"Now say it back to me. C'mon, my little puppet." Puppetmaster smiled, his eyes still flashing the same optical illusion into Iris' eyes. They were sitting in another all white room, this time with no bodyguards. The Puppetmaster sat in a fold-up chair, and across the 30 feet room was Iris. She was hooked up to an IV filled with a toxic pink liquid. It was pumping directly into her neck. She stared blankly at Puppetmaster and her eyes were the same optical illusion as Puppetmaster's eyes. She had been changed into an all white jumpsuit, and her dark hair was tied into a high ponytail. The Puppetmaster was in a red suit and black and red spiral tie, with a black shirt underneath the jacket. His curly hair had been slicked down. He looked at Iris with an angry expression, his eyes still in an optical illusion. He glared at her. "Say it, now!"
"My name is Marionette. My master is The Puppetmaster. I have no family. The Flash is my enemy. The Flash must be stopped. The Puppetmaster is good." Iris said. There was absolutely nothing in her expression. Puppetmaster smiled and began to say something else, until there was a knock on the door. Puppetmaster growled and his eyes stopped flashing the illusion. Iris' eyes also faded from the illusion and turned back to their regular dark brown selves. The Puppetmaster panicked and snapped his fingers in Iris' direction. Her head fell, and she went into a deep sleep. The pink liquid continued to pump into her veins. The Puppetmaster smugly walked to the door and opened it. The man outside the door had light brown hair and bright green eyes. He was tan, and was wearing an all brown suit.
"What do you want?" Puppetmaster asked. The man in the brown suit grinned.
"We are ready, Master. All things are a go. Your plan is going exactly as scheduled. We will be able to attack in a few hours. Also, your little puppet's costume came in." The man in the brown suit stated. Puppetmaster laughed. The man in the brown suit chuckled and dragged in a coat rack with a couple articles of clothing on it. A blonde wig was also on the coat rack. The man in the brown suit stood hands behind his back in front of the door, observing Puppetmaster's reaction.
"Yes. This will work perfectly. It will hide her identity and provide armor. Remember, servant, this first attack will be to simply intimidate The Flash. After we send Marionette on him, we hit him with a shocker. That will be when you get us out. Understand?" Puppetmaster directed. The man in the brown suit nodded.
"Of course, master. The Flash hasn't seen anything like us before."
Cisco directed Ralph and Caitlin to different places around the city. Caitlin was going to take Jitters and the loft. Ralph was supposed to take the West House and the old Allen house. Cisco was taking the police station and Infantino Street. Cisco thought Infantino Street might have been a good place to check because the last time Iris went missing like this. It was now 5 in the morning, and still no one had any clue where Barry was. They had checked everywhere, with no sign or clue. However Caitlin found strange liquid and blood at the loft, but they couldn't identify what the pink liquid was or whose blood it was. Worse off, Joe had called Cisco and Caitlin 5 times. He even texted them. They all decided to ignore until they found Barry. They already had enough problems on their hands. They met back up at S.T.A.R. Labs to try to maybe vibe Barry or to track him with the satellite. They went back to where they started, sitting down and wondering where the heck Barry was. Ralph yawned. Cisco rubbed his eyes.
"Guys what are we doing?" Caitlin questioned. They looked back at her while she gathered samples of the things she found at the loft from the lab. She set them down on a desk and started typing on the computer. Cisco, who was sitting at the main monitors put his head in his hands. Ralph, who was leaning up against the wall by the lab, cocked his eyebrow.
"Is she going to start or…" He inquired. She glared at him, then continued typing. An image of a masked supervillain, with the name Thorn next to him, and an image of Iris popped up. She pointed at the pictures and frowned.
"These are the two that are really missing. First of all, I found a blood sample." She held up the blood sample. "And we have no idea whose it is. Second, Iris could be in real danger. She is part of this team and I find it hard to believe that we are just worrying about Barry." Cisco and Ralph fidgeted and frowned guiltily. "Last, Thorn, a murderer, is still missing. We need to find him too."
"What do you suppose we do then, Caitlin? We all saw there are no signs of Barry, Iris, or Thorn anywhere." Ralph retorted. He pushed his head against the wall and closed his eyes. Caitlin looked at Cisco and shrugged. Cisco rubbed his eyes again. All of a sudden, a burst of yellow-orange lightning filled their eyes. It was Barry. He stood in the middle of the room, his head down. He was still in casual clothes. All three of the others lifted their heads and smiled. Cisco ran to him.
"Barry! Where were you? We've been looking for you everywhere." He wondered. He stood right in front of Barry now, but Barry didn't say anything or notice that he was there. Cisco looked at him in confusion, and the other two looked at him in worry.
"Barry?" Caitlin called. Her voice was timid, and she picked up the samples of the pink liquid and the blood. At last, Barry lifted his head. He had horrible bags under his eyes and his mouth seemed like they would never not scowl. "I found these samples at your loft. I couldn't get a definite match on the blood, and I have no idea what this liquid is."
"The match is Hector Gafoy." Barry said, looking at the screen holding Thorn and Iris' image. He lingered on Iris' smiling face for a second, then looked back at Caitlin's samples. Caitlin looked shocked, and then worried. Cisco looked genuinely impressed, and Ralph just kept looking at Barry's face. "He's been locked up at CCPD several times, but he went off the grid a couple of months ago. This is his picture." He put a picture of Hector in Cisco's hands. The man was built physically larger, and he was extremely tall. His face was large, square, and had lots of scars. His hair was buzzed and he looked extremely menacing. Cisco passed the photo around. He went back to Barry with a remorseful face.
"You okay, man?" He questioned, putting his arm on Barry's. Barry grimaced, while Caitlin watched them from the other side of the room, while Ralph was commenting on Hector's big biceps.
"No. I'm not." Barry replied, and he walked to the lab. Cisco stood in the same place, defeated. Caitlin walked over to him. Barry stood in the lab looking at Caitlin's sample of the pink liquid versus his.
"I think he just needs some space, Cisco." Caitlin assured. Cisco nodded and walked over to Ralph, who was now stretching his biceps to look bigger. After a few moments of observing, Barry walked back into the cortex with both the samples in his hands. He broke the glass on Caitlin's sample and rubbed it on himself.
"Whoa, man, what are you doing?" Cisco yelled. Both Caitlin and Ralph had looks of intense confusion and fear. Caitlin ran into the lab for a cure to whatever substance Barry had just exposed to his body.
"We need to figure out what this is, and to do that we need to figure out what it does!" Barry explained. Caitlin ran up to him with a syringe of clear liquid and pushed it into a vein. "Caitlin, what are you doing? This is the only way to figure out what effects it has!" He tried to wiggle his arm out of her grasp, but it was like stone. She handed the empty syringe to Ralph, who promptly put it in the trash.
"Not like this Barry. Who knows if that could have killed you?" Caitlin retorted. The room quickly became intense and filled with silence, until the sirens went off. Red lights flashed all around the room.
"Robbery on 8th." Stated Cisco.
"It's only quarter to 6, who would be robbing this early?" Ralph asked. Caitlin shrugged and looked at the monitors. She pulled up the security cameras. It showed 6 blurry figures in a triangle formation standing in the street.
"We need to go, now." Cisco instructed. He looked at Barry. "Can you help us?" Barry nodded while frowning, and sped out of the room. His suit was missing from the manequin. Cisco opened a breach for himself and Ralph.
"I'll stay here and check up on things." Caitlin told. She walked to the main monitors, observing the people at the bank. She thought of how Killer Frost could go and help them, if she wasn't missing. Caitlin shook the idea from her mind and tried to use facial recognition on the blurry faces.