.:34:.
"Yuck, it smells down here."
"That's why they call it the sewer, numb nuts. If it smelled good they would have people walking around down here like it was a picnic or something."
Brady laughed at Conner's joke, tuning his flashlight this way and that. Of the many times he had watched Godzilla and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies he imagined the sewer system to at least resemble the size of the New York's subways. It was smaller and definitely smelled much worse than the movies would've let him believe. He bit his lower lip, looking around. Conner shone his flashlight around a few times then turned in one direction, walking into the mouth of the tunnel directly off to their right.
Brady followed him and they started to troop through the damp tunnel. Brady's nose wrinkled as warm air hit him in the face rhythmically. Almost as if it were breathing towards them. "So what are we supposed to do when we find this gorilla anyway?"
"Take pictures, duh!" Conner shot back. "What did you think we were going to do? Just find him and turn him into the police?"
"I don't know, trap him maybe." Brady shrugged. The two continued to walk along in silence for a few minutes before Brady spoke up with, "how are we supposed to find him? These sewers are really big?" To prove his point she shined the flashlight over towards another tunnel that branched off from their own. All of a sudden there was a low growling sound and Brady tilted his head to the side. "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Conner came to a stop and turned to face Brady. He watched as the young metahuman turned this way and that, wildly shining his flashlight as he did so. "Brady, you're hearing things. Are you chicken?"
"No, I'm not chicken! I just thought I heard something. Sort of like a growl!"
"That must mean we're getting really close to finding the gorilla! C'mon, let's go!" Conner's eyes widened with excitement and he plunged down a dark tunnel. Brady ran after him, the beam of his light bouncing off the walls as he tried to catch up to his friend. Finally, they came to a screeching stop when they spotted two yellow helmets sitting on the ground. Almost like a child had discarded a toy as they had to leave to go home.
Frowning, Brady picked up a helmet. He turned it back and forth in his hands, examining the massive crack in the middle of the hardened plastic. Then he held it out to Conner, who shined his flashlight over it. The two stared at the splatter that surrounded the cracks in plastic.
"Is that blood?" Conner whispered.
"I hope so. Otherwise someone likes to keep their chocolate stash in a weird place."
"Why would anyone stash their chocolate in their helmet?"
"Well, I have a stash of my Halloween candy in a shoe in my closet. A hat's not that weird."
Conner smiled. "What do you think made the plastic crack like that?" He reached out his hand and knocked on the helmet. "It's pretty thick. It's like the one that the construction workers wear." He walked over to another one that was nearby and picked it up. This one had dents in it, almost as if the person who had been wearing it beat their heads against the wall.
Lifting his head, Brady turned his attention to the walls and shone his flashlight around. He tilted his head to the side as he studied the scratchings. It started out as if the person—or whomever was behind the markings—was learning to count or keeping track of something. And as time went on, the scratching started to form letters until the word 'Grodd' was repeated over and over again.
"What's a Grodd?" Brady questioned. He crossed his arms. "Is that supposed to be a name or something?"
"Or something, I've never heard of it before."
As soon as the words left Conner's mouth Brady froze; his shoulders shot up when he heard another low growl. This time he turned his gaze over to Conner and noticed the way his body suddenly became rigid. He had heard the same thing. Then there was a ear-splitting sound that rocketed between Brady's ears, making him slap his hands over them in case he could block it out. But he found as the seconds passed that the sound continued, almost as if it were coming from inside his head rather than outside it.
"Did…did you hear that?" Brad managed to stammer as soon as the sound subsided. Conner, his face now pale, nodded as he lowered his hands from his ears. He started to turn and then his eyes widened. Slowly, he started to raise his flashlight and stared right behind Brady. Conner swallowed hard and used his other hand to point behind him. "Brady…turn around."
Brady did as he was told, ever so slowly.
And as he turned he found himself face to face with his worst nightmare. The first thing he spotted was hairy legs with feet attached that resembled hands. Then, with a trembling hand, he slowly raised his flashlight until he found it pointed in the face of a large gorilla. It stared back at them, lips pulled back to reveal sharp fangs. It grunted as it stared down at the two young boys, eyes darting back and forth. Its hands stayed on the ground, the weight of the beast resting on its knuckles.
"It's…real…" Conner whispered.
Brady swallowed hard. "M-maybe we should—"
He was cut off as the gorilla leaned back and roared loudly, beating its fists against its chest. The roar of the beast caused Conner and Brady to finally speak in a volume louder than a meek whisper.
They screamed and screamed the longer the gorilla's bleat lasted. And they screamed again as they were suddenly lifted off their feet and flung into the wall of the tunnel behind them. Brady fell to the ground and scrambled to reach into his pocket for his slingshot. With trembling hands he managed to grab onto his weapon. Then he patted the ground for a rock or anything else that could be used as ammo. Placing it into the leather pouch he pulled the pouch back as far as he could and released it.
The gorilla growled again and Brady watched as the rock he had shot out stopped in mid-air and jolted back towards them. He ducked out of the way as it crashed into the wall behind them. It split the exposed brick in two.
"Brady, do something!" Conner cried, continuing to stare at the gorilla.
"What am I supposed to do?"
"I don't know; you're the one with the powers, not me."
But I still don't know how to control it, Brady thought. He trembled with fear, shaking so hard his muscles started to ache. He took a deep breath, licking his lips. "Ok. Run." Brady grabbed onto Conner's wrist and dragged him to his feet. Then he ran directly towards the gorilla and used his powers to phase directly through him. Without looking back the two continued to run, turning down the first tunnel they came across.
The boys didn't dare turn around to see how close the gorilla was behind them. Its frantic grunts and growls and heavy footsteps following them was a good enough sign to know he was following close behind them.
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...
Barry nearly fell over as he came to a stop in the middle of STAR Labs with Cadence teleporting beside him. He and Cadence started to explain everything that had happened when they were in Starling City while Caitlin started to explain something all at the same time. Finally Barry stopped and asked, "What the what?"
"I was just about to say the same thing," Caitlin replied. She placed her hands on her hips. "What about Oliver not being the Arrow that was just called dead?" Her eyes then shifted around the cortex. "And where's Cisco?"
"I was just about to ask you where Ronnie and Professor Stein were," Cadence added. "Last I checked we weren't supposed to let them out of our sight. You know, in case they decided to head back to their houses or whatever."
"Do not worry Cadence, I make it my business to know where they are at all times," Harrison commented as he wheeled into the cortex. He pressed his fingers into the face of his cell phone and turned it around to show the two in their makeshift room in the medical bay.
Caitlin crossed her arms. "I don't know why he feels he has to lock them in but it's been something he's been practicing lately."
Harrison bobbed his head back and forth. "Yes, well, it seems much better than having ultimatums placed upon yourself. I choose to make decisions before they can turn into an ultimatum." With that, Caitlin lowered her gaze to the floor. "But you did bring up a very interesting questions, Dr. Snow. Where's Cisco and what was it about the Arrow that you found out?"
And so Barry explained everything that they had heard from Starling City; how Oliver, as the Arrow, was being framed for numerous murders amongst the city despite taking a vow not to kill anyone anymore. How Roy had decided to take his place as the Arrow so that Oliver wouldn't continue to be harassed by the Starling City police. How he had been taken to jail and beaten by Captain Lance, who insisted that he was not the Arrow, despite Ro's insistence that he was. How Roy was also using his time in jail as a way to repent from the police officer he had killed while under the influence of Mirakuru. How he had faked his death within jail so that Oliver could go free. And how he had just left Starling City to make a life of his own—as much of a life he could have by living under an assumed name.
"As for where Cisco is…" Barry said slowly.
He had watched Harrison as he explained what was going on with the Arrow. Now he knew for sure that Harrison was behind his mother's murder and any trust he had underneath the man was gone. Still, now wasn't the time to reveal everything he knew. Not when he still had to speak to Caitlin and Cadence about it. "He's…he's going to be here soon. He had some things he needed to finish." Like briefing Joe over everything we know has been going on around here.
"He's, uh, he's…"
"I'm right here," Cisco said as he ran into the cortex, out of breath. Barry watched as he slowed to a stop and pressed his palms against his computer desk. He sucked in a deep breath, pressing a hand into his side. "God, this is one of the times where I really wish I was you, Barry."
"Trust me, you don't want to be me right now," Barry breathed.
Barry had to stop himself from asking him how he was able to get back to Central City around the same time he and Cadence did. Then his brain moved through warp drive over the events of the last couple of days. They had spent more time in Starling with Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle once Roy had left. Cadence had done as she was promised and explained to Thea what had been going on and was surprised to find that she knew of Oliver's real identity as well. Joe and Cisco had to have driven directly back to Central City with no stops.
And Barry sat back and watched, running different scenarios through his head of what would happen if he explained to Caitlin, Cadence, and Brady his findings of Harrison Wells. How was he supposed to take someone that was their mentor and his hero and just tear it down like that? Having the information and acting upon it were two completely different things.
"What were you talking about, Caitlin?"
Before Caitlin could answer there was another shrieking sound that filled the air. Barry immediately cried out in pain, as pictures of medical instruments flashed through his mind. He couldn't figure out where they were supposed to be; but the sense of fear he felt with each picture flash increased tenfold. Finally, the screeching and the flashes went away.
"What the what?" he repeated.
"That's what I was trying to tell you," Caitlin said breathlessly. She used both hands to shove her hair from her face. "That's happened twice already. Once just before you got here." She turned to her computer desk and her fingers rapidly moved over the keys. Multiple windows opened up on her computer, most importantly a tracking one. "Using the software we've created to determine where Barry and Cadence need to go in case of metahuman and non metahuman activities. Well, I'm not quite sure what to mark this one as."
The group turned towards the screen projection and watched as a few blips appeared on screen with one moving faster than the other. But the second being very close behind the first. Barry squinted as he leaned towards the screen.
"Where is this?" He demanded. "I don't recognize it."
"It's the sewer system, and these two blips are energy sources from metahumans. It's the way we track you guys while you're running around. There are other indicators if what we're looking at are created by normal humans, like a car chase." Caitlin swallowed hard and turned to face the two. "This one,"—she pointed to the dark gray blip—"is Brady."
"What?" Cadence asked. Her eyebrows furrowed together. As Barry watched he could see here expression change from fear to rage in almost a split second. "He's supposed to be at Conner's house, why would he be down in the sewers?"
"I don't know, but whatever is chasing him is a meta as well. And according to the power signatures is the one that did that…mental attack on us."
"But what sort of a meta could do that?" Cisco broke in. "I know a lot of what we do is something we can and can't believe but a meta that has psychic powers? What would they have been doing at the time to get that as a power? Study for their finals?"
Harrison let out a low curse under his breath as he snapped his fingers. He turned his chair towards Cadence and stared hard at her, blue eyes boring into her own. "When you first got here, didn't you mention something about General Eiling?" It took a few moments for him to get Cadence's attention as she was still watching the monitor that tracked her son's movement. "Cadence, this is important?"
She closed her eyes for a moment before turning back to him. "Yeah, on the way back from Starling I had a dream where Lucas and Leah explained that General Eiling was going to stage a revolution of sorts of metahumans. He doesn't understand why metas can't live their own lives and use their powers for their own free will."
"That sounds exactly like something that Wade Eiling would want," Harrison commented. He started to rub his fingers with his thumb. "That means he may have something to do with this. When we were working together Wade wanted to study gene therapy experiements, mostly in the realm of psychic abilities like mind control. And the only test subject we had at the time was a silver-backed gorilla named Grodd. The experiments weren't too terrible, but then I saw what Wade truly wanted and I stopped him before it could get too far."
"Dr. Wells kept him here in STAR Labs and we continued to care for Grodd," Caitlin explained.
"But then the particle accelerator exploded and Grodd escaped." Harrison took off his glasses and gently tapped the arms of the frames against his chest. He looked wistful. "I guess the dark matter from the explosion affected him as well and he escaped down to the sewers to live away from humanity. Just so he could develop his powers."
"So that's the cage I saw when you were showing me around the first day," Barry realized. His mind raced a mile a minute as everything he learned about gorillas came to him once more. "If Grodd has metahuman abilities liked this Brady's in even more danger than he would be usually."
"Correct, Mr. Allen. He has added metahuman abilities but that doesn't mean he's managed to suppress the natural instincts that a gorilla has. Both of them together would be a terrible combination for anyone let alone someone who hasn't had much time to develop their powers."
"Let's go," Barry declared before he ran out of STAR Labs. As he moved he barely registered Caitlin and Cisco shouting after them to 'stop' because the 'didn't know what they were getting into'. Barry and Cadence arrived down into the sewers and the sounds of roars and screaming bombarded their ears, echoing from all directions.
Cadence brought her hands up to surround her mouth. "Brady!" She called. "Brady, where are you!?"
The screaming continued to rise and lower in volume as the seconds passed though the grunting and growls continued to increase. Brady reached out his hand and placed it over Cadence's mouth, backing up until they were flush against the tunnel wall behind them.
"Shh," he whispered, trying to concentrate on where the sounds were originating from. They continued to twist and turn as if coming from all directions at once. Or maybe even coming from inside his head. "Okay, what we need to do is flush Grodd out—"
Cadence pushed his hand off her mouth. "No, what we need to do is go in a full scale attack before he even knows we're coming and get Brady out of here."
"If we do that, that's going to put Brady in even more danger," Barry insisted.
"And having him run around and scream like that isn't going to help him either," Cadence shot back. Barry tightened his grasp around her wrist and looked her in the eye.
"I'm not going to let anything happen to him, I promise. But I'm not going to let anything happen to us, either. If Grodd can deal out a good attack mentally, then anything we put our physically may not help much. We need to get him out of here and then we can come back and figure out what to do with Grodd."
Cadence took a deep breath and nodded. "Fine. I trust you."
"Good." Barry knelt down and wrapped his arm around Cadence's waist and lifted her up so that he held her carefully in his arms. Cadence wrapped his arms around his neck and gave him a funny look saying, "you know I can teleport, right?" to which Barry shrugged and said, "Force of habit," before he tore off through the tunnels.
He followed the sounds of the growling and screams to the best of his abilities, changing directions whenever the time came, nearly stopping on a dime as he did so. Finally he came to a part of the sewer system where four tunnels came together to one area. Barry stopped and carefully let Cadence back to her feet. He grimaced as his shoes became soaked with the dirty water. Finally, the two heard the sound of footsteps heading their way accompanied by harsh breathing.
"Brady?" Cadence called.
"Mom!" Brady and Conner suddenly appeared out from a wall beside them and crashed into Cadence, grabbing onto her around the waist. The two spoke at once with Barry and Cadence only able to get the words 'Gorilla' and 'chase' out of them.
"Guys, guys, calm down," Barry tried to reassure them. "We're going to get you out of here okay?" He turned to leave then found himself unable to move. His feet were rooted to the floor. He looked over at Cadence and saw the stricken expression on her face and knew she was stuck as well.
Then he was lifted off his feet and flung backwards into the wall behind him. He cried out in pain and surprise at how quickly he was subdued as he fell to the ground. He looked up, eyes widening when he spotted a large, looming figure slowly moving towards him. Grodd blew out a breath as he slowly walked towards them.
"Grodd don't like tresspassers," he said. Barry realized he was hearing the voice in his head and cried out as more flashes of medical instruments entered his mind once more.
Brady grabbed a handful of rocks from the murky water and shoved them into the pouch of his slingshot. Once again as he aimed them towards Grodd and let go, Grodd turned them back towards the group at high speeds.
"What do we do now?" Conner gasped as Grodd continued to move closer to them.
Barry wiggled his toes in his shoe, realizing the hold was taken off. Surfing to his feet with a bust of speed, Barry raced forward to attack Grodd. He managed to land a few solid blows before he was picked up by the leg and thrown aside by Grodd, who screeched all the while. Barry blinked as he was hung upside down as easily as a piece of paper, and flung around. Then Grodd released him on a back swing and he went flying towards another wall. Before he could collide with it, there was a burst of blue light. Barry felt himself caught before he was lowered to the ground and looked up in time to find a sudden rush of orange light accompanied by heat.
He looked over to find Cadence released from Grodd's hold—at about the same time the gorilla turned his attention to Barry. She leapt up and teleported above Grodd, sending a blast of fire down his back. He turned abruptly and shot out his arm, catching Cadence across the chest and sent her flying into a wall.
Reaching up, Barry pressed his fingers into the space on his suit directly above his ear. He heard a static sound in his ear, that let him know his communication link was open. "Dr. Wells, he's stronger than we thought. He can keep us paralyzed and move us around easily. No matter how fast I go he gets the upper hand." He held his breath, waiting for a response that deep in his gut he knew wouldn't come. "Dr. Wells?"
Cadence was knocked down again and Barry took his turn to leap up and put in another flurry of punches to Grodd. This time he managed to get in a few good hits that disoriented the gorilla, giving him the upper hand.
"Harrison?" Cadence called into her communication device. "Harrison, are you there?"
Barry gritted his theeth in anger, finding that he punched harder and harder as the seconds went. No response once again. Dr. Wells wasn't going to help them even if he knew the best way to subdue Grodd and to get out of the sewers. He continued to punch over and over again until Grodd lumbered backwards and sent another mental attack to him, slamming him hard to the ground.
Then Barry blinked in surprise as Firestorm flew by, sending out a stream of fire followed by a man in a metal suit, shooting blasts of energy into Grodd.
Grodd cried out angrily and backed away as Firestorm and the man in the metal suit continued to fly around the gorilla, striking it over and over. Finally, Grodd waved its arms as he continuously backed away until he lurched behind a tunnel wall and his grunts dissipated. Firestorm lowered himself to the ground alongside the man in the suit, who helped Barry and Cadence to their feet.
"You came just in time," Barry remarked to Firestorm.
"We couldn't let you go down here by yourself," Ronnie replied, though Barry was unsure if it truly was him speaking or if it were Professor Stein using Ronnie's body. "Not when he's shown to be powerful enough to hold you two still."
"Hey, he didn't do it alone," the man in the suit commented.
"They," Cadence corrected him. "But that's a long story." She eyed the man warily. "And you are?"
"Oh! Right! I guess it's that time that I introduce myself." The man in the suit reached up and pulled off his helmet. When his face was revealed, he smiled warmly at the group of strangers who gaped back at him. "Hi, I'm Ray. Ray Palmer. You may have heard of me, I own Palmer Tech."
"You mean Queen Industries," Barry corrected him.
Ray paused for a second, his smile still on his face, then pointed at Barry. "Actually, it's Palmer Tech now. I bought it from the Queen family. Or, well, I liquidated it from him. That's actually a long story, too." He looked around at the faces staring back at him and his smile waned a little. "Is this a bad time?"
.
..
...
"HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MINDS? DO YOU KNOW WHAT KIND OF DANGER YOU PUT YOURSELVES IN?! CAN YOU EVEN COMPREHEND THAT AT ALL?!"
Barry reached up and wiggled a finger in his ear as Cadence continued to holler at the top of her lungs as she had done for the past five minutes. Once they group had left the sewers and went back to STAR Labs Barry was quick to notice that Harrison was no longer at his office desk in the cortex. When he inquired Cisco and Caitlin about it Caitlin explained that he had gone to see if he could find General Eiling.
Yeah, right, Barry thought, exchanging a glance with Cisco. For a guy who was very secretive he was also really good at coming up with plausible lies. It was getting to the point that only a tiny part of Barry could believe it. But after receiving no help on the battlefield his anger overlapped his hope.
That was when Firestorm separated back into Ronnie and Professor Stein, the former who appeared to struggle catching his breath, hands on knees. "Okay, if we're going to do this, then we'll need to practice more."
"All the more incentive to convince these guys that we should not be continuously locked up," Professor Stein agreed. "Not to mention that not receiving an adequate amount of sunlight over time will do a majority of damage to the body."
"Okay, we get it," Caitlin said with a wave of her hand. "We can't keep using the excuse that no one can see you to keep you locked up as it were. If it wasn't for you guys going down there, these two may not have stood a chance against Grodd."
"Well, it's not like we ever expected there to be a meta-ape we'd have to come up against." Cisco paused for a moment as Barry rolled his head his way. Cisco sighed and held up his hands. "Okay, I may have had the idea of creating a real-live version of Donkey Kong but that was still years away from being created."
"I can't believe that I'm standing in the STAR Labs," Ray gushed, looking around the cortex. "I mean, I've always dreamed of coming here, of being able to see how things worked in Central City. But this is even more than I've ever imagined."
"It's good to have you here, Ray, but we're a little busy at the moment and—"
Ray cut Caitlin off. "—oh, don't I know it. But you have to explain to me how you managed to combine two people into one person with fire powers? Or are these some of the things that our metahumans can do? I mean, Barry can move so incredibly fast and then Cadence over here, her fire power is spectacular. Though judging by what I've seen technically these guys' fire wasn't really fire. But that's not important, why I'm here is." He waved his hands. "I know you've seen what's been going on in Starling City and I want to help. That's why I made my suit, but it's not completely done and I need your guys' help to finish it."
Barry rubbed his temples. He was starting to get a splitting headache and sitting on the secret that was bursting to get out wasn't helping matters. "We'll help you in any way that we can, but right now there's something that we need to talk about…"
And that was when Cadence started to unleash her fury on the young boys who, rightfully, cowered in fear away from her. Barry knew it was only a matter of time after having seen the look on Cadence's face when she saw her saw running away from a meta-ape. Not to mention any adult would be facing their nightmare of not being able to protect a little kid from something that could seriously hurt them. Even Barry felt a rush of fear race through his body when Caitlin explained what was going on.
Cadence then turned her wrath onto Conner. "And I don't care if you're not my kid; I'm going to yell at you, too! I'm sure as hell your mother would agree with my sentiments once she hears what happened!" She faltered for a second. "Or at least once she realizes that you're gone because I can't exactly tell her what happened!"
Finally, Cadence turned back to her son and firmly grabbed his arms, kneeling down to his height. "You are so grounded. Like 'Supersize' me grounded. To the point that when you're finally off punishment and are able to get your ass up off the ground there'll be a butt print where you were formerly sitting. You got that?"
Brady nodded and let out a quiet, almost inaudible "Yeah…"
At that Cadence's face softened a little. But her eyes continued to hold tension. "And you know I'm only doing this because I love you and I was scared to death, right?"
"Yeah."
"Good, because I need you to listen carefully to me. Some of these guys…they don't care that you're just a kid. They will kill you if and when they get the chance. Okay? They won't go easy on you at all. Powers or not you need to keep that thought in the back of your mind, okay?"
"Okay," Brady repeated.
"Okay," Conner echoed. "I'm sorry, Ms. Nash. It was my idea to go."
"I don't care whose idea it was, I'm just glad you're not hurt."
At that statement Barry closed his eyes and turned away, walking out into the hallway just outside the Cortex. Everything else was working out just fine and the one thing that he should've been happy to figure out was just making him sink deeper and deeper into despair.
"Barry, are you okay?" Feeling a hand on his shoulder he turned to find Caitlin looked up at him. Her brown eyes shone with pure concern. "You've been acting pretty weird lately. I'm starting to really worry about you."
"Yeah, man," Cisco muttered. He continued to glance back and forth from Barry to Caitlin and Cadence, who leaned against the wall behind him, watching Barry carefully. "You look like you're about to puke."
"That's the least of our worries right now." Barry ran his hands over his face and through his hair. He took a deep breath and cracked his knuckles. Okay, Barry. You don't have a choice; you have to say it now. "Especially because I don't know how much longer our team will stay together."
"What are you talking about, Tholly?" Cadence's expression was now one of intense confusion. She exchanged a glance with Caitlin to find the bioengineer had an identical expression. "We did the best we could."
"Yeah, without Dr. Wells," Barry pointed out.
"We can't always have him around when we need him, Barry," Caitlin pointed out.
"That's the point. I can't trust him to be around when we need him anymore. I can't…" Barry licked his lips and swallowed hard, readying himself for his admission. "I can't trust him anymore. Not with my life in his hands. Not when I don't know what he's going to do."
Caitlin took a step towards him. "Barry, you're not making any sense. Where is this coming from? When have you not been able to trust Dr .Wells to guide you in pushing forward with your powers?"
"Ever since I found out he had something to do with my mother's death," Barry explained. He looked Caitlin and Cadence in the eye. "Harrison Wells is the Reverse Flash."
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..
...
One minute General Eiling was watching his co-workers finalize some his plans and the next thing he knew he was down in the sewers, being flung to the ground. He crashed into a pool of murky water and sputtered, pushing himself upwards.
Flipping around he found the Reverse-Flash standing behind him, red eyes glowing as he stared at the man. He then reached up and pulled his hood off, revealing Harrison's face underneath, to which General Eiling gaped at.
"Well Wade," Harrison said, squatting down in front of him. "It looks like you've gotten yourself into a little predicament."
A/N: Sorry for the wait on a chapter and I also apologize for it being a bit short. But not having written for this for a few weeks I found it a tiny bit difficult to get back. But at least Barry told the others now. But we'll see what goes on now that everyone's suspicions are out.
I had this brought to my attention/asked this in a series of PM's/reviews I've had with someone and I wanted to bring it up here. The reason that Flash Fire and Crossfire take episodes of the show and twist and turn them every now and then/don't directly follow episodes is because it's against FFN rules. Taking a complete episode and writing it word-for-word and just adding in another character who takes some of the lines or even says a few different lines is considered plagiarism on FFN and your story can be taken down for it/your account suspended/deleted. So to avoid that I take the general idea of them and change some of the lines/change some of what happens to remedy it.
Also, I don't believe that if this were all happening in real life that everything would be so linear, which is why the second half of the first season (highlighted in this story) is happening simultaneously or at different times. If that turns you away from the story then I'm sorry, but I'm not going to risk having my hard work taken down over it.
Also, for those of you that may not have seen it, the crossover my sisters and I have been working on is finally up. It's called The Serenade of War (originally called "Flashpoint" but changed due to the massive arc with that title in the comics) and up on the FFN profile Crystal Manning. There will be lengths of time between updates as we work through writing, making sure things are on the right track, and editing/revision, but it has been started.
-Riles