Hey all! Thanks so much for the overwhelming and positive feedback on the first chapter! I hope you continue to enjoy-I love hearing from you.
On to the angst party!
There was a crick in her neck, and an ache in her back, and Caitlin wondered, briefly, if she'd fallen asleep in one of the cortex chairs again. She would often pass out sitting up when the team would have movie nights at the lab, though she couldn't recall what movie they'd been watching, or who she was with, or when she had fallen asleep.
It was too cold for the cortex, though, and the first voice she latched on to—Cisco's—sounded quiet and intense and desperate.
"…please, whatever this is, you don't have to do it. Please, I…"
Caitlin tried to shift in her seat, rising groggily from that black space that encompassed her, but found that she could not move her arms. The rest of the rise to consciousness was quick, cold, shocking. She opened her eyes and looked around blearily.
Even though she was physically seeing her surroundings, she still didn't quite process the reality of them. Her eyes adjusted slowly to the dim light and gradually accepted the enormity of her current location. A warehouse. With high ceilings, shadowy stacks of boxes, and blacked-out windows, the space was horribly reminiscent of the place Caitlin had been taken to by Snart and Rory.
Next she focused on the figures in front of her. She was indeed sitting up in a chair, but it was a hard chair and her hands were secured with zip-ties to the arms—as were the hands of her two companions. Barry and Cisco sat at angles to her, so they all formed a kind of circle facing inward. Barry slumped forward, blood dripping from his hairline, unconscious, but Cisco was alert and straining against his restraints.
"There's still time to back out of this," he was saying. "You don't have to—"
"We don't have to do this? Yeah, we could've predicted that line from so-called heroes."
There were two other people in the room with them, Caitlin saw now. One was motionless farther back in the shadows, tapping on an old laptop. The one speaking to Cisco stood with arms crossed, right at the edge of their circle. Even though Caitlin's vision was still fuzzy, she noted the harsh cut of his wide, muscled shoulders, the downturn of his mouth, the swath of thin, shiny scars on his jaw and down his neck.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Cisco said. "We're not…so-called heroes."
"Clearly," the man said. Caitlin shifted, and his eyes snapped her direction. "Ah, this one's awake."
Cisco also looked to her, his face a mixture of relief and desperation. In her muddled state, that anxiety hadn't set in quite as much as it should have. All she could focus on was the mounting nausea in her stomach from whatever she had been drugged with.
"What's wrong with him?" Caitlin slurred, attention going back to Barry.
"Just a little knock on the head," the man said. "We had a bit of a tough time keeping this one down. He wore through the drug surprisingly fast."
Caitlin and Cisco shared a brief, panicked glance. For the first time, it truly registered that Barry was dressed in the navy blue STAR t-shirt and sweatpants and not his Flash suit. These people, whoever they were, didn't know who they had kidnapped.
"Jason." The person at the laptop turned around: a woman with a hard-set mouth and shadows under her eyes, visible even in the darkness. The ends of her sleeves were frayed, her hair a red cloud of frizz. She jerked her head back, and the large man reluctantly left the circle and joined her in the shadows of one of the aisles of boxes.
"Are you okay?" Cisco said in an exaggerated whisper.
"Same as you, I think," Caitlin replied. As soon as she said it, Barry stirred in his seat.
"Hey, dude, don't freak out," Cisco said once the speedster had groaned back to consciousness. "Well, maybe freak out a little."
Somehow, even in that chill of fear that the warehouse instilled, the attempted lightness gave a brief sense of normalcy. Further comfort came from the simple fact that Barry was conscious, with them—but that comfort was tainted almost immediately.
"What's wrong?" Caitlin asked as Barry scrunched his face and hung his head low again.
"My head," he mumbled.
"That's normal," Caitlin said. "You were just drugged and knocked out by blunt force."
"No," Barry said. "The vertigo. It's still there. It's worse."
Well—that was less than ideal.
"Business as usual, huh?" Cisco said shakily, testing his restraints again.
Barry tugged at his wrists too, more violently than Cisco. When the zip-ties had no give, he swallowed hard. "Where are we?"
"Isn't that the question of the day?" The man and woman were back, emerging from the shadows like something out of a nightmare. The man shoved lightly at the side of Barry's head in a faux-playful gesture. "Maybe, if you're cooperative, I'll tell you which state you're in."
Caitlin's stomach flipped. How long had they been unconscious? With the blackout shades on every window, it was impossible to tell what time of day it was. Surely this guy—Jason—was bluffing.
"Cooperate? Cooperate with what?" Cisco asked. "Are you some kind of evil scientists?"
"No," said the woman. "That's why we need you. You are the scientists for STAR Labs, are you not?"
"Some of them," Cisco said.
"Don't be modest," the woman sneered. "We know most everyone quit after the particle accelerator explosion. You are the only ones who bothered to stick around that decrepit place. I bet you're even proud of what happened, aren't you?"
"Proud of what happened?" Caitlin said. "You mean the accelerator explosion?"
"Creating all of these metahumans in one go?" the woman continued. "An impressive feat."
Cisco groaned. "Oh, tell me you're not one of those people who just want revenge on us for that. It was two years ago. And you're far from original."
"Metahumans are abominations," Jason cut in. "They're destructive, and abnormal, and disgusting. And you—you created all of them. You even work with one, don't you? The all-powerful Flash. The Flash who almost destroyed the entire city last year."
"Clearly you didn't get the memo or see the posters," Cisco spat. "Hero of Central City? There was a whole rally."
"People are silly, and afraid to take action. These metahumans have been a plague on our city since day one. Nowhere is safe." Jason began circling their group again.
"So, what?" Barry said. "You're gonna kill us for creating these metas? If you're going to do it, just do it, so we don't have to listen to your bigoted crap anymore."
"Oh, we're not going to kill you," Jason said. "Not yet. You're scientists, and you know these metas best, which is why we need your help. You're going to help us track and destroy every meta in this city."
A pause.
"That's impossible," Caitlin said. "How do you propose we do that?"
"That's for you to figure out," said Jason. "You created these powers, you can take them away. And if not, surely you can think of a way to eliminate the metahumans permanently. They deserve to be punished."
"You're insane," Cisco said. "Even if there was a way to do that, what makes you think we'd ever agree to it?"
Jason paused in his pacing, stopping curiously in front of Cisco. "You talk too much," he said. "But I have an answer for you." He leaned close. "Because there are plenty of ways to make you suffer before we're ready to kill you."
He reached for Cisco's hand and Cisco jerked. Jason's body shielded the scene, but Caitlin could hear everything—the distinct snap and the strangled cry that followed.
"Do you understand now?" Jason said.
Cisco's moan was transformed into another scream as a second snap echoed through the space.
"Stop," Caitlin said, panicked. "Wait, stop. You can't do this. Like you said, the Flash is on our side. He'll figure out we're missing and he'll hunt you down. But it's not too late to turn back."
At this, Jason turned around toward Caitlin. While the attention should have scared her, she had eyes only for Cisco, who was hunched forward with his eyes squeezed shut, two of the fingers on his left hand bent at unnatural angles. Soon enough, though, her view was again blocked by Jason, who had this time taken his stand directly in front of her.
"The Flash is on your side, is he?" he said, leaning down close to her face. "The Flash is going to come save his damsel in distress?"
She couldn't help it. With the level of contempt inside of her, there was no room for fear. She gathered saliva on her tongue and spat directly in his face.
A moment, a beat, as Jason considered this. Then he stood, wound back an arm, and sank his fist into her face. The pain was immediate, and sharp; she distinctly felt a ring on one of his fingers as it opened up a cut along the bridge of her nose. Dazed, Caitlin thought he might strike again, but he drew away and wiped at his own face. There was fire in his eyes, an uncontrollable rage, and at once Caitlin knew they were dealing with someone unbounded, unpredictable.
He rubbed his knuckles and stepped away as Caitlin tried to regain her senses.
"The Flash will never realize you're gone," he said. "You want to know why? Because we set up explosives at each entrance to your precious lab before we left. Anyone who tries to enter will be blown to pieces."
That statement stunned Caitlin more than the punch. Again, she wondered about the possibility of a bluff—but the smug look in Jason's eyes quenched all of that hope.
He turned toward the woman with the laptop. "What do you say we give these kids some time to brainstorm?"
"I think that's a good idea," said the woman. "They're smart. They won't need long to come up with something."
Jason grunted. He gave Caitlin another look and she responded with the fiercest glare she could muster—which probably wasn't much, given how much the most recent revelation had shaken her. On his way out, he passed Cisco and clapped him heartily on his left shoulder. Cisco flinched violently, his eyes still closed.
Then he and the woman were gone, the woman snapping the laptop shut and tucking it under her arm as she went.
Thanks so much for reading! Things are just getting started. As always, please leave a comment on your way out with your thoughts!
Till next time,
Penn