.:4:.

"A Black Flash?" Cisco asked after a deliberately slow and long sip from his milkshake. Enough so that Harrison bowed his head forward to rest his forehead against his upraised fingertips and Caitlin rubbed her temples, gently grinding her teeth at the slurping sound. "And it looked like it had the same exact suit I made you…but in black?"

"Yes," Barry replied. He stood across the floor of the cortex, leaning against a computer, arms crossed over his chest. He had been in the same stance since he had finally stopped pacing back and forth; mouth moving at a mile a minute as he recounted his story of encountering the mysterious figure that had managed to instill more fear in him than the night of his mother's death. "It was exactly the same. The guy looked exactly like I did…but it was like he was dead or something. I've seen a lot of crime scenes and a lot of bodies that have started to decompose, unfortunately, and this…thing looked exactly like that."

Brady's hand shot into the air as he sat in between Cadence and Caitlin at a computer terminal. "But if he's dead, how was he able to run after you?" Cadence nodded in agreement, the fire metahuman's eyebrows lowering as she added, "And what did he mean when he said he'd be able to tell you when you were going to die?"

"I don't know," Barry admitted. His voice was so final it was as if he had already given up on finding out anything as easily as picking up a card out of a deck. "I don't know." He brought a hand up to rub his face before turning towards Harrison, who lifted his head from his hand and pressed his fingertips together, almost as hard as he pressed his lips together as he thought about it. "I thought I was the fastest man alive. And now there's another…thing out there like me. Something that, as far as we know, other could possibly have the power to kill me or other people with the touch of a hand."

"That'd be kinda cool, actually," Cisco broke in. He grinned as the image popped into his head. "It'd be kind of like the Midas touch but in reverse. Everything he touches turns to death." An evil smile slid onto Cisco's face as he leaned back in his seat and tapped his fingertips together. "I'd certainly be able to use that sort of power whenever the time came. You know…like my high school reunion."

"You would reverse Midas your former classmates?" Caitlin sounded appalled.

"What's the Midas touch?" Brady asked.

"It's a reference to the Greek mythology of a King who was able to turn everything he touched into gold," Cadence explained.

A frown crossed Brady's face as he leaned forward, resting his arms on the counter in front of him. "I was asking Caitlin," he muttered.

Caitlin blinked in surprise and turned to Cadence, who shrugged her shoulders and lightly shook her head, signaling that she had no idea what Brady's attitude was suddenly coming from. Ever since they had gotten back to Central City it was as if his excitement over seeing all of his friends again had immediately soured.

It had gotten worse since she had spoken to the principal about Brady's behavior. Not only did he have the teacher worried as he was taken out of school for so long when Cadence had impulsively decided to go to Metropolis to speak to her parents—which was an adventure all on its own—but he had noted Brady's swift and sudden demeanor change. He talked back to his teacher, disrupted class, and did as he had said, released a bunch of science experiments from class just because he felt like it and because one of his classmates had told him to. And while Cadence had sat in the principal's office and listened to the principal's and teacher's concern, she couldn't help but feel that she was being attacked.

It wouldn't have been the first time. When she had still been walking—well, slightly waddling would've been the better term—the halls through high school, doing her best to hold her binders and books over her bulging stomach she could feel all eyes turn to her no matter where she went. Even some of her oldest friends would consistently whisper about how she had ruined her life when she was so young and how she wouldn't amount to much afterwards.

And that was only behind her back. In front of her face they acted like they were still best friends. "So do you have the name picked out already?" Mallory, who was her absolute best friend since she and Cadence were three, asked one day as she sat with Cadence and lunch. She had a blue and silver bow in her hair and makeup to match, the school colors to show her school spirit for the football game that day. As the rest of the senior cheerleaders joined them at their table, Cadence couldn't help but suddenly wish she was dressed up as much as they were. Clearly she couldn't cheer like she used to, but she hadn't officially been kicked off the team so much as he was demoted to a team manager sort of position.

"Yeah, I'm going to name him Braden," Cadence replied. She smiled a little as she felt her baby kick, much as he always did whenever she spoke. Ever since the first day that he had kicked after hearing her talk to her stomach, his movements had become more and more frequent. "Or Brady for short."

"That's such a cute name! I love it!" Mallory reached out a hand and squeezed Cadence's forearm. "And here I thought you were going to name him after you; with a 'C' name or something."

"Well, Braden is the closest boy's name to Cadence and I'm definitely not vain enough to give him a 'C' name." Cadence laughed lightly, the first genuine laugh she had managed to give in the past few months. She tucked her hair behind her ear and rested her hands on her stomach, her now default comfortable position, and felt Brady kick against her one more.

"Was Ryder upset that you're not going to name the baby after him?" Alicia, her other best friend asked from Cadence's side at the end of the table. Without asking for permission, she reached out and started to rub Cadence's stomach, immediately irritating her. With as much attention she already had brought on to herself, she hadn't it when people thought they were allowed to suddenly touch her stomach or ask personal questions when they felt like it. "I know guys can be really sensitive about that sort of thing."

"Well, it seems to me that Ryder doesn't really get a choice in it anymore," Mallory piped up before Cadence could say anything, causing the fire metahuman to nod and push Alicia's hand away from her stomach. "Since he was such a coward and left the like."

"He didn't want to," Cadence quickly defended her ex-boyfriend. "He had to leave. His parents didn't really give him much of a choice."

"Still, if he really did love you like he said he did, he would've told his Mom and Dad to bite it and stayed here with you," Mallory pointed out. Cadence couldn't help but smile a little. Not only did Mallory not seem to have a filter when it came to things that she felt she was right about, but she didn't really have tact either. "There are too many guys out here that thinks they can get a girl pregnant and then noting is their responsibility. I hope he at least pays some child support."

The cheerleaders nodded in agreement before the conversation turned towards a happier topic; what she would be dressing up as for Halloween, what she was going to do for the baby's first birthday, what she would dress him up as when it was his first Halloween, things that were in the future as if it was far enough away to not be a problem. But she was already six months pregnant and as it was she knew the teachers had a big debate on their hands of whether or not she would be allowed to stay in school.

If the best thing she could do was continue to focus on her studies and act like having a baby was a long way off then she could do that.

Now as she sat in STAR Labs with her friends, thinking about a potentially murderous man that could move just as fast as Barry worried her more than anything else. She understood Barry's choice of not telling Iris who he was, to keep her out of trouble like this, and knew if anything happened to her son—whether he was in a bad mood or not—she would fight anyone that came her way. It was what she had chosen to do when she decided to let him know about her powers and it was something they had to deal with now.

Harrison's voice brought the group out of their own thoughts. "Well, as we don't seem to have any leads at the moment, I don't believe it's something that we should put too much attention on."

Eyes widening slightly, Barry pushed himself off of the computer desk and walked over to Harrison, stopping a few feet away from him. "There's a murderous Black Flash out there that can run as fast as I can!" Maybe if he said it enough times, his friends would understand the kind of danger they were all in. "And you don't think I should be a little bit worried about that?"

"We don't know that he's murderous," Harrison pointed out. "Not yet, he hasn't killed anyone. But what we should be concerned about is the fact that he is, indeed, out there and that he may be able to run faster than you." He moved his wheelchair out from behind his computer desk and went around the floor of the Cortex until he was situated right in front of Barry. Then he slowly brought his hands to his lap. "Which just means that you two,"—he turned to look at Cadence, who nodded—"are going to have to train and you're going to train hard. To make sure you can beat this thing, whatever it is, until it comes back."

"You can do it, Barry," Brady added.

"If you were able to defeat Breathtaker, the rest of the Assassination Bureau, and the Suicide Squad, then you can find a way to beat this Black Flash," Cisco said. He placed his feet on the ground and started to twist back and forth. "But the question is 'how'?" He snapped his fingers as he smiled. "It's like Speed without the bomb attached."

Blank stares turned his way.

"Sandra Bullock? Keanu Reeves?" He shook his head before throwing his hands into the air. "Oh come on, everyone knows that movie!"

"Obviously not everyone," Harrison replied with an amused lift to his tone.

"That's it! Movie night! I declare that we're watching that movie."

Lifting her hand to her forehead, Caitlin turned her attention towards the question that Cisco had asked first. How were they supposed to defeat the Black Flash if they had no idea what it was they were upset against? "Isn't that the million dollar question. With just about every metahuman we've ever come across." She lifted a hand and waved it towards Barry. "If it weren't for his idea of being able to reflect his image back at Bivolo, we never would've been able to have gotten him down into the Pipeline."

Cadence's eyebrows rose. "You captured Bivolo? I thought he got away when we were going after Breathtaker."

"Yeah," Barry agreed. He reached up and rubbed the back of his head. "But like Caitlin said, we were able to figure out how to get him to whammy himself and now he's down there with the rest of the metas." Reaching up he ran his hands over his face before looking at his watch. "Look, there's not much we can do about this Black Flash right now, but I wanted you guys to know before something bad happened. If he knows who I am, then he might know who you guys are as well."

"It was imperative that you brought it to our attention, and you have." Harrison smiled and nodded. "Thank you, Mr. Allen. But it's as you said, there's not much that we can do right now. Not this late." He tilted his head towards the entrance to the cortex. "Go. Enjoy the rest of your night. Have a beer on me." He turned his wheelchair around and started to leave the floor.

"That sounds really good right now," Barry admitted.

"But you can't get drunk," Cisco pointed out.

"It's probably the only time I don't want to. But I at least need something that'll take my mind off of this." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Are you guys in?"

"I could go for a cold one," Cisco agreed.

Caitlin shrugged and nodded. "Sounds good to me."

Cadence looked over at Brady, who pouted even further, and thought for a moment. "Why don't you guys come over to our place?" She asked them. "It's not too far from here and the refrigerator is fully stocked. Plus Caitlin and Cisco haven't seen it yet."

Cisco's eyes immediately lit up and he thrust his hand into the air. "I'm in! As long as I'm not paying for it, I'm good to go." Caitlin rolled her eyes as Barry shrugged and nodded in agreement.

Sliding down from his chair, Brady went over to Barry and Cisco, peering up at them. "Do you like video games?"

Cadence unlocked the front door to the apartment and flipped on the light. Brady immediately pushed by her and shot off towards his bedroom, talking a mile a minute about the kinds of video games and systems he had for them to play, only stopping long enough to kick off his shoes by the door. The fire metahuman stepped on the heels of her shoes and took them off as well. "Go ahead and just leave your shoes here. They're in no danger of getting stolen or anything."

"Not like the last place?" Caitlin asked. She placed her hand on Cadence's shoulder and balanced herself as she took off her heels. Cadence looked at her out of the corner of her eye and she smiled sheepishly. "Not that it was a bad apartment."

"It wasn't bad, but it was in a bad part of the city, I'll give you that." Cadence flipped on the lights as she went into the kitchen with the bioengineer following right behind her. The sound of explosions and gunfire erupted from Brady's room and the two young women knew the boys were engulfed by whatever shooter video game that always managed to make them drool when a new one came out. "Roy helped me pick it out before everything went to hell with the Assassination Bureau and Suicide Squad. It's close to STAR Labs, my job, a school bus stop…basically everything I need."

"But you can teleport," Caitlin pointed out, resting a hand on her hip. "Why would that matter?"

Going over to the refrigerator, Cadence pulled it open and reached inside for a six-pack. "What part of teleporting into an area where someone could easily see me do you people not seem to understand? Or do you miss the massive cloud of smoke that seems to come around whenever I do it?"

Laughing, Caitlin tucked her hair behind her ear. "Okay, okay. I'm just saying that the only thing I'm envious of for you and Barry is that you save a lot on gas mileage." Raising an eyebrow, she watched as Cadence moved around the kitchen, gathering food together. "Speaking of, how was Metropolis?" In response, Cadence lifted a finger and moved it towards her mouth, miming retching. "That bad?"

"I'll tell you about it at some point, but at the moment I'm trying to block it out." She thought for a moment. "Okay, I wouldn't say it was that bad, but there were a lot of things that's hard for me to talk about. Like, how Harrison is actually my Dad and my Dad isn't my Dad. But I did think I was adopted or something when he decided to kick me out ages ago." The fire metahuman waved a hand in the air. "I don't think I'm going to be getting over that anytime soon. But I'm not bitter."

"Of course you're not." The girls laughed with each other and Cadence finished gathering their food together. She dumped out a few bowls of chips and salsa and instructed Caitlin to take the beer with them before depositing the food and drinks into Brady's room. She tilted her head to the side as she watched them yell at the TV screen, fingers flying over the controllers. "Try not to blow a blood vessel," she instructed, placing the food near them on the floor. "And if you do, clean it up yourselves."

Cadence walked back out of the room to find Caitlin curled up on the couch, staring intently at her phone as she texted. When she noticed her friend coming back into the room, she quickly lowered it, placing it to her side on the couch.

"Who are you texting?"

"No one!" Caitlin's response was so quick, her eyes so wide that she looked like she had just been shot with a blast of icy water. "No one important anyway."

"So the fact that you're as jumpy as a bunny rabbit means absolutely nothing?" Cadence smiled slyly, flopping down onto the couch next to her friend. She rested her head on her upraised hand. "Nope. I'm not buying that. You must be texting some guy. Tell me everything." She reached out and swatted Caitlin on the knee. "And I mean everything."

Now Caitlin looked like a deer caught in car headlights. "No…I don't think you'd want me to tell you everything. That might…gross you out a little bit."

"Why? Is he that much older than you or something?"

"Yeah…or something."

An exasperated sigh escaped Cadence's lips as she sat up straight and brought her hands down to her lap. She twisted her mouth to the side as she stared hard at Caitlin, studying her face. "I'm not sure if you're aware of it, but you're breaking every girl code rule that has to do with boys. Where we talk about them enough that our friends are annoyed whenever their names come out of our mouths. And I'm annoyed that I know nothing. I'm living vicariously through you considering I haven't been on a date in eight years. You have to tell me something."

"What about Roy?"

"We're not talking about that, we're talking about you."

Now Caitlin felt like she wanted to through up a little. True, Cadence was the first girlfriend she had in a long time, especially having gone into a career field that was predominantly filled with men. Also not to mention that she and some of her colleagues had competed for the same spot that that she had managed to get at STAR Labs and since then had only been around guys; Harrison, Cisco, Ronnie, Barry…but still even she couldn't really wrap her head around the fact that she was dating Harrison Wells. Or if she was even dating him at all, having the boyfriend-girlfriend' conversation seemed to be crass at their age. If her insecurities about it were bigger than she would be glad to say something but even she wasn't sure how Cadence would react to Caitlin's dating her biological father when she was trying to start her own relationship with him.

"Well, you know that dress that we got from the store that one time?" Caitlin asked. "I wore it over to his house one day and he seemed to really like it." Really like it as far as she remembered. She could feel her face heat up as she thought about being in Harrison's embrace. The way he held her, the way he looked into her eyes, the way he smiled at her all managed to make her feel as if she had just jumped off of a cliff and was free-falling through the air with the wind moving by her at such high-speeds it was like she was floating.

"Wait." Cadence held up a hand. "How long have you guys been going out?"

"Well…I wouldn't really say that we've been going out," Caitlin tried to backtrack the conversation, hoping that she wouldn't slip up and tell the truth of who she was going out with. If she couldn't tell Cadence, then she certainly couldn't tell Cisco or Barry. And Cisco was like her brother; the one person that she could tell literally everything to. They had grown so close through their work at STAR Labs as well as through the Particle Accelerator explosion and she felt bad that she couldn't even tell him about the part of her life that had been deserted since Ronnie had died.

This was really starting to become harder to keep. The last few weeks had been easy as there seemed to be nothing but metahuman attacks that took care of a lot of their attention. When they had time to themselves that was an entirely different thing. Especially with the fact that Harrison could actually walk…that was the hardest part for her to wrap her head around. She truly did understand why he hadn't said anything, his explanation made sense; there'd be too much attention brought to him and STAR Labs if people knew he had been able to regain his chance of walking within a few weeks of the explosion. The more attention to STAR Labs the more attention on him and Barry and…they seriously didn't need it at that point.

Not when there was so much that could go wrong if they did. Especially if someone stumbled upon their Pipeline and the other metahumans and their studies of Cadence's and Barry's powers and….

There was too much to think about.

"But we've been seeing each other for a while," Caitlin finally managed to say without betraying her guilt. (Not that she was guilty). And she was telling the truth for the most part. "It's going well, I think. I don't really know with this guy, he's very secretive."

"He's secretive yet you've already been to his place?" The fire metahuman's eyebrow quirked upwards so quickly it was as if it had been tugged upwards on a fishing line. "Don't you think that's moving kind of fast?"

"No. I don't think so." I've known him for a while and we spent a lot of time together these past couple of weeks. Alone. She could feel herself starting to blush once more and she reached out and grabbed onto the beer that sat in front of her, using the cool beverage to calm herself down. "Maybe? I don't know. Ugh, now you have me second guessing it!" Not that she hadn't spent a lot of time second guessing it herself.

"Well, I didn't mean for you to do that, I'm just looking out for you, Cait." Cadence finished half of her bottle of beer, setting it down on the coffee table as there was a knock on the door. Frowning, she got up and crossed the apartment to the front door. "Who is it?" She called, standing on her tiptoes to see through the peephole.

"It's Ryder," a voice called back.

Caitlin's eyes immediately widened as she recognized the name. She leaned over on the couch as Cadence opened the door and took in the tall blond man that stood before her, holding onto a large box and a brightly colored bag. "What are you doing here?" She asked, though let him in. He gently closed the door with the heel of his foot and placed the box and bag into her arms.

"I wanted to give you your birthday gift."

"It's not my birthday."

"Not for a few more days…but I didn't think you'd want me to come around when it was."

"Gotcha." Cadence turned to dispose of the gifts and found Caitlin watching her from the couch. She let out a light sigh and tilted her head, indicating for Ryder to follow her into the apartment. "Ryder, this is my friend Caitlin Snow, Caitlin, this is Ryder Moseley."

"Hi." Ryder helped his hand out towards her.

"Hi…" Caitlin took his hand and shook it firmly. Then it hit her. "Oh, the Ryder that—"

"Yes!" Cadence interrupted. "That Ryder. He came to Central City with me and Brady." She placed the gifts on the coffee table. "He had a project that he's doing out here."

"Really? What kind of project?"

"I'm an architect, so I'm working on the new office space that's being built downtown," Ryder explained. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and shrugged. "It's a pretty big one and they wanted to be sure everything went well, so here I am." He blew his hair back out of his face. "I don't plan on staying too long, though," he added after a moment of silence. "Not unless there's something that'd keep me here."

Cadence let out an impatient sigh and Caitlin's eyebrows furrowed for a second. She started to say something, but was cut off by Barry and Cisco coming out of Brady's room at a fast pace. Brady came up behind them with empty bottles and bowls. Cisco had his head tilted down and was studying his phone intently.

"What's going on?" Caitlin asked him.

"Barry got a major S.O.S. and I'm getting the details now," Cisco explained. "There's something going on in—"he cut himself off as he almost walked directly into Ryder. "Who's this?" He and Barry exchanged a glance before they looked at Cadence, who sighed once more. This time the sigh was so heavy Caitlin was sure she saw a wisp of smoke erupt from the metahuman's mouth.

"This is Ryder Moseley. Ryder these are my friends Barry Allen and Cisco Ramon."

Now Barry's eyes widened. "For real?" He asked. "The Ryder that—"

"Yes," Caitlin interrupted. "That one."

"Oh. Well, it's nice to meet you, man." Barry and Cisco reached out their hands and shook Ryder's hand. "We've heard some…stuff about you."

"I've heard a lot about you guys, too."

"Really?"

"It's a long drive from Central City which means there's a lot to talk about."

"How much?" Cisco cried out in pain as Barry elbow him in the side. He shot Barry a frustrated glare before rubbing his ribs, trying to massage out his wound. "I mean, how important of the stuff did you talk about?" He cried out as he was hit again.

Brady looked up at the group of young adults that suddenly seemed very tense as he placed the stack of dirty dishes on the coffee table. He turned back to Ryder and lifted his chin in a nod. "Hi, Ryder," he greeted him.

"Hey Kid." Ryder nodded back. "How are you doing?"

"Okay, I guess." Brady's eyes then moved over to the gifts that sat on the table. "Who are these for?"

"The bag's for your Mom, the box is for you. I know it's your guys' birthdays soon and I brought something over for you."

"Really?" Brady's eyes widened as he examined the box. He then turned to Cadence, eyes wide with excitement. "Can I open it now?"

"Not until later," Cadence said quickly. She briefly rubbed her forehead before motioning to the dishes stacked up on the coffee table. "Take the dishes into the kitchen please."

Defiantly, Brady turned and sat down on the edge of the piece of furniture and crossed his arms over his chest. "You do it," he stated. Cadence's eyebrow rose in surprise before lowering in seriousness. "You can't tell me what to do." He pushed himself to his feet and walked out of the room.

Ryder let out a low whistle under his breath and turned back to Cadence. "I can see that it wasn't really a good idea for me to show, so I'm just going to head out, alright." He placed a hand on his shoulder. "I promise I'll call the next time I think about it, okay?"

"It's not your fault, Ry, I'll see you later." Cadence walked him to the door and let him out, slamming the door a bit forcefully behind him. She then turned back to her friends and held up a hand before any of them could say anything. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay." Caitlin motioned to Cisco's phone. "What's the S.O.S.?"

"Got a hit on Captain Boomerang," Cisco explained. "He's the only one that we couldn't catch after the Assassination Bureau and the Suicide Squad ran throughout Central City. He's been missing for weeks but he finally popped back up again."

"Meaning?" Cadence asked?

"Meaning, we have to go to Starling City," Barry replied.

A/N: Next chapter brings up the action once more as we go into Arrow's episode of The Brave and the Bold. I couldn't have Flash's part of the Flarrow crossover and not do Arrow's could I?

Review Reply

Guest: I guess we'll just have to wait and see, but Team Flash seems to have the same questions you do.

Dragonfan47: You're just going to have to wait and see! ;) But I'm glad you like the idea of them together so much.

Alisha Winchester Collins: Yeah, I'm really good at doing cliffhangers so thank you so much for the compliment. With the Black Flash I plan on tweaking it a little bit but also have things stay the same, kind of like the show does with DC Comic characters and situations. That being said, I like focusing on Barry every now and then, I didn't do it very much in the last story but it's certainly something I'm going to do more in this one. Sorry for the lateness on the review reply.

So what did you guys think of the chapter? Ryder's appearance certainly is making things harder for Cadence but whether or not he had good intentions is certainly the number one question. You never know with exes.

Thanks to Guest, Dragonfan47, and Alisha Winchester Collins for reviewing.

Cheers,

-Riles