Chapter Three: Ping
Barry whooshed into the lab bearing seven coffees, one already mostly finished.
"Thank goodness, I thought Cisco was actually going to get a concussion." Caitlin said, quickly walking over to the steaming cups.
When Barry had left, Cisco had been banging his head against the desk and complaining about the fruitlessness of life. Quickly predicting the rapid degradation of the situation, Iris had sent Barry for coffee, the miraculous solution to everything.
She walked over and kissed Barry of the cheek with a, "Thanks babe," before grabbing her own order off the cardboard carrier.
"If all life is basically a specific combination of atoms lumping together, why is it so hard?" Cisco exclaimed, forehead to the desk, slumped over in his swivel chair.
"Maybe it's to do with the sleep deprivation. Staying up all night dealing with metahumans is probably not good for our health." Caitlin commented, sipping her revitalising hot drink and leaning against the infirmary doorway.
"Yeah, but if we don't, who will?" Barry said light-heartedly, but there was a bit of heaviness behind it that meant the response didn't quite fly with the rest of them. Nobody said anything though.
Joe, seeing that Cisco wouldn't be bothered to get the coffee himself, grabbed the last two from the carrier and put one next to Cisco's head.
"Drink it, Cisco, because I don't think I can cope if you launch into another lecture about the meaning of existence." Rolling his eyes, he took a big swig of his own coffee and started towards the door. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I actually have a job that I need to show up to." And with that, he walked out.
"Speaking of, Captain Singh will give me another lecture on punctuality if I'm a no-show again, so-" He disappeared, leaving only a flash of red lightning behind.
Cisco, obviously having drunk his coffee, sat up and stretched. "You got work too?" He asked Iris, eager to have some peace and quiet.
"That last meta had a good story, I just need to write it up." Glancing at Cisco's raised eyebrows, she clarified, "Yes, I do have work. See you guys later."
As soon as she left, he slumped back into his swivel chair and called to Caitlin, "Wake me up if- no, when another meta decides to terrorise the city."
Ten minutes later, a ping goes off on Cisco's phone.
A large groan erupted from the figure at the desk, and Caitlin walks in with a frown.
"That didn't take long. You didn't jinx it did you?"
"Jinx it? Who needs jinxing when we've just got plain bad luck?!" Cisco exclaims, swivelling the chair and rolling to the nearest computer just as Barry runs in.
"We've got a problem?" He asks, already moving for his suit.
"And it's another Tuesday, what's your point?" Cisco grumps.
"I mean, what's the problem." Barry says, exasperated. He changes into his suit faster than the eye can see and walks over to the display.
"Central City High School has a meta problem- looks like all the kids and teachers ran out of the building screaming not too long ago. CCPD reports say they said they were seeing their worst fears, you know, clowns, sinkholes, crazy psychopaths trying to murder them. But no one else could actually see what they were describing. Like a gas leak giving people hallucinations or something." Cisco says, looking more interested and awake than he'd seemed all day.
"Why did your app decide it was a meta then?" Barry asks, already taking off for the school.
"Don't know, I'm still getting out stupid satellites fully back online from when DeVoe hacked them. But the infrared is running, so I can give you info about the school." Pausing, he pressed a few keys and narrowed his eyes, "Looks like there's still one person inside, and they don't look too big, so they're probably a kid." Cisco informs him, mouth to the microphone in the middle of the desk.
"Thanks, I'm going in."
Barry runs through the hallways at Cisco's direction and arrives at a seemingly empty classroom. Peering through the window, he sees a huddled figure of a girl at the back of the room.
Proceeding cautiously, he opens the door, saying, "Hello? Are you ok?"
No response.
He starts to run up to her, but before he can do anything else, a wave of something slams into his mind, and suddenly, he was seeing things all around him. Impossible things.
Horrified, he turns tail, trying to come up with a new plan, then he stops.
Running back, he grabbed the girl and sprints out of the school, back to S.T.A.R. Labs.
As he runs, he wonders what happened at the school. Who is the girl? Was what he had seen real?
Barry ran faster.
Author's Note
So, since no one said anything, I guess I will upload once a week on Saturdays :) What do you think of Juliet and her powers so far? Do you think I portrayed Team Flash alright? Please let me know so I can get better :)