38

They Overcame

"Oliver, what…?" Barry could barely get the words from his mouth. "What are you…I don't understand."

"You always had a way with words, Barry," Oliver said. He folded his arms, a ghost of a smile coming to his lips. "It's only a little better than that motor-mouth thing you've got going on. Sometimes, I think I prefer it." He looked Barry in the eye. "How're you doing, Barry?"

Barry gaped back at him. How was he doing? He had a horde of gorillas racing through—or toward, he wasn't sure anymore—Central City and a bunch of nuclear weapons flying, ready to take down the city at a moment's notice. How did Oliver think he was doing? As a matter of fact, why was Oliver in Central City in the first place?

Oliver must've seen all the question in Barry's face for he chuckled. A humorless chuckle that didn't reveal much of this thought. Typical of Oliver, really. To, even in the face of danger, continue to be stoically calm. "I had some business here that I needed to attend to."

Barry wondered if any of it had to do with meeting up with Connor. He decided not to ask. Now, certainly, was not the time. Not when he, literally, had a countdown above his head reminding him there was too much going on to that was much more important. As they stood apart from each other, Barry could see flashes of light in the distance, Jesse and Wally still working to take as many people out of the city as possible. Police sirens in the distance reminded Barry there were those that there were others who would work to make sure the city was safe, leaving themselves for last.

He knew Joe was out there, if not Captain Singh and the rest of the CCPD. Even without powers, they'd work hard to make sure everyone was safe. If they could do it without powers, he could figure out what to do with them.

"So, what are we up against?"

"Oh," Barry couldn't help but find himself growing sarcastic. "Nothing but a rampage of gorillas descending on the city and missiles flying through the air that could level everything from here to California."

Oliver shook out his bow, collapsing it with a forward punch of his hand. Then he held out his free arm. "Then we better come up with a plan." Barry nodded and grabbed Oliver's arm, racing him to the one place he was sure Grodd was intending to be his target of revenge.

STAR Labs.

Cadence watched as Grodd and his army of gorillas continued to amble toward her, Jay, Brady, and Leah. Jesse and Wally continued to run back and forth, taking as many groups of people with them as they could. Every now and then Cadence could see a car come to a stop, the doors opening to let the passengers out as they stared in shock and fear at the gorillas coming toward them.

Then, seconds later, they were whisked away in a streak of lightning.

Jay took in a deep breath and nodded towards the young woman that walked along with them. She Had a strong face, no mask to cover her identity. Her long hair fell around her shoulders, brushing the shoulders of her leather-bound suit. Her eyes appeared blank as she stood in front of the team. He watched her carefully.

"Looks like Grodd found her to take him to this Earth," he murmured. He lifted his chin. "Look at her eyes."

"She looks just like dad did when Grodd had him," Jesse said. She curled her fingers into her palm. Her chest swelled as she took a deep breath, remembering how utterly blank he looked when Grodd soke through him. "She might not know anything she's done."

"Let's just hope nothing too bad happens for her to worry about it," Wally agreed. He looked to Cadence. "What's the plan?"

Cadence, like Jesse, took in a deep breath. "I'm working on it," she replied. "At the moment, all I've got is making sure this doesn't turn out like Godzilla."

"Don't you mean King Kong?" Brady asked.

"No. I don't."

Grodd continued to stare down Team Flash as the group of meta-animals moved closer and closer. Dealing with meta-spiders was one thing. Meta-apes were another one entirely. Especially when they were able to control anything they wanted at a whim. /You can't stop us all,/ Grodd said. His lips pulled back against his yellowed teeth, saliva dripping to the ground. He waved his arm, shoving a spear into the air.

Cadence watched as it glinted in the street lights. All the gorillas held onto spears in one hand, a shield covered the other. On their heads were metal helmets that glinted as much as the rest of their armor. They were ready for an all-out war and nothing was going to stop them.

/Attack!/

Grodd pulled his arms back and roared loudly into the sky before he led the charge into Central City. Cadence nodded to the team before they all charged back toward the gorillas.

In STAR Labs, the rest of Team Flash watched, tensely as the metas came face to face with Grodd and the resto his army. Caitlin chewed her lower lip, turned her head away after watching Jesse receive a particularly nasty hit that sent her crashing into a mail drop box. It bent under the force of her hit, the door craning open to spill thousands of letters to the ground.

"They're headed straight for State and Oak Hill, fast," she said quietly.

Iris, who stood next to her, made a low humming sound. Her eyes narrowed when she watched Wally get sideswiped by another gorilla. He landed heavily on the ground then shot back to his feet, ready and charging once more.

"What do we do?" She asked. "They're way out numbered. How are they going to take all of them down?"

"They don't have a choice," Joe murmured. "They have to." He took in a deep breath. From the corner of the Cortex, he quickly checked the chamber of his police issued gun. Enough bullets to take down at least one of the gorillas if needed. He looked up as Barry breezed into the Cortex with Oliver by his side.

HR jumped, eyes widening when he saw Oliver appear. "You're the Arrow?" He asked. Oliver looked at him funny, raising an eyebrow while HR placed his hands on his hips. "Well, how about that? How 'bout that. Your…" he grinned and started to point repeatedly toward Oliver. "Your father must be proud."

Oliver glanced at Barry, who shook his head, muttering, "I'll explain later." Then he noticed Joe. "Joe, what are you doing?"

"I said I wasn't going to leave, Bare," Joe reminded him. He shook his head. A sign of determination as he flipped the filled magazine into the bottom of his pistol and cocked it into firing mode. "And I meant it. But that doesn't mean I'm going to sit back and let my city get taken down. You know Grodd is on his way here and if Ii have to stop these gorillas, then so be it." Barry started to say something but stopped. Joe continued. He looked Barry in the eye. "As much as I hate those gorillas, especially Grodd, if you kill him the others might stand down, but you might not be able to come back from it, right?

"I know," Barry said. "But there's another way. It might not need to come to that." He then leveled his gaze to Cisco, who continued to stick his nose into his computer screen. "But I'm going to need Cisco's help."

Cisco looked up at Barry. "Right, it's not like I'm doing anything important, here!" Cisco snapped. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm trying to stop these missiles from crash landing and killing us all." He shook his head, keeping his eyes on the computer screen. "You're the fastest man alive and you can't come up with a stupid five-digit code to keep us all alive?"

Barry frowned, stung by Cisco's sharp words. He tried to say something, anything to defend himself, but was unable to do so. Cisco was right. He was the only one who could do what needed to be done to keep the missiles form going off. The only one who even had the time to go through thousands upon thousands of combinations that would've stopped the numbers within seconds.

Cisco continued. "We only have forty minutes left before everything turns to ash. And I'm no closer to figuring out what we can do to stop it than I was before." He brought his face to his hands. "Times like these I wish Firestorm was around."

"Hey," Oliver said firmly. His voice, affected by his modulator, sounded gruffer than it would have been had he used his normal voice. Much more commanding. "Now's not the time to point fingers. We have an army of…" Oliver paused for a second, as if wondering what he'd done to deserve being stuck in situations like the one he was currently in. "Apes and we've got nuclear missiles we need to stop. I'd rather any ideas than wasting our last moments bickering with each other."

"I'm with Oliver," Joe agreed. "We all said we'd be behind Barry and do the best we can to stop this when we can." He fixed Cisco with a stare so harsh that the mechanical engineer slowly lowered his head. "Get it?"

"Got it."

"Good."

Iris motioned towards the fight playing out on the screen in front of her. Then, the screen shifted, turning the video feed into a smaller box in the corner as the CCPN headline scrolled across the bottom of the screen: Nuclear Weapons Launched. "Wait a minute, guys. Listen." She turned up the volume on the computer. Her co-workers voice filled the room.

"Government officials have released word that nuclear missiles have been shot out from Fort Reynolds. Officials have also stated that the release of these missiles were not authorized and is currently out of control of the government to stop. Reports say if the missiles were to be detonated at the height they're currently climbing, it may save some of the residents of Central City, but many will perish. If you have any place to find shelter, go there now. But the biggest question of all is what can Flash and Flare do, is there anything they can do, to help save us?"

Barry lowered his head. He took in a deep breath, squeezing his eyes shut. The weight of the world, the weight of Central City landed heavily on his shoulders. So much so that he nearly felt his legs collapse beneath him, only the computer desk propping him up. Barry looked up when he felt a hand placed on his own and saw Iris looking at him with a combination of concern, sadness, and determination. She squeezed his hand and said, "We weren't lying before, Barry. We're here for you, right behind you, no matter what you decide to do. No matter what happens. You can do this."

Barry nodded back to her. He looked at Joe, who looked at him, waiting to see what he was to be told. Joe nodded encouragingly. Then Barry looked at Oliver, who continued to wait patiently for Barry's decision.

"Yeah," Cisco agreed half-heartedly. "What he said."

"I may have an idea of how to stop the missiles," Caitlin said. She started out speaking quietly, her voice growing louder, stronger, by the second as all eyes turned her way. "These missiles were made with a fail-safe procedure put into them. A self-destruct procedure. But they're not able to, safely, detonate the missiles. So, what if we were the ones to do it?"

"I don't follow," HR said, tilting his head.

"That's a shock," Harry said sarcastically. He ignored HR's pursed lip pout and fold of his arms. Spoke directly to Caitlin. "Don't tell me you're going to do what I think you're going to do, Snow," he warned.

Caitlin looked away from him. "I can't guarantee it'll work, but it's an idea."

"What?" Barry asked. "What is it?" He was grasping at straws, but if there was anything that'd stop the missiles, he'd at least listen to it.

"There is a point in the freezing of particles that can simultaneously have the matter that is being frozen continuously and simultaneously move from a gas to a solid to a liquid and continue the cycle in an infinite loop," Harry explained. "It's called the Triple Point and different points of matter have different temperatures levels where they get to they're in true thermodynamic equilibrium." He brought up a hand to rub his chin. "But to stop the detonation of nuclear missiles, that'd take a lot of work."

"I don't get it," Iris said. "What does that mean exactly?"

"It means Caitlin's going to use her powers to try and stop the nuclear missiles," Oliver surmised.

He wasn't one to understand much about science and technology, but after five years on an island—many of those years where he was able to learn multiple languages as well as create his own set of practices to heal himself and perform surgeries if the time ever came. He worked as the Arrow on his own long before Diggle and Felicity joined the team. He had more than enough time to figure out the ins and outs of any situation that it'd take years for others to do the same.

"Caitlin, you can't," Cisco said breathlessly. "Your powers aren't strong enough to even hold Barry in place let alone stop a nuclear missile."

Caitlin glared at him. "I understand you're scared of the impending death we're all facing, but at least I'm trying to come up with something that'll help us." She looked to Barry, who had been quiet throughout the exchange. "If we don't stop them from dropping, I don't know what we'll do. There's only so much I can freeze at a time. But if Cade can lower the temperature of fire as well as she can increase the temperature, then it'd reduce the power the missiles have. She I can only absorb so much fire but there's a hundred tons—"

"—hundreds of thousands of tons—" Harry interrupted.

"—of concussive pressure in those things. It will wipe Central City, Keystone, and all other neighboring cities right off the map." Caitlin shook her head. Her hair bounced around her face. "We don't have any other options. If we can't stop Grodd, there's not even going to be a Central City to save. You have to stop Grodd, the rest of us will have to work to stop this missile."

"And get the message out if things go wrong," Iris agreed. "I'm sure Jesse and Wally did their best to get everyone out but with Grodd around…" she saw sadness start to fill Barry's eyes. "Don't get all puppy dog on me, Barry. We don't have any other options right now. You need to go now."

"Captain Singh has a perimeter set up," Joe added. "If we can use it to slow Grodd down, at least we"ll be able to get the rest of the citizens out of Central City and away from the blast site."

Barry nodded. "How much time do we have?"

HR jumped in before Harry could response. "Two minutes before the gorillas get here to STAR Labs, Barry."

Barry shook his head, watching his friends back up closer and closer to STAR Labs as Grodd's army continued forward. They were closer than HR thought, even he could see that. Harry, on the other hand, wasn't as diplomatic about HR's shortcomings.

"Two minutes?" Harry threw his hands in the air. "Ten seconds! Can you not even tell time?"

"That's what I said," HR agreed. He waved a hand in a conversational manner. "Ten seconds, two minutes, it's all a matter of…time is relative. If anyone would understand that, Barry certainly would. Time spent, time we have left, you know, it reminds me of a time when-"

"Barry." Oliver turned a glance to Barry, clearly annoyed by HR's mere presence. As was the rest of Team Flash on a good day. "Anything you have to say?"

"Yeah," Barry agreed. He took in a deep breath. "The citizens of Central City should never have to question whether or not the Flash and Flare are going to be there to help them. Thanks to Incognito, Flare's heroism is being put under the microscope and thanks to Grodd, now the Flash is being doubted as well. I know what it's like. Since I was really young, people didn't believe me about my parents and now we know and the rest of Central City knows what happened to them. Just like the city knows we can stop this no matter what comes our way. We're not going to stop until we reach the end. And after that…" he shrugged.

He didn't want to think about it after that. That was the future. And he was starting to realize that living in the future was just as bad as living in the past. Living in the past wad dangerous; it destroyed the present and the future. He had to focus on the moment and what it had to offer. Not for what yesterday or tomorrow could take away.

It took too long for him to really understand it. But once he understood something, it stuck. And unlike information he could speed-read from a book that would leave his short memory within seconds, this was something that'd stick with him for years to come. He was tired of allowing things that had happened or hadn't happened to get him down.

Now was the time to make his own future.

Lightning flashed through Barry's eyes. He reached up and pulled on his cowl. Seconds later, he was out of the Cortex dragging Oliver and Cisco along with him.

Leah flung her arms aside. A nearby car crumbled in on itself before crashing into a gorilla. It lifted its arm to block the car with his shield. The blow of the car striking the shield was enough to knock it backwards. Leah followed it up by decreasing the gravitational pull on the gorilla, sending it straight into the air and back to the ground.

Brady raced forward and up the face of a nearby car, an ape following directly behind him. Every time the ape threw it's spear forward, Brady would use his abilities simultaneously. Made himself hover in the air and phase, causing the spear to slide directly through him but not damage him in any way. Then, he lifted his shield to cover himself, tucking his body behind it as he dropped his legs out from beneath him at the same time the ape landed on the car behind him. Brady slid down the front windshield of the car, seconds before he was projectile launched into the air.

Twisting around, Brady threw his frisbee as hard as he could. It arched through the air and crashed into the side of the gorilla's head, knocking it over. Brady landed on the ground, rolling with his shoulders against the ground before leaping back to his feet. He threw his yo-yo and pulled tight, wrapping the gorilla's legs together. He pulled hard, making it crash to the ground. Running as another gorilla turned its sights on him, Brady grabbed his shield from the ground, reverted it to a frisbee, and grabbed his yo-yo, taking off to work on another gorilla.

Cadence whipped around, her fist connecting with that of the gorilla that swiped toward her. Their arms shot backwards, the power shooting through both their bodies, negating the effect it typically would have. Cadence started to fall back, she teleported behind the gorilla and kicked as hard as she could. The gorilla started to fall over. She ripped a light pole out the ground and swung it hard against the side of the gorilla's head. It rocketed aside and Cadence turned her attention back to Grodd. With Jay, Jesse, and Wally using their speed to herd a majority of the gorillas to keep them from moving further, Grodd raced closer and closer to STAR Labs.

Cadence teleported in front of him. She pressed her heels into the ground, ready to take on the seeming unstoppable meta. Instead of slowing down, Grodd's eyes narrowed as he locked onto Cadence. /You not kill Solovar,/ he said. /You as weak as The Flash./

Cadence didn't respond. Instead, she waited as Grodd moved closer. Knew exactly what he was going to do. He showed his fighting style; it was similar to hers in many ways. Relied on strength, that was his advantage. Grodd was already strong due to his strength as a gorilla, it had been increased five-fold with his metahuman abilities. Grodd continued to run toward her, when he was close enough, he threw himself into the air. Using the gravitational pull as he came back down, Grodd brought his hands together and brought it towards her in a slam.

Cadence brought up her hands, crossing her arms so that her wrists created an 'x' and caught his large fists in her hand. She felt her knees buckled under the weight of Grodd's fists but continued to hold her ground. Her entire body quaked with effort to keep Grodd up. Grodd bared his teeth, pressing himself down as hard as he could. Cadence shifted one of her legs back, giving herself a stronger stance to hold Grodd off. When she felt herself starting to get the upper hand, Cadence released one hand, easily holding off Grodd.

He pressed harder and harder. Flames erupted around Cadence's arm. She pulled it back and sent a straight shot, as close as pinpoint, to Grodd's side. Grodd immediately screeched with pain and bent away from the flame. Just as she wanted. Cadence clenched her hand into a fist. The flames jumped and swirled around, twisting itself into the shape of a war hammer. She brought back her arm and swung it forward, striking Grodd in the same spot she'd hit seconds before. Grodd fell to the side, Cadence teleported before he hit the ground. She grabbed his arm with both hands, spun on her heels while lifting Grodd up off the ground, and threw him as hard as she could.

She cried out, feeling something wrench in her shoulder as she did so, watching Grodd sail overhead. Just as he was about to hit the ground, a lightning streak shot out form STAR Labs, colliding straight with him. Grodd fell to his back on the ground while Barry came to a stop with his arms around Oliver and Cisco. The moment Barry stopped, Oliver was firing arrows left and right, striking them straight into the fleshy parts uncovered by the protective shields.

They fell one by one, allowing Wally, Jesse, and Jay more opportunity to move through the ever-growing army. "Cisco, you need to stop her," Barry called to Cisco. He motioned to the woman who stood toward the back of the group, effortlessly holding a breach open for more and more gorillas to come through. "As long as that breach is open, the harder it'll be for us to stop Grodd."

Cisco gave him a thumbs up in response. He lifted his goggles over his eyes and ran towards the breacher. She hadn't noticed his arrival. He had the upper hand. He was going to take her down. He was—going to get thrown on his ass when, at the last second, the female breacher turned and threw out her hand, sending a vibrational blast into his chest. Her face remained unchanged; a blank look in her eyes, but the corners of her lip turned up in a smirk.

Cisco got back to his feet and charged toward her. She continued to hold the breach open with one hand, the other being used to fend off Cisco as he came at her once more.

"You okay?" Oliver called over to Cadence still releasing arrow after arrow.

"Yeah," Cadence called back. Not entirely. She was sure she'd ripped her arm out of its socket. Something that'd heal in seconds if she could move it back in place. "I'm fine. When'd you get here?"

"Long story." Oliver ducked when a gorilla broke rank and charged toward him. He spun around and stuck an arrow tip directly into the armpit of the gorilla, sending an electric shock through its body, so cartoonishly bright, that Cadence could see it's skeleton light up before it pitched over, dead. "Don't have much time to talk about it.

"Noted," Cadence agreed.

She noticed Grodd and Barry locked in battle once more and lifted her hand, pulling it forward in an arc. The ground cracked open, flames leaping high into the air, creating a barrier that held Barry and Grodd away from the other gorillas that continued to come closer. Not completely blocking them off, she still gave them an out if needed, but enough so that they were on their own. Barry nodded to her. He streaked toward Grodd, disappearing behind the flames.

"Cade," Cadence heard Caitlin in her comm. link. "Come back to STAR Labs, I found a way to stop the missiles." Cadence pressed her finger to her ear-piece, twisting back to STAR Labs. She could see a side door on the street level open and Caitlin hurrying out. Then she looked back to Jesse, Wally, Jay, Brady, and Leah. "They can handle this, we don't have much time."

Cadence immediately teleported to Caitlin's side. "Where are we going?"

Caitlin looped her arm around Cadence's shoulder, allowing Cadence to lift her up into her arms. "The roof."

"Couldn't you have just met me up there?"

"Shut up."

Wally and Jesse crashed into each other as they were thrown aside by gorillas. Leah and Brady were then flung next to them, rolling like pinballs across the ground, bouncing off the speedsters before coming to a stop, arms covering their faces. Cisco, who continued to fight against the female breacher—and losing badly—was already screaming with effort, blood pooling down from his nose as he threw vibrational blast after vibrational blast.

Wally sat up, rubbing sweat off his forehead. 'So," Wally said. He looked to Jesse, who woozily got to her feet, then at Jay, who bent over, hands on his knees. He fought to catch his breath. "Any ideas of how to stop a few hundred gorillas?"

"Go for the legs?" Jesse suggested. "That seemed to be working for a while." She pressed her fingers into her side, working hard to press out the cramp that was starting to form. Speedster or not, cramps were something she wasn't short of. "Just try not to get caught. Trust me, they won't let go."

"No, they won't," Jay agreed.

The gorilla army continued to amble towards the team, easily knocking cars out of their way, swarming through the breach by the second. Brady and Leah surged to their feet, this time taking flight above the gorillas. If they weren't touching the ground, it would be harder for the gorillas to grab them. Even with their spears poking the air, trying to reach them.

Barry and Grodd circled each other, watching for their weak points. Where they'd be the most vulnerable. Oliver stood behind Barry, waiting for the gorillas that came too close, shooting arrows into them to keep them back. When the arrows didn't deter them, he took to hand to hand combat to fend them off, taking a few solid hits to the face and chest that'd take him longer to recover from.

Barry side-stepped a shot of Grodd's spear to his chest and ran in a large circle. He threw lightning to Grodd, who used his spear to deflect it into the air. Barry gritted his teeth. Grodd was a lot harder to defeat this time around. And it certainly didn't help that there were more gorillas coming by the second.

Coming up with a new tactic, Barry sprinted directly toward Grodd. Grodd, however, knew Barry's moves well. Seeing Barry come close, he turned the left side of his body toward Barry. Barry could see the eyes of his reflection widen in horror, the second he knew what was going to happen. There were many things people didn't expect about speedsters, and one of them was not knowing the effect of crashing into things at high speeds.

Running into a brick wall was running into a brick wall, running into a solid metal was running into solid metal. Add in thousands of miles per hour for speed and it was like running into one hundred brick walls at once. Barry knew his body was going to be seriously hurt the second Grodd started to turn his shield toward him with no way of Barry to stop in time.

Time slowed down around him, Barry saw every possibility that'd come from his running into Grodd and all of them ended with him bouncing off like a rubber ball. This is going to hurt. Barry closed his eyes, everything sped up around him and he ran into Grodd's shield.

Barry bounced back, striking the car behind him. He fell onto his stomach, fire raging up his back as his spine worked through the pain that shot through his body. Grodd towered over Barry. He pinched the back of Barry's suit, lifting him off the ground with ease.

"Flash!" Oliver shouted.

Barry's eyes swam as Grodd dangled him in front of his face. Even Grodd's smelly breath couldn't rouse Barry from the darkness that slowly started to creep in on the edges of his vision.

/Your city will fall, Flash,/ Grodd gloated. /There's only one way to end this. You kill me./ He shook Barry back and forth, making his arms and legs flail. /But you won't do that. All you care about is mercy./

Barry coughed, the feeling slowly, very slowly, returning to his legs. Not fast enough, his spine must've been bruised. Not completely severed or else he wouldn't have been able to move in the slightest. "You're right. Except I'm not the only one who wants to stop you."

The breach the woman held open widened until Solovar's figure leapt out, dressed in the same armor as Grodd as the others. Grodd immediately let go of Barry and turned to face his new opponent.

/Solovar,/ Grodd growled.

Solovar growled back at him. /I challenge you, Grodd,/

Grodd's nostrils flared. He took a step toward Solovar. /And you will fall again,/

Barry smiled to himself. If there was anything Grodd didn't think about, it was how Barry was going to come one step ahead of him. If Grodd was preoccupied with Solovar, it'd give Caitlin and Cadence more time to stop the missiles.

Cadence lowered Caitlin to her feet once they arrived on the roof of STAR Labs. She brushed her hair back from her face. She looked over as a fleet of police cars pulled behind Oliver and officers all piled out, pulling out their guns and started to open fire on any of the remaining gorillas that came close to STAR Labs.

"How long do they have to last?" Cadence asked.

"Not much longer," Caitlin replied. She pulled her hair back from her face, the wind from atop STAR Labs blowing it around her face. She tilted her head back, watching the chem trail that continued to streak through the sky. This time back down toward the city. They'd already reached their apex. Time was running out. "The missiles are falling fast."

"What's the plan?" Cadence asked.

"Fire tornado," Caitlin replied. She lowered her chin and looked Cadence in the eye. "Can you throw one that high?"

"I've never measured it, but I'm sure it's not hard," Cadence said, cracking her knuckles. She flicked her hands, shaking out her fingers. So long as she kept up her confidence she could handle, it, right? It was only thousands upon thousands of people that'd die if she couldn't. Much more than she could heal. "So we're going to blow up the missiles?"

"No. The addition of the fire to the friction the missiles are experiencing on the way down will just cause more devastation once the missiles reach a certain point and implode. What we're going to do is set up a fire tornado and…" Caitlin swallowed hard. "Then I'll use my powers to cool down the temperature of the fire until it's a cold fire so that when it meets the missiles it'll create a triple point that'll keep them from detonating."

Cadence eyed Caitlin carefully. Watched as she brought her hands up behind her neck to remove her dampener necklace. It shone a bright blue, fading as she started to remove it from her neck. She watched Caitlin's hands shake in trepidation. "Are you sure about this, Cait?"

Caitlin nodded, pulling her hands down from her neck. She held the necklace in front of her, watching the snowflake spin around before dropping it to her pocket. "I've never been more sure of anything in my life. Even if it doesn't work, at least we've tried."

"Famous last words," Cadence joked.

"I should warn you though," Caitlin started, moving up to Cadence's side. "This is going to hurt."

Cadence smiled wryly. "You or me?"

Caitlin returned the smile with a wry one of her own. "Both."

Cadence nodded. She took in a deep breath, focused on her fire power and started to create a flame above her hand. It grew by the second. Bigger and bigger. Then, with her left hand, Cadence ran her fingertips along the side of it, as if using the hand to spin a record. The fire continued to grow, twisting and turning as it stretched into the sky. Higher and higher it went, with Cadence and Caitlin tilting their heads back, watching as it came closer to the missiles that equally moved closer to them.

Caitlin waited until Harry's voice came through her Comm. Link. "The missiles are right on target, Snow," he said. "If you're going to do something, now is the time." He paused. "Be careful." She nodded and threw her hands forward. The vapor on her hands stretched forward like fingertips.

Once in contact with Cadence's fire, the two gasped at the burning sensation that stretched up their hands. The ice continued to shoot around the fire tornado, stretching into the sky. One of the missiles, that came too close to the ice-fire tornado reacted immediately. It's sides simultaneous caved in and imploded. It spiraled off into the air before falling apart, frozen pieces of metal concurrently melted, re-froze, and melted until noting but a vapor remained.

While the exhilaration of taking out one missile flowed through the fire and ice metahumans, Cadence and Caitlin found themselves unable to not wince in pain as each other's powers affected them.

"Keep going!" Harry encouraged them.

"There's five more missiles to take on," Iris added. "You can do this."

Cadence looked to Caitlin and nodded. Caitlin nodded back and, at the same time, they put more energy into their powers.

Grodd and Solovar raced to each other and were immediately locked into battle. They threw each other into nearby buildings, quickly following right behind. Reaching the roof, it was a melee of punches and kicks that knocked each other backward, giving them each the upper hand. Until, finally, Solovar knocked Grodd to the ground. Solovar leapt down after him, knocked Grodd to his back. He thumped his chest, alerting the other gorillas to stand down.

Brady, Leah, Wally, Jesse, Jay, and Oliver watched in surprise as the gorillas immediately stopped attacking. At the same time, they backed a few paces away and lowered themselves to one knee. Their heads bowed, as if watching a royal majesty walk by.

It was then that Cisco, finally, received the upper hand on the female breacher. As soon as Grodd fell to the ground, her head dropped forward, her arms falling to her sides. Grodd's hold on her hand been broken. Unfortunately, it wasn't in enough time for Cisco to stop his last vibrational attack toward her. He thrust his fist toward her.

She reacted quickly and shot out her own fist. Her vibrational blast, which was red compared to Cisco's blue, struck him in the stomach, knocking him onto his back. She leapt after him, grabbing him by the lapels of his jacket.

"Ooh, girl!" Cisco cried, gasping for air. "You done did it, now!"

"Who are you?" The girl asked. She snarled into Cisco's face. "Where am I? What'd you do to me?" She continued to shake him, pulling him closer to her face. "How did I get here? I was on Earth-2, what did you do?"

"How about we answer each of your questions when you're not squeezing my neck?" Cisco wheezed. She removed her hands form his neck, allowing him to, painfully, drop back to the ground.

Solovar ambled toward Grodd, spinning his spear in his hand. Now that Grodd was down, he didn't need to move quickly for the kill. He was going to make Grodd's death slow and painful.

/Goodbye, Grodd,/ Solovar picked up his spear and posted it over his head. He looked down at Grodd, who glared defiantly back at him, and practically smiled. His lips pulled back from his teeth in a grotesque, hellish smile of success. He'd won. Solovar started to throw his spear toward Grodd's heart, stopping only when Barry zipped in front of him.

Barry threw up his hands, seconds away from his palms being impaled by the tip of the spear. "Stop!" Barry cried desperately. Solovar glared back at him, slowly lowering his arm. "Stop…" Barry licked his lips. "Death isn't the way."

Solovar snorted. His eyes shifted behind Barry to Grodd, who glared back at him, not moving from his position of defeat. /He betrayed me,/

"I know." Slowly, Barry lowered his hands, feeling he was no longer in danger. "So leave him here, where he's from." Solovar growled but listened to what Barry had to say. Oliver and Brady took a step forward, pulling up their bow and arrow and slingshot respectively, ready to take on any gorillas that moved to take Barry down. "We won't let him go back to gorilla city ever again. Just spare his life like yours was spared."

Solovar nodded. He motioned to Cisco and the female breacher. /Send us home,/ he declared. /All of us./ He lifted his spear and stamped it on the ground. All at once, the gorillas surged to their feet and stood, waiting to be sent back to Earth-2.

"Yeah, I'm not touching that one with a ten-foot-pole," Cisco said. He threw up his hand and opened a breach. The female speedster noticed the size of it and snorted, making a show of opening a bigger one that, when combined with Cisco's, was wide enough to let all the gorillas back to.

Leah let out a sigh of relief when the breach closed. "That's all the gorillas."

"We can't celebrate yet," Oliver said. He nodded to the top of STAR Labs where the ice-fire tornado continued to cyclone in the sky. "Not until all the missiles are taken down."

Cadence felt her body starting to grow exhausted the longer she and Caitlin used their powers to stop the missiles. They had three down and within seconds took down another two. The last one was the one that escaped their grasp. A fail-safe mechanism as it were. It seemed to dance out of their grasp every time they tried to turn the ice-fire tornado to take it down.

"This isn't working," Caitlin said. She gasped for air, a sheen of sweat appearing on her forehead. Her eyes continued to clash from brown to blue, changing as the seconds passed. A streak of blonde appeared at the front of her hair. And yet, as she spoke, her words were still filled with the warmth that only Caitlin could exude. "We have to get higher."

"I'm trying," Cadence said. Another burst of flame had her short of screaming with effort.

"No." Caitlin shook her head solemnly. She swallowed hard. "We have to get higher. Higher up in the atmosphere and the lack of heat higher up will cause an increase in the vacuum of thermals that'll take out the last missile."

Cadence looked at Caitlin as if she were crazy. In her mind, more ice meant more chance of Killer Frost coming out. And for someone who tried her hardest to keep Killer Frost from coming out, Caitlin certainly was doing her best to make it a possibility. And if she were trying to make Killer Frost come out…maybe it was time for her to make on that promise she'd made to her.

"If I ever become Killer Frost…I need you to kill me."

Caitlin flicked her wrist and created an icy path that stretched toward the sky. She leapt atop it and started to surf the ice upward.

"Cait!" Cadence lowered her hands and did the same, following a fire trail into the air. Caitlin and Cadence streaked toward the last missile that rocketed toward Central City. The higher then went, the more Cadence felt herself started to slow down. With less oxygen in the air as they went, the fuel it gave her fire. "Caitlin!"

Caitlin, on the other hand, continued to grow stronger as she went. So much so that the further she moved, the longer her brown eyes stayed blue. Every few seconds, Caitlin would close her eyes and turn her head aside, shaking off the presence of Killer Frost. Her hair slowly, very slowly started to turn blonde.

Finally, the two reached the missile and moved aside as it shot past. Turning around, they followed it, streaking toward Central City. At the same time, the threw out their hands. Minutes passed as seconds, their powers working together for the missile to reach triple point. Finally, one side sank in.

The missile spiraled through the air, twisting and turning out of their grasp to take it down. It continued to spiral, little blasts of fire and ice catching it on its sides. "Come on, come on," Caitlin murmured. She pushed harder, willing herself to slide faster. She came closer and closer to the missile, throwing out ice as she went.

Cadence followed, teleporting when she fell behind, working her powers to their full extent to keep up. Finally, she reached Caitlin's side, and, at the same time, they threw blasts of their powers forward. Fire and ice engulfed the missile. Rather than the missile exploding as the others had, with one side of it already damaged, it twisted and turned, falling further and further, streaking past Central City and towards the forest area where it struck the ground and exploded in a bright light.

"Yes!" Barry cheered from the ground, punching the air. Relief washed over him so quickly it left him exhausted. Seconds before he felt nothing but a shot of adrenaline.

Caitlin smiled to herself, pulling herself up to a stop. Then her eyes fell closed and her hands fell lifelessly to her sides. The ice path beneath her vanished and she fell toward the ground, falling head over heels as she went.

"Cait!" Cadence turned and teleported after her. Unfortunately, her reach wasn't as far as it once had been. As cold as it was further up in the atmosphere, she didn't have as much energy to bring herself to move further, faster. And yet, Cadence continued to propel herself toward her falling friend, frantically trying to reach her.

"Cisco!" Cadence cried, desperation more than evident in her voice. She continued to watch Caitlin fall toward the roof of STAR Labs. If they didn't get to her in time, no matter her metahuman capabilities, it'd be a nasty collision. "Open a breach!"

Cisco punched forward, focusing his energy on a singular breach. A smaller one opened just above the roof of STAR Labs. But with Caitlin's falling over and over, he could see it would be difficult to determine where she would land and if he could breach her through in time.

"I can't, she's too far away," Cisco cried, lowering his hands.

Barry thought for a moment. "Not just one," he said. "Multiple. Open as many of them as you can."

Cisco looked at him in confusion. Then he understood, if he opened enough breaches, it'd give him the chance to maneuver Caitlin's fall so that they could catch her. A 'hall of breaches' that he and Cadence had worked out but hadn't put into practice within his training. Cisco sucked in a deep breath, steadying himself. Come on, man, you can do this. He threw open a breach with one hand, then with the other threw open another.

And another.

And another.

And another.

Soon, the sky was filled with breaches. Caitlin fell through the first one, came spiraling out of a second, horizontal one nearby, and immediately dropped through a third. Over and over, Caitlin fell through the breaches, coming closer to STAR Labs' roof with Cadence following close behind her. As she came closer, Barry grabbed onto Cisco and sped them to STAR Labs' roof.

They landed in a crouch, immediately craning their neck upwards. Then Barry was off, racing up one of the four spires on STAR Labs' roof. He pumped his arms and legs, forcing himself up as high and hard as he could. "Come on, come on," Barry murmured, feeling himself starting to slow. And yet he pushed as hard as he could. He raced off the top of the spire and through the air, stretching out his arms. At the right moment, Caitlin dropped form a breach overhead and landed in Barry's arms.

His projection took him to slide down the face of the spire opposite his. Stretching out his foot, he slid down toward Cisco, kneeling in the middle of the roof. A flash of light in front of him found Cadence, surrounded by an aura of fire, landing on another spire and slid down the face of it as well.

The two came to a stop in the center of STAR Lab's roof where Cisco waited for them, palms placed on the concrete as he fought to catch his breath. Drops of blood stained the concrete below him, nevertheless his first concern was Caitlin, who lay quietly in Barry's arms. He studied her face, then his eyes shifted to the blonde streak in her hair, then back to her face.

"Is…is she?" He started to ask.

Cadence reached out, pressing her fingers to Caitlin's neck. She shook her head. "I've got a pulse," she said. At her words, a low moan escaped Caitlin's lips, her eyelids twitching.

Barry let out a wheezing laugh of relief. Cisco smiled over at Barry and Cadence before opening his arms. The four—though one was unconscious-came together in a group hug.

They did it.

A/N: This was probably the most POVs I've ever had a chapter bounce around, but I hope it was still easy to follow and enjoyable. It had to work that way or else there wasn't much that'd make sense if it played in a more linear fashion.

Cheers,

-Riley