Cisco

October 16th, 2018

The team didn't really meet up again until two days later when yet another meta decided to make Central City their playground. It was just a simple take down, nothing to write home about. Even still, it was a momentous occasion since it was the first meta fought with full knowledge of Caitlin's heritage. At one point, Cisco and Caitlin were working on something without the rest of the team and he couldn't help himself but blurt out questions. Caitlin didn't seem to mind.

"What is the craziest spell you have ever cast?" he asked.

"I accidentally turned my dog pink with polka dots during my tenth birthday party," she said. "Not crazy in itself but we had a lot of explaining to do that day. Luckily, the other kids didn't seem to realize how unlikely it was that our dog liked to play paintball." Cisco laughed.

"What were you trying to do?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said chuckling. "It has been lost to time."

"Still, that doesn't seem so bad," he replied.

"It could have been worse," she said. "I was only level one at the time, I didn't have much control but I could also only cast simple spells. Level fives are where the problem is. They are on the cusp of learning more powerful spells but still don't have much skill. I haven't even made it that far though so I think we will be fine."

"What about your mom?" he asked. "You said she was a level seven."

"My mom is talented," she said. "She was a healer in the realm, here she is just a different kind of healer."

"Talented family," he snorted. Then something hit him. Family.

"Serious question," he said. Caitlin looked up from what she was doing to focus on him.

"What?" she asked.

"Did Ronnie know?" he asked after a moment. Caitlin didn't answer for a moment, like she was thinking.

"Ronnie knew," she said. "I told him when we got engaged. Normally, I would have waited until we got married but level three's don't usually set off alarm bells if it is one person and no spells. Plus, I thought it was worth the risk. Magic is an important part of who I am, I never wanted to hide it or distance myself from it. That's just the way it had to be." Cisco nodded.

"Yeah, I get that," he said. Caitlin smiled sadly before returning to her work.

"Uh, I'm gonna go check in with the rest of the team," Cisco said awkwardly. Caitlin nodded absentmindedly. He backed into the Cortex where Iris was scouring the news sites for info. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," she said, looking up. "You and Cait done?"

"No, not yet," he said. Iris gave a questioning glance. "There's not much more for me to do so I was asking questions about spellcasters and I needed a breather."

"Well, you're welcome to join me, the more the merrier," she said. Not much more headway was made that day. At least, not about spellcasters. They caught the meta but everyone else skirted awkwardly around Caitlin and Cisco just avoided her altogether. Everyone may have been okay with Caitlin's recent revelations but that doesn't mean they handled it well. The next few weeks were more of the same, sometimes someone would dare to ask a question or two but mostly they just ignored it. Cisco didn't know how Caitlin was handling it, she had been talking less and she seemed more tense than usual. Everyone was on edge.

November 9th, 2018

"Okay, who did it?" Cisco asked, marching into the cortex. He was pissed off.

"Did what?" Ralph asked. Caitlin popped her head out of the med lab and Barry and Iris exchanged glances.

"My equipment," he explained. "Someone's been messing with it. None of it is working."

"Are you sure there wasn't just a power outage or something?" Ralph asked.

"If that's what happened it would be more than my equipment that wouldn't be working," he explained. That's when the lights went out.

"What's going on?" came a call from the hall. The lights flickered back on when the generator kicked in and the team could see Cecile and Joe standing in the doorway. Cecile was holding baby Jenna. "We were going to stop by to say hi, what is going on with the lights?" Cecile asked.

"We're not sure yet, it's not any kind of power outage I've ever seen," Iris said. "In my experience, computers don't usually stay on when the rest of the world goes dark."

"Should we leave you guys to your mystery solving?" Joe asked. Jenna was squirming in Cecile's arms.

"I'm sure it will be fine for now," Iris said. "The generator is on, it was probably a fluke."

"I'll take a look around just in case," Cisco said. "You guys stay here and hang out." Then he turned to return to his lab, the area where he first noticed something was wrong. The generator had turned some of his equipment back on but not everything was directly connected to the STAR Labs power. There were battery powered items too that definitely were not working. It didn't make any sense, they didn't all die at once. He had a battery power tester, he popped them in to see if something was up. Every single battery showed no charge at all. That was very unlikely.

After that he ran to check the fuse box. He expected to find it blown but no such luck. The switches near the top were still active but most of the lower switches had gone dark. Again, very unlikely. Actually, it didn't even seem possible. He jogged back to the cortex to update everyone on the situation.

"Hey, did you find out the problem?" Iris asked upon seeing him.

"Not exactly," he said. "Every battery powered machine I have is dead and half of the circuit breaker is dark on the main circuit. The top half is fine. The rest of my equipment is working fine. It just doesn't make sense."

"Wait, even the battery powered stuff?" Barry asked. "That doesn't sound probable."

"Yeah, it sounds like the power just up and left everything," Ralph joked.

"Or maybe something took it," Caitlin piped up. She was white as a sheet and her eyes were big.

"What's wrong?" Cecile asked, hugging Jenna close.

"Joe, Cecile," Caitlin said, "take Jenna and leave right now." Cecile got up and started to walk towards the exit when a growl echoed through the halls. Jenna started to cry.

"What was that?" Joe asked and Cecile tried to quiet the baby. He wasn't sure which was was safe so he stood still for the time being.

"Gremlins," she said.

"Gremlins?" Cisco asked. "As in don't feed them after midnight?"

"Not really but just as terrifying," she said. "Are we sure that the dark phoenix was the only thing to come through the breach."

"Clearly you aren't," Iris told her.

"If this really is a gremlin then we are in it trouble," she said. "They are little power suckers. They feed on electricity and magic. Most of them in the realm are held in captivity or are somewhere hidden away but every once in awhile they break out and cause havoc. Magic doesn't work on them because the eat it. Also, spellcasters."

"Are you saying that that thing is what has been sucking our power?" Ralph asked. "And that it wants to eat you?"

"Yeah, but you guys don't have magic, it should be fine," she explained. "It doesn't eat mortals...but it does get bigger the more it was so that might be a problem."

"Wait, hold up." Joe said. "Magic?"

"I'll explain later." Caitlin told him but she clearly winced as she did. "Just get the baby and get out. Based on the places that have been hit, the path to the exit should be clear. Run." They nodded and took off.

"How do we catch this thing?" Iris asked.

"We have to starve it," she said. "Put it in a place with no power and then let it shrink again. After that all it takes is locking it in a wooden box and I can send it back."

"Where are we going to find a place without power?" Ralph asked.

"With a few modifications we should be able to make the time vault shut down completely," she said. "We can trigger the door from the outside. Then Cisco can just breach me out."

"Wait, why would you be in there?" Iris asked.

"That thing is going to go after sources of power, electronics wont hold it off forever," she explained. "Even low level magic is more tempting than the small amount of electricity in electronics. It will chase me and I can lead it in."

"Have you even met one of these things before?" Barry asked.

"Not in person but I have read loads about them," she said. "They terrify the spellcasters."

"And so you decide to use yourself an bait?" Cisco asked.

"Yeah, but we are a team, I trust you guys," she said. "I just hope you know that you can still trust me." She was obviously referring to the tension from the past few weeks.

"We do," Iris said after exchanging a few looks. "Now, let's take this thing down." In response, Caitlin smiled and took off down the hall.

"Oh, we're staring now," Ralph said as the rest of the team followed her.

"Where are we going?" Barry asked. "I can't get there first if I don't know where we are going?"

"The generator," she said from the front. "This thing wants power so that is where it will probably go." The generator was in the basement.

"How do you plan to get up here fast enough for that thing not to eat you?" Ralph asked when they arrived at the basement descent. She whipped out her wand from behind her.

"It will be fine as long as all of you close your eyes," she said. "I think."

"Real confidence inspiring," Cisco said.

"It's either that or I and all technology becomes gremlin food," she retorted.

"I vote magic," Ralph said. Then Caitlin started climbing down. Everyone looked at each other and then covered and closed their eyes. Cisco assumed anyway, he couldn't see but that had been the plan. He heard growls. Felt the floor move and then a voice.

"Incoming!" Caitlin called, the Doppler effect taking its toll. "All clear!" She called a moment later. Cisco opened his eyes and started running. Barry spend most of them along, leaving Cisco behind with Caitlin but moving the rest of the team to their positions. All it really took for a power down of the time vault was a voice command from Barry and the removal of the power source, they could fix it easily after and it was a quick process which is why he was supposed to be doing it as they ran. They rounded the corner a minute later and saw their friends waiting outside, except for Barry. Caitlin clearly didn't notice because she looked behind her to see the creature, which actually looked like a giant rat to Cisco, before heading into the vault. Cisco dove to the side at the taller-than-he-was rat followed her inside. Ralph and Iris thrust their hands at the wall and the door closed.

"Where's Barry?" Cisco asked.

"Inside, the power went out but he never came back out," Iris said.

"He should be fine, Caitlin said that thing didn't attack mortals," he told her.

When Cisco heard a scream he remembered that he had one more step. He immediately opened a breach. Caitlin and Barry fell out. Barry landing on top of Caitlin. He knew it was Caitlin who screamed so when he saw blood on her he was worried but not surprised. Then he realized there wasn't a scratch on her.

"Barry are you okay?" Caitlin asked. Cisco looked over to see his friend in a torn up shirt with scratches and blood.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Caitlin!" Iris exclaimed. "I thought you said that thing didn't attack mortals."

"It doesn't! I don't know what happened!" She exclaimed. "We have to get him to the med lab to clean his wounds but he should be fine.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Iris asked the speedster.

"I'm fine, I've had worse," she said, wincing. They moved him back to the med lab and Caitlin got him all patched up. She told him to rest until the wounds healed but with his powers it shouldn't take long.

"As the Gremlin grows smaller, the power it sucked should return," she said. "Barry will be fine."

"I don't think power works like that," Cisco said.

"It does when a magical creature ate it," she retorted. "Anyway, I think I figured out why it went after Barry instead of me."

"Why?" Iris asked.

"He's the Flash," she said. "I might have low level magic but Barry has more electrical power in him than this entire building thanks to his connection to the speed force. That thing thought that was more appetizing than me."

"Well, at least now we know that but there are still a few things that we don't," Iris said. "Like, where did that thing come from? I'm positive the dark phoenix was the only thing that came through."

"Maybe you can check the security cameras again when they get back up," Caitlin offered. "For now we just have to focus on next steps. Make sure Barry is fine, put the gremlin in a box, send the gremlin home, and figure out how to explain magic to Cecile and Joe without being tracked down by the royal guard."

"So this will be interesting," Ralph said.

"No kidding," Cisco responded. So each of them split off to accomplish one of the next steps. Barry healed fine, the gremlin went home safely and the cameras? Well, the next day Iris finally saw that blue light that they missed before and realized that the gremlin wasn't here by accident. Someone sent it here on purpose. Buy who? And why?