Cisco
December 1st, 2018
It had been almost a week since Austin had decided that Team Flash was flying head first into the Spellcaster Realm. She had been giving Spellcaster Realm 101 lessons in between preparing potions. Cisco had picked out his fake wand from Austin's collection and so had the rest of the team. Caitlin kept on cringing and telling them to be careful. Austin was less vocal but did keep on glancing nervously at Barry who was gripping his own wand of choice so hard Cisco thought it was going to snap in two.
"Hey guys," Austin said wryly, tearing her gaze away from the panicking speedster. "In the hands of a mortal, wands are just sticks."
"But breaking and or losing them is a bad idea," Caitlin countered. "So stop treating them like they are toys." She glared at Ralph who had been flipping his wand like a baton. He grinned sheepishly and pulled his hands behind his back.
"Maybe we should just put them down for now," Barry said, still clutching the wand stiffly.
"Bear, it can't hurt you honey," Iris said placing her hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah, sorry, this is just a lot," Barry said letting out a breath as Iris took the wand from his hand.
"Everyone is going to be fine," Austin said. "Caitlin and I will have your backs, no one will ever know who you are."
"So, when are you guys leaving?" Joe asked, he had been sitting in on the lesson.
"Soon," Austin said. "I just need to make sure that no one here outs themselves before we can take down the, whatever they're called now."
"And how can you be sure that that won't happen?" Joe asked.
"By making sure they know their stuff and stay out of trouble," she responded.
"You clearly don't know us that well," Ralph quipped.
"I know all that I need to," Austin said. "All of you are heroes, this isn't the first tough situation you've been in, it won't be the last. You can do this, even if we have to cheat a little bit."
"How?" Cisco asked.
"What, are we going to drink some magical mind reading potion?" Ralph asked.
"Actually I was thinking we could stay in touch with each other with the comms," Austin said. "Radio waves don't travel across dimensions but they can still connect to each other in the Realm."
"Good idea," Barry said.
"Yeah, having spellcasters in our ears is probably a good idea," Ralph said.
"Yeah, but hopefully Austin's lessons help us enough that we don't need to rely on that exclusively," Iris said.
"I mean I've pretty much covered the basics," she said. "You guys know the layout more or less, if not you can say you're from the outer lands. Plus, culture differences, how to keep your head low and basic laws."
"So are we ready to go?" Barry asked uncertain.
"Not quite," Austin said. "There is nothing really new to learn that I can think of right now but I want to make sure that you guys really know it. We can review for a few more days. By the time I finish my stint as a scout we should be done, plus, I'll be able to use my vacation days then so I don't have to lie to the king."
"You mean anymore than you already are?" Caitlin asked.
"I lie to Captain Singh all the time," Barry said. "If I didn't Team Flash would be a very different outfit."
"Greater good," Cisco said.
"The point is, we are leaving soon so just be ready," Austin said.
"Singh is going to fire me for taking time off again," Barry groaned.
"We're going to switch off right?" Ralph asked. "Why don't you just go when you already have days off. Or you can just ask for a few days off one week."
"Yeah, it's not like you haven't disappeared before," Iris said. "I don't expect this to be long term."
"Fine," Barry grumbled. "But I'm not going first."
"I'll go," Cisco said.
"Me too," Ralph said.
"Just Cisco," Austin said. "Sorry Ralph, but the fewer people the better, at least at first. You can stay behind with Barry, Cecile and Joe until we need to swap off."
"Why does Iris get to go?" Ralph asked. "I mean no offense, you're bad ass, but no fair." Iris chuckled.
"Because for some reason. Magic doesn't affect Iris and that could be useful," Caitlin said. Austin nodded.
"Caitlin's right," Austin agreed. "We need every defense we can get."
"You can go next," Barry said a little too eagerly.
"Sounds like a plan," Iris said, giving Barry the side eye. Suddenly Austin perked up. She pulled her wand out of her back pocket and it was flashing.
"Is someone calling your wand?" Ralph asked.
"More like a magical pager," Austin said. "I have to go but I'll be back later." With that, she flashed out of the room.
"Is it just me or was that very Wizards of Waverly Place?" Cisco asked.
"I hate that show," Caitlin said.
"What? Why?" Ralph asked. Caitlin launched into yet another rant about the inaccuracies of magic in Hollywood. Joe chuckled and told his daughter that he was heading out. She gave him a hug and then turned to talk to her husband. Cisco joined her.
"Dude, what's going on with you?" Cisco asked.
"What are you talking about?" Barry asked.
"Honey, you've been acting strange ever since Austin showed up," Iris said.
"No I haven't," Barry tried to shrug off.
"Dude, you have been doing everything in your power to avoid going to the realm," Cisco said.
"And you looked terrified just holding that wand," Iris said. Barry paused for a moment and then sighed.
"Okay fine," he admitted. "I've been a little freaked out about all this."
"You can literally run faster than the speed of sound and this freaks you out?" Cisco asked.
"That's science," Barry said. "Dark matter giving people superpowers is crazy but at least I can explain it. But magic is...magic."
"Yeah, and you've always believed in the impossible," iris said.
"And I still do," Barry said. "But once I figured out that the lightning was from mine and Thawne's powers things started to make sense again. It was like the world was stable. And now there's magic and nothing makes sense again."
"But we already know people with magic." Iris said. "I mean, we haven't had a ton of direct contact with it until now with Caitlin but the Legends are dealing with it a lot now. Plus, Oliver has used some before with Dhark right?"
"Yeah, and there was the whole Vandal Savage thing," Cisco said. 'That was some hard core magic."
"Yeah," Barry said. "But this is different. It's one thing to see magic. It's another to go to a world that was basically built with it."
"Look, dude, I get it," Cisco said. "This is blowing my mind a little too but you don't have to freak out."
"Yeah, Caitlin and Austin know what they're doing," Iris said.
"Well, Austin does," Cisco said. "Caitlin is still pretty bad ass though."
"I know," Barry said. "You're right. I just...wish this wasn't happening. You know? Can't we just know what we're dealing with for once?"
"Okay, maybe you need the night off," Iris said. "Just clear your head a little."
"Yeah dude," Cisco said. "Ralph and I got this. We're not leaving for a few days anyway. You need to wrap your head around it." Iris put her hand on Barry and gave him a puppy dog face. Barry eventually caved.
"Yeah okay fine," Barry said. "Maybe you're right."
"I'm going too, just to make sure you actually relax," Iris said to her husband. She turned to Cisco. "If Austin comes back tell her we are just dealing with some stuff and we'll be back tomorrow." She handed him the wands and then dragged Barry out of the room.
"Where are they going?" Ralph asked, finally noticing the trio.
"Home," Cisco said. "Barry's brain is exploding."
"I figured someone's would eventually," Caitlin admitted. "The Spellcaster Realm is a lot to take in." A flash filled the room.
"Okay, I'm back," Austin said.
"What happened?" Caitlin asked.
"A dual broke out in the North District. I was assigned to a nearby sector, I mean, I wasn't there but I had to respond like I was or there would have been many questions asked that I don't want to answer."
"Good call," Caitlin said.
"Thanks," Austin nodded before looking around. "Where are Barry and Iris?"
"Barry's brain is exploding so they went home," Ralph said. Austin got a weird look on her face for a moment.
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," Austin said. "I guess I'm not very used to the mortal world. I can't expect people to be used to my world."
"This is going to be harder than we thought isn't it?" Cisco asked.
"I never thought it would be easy," Austin responded.
"I did," Ralph said. "We're fighting people who have sticks as weapons."
"I could use this stick to literally explode your brain," Austin said, holding her wand up.
"And so could these evil casters," Caitlin said.
"Cassandra didn't seem so bad," Ralph said.
"We barely held up against her together," Cisco said.
"Okay, fair point," Ralph said."But we've grown since then right?"
"One can only hope," Austin said, mirth present in her voice. "Let's just get back to work, we can fill Barry and Iris in when they get back."
"Yeah, so is there like a technique to wand wielding or something?" Ralph asked.
"Just make sure it's pointing in the right direction and don't drop it," Austin responded. "Beyond that it's really up to the wielder."
"Hey, do your books have any drawings or pictures of the realm?" Caitlin asked. "It might be good to get some visuals."
"Let me check," she responded. She walked down the hallway to the closet where they kept Austin's spellcaster teaching supplies. They thought it best not to just leave it out in the open considering how often people just wander in the lab.
"Are you worried about going back to the realm?" Cisco asked Caitlin.
"I don't know," she shrugged. "I haven't been there since I was 16 and even then I didn't go far and was wearing a cloak the whole time."
"Why did you go back at all then?: Ralph asked.
"I needed a stronger wand, I still only had my trainer," Caitlin said. "Otherwise my wand would break and I wouldn't be able to use magic. Well I could but it wouldn't end well."
"I thought you needed wands to use magic at all though," Cisco said.
"Well, to use it safely and to its full potential yes," Caitlin said. "Technically spellcasters can use wandless magic but without a conduit, such as a wand, the magic burns directly through you. Too much power causes your blood to literally boil, at the very least you become weakened."
"So boiling blood," Ralph asked. "Does that-"
"Kill you?" Caitlin asked. "Yes."
"Okay, so no wandless magic for you," Cisco said.
"Uh, yeah," she responded. At that moment Austin came back with the books.
"Okay, so no pictures in the textbook," Austin said. "Not updated at least. I'll try and take some next time I go back and bring them for our next lesson."
"Good," Caitlin said. "But I think we've done enough for today. I think more than just Barry needs a break."
"Agreed," Austin said. "Just keep studying. We leave in just a few weeks." Cisco watched her flash out and then realized he was still holding her wands.
"Uh, Cait," he said, holding them out. She rolled her eyes and grabbed them.
"I'll put them with mine in my safe," she said.
"Thanks," he said. As the team left STAR Labs Cisco started to really think about what this new adventure could mean. Even if they win, they could still be open to new threats from spellcasters. Their lives would never be the same again, for the second, or let be honest, 500th time. Still, this was a new level of insanity. Even for him. He just had to have faith that the team and Austin would be able to pull this off before anything else happened. He could go without another life altering reveal for a while but that was a thought he would later regret.