This "Jay Garrick" explained how the Rhino was sent to kill the Flash and Spider-Man from another earth. This was because the singularity created a portal connecting their two worlds.
In that world, Jay Garrick was a speedster and they called him the Flash. The man that Rhino warned them about, Zoom, and Jay were in a fight and he was dragged into the portal and lost his speed. He also goes on to explain that he has been spying on everyone in the room and they decide to run some tests to see if he's telling the truth about all of this.
"Is there any chance that this whole...other realities thing could be connected to you?" Joe asks Peter, about his latest adventure.
"No, that was between Morlun and the infinite Spider-Men across the universe." Peter denied that thought and knew it could not have been because of it. "This...this is something closer to our world. This could be multiversal, but it isn't anything to do with the BRANCHES of my mission."
"Mr. Parker is correct, but if what Mr. Garrick is telling the truth, there is a breach somewhere in Central City that we need to find and close for good," Stein tells the team and they know that was a serious problem.
"What about this...Zoom guy?" Bobby asks them. "Sounds like a next year version of Reverse Flash."
"As long as there isn't another Goblin situation, I'm fine," Peter stated.
Joe then led Jay out of the room so that the others could have a conversation about him without him around. None of them knew what to think or say about what he said about being from another universe.
"But there is one problem remaining, if what he's saying is the truth, then there is a breach out there in Central City that we need to find and close for good," Stein warns them.
"And how do we plan to do that?" Bobby asks. "They don't exactly breach tracking that in Midtown."
"I say we put our heads together and come up with a solution," Stein said and sighed at the reminder. "Not literally, of course, those days are over." He then walked out of the room with Cisco quickly behind him to see if he can help.
"So, do we believe him?" Mary Jane asks them, unsure what to believe at this point.
"Well, jays heart rate is extraordinarily low," Caitlin commented as she looked over the notes. "And he does have regenerative capabilities. Other than that, I'm not seeing any evidence that the Speedforce was ever in his system."
"So, we don't even have proof that he's a speedster, let alone from another Earth." Barry clarified with his girlfriend.
Caitlin however had some good news to go with it. "Not exactly. Jay doesn't know but, when I was testing him, I also measured his autonomic reactions while we were talking."
"You gave him a lie detector test?" Iris was surprised to hear.
But then Peter looked over to Barry with a smile. "Have fun trying to lie."
"Really?" Barry asked his brother with a sigh.
"And he passed," Caitlin tells them.
Barry however looked over and eyed Jay from the halls. "What if he's not a good guy, and he just wants to find our weaknesses?" He was seeming a bit paranoid about this, but the others can't exactly blame him. After everything they went through with Goblin and Reverse Flash, it's plausible. "Keep running tests. See what else you can find out."
Caitlin shrugged and saw it was something that she could just keep looking into. "Okay."
Barry's phone then buzzed and he needed to go. "I gotta get to work." He quickly pecked Caitlin on the lips. "See you."
Then he sped out of the room, leaving Peter, Bobby, MJ, and Iris around the room. Peter looked at his watch and panicked when he recalled what was going down.
"Uh, and we gotta go. We've got school." Peter warned his friends.
The three of them then said their farewells as they quickly raced out of the building. They really didn't want to explain how they were late because of the fact they met someone from another dimension if that was even a good enough excuse as it was.
Iris leaned against the wall, staring at the spot Barry had been thoughtful. "You know, Caitlin, I don't know if Barry's just suspicious of Jay."
"What do you mean?" Caitlin tilted her head, and now it was her turn to sneak a peek at the blond man in her lab.
"I think he might be jealous," Iris smirked.
Caitlin choked for a second, and stared at her, open-mouthed. "J-Jealous? Why on Earth would Barry be jealous?!"
"Because Jay's cute, obviously. And you're spending time running tests on him while his shirt's off. Boyfriends don't really like that."
"Oh." Caitlin peeped. "I don't- there's nothing- Jay and I-"
"Listen, I know that." Iris interrupted. "But Barry... he's Barry."
Caitlin sighed, and Iris gave her one last smile, before turning and walking out into the hallway. She then turned, too, and resignedly moved back into her lab to keep running tests on Jay to see if he was telling the truth.
With Peter, he wasn't actually swinging through the city to make his way to school. Instead, he was making his way to the location where the school was having a field trip. Everyone knew, and this was something that he definitely didn't want to miss getting into the Stark Expo.
The Stark Expo is an exposition that brings minds together from around the world and combines them to try and develop new inventions to improve the quality of life for mankind and the world in the future. Something that would often come to Central City, but this was the first year that he could finally go thanks to the school.
"This is going to be the greatest experience of my life," Peter stated as he looked over the Expo. "Oh man, I can't..."
But before he could do anything else, his senses went off and he wondered what was going on here. He located the disturbance on the roof of the building where he noticed a figure walking around the roof. Deciding to check it out, he leaped over and landed on the top of Stark Expo and started to look around at the roofing.
"Hello?" Peter called out quietly as he continued to look to find who was with him. That's when he spotted a figure that didn't seem to notice he was spotted.
The person wore a skeleton mask with yellow eyes. He wears several prosthetic masks behind to cover his secret identity. He also wears a black suit, white gloves, boots, and a white cape with a hood.
"Well, now that's something I didn't think I'd be seeing today," Peter commented as he got into his normal stance. "Hey, Buddy! Pretty sure the entrance is downstairs!"
The ghostlike figure then looked towards Peter and he got a good look at his skeleton mask. Peter then quickly got ready for a fight when the person quickly turned invisible, which got Peter scared, and starting to look around.
"Okay, I'm fighting a literal ghost now?" Peter questions when he notices he became visible and started running at him. "Alright, here's a ghost story that packs a punch!"
But when he punched the man, his fist went straight through him as the ghost went right through Peter. It left a shiver down Peter's spine as he was frozen for a good second. He had never had anyone pass right through him, it sort of reminded him of Barry's phasing capabilities.
"That was one of the weirdest feelings I've ever felt in my life," Peter commented as he looked around. When he looked, he saw the ghost making his way to the ledge. "Oh, no. You're not getting away that easily!" But when he tried to fire webs at the ghost, his shooter short-circuits and he sees the shooters were disabled. "Or maybe you are..."
"Can I help you?" An almost metallic voice asks.
Peter looked out of the building and was met with someone who was flying with the help of rockets on his hands and feet. It was the Invincible Iron Man. He looks like a humanoid robot with a red and gold color scheme. The Arc Reactor is still noticeable. He has a golden mask that can flip up to show his face.
"Iron Man?!" Peter couldn't believe he was this close to the owner of Stark Industries. The man who invented the Iron Man suit. "Holy cow, it's you! This is so awesome!" He then immediately tried to calm himself down before he could faint. "Wow, you'd think after everything I've done and seen, I'd be used to seeing other heroes."
"You're pretty excited for an intruder." Tony Stark commented as his suit was getting all the data on Spider-Man it could.
"Intruder?" Peter asks before getting what he was confused about. "Oh, no, actually I was-"
"Don't you know better to try and break into a tech expo?" Tony asks him in confusion. "Every one of my systems alerted me to your presence."
"No, it wasn't me." Peter tried to explain himself. "It was actually-"
"Talk to the hand." It seems Tony was in no mood as he aimed a repulser at the hero. "This should be quick."
He then fired a repulsor blast as Peter quickly jumped to dodge the attack and landed on a pillar. "Whoo! That was exhilarating."
"Okay, you're faster than I gave you credit for, Spider-Man," Stark stated as he landed a few feet from him. "I am starting to see why the Bat has taken an interest in you."
Peter immediately froze up once again when he heard "The Bat" from Stark. Everyone knows about the Bat. "Wait, the Bat? The Batman? Batman is real? I knew it! Batman and Iron Man know who I am?"
"I'm aware of you. But what I'm not aware of is your intention. Which is why you're coming with me." Stark tells the boy.
Stark then shot out an electrical charge from his gauntlet and tried to hit Spider-Man, only for him to quickly dodge the attack with his powers. He even managed to get further away and land on the side of the conjoined building.
"Whoo, missed me!" Peter cried as he tried to get his thoughts straight.
"Okay, this is growing tiresome." Stark sighed as he took to the air, trying to blast Peter as he crawled around to dodge the attacks. "Hold still!"
"So you can hit me? No, thanks." Peter stated as he just kept dodging his attacks. "Listen, I'm telling you, I'm not the guy. There's some sort of ghost figure up here. He was-"
"A ghost?" Stark wasn't buying it for a second as he kept following the hero. "Yeah, nice try, but according to my scanners the only people up here are me and you." Then his suit finally got a lot of information on the boy that h couldn't have spotted on the spot. "A 5' 10", 97-pound...kid?" That caused Tony a moment of pause as he knew Bruce had suspicions about Spider-Man's age, but he basically just confirmed it. "You're a kid?"
"Don't act so surprised. This place is crawling with kids." Peter stated jokingly. "We'll, I'm the only one actually crawling." Taking advantage of Tony's dumbfound moment, he leaped on a gas pipe and knew how to escape. "And you know what they say, he who crawls away life's to fight another day." He then ripped the pipe and caused smoke to cover both of them. "I hope!"
Tony couldn't see anything thanks to the heat and fumes now stopping his scanners. This wasn't one of his more advanced suits and was faster than stronger. It was only meant to be his fast way of traveling from place to place since he already had a new armor to unveil for the Expo.
"Clever, kid." Tony had to admit that was some quick thinking.
And let's say that things only got worse around Barry as he went to stop a fire. Or what he thought was a fire. He ended up fighting a meta who apparently could turn into sand, giving everyone the same thought it was flint Maemo, Sandman. He returns with a sample of the sand taken from the sight. Barry and Cisco are looking at what the sand could be as the others join them.
"I mean, it's gotta be from the metahuman that attacked me," Barry states and Peter agrees.
"Huh. What is this stuff? Sand?" Cisco questions since it looks like it was.
"It's not sand," Jay tells them as he exits the treadmill room with one of Barry's sweatshirts. "It's human cells whose myosin ll protein have migrated to the cell's periphery."
"Jay's a fellow scientist," Caitlin explains since she discovered that during the lie detector test.
"Those cells have the ability to rearrange and harden, giving them the appearance of sand." Jay continues to explain to them.
"And you know this how?" MJ asks since he has a little bit too much information on a new guy.
"They belong to a metahuman I fought before named Sand Demon," Jay explains and Bobby couldn't help but laugh.
"Ha! Sand Demon! That was literally the name I suggested for our guy downstairs!" Bobby was happy to see he was right.
"I know you're new here, so I'm gonna break it down for you," Cisco states to Jay which is a bit of a reminder for Bobby. "The whole naming the bad guy's thing, that's my jam. But you know what? I'm gonna let you have that one because I guess it's already been predetermined." Then he looked down and noticed the shirt. "Is that Barry's sweatshirt?"
"Oh, sorry, it was all we could find that could fit him," Iris explains that they didn't want the guy walking around shirtless.
"I was gonna say, 'cause it looks a lot smaller on you," Cisco stated, earning him an eye from the others.
The look on Barry's face was so miserable that Caitlin had to step in. "Actually, Cisco, I think that sweatshirt looks really good on Barry." She reached out and took Barry's hand, letting him know that no new guy was going to turn her sights on the most amazing man in the world.
Barry gave her a grateful smile, and Cisco laughed uncomfortably. "You know what? I gotta... do this thing." He booked it out of the Cortex, causing Caitlin to roll her eyes at her friend's unintentional antics. "Away from everyone."
MJ broke the uncomfortable silence. "So... who is this guy?"
"I don't know his name," Jay admitted with a sigh. "But I know how to stop him."
"And that is something we can use!" Caitlin put it, smiling at Barry.
To her confusion, he didn't look happy at the revelation. "You know what? I think we'll be fine on our own."
"Look, Barry, I don't know what else I can do to prove to you I'm on your side. I've been poked and prodded. Sand Demon's from my world. Let me teach you how to stop him." Jay pleads to
"Yeah, Sand Demon might be from your world, but we already fought someone who could do the same thing. Sandman could do everything your Sand Demon can do, and we know how to stop..." Barry then looked to Bobby and MJ who both nodded their head no. "What?"
"Spidery is currently unavailable." Bobby was sorry to say. "He's at the Stark Expo with the school."
"What, neither of you went with him?" Barry was curious.
"It was offered to the best and brightest," MJ explains. "Not how you describe the two of us."
"Zoom sent Rhino here to kill you. He must have sent Sand Demon to do the same thing. Don't you get it? Anyone close to the Flash or Spider-Man, all of you, are in a lot of danger." Jay informs him and now Barry is getting annoyed.
"Alright. If you were so good, you would have caught him already." Barry stated as he knew he needed to find another way. "Let's get Jay back to his cell."
Back with Peter, he was hiding amongst the crowd of people within the Expo, as the school allowed the people to wander. They were the smartest and most well-behaved kids within the school, meaning they didn't need to be babysitted over. It also meant he had time to roam and look around and see if he could locate the ghost figure. But just like a real ghost, it's like it somehow managed to slip out undetected.
Then the main event started and Peter knew he would look obviously suspicious if he were to not pay attention. He made it near the stage so that he could watch the presentation of the Expo.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Stark Expo, the technological event of the year. With your host, the technological man of the millennium, Tony Stark!"
Then they watched as Iron Man came flying in and created an impact on the stage without even breaking it. The crowd cheers at his entrance while Pete just clapped as he felt his head buzzing again.
"Thanks, everyone." Tony addressed the crowd as he lifted his face mask. "I'm sure you're about to unveil some groundbreaking technology here today. But let's be honest, you really came to see the new suit, am I right?"
The crowd cheered as Tony decided to not keep them waiting, unveiling a platform that was carrying his invention. They watched as his newest suit, similar to the one he's wearing in design, just with a new dark blue design and altered mask.
"I give to you...the MK 50." Tony tells the crowd.
But then the screen shined him started to glitch and an ominous voice started to fill the air. "Tony Stark is a selfish capitalist."
"Who said that?" Tony asks as he looked over to the speakers.
"Sir it appears we have a breach." JARVIS, Tony's onboard AI, warns him.
"I'm on it," Tony says as he lowered his mask. "But he's using an echo device, can't seem to pinpoint where he is.
The ghost figure then came from the ceiling behind Stark, who was having his systems scramble by his appearance. Peter however wasn't as distracted as he raced off into the crowd and needed to change.
"Obsessed with being a tech Titan, Stark took control of my ideas and left me out in the cold." Ghost proclaimed as he lowered himself into Tony's suit just before he could stop him. So, now, I've come to take control of his ideas...and leave him in the dark ground."
Then the Ghost used the MK 50 as to aim the repulser and shoot Tony. He was hit, causing the crowd to scream and panic as they ran around the room. But Stark wasn't injured as his suit managed to take most of the damage before he aimed and shot him back.
The explosion caused a few of the decorations to shake and fall on some pedestrians. But before it could hit the ground, Peter came in and tackled a few people before it could fall.
"And this is why I don't use that kind of weaponry," Peter stated as he saw a few others about to be crushed further away. "Hold on!" He quickly tried to use his web shooters, but then recalled that they have been shorted out by Ghost earlier. "Oh, great." He then ran and tried to catch it by himself. "Spider strength, don't fail me now."
"You thinking of standing there all day, Spider-Man?" Stark asks and Peter looked to see he was stopping the decorations.
"Oh, it's you," Peter sighed as Stark landed and took defensive action by hiding with him. "You believe me now there's someone else here?"
"Saving those people gave you some lead way, but if you really want to prove it, you'll help me take down this guy," Stark stated as he got a scan of him.
"Got any idea of who this guy is?" Peter asks him.
"I recognize that voice. It's scrambled, but it remains the same." Stark stated as he pulled up a holographic file. "Names Edward Claris, he used to work for me before he tried creating weapons for others. I reassigned him so he couldn't keep doing it, but I don't know where he got this kind of tech."
"I don't think it's tech," Peter said as he started to put it together. "I think he's a metahuman. With the ability to control technology, he touches from the feel of it. Considering he shorted out mine and is possessing yours."
"A metahuman?" Stark asked and groaned. "Ah, that's great. Any ideas on taking him down?"
"Well, we could theoretically short-circuit him in your armor. Similar like he did to me." Peter came up with a good idea.
"Hm, not a bad idea." Stark saw that was a plan that could work. He immediately opened his wrist to connect to his suit. "The MK 50 was designed to connect to my other suits. If I sent a feedback loop into the signal, it should be able to..."
They watched as the MK 50 started to glitch and they both watched as it then started to short-circuit. Ghost was kicked out of the suit and sent flying as the MK 50 fell and slammed into the ground.
"Good call, Spider-Man." Stark congratulated him. "Maybe I was wrong about you."
"You fools!" Seems they celebrated prematurely when Ghost claws to his feet. "All I needed from that suit was the interconnectivity disks." He then held up his hands and showed the fingers had what looked to be mini microchips on the tips. "Since you don't seem to have a problem with one man controlling all tech, Stark, let's see how you feel about someone controlling all of your techs!"
Then all of the experiments inside of the expo from electric cars and drones started to come alive and were starting to attack the heroes. Peter quickly leaped and tried to dodge the attacks as he still didn't have his web shooters. Stark quickly dodged and flew as it seems his suit was the only thing safe.
"He's controlling anything tech-based!" Stark cried to the people and looked at Peter. "Take out what you can!"
"Working on it!" Peter cried as he dodged the incoming drones.
"Yesterday's surprise broadcast from the Star City vigilante who is calling himself the Green Arrow has spawned a massive outcry of both support and dissenters." The news is saying, talking about Oliver.
"Catchy." Caitlin comments on the new name.
"Kinda obvious," Bobby commented.
"A little too on the nose for my taste." MJ agreed.
Bobby however called her out on the hypocrisy of that. "You're dating a dude with the powers of a spider, who goes by Spider-Man."
"I hate it when they put a color in their name," Cisco says as Barry came back.
"Hey, the samples from the guy, they're definitely human, not sand." Cisco was sorry to say, showing the results.
"It's not him, I get it," Barry replies.
"I hate to say it, but I think this Earth-2 theory is starting to make sense. I mean, could Jay seriously be lying about Sand Demon?" Cisco asks and Barry still doesn't trust Jay.
"For real?" Barry asks.
"What, you think Jay is lying about Sand Demon?" MJ asks him.
"I don't know, that's my point," Barry explains to her. "But I'm not just gonna believe some guy who just walks in here and says a few things that sorta check out.
"He was right about Zoom," Cisco replies to his friend.
"We don't even know anything about this Zoom," Barry informed him. "What is Zoom? Is Zoom even real?" He looks at Stein who's behind the computers. "Have you ever discovered a breach yet?"
"Not yet, but we know how to now," Stein promises them.
"Have you found one thing to suggest that Jay is even a speedster?" Barry asks Caitlin and she hasn't found anything. "Is the Speedforce even in his system?"
"It doesn't appear to be. No." Caitlin confirmed his suspicions.
"See? We are scientists. We test, we prove, and we report. That's what we do. But now I seem to be the only one who seems to be doing that." Barry stated to the rest of them.
Caitlin seems to have finally had enough of whatever this was and sighed. "Can we talk?" She then started to drag Barry off towards the halls. "Now."
Barry saw this wasn't a choice and quickly followed her into her labs whilst everyone else left. They knew the two needed to talk as it seems a lot had changed since she left to help Logan in S.H.I.E.L.D.
"What has happened to you?" Caitlin asked quietly sitting down on the top of her desk.
"Me?" Barry gave her an incredulous look.
"Yes. You. The you that I've known for the past year. The you I fell in love with. The you that's my boyfriend. The you that became the Flash! I haven't seen that you in a very long time, Barry." Caitlin sighed as she dropped her arms to her side. "I missed that you these past few months. I was excited to come back to you, and it seems like something changed."
"A lot has changed, Caitlin." Barry shrugged, not meeting her eyes.
"Yeah, it sure has." Caitlin agreed with him, still unhappy with the response. "You have learned how to not trust people." He didn't respond to that statement. "What is it about Jay that you don't like?"
"I don't know." Barry glared right back at her. "What is it about him that you like so much?"
"No, that's not what this is about." Caitlin snapped, suddenly angry. But she took a second and thought of what Iris said earlier. "Iris said that you're jealous-"
"Jealous?!" Barry cried in confusion.
Caitlin quickly cut him off. "Yeah. Jealous. If you think that a random stranger can waltz in here, and knock me off my feet that easily, then you don't know me at all."
"I know," Barry murmured, staring at his shoes. "I know, I don't. I'm sorry."
"It's not just jealously, though, Barry." Caitlin was starting to see what was bugging him so much. She then got up and walked closer to him, laying her hand on his knee. "It's because he reminds you of Harrison Wells."
"I trusted that man for months...we all did," Barry said quietly. He shook his head. "And you know what happened? Ronnie is dead. Eddie is dead. And a whole lot of other people in this city, they're dead because we trusted him. I'm not going to let us make that mistake again."
Caitlin forcefully resisted the urge to cry and sat down next to him. "Barry. Not everyone is Harrison Wells. Besides, if you recall, you defeated him because you trusted in people. Because you believed in us. This team that you've created, will follow your lead. We will do what you say. But...if they think that you don't believe in them, it won't be long before they don't believe in you."
"What about you?" Barry whispered, taking her hand and rubbing it between his two larger ones.
"Barry..." Caitlin rested her head on his shoulder. "I'll always believe in you."
Back at the expo, things were getting harder when Ghost was starting to get his hands on the new technology and attack the heroes with it. Ghost was just standing in the middle of the room and wasn't even moving as he watched Stark and Peter having problems getting near him.
"We have got to retrieve those disks," Stark said as he flew and blasted a robot down.
"It's a bit difficult," Peter stated as he kicked and hit a robotic arm. He then ducked and dodged a sonic cannon and hid behind a pillar. "I can't shoot webs. I can't get around the room quickly."
"Spider-Man!" Stark cried when he saw his suit was getting hacked. "He's getting into my armor." He then knew he couldn't let Ghost control it. "JARVIS, activate eject protocol!"
"Eject protocol activated."
Tony then stood there as his suit was disassembled around him and he fell to the ground. But that was a mistake when suddenly he felt his arc reactor was malfunctioning. He screamed as he fell over in pain and Ghost was relishing the moment.
"Finally. I will finally rid the world of you!" Ghost was taking this moment to relish.
"And now Iron Man's life is in danger. I need to get him to break the control of those disks, or Stark is going to die." Peter groaned as he tried to figure out what to do. "What to do? What do I do?'
Then he heard something slide over towards him and he felt something touch his foot. He looked down and noticed it was a small cardboard box that he saw had his initials on it. He leaned over and picked up the box and opened it to see it held his MK 1 web shooters and suit. He wondered how these could have gotten here when he looked into the shadows and saw a figure.
"You might want to use them." The female figure tells him. "No tech for him to control, and you can get back into action."
"How did you get these?" Peter asked the figure.
"Wanna ask questions, or do you want to save that man's life?" She asks him.
Peter decided to just go with it and quickly ran off with his old gear. As he was running, Ghost spotted him and quickly acted by activating the turrets in the room.
"Come on our, Spider-Man!" Ghost cried as he rapidly fired upon him. "I'll finally rid myself of your inconvenience."
The rapid firing started to create a cloud of smoke around the hero and the residents of the Expo started to panic. But then Peter shot out a web and hit Ghost's chest. He didn't seem to have time to react when Peter came flying out of the cloud, using his old torn-up costume and punching Ghost in the face.
Ghost was thrown back into the wall and was confused about what happened as he got to his feet. "How? How is this possible? I have control over everything!'
"Everything tech base." Peter corrected him as he cracked his knuckles. "But this baby is one hundred percent tech-free."
The ghost then summoned the Iron Man armor and activated its rockets to send the fragments toward Peter. But he had complete control over his suit and all his gadgets (limited as they are) and quickly leaped to dodge the chest plate coming at him. Then he used his webs to grab the boots that were coming at him and threw them back at Ghost. He was becoming cocky and that gave Peter the edge as the boots hit him, causing a cloud of smoke. That cloud was all Peter needed to get through the tech before he could locate the hero and punch him in the face. Using this, he then shot a web to the ceiling and slingshot Ghost into the ceiling. Using his unconscious circumstances to his advantage, Peter shot a web and pulled Ghost into the ground. His armor was enough to protect him from permanent damage, but it was also enough to finally take Ghost down.
When he tried to control the tech again, Peter grabbed his glove and ripped them off so he couldn't use them. "Have fun in Iron Heights."
Stark groaned as he got to his feet and started regaining some strength. "Nice work, Spider-Man. Turns out I was wrong about you."
"Thanks." Peter was glad to get the approval of someone like Stark. "Thanks for the assist."
"No problem. You're a pretty good hero. Nice work with the low tech." Stark said as he looked around. "You know, if you ever-"
Then he heard thwipping and looked to see Spider-Man making his wall upward and finding a way out through the ceiling. He couldn't help but smile and knew it was smart for him to leave before the press or even the police showed up.
"Sir, should we pursue him?" A guard asks him.
Stark just kept his smile as he watched him leave. "Nah, let him go."
The hood figure then came out of the shadows but kept her hood up. She had a smile on her face as she watched the boy escape and saw how he did the job perfectly.
"Couldn't be prouder." She whispered to herself.
Barry comes back later and tells them Sand Demon took Joe and now they need Jay to teach Barry to show him how to stop Sand Demon. He opened the pipeline and looked into his cell, remembering his conversation with Caitlin.
"So...You've finally come to your senses?" Jay asks them as they open his cell.
"Sand Demon kidnapped Joe. I need you to help us save her before something happens." Barry explains to Jay.
"You need my help?" Jay asks.
"I need you to help us before something happens to him.
"Then I guess this means you have to trust me now, huh kid?" Jay asks.
"I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt as of now. Don't break it." Peter warns him and they head to the cortex.
"We're looking for any place that promotes humidity. Greenhouses, grow rooms, anything of the sort. His body will literally start to fall apart if he becomes dehydrated. Sand Demon always attacks two fronts. He creates a diversion, then strikes when you're distracted. What we need to do is use your speed to get to him before the distraction can happen." Jay explains and they don't see how he can do that.
"How do I stop someone who can slip through my fingers?" Barry asks him. "The way I was never able to. With lightning." Jay states and now that's seriously confusing.
"I'm sorry, with lightning? You about to pull a Zeus right now?" Cisco asks.
"What do you mean?" Caitlin asks
"Barry is gonna summon lightning from the energy he creates when he runs," Jay explains and that's gonna be interesting to see. "Time to learn something new, kid."
"You know, we could also ask for a helping hand," Bobby informed them. "From a certain someone."
Barry was following what he was saying and quickly sped to the pipeline to ask a certain someone for help.
After a bit of training, Barry flashed into a warehouse Cisco located him in and came to a stop as quietly as he could behind some empty storage crates. Jay stopped right
"Is that you, Flash?" The Sand Demon yelled into the silence. "Found you're way here?"
Barry looked out from behind the crate and saw the Sand Demon turn around to face none other than Jay Garrick, helmet on. "I came quite a distance."
The villain looked terrified. He was falling for their plan. "I thought you were dead."
"You were wrong," Jay said. He started to walk around the other man, distracting him from Barry, and Joe, tied to a chair. "Like usual. Let him go."
"Have at it!" The Sand Demon offered. "But you touch the cop, and he goes Boom! And I think even you aren't fast enough to save him."
The second he was within reaching distance, Jay threw a punch at his head. The Sand Demon ducked, and hit out. Jay leaped back to dodge the attack.
"Quite a bit slower on this earth, aren't you, Flash?" The demon asks him.
Jay punched at the Sand Demon again, and his face burst into particles. But then quickly reformed, and he retaliated, quickly bringing Jay to his knees.
"You don't have your speed, do you?" Demon started to put it together.
"Slicks distracted, go on Elemental!" Cisco yelled in the comms.
Sand Demon was then met with a surprise when he was punched by a fist made of sand and sent skidding. He looked up and was shocked when he saw Flint Marko coming in and his hand turning back to normal size.
"I was told you're supposed to be the new guy in town," Flint stated as he grew his fists into hammers. "Let's see what kind of big shot you see."
"Who the hell see you?" Sand Demon asks in shock.
"They call me Sandman," Flint stated as he then got ready to fight. "Now I'm about to bring you a dream!"
He threw his fists and the hammers punched Sand Demon and sent him flying once again. Bobby groaned as he was nearby, the two of them taking their route to avoid the speeding part.
"That...that was terrible," Bobby informed the man as Flint sped across the room, starting to fight Sand Demon. "Just...just terrible."
"Spider-Man helped me with it. Said it'd be a cool catchphrase." Flint defended as he separated his limbs to stop Sand Demon from attacking. "Said it'd be badass."
"Don't take his word for it," Bobby warns him and started to enjoy the fight.
Barry ran out from his hiding place and over to Joe's chair. He inspected the bomb, trying to find the safest way to get him out without it going off. He ended up just grabbing Joe, and the whole thing exploded.
Instead of a boom, it let off a wave of energy that tossed everyone, with the exception of Slick and Flint backward. The two of them just ended up continuing to fight one another with their powers against one another.
"Barry!" Caitlin yelled in his ear.
Barry scrambled to his feet and checked the detective's pulse. "Joe's alive."
"Must be my lucky day." The Sand Demon was still on his feet, Sandman defeated and in pieces. Jay was slowly getting behind him and Bobby crawled to his feet. "Zoom sent me here to kill you. Now I get to kill the Flash from two worlds before I go home."
Slick's hand extended, wrapping around Jay's throat. Cisco yelled unintelligibly in Barry's ear. "Barry," Caitlin instructed, voice a lot calmer than her partners. "You need to do something now."
The Sand Demon raised his other arm, forming it into a hammer. Jay nodded, and Barry sped off in a dizzying circle. The villain looked around in confusion, not sure where to hit. He dropped Jay and was preparing for what was coming.
"Come on!"
Barry felt time slow down. He reached into the Speed Force, and, as he had practiced with Jay, tossed a lightning bolt directly at the Sand Demon.
The bolt hit him directly in the chest, and the guy was then frozen by Bobby who did so to keep him in one piece. He slid against the ground and they watched as there was something in the middle of that glass figure. Seems whatever they didn't kill him, but they entrapped him in both ice and glass.
"You ok?" Barry asked as he walked over to him.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm ok." Jay nodded. "Nice job, kid."
Caitlin leaned back in her chair and let out a breath. "Barry? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, we're fine," Barry replied. "I'm going to bring Joe in. We're coming back."
Tony made his way back to New York on his private jet and was sitting back against his chair. He then leaned over and took his drink and slurped it down. He then turned towards his computer and saw he was getting a call from Bruce Wayne.
"Saw things at the Expo didn't go as planned," Wayne commented.
"Depends on who you ask." Tony shrugged and pulled up the information on Flash and Spider-Man his suits and cameras. "I now have a name behind both masks."
"You interested in my offer?" Wayne asks him.
"Your superhero team?" Tony asks as he sighed. "Come on, Brucey, don't go on that again."
"Not that one. The other one. The Spider-related one." Wayne corrected the billionaire.
"Oh." Tony quickly pulled up a file on his computer and showed it to Bruce. "I've gotten ahead of you on that one. The kid was good, but he needed some better tech against Ghost."
"You working on it?"
"I call it a thank you for what he did back there," Tony stated as he opened the file.
It showed all of Peter's personal information, regarding weight, height, and around it was specifics for a new suit. It was an armored Spider-Man suit bearing Iron Man's color scheme. It is mostly a metallic red, with the spider emblem, eye lenses, bracers, and boots being golden. To match Iron Man's armor, the suit bears a blue arc reactor in its chest as well as repulsors on its gauntlets and boots. That's why he scanned Spider-Man earlier because Bruce thought he'd need a powerful arsenal or at least a suit for what was coming.
"I still think you're being paranoid," Tony tells him.
"With all the heroes popping up, you really don't think something is coming?" Wayne asks him, not convinced himself. "Nah, I can feel it. Something's coming. Something dark. And we'll need the reinforcements when that day comes."
Wayne then hung up and Tony rolled his eyes and laid back. "And I'm called paranoid."
"Hi, Jay." Caitlin smiled kindly at him as she walked into her lab. "You did a good thing today, helping Barry."
Jay nodded in acknowledged appreciation. "Thank you, Caitlin."
She nodded back. "With or without your speed, you're still a hero." Barry entered behind her, quietly, and draped his arm, heavy and warm, over her shoulders. "I'm just sorry we didn't see it sooner."
"Especially me," Barry admitted. "I should have trusted you. We've just... we've gone through a lot recently, and it's been tough."
Jay nodded again. "I get it. It can be hard to trust people, especially when those people come in with an insane story of being from another Earth."
They all laughed, and Caitlin reached up to kiss Barry's cheek. "I will leave you two speedsters alone."
"Thanks." He murmured and leaned against the wall as she ducked out from under his arm.
Jay stared after her, and Barry felt a surge of protectiveness come out of nowhere. The older man smiled softly. "She's an amazing woman."
"Yes," Barry responded stiffly. "Yes, she is."
Jay met his gaze, and his own expression seemed to falter. "I'm getting the feeling that she's already taken."
"That makes her sound like an object." Disagreed Barry. "She's her own woman. But, yes, I'm her boyfriend."
Jay looked dismayed, and Barry confirmed his suspicions that, even after such a short time, he liked Caitlin in a way much not non-platonic for Barry's comfort. "I see." That was all Jay said? "Well, you're very lucky to have her."
"I'm reminded of that every day," Barry murmured and turned to go. He remembered, then, what he had come in for in the first place. "By the way, Jay, thank you for your help. I really do appreciate it."
"No problem." Jay moved past him, out of Caitlin's lab, and then walked away from the Cortex entirely.
Barry leaned against the doorframe, wondering if this was going to turn into a problem he didn't need to have. He sure hoped not, for Jay's sake.
Caitlin was... Caitlin. He wasn't going to leave her for Patty, and, after their conversation earlier, he knew for sure that she wasn't going to leave him for any random man that walked through the door. He had been stupid to think that and to let it cloud his judgment of Jay's character.
Well, it wasn't going to happen again. Jay was a perfectly fine person, and obviously only wanted to help save their earth like he had saved his own.
Peter groaned as he made his way back home, no idea what went down back at STAR Labs and just wanted to turn in for the night. He was surprised to see the lights were still on and made his way up to the door.
"Hey, May. Sorry that I'm late." Peter apologized as he tossed the bag he carried both his suits in near the stairs. "I do how we have a good excuse."
"I sure hope so." A voice called, causing Peter to freeze when he recognized the voice. He looked over to the couch he was just about to pass and couldn't believe it. "Your curfew was two hours ago."
May then came back into the room with a cup in her hands and handed it to the old friend. "Peter, look who I ran into today."
"Great to see you again, Pete." She said as she walked up to him. "Miss me?"
Peter just stood there as he had no idea what to even think right now. "Gwen?"
Gwen Stacy was here. Standing in front of Peter. After an entire year apart, she was standing in front of him with a smile.
"Miss me, Spider?" Gwen asks him and pulled him in for a hug.
The Watcher looked in shock as he wasn't expecting this. "This is an interesting alteration."
"Using electro-photography, Cisco and I were able to search Central City for any signs of energy entering our earth from another dimension." Stein had called them all into the Cortex for an "urgent message". This seemed to be it, but Caitlin couldn't figure out where it was going. "Energy from any breaches as Mr. Garrick described them."
"But, of course, there isn't just 1 breach." Cisco continued. "There's 52 of them, scattered throughout the city."
Caitlin let her head fall unto Barry's shoulder. Nothing could be easy in their life, could it?
"These breaches are pockets of time and space folded into and upon itself. The most significant breach of all appears to be this one." Stein gestured to Cisco, who pressed a button on his tablet. The screen in front of them pinged a spot on the map.
"And where exactly is that located?" Caitlin asked.
"It's here. Inside STAR Labs." Barry exchanged a glance with his girlfriend and let out a sigh.
"Just beyond that breach," Martin continued, "Is an entire diff- f-f-f-erent..."
Caitlin gasped as Martin tilted sideways, and collapsed unto the floor.
