Summary: Cisco debunks haunted houses in his free time for fun. And he's never run into anything he couldn't eventually explain before. But the kaleidoscope of light hovering in the room of his latest abandoned haunted house defies all explanation.

Notes: Hartmon Bingo Generic Card Prompt B3 - No Powers AU

Primeval (TV) fusion

Anomaly

Cisco frowned at the EMP meter.

He'd been investigating haunted houses for fun on and off since high school and never actually found anything genuinely haunted. Usually it was people who covered up the in floor heating vents and then freaked out be cause the room was cold. Or covered the air returns and wondered why they had to do air conditioner maintenance twice as often. Rattling pipes that rattled because... they were old and needed replacing because they were nearly rusted through. Bad wiring in the walls covered up by electricians wanting to get paid without doing the full job.

But this... this weird. His EMP meter, pretty useful for identifying crappy aluminum in the walls from the sixties, was going off the charts and making little buzzing noises, like one of the gimmicky meters from a bad ghost finder 'reality' show. Cisco flipped it off so it didn't break itself, because the device - which he'd built (and rebuilt a few times) - was definitely not supposed to be making those noises.

With the EMP meter off, Cisco could hear a faint buzzing from the next room over.

Carefully, he made his way across the rotting floor. He was on the second floor of the abandoned house, checking out reports of a ghostly apparition. Probably an old curtain fluttering in a window or an old radio that was still plugged in and glitching. But it would be fun to find out.

Except... there was a glow of light under the doorway and the buzzing was getting louder... could be someone squatting. He'd run into that a few times; usually he'd just apologize and leave.

In this case, he'd probably advise whoever was squatting to go somewhere safer. Like the Freespace shelter down the road. Or one of the one story houses on the mostly abandoned block at the very least. Someplace where they weren't likely to fall to their death if the wrong board gave way.

Poking open the door, Cisco froze, eyes going wide. And then he pulled out his phone to record what he was seeing because...

It was beautiful.

There were... what looked like shards of light fluctuating in the air, as if bouncing between a controlled explosion and implosion, casting gorgeous ripples of light cascading around the room in eye catching fractal patterns.

"Oh my god," Cisco muttered, phone up in front of him and eyes wide in shock.

He took a step forward without even a thought only to gasp and stumble back as the light collapsed in on itself. The humming noise increased until the light became a single point, the both the light and sound vanished altogether.

"What the hell was that?" Cisco breathed out.

Cisco investigated the entire room for holographic projectors, light projectors, anything to explain what he'd seen. It had to be a hoax of some kind, but... how?

He'd gone home in the wee hours of the morning and been absolutely miserable at work the next morning. Exhausted with no answers was not a good way to start the day.

Somehow he managed to make it through the day without passing out at his keyboard and then went straight back to the 'haunted' house after work ended, detouring only to pick up some fast food. Cisco had to know how that hologram had been produced.

It'd make an amazing blog post, if he can figure out out.

Only, when Cisco gets to the house he isn't the only one there. There's a cute guy prowling around the outside with what looks like his own EMP meter and scowling at the readings.

"You here looking into the rumors about the apparition too?" Cisco asked, grinning a touch impishly when cute guy startles and trips, catching himself against the brick.

Cute guy glowers at him. "The rumors about the what? No. I'm not some idiot ghost hunter."

"I run a blog debunking hauntings," Cisco responds, a touch archly. "And considering the state the house is in, there's no reason for you to be here unless you're either looking into the rumors too... or you're the one who installed the holographic projector in the upstairs room." Could be this guy was the cause of the hoax, and wouldn't that be convenient?

"Holographic projector?" And, wow, that was a very intense stare.

"I can't think of any other explanation for what I saw last night," Cisco admitted. Hesitantly, he pulled out his phone and showed the other man the recording he took the night before. "I've never seen anything like it, but I work in holo technology and that's the only thing I can think of that would come even close."

"That isn't a hologram," the man said, reluctantly handing back the phone. "Will you show me where you took that recording?"

"Sure. I'm Cisco," he said, taking back his phone and offering a handshake.

"Hartley."

Cisco led Hartley back to the room upstairs, cautioning the other man about rotted flooring and making a joke about ghosts making the floor squeak being some of the easiest supernatural occurrences to debunk. It fell flat, unfortunately, and Hartley looked a lot less cute when he was being unnecessarily judgy.

Jerk.

They reached the room and Cisco popped the door open. "In here. The... whatever it was. It appeared to have center right about... here." Cisco gestured right about where he remembered the light collapsing in on itself.

Hartley nodded. "Thanks, I can take it from here." And he started waving a scanner around that, in retrospect, was not an EMP meter.

"Take what from here," Cisco muttered under his breath, more than a little offended at this point. Which was he heard... humming. And, instinctively, lunged forward to grab Hartley by the arm to drag him back.

"What the hell?" Hartley demanded, stumbling back and knocking them both on their asses just as... light exploded around them and the world fractured to create the same fractal patterns Cisco had seen the night before.

"It was humming," Cisco told him quietly. "It made a humming noise last night and when I heard it again..."

"Thanks..." Hartley said, sounding awed as the light reflected off his glasses from the... kaleidoscope of light above them. "Holy shit, they're real."

"What is it?" Cisco asked.

"Some kind of anomaly. Supposedly... supposedly if you walk through one, it takes you to the past. Or the future. My boss, Harrison Wells, disappeared into one that appeared in STAR Labs a few months ago. I've been trying to find out what happened to him and now... they're real..." Hartley scrambled to his feet. "I'm going through."

"What?!" Cisco got back up, slower, more cautious. "That's... that's nuts. Hartley, don't..."

But the other man had already walked into the light... and vanished.

"Well shit," Cisco managed not to shout the words, but seriously. What the fuck?

He should leave. He doesn't even know Hartley's last name and the guy is none of Cisco's business, not really. But if something happened to the guy... and Cisco would never know. he wouldn't be able to live with himself if...

"Dammit," Cisco strode forward into the light. And walked out into a field. Hartley standing amongst the flowers, wreathed in sunlight in front of him. "If the anomalies can lead to the past or the present, then this could be the wrong time and place entirely," Cisco spoke up.

"You really need to stop sneaking up on me. And why are you here?" Hartley demanded.

Cisco gave him a blank stare. "It was a time travel portal. Why wouldn't I follow you through it?"

"That's fair," Hartley conceded after a long moment. "And... you're right. This is probably the wrong place and time, but I... I had to see for myself. That the anomalies really do lead somewhere else."

The humming behind Cisco was steady, but there was no telling how long that'd last. "When the anomaly destabilized last night, it got louder and started fluctuating. We need to be back through before it collapses or we'll be stuck here."

"Right." Hartley sighed and plucked one of the flowers, then headed back towards Cisco. "I'm not really interested in sight seeing. Maybe if I can id the flower, it'll tell me where, and when, this anomaly opens to."

"And the more you learn about the anomalies, the more likely you'll be able to find one to rescue your boss. Maybe reopen the one he disappeared through?" Cisco asked.

"Exactly."

"He must mean a lot to you. Most people wouldn't go this far for their boss."

Hartley blushed and ducked his head and... Cisco couldn't help but wonder. And maybe feel a little jealous.

"There was... we were supposed to go on a date. That Friday. But he disappeared instead."

And, yeah, that was disappointment that Cisco felt flickering in his chest. But he smiled anyway. "I'm sorry. I hope you find him."

They walked back through the anomaly into the dark, abandoned house together. Moments later, the humming started to intensify and they watched in awe... and a little terror as the anomaly expanded and contracted for several moments before collapsing again. They were left in the dark of the house's shadows, the setting sun in the distance.

Hartley twirled the flower wistfully.

"You know..." Cisco offered, "I've got this friend. Caitlin. She's a botanist. She might be able to identify the flower for you."

A cautious smile crept slowly onto Hartley's face, lighting him right up. "Thank you."

Notes: I may have to revisit this one at some point. :)