Fallout

I don't own the Flash!

Previously

Caitlin attached the Quantum Splicer to Ronnie's chest, as she backed away it engaged. The man's hands and head burst into flames almost immediately quickly followed by the rest of his body.

"It's not working!" Caitlin cried.

Barry grabbed Caitlin and tried to pull the frantic doctor away from the burning man.

"No! No!" She cried.

"Caitlin, Phoenix, we have to go." Barry tried to reason with them.

"No. Get Caitlin out of here. I can survive the blast. I'm staying." Phoenix said stubbornly.

"Fine!" Barry grabbed Caitlin and ran away.

Phoenix pulled off her mask and grabbed the Professor in a tight hug. She whispered softly to him "Shh, everything's gonna be okay. It'll be okay."

Then the fire receded into his body. For a moment Bella thought the whole thing was over. But then a massive explosion rocked the ground beneath her feet. She was blown backwards into a tree, with such force that it was knocked clean over. Bella fell unconscious still without her mask.

The blast knocked Barry and Caitlin over. Over the comms Dr. Wells and Cisco were calling their friends names asking what happened and if they were okay.

Barry groaned and asked Caitlin "Are you okay?"

"I think so." She mumbled.

"I think we're okay." Barry told their friends "But, guys, Phoenix stayed with Professor Stein. She wouldn't leave him. She said she could survive a nuclear explosion. And she's not here."

Ash fell slowly and Caitlin looked up to see the rising mushroom cloud. She gasped "Oh, God. The nuclear explosion. There's no telling how much radiation we were exposed to."

"Wait-wait, wait, wait, wait, this can't be." Cisco spoke into the comms "The Geiger counter in the suit- it's reading less than one millirad."

"But that's normal." Barry was confused.

"There's no radiation." Wells observed "Phoenix might be okay. But Barry, you have to find her fast."

"Let's go." And Barry lifted Caitlin up and ran back towards the site of the explosion.

They quickly arrived at a pit where Ronnie/Stein had exploded. Caitlin slowly picked her way down the slope with Barry close on her heels.

"Did it work?" Cisco asked "Did you separate them?"

"I don't know." Barry told him.

In the mist Caitlin saw something. She hurried forwards and saw the lifeless body of Ronnie. Then he moved his head.

"Ronnie?" She asked and ran forward to kneel beside him "Tell me your name."

Reaching up to caress her cheek the man on the ground smiled "Ronnie Raymond." They kissed and he mumbled "Cait. It's me."

Professor Stein stumbled up to the small group "Uh, pardon me. Obviously I need a change of clothes."

"Nice to see you in the flesh again, Professor Stein." Barry called.

As Ronnie sat up he made eye contact with the Professor. Suddenly they gasped "Where's Phoenix?"

"She was here!" Stein exclaimed "Where is she?"

"I don't know, but we're gonna find her don't worry." Barry tried to assure the nuclear pair and he sped off to search the surrounding area.

Trapped beneath a fallen tree, Bella woke up and shook herself back to consciousness. "Crap." She muttered and tried to push the tree off herself. It wouldn't budge. She tried for several minutes before she sighed and set her hands afire. She pressed them into the trunk of her fallen cage and burned it away.

She stood up and brushed herself off, getting rid of the burning bark clinging to her suit. She heard Barry run up behind her and, not thinking, turned around.

"Bella?" Barry stumbled back at the sight of his sister's face.

Bella turned away quickly, cursing her stupidity.

"Bella? How- how are you...? Why are you...? What are you doing here?" Barry yelled.

"Um," Bella sighed "Fine. You caught me. I'm Phoenix. I'm sorry I didn't tell you Barry, but, look at how you're reacting. If I had told you before you would have had me locked up. I wanted to show you I could take care of myself before I told you."

Barry grabbed her and ran them back to STAR Labs. Caitlin was already back with Stein and Ronnie.

"Caitlin, check her over." Barry ordered "Then she's not to leave without me or Joe. If she does, then she goes in the pipeline."

"Barry!" Bella yelled then winced at the pain she felt in her side.

"Broken ribs." Caitlin quickly assessed "So your Phoenix? Bella, how?"

"Long, long story." Bella groaned and Caitlin set about trying to fix her ribs but Bella pushed her away "I'll be fine. I heal fast, remember?"

"Faster than Barry, I know." Caitlin said "But I need to set your ribs."

"Fine. But only because I know Barry will go crazy if you don't."

When Caitlin was finished checking Bella over Barry came back and pulled his little sister away.

"What the hell were you thinking?" He asked.

"What do you mean Barry?" Bella said coolly.

"Fighting? What made you think you could do this? You have no training, no experience. What could you possibly have been thinking?" Barry yelled.

"No training? Barry, I've been doing this for almost a year more than you. I've worked with Batman. I've helped put away almost every bad guy in Gotham. You can't say that I have no training or experience." Bella cried.

"But-but-But..." Barry spluttered in indignation "It doesn't matter. Come on." And he dragged her down to the pipeline and gently pushed her into a cell.

"Barry!" She screamed "Let me out!"

"Not until you realize that what you're doing is way to dangerous and you promise to stop." Barry turned away and walked off.

Bella screeched "Barry!" She put herself afire and blasted the door again and again before slumping to the ground with tears streaming down her face. She would not be able to forgive this for a long, long time.

She lay there for a long time, several days, or maybe a few hours until someone brought her cell forward to the door. Dr. Wells was before her.

"It's Professor Stein." He told her as he pressed the button to release her "He's been kidnapped... and we need your help."

"Where?" She yelled and blasted forward, flying towards the cortex "BARTHOLOMEW HENRY ALLEN!" She screamed, blazing into the room "Who the hell do you think you are? Why did you do that? In what possible universe did you think it was a good idea?"

Barry glared at Dr. Wells, who had rolled in behind her, "You let her out?"

"I had no choice." Dr. Wells sighed "She knows more than we do. She knows Professor Stein better than anyone, she trained him and Mr. Raymond, she knows how he thinks and may be able to find him faster than all of us combined."

"Fine." Barry grumbled "But after we find him you're going back in the pipeline."

"We'll discuss that later Barry." Bella growled "Because it's not going to happen. Now how did Professor Stein get kidnapped?"

"We don't know," Caitlin admitted "it started with Ronnie and I getting attacked at Jitters. General Eiling found him. Barry saved him but got attacked by some kind of freaky needle things before I got them out of there. Anyways when we got back Professor Stein was here and we figured out that he and Ronnie were still inside each other."

"I'm telling you there is a better way to phrase that." Cisco groaned.

"Anyways," Caitlin rolled her eyes "Barry offered that Ronnie and I could stay at his and Joe's place. Next thing we know Eiling burst in here and took Stein."

"Great." Bella sighed "I've gone up against him before. Real ass. And by all of your reactions I can guess that he's just as much of one in Central City as he is in Gotham."

"I'm sure you're right Miss Allen. But right now we have bigger issues." Dr. Wells said " We can assume that Eiling took the the Professor to some off the books research facility."

"We have to get him back." Barry sighed.

"Easy-" Dr. wells tried to calm the scarlet speedster "Eiling has already demonstrated he has the weaponry to disable The Flash, or worse."

Bella's mind was moving a mile a minute, "Right... he's figured out how to stop you Barry, but not me. I can go in and find the Professor."

"How would you get into the facility?" Cisco asked.

"Let's just say, I know a guy." Bella pulled out her phone and stepped into the hallway.

While she was making her call Caitlin said "Well, we can't let him turn Stein into a weapon."

"How do we find him?" Ronnie asked. Suddenly everyone turned to look at him. "What?" He asked as Caitlin pulled him into the lab.

Meanwhile Bella called Bruce. "Hey Bruce." She sighed.

"Bella!" He sounded surprised "What's going on? Are you alright?"

"No. But I can deal with it. For now I need your help. Your remember our old friend, General Eiling? Right?"

"How could I forget." Bruce groaned "What's he done now?"

"He's kidnapped a friend of mine. I need to get into the facility he's being kept in and get him out."

"On it." Bruce said and Bella heard the clacking of a keyboard "I'm sending you the address now. You can handle it from here?"

"You know it." Bella grinned "Thanks Bruce, you're the best."

"You're welcome. And hey, if you ever need anything just activate the panic chip." Bruce ordered.

"I promise, I will. Thanks again. Bye."

"Bye."

Bella got the address and quickly flew to the secret facility changing on the way into a black floaty top, a charcoal grey skirt, and knee high black boots with a black purse holding her disguise.

When she arrived at the facility she quickly entered and found the chamber holding Professor Stein.

"It's freezing in here." The Professor complained.

"My apologies. It should warm up pretty quick." Eiling said as he turned down the temperature.

Stein shivered "I know what you want."

"Oh, I don't think you do." Bella said walking down the stairs to the icy room, she stayed behind Stein so he couldn't recognize her and used a French accent to disguise her voice. "Veronica Smith, General. I believe you requested my assistance in, shall we say, persuasion?"

"No, but it would be appreciated Miss Smith." Eiling granted the hero a rare smile.

"My research was never intended to be used as a weapon." Stein insisted.

"I joined the military when I was 20 years old, Professor." Eiling recalled "My father had me convinced that our greatest threat was the Soviets. Our greatest fear- nuclear war. Then came terrorism and Ebola."

"And now, it's the age of Firestorm." Bella, as Veronica, finished.

"Correct Miss Smith. Soldiers enhanced by your project, Professor. Soldiers who can generate energy blasts with their bare hands. Soldiers who can fly." Eiling imagined

"I would gladly die before I see my life's work perverted in this way." Stein threatened.

"You will feel differently when I'm done with you, Professor." Bella warned him "I'll need the room General."

"Certainly Miss Smith." Eiling agreed "Let me know the moment you have something."

"Of course." Bella told the General as he left, then, once she was sure he was gone, she stepped forward into the light. "It's going to be okay Professor. I promise."

"Miss Allen!?" Stein gasped "What-? How-?"

"Later. I'm here to help you." Bella set to work freeing his hands.

"What are you doing?" Eiling's voice echoed through the chamber.

"All part of the technique, my dear General." Bella slipped back into her Veronica persona. "You must gain the trust of the victim before breaking them down, layer by layer, until they've told you everything, wishing for the pain to stop." She said quietly so Stein could not hear.

"Clever. Very clever. But I think I'll stick to the old fashioned way." Eiling beckoned forward another man, who showed off an electrical weapon. "It's faster."

And the man jabbed the electric stick into Bella's chest, sending hundreds of bolts of electricity straight to her heart. Bella fell to the ground with a thud and was dragged away by more soldiers.

"Last time I did that was to a gorilla." The torturer stabbed the weapon into Stein's chest causing him to scream.

Back at STAR Labs Ronnie arched on the bed in pain, screaming.

Cisco ran up to him "It's okay man, we got you."

"What's happening to him?" Barry asked.

"Nothing's happening to him. It's happening to Stein, and Ronnie is feeling his pain. I was wrong. The connection's not temporary. It's only getting stronger." Dr. Wells realized.

"Water. Water." Ronnie begged. Caitlin passed him a glass which he promptly broke on the table beside him. Ronnie started to cut into his own arm a single word, "WHERE."

Inside the prison, Stein felt a sharp stinging on his forearm. He rolled up his sleeve to find the word etched into his skin. Thinking quickly he began to tap his wrist on the cold, metal arm of his chair. Meanwhile Bella was locked in the cell next door and chained to the ceiling.

She rolled her eyes "I'll get out of here you know, and you will never know who I am."

"Oh yes we will, Missy. You see, we find out everything. And you, will make an excellent addition to our Metahuman team." Eiling told his prisoner.

"Like if ever join any team of yours."

"You'll see, we can be very... persuasive." Eiling waved forward another soldier "Convince her." He ordered and left.

The soldier used a burning iron to cut into her skin leaving a long ugly scar on her back. But Bella barely winced. This went on for several minutes before the torturer picked up a scalpel and began to carve swirling, beautiful patterns into her back. When he had completed one flowering part he moved on to another.

Suddenly Eiling stormed back in and saw the damage to his newest pet meta. "You idiot!" He roared "You might have killed her!"

"I'm sorry, Sir. But she wasn't responding to any other kind of persuasion." The soldier trembled.

"We are not animals. We do not carve our people limb from limb." Eiling commanded "Take her to the med-bay."

The soldier unchained Bella's limp body and carried her towards the medical center. Suddenly she jolted out of his arms and rolled away. Shooting the guard with a blast of fire she shakily stood up, clutching her side. She groaned as she stumbled her way outside. Bella knew she couldn't go back to STAR Labs and there was no way she could make it all the way to Gotham by herself. She had only one option. She headed for Iris and Eddie's house.

Word count: 2486 words

Wow! I'm sorry it's been a while. I've been going through some stuff. Two people from my school have recently killed themselves and I'm on the closing weekend of my school musical. In other words, it's been a long couple of months. Please forgive my slow updates and don't forget to comment, vote, and add to your reading lists!

Love,

The Author