Machinations
Earth One
Breach alert.
Breach alert.
The last thing that the doctor needed, looking up from her never-ending paperwork to the flashing yellow lights spinning around the cortex, computer monitors flashing their warnings in the normal fashion that made her already tired eyes burn in the brightness. Not to mention the whistle that came into her com, the silent alarm to not alert the intruder about the fact that they knew of their presence. Of course, some people at Star Labs wanted a blaring siren going off, mostly Barry so he could get back quickly to see who it was.
However, Barry just went home to his wife with a phone call saying she wanted, no needed, some donuts and some Chinese food.
Iris was pregnant, that's for sure, and in her second trimester was making poor Barry run even to Star City for some of the delicious Thai food she would enjoy when they visited their friend Oliver Queen.
Not to mention little Lindy was with Caitlin all night so that Iris could get a little rest. The beautiful little girl who never met her father had fallen asleep on the couch in what used to be Cisco's office. Often when Barry agreed to babysit with his double life, the doctor was the one to watch the little girl. She didn't mind at all although the child didn't realize it, she kept her company through some long lonely nights.
She peeked in on her, smiling softly as she shut the door, locking it for her own safety until the warning was over.
"Sleep well," she whispered before almost running down the hallway, the flashing lights and buzzing in her ear an ever-constant reminder of the warning.
Breach Alert.
Yes, she got it. After DeVoe, there was even more of a need to put on this surge of power alert into everything at Star Labs. It wouldn't matter who made the breach, good or bad, the alarm would still go off, and although it was just completed last week with help of Ray and Felicity, it was already irritating her tremendously. But better safe than sorry, right?
Hurrying to the breaching room her hair slowly started to change from the beautiful chestnut color to the blank white, her blue eyes flickering to life as she opened the room raising her hands. If there was an intruder, she was ready.
"Whoa!" Came a familiar voice as her hand lowered, his hands raising.
"Cisco?" A smile spread to her lips as her hair slowly turned back looking at her soaking wet friend.
"Hey ya, Cait, sorry I was out breaching around and I got stuck in a lightning storm so decided to come where I was guaranteed a cup of coffee" he looked down shaking his hands flicking water all over the floor " and some dry clothes. "
" Didn't feel like being a lightning rod?" She grinned going to him, her arms wrapping around his shoulders for a brief hug, but a slightly unpleasant look crossed her face as his soaked clothes slowly seeped water into her teal sweater.
"Argh." she said in half disgust although any change to hug her friend for the past so many years was just too undeniably important, and she would do it again in a heartbeat.
A slight smile came to his face as he took off his sparking goggles, his H.U.D flickering with his final message to Felicity, asking if they were okay and he was going to breach back to e1 until it was safe again. Her answer was long and rambling, flickering across his vision in green words, only enough visible through his broken glasses to know they were okay and she would see him soon.
Something about Harry in the rain and this Amy was safe with them going...or staying...
The message was too long and his dying glasses couldn't take it. Right now star labs sweats and coffee was all he wanted. He would fix it later.
" How's your leg doing?" Kat asked her friend when he got out of his office bathroom with new clothes on, a towel going through his hair to dry it as her hand went through the hair of the little girl who was still blissfully asleep but now facing the other way.
" Great thanks. I don't feel a day over fifty or so, " he said in a soft murmur following his friend out of his office and into the hallway once more.
" Still no mystery woman huh?" She smiled, her head and hands in the break room refrigerator fishing out leftover Thai food from lunch and putting it into the microwave for him only a few minutes later.
" No... maybe she isn't real; but I swear Kat, it's like she was there right after Sara left... but I barely remember Sara being there. " his fingers went automatically to the coffee pot, his favorite mug left beside it for his visits.
" I know what you mean. They said they came to get something back to the right time, but I don't remember them coming, which is odd right? " flinching when she got the bowl out of the beeping machine she blew on her fingers, icy breath cooling what she found out the hard way was way too hot.
Cisco stared at her a moment, his muscles instantly flinching, which the ever observant doctor didn't fail to recognize.
" is she after you again? "
"This time, it wasn't me. I don't remember what happened much after my leg disappeared... and even less about being here. I remember coming, the pain, then nothing. Next thing I remember you are making sure I am steady enough to walk on my own, hovering over me like a mother hen with a fox around. "
"Must be the medication I had to put you on?" she said, assuring him it was okay to forget although she couldn't figure out herself the time she was missing as well.
" Always there for me though, you fixed me up right like you always do" he studied his best friends face a moment, noticing himself the bewildered look followed by a slightly confused smile " it's blank for you too, isn't it?"
" Has to be sleep deprivation. I'm sure of it. For some reason Barry has been using Killer Frost a lot while he goes out, she's backing him up more then I have behind the computer. But iris did get that job she wanted at the newspaper "
" Well, " he started, running his hand through his damp hair sitting down, his curls bouncing right back to where they framed his face " That's great to hear. Maybe she can help everyone else out more with a high position "
"And she's having a baby, two actually"
Now a grin couldn't help but spread over the Breachers face.
" Really?! That's fantastic. " it's about time they became parents "
"Right on schedule " she chuckled, her gaze fixed a moment on the calendar.
November 17, 2020.
In five years they had to stop the fate that Gideon showed them years ago. But for now, they sat as friends, sharing stories of their heroic and less than heroic lifestyles. Just like old times.
Somewhere on Earth 19
White hair sweeping in the rain, Killer Frost dodged her way through the darkness, swirling and spiraling on inky murk that was only illuminated by flashes of ferocity and light. She was almost there. This storm was an obnoxious surprise and more than anything she wanted to finish the job she started with the new head of the collection agency. That Vibe was so annoying. Her blue lip curled up in spite at the thought as her focus went from what she set out to do today to the insignificant throne in her side that kept trying to call her Caitlin and say there was good in her. She hated this whole earth and anyone that thought she shouldn't reign it with her new husband. She was doing this for him while he, powerless, was off trying to make a better life for her.
Soon they would have what they needed, and together they would be out of this miserable little wedge of hell.
"There's my girl" a heavy coated figure smiled at her, sunglasses on his face until her heels clicked on the concrete stepping off the ice slide.
"Hey baby, get what we need?" She smiled as he removed his glasses, his icy blue eyes staring right into hers before their lips met.
That was the only thing warm about Killer Frost or her partner in crime and life, Captain Cold. Two hearts beating warmly for only each other, the world their snowy playground and the heroes at the Collection Agency only the warm sun to melt away their fun.
"Yes I believe I did," he said as they parted, turning as he pulled a dusty sheet off of a huge painting with some gaudy flair only he could pull off. "Behold one of the ugliest paintings in the whole world. "
Killer Frost crossed her arms looking rather unimpressed at the huge all-white canvas with one blue stripe going from top to bottom, not even in the center, and one thin strip of gold on the right side.
"That better be real gold " she practically hissed, unbelieving she just cut the power to most of the city so he could take a kindergarten of a picture and haul it unseen by the city cameras down the street.
"Actually. No. It's called White Fire. Not at all attractive but it's the first of many we need. You see... I was going through all the art I have seen, and some I have taken through the years and remembered this one. These two stripes are worth over three million dollars. "
"So we're selling them?" She inquired stepping closer to it, looking it over as if some message was hidden within the ugliness and then to the man beside her.
A small chuckle developed in the air in front of him, more seen than heard in the cold dark air illuminated by a singular spotlight.
"We are going bigger, " he whispered, " don't be so small minded."
"Excuse me?" She whipped her head toward him hating people calling her simple or small-minded her hair flowing around her like freshly fallen snow the underside of it a dark blue, wanting to change it up a bit from what Vibe told her Caitlin looked like on his earth. No way was she like her.
"Calm down my ice queen." he grinned "your beautiful work of distracting Mr. Ramon and taking out the power was perfect and led me not just to one of these paintings, but three others. For years they thought there was only four in the set."
Killer Frost crossed her arms watching her overeager boyfriend take off the other sheets from the paintings, each white with only blue and gold lines, one with only two red lines that crossed in the middle.
"Are they flags?" she asked, almost in a whisper thinking out loud more then telling the man in front of her who was looking over each one as if he himself was trying to figure them out.
"No, not really. The man that did these was in the Collection Agency, as a prisoner. When he was there they put him in cryogenics although I'm sure the idiots believed that serving a long sentence frozen was a humane way of doing things, they failed to realize the most important part of him was still there. His mind."
"He looks insane if you ask me. I could do these when I was four," she said a little louder, her voice echoing in the middle of the large warehouse over the loud crackle of the violent storm outside and the generator that had the singular light on that illuminated the four worse paintings she ever saw.
"There's beauty in the simple," he said, taking one of the canvasses and pushing it behind the first one, then the ones with the horizontal lines behind that one, finally the ones with the red lines crossing behind of them. "This man was awake the whole time, heard what they said, every word of it. He found out there was a Collection Vault where all things taken from the criminals they took in were housed. Of course, they are given back when you get out."
"So..." a grin crossed her face as she watched him roll the spotlight behind the canvasses that were lined up like a close-knit line of soldiers, all the colors from each one shining through to the front "So all the money and rings and weapons and anything all those poor saps have is stored in a vault."
"Right sweetness." he said coming to her again and holding up a map of the city "And he drew us a map. These are roads to where, I believe, the vault is."
She looked at the lines that indeed looked like roads, the golden lines the underground subway system that was long flooded out and deemed not worth fixing on the stormy planet.
"And the last painting is the X that marks the spot?" She looked at him her blue eyes glowing in the faint light that illuminated the paintings.
"X never marks the spot, but yes, so to speak. Problem is no one knows where it is or didn't think it was part of a series."
"Then." Frost said putting her hands behind her back and turning to the door. "when the storm is over I'll go get some cute little dress and do my hair."
"Although I love seeing you in cute little dresses, why?" he inquired his plan was to figure out through the underground where the last painting will be, and he never wanted her with him unless having a beautiful woman would sway those he talked to in one way or another.
"There are three art shows that have been advertised for weeks, even if they aren't the main exhibit, that means..."
"Huge crowds we can go as socialites." he finished for her chuckling as a snowball hit his chest. She hated when he interrupted her which made it all the more fun to do so.
"Now if this storm would stop. It's really bad out there," she said simply opening the door to the warehouse, a small shed about three steps away.
Waiting for a flash of lightning and the deafening crack before she made her small jog into to the next building her hair stood on end. Finally, they had a plan to destroy those that could take them on. With all the people that were captured, each of them with their own tech to take down their worse enemies that went under the name of the C.A., her and her soon to be husband could stop living in this dump and go where they belonged. One of those fancy mansions on the other side of town, drinking champagne and watching the fireplace. Actually, forget the fireplace.
The next morning, at the Collection Agency.
"Good morning," Felicity said over her coffee cup to a frazzled Harry Wells, who was walking beside a very tired looking Amy. The storm last night was enough to keep anyone awake, anyone but the pretty blond who was at the table with her pink coffee cup.
"Good morning Miss Smoak," he replied simply as he poured himself and their new friend a cup of coffee, handing it to the woman who sat beside Felicity.
"How you sleep well?" Amy said taking her cup with a nod of thanks a yawn escaping her bruised lip as she inhaled deeply through a bandaged nose, the noise it making like a gurgling instead of much else.
"These," she said opening her purse up after gathering it from the floor, pulling out two small circles of foam. "They are from Palmer Tech. I met Ray a few months ago and he sent these to me in the mail last week. They help with people who are insomniac, like I am, and ever since I have just slept so well, nothing bothers me."
"We all need a pair of those for these nights that are too stormy around here. Plus I think Sean snores, very quickly."
"I do not." a voice said, suddenly behind him before the wind of his arrival hit the three at the table.
Amy chuckled as he sat beside her a cup of coffee in his hand.
"Felicity." started Harry very slowly, looking at the tech in her hand then back to her. "Do you have this, Mr. Palmer's, phone number? Once communications are up I think we should have a talk. I have a little project that I think could be a huge project if we have the right team on it."
"Yes of course I do. I'm sure he would be very interested in your notebook."
"My notebook?" the man inquired until Sean slid it over from the center of the table where it was kept. "Oh yes, my notebook."
Harry smiled picking it up. He could always count on his new friends to help him out, although his mind didn't always connect the dots. Cisco was right, being here with them he felt like he belonged. Although he went home to see Jessie, his daughter, once in a while, they always made sure he remembered to come back. He could do a lot for them and they all saw it. Sometimes being scatterbrained is a sign of a greater genius anyway.
Sean's hand landed on Amy's shoulder.
"How are you doing?" he smiled kindly to her, the smell of his special coffee lingering around him. Triple the caffeine and half the taste he always said.
"I okay. Work will anger I not there."
"We will deal with your work. Don't you worry about that. You cant get fired if you were under our care, its the law."
Amy nodded wanting to ask him about his wife and if he had any children, but decided against it. When they were good enough friends, he would tell her. Maybe.
"Thank you," she replied, sipping the warmness of the coffee which was real, not the black tea they served at the diner. This was deep and rich, black swirling goodness with the under-taste of bitterness, and drinking it with these new friends of hers was the perfect thing to do, but the longing of home was too great. She had to make sure her cat was okay from the storm, or that her apartment was even still standing. The chances of fires that took out whole neighborhoods was a real threat, sometimes nature was more of a threat than some of any human.
"Go home?" she asked, not wanting to leave the comfort of their company.
Sean stood up and went to the door looking out, his arms folded across his chest as if for a few moments he was in thought, staring into the never-ending rain that always was soaking the planet.
She loved the rain...
"It's just raining like normal." he said simply, pushing the thoughts of his wife out of his head for the time being, if not he would stare and think of her forever. "are you sure you want to go already?"
A simple nod was enough for the speedster, and in an impulse of scintillating purple light, they were gone.
At the same moment another luminescence, this one blue, came from the platform above. A crate of coffee appearing first being pushed through by the leader of the Collection Agency in Star Lab's sweatpants and a simple grey t-shirt.
"Good morning everyone." Cisco smiled looking around half expecting the place to be partly destroyed, but the solid building stood strong.
Felicity sat up, her eyes darting from at him then at the door. He missed her again.