Caitlin
November 25th, 2018
Caitlin ran towards the speed lab, wand out in front of her. She heard Cisco behind her, letting out a war cry. When she entered the room she stopped, taken aback. Ralph was wrestling on the floor with a squillet. Iris was being plastered to the wall by some purple substance. Probably the product of a mixchick attack. Barry was being chased by a zuno, yes chased, and there was a fregar bouncing around the room breaking everything it landed on. She could also hear barking coming from somewhere, probably the haunter she expected in the first place, but she had bigger issues right now than her own problems. She saw Cisco fly by her out of the corner of her eye and watched as he threw a hunk of metal at the fregar. A fregar was basically a giant frog with really powerful hind legs. More similar to a kangaroo in that aspect. It could be deadly and dent steel. It also had a large jumping range. So, when the metal flew towards it, it simply jumped out of the way and out the door. Cisco's projectile hit the wall next to where Iris was trapped.
"Cisco!" she called.
"Sorry!" he responded.
Caitlin decided that getting Iris down was most important at the moment so she bobbed and weaved through the chaos over to the woman on the wall. "Losidevs!" she called, her wand aimed at her target. Whatever substance that had been holding Iris up began to melt into a liquid and she dropped to the floor. She tried to shake some of it off but to little luck.
"At least I'm down," she said. Both women turned at the sound of Cisco yelling and saw him and Ralph both tangled up with the squillet.
"What exactly is that thing?" Iris asked.
"A squillet," she responded. "It it kind of like a squid or an octopus only it can move around on land and it's legs are very flexible and modifiable. It can also change its body from being liquid to being sticky to either trap or get away from prey, usually attacking with a combination of both."
"So how do we fight it?" she asked.
"Petrify it," was the response. "I know the spell but I've never pulled it off properly. I would have to do it with a potion. For now…" Caitlin turned to yell towards Ralph and Cisco "Make yourselves go limp! It will lose its grip on you momentarily, then run like hell!" Almost instantaneously, both men went limp. The squillet seemed to slip for a second and then Ralph pushed it away. He and Cisco took off down the hall. Unfortunately, the creature decided to attack an easier target and switched focus to the women in the corner. It slid across the floor and right into Barry's path who was still running around the room. The squillet flew into the wall as Barry slipped and crashed to the floor.
"Barry!" Iris exclaimed beginning to run towards him but Caitlin pulled her back and cast a shield spell in front of Barry. The zuna ran straight into it and knocked out.
"Those things are fast and fierce but aren't very durable," Caitlin explained. Barry pulled himself up off the floor and the sound of slurping reminded them of the squillet. "Run!" An instant later Caitlin found herself in the cortex. Barry and Iris were standing next to her.
"You said run," Barry shrugged. Ralph and Cisco were already in the room having run from the squillet.
"So that was more than we were expecting," Cisco said.
"Yeah, we have to track and trap these things," Iris added.
"What are they all?" Ralph asked.
"Well, the squillet is what was attacking you and made Barry wipe out, I have a plan to stop it but I need to get some things from my apartment first," Caitlin said.
"I can do that," Cisco said.
"And the other things?" Barry asked.
"The zuno that was chasing you Barry can be taken out with just a hit of anything, I could have sent it back when it hit my shield if it weren't for the squillet, Barry should be able to take it down easily now that there is less to worry about," Caitlin furthered.
"What about that thing that hit me with the goo?" Iris asked.
"A mixchick?" Cisco asked, almost laughing.
"Tiny potion masters," she explained. "They eat things and then those materials mix with their magical saliva to create different outcomes. In this case, it was basically a quick drying plastic."
"So we have one of those running around too?" Ralph grumbled. "Perfect."
"Okay, we should split up," Iris said. "Cisco, you go and get the stuff from Caitlin's apartment and help her make whatever potion she needs. Barry, you focus on taking down the zuno. Ralph, you and I can track down the mixchick and keep and eye on that and the squillet until Caitlin makes her potion."
"Got it," Barry said and sped off. Iris and Ralph took off down the hall and Cisco grabbed hold of Caitlin and breached them to her apartment. Caitlin immediately went towards her safe.
"I know Iris mentioned a potion but what exactly are you looking for?" he asked her.
"My potions kit, my mom was a healer so she used them a lot and she got me a kit when I was a kid, I'm going to use it to make a petrification potion to use on the squillet," she said almost absent minded. When she got the safe open she pulled out the box and motioned for Cisco to take them back to the lab. He did so quickly and Caitlin immediately ran towards the med bay to start her mixing. Luckily, it was a relatively simple potion for her to create and she had all the ingredients. She double checked the combination in her potions book but other than that it was done quickly.
"There, now we just need to let it set for five minutes and then throw it at the squillet," she said.
"Perfect," he responded. Then came the scream. "Oh what now?"
Ralph flew into the room followed by Iris. "The mixchick is behind us and it decided to start melting things," Iris explained.
"You didn't cover how to fight this one," Ralph yelled at Caitlin.
"If it doesn't eat it can't attack, other than that you just have to restrain it, it doesn't have much of a defense," she told him.
"Wait, where is the squillet?" Cisco asked.
"We haven't been able to find it since we left the speed lab," Iris exclaimed. When a belching sound was heard, all parties turned to look at the mixchick currently melting a hole in their floor.
"Runert," Caitlin called, lunging with her wand. The creature disappeared before it even had time to react. "I figure I'd cut out the middle man this time, that thing is low level and has almost no magic protection. When I said not much of a defense I meant it."
"So why did they send it?" Iris asked.
"I think they are just trying to overwhelm me and us," she exclaimed. "It is a lot harder to be productive when you are trying to fight multiple different things at once." A ding went off.
"Potion's done," Cisco said. Caitlin ran to grab it.
"Now, if we can just find that squillet," Caitlin told them. A moment later, Barry sped into the room holding an unconscious zuno.
"So, we can get rid of this right?" he asked. Caitlin once again cast the creature home.
"Two down, one to go," she told them.
"If you mean the squillet I just saw it in Cisco's lab," Barry offered. Caitlin took off running. The rest of the team followed behind her. She stopped them right at the entrance to the room. Currently the creature was just sitting in the middle of the room, probably trying to get a feel for its surroundings. It was blind, it mostly got around through touch. Unfortunately, it could feel vibrations very well so if they started moving it would know.
"What now?" Ralph asked.
"We need to get it to stay still long enough for me to empty this on it," she responded.
"How do we do that?" Barry asked.
"We need to make it turn sticky," Caitlin said.
"I thought it only did that to get a hold of prey," Cisco said.
"Well, then let's give it some," Iris said. "If one of us lets it capture us it will be focused on us and no Caitlin."
"Yeah, but then the potion will effect them too, it's only temporary but not fun," Caitlin stated.
"I'll do it," Ralph said. "I'm stretchy, maybe it will just make me normal for a while."
"Okay fair point but be prepared for that to not be the case," Caitlin told him. He nodded and then jumped into the room. The creature was on him almost instantly Ralph struggled just enough for it to restrain him. Then Caitlin jumped into the room to do her bit. The potion poured over both Ralph and the squillet. The squillet stopped moving and s did Ralph.
"Uh, how do we plan to separate them?" Barry asked.
"We don't," Caitlin said. "I'll cast the spell just on the squillet. Even if it goes wrong, it will effect them both differently. Raloh will probably just end up back at his place." Then, for the third time in a half an hour, she raised her wand and cast the creature home.
"Okay, that was not as bad as I thought it would be," Iris said.
"We should move Ralph somewhere more comfortable," Cisco said. "How long will he be like this?"
"The combination I used is very minimal, five to ten minutes maximum," she clarified. So, they all helped move Ralph back to the cortex for the time being.
"Do you think that this was their big attack?" Iris asked. "I mean, do they think Caitlin is dead or powerless or something?"
"No, they probably realized I sent them all back," Caitlin sighed. "They aren't going to stop, whoever they are."
"They are renegade spellcasters is what they are," Cisco said. There was silence for a moment and then Ralph began to groan and move again.
"Well, that was awful," he exclaimed. Stretching himself out. Way out.\
"Well, at least it's over," Iris relieved.
"Yeah, I'm glad we figured out how fight everything," Ralph said. "Even if we were wrong about the haunter." Caitlin's heart stopped. The haunter. She had heard it earlier but had forgotten about it. It was still here somewhere.
"Caitlin, what is it?" Barry asked. Her eyes got big, then she heard the growl. She could hear the thumping of the paws, so did everyone else. She couldn't tell where it was or where it was going. The entire team moved to protect her. Iris and Ralph jumped in front of her. Ralph took up the rear and Iris grabbed a chair and stood slightly off to the side. But when the haunter got close enough to Caitlin that she could smell its breath, she heard it sniff. Something flew through the air, and she heard the creature whimper, she watched as the dog became visible in ripple for for a moment as the chair made contact. Iris had thrown it, but she had thrown it too far, it only landed on the tail. In what Caitlin assumed was anger, she heard the dog take off instantly in a different direction, towards Iris.
"Iris!" Barry called, but even he was unable to do anything with a creature that he couldn't see, no matter what speed he or it was going. Caitlin tried to grab her wand from her back pocket but it got caught in her jeans. Iris had only just begun to reach when there was a flash, and the life saving spell finally made contact and the dog thudded to the floor.. There was only one problem. Caitlin didn't cast it.