Hello everyone, I'm back with another chapter. I'm sorry about the long wait for an update. This chapter stumped me a little. But I hope you all will enjoy it. I wanted this next chapter to be a little lighter hearted since my first two were more serious. This chapter will be focused on the team after (4x02) and discussing about Barry's suit.
All characters, story plot lines to the writers, producers of The Flash and The CW. The inspiration of the tech belongs to the writers of The Flash comics. I do not own the rights to any of them just the idea is my own.
Feel free to write a review on your thoughts.
P.S. What were your guys' thoughts on the recent episode (4x18). It was such an emotional rollercoaster for me.
Chapter 3: How Much Tech Did You Put In This Suit?
Caitlin sat down at her desk chair with a heavy relieved sigh. Today had been a long day for Team Flash at Star Labs. Kilg%re really gave the team a scare for a moment there and Caitlin wanted to triple check that all of Barry's medical test results came back with no significant findings. It was close to 1 in the morning, but Caitlin knew she wouldn't be able to sleep if she didn't finish this first. She sat in front of her computer sipping a cup of hot chamomile tea waiting for the test results to process while letting her train of thought loose. Barry had almost died today, as ridiculous as the situation was with his suit malfunctioning and almost exploding. Nobody on the team really mentioned the severity of the situation. Guess Caitlin should be used to it by now, with the amount of times she had to patch Barry up after each mission. Her thoughts were disrupted by a bell ding indicating the completion of the test results. All test results indicated Barry was in good shape with no lasting consequences from tonight's mission. Caitlin smiled, relieved with the results and was ready to head home. She quickly finished off the last of her tea and the last remains of her strawberry Jell-O.
"Hey, what are you still doing here?" Cisco's voice echoed from the entrance of the Cortex. Cisco waltzed into the Cortex carrying a tux in one hand.
"I'm just checking over Barry's vitals. How was your date with Gypsy? You out of the doghouse?" Caitlin asked as she smirked.
"My God Caitlin, that was probably the best date of my life. I could die right now, and I would die a happy man. Man, she's amazing, do I have the best girlfriend or what? She's smart, funny and not to mention a badass. And ohhhh, she's gorgeous and so sexy. When we…" Cisco said excitingly.
"Woah, woah, woah…. I do not need to hear about your sex life, eww…. Please spare me the details." Caitlin interrupted as she placed her hands over her ears.
"Come on Caitlin, I listened to you when you talked about Ronnie." Cisco complained.
"Well I didn't go over the fine details on what made Ronnie sexy, I can tell you now if you want to hear all about it." Caitlin responded.
"Fine…. killjoy." Cisco muttered quietly. "Where's Barry when you need him?"
"Anyway, where's Gypsy?" questioned Caitlin.
"Her dad called her back, said there was some big criminal on the loose or something. So, since I have officially been cockblocked, I thought I might as well as work on Barry's suit." said Cisco.
"You know sooner or later, you're going to have to tell Gypsy about your relationship with that suit." Caitlin teased.
"Hahaha you're so funny." Cisco said sarcastically. "Gypsy will never separate me from my beloved." Cisco said as he embraced Barry's suit. Caitlin rolled her eyes at Cisco's antics.
"Well I'll let you get started at deconstructing your beloved of all the tech you put into it." Caitlin said as she began to head towards the Cortex exit.
"Man, do I have to? I mean it's like a sin for me to do that. To betray my roots like that is just wrong. I can just fix the tech and make it better." Cisco tried to explain.
"Cisco, you know Barry is fine as The Flash without the tech. Plus, you heard what Iris said, no tech." Caitlin replied.
"Iris is not the boss of me, she can not contain the engineer in me." Cisco crossed his arms in efforts of trying to take a stand. Cisco began to grin "Do you want to help me with the upgrades?"
"Cisco... I don't know…" Caitlin began.
"C'mon, I know you're interested in this kind of stuff as much as me. Besides, the oxygen tank is a really good idea. You know you can't stop me, so you might as well help me to make Barry's suit better."
Caitlin thought about Cisco's statement. He was right. As much as Caitlin try to hide her opinions about technology. She really was a geek for this kind of stuff and it would be a lie if she said she hadn't thought up a couple of upgrades to add to Barry's suit. "Fine." Cisco grinned at that. "But on one condition."
"What?" Cisco motioned for Caitlin to continue.
Caitlin smirk widened. "I get to be the new voice for the suit."
Cisco's face paled "Caaaiitttliiin, but my voice is so soothing."
"That's my final bid, take it or leave it." Caitlin shrugged her shoulders.
"You play a tough game, Dr. Snow. Okay, I'll see what I can do." said Cisco.
Caitlin grinned as Cisco and herself made their way to the training lab.
Barry had just finish a city security check for any metahuman/criminal activity and was checking Star Labs when he heard a noise in the training lab. Who would be here at this hour? Did someone breach into Star Labs? No, Barry would have been signaled if that happened. Barry quickly ran over readying himself for a fight but was surprised to find the source of the noise being Caitlin and Cisco. Caitlin and Cisco were hunched over a table focusing on something and arguing over something.
"No Cisco, the schematics for that wouldn't work with the suit."
"Suit?" Barry asked in response to Caitlin's words, not realizing that he said his thoughts out loud.
Caitlin and Cisco flinched at the new voice echoing in the lab and both turned their heads towards the voice slowly. Both glanced at Barry with wide eyes. To Barry, his friends looked like two children being caught midway with their hands in a cookie jar.
"Ahh Barry, we didn't know… we were…why are you…?" Barry watched amusingly as Caitlin stumbled over her words.
"Yes, go on." Barry said as he waited for a response.
"…Okay don't get mad but Cisco and I were working on your suit." Caitlin said sheepishly as she traced her finger on the table avoiding Barry's eyes.
Barry's eyes widened. "Working on my suit? Like adding more to it?"
Caitlin and Cisco silence answered Barry's question.
"Guys, you heard what Iris said about having no tech with the suit. Plus, I don't need it. Did you all already forgot that I almost died tonight." said Barry.
"We can't help it man, we're inventors. This is what we do. It was my bad for tonight but now I know we can make the suit better. We'll be more prepared next time so that tonight won't repeat itself." Cisco tried to reason with Barry. "Plus, it's not entirely my fault. You didn't read my manual." Cisco added quietly.
Barry ran his hand through his hair to hide his embarrassment at Cisco's last statement. "But what if we run into someone who has powers like Deacon? We already ran into a lot of metahumans who use soundwaves to fight. There can always be a chance for another Kilg%re."
"As if I would ever give two people the same nickname." Cisco replied as Barry glared at his response.
"Barry, Cisco and I already thought about that and Cisco will create two suits. One that won't have any tech and one that will have tech just in case. We also thought of putting a fail safe into the suit that will be connected to Star Labs. By looking at the schematics of how Kilg%re controlled you, we were able to fabricate an opposing action against it. If you ever lose control over your suit due to the technology, we can automatically turn off that control here in Star Labs." Caitlin explained to Barry hoping to ease some of Barry's concerns.
"I don't know guys, it seems too risky."
"Okay, I guess we can forget about the rockets…" Cisco muttered with a sly grin as he turned away from Barry.
Barry's eyebrows rose. "Rockets?" Barry tried to feign disinterest but failed greatly.
Cisco smirked. He knew his best friend super well and knew that Barry wouldn't be able to resist the rockets. "Yeah rockets. Caitlin thought that with the amount of times you run up buildings, there could always be a chance that something happens that would cause you to freefall to your potential death. If there ever is a moment where you past an unintentional vertical drop, the suit will trigger tiny powerful rockets that will aid you back to the ground. Also, with your command, the rockets can aid you with flight to heights where your speed can't take you to."
Barry's imagination ran wild at the possibility of flying and how cool it would be to have that ability. He would never admit this out loud, but he was kind of jealous of Kara's ability to fly. "What other upgrades did you guys think of? Just wondering."
Cisco and Caitlin looked at one another. Trap set.
"Well, with the amount of energy your body requires due to your metabolism. For ever the off chance that you run out of that energy in the middle of a battle. I proposed a mechanism to ensure fast instant energy. Like how someone in a severe hypoglycemic stage would sometimes be given a juice box for quick glucose, this would be like a super concentrated energy shot." Caitlin exclaimed excitingly.
"I wanted to put a pocket in your suit to hold our crafted energy bars, but Caitlin didn't think it was practical."
"Excuse me for not thinking it would be cool to see Barry whip out a snack in the middle of a battle and what if Barry faints? How will he get his energy then?" Caitlin countered raising an eyebrow as if she was daring Cisco to come up with a response.
Cisco sighed with defeat. "Fine." Cisco crossed off pocket on the clear writing board next to the table.
Barry glanced at the clear writing board noticing that most of the previous tech that were included in his previous suit would still be included in the suit. He smiled when he noticed that flotation mode was crossed out and oxygen tank was written out beside it. "What's does SP stand for and what do you mean by ring?"
"Like you just said a couple of minutes ago, you do seem to face a lot of foes that have the power of sound at their disposal. So, using the Canary Cry collar I created for Laurel, I'm going to try to reverse engineer a soundproof shield for your ears that can match the power of that frequency. I'm probably going to consult Hartley about that. Now the ring is something that I'm the most excited about. Caitlin and I thought how tedious it is for you to come to Star Labs just to grab your suit. It seems more reasonable to have the suit with you for emergency situations, but you can't just wear it under your clothes all the time. So, we thought we can create an expandable suit that can compress to a miniature size when not needed. I got inspiration from my creation of Ralph's suit."
"The ring was my idea. It would be nice to have a place to store this suit but also be accessible for you. But it doesn't necessarily have to be a ring. It could be any accessory really." Caitlin quickly added.
"I like the ring, ooh we should add the emblem to it." said Barry.
"Wouldn't that be a little obvious if other people saw it?" questioned Caitlin.
"Barry could always play it off as merchandise he brought as a Flash fan." Cisco responded excited for the opportunity to create another one of his emblems.
Barry nodding eagerly. He took another glance at the board realizing that another change was made to the suit. "You took out the babel protocol?"
"After tonight, I really don't want that to be used against us again." Cisco explained.
"Leave it in." said Barry.
Caitlin shocked at Barry's response "Barry, what?!"
"Cisco was right, we did face an evil version of myself. Savitar will forever remain a part of me. The strength of my powers is immense and even if my intentions are not evil, we can never predict what can occur in the future. Who's to say we won't run into a meta in the future that can mind control me. I don't want someone to use these powers and play God against a city filled with the people I love."
The trio remained silent at Barry's words. He wasn't wrong.
Caitlin spoke up "I want a Babel Protocol placed as a part of my suit too."
Barry and Caitlin made eye contact. Barry understood the fears that Caitlin always had with Killer Frost because they matched his with Savitar. Frost is a member of the team now, but her history is not one to be taken likely.
"Well now I want to join the club." Cisco muttered.
"Cisco, you don't have to. You never had an …" Caitlin began before Cisco interrupted.
"Had an evil version of myself? You never met my doppelganger on Earth 2. He threatened to shatter your doppelganger's nervous system just for speaking against him." Cisco shuttered at the thought of Reverb. "All three of us can be Gods and that kind of power is wicked cool but insanely destructive as well."
"So, Babel for three?" asked Barry.
"You make it sound like a club or something." Caitlin teased.
"I'm down to be in the self-destructing club with you two any day." Cisco exclaimed placing his fist over his heart as though he was making a vow.
"Gosh, you're such a dork." Caitlin said as she laughed out loud.
"Come on guys, let's place our hands in a circle together and shout Team Flash." Cisco suggested as he placed his hand out.
Caitlin and Barry ignored the embarrassing cheesy notion made by Cisco and began to make their ways out the training lab together.
"Hey, wait, you can't just leave me hanging like this. That's not friendship!" Cisco shouted as he began to follow Caitlin and Barry.
Cisco words proving to be pointless as Barry and Caitlin began to discuss adding a different way to communicate to the suit other than the comms in case Barry needed to remain silent.
That's a wrap on this chapter. I hope you all like it.
-V