Felicity Smoak smiled gratefully at Caitlin as she closed the test tubes of unidentified matter that Caitlin would take to S.T.A.R. Labs to be analysed. It was the third time in the past month that Oliver Queen and his team had needed something or the other from Central City but Caitlin was always ready to help because they'd been more than ready to make the necessary arrangements for herself, Cisco and Dr Wells to stay at the branch of S.T.A.R. Labs when the one in Central had been destroyed.
"How's Barry been doing?" Felicity asked as Caitlin carefully packed the tubes into a metal case. It had been a while since she had last seen Barry and he had seemed to be doing excellently after the explosion and finding out that he had super-speed.
"He's doing well. Although... he has a friend from New York that was in Central the night of the explosion and seemed to have gained some weird new abilities. She can use shadows to travel. And not just 5 feet across a room but through time itself. It's worrying him a lot that we won't be able to help her understand it but he doesn't talk about it that much with any of us."
Felicity's eyes held understanding but she didn't say anything. Her cell phone let off a shrill ring and she glanced at the number her eyes widening in surprise. "It's Cisco."
Caitlin looked confused but then her usual look of concern and worry came over her face as Felicity answered the phone. Felicity's face held a confused look and then crumpled with shock and then she ended the call and turned to Caitlin. "Cisco says it's an emergency apparently Oliver is in Central and is holding hostages."
"What?" Caitlin asked.
"I am just as confused as you are but I'm sure he knows what he's doing but I think we should head down there anyway."
Caitlin nodded and grabbed the metal case as they both headed down to Caitlin's car.
Meanwhile back at S.T.A.R. Labs Yasmeen was losing an argument with both Cisco and Dr Wells. They had refused her request to follow Barry or to at least get to the storage room where the Arrow was holding hostages. Cisco felt sure that there was something else going on and that there was a metahuman explanation tied to the Arrow's behaviour. No one had told Yasmeen the Arrow's real identity which is why she couldn't understand why they refused to just let the cops take him out. She groaned in frustration and just gave up with Cisco and Dr Wells.
"If I can't be of use here I might as well just head out." She said angrily and left hoping that Shade would be back at the hotel.
"I hope she doesn't do something stupid." Cisco muttered as he worked on giving Barry instructions on how to break into the room without compromising the lives of the hostages.
"Hope who doesn't do anything stupid?" Barry asked as he rounded a corner and stopped to survey the area. Cisco glanced at Dr Wells who shook his head to indicate that they shouldn't worry Barry with this.
"It's nothing," Cisco said, "You need to go in through the front door he's not expecting you to."
"Are you sure that he doesn't have any back up with him?" Barry didn't want to be surprised with a gunshot from Diggle or a couple of arrows in the neck from Roy. He got the okay from Cisco and then as silently as possible he sped through the front door and into a guy who took off his tinted glasses and looked Barry in the eyes causing them to glow red. Barry pushed him off and had the same murderous look on his face that Oliver had, he turned away from the man and sped into the room of civilians.
Yasmeen slammed her room door shut and sat down on the bed miserably. They would never trust her to help. As long as they didn't understand her abilities she would be treated like the metahumans down in the pipeline except she was above ground and it sucked not to be able to help. She took out her phone and saw a text from Razeen asking if it'd be okay if he came down in three days time because he'd managed to catch a break from his professors but it was only for a half day. She texted him back that it would be great and had just tapped send when the curtains rustled next to her and she dropped her phone on the bed and immediately raised her arms in a defensive position.
"That's the worst type of defence I have ever seen." Shade's voice was dark. Well he wasn't the only one having a bad day.
Yasmeen whirled to face him and glared her fiery temper evident in her eyes. "Then teach me something useful."
"Concentrate on the shadows; they can do a lot for you."
Yasmeen took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She reached deep into her mind and pulled into the recesses, imagining all the shadows that she had ever seen. She began playing with them in her head, bending and manipulating them- turning it into a dome around her, a bunch of sharp points that stabbed in every direction and a pair of wings. As she continued unaware that the images were real around her, Shade watched with a glint of contentment in his eyes. He found the wings particularly intriguing. They were beautiful with delicate folds making feathers all the way down just like the ones that were described in Greek books- Icarus's wings. With enough practise this girl was going to be deadly.
"We need to go to the roof." Shade interrupted her train of thought and Yasmeen opened her eyes.
Unlike the previous time, it was late afternoon and the sunlight glinted off the skyscraper's roof making sharp points of light over the benches. Shade made her repeat what she done only minutes ago but this time he requested that she keep her eyes open. Yasmeen gasped in wonder as the inky liquid-like shadows bent at her will. He told her to create the wings and she did looking at them spread out on either side in fascination.
"Can they carry me?" She asked.
"They will but you must remain focussed on them or else they will dissolve."
Yasmeen smiled and then stepped to the edge of the roof. She dived straight down without giving it too much thought and felt the most incredible rush. She watched as the ground came closer and closer before she pulled up and did a spin before hurtling back to the top. Her feet softly touched the concrete and she turned to Shade with the biggest smile on her face.
"Now flying could be fun." She said as she watched the wings fade away. She might not have been able to handle super-strength but this was definitely something that she could learn to control.
Cisco caught a quick glimpse of the man with the tinted glasses from the camera that he had installed in Barry's suit, right in the middle of the lightning bolt. He ran the image through a facial recognition scan and a name popped up: Roy G Bivolo. He had a hospital record that showed he'd stayed in hospital for two weeks after the explosion. Cisco heard the familiar ding of the opening elevator doors and heard Caitlin's voice and another voice that he didn't recognize. Caitlin and Felicity walked in as Cisco tapped into the room with the hostage's camera. Oliver and Barry looked ready to rip each other's throats out and Bivolo stood in a doorway grinning. One of the hostages looked directly into the camera and pulled a few faces; first smiling then sad and then she glared and barred her teeth and held this expression for a few seconds longer. Then she looked to Bivolo standing in the doorway.
"I think she's trying to tell us that the guy in the doorway can control emotions." Caitlin said suddenly as they all stared at the screen.
"Why's he doing this?" Felicity asked.
"I fear we might not find out soon enough." Dr Wells said as he quickly typed something into the computer. "This man was treated for eye damage, doctors had some unexplained events at the hospital for his duration there; nurses lashing out dangerously at patients and then snapping out of their rage but not remembering anything of what they had done."
Cisco's mind was spinning as he tried to think of how Bivolo could be doing this and how to counter-act it. The video feed showed Oliver drawing his bow but Bivolo was nowhere to be seen. Another beep went off and Felicity identified it. "There's a robbery happening at Central City National. The police will be there in about 3 minutes." She said.
The metahumans had certainly picked a day to be busy. Nobody said it but they really needed extra help and yet both Cisco and Caitlin couldn't bring themselves to phone Yasmeen. As they sat deliberating their problem they noticed that it was Bivolo that was robbing the bank and the guards outside were arguing very animatedly until one of them punched the other in the face. They needed a solution and fast.