." Hartley shrugged when Barry raised an eyebrow. "Amunet Black's organization is the one that's been going after the bounties so far. And I'm not about to go near her organization. Though I hear Caitlin spent the summer making bad decisions in Amunet's employ."
"Where'd you hear that?" Barry's eyes narrowed.
"I still have a few contacts from my brief foray into super villainy," Hartley admitted. "I heard about a woman with the power of freezing touch working for Amunet back in July. Didn't exactly take much investigation to find out Caitlin was playing bartender in a shady bar and occasionally turning platinum blonde to do favors for someone even shadier. I told Cisco about the bar, but I didn't mention the other thing. I figured that was Caitlin's secret to tell."
Barry went quiet for a long moment before finally asking, "if investigating the DeVoes means falling into their trap, then else am I supposed to do? I need evidence if I'm going to prove to the others I'm right."
"Then let me get it for you," Hartley offered. Lisa was going to kill him for this, but... "concentrate on your upcoming wedding, okay? Consider this my wedding gift, 'cause everything on your registry is lame anyway."
Barry snorted in amusement. But he nodded. "Yeah. Fine. But if you've got nothing by the time my honeymoon's over..."
Hartley nodded. Oh, yeah, Lisa was going to be pissed indeed.
Idly, Hartley turned down the emitters on his hearing aids, winced, and then turned them back up. Full blast and he could hear nothing but white noise.
Lisa was still ranting at him, fully aware he'd stopped listening after the first fifteen minutes. Mina looked amused and, given the sultry looks the ladies had been giving each other when he showed up, the newly minted meta-thief had been quite thoroughly seduced by Lisa after all.
Eventually Hartley should probably congratulate his friend on a successful conquest, right?
After the ranting subsided.
She finally came to a stop a few minutes later and turned to face Hartley fully - she'd been pacing so the ranting had been purely for her own benefit as otherwise Lisa would've made sure Hartley could see her mouth for lip-reading purposes. Made it easier for him to focus on whoever was actually speaking and not a couple arguing across the street or a case of road rage down the block.
Signing, she told him to turn his ears back on. Obligingly, Hartley did so.
"Will you be doing this investigating around your day job or...?"
"Dr. McGee has given me the name of one of DeVoe's students she interested in. I've been 'volunteered' to go make a hiring pitch to the kid. Hook him as a paid intern now, Mercury Labs may very well luck into having him full time once his Masters is complete. Or we learn early he's a bad fit and let him go after then internship's done." Hartley shrugged. "Gives me leeway to do whatever investigating I need to do on the Flash's behalf and Tina gets to feel like she's paying the Flash back for the numerous times he's saved the lives of her and her employees."
"Not bad," Lisa allowed with a huff.
"Why are you bothering to do the Flash a favor anyway?" Mina grumbled, crossing her arms and looking a touch petulant.
"Hartley's history with Team Flash is complicated," Lisa said, waving off the question. "I, however, owe Vibe my life." She touched her neck, looking pensive. Fingers brushing against the nearly non-existent scar where, once upon a time, Lewis Snart had signed his own death warrant all while thinking he was signing his daughter's. How he'd thought he'd survive if he had actually killed her...
"You investigate on campus," Lisa finally told Hartley. "I'll handle the home residence."
Hartley Rathaway wasn't supposed to be on that bus.
It hadn't been an impossibility, but the odds of him being on the bus had been low. Practically beneath Clifford's notice. In fact, if Clifford hadn't been so dismissive of the Rathaway heir he'd have realized that Hartley had accidently left the lights on in his car overnight twice in the two months leading up to the bus incident. Both drained the battery just enough that on that fateful day, there was no other possibility but for the physicist to be seated at the front of that bus, so there was less distance for him to be lugging the fifty-pound battery around for.
He shouldn't have mattered, though, as he was something of a redundancy, in a manner of speaking. And there were even two ways that redundancy could be meant.
Most meta humans in Central City had one of four genetics markers. There were others, of course. A few rare one-off metas where the genetic components of their powers was yet to be identified. But Clifford knew more about the metas of Central City and the factors that led to them being gifted with powers than anyone else.
When the reality of his situation set in, Clifford had searched desperately for a meta who might cure him. Had Eddie Thawne's powers manifested... but they hadn't and the man had died from self inflicted wounds. Saving the world from a future that Clifford would never let come to pass anyway. Eventually, Clifford gave up on finding a cure for his current body and began searching for a way to shed his skin, as it were.
And that was when he discovered a specific gene sequence that, when exposed to dark energies at close range, would trigger a number of quite useful powers. Hartley Rathaway possessed that particular gene sequence. He also possessed one of the more common genes related to meta-human powers, however. A redundancy that gave him two potential abilities, though his first exposure to dark energy had only been enough to trigger the more common gene. The second exposure had been much more concentrated, triggering everyone on the bus in an instant.
After all, everyone on that bus possessed the same gene sequence.
It had been fun, lining up all the dominoes in order to have the right people on the right bus at the right time.
Though Hartley Rathaway was actually the first person DeVoe had identified as possessing the correct gene sequence for his purposes, he'd also been the first candidate that DeVoe had dismissed. The slim likelihood he'd be on the bus combined with the necessity for artificial controls for both his powers had ultimately eliminated him from Clifford's consideration. Considering the other control mechanisms he was already having to create, having one fewer mechanism to deal with was preferable. He identified a second potential meta whose abilities over sound waves would be more easily utilized and immediately began pulling strings to put her on the bus that day. Izzy's abilities would be far more useful to DeVoe, thus Clifford discarded Hartley from his list of priorities.
That Rathaway was on the bus anyway was a sign, Clifford supposed, that he wasn't infallible yet.
Afterwards, Clifford had spent a great deal of time recalculating his plans to account for the rogue element. He reconfirmed that there was no reason to bother trying to absorb Rathaway's abilities, as the sonic shriek was made redundant by Izzy's more refined powers and the redundancy in his genes that made him a meta twice over made it quite likely that Clifford wouldn't be able to absorb his power anyway. The bus-meta gene sequence, as it were. Having two different meta-related genes might disrupt the process or stall it out altogether.
That made Hartley Rathaway an obstacle to be removed. Particularly considering the trouble he was now causing in Clifford's plan to force the Flash temporarily out of play and into jail. Framing Barry Allen for Clifford DeVoe's death would be a much weaker case if there wasn't documentation of harassment preceding the alleged murder.
Instead he had Hartley showing up at work, ostensibly to head hunt one of his students for Mercury Labs. And Lisa Snart showing up at his house with equipment that disrupted the camera system in the house long enough for her to poke around without being recorded. Without the recording, Clifford cannot know with any certainty what she may, or may not, have discovered.
There shouldn't have been anything there for Lisa Snart to find... but Clifford's made enough mistakes as it is. Time to change tactics.
Hartley could accept the first instance as an accident.
A piano nearly falls on his head. It's like something out of a cartoon and most certainly couldn't really be an intentional attempt to harm him. It was a near miss. An accident. A tragedy for the piano, and for the splinters that peppered Hartley's leather riding jacket... and blew out one of the tires on his new motorcycle.
Still, he's fine and blows it off. Jokes about it with Cisco that evening, who does not appear to find it funny in the least.
The second instance was a bullet missing his face solely because he heard the gunshot and ducked when no one else did. There's a cracking sound as the bullet impacts the brick behind him and Hartley is already hitting the panic app that Cisco installed on his phone.
Vibe gets there before the Flash does, dragging Hartley through a breach to safety while everyone else has to wait the extra few seconds for the Flash to whisk them away.
The gunman ends up being an assassin. Turns out there's a bounty on Hartley specifically. Dead, not alive.
"It has to be the DeVoes," Hartley insists, thinking of the smiles with gritted teeth from Clifford and the way Marlize's heartbeat gives her away every time she lies no matter how composed her body language might be. Thinking of the way Lisa had sounded skittish over the phone when she said she had something to tell him about the DeVoe residence. "Have them ask the guy if there's a hit out on Lisa Snart too."
There is. Cisco immediately vibes Lisa and Mina, bringing them both to STAR Labs and relative safety.
Cisco's hands start shaking the moment the cortex lights up with an alert from Hartley's phone. They don't stop shaking when he pulls on his jacket and glasses and breaches to Hartley's location.
He doesn't have to check the alert or pause to vibe the location. He just knows, already. Opens the breach to a café and ducks immediately beneath the table to grab Hartley's hand and tow him through the breach. Only then, safe in the cortex with Hartley's hand in his, do Cisco's hands grow still.
Then he finds out Lisa's in danger and Cisco doesn't hesitate to go fetch her too.
Hartley calls her to warn her that Cisco's on his way and then Cisco immediately opens up a breach, able to vibe off the ongoing phone call where he was going.
Even though his hands are steady, Cisco still feels panicky. Hartley was supposed to be safe. He worked at Mercury Labs and the worst thing he ought to have to put up with should be that irritating coworker who'd nearly blown up his lab all those weeks ago. He usually kept his nose out of Team Flash's business beyond the occasional science consult and he hadn't helped out Lisa with any heists in well over a year...
He was supposed to be safe.
Part of Cisco wants to be angry when Hartley points blame at the DeVoes. He sounds like Barry. And then it turns out Hartley and Lisa had been investigating the DeVoes on Barry's behalf?
Cisco has no doubt that Hartley volunteered to look into them. That Hartley believed Barry was right and knowingly endangered himself. It doesn't make Cisco any less furious at Barry because Cisco almost lost another person he...
Another person he...
Another person he loved.
Cisco went very quiet while Hartley recounted what he'd found out so far.
"Both professors are well liked by their students, but a professor who used to be their TA told me that in 2013 they were researching something nicknamed the Thinking Cap that..." Hartley trailed off, staring at Dr. Wells' old office. "Son of a bitch," he muttered and marched up to the door, reaching up for a key hidden atop the casing. "I knew I'd heard that before and it was here. Please tell me," he added, looking over his shoulder at Cisco, "that you didn't throw out his old appointment books."
"They should still be in there," Cisco offered. They'd locked up the room after the singularity. None of them had wanted to go through his things and, well... that hadn't changed. Harry might've gone through his things, or maybe HR, out curiosity about the man who'd pretended to be Wells, but... unlikely.
Hartley nodded and yanked the door open, disappearing inside. Reluctant to let Hartley out of his sight, Cisco followed after him, watching as Hartley shoved the old chess board out of his way in order to pull reach the drawers of the desk. He pulled open a drawer and flipped through a couple of old appointment books, piling them on the desk rather than put them back. He set aside one in particular and then another one. Leaving the rest alone, those two he took with him when he stood back out and went back into the cortex with Cisco.
"For a few weeks before I got fired, and apparently every couple of weeks leading up to the accelerator's explosion, Harrison was consulting on their project. The Thinking Cap. He never said what it was, but it had something to do with improving brain function." Hartley held out one of the appointment books to Barry, flipping it open to the right page as he did. He handed the other one to Cisco, open to Tuesday in the first week of December, 2013.
Clifford DeVoe's name was penciled in for 2:30 pm. No location given, though it wasn't likely that wherever they'd been meeting Dr. Wells was the same place they were using now.
"They have an old lab in their basement," Lisa spoke up. "It hasn't been used in months; it's pretty dusty down there. They cleaned out everything, though it's clear the place was used for mad science at one point; no documentation on what they were working on left behind, unfortunately. Which, for scientists? That's weird. You people are pack rats. You don't throw out anything; no such thing as bad data, right?"
Cisco snorted softly, because she wasn't wrong. "They would have moved it all somewhere secure." None of this was evidence Barry was right, but... none of it was reason to put a hit on Hartley and Lisa, either. Yet here they were. "You were right about them," Cisco said quietly, looking over at Barry.
He nodded, expression tight. Cisco rather imagined he would've preferred to be wrong than to have someone else's life be in danger. Barry handled his own life being on the line so much better than letting anyone else take the risks.
What they'd found was nothing damning. But it was the start of pattern...
And that was when Cisco remembered that damn piano.
He retrieved what Caitlin jokingly referred to as his pokedex. It was a book full of meta human criminals... and a few non metas with specialized tech. Lisa was in there and Hartley used to be, though Cisco had retired his entry after Eobard Thawne's true identity was revealed. (Though he'd nearly put Hartley back in there after the Pied Piper had helped the Golden Glider on a few heists.)
Lisa was delighted to see her own entry, pleased that Cisco had chosen a flattering picture of her for it. She fluttered her eyes mock flirtatiously at him and Cisco rolled his eyes in return, flipping to one of the metas that they'd yet to encounter for all that Cisco had managed to gather a good deal of data on the guy.
An assassin. He'd been an assassin before becoming a meta and he'd most likely gained his powers from the Singularity. Before becoming a meta he'd been known for committing murders that looked like accidents. Now he could do it with powers. Cisco couldn't exactly quantify the guy's abilities yet, though in light of how Becky Sharpe's powers worked, Cisco had his suspicions now. A localized reordering of probability...
"You think this guy might be after Hartley and I in addition to today's shooter?" Lisa asked.
"That near miss..." Mina breathed out, giving Lisa a worried look.
Cisco wasn't sure he wanted to know. He doubted Mina cared much about Hartley's brush with the piano, so something must've nearly gotten Lisa too.
Ronnie. Dr. Wells. Jay. Dante. Caitlin. HR. Hell... his own name belonged on that list. People who'd died over the last few years. Not everyone stayed dead. Some had died in multiple ways. Some had died metaphorically as well literally.
Cisco really didn't want to add Hartley's name to that list.
Hartley's okay with hiding from an assassin who can reorder probability for a few days before going stir crazy. He can't imagine going into witness protection - he'd drive the poor Marshals assigned to him around the bend. Certainly he's driving Cisco and Harry up a wall.
(Harry finds him 'editing' the autobiography of Harrison Wells.
Hartley trashed the cover and blacked out the title on the spine with a permanent marker. On the front he retitled it 'A Short History of Harrison Wells and the Identity Thief Eobard Thawne', which is wordy but to the point. Hartley had only made it through the first six chapters at that point - the earlier chapters don't require a lot of edits and most of those fit into the margins. When something doesn't fit into the margins, Hartley uses post it notes though he suspects as the later chapters delver deeper into the lies and deceptions of Eobard Thawne, Hartley will have to start using post its to reference pages in a notebook... which means he's going to need a notebook.
After reading what Hartley had so far, Harry was actually pretty amused. When Cisco found him defacing STAR Labs property, however... he found it a lot less funny. But he did, at least, locate for Hartley a notebook. Which he swatted Hartley over the head with before giving it to him, but a notebook was a notebook.)
(Hartley's always been one to push boundaries and buttons. So every time Harry leaves the room, Hartley moves his tools around. Harry doesn't notice at first, but he slowly grows suspicious, shooting irritated looks Cisco's way since he starts snickering at one point.
Honestly, Cisco cannot keep secrets to save his life.
Eventually Harry realizes Hartley's the culprit and he threatens to find their anti-meta hand cuffs, to which Hartley had blithely responded that even fake Harrison wasn't that kinky. Harry goldfishes for a few moments before turning on his heel and noping out of that conversation altogether. Hartley casually reordered Harry's tools again. At which point Cisco cracked up.)
(Hartley reactivates the security locks that require badges to swipe for access, successfully trapping Harry in the elevator and pissing off Cisco who can't get into his lab. The only people with access everywhere is Hartley and his two partners in crime, Frost and Ralph. Well... Barry too, but only because he can phase through solid matter, thus cheating.
Cisco does eventually acknowledge that their current security levels are shit and agrees to leave the locks back on. But only once he and Harry and everyone else has new badges too.)
(Hartley and Lisa spend the evening creating dioramas of various Flash fights using rat plushies, which are scattered around the various operational areas of STAR Labs. Barry loves the Flash rats, Cisco is torn between being impressed with their workmanship and irritated because they're all over the place, Caitlin is just relieved Frost wasn't involved in this one, and Harry looks like he wants to throttle Hartley but is afraid that Hartley'll say something about his relationship with Harribard again.
It's a shame, though. Hartley had a zinger about auto-erotic asphyxiation.)
So when Harry suggests that they use Hartley as bait for their meta assassin, Hartley's all for it. It's a terrible idea, he doesn't care.
What he doesn't really understand is why Cisco flips out at the idea.
"He's irritating, always has to be right..." Harry complained.
"Careful, you sound like you're describing yourself," Cisco interrupted, scowling at the new version of the Boot that he'd started working on.
"Yeah, well, you don't have a crush on me. Thank god," Harry muttered, smirking when Cisco turned to stare at him wide eyed.
"Excuse me?" Cisco gave Harry the most unimpressed look he could manage.
"You've got a crush on Hartley Rathaway. It's obvious." Harry gave Cisco an amused look. "That's why you don't want him playing bait."
"I don't want either of them playing bait," Cisco retorted. Lisa and Hartley were both his friends.
"But you're not denying you've got feelings for him."
"What good would that do?" Cisco sighed. "I just made an ass of myself and he probably isn't interested in me that way anyway and... and you asshole, he's right outside, isn't he?"
Hartley looked in through the doorway and waved. Hopeful smile on his face. He slipped inside as Harry left.
"Look, I don't have a date to Barry's wedding," Hartley said... which was not at all where Cisco thought this would go. "And I have it on good authority that you don't have a date..."
"Well that depends on whether you'll be my date to the wedding," Cisco offered.
"I'm still letting Barry use me as bait tomorrow," Hartley warned, walking over and taking Cisco's hands in his.
Cisco grimaced. "I know." He tugged Hartley closer. "I'm sorry. I'm just..."
"I'm scared too," Hartley admitted, pressing his forehead against Cisco's. "But I feel a lot safer knowing you can breach me out of there the moment things go wrong."
Tilting his face, Cisco kissed Hartley. "Then let's get this guy, so that you can be my date to the wedding."
"Sounds good to me."
This time Hartley's sitting at a café with Cisco when the assassination attempt happened.
A giant ball came rolling down the road right towards where they're sitting. In the confusion, Hartley hears the sound of a knife unfolding and he turns sharply, hand to his choker as he let's out a shriek. His would be attacker is thrown against the wall, dropping his knife. Barry runs in, slapping cuffs on him and giving Hartley and Cisco a thumbs up.
"We're sure that's the guy who rewrites probability?" Hartley asked.
Cisco nodded. "Yeah, there was a dark matter surge from the table he was sitting at right before the ball was released." He ran his hands over Hartley's shoulders. "Are you okay?"
"I'm okay," Hartley replied, kissing Cisco and leaning into his touch. "I'm okay."
The wedding is lovely and, despite the high number of superheroes involved, goes off without a hitch. Felicity Smoak has the bad taste of proposing to Oliver at the wedding reception (and this is after loudly refusing something he'd said at the rehearsal dinner that she'd misinterpreted as a proposal) to which Oliver accepts, but also tries to keep the news quiet. Because at least one of them has the self awareness to realize that upstaging the bridal couple at their own reception is kind of a dick move.
Hartley salutes Iris' self control that she just politely smiles and congratulates Felicity. She sounds like she wants to murder Felicity in a dark alley somewhere, but at least Iris is polite about it.
Oliver apologizes a good six or seven times over the course of the evening. By the time he hits apology number three, Hartley has to find somewhere quiet to go laugh about it. He catches the eyes of Kara Danvers, who also has super hearing, and they both glance at Oliver and Barry and just grin at each other.
Dancing with Cisco is every bit as wonderful as Hartley hoped.
Everything goes quiet while Barry and Iris are on their honeymoon. It makes Hartley suspicious.
On the bright side, he successfully recruits the student from DeVoe's class and he makes an excellent addition to Hartley's work team at Mercury labs. He's already planning to offer the guy a full time position upon graduation.
Of course, once the happy couple comes back from their honeymoon, everything goes to hell.
Barry and Caitlin are kidnapped at the same time. Iris focuses on saving Caitlin... and Cisco calls Hartley, asking him to find Barry. Hartley, in turn, calls Lisa who brings Mina with her.
DeVoe's Thinker alter ego is... kind of terrifying. And he nearly get's Mina with some kind of tech Hartley's never seen before. It touches Hartley instead, overloading his choker and knocking him unconscious. It seems to overload the Thinker's chair too, or so Cisco tells him afterwards when he wakes up at STAR Labs.
Hartley goes home with Cisco that night, falling asleep in Cisco's arms and feeling very, very safe.
He wakes up too early in the morning to find out Barry has been arrested for murder.
Cisco takes Hartley with him straight to the police station. He's got no idea what Hartley's up to, but Hartley promised it'd be good for Barry. And it is.
"Barry's being a good friend," Hartley said once they were in Captain Singh's office, "which is why he hasn't named me as his alibi for the murder. Trying not to out me as a metahuman. But obviously my secrets aren't worth his freedom."
He doesn't breathe for a moment, wondering where this was going. "Hartley?"
"It's okay, Cisco." Hartley took a shaky breath and kept going. "I have two abilities. Enhanced hearing, which I have to maintain with specialized hearing aids so that I'm not in constant pain. And without this," he touched his new choker, which was currently padded to avoid exacerbating his electrical burns, "I can't talk anymore. My voice creates dangerous sonic vibrations. Found that out accidentally destroying my favorite mug and doing damage to my kitchen counter top that really pissed off my building's super.
"Yesterday afternoon I was assaulted and my choker was damaged. It overloaded and burned me and before you ask, no I didn't file a police report on it. Having been arrested in college for what amounted to being gay in public, I don't trust cops. But like most people who know him, I trust Barry." Hartley's hands were shaking and Cisco reached over to take one in his own, wondering about that college arrest that was clearly so upsetting for Hartley to remember.
"When I was attacked, Lisa Snart - she was with me at the time. Saved my life. Lisa called STAR Labs, as she's aware that Dr. Caitlin Snow is my physician, due to me being a metahuman. However, being that it was the weekend, everyone was out. Since Barry owns STAR Labs, Lisa called him next to help get me there and get ahold of Dr. Snow. Barry came in person to help Lisa and her assistant, Mina Chayton, get me to STAR Labs." He listed off the address near the waterfront that was not covered by cameras. It was also a good hour and a half drive from there to STAR Labs taking the highway the day before due to an unexpected car accident at three-twenty the day before. "So from about three in the afternoon to six-thirty, Barry Allen was in the company of myself, Lisa Snart, and Mina Chayton. Cisco and Caitlin didn't join us until about five-thirty. Fortunately my injuries didn't require much looking after beyond basic first aid, which Lisa and Barry were able to provide for me and there was a second control choker at STAR Labs I was able to modify not to exacerbate those injuries."
"That does cover the time of death," Captain Singh said quietly, giving Hartley a steady, almost curious stare. "So your saying that you, Captain Cold's sister, and a disgraced former professor from the CCU are Barry's alibi."
Hartley's hand tightened on Cisco's. "Lisa might capitalize on her brother's reputation to boost her business, but she herself does not have a criminal record nor, as far as I'm aware anyway, is she considered a person of interest in any current cases. As for Dr. Chayton, she was at a protest at the university that only turned violent after the campus police attacked first. It's a matter of record and an ongoing lawsuit. And documented in a ridiculous number of YouTube videos and the campus police's own dash cameras, which are public record. So the university is certainly disgraced, but it's quite the stretch to consider Dr. Chayton as such."
"I'll need to corroborate your story with Ms. Snart and Dr. Chayton." Singh handed him a pad of paper and a pen. "I'll need their contact information."
Hartley let go of Cisco's hand to write down their phone numbers. Then they were excused from the office while the Captain presumably contacted Lisa and Mina. Who would hopefully corroborate Hartley's story after all.
"Are you okay?" Cisco asked quietly, linking their hands again, once they were settled over at Joe's desk. Joe himself wasn't there - presumably he was working on Barry's defense. But Cisco was around the precinct often enough that no one really second guessed them standing there.
"The last time I was in a police station, I was with my college boyfriend. Earl. We made out at a public park and some b... someone claimed we were having sex in public. Which we weren't - she was just a homophobic ass. And thankfully there were cameras all over the park, so after spending the night in cells - despite the fact that they knew the night before we hadn't done anything wrong - we were let out of jail. It was only a few weeks after I was disowned too, so it was shitty cherry on top of the whole month."
"Sorry, man." Cisco said, turning Hartley's hand over in his and stroking Hartley's palm.
Singh confirms Lisa and Mina's story over the phone and then releases a very, very confused Barry some time later.
"What is going on?" Barry asked, meeting Cisco and Hartley on the steps leading into the building. "Captain Singh said that my alibi checks out." Then, very quietly he hissed, "I don't have an alibi."
"You have me, Lisa, and Mina," Hartley said. "I outed myself as a meta to law enforcement for you, Barry. To cops who somehow aren't able to recognize that an 'anti-meta taskforce' is a fucking discrimination lawsuit waiting to happen." He smiled thinly as Barry winced. "You're welcome, by the way. Oh, and Barry? Lisa wants something very nice for Christmas. Like the Flash leaving Golden Glider alone if she were to, say, steal something small and shiny to honor Captain Cold's memory."
Barry winced again, but nodded. Thankfully he did not try to argue with Hartley about lying to law enforcement.
(Joe, however, did try to argue the point. But he shut up when Cecile elbowed him hard and pointed out that Joe was really just upset because Hartley managed what Joe couldn't: getting Barry out from under arrest legally... mostly legally.)
DeVoe should count it as a win. He's got his new body and while he couldn't keep the Flash in jail long, he'd managed to ruin the man's credibility as Barry Allen. Despite having three people backing up his alibi, the Mayor had pointedly requested that Barry be suspended until the murder of Clifford DeVoe was solved. Captain Singh hadn't much choice in the matter.
(Though Singh was apparently rebranding the Anti-Meta Task Force into the Meta Related Crimes Unit, which was an interesting choice. Not a total fix for the discrimination lawsuit looming in the CCPD's future, but it was a step in the right direction. DeVoe hadn't seen it coming at all.)
But Hartley Rathaway was still causing unexpected problems. Giving the alibi wasn't unexpected, but the speed at which he'd located Barry the day before was. And DeVoe wasn't thrilled to have evidence that his power siphon did not work on Rathaway despite the young man possessing the bus meta gene sequence. The gene activated in his initial exposure to dark matter really was protecting him from the worst side-effects of his device and had caused it to overload, preventing DeVoe from draining Mina Chayton's powers and spoiling his intent to leave the young woman as a dead tribute to the Flash's ultimate powerlessness.
It wasn't all bad, however. DeVoe just needed a new pretext to have the Flash present when Amunet's mole at the jail attempted to move the metas out of confinement to sell on the black market. Once DeVoe possessed Becky Sharpe's powers, it would be child's play to reorder probability in his own favor to snap up the rest of the bus metas' powers. And it would demoralize the Flash, leading him to make more mistakes that would play out in DeVoe's favor.
And the fake Harrison Wells' own version of the Thinking Cap would soon be ready and waiting for DeVoe to exploit...
Now that he's dating Cisco, Hartley's stopping by STAR Labs more often. And he's walked into some really weird situations on occasion, but...
Cisco's currently tinier than a Barbie doll.
"Awwww, I mean you were already so short, but now you're adorable," Hartley cooed to his boyfriend, getting amused looks from Joe, Iris, Caitlin, and Harry. And more irritated looks from Cisco himself and his fellow shrunken super heroes, Barry and Ralph.
"It's like you want to be sleeping on the couch forever," Cisco muttered grouchily, crossing his arms and pouting.
Hartley just snickered and resisted the urge to play with Cisco's hair. "So, how are we fixing this? And are you guys going to be needing me to reprise the Pied Piper for any of it?"
"It'd probably help," Caitlin admitted.
Every single bus meta in prison escapes only to be killed by DeVoe. And Barry's beating himself up for not being able to save any of them.
Cisco want's to comfort his friend. He really does. But all he can think about is Hartley, Ralph, and Mina. They're not safe. As long as DeVoe is jumping bodies and stealing powers from the bus metas... they're not safe.
He slinks away to call Lisa. "DeVoe wants to steal her powers. If she's lucky it'll just kill her. If she's not lucky, DeVoe will take over her body and use it for his own," Cisco warns her. "Get Mina out of Central now."
"We're gone," Lisa promised. "Be careful, Cisco. Should I be taking Hartley with me?"
Cisco want's to say yes. "It's his decision," he finally says. "Ralph might want to go with. You two head out now anyway. I can always breach them to you if... that's what they decide."
"Ralph's irritating, but we'll take him if he wants that," Lisa promised.
(She calls again, the following morning, on her way to Texas with Mina. Plenty of stolen Native American artifacts for them to liberate along the way. Neither Hartley nor Ralph are willing to join them, but the offer stands if they change their minds.)
Hartley refusing to run is their first big fight as a couple.
"He already tried that on me, I think," Hartley said quietly, after their shouting at each other had petered out. "It's what shorted out my choker."
"And now he's perfected it, so next time..." Cisco fears made his hands tremble. He couldn't lose Hartley...
"Except I'm different from the other bus metas," Hartley pointed out. "I have two different meta abilities from two different genetic triggers."
Cisco's brain sees the connection Hartley's drawing. "You think the device is keyed to the bus meta gene sequence and your primary meta genes are interfering as a result."
Hartley nodded. "Dark matter... dark energy, they're just catch all terms for potentially billions of types of matter and energy we still can't quantify, much less name. My first meta ability was triggered by a high concentration of one type; my second ability by a different type of energy. Meaning I not only have two abilities, but two kinds of dark energy hanging around in my body. If we can isolate the first type, maybe was can use it as an... inoculation of sorts, to protect other bus metas like Ralph and Mina."
"We can't prove that's what protected you, though," Cisco objected. "It might've just been that his device malfunctioned."
"But it doesn't hurt to try," Hartley insisted. "And if I'm right, we've got everything to gain."
They isolate the two different kinds of dark energy in Hartley's system... just not in time to save Izzy.
But Caitlin and Cisco come up with devices that should simulate a 'secondary' meta ability, cycling the second type of dark energy through Ralph and Mina's systems safely. Without the gene to interact with, at these low levels it's harmless. And Ralph
Cisco breaches one device to Mina after the first one is successfully tested on Ralph. There's no guarantee it'll protect them from DeVoe. They haven't had a chance to test that aspect of it yet. And it'll probably be a one shot protection too, meaning that if DeVoe tries to drain or possess them it'll overload. If they're lucky it'll cause DeVoe's tech to overload again too. If not, it'll leave DeVoe open to try again.
Cisco worries it won't be enough. Because if it wasn't Hartley's original meta ability protecting him then it was the control choker for his vocal powers and DeVoe would have worked around that design flaw by now...
They lose another bus meta to DeVoe - Janet Petty. And maybe it's callous of Hartley, but... he's not really worried about what that means for himself like he probably should be. Like Ralph clearly is. (Mina is in Texas raiding museums with Lisa and having the time of her life. She's not afraid of anything right now.)
So while everyone else quietly panics and makes resolutions to do better, Hartley goes sticking his nose where it doesn't belong and finds...
A Thinking Cap.
Ooooh, not good.
He spends a while trawling through the schematics and what little data Harry's collected on it's effects before heading back into the cortex to join the others. Once there, Hartley lets out a piercing whistle. "So, who's incredibly moronic idea was it to recreate the Thinker's Thinking Cap?" He assumes it's Harry, but sometimes you just have to ask the question with the obvious answer.
Harry naturally launches into a defense of his 'brain booster'.
"You know," Hartley says, rocking back on his heels, "explaining stupid ideas with scientific terminology doesn't make it any less stupid. Clifford DeVoe burned out his original body and every single one he's stolen since because he fucked up his brain with the Thinking Cap 1.0. Considering that he amped up his scientific and logic abilities at the clear expense of his ability to experience emotions or even the lowest levels of compassion for others, I'm at a loss to understand why someone as intelligent as you are would choose to burn out his own brain in this way. And already possessing the emotional capacity of a teaspoon isn't an excuse."
Harry started ranting about DeVoe again. Hartley just let out another ear piercing whistle.
"Thank you," he said into the quiet. "I wasn't done explaining how you're an idiot yet. Now, have you been at least allowing for Caitlin to monitor your use of that thing? Scanning your brain before, during, and after to ensure there are no dangerous after affects or unexpected symptoms? You know, handling experimenting on your own brain in at least a marginally healthy way?"
There's silence. Pretty much everyone except Harry is looking looking guilty at overlooking the most basic of precautions when going forward with literal human experimentation.
"I will grant that in theory it's an interesting concept. But it really should have stayed theoretical. There's a reason Star Trek has episodes that are cautionary tales against this sort of hubris. The idea that wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure is a fallacy. DeVoe himself is a cautionary tale of what happens when you make someone so intelligent that everyone else seems about as smart as a rock to them. Intelligence is nothing without wisdom and compassion to balance it out and I can guarantee you that little hat of yours doesn't bestow either. But after looking at it's schematics, I can guess at something else it does give you beyond a temporary boost to your IQ. It overstimulates the production of dopamine, probably so that you're not in pain from the worst migraine to end all migraines.
"Now, who can tell me what one of the side effects of using something that artificially causes a person's dopamine to skyrocket? Caitlin, how about you since you're an actual MD?" He smirks as Caitlin grimaces at being put on the spot for failing to enforce any health checks on the Thinking Cap experiment.
Harry clearly sees where Hartley's going with this, however, because he moves to storm out. Hartley casually throws an arm out to block the doorway.
"You've been having mood swings, difficulty focusing, misplacing things, feeling paranoid and angrier than usual. You already deal with your anger by physically lashing out - throwing things, though at least you're usually careful not to hurt anyone or to throw things that will be missed if they break. But the way you're headed, pretty soon you will hurt someone - throwing things at a person instead of a wall, pushing, shoving... you don't generally strike me as someone who throws punches, but addiction often tosses all of that out the window. And if it's Cisco you hurt because your ego won't let you admit you're slowly killing yourself and hurting everyone who cares about you... you will not like how I respond. Try and remember, out of everyone in this room I'm the only person here who has gone full supervillain and really liked it." It's even the truth. Killer Frost may have gone supervillain too, but she'd hated herself the entire time. It was why Cisco's compassion finally got through to her.
Hartley, though... Hartley had enjoyed playing chess with people for pawns. And he shuddered to think of what he might've done had he not been forced into the position of saving Cisco and Caitlin's lives that day.
Dropping his arm, Hartley finally allowed Harry to storm out. "You all screwed up, by not telling him no. And being afraid of DeVoe doesn't excuse this. If anything? It just makes it worse."
"Alright, that's it. No more beer for you tonight, bae," Hartley says, taking Cisco's beer away and sticking it back in the fridge before Cisco could even pop the top.
"Hey! I was gonna drunk-drink that," Cisco complained, crossing his arms and pouting.
"You drink that beer and I'm going home," Hartley retorted frankly. Gentler, he asked, "you're feeling guilty about my little intervention with Team Flash over Harry, aren't you?"
Cisco nodded. He'd hated the Thinking Cap project from the start, but he'd hoped he could mitigate the worst of it. But he'd seen the changes in Harry's behavior. And Hartley was right... Harry was addicted to it. And Cisco had helped him build it. Helped build the thing that was frying his brain and making him too high to realize what was happening. And Cisco couldn't trust that Harry wasn't using Dark Energy despite his promises not to.
"Drinking yourself into an awful hangover isn't going to make you feel any better," Hartley told him, kissing Cisco's forehead. "Harry's a stubborn asshole and I have no doubt that the Thinking Cap is a hundred times safer because you worked on it than it would've been otherwise. And sometimes good friends make stupid mistakes. What upset me so much is that the whole team enabled this bullshit. Why didn't you reach out to me, Cisco? I'd have backed you up in putting a stop to this nonsense."
"I just..." Cisco looked down, his chest aching from all the guilt balled up in there. "You and Harry are a lot alike. I was afraid you'd want to use it too."
There's a long silence that Cisco doesn't know what to do with. It makes him feel worse. Like he's been a bad friend and a bad boyfriend and it's all his fault for not finding the right things to say to stop Harry from making the stupid Thinking Cap in the first place.
Finally, though, Hartley kisses Cisco's forehead. "I don't know my own limits sometimes. And I'm sorry that's made you worry about me so much and so often. But I promise, I know better than to experiment with my own brain. That's one thing you never have to worry about with me. Now let's get you some water to drink instead. I don't want you having to do a mad dash to worship the porcelain god in the morning."
Cisco grumbled but fetched a glass to stick under the tap anyway.
"I love you, Cisco," Hartley said quietly, watching him with a fond look.
Harry hurts Cisco. So Hartley feels totally justified hurting Harry in return.
He shatters the Thinking Cap with a sonic shriek and then uses Harry's own breach device to go to Earth-2.
A speedster shows up within seconds, demanding to know who Hartley is and though Hartley'd never met Jesse in person, he has no doubt of her identity. She sounds just as imperious as her father.
"I'm Hartley Rathaway. From Earth-1. And your father has gotten himself into a shit-ton of trouble." After all, the worst thing Hartley could do to Harry was let his daughter see him like this.
"Aren't you even a little scared of DeVoe?" Ralph asked.
Hartley shrugged. "Honestly? Yeah. I'm really, really terrified of dying, but quite frankly it's how my death would affect other people that scares me the most. Because if he kills me, then that's another loved one Cisco's lost and he's lost way too many in the last few years. It'll mean that not only will my sister have to grieve for me but when Jerrie graduates college, she won't have a safe place to fall back on to get away from our shitty parents. It'll mean that my coworkers will likely throw a 'thank god he's dead' party Munchkinland style and I don't want to give them the satisfaction.
"But there are worse things to fear than my death. I'm afraid that DeVoe will hurt the people I love most to get to me. I'm afraid that I'll screw up and hurt Cisco. I'm afraid of what our fear of DeVoe could turn us into. I've lost myself to fear and anger before, Ralph. And the worst part is that I liked it. I could have very easily been one of the bad guys instead of a good one and I am very aware of what lines I cannot cross and expect to come back from as a result."
Ralph shifts uncertainly and Hartley suspects that Ralph hasn't quite figured out what those lines are for himself yet. Hopefully he won't figure that out the same way Hartley did, looking into a mirror and realizing he didn't recognize the person staring back anymore. But sometimes a person has to slam face first into an unexpected hard boundary to realize all the lines they crossed to reach it and Hartley suspects that Ralph is a little like him in that respect. Hopefully with fewer speed force dementors involved, though. Hartley hated those things.
"Come on. I've got an idea that might make you a little less afraid."
DeVoe knew that in the end, Ralph Dibny would chose to be a hero. And that would be his undoing.
Or it should have been. But the moment DeVoe tried to use his technology to absorb the powers of the metas hiding in the STAR Labs pipeline... everything went wrong.
He'd utilized Petty's powers to destroy the devices meant to circulate the wrong sort of dark energy in the bus metas and that should have been enough to allow his own technology to work. To allow him to seize their powers and their bodies as his own. But the moment his hand touched Matthew Kim's face... it all went wrong.
It comes to him too late that the pipeline has been switched from it's normal power inhibiting field to one that outputs the exact form of Dark Energy that interferes with his tech's ability to absorb bus meta powers and transfer his consciousness to their bodies. They must have switched it to a back up system not connected to the main controls, as the Kilgore virus he'd implanted upon arrival hadn't affected the pipeline... which had just locked down behind him.
It's a trap.
"Over elaborate planning really is your Achilles heel," says the meta who shouldn't be there. Who was never supposed to be involved in the first place...
He'd disrupted DeVoe's plans for the last time. Using Petty's powers again to choke the life out of Hartley Rathaway, DeVoe is so focused on his rage that he doesn't realize that turning his back on Matthew Kim is a mistake until he feels the power to control gravity slip away.
Hartley collapses to the ground, panting for breath, and Iris West stretches out with her new powers for the first time... flicking her fingers to send DeVoe flying into a wall hard enough to knock him unconscious.
"So I've only got the one set of powers," Iris said, sounding relieved. "DeVoe still has the rest of the stolen powers, but with his tech disabled and the dampening field enabled, he can't use any of them. Nice plan, Hartley."
Hartley sent her a thumbs up from where he was curled up in Cisco's arms. He had yet another new choker on, but Caitlin had made him promise not to talk for a while anyway. DeVoe had intended to crush his windpipe and he was lucky the man didn't get very far. Better not to strain anything unduly, though.
Both DeVoes were now guests in the pipeline, though they'd be transferred to Iron Heights soon enough. Though Clifford's current body was already showing signs of deterioration. His original body had lasted for so long after his brain's augmentation because it took so long for his increasing intelligence to grow enough to even start having negative effects on his body. The bodies he'd jumped to since then didn't get that adjustment period; thus Janet Petty's brain was burning out under the strain of Clifford's presence.
In a few weeks, Janet Petty's body would give out from the growing pressure in her skull. And DeVoe would die as more of a parasite than a person. What was that saying about the path to hell?
Marlize would live to stand trial. Her husband would not. Some of her crimes could be attributed to the fact that she'd been steadily drugged with Weeper's Tears for some time now. But not everything. She'd be spending quite a long time behind bars.
(Barry got his job back at the CCPD after Iris' write up hit the papers. Hartley was viciously pleased to hear that.)
Harry looks nervous and tired, drumming his fingers along the edge of the table in a way that reminds Cisco strongly of HR.
Maybe that antsy need for movement was what truly set Eobard Thawne apart as an obvious fake Wells. He'd been tightly controlled and ever so still. Both Harry and HR had a need to be in constant motion. Twirling drumsticks and waving hands...
"Are you okay?" Cisco asked, walking into his lab and setting the observation aside for the moment.
Harry shrugged. "You were right. Hartley was right. I... I nearly fried my brain." He wouldn't look Cisco in the eye. "And I hurt one of the only real friends I have. I shouldn't have shoved you, Ramon."
"You weren't well," Cisco said firmly, trying not to provide it as an excuse, but as an explanation. "If you're working on getting better, then it's already forgiven."
"I was damaging my brain," Harry admitted quietly. "The worst of it's been reversed, but... I think I've lost some things and I'm not sure yet what they are. And now the tables have flipped. Jesse's smothering me with the same overprotectiveness that I was driving her crazy with before she kicked me off Team Quick."
Cisco snorted in amusement. "I'm surprised she's not here with you."
"I may have snuck away while she was busy dealing with our Earth's version of the Trickster. Axel Walker, not James Jesse." Harry finally looked up at Cisco. "I used the Dark Energy. Even though I promised not to."
"Yeah... I figured you did," Cisco sighed, disappointment flooding him. He'd guessed, but... "Harry... why would you risk yourself like that?"
"Jesse didn't need me anymore and I felt like I wasn't really needed here either. I wanted... I wanted to be indispensable. And in the end you all defeated DeVoe without needing me here at all." Harry's face twisted with shame.
"You are indispensable," Cisco told him. "In all the multiverse, there is only one Harry Wells. You aren't taking HR's place any more than he took yours. And just like the world's worse off for his loss, we'd have been worse off for losing you. But we need you as all of yourself, not just your intellect."
"Like Rathaway said. A balance of wisdom and compassion. I really hate him sometimes," Harry complained.
Cisco laughed. "Yeah, he can be petty sometimes. I don't know if destroying the Thinking Cap and summoning your daughter's wrath was a totally justified response to you shoving me, but... I'm glad he did it because otherwise we'd have lost you. And we can't lose you, Harry."
Harry snorted softly. "Hartley's occasional pettiness is the most predictable thing about him and he still managed to take both me and DeVoe by surprise with it."
Smiling, Cisco shook his head. "We'd best never tell him that. So is this just a social call or are you coming back to stay?"
"Well..." Harry grabbed a random piece of tech to fiddle with, his hands clearly needing to stay busy. "I'd like to stay. Which is probably going to wind up as an argument between myself and Jesse first. So wish me luck. I'm going to need it."
Lisa and Mina don't come back until after DeVoe's final body is dead and gone. So it's early May when Hartley comes home to find the two ladies kissing on his couch after work one evening. He's pretty sure this confirms his theory that Lisa made a copy of his apartment key.
He doesn't even hesitate to smack them with a couch pillow. "Cisco and I are the only ones allowed to have a hot make out session on my couch," he informs them.
Mina just sticks her tongue out at him and then goes back to kissing Lisa with gusto.
With a long suffering sigh, Hartley goes to freshen up his guest room. Looks like he's got company, whether he likes it or not.
Notes: This is largely a fix-it because Hartley is opinionated, petty, and not above lying to the police... but also because DeVoe not wanting to re-evaluate his opinion that Hartley's largely irrelevant was a fun blind spot to give him. The assassination attempts were really nothing more than a way to distract the team so that DeVoe could finalize his plans for his first body snatching; ultimately DeVoe just didn't want to admit that he'd massively miscalculated because of the one thing that also bit Harry on the butt... hubris. :D
Of course, Hartley's got his own giant ego, but he's trying to be more self aware here.