Author's Note: Hey guys! Here's the next chapter :) Just a little heads up, Barry isn't actually in this chapter, but obviously he's talked about. His POV will come back into play next chapter, and you'll see why :) Anyways, enjoy!

"Confirmed meta activity downtown, and a hell of a lot of it. It's gotta be them," Cisco's voice informed the other six people in the room, a somewhat excited look on his face for the first time in hours. This was what they had been hoping for. Granted, it was a little wrong, considering the general population was probably terrified, but this was the way to get Barry back; this was their plan coming into action. Only, that plan was a little complicated now that Oliver had shown up.

"Let me go," the vigilante insisted. "I'll take them down, torture them for information if I have to. They will tell where Barry is."

"Oliver, there's six of them and one of you," Iris pointed out. "Not exactly the best odds."

"And I do believe we already had a plan that didn't include this chump,' Snart input, the corners of his mouth twitching. He was aware that he was getting a rise out of the Green Arrow, and he was enjoying it.

"Snart, I swear -" Oliver began menacingly, but was cut off by Joe.

"Nah uh, none of that," the detective said, his voice stern. "We are not getting into an argument right now. We need to focus on my son."

"Look, we can make this work," Cisco chimed in, trying to disarm the situation. Joe was right; they did not have time to stand around and argue, or to break up any fights. Barry needed them.

"Yeah? How?" Oliver asked snappishly, arms crossed over his chest; he still did not look pleased with the situation. Felicity placed a hand on his shoulder as if trying to calm him, though it was without much effect.

"We planned for Snart to infiltrate their group," Iris stepped up to explain. "They all owe him a favor. We figured 'revenge on the Flash' would fulfil that. He gets in, lets us know where their hideout is, waits until he's alone with Barry or a good opportunity arises, and we get him out. You can be our assurance - watch our backs when that happens, or be there if things go wrong - if we don't get the opportunity we need," she said.

Oliver still did not seem rather fond of the plan, but the alert was still blaring in the background, reminding him and everyone else in the room that they needed to act, and fast.

"Fine," he grumbled finally; Team Flash smiled.

"Good. Then let's get him a com. We need to go," Caitlin spoke up, and rushed into action.

After jobs had been sorted, it didn't take long for things to get put into action. Felicity, Caitlin and Cisco stayed behind at STAR Labs, keeping an eye on Barry's vitals, news footage and surveillance videos of what was happening downtown. Joe, Iris, Oliver and Snart had all piled into a STAR Labs van and driven as fast as they could down to the site of the chaos, all speed limits be damned. Luckily, all available police officers seemed to be gathered downtown, though it was highly doubtful that anyone would have stopped them at that point anyways. Everyone knew who Joe and Iris were, and knew of their relationship with Barry - with the Flash.

The usually ten minute drive took only about four, and Iris couldn't help thinking that Barry probably would have gotten a kick out of that, would have smiled and made some stupid comment about how they were almost as fast as him. It brought a small smile to her face, but also a small pang to her heart - she just wanted him back, as did everyone else. And that was why they were going through with this crazy plan.

Joe was driving, and he pulled the van to a skidded stop right outside of a makeshift barrier of police cars already parked awkwardly, blocking off half the street. A few brave pedestrians were watching from farther back; far more unlucky ones were caught inside the danger zone, however, and had practically become the playthings of the gathered rogues. The entire police force was scattered about, all with weapons drawn and doing their best to control the situation, even when they were clearly outmatched by their opponents. It was like all hell had broken loose, and Iris couldn't help the way her heart sped up at the sight of it all. What she was looking at seemed almost exactly like the scene she had watched from the videos earlier but almost worse, and without Barry present.

Hail was flying everywhere, thunder rumbling and lightning crackling overhead - obviously Mardon's doing. The sick bastard was standing on a rooftop, grinning at the mess. She could see a few police officers actually fighting each other in the midst of the stormy conditions, Bivolo's doing, though she couldn't spot him at the moment, which was a little unnerving. At least one officer was down with three cards sticking out of his body closer to where they were parked, making Iris wince; Jeremy Tell was striding over to the man casually, most likely to retrieve them. She really hoped he wasn't retrieving them from a corpse; that the man was alright. She couldn't see Bliss in the mix either, but Shawna and Clay were on the outskirts of everything, and Clay appeared to be talking to her, though it was impossible to know what about. She sucked in a breath and turned away from the scene, facing Snart instead.

"It's go time," she said. "Are you ready? Is your com working?"

Snart rolled his eyes. "Yes, I can hear every word your friends are saying. And let me just say, they never seem to shut up."

"Well unlike you, they're actually invested in this," Oliver snapped at the villain. Snart rolled his eyes.

"If I weren't invested even a little, I wouldn't be here, Queen," he pointed out. "Like I already told the rest of them: despite our differences, I wouldn't wish this upon Barry," he said, calm and cool as always. Iris decided not to bring up the fact that Barry would also owe him after this; she didn't want Oliver any more pissed off than he already was. It could compromise what they were doing, and nobody wanted that.

"Alright, Snart, get ready then," Joe stepped in, flipping the on switch on the walkie-talkie Cisco had given them. It was set to the same channel as the com link, which would allow him, Iris and Oliver to be able to communicate with Snart and their friends back at STAR as well. Snart nodded, and with that, Iris opened up the back doors of the van and Snart jumped out, equipped with his signature Cold Gun. It had been a little unsettling for everyone letting him have it with him, especially when in theory he was going to be with Barry. But if he wanted to be taken seriously, they reckoned that he would most likely need it; that did not mean they had to like it.

Joe jumped out moments after Snart, his regular gun at the ready. He had perhaps one of the most important jobs: to find Captain Singh in the midst of this all and convince him somehow to get the officers not to shoot Snart, and not to fatally wound any of the other Rogues; they needed them to take Snart back with them, to wherever Barry was, and that couldn't happen if there was a massacre. Though at this point, it appeared that if there were to be a massacre, it wouldn't be the cops killing the Rogues. It was a worrisome thought as Iris watched her father go, the back doors of the van slamming shut behind him. She forced herself to look back out the windshield at the scene before her, left alone with Oliver to watch, to wait. To oversee, and make sure everything went according to plan. Neither of them were happy with staying on the sidelines, but at least Iris could admit that it was the best thing for them to do right now. And she trusted Oliver enough to know that if things went awry, he would do everything he could to set it straight. All that was left for her to do now was clutch the walkie-talkie and wait.

Despite the chaos happening, it didn't take long for Joe to spot David Singh amongst the other officers, a brave face on as always and his gun cocked, shooting out at the metahumans attacking even when the weapon wasn't doing much to help; there were too many civilians trapped in the danger zone, the villains moving too quickly and expertly to be good targets from where the officers were standing by their cars, for some kind of protection.

"Captain!" Joe's voice rang out as he got within hearing range of his boss, watching Snart sneaking closer out of the corner of his eye; thankfully, it appeared that none of the detective's fellow officers had spotted him yet, too absorbed in the other six they were trying to stop.

Upon hearing Joe's voice, Singh's head snapped around, his eyes uncharacteristically wide as he saw the detective making his way towards him. "Joe," he said in surprise. He clearly hadn't expected him to be there, not after everything that had happened. And for a moment that was all he said, clearly unsure what else to say. There was an army of mostly-superpowered villains trying to tear a sector of the city apart, and there before him stood the foster father of the man who was the Flash. Who had managed to somehow keep the secret for so long, because of course he knew - there was no way he didn't.

"Captain," Joe repeated as he finally came to a stop in front of a man, his face serious. Singh was so sure he was going to say something about Barry that the words that came out of his mouth next were a big surprise.

"You have to tell everyone not to kill them," he said. "And not to shoot Snart," he added; Singh's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Snart? Joe, what are you - what?"

Joe motioned offhandedly to the sidewalk, where Leonard Snart was slowly but surely making his way to the center of the commotion, the plan set well in motion. Singh's mouth nearly dropped open when he saw the man.

"Joe, what on earth are you -" the captain started, but Joe shook his head, daring to cut him off for the first time in his life. Daring to give his boss an order.

"Just do it," Joe said firmly. "David, you have to trust me. This is for Barry. I'll explain later." For a moment, Singh stared at Joe in shock; and then, as he did often, he pulled himself together and nodded. He worried what Joe was up to, collaborating somehow with Snart. But he also trusted him

"I expect a long explanation, Joe. From both you and Barry. Once he's back safe," the captain said, and even as worried and stressed out as he was, Joe couldn't help the smallest of twitches of his mouth. David still had hope.

Leonard Snart, though he would never admit it to anyone, was not very fond of the plan that Team Flash had cooked up. But it was a little late to bring up concerns as he found himself waltzing into the middle of a warzone, with a high chance of being used as target practice by the people he was supposed to get in with, or shot full of bullets by cops; he had to rely on Joe to handle the latter, and was mildly relieved when he saw the man chatting up the captain in his peripheral vision. It seemed to be going well. But he wasn't in the clear yet. Now was the hard part. He took only a moment to suck in a breath before leaving the safety of the car he was behind, stepping right into the middle of the storm that was still brewing, trying to dodge the tennis ball-sized chunks of hail that were raining down. If his cold gun got hit and malfunctioned, he had nothing to protect himself with. And he was admittedly quite fond of living. Unsurprisingly, Mardon was the first one to spot him from his spot up on a rooftop.

"Well look what the cat dragged in," his booming voice echoed across the street, making sure he was heard over the noise. Suddenly all eyes were on him; even Shawna and Clay looked up from whatever spat they were having to see what Mardon was referring to. He could feel the cops watching him too, and bristled slightly, thinking for sure that at least one would try to shoot. But with a single gesture from their captain, all weapons were lowered. Mardon used his powers to his advantage, forming a cloud to bring him down to the street where Snart was standing, cold gun at the ready. The storm around them still raged, though seemed to leave a clear patch around them as Mardon stood in front of him, Tell, Shawna, Clay and Bivolo quick to start converging as well. At this point, anyone who tried to get near them would most definitely be clobbered by some part of the weather, concussed by hail or battered by wind or some other alternative; no one was getting close.

"What are you doing here, Snart?" Mardon asked, a look on his face that Snart definitely didn't like. He didn't let it show, instead giving the man a sneer.

"I heard you all got ahold of the Flash," he said blatantly. "I want in."

"Do you now?" Bivolo spoke up, arms crossed over his chest. He eyed the newcomer. "And why would we allow you to do that? All the hard work was already done by us."

"And as I recall, I gave you the opportunity to help me kill the twat last Christmas. You turned me down," Mardon chimed back in, crossing his arms over his chest as well. "You think I'm stupid? There's some kind of reason, Snart."

Shawna eyed the thief and his cold gun warily; she had never expected anyone else to try and get in on this. If she was being honest, however, she didn't expect things to go as they had either; hadn't expected things to become so twisted. "We don't need you," she said stonily, her voice not betraying the way she felt.

"Oh really?" Snart asked. "So you don't want the use of this, then?" He motioned to his gun. "The Flash reacts terribly to cold temperatures."

Mardon didn't say anything yet, but he eyed the cold gun greedily, as did Clay and Bivolo.

"And, maybe it doesn't matter much to you, but I even know that a certain Green Arrow is in the city and has plans to help rescue his little vigilante pal," Snart added, improvising as he went. Tell perked up at this, as Snart was hoping would happen; he knew the meta had a particular distaste for the man. "I didn't have to warn you about that, but…" he shrugged. "I did say I wanted in."

Everyone in the group eyed each other.

"And what do you get out of it, Snart?" Mardon asked, eyebrows cocked. "What reason would you possibly have to get back at the Flash now?"

"I'm sick of him racing around the city, always having to be the hero. You think I like having to lay low?" he asked, raising his own eyebrow. "I need an answer. Don't know how long the cops over there are gonna hold their fire."

"You're in," Tell was quick to say, a grin on his face; the information about the Green Arrow was enough for him, and he definitely wanted to grill the man for more information about that.

Shawna shot him a dirty look. "I get to say if he's in or not," she snapped. "How much damage does that gun do? We're not trying to kill him," she stressed. Judging by the looks on everyone else's faces, even her supposed boyfriend's, they weren't quite on board with that, which gave him a bit of an uneasy feeling. It wouldn't be so hard from their standpoint to overthrow the girl, if they weren't a fan of her leadership. Then Barry was really screwed.

"Enough," he said. "But I can control it."

"Shawna," Clay spoke up now for the first time. "He's in," the man said. Shawna opened and closed her mouth briefly, as if she wanted to protest but couldn't bring herself to do it. All the men were looking at her, waiting for her to try and oppose.

"Fine," she said finally, clearly not happy. "Whatever."

"Are you going to finish your little hissy fit here first?" Snart asked smugly as he was elected successfully into the group. "Or do I get to see the merchandise?"

The group of rogues looked around, as if surveying how much damage they had caused, how much fear they had stricken into the people of Central City.

"I'm curious to see how much you can do with that thing," Mardon said finally. "I say we take a break. I think Central gets the message; we're not done here."

Clay grinned, reaching out and giving the cold gun a pat. "Let's see what this baby can do."

Internally, Snart winced. Killing Barry before he could save him would not score him many points with the young man's friends, reinforced by the slight panicking he was hearing in his earpiece. He would have to figure something out on the fly. He knew Barry didn't react well with the gun, and if he was as worse off as everyone seemed to be implying, he didn't want to know what would happen if he used it on him. But apparently, neither did Shawna. Perhaps he could work with that. For the moment, however, he only grinned like he didn't have a care in the world.

"Yes. Let's.'

Author's Note: Hope you all liked the chapter :) Like I said, Barry will be back in the next one! Until next time!