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"In here!" Cisco called as he heard a rustle come from the hallway. In handcuffs was the breacher, a sizable shiner on his face from Wally. Joe and HR held his arms and pulled him forward, Julian in front, a taser in his hand, the other resting on the gun at his belt, and Wally bringing up the rear.
Caitlin and Iris stood near Cisco, both of them ready behind the control panels to monitor. Iris eyed the meta human with pure rage.
"Put him there," Cisco pointed to a chair in the center of the room with clamps to tie down his wrists and ankles.
The meta muffled something inaudible behind the tape covering his mouth and Joe ripped it off mercilessly
"Ahh," the meta laughed, "getting a little kinky, are we?"
"Quiet!" Joe yelled.
HR and him seated the meta human in the chair, Julian on standby with his taser aimed directly at his chest in case he tried to pull a fast one.
"So..." the meta continued, "this is the Flash team? Looks like you're missing a member.."
"You can go about this the easy or the hard way," Julian's voice was calm but dangerous, "tell us where he is."
"That over-advertised stuntman you call a hero?" he scoffed, "Please, he's just a fraud who gives money to businesses willing to use his name. I'm the real guy with the powers here!"
"The Flash has put away countless meta-humans like you," Iris interjected.
"Iris," Joe soothed. He didn't want her to get involved, for her to be the next target.
"Well, aren't you pretty," he eyed her hungrily, "you the Flash's girl?"
"Enough!" Wally raised his voice, "Last chance, tell us where he is!"
"No."
"Fine," he pursed his lips, "Cisco?" he looked at the young engineer.
He felt a flutter of nervousness in his stomach but Caitlin gave him a supportive nod. He had to do this. Cisco placed the glasses over his eyes and sat across from the meta human looking at him warily.
"Wait...you're the other breacher? You? Ha! This'll be a piece of cake-ah!"
Cisco closed his eyes and placed a hand on the meta-human's knee. Reality disappeared around him as he saw himself delving into the breacher's mind. Flashes of memories passed through, even some of the future as well, from the powerful vibe.
Focus, Cisco, find Barry.
He tried to pinpoint a certain location to where he could find Barry when he felt a powerful, painful ache rack through his brain. The meta was fighting back, and he was fighting hard.
Caitlin surged forward when she saw Cisco started to visibly shake, eyes closed and face slack. The meta was the relatively the same as before, but she saw stress lines etched into his forehead.
"What's happening?" Julian was at her side.
'I don't know," she opened one of Cisco's closed eyelids and flashed a penlight into his glassy pupil, "no reaction to light." HR and Joe helped separate the two. They dragged Cisco from his chair and lay him up against the wall as the meta-human lay listless in his chair, eyes closed.
"Caitlin, he's gonna be okay, right?" Wally looked at her with a nervous expression on his face, "H-how are we gonna find Barry otherwise?"
"Guys, he's not waking up," Iris looked at her dad, "we don't know what's happening between them, but we need to figure out some alternatives."
"Alternatives?" Julian turned around, "This was our only option!"
"Hey, calm down," Joe held up a hand, defending his daughter, "I'm just as worried as you are, Julian, but we need to work as a team."
He ran a hand through his hair, "Sorry, Iris…"
"HR," Caitlin looked at the Earth-19 Wells, "Go up in the cortex, look for any other breach activity."
"On it," he turned tail and sprinted out of the cortex with Wally in close pursuit.
"I'm gonna go see if the precinct's pulled anything up," he looked at Cisco with sadness in his eyes, "besides…I can't watch this."
Caitlin and Iris were holding Cisco's shoulders down as he would randomly flinch at times, pain lines etched into his face. The meta sometimes did as well as they didn't realize the mental battle between them.
There was a internal stalemate going on between the two. Cisco was fighting and the meta-human was fighting and that left them trapped in a perpetual state until one gave out finally.
"Come on, Cisco," Julian mumbled to himself, back turned on the two girls, "come on."
"What is it, Winn?" Henshaw came strolling into the cortex, his figure rigid.
"Over here," he pointed at the monitor before him, "I've got something."
"Show me."
"Here," he pointed at a grainy image on the screen. It was a photo of a breach, a close-up image of a figure standing on the other side of the wormhole.
"Are you telling me that that's…"
"Yeah!" Winn looked at him excitedly, "It's the meta-human that sent Barry to this Earth!"
"Excellent," Henshaw nodded in approval, "how can we reach him?"
"I'm still trying to figure that part out," Winn's shoulders sagged slightly, "I'm trying to analyze the figures of the wormhole, but the power seems different from when Cisco created one from Star Labs."
"How so?"
"This power percentage is different, more…raw. Like it was not artificial, but naturally made."
"So this meta-human has abilities to make tears in dimensions," Henshaw replayed that through his head, "immense power like that and it's fallen into the wrong hands."
"Just our luck," Winn scoffed, "I'm gonna contact Kara, see if she's found anything."
"Winn?"
"Yes, sir?"
"You said artificially made…what do you mean by that?"
"Well, Cisco Ramon has the ability but he channels his 'vibes' to make the breaches with a device. This meta-human can do it without one."
Henshaw mulled over the information, "Is it possible to find someone with these types of powers on our Earth? We are a version of their Earth and their people after all."
The gears started turning in Winn's head, "Not entirely impossible," he nodded, "I think I can give it a shot with the right tools and data."
"Tell me what you need."
"I need to know who that is on the other side of the wormhole," he pointed to the screen.
"Why?"
"His chromosomal structures, his protein codes, hair follicles, anything to narrow down the search results. Therefore, we know what pool of people to search in order to find a possible match."
"Can't we find some remnant at the occurrence spot?"
"Any data at the scene is probably all too scattered by now."
"No need," Henshaw smiled, "I've just the thing."
"What?"
"Rather who…"
"Barry Allen," Winn smiled excitedly, "Perfect! He fought with the guy, he jumped right through that wormhole! There has to be some remnant of it still attached to him! I'll get my tools!"
"I'm off to find Kara and Mon-El, see what we can do," he left Winn to his new experiment.
The meta-human gasped awake, eyes shooting open as Cisco's eyes fluttered open as well.
"Get me out of this thing!" the breacher struggled, panic and anger rising as he struggled to escape his restraints.
"Cisco!" Caitlin shot forward, "What happened?"
"You okay, mate?" Julian was at his side.
Cisco tried to sit up, a little woozy, then fell back down, "I-I think I'm okay…relatively."
"Did you get it, did you find him?" Iris prompted.
Cisco felt the ground shake underneath his feet, like he was teetering on a merry-go-round.
"Cisco?" Caitlin's voice sounded distant and distorted.
His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he collapsed. Julian was there to catch him, taken by surprise.
"Quick, help me get him upstairs!"
Iris ran to the meta-human, "What the hell happened?!"
"I-I don't know!" This time, he was being genuine, no tricks.
"Liar!"
"Really!" He felt his blood rushing and a feeling of claustrophobia strapped down to the chair like this. His vision started to blur, his own balance off, and his sight swimming with black dots. He saw Cisco's glasses slide off his nose and hit the floor.
"Oh no," Caitlin turned to Iris, "I think he's gonna-"
The meta felt his chair swaying backwards, his feet slowly ascending into the air as he went crashing to the floor.
"HR! Joe! Wally! Help!"
The meta-human heard these names being thrown around, the voices abnormally deep and far away. What did this Cisco do to him? He couldn't let it happen again. That other breacher probed his mind and tried extracting information...it was a brutal mental war. Now he was spent and his mind felt cooked.
He wouldn't be used like that again.
With the last remaining bit of consciousness, the meta-human reached out with his boot and crushed the Vibe glasses with a heavy foot.
"No!" Iris screamed.
But the meta rested his head on the floor, eyes closing, and exhausted satisfaction running through him at his accomplishment.
"Alex!" Winn came running in with Henshaw, Kara, and Mon-El behind him. He had a few papers in his hand.
"Winn, did you find something?"
"Oh, yes," he smiled wide, "I found someone."
"Who? The meta-human?" Mon-El asked, hopeful.
"Precisely," Winn nodded proudly, "I was reviewing the footage, and I realized that we needed to find Barry's breacher counterpart on our world. So, I snipped a piece of Barry's suit and analyzed it to find traces of another person's blood and some remnant energy from the wormhole. It was a gold mine!"
He handed Alex the charts and she sifted through them with utter concentration etched into her face. It was like she was studying the figures, engraining them in her mind.
Kara piped up, "What do you do with this data?"
"I isolated the specific aspects of the genome to narrow down my search results and found a hit."
"He got a name?" Henshaw asked.
"On Barry's Earth, it's Neal Colton."
"On ours?" Mon-El prompted.
"Calvin Cox. I ran it through facial recognition a half an hour ago and it matches the meta-human."
"Excellent," Henshaw nodded in approval, "now we find him."
"Find him for what? What's he gonna do?" Kara looked at Winn in question.
"Calvin Cox may be from a different Earth as Neal Colton, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have the breacher ability like his Earth-1 counterpart."
"What if he doesn't?" Alex narrowed her eyes.
"Even if he hasn't developed them yet, his body matches the checklist for what he needs to replicate Neal Colton's powers. His body is the perfect incubation system."
"Genius!" Mon-El brightened, "Calvin Cox could open a breach!"
Winn smiled, "I hope so."
"Once again, Winn," Alex dipped her head in approval, "outstanding job."
"Where can we find Cox?" Kara looked at Winn eagerly, ready to get into action.
"It could take me an hour or two to locate him, make some calls-"
"Any chance you can speed that up?" Alex interjected meekly, "I don't mean to interrupt, but it just…doesn't look good."
"How is he doing?" a grim look passed over Kara's face as she stepped closer to Barry's side. Everyone went silent for a cruel moment.
"Heart rate gradually decreasing," she exhaled deeply, "I'm pumping him with as many meds as possible, tourniquet around his leg is the only thing keeping him alive at this point but we're risking major infection by keeping the knife in. I can't take it out, because it's the only thing from stopping major blood loss and the cavity would be too big to surgically heal without him dying first. Only his accelerated healing can save him now."
"Any chance the speed force in his cells are activating again?" Henshaw cleared his throat to provide some optimism in the gloomy air.
Alex pursed her lips and shook her head.
"I'll go run the scan," Winn nodded and hurried out, ready to go as quick as he could.
"Mon-El?" Alex looked at him, and he reciprocated the stare in shock, "Can I talk to you a moment, alone?"
"Uh, yes, yeah, sure, Alex." he wiped his palms on his jeans nervously. Kara had an inquisitive look on her face but she respected her sister's wishes and she and Henshaw stepped out. That left just Alex, Mon-El, and Barry in the room together.
"Anything I can do?" he offered.
"Actually, yes," her tone tightened, "look, I'm not your biggest fan at the moment, but I need your help. Kara would never go through with it."
"W-what is it?" he felt his wariness rise.
"I-I've got to wake Barry up."
"Wait, what? Did I just hear you say you need to wake him up?"
"Precisely," she hurried across the room, filling a syringe with a clear liquid, "this will pull him out of his sleep. It counteracts the medicine I gave earlier to keep him in a chemically induced coma."
"Chemically induced coma? What for?"
"His pain levels are gonna be off the charts, and I need someone to help me hold him down."
"B-but why me?!"
"I need Kara's super strength, but she'd never let me go through with this. Barry is a meta-human with advanced capabilities, I don't know what he can do so I need someone of your…caliber to help me keep him in check. Look, you're not my favorite option, but you're the only option, so get moving."
"No, no! I can't do this!"
"It'll save his life! If I can just ask him a few questions, then it can make a major impact on whether he lives or dies."
Mon-El paced the room, dry washing his face, "I don't know, I don't know…"
"Yes, you do. You just don't want to admit it," she shrugged, "look, I'm easy and I don't judge. Just hold his body and shoulders down. If he moves much it'll disrupt the tourniquet and he'll be done for good."
"O-okay…like that?" he bent over Barry's still form, placing firm grips on his shoulders and pressed him against the bed.
"Yes, keep them there."
She slapped gloves on her wrist and flicked the needle of the syringe before giving Barry one last long look and plunging it into the crook of his elbow.
Nothing happened for a moment.
"So, how long until it kicks in or-"
They both jumped and yelled in shock as Barry bolted upright in the bed. Even Mon-El's alien strength was caught off guard as he lost his grip, but he quickly surged forward and pressed Barry back down on the bed.
Alex felt a cold rush run though her but she suppressed her emotions and started forward, trying to help Mon-El ease the speedster back down in the bed. She looked down worriedly at his tourniquet, noticing more blood beginning to ooze out of the wrap.
"Mon-El," she growled, "hold him."
"I'm trying!"
Barry's head hit the pillow hard and he scrunched his eyes, shouting in pain.
"Barry, Barry!" Alex tried to be the only thing he could see in his line of vision, it could calm him down, "Relax, Barry! It's me, Alex Danvers, Kara's sister!"
"A-Alex?"
"Yes, yes, me and Mon-El, you remember us, don't you?"
"The meta…wormhole…! Gotta…warn Cisco!"
Mon-El kept Barry's shoulders pinned to the bed, but found it a little difficult on account of the struggling. He admired his determination though, Barry, even in his state, was still hell bent on catching some meta-human.
"Barry, you've got to listen to me!" Alex persisted, "I'll put you back under, just answer a few questions."
"Q-questions?" he panted, looking at her through wide eyes and pale face.
"Yes," she felt a little relieved noticing the heart rate stop beeping as erratically, but still fast.
"I-isn't it supposed to be fast?" Mon-El saw her glancing at the monitor, "his super speed and all?"
"Speed force cells are subdued, it's still irregular," she shook her head.
"W-what?" Barry strained, "W-what's wrong with me?"
Mon-El made the mistake of looking down at Barry's leg.
Almost immediately, the speedster lifted his upper body and got a full view of his bleeding limb. He saw the drenched rags wrapped around it and the entrance wound from the bullet.
"Oh, God," Barry paled even more, if that was even possible, and he fell back down, gasping.
"Barry, Barry, stay with me," Alex grabbed his hand, "what happened yesterday night with the meta-human."
"My leg!" he panted, "It's not healing!"
Mon-El glanced at her, sweat building upon his brown, "Alex, maybe it's time we put him under-"
"No!" she rebuked sharply.
He quickly silenced, but every bone in his body was telling him to stop this torture. He needed a way to reach Kara. There was an intercom button across the room.
"Alex," he looked at her, "I'm going to go get more rags, just hold his shoulders down."
He lifted his hands before she could answer and whether she liked it or not, she placed a firm grip on his shoulders.
He raced across the room, slammed the intercom button and grabbed a wad of gauze in his hands.
Winn was scanning through footage relentlessly, when he saw the intercom button on the desk controls light up. He clicked in the headset and curiously listened in. It took about four seconds for his mouth to drop.
"Oh no," he immediately reached for his phone and dialed Kara's number.
"Winn?"
"Kara!"
"What's wrong?"
"Get back to the DEO, now."
"What's going on?"
"It's Barry," his voice hitched, "he's awake."
Chapter 5 coming soon!