STAR Labs was quiet, Cisco having not shown up yet. Caitlin was typing away at her computer, and Barry was running around the room out of sheer boredom. There wasn't too much to be done with Zoom gone. They hadn't even had a meta case in the past week. Caitlin had stopped the clacking of her fingers on the keyboard and was about to drift off, and Barry had resorted to tossing a ball across the room and running to catch it, when the comfortable silence was disrupted.
"WHAT THE HELL!" Came Cisco's yell.
"Is it a meta-human?" Barry asked, a little too overly eager to get out of the Labs.
"Mmm, let me think -no, Barry, it's not!"Cisco said, reaching into his pocket. After his hand got stuck, and he freed it, he held a black thumb drive up.
"...what's that?" Caitlin asked, a little suspicious as she walked toward him.
"This," Cisco said dramatically, holding it higher, "Is video footage. Did you honestly think that I, of all people, didn't keep security cameras in my hideout?"
"Oh damn," Caitlin said; it was one of the first times Barry heard her say a swear.
"Mhm, 'oh damn' is correct!" Cisco said, crossing his arms, "Now, let's see what's on it, shall we?"
Barry could have easily zipped in and out and destroyed the drive in a few seconds, but his feet were glued to the spot. Cisco had already plugged it to the computer.
"This, right here...two weeks ago," Cisco said, pausing it when Barry leaned on Caitlin, "Not so bad, and I have to admit, it was kind of adorable...but this? We do not use our tongues to show worry, Dr. Snow!"
The two in question stayed silent, and strangely enough, Cisco did too. And two clicks later and a simultaneous thud, Cisco had successfully rendered the two unconscious. And he, the guy who got a straight up 'F' in gym, drug them off by their ankles one at a time.
When Barry woke up, he panicked. His first thought? He was in the pipeline.
Which was true, yes, but Caitlin was in there with him, looking pissed at the world. Cisco was on the outside of the glass, sitting in a lawn chair and eating chicken wings. Barry tried to phase through the glass. And just his luck, it didn't work.
"You two are not leaving the cell until you've straightened your personal problems out," Cisco said, tossing a chicken bone behind him blindly, missing the trash can by three feet, "I'll pick that up."
"You can't keep us in here forever, Cisco," Barry said.
"I've got two hundred chicken wings and a port-a-potty that says I can," Cisco said. Following his words, a thud sounded.
"What was that?" The three of them said in unison.
"What was that?"
Cisco turned around slowly, seeing the expressions on Barry and Caitlin's faces. He didn't know what to expect, but it surely wouldn't have been what he saw. It resembled a person, albeit very vaguely. A mess of tan liquid dripped over every inch of the man to wear he resembled a spill of cake batter with stubby little legs and thin fingers. Cisco took only a second to note the situation.
"Oh damn let me in!" Cisco said, pressing the button on the remote so that the door of the cell opened a fraction. He quite literally slid in using a manner that he would refer to as 'Ninja Style' at any other time. He pressed the button again, and the door sealed.
"You know, you could've just let us out," Caitlin said, standing up from her previous spot occupying the floor.
"I panicked!" Cisco exclaimed, throwing his hands up.
"Stop panicking!" Caitlin snapped, beginning to panic herself.
"Dammit, you're not helping, Caitlin!" Cisco said. The two were giving Barry a headache with their bickering.
"Just -shush!" Barry said, waving his hands around frantically, "Do you honestly think that, If I can't phase out of here, this thing can get in?"
"Well...technically, we don't know what the dude is capable of, so...it is a possibility that we're toast..." Cisco said.
"Okay, well, um...maybe make him mad? So he'll attack -showing whatever it is he does?" Caitlin said, wringing her hands together and pacing.
Cisco nodded his head and went up to the transparent cell wall, slamming his palms onto the glass, "Yo, bubbly!"
'Bubbly' began to grunt, and he quite literally began to boil. He advanced toward the cell.
"Cisco! You're not supposed to agree to stuff I say under pressure!" Caitlin whispered, backing up against the wall.
"Half your job is saying stuff under pressure -are you telling me I shouldn't be listening to you then?" Cisco said. ignoring any expression she showed.
Cisco then proceeded to taunt and tease the meta human. He began by simply waking witty remarks, then progressed to making obscene gestures and odd faces. The meta was very clearly angry, and by what must have been the eighth time Cisco stuck up his middle finger, he had raised his hands, palms facing the cell wall.
He blasted whatever the hell he seemed to be made out of at the cell, and the two hostages turned into three as their view was blocked. They heard a crash, and took that to mean that their bubbling buddy had left.
"Great...so how do we get out of here?" Barry said, trying once more to phase through the wall. Nothing.
"I could press the button on my dandy little remote, smart one," Cisco said, pressing the button that was supposed to open the cell. Instead, it was met by a grinding screech. The door didn't budge.
"Did you really think that would work?" Caitlin asked Cisco.
He answered quickly, "No, not at all,"