25
A Team Divided
"Punch, punch, duck. Punch, punch, duck." Cadence counted repeatedly.
She stood in front of Wally and Jesse, counting each of their movements as they flanked her sides, punching toward her. As the seconds passed, the punches can faster and faster. She steeled the muscles in her arms and kept her hands firm against the punches that kept coming toward her. She frowned as they slowly started to increase in speed.
Wally and Jesse looked at each other out the corner of their eyes, before going faster and faster. Taking a step back, Cadence pressed her feet into the ground and found herself holding herself steady against the speedsters that were throwing their speed against her. She tapped into her enhanced strength, keeping her arms from being pushed back by the force of the blows that Wally and Jesse were throwing onto her.
Lightning crackled around the room as they continued to move, their hands blurring as they punched her fists. Finally, Cadence brought her hands back and punched forward as hard as she could, sending Wally and Jesse skidding on their heels.
"I'm pretty sure I said to not use your speed," Cadence said, shaking her out her hands. Her expression was playful, but the tone in her voice was serious. A juxtaposition of the day at hand. Training could be and was always fun, but there were more serious matters to handle with their training. They were training to stay alive, now that the metahuman hit list was out there.
Any time they left the comforts of their home, they were in danger. There was the chance that someone could figure out their identities and take them down faster than they could think. All for the monetary value that would make anyone willing to put their morals and ethics aside without a second of hesitation. But not without the guilt.
Wally leaned over, pressing his hands to his thighs, working to catch his breath from how fast and hard he'd punched. "Sorry," he apologized quickly. "I guess we just got carried away."
"Yeah," Jesse agreed. "Telling a speedster not to use their speed is like…telling humans not to breathe." She stood, scratching her shoulder though her STAR Labs t-shirt. "It's…just something that we have to do. It's a part of us." She gestured toward Cadence. "You sue your fire powers when no one's looking."
"A lot of control has to go in to being a Firestarter," Cadence replied.
"Firestarter?" Wally repeated, eyebrows coming together. "That's a fancy way of saying it. But at least we have a name now. Speedster…Firestarter…" His eyes lit up. "I guess all the ice metas would be Icicles then." Jesse rolled her eyes while Wally chuckled at his joke. "Come on, that was funny!"
Cadence smiled to herself. She folded her arms. "Firestarters, whether they can conjure their own fire or not, have to have a lot of control over their abilities and have to focus on it at all times or else they'd potentially be a danger to everyone and everything around them. Even one instance of letting go of control and the air around you could be burnt up." She twirled her finger in the air before gesturing with her head, focusing on the two speedsters in front of her. They'd seen a lot of action, but were still fairly new to the superhero game.
Jesse, however, had done much more than Wally had. When fighting against Savitar, she found herself going against Mindboggler. And had killed her. That was a tough burden to carry if you didn't have the tools to do so. Taking a life, even when you were stuck in the most desperate of times, was a decision you could never come back from.
"When I first got my powers, the slightest things that would scare me in the hospital, that would send my heart racing, was enough to make my temperature skyrocket and the smoke alarms to go off. If I let go of control here," her eyes roved around the training room. "All of STAR Labs would burn to the ground." She shrugged. "Not that Barry couldn't rebuild it in a few days, but…"
"And that's why you have the Heat Locker," Wally realized. "To make sure it keeps everything in line. If you use too much power outside of it, if you let go of control…the Heat Locker can give you that control back."
"Just like you've got the Speed Lab, I've got the Heat Locker," Cadence agreed. She looked down at her hands. "Control, discipline, forethought, and restraint are extremely important in being a Firestarter. Unconscious, emotion-influenced, impulsive use of our power can be catastrophic." She looked to Jesse. "If you lose control…everything about yourself can be stripped away. Even the most minimal decisions can change your life forever."
Jesse lowered her chin and looked away.
"Now." Cadence brought her hands back up one more. "Are you ready to try again?" Wally and Jesse got back into their fighting positions. "No speed, all control. Make sure to hit the same spot every time, and anticipate my moves in response. Anticipation is key."
Once again, they broke into the little dance of punches and blocking. Working hard enough that Wally and Jesse didn't notice Harry come into the training room, watching them carefully as he leaned against the door frame. Critically.
Cadence, however, did notice. She noticed the sudden addition of body temperature of the group, noticed the change in the temperature of the room. She kept an eye on him as they worked. Kept n eye on the doppelganger of her birth father, wondering what it was that he was doing. Despite being Harrison in face, he wasn't Harrison in personality, and made it clear whenever he was around Team Flash or anyone who was beneath them. Nevertheless, she couldn't help but a feel a sense of connection to him and all versions of Harrison that she'd come across so far.
Harry lowered his chin, the reflection of his glasses changing so that she could see his eyes. He locked his gaze with her and nodded, noticing her see him. Cadence nodded back then focused her attention back on Wally and Jesse. They were doing well but…Not well enough, she thought. On their next punch, Cadence quickly caught their hands, pulled her arm back so that they stumbled forward, then threw forward with her enhanced strength.
They flipped over and landed hard on their backs on the floor. Wally zipped himself back to his feet while Cadence punched towards the ground, sliding the gloves off her hand.
"I'm pretty sure I also said to make sure that you're ready for anything," Cadence said with a light smirk to herself. "Good job guys."
"Ugh. She says that but still has to gloat," Wally commented, rubbing the side of his head.
"Yeah, that sounds like someone else I know," Jesse agreed. She took Wally's offered hand and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. She smiled warmly up at him, making him smile back.
Harry stepped forward, placing his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and strolled into the room. "You were reckless in looking away from her," he commented, walking toward the group. "You were too busy trying to impress each other with your fancy tricks." He looked to Jesse, who tilted her head back to look at the ceiling. "We've been over this a million times, Jesse. You have to act like a leader if you're going to reach your full potential."
"I know, dad," Jesse intoned.
"If you're going to lead your own team, you have to make sure that you take all emotion and distraction out of it and move forward. Ignore things that aren't part of your improvement," Harry continued, as if Jesse hadn't spoken. His eyes were alit with a passionate fire that even made Cadence antsy. She exchanged a look with Wally, who shrugged in response. "Barry's the leader of his team and—"
"—I hate to interrupt," Wally said, sticking up his hand. He noticed Harry's glare turn his way. "I mean, I really hate to do it. But Barry's not our team leader anymore."
"I am," Cadence agreed.
"Y-you." Harry blinked, blue eyes widened. He brought his hand up to his chin, returning to an inquisitive expression. "Yes, that makes sense. It's your team. You lead. And everyone falls in line." He placed his hands on his hips and turned to Jesse, who rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "You see? This is what I'm trying to do for you. It's the way that your team should be working."
"It's fine, dad," Jesse replied. Cadence and Wally exchanged another glance. Clearly the two had been arguing about the topic for a long time, judging by Jesse's tone and how they continued to snipe at each other.
"Fine isn't the best thing for your team. You need to be strong. You need to be sharp. You need to understand that you don't have all the time in the world to handle what's thrown at you." Harry took in a deep breath. "You may have control of the Speed Force, but there's more to it than that."
Cadence folded her arms. "Like what?"
"I've been doing some research into what Jay Garrick told us, further research into what I've suspected," Harry continued. "And there's more to it than we originally thought."
"Isn't that just normal for us right now?" Wally asked sarcastically. "As far as we knew, that metahuman hit list could've been an invitation list. But it's just another list of people that are trying to kill us. Again."
"The Speed Force as we know it is the cosmic energy that ensures the speedsters are able to connect with their power. It keeps them safe and provides, the power around velocity and movements, and represents reality in motion and pushes time and space forward. We've seen representations of that in Barry, Wally, Jesse, Savitar, Zoom, Impulse, Reverse-Flash…" Harry took in a deep breath and started to pace the floor. "Then there's the Sage Force. The Safe Force is an energy field very similar to the Speed Force in that anyone who is entrusted with that power, their minds are radically enhanced. It takes them to super-genius levels and may gran them powers like telepathy and telekinesis.
Harry waved his hand. "Is there anyone you can think of that has showcased that ability?" His tone was like that of a kindergarten teacher, waiting for the obvious answer to be given. However, the tone in his voice wasn't as nurturing. It sounded more sinister than he'd wanted. Probably.
Cadence thought for a moment. "We've never run into any metas that can do that."
"You haven't run into any human metas that can do it."
"So you're saying there's some sort of, I don't know…meta-rat who has the powers of telekinesis?" Wally asked.
"Not a rat, but a gorilla," Jesse pointed out. "Gorilla Grodd, Solovar…all of those gorillas have the ability to read minds. To be able to speak through their minds and have made so that they can control others."
Harry nodded. "And then there's the Still Force. The Still Force is based around entropy and inertia. Connection to it allows whomever taps into it to negate motion; to induce and accelerate the force of entropy. When you were going against the Turtle, you were going against the Still Force. And the Strength Force is based around gravity and the force of motion. Those who connect to the Strength Force obtain radically enhanced strength and durability. It also encourages the increased strength in those with the geokinetic and geothermic components."
"Like Geomancer," Cadence agreed. Then a horrifying thought occurred to her. "And like—"
She was cut off by the sound of screaming slowly starting to increase in volume as it came to and passed by the training room. Wally zipped to the doorway, sticking his head out. He ducked back in and looked to the group with a strange expression on his face.
"Uh, guys, I think you might want to see this."
Cadence, Jesse, and Harry went to the door and looked down, down at the long, stretchy…thing that ran from the hallway to the medical bay. Quickly, the four stepped over the stretchy thing and hurried to follow the screaming voices to find Barry, Brady, Joe, Iris, Cisco, and Caitlin all standing in the medical bay, shouting over one another and the person—or what used to be a person—lying on the bed, arms and legs were stretched in all directions.
"What the hell?" Jesse gasped, coming to a stop when she saw the commotion that was going on. With wide eyes, she turned to Barry and opened her mouth. For a few moments she spluttered, trying to figure out where to start, but failing all the same.
"Yeah," Barry said warily. He waved a hand; a way to greet them and to wave them off from making any comments that they'd probably already heard. "'We know." Cadence hurried to Ralph's side, her eyes searching the scene set in front of them.
"Clearly, he's a bus meta," she remarked, locking eyes with Barry over his body. Barry shrugged and nodded in response. She had a feeling there was much more to the story, but it wasn't important to press at the moment. There was much more to it than that, most importantly being, how were they going to put him back together.
Harry, who'd entered the room just behind Cadence grabbed a tablet from the station beside Ralph's bed and flipped through it. It went through a series of screens before finally coming to a rest upon what, to a normal person, would look like a blob of mess. Through her series of medical classes, she recognized it as a picture of the cells in Dibny's body.
"This is interesting," Harry said, staring at the tablet with wide eyes. He continued to move his fingers over the screen, the same pictures of his cells continuing to show despite how far and wide he moved the camera. "All the dark matter he's been exposed has polymerized Dibny's cells."
Ralph's face screwed up into an expression of confusion. Scared confusion, all the same, but confusion. "What the hell is dark matter and why is it in my cells?" His voice came out in a whimper. He looked over the sea of faces that looked back at him, unsure of how to respond.
"You're saying the walls of every cell in his body have elasticized?" Caitlin asked, turning her attention to Harry instead of responding to Dibny, who continued to whimper the longer no one answered his question.
"It seems they formed an unbreakable bond at the atomic level and you can stretch these cells and stretch these cells."
"Like silly putty?" Brady and Cisco asked at the same time, and smiled at each other over their childlike response to the information thrown at them. Cadence looked at her son with a raised eyebrow, surprised to find how easily he was able to figure out what Harry was trying to say with such big words.
"Like silly putty," Harry nodded in agreement.
Barry held up his hand and leaned toward Ralph. He quickly changed the subject with his targeted question. "Ralph, who were those guys after you?"
All at once, Ralph clenched his teeth. He reached out his hand, that wrapped around Barry's body, pinning the speedster's arms to his sides, before he reached up to grab Barry's collar to bring him into his face. "Is that really the issue right now?" He demanded.
"Whoa, whoa, Ralph, calm down." Iris quickly stepped up to Barry's side and held up her hands. "We're all trying to help you, right now." She placed her hand on Barry's shoulder. "Even Barry."
"Look at me!" Ralph wailed. "Allen, you and your STAR Labs nerds better put me back together." He looked to Cadence and Jesse, tilted his head to the side and said, "Or maybe I can get some nurses to help me out over here!"
The room exploded all at once with Cadence and Jesse makes cries of outrage, while Wally quickly moved in front of Jesse, blocking her off, Cisco made a loud, disapproving sound and slapped his hands over Brady's ears, Barry looked like he was seconds away from hauling off and slapping Ralph across the face.
Caitlin, on the other hand, along with Joe, were the only ones who were keeping a calm head through everything. She pushed Barry and Iris back out of the way, held her hand in front of Cisco's face to keep him from continually shouting about Brady's 'innocence' and addressed Ralph. "Listen, I'm going to help you," She said, making him nod rapidly. She grabbed his arm and stared to move. "I just need a sample of blood and—" her words were cut off with a scream when she managed to pull Ralph's arm forward and it drooped in her hands. In surprise, she dropped his hand and jumped back, pressing her hands to the bench behind her.
But she had her hand placed in the wrong spot and planted it firmly onto a bottle of baby powder, that she had been in the middle of putting away when the medical bay was charged into. A puff cloud of powder flew into the air and covered Ralph from head to toe.
For a second, everything in the room stopped as they watched Ralph. His nose started to twitch back and forth, his lips twitched, he sucked in a deep breath then—achoo! Ralph so hard that his face flew forward and landed in his hands. Within the same silence, Ralph's whimpers increased in sound before it was suddenly covered by the sound of vomiting.
Cadence turned and watched as Joe slowly stood, lowering a waste basket to the ground. His skin tone had suddenly taken on a green shade, eyes watery when he reached out and wiped at his mouth. "Four years of seeing this stuff and I finally puked."
"Congratulations," Brady mumbled, his face screwed up into an expression of utter disgust.
Caitlin blinked hard and shook her head, ringlets bouncing by her face. She brought up a hand and ran it through her hair. "Brady, can you get me the Lorazepam?"
He nodded and went to the filing cabinet that held vials and vials of different medicines and steroids. "How much do you need?" He asked, hand hovering over a handle to a drawer.
"50 miligrams."
Brady opened the top drawer and pulled out a light blue colored vial. He handed it over to Caitlin, who took it and started to set up a dosage for Ralph. Cisco watched her movements carefully, then looked back at Ralph as he struggled to mash his face…back on his face.
"Can you put him back together?" Cisco asked.
"Maybe, if I had a sample of his DNA from prior to when he was exposed to the dark matter," Caitlin mused. She shook her head. "But I can't even guarantee that that's going to work." She held up the syringe she pinched between her fingers. "I can only try to get him back to where he'll be able to at least hold his normal form."
"Well, for now, we should lock him in the pipeline," Barry suggested.
Caitlin's eyes widened at the suggestion. Hers weren't the only one, but she was the first one to speak out against Barry's suggestion. "But he hasn't done anything," she cried. Caitlin placed her hands on her hips, making sure to keep the syringe from sticking her. "I'm a doctor, I took an oath. I can't just leave him in there like…" She searched for the perfect word. "Spaghetti."
Ralph whimpered once more.
Everyone ignored him.
"So did I," Cadence reminded her. "I took that same oath and the pipeline is the best place for him. It's meta dampening, the best way to at least have him hold his shape before we can actually get him back together for good." She reached out and poked Ralph's arm, wincing when it squished under her finger tip, as if there were no bones in it. "Or, at least have him control it."
"You want to leave him down here?" Iris asked. "Like a prisoner?"
"It's not a prison if its keeping him safe," Cadence declared. She made a gesture with her head. "Put him in there."
"Yes, ma'am," Brady replied, giving a salute. Barry looked at him. "What?" He asked defensively, looking absolutely confused with all the looks that were turning his way. He pressed a finger to his lips, eyebrows coming together. "She's the boss, right?"
"Making the wrong decision," Caitlin insisted.
Barry sighed heavily. He reached up his hands, scrubbing his fingers over his face. "I don't understand why you're trying to keep your buddy safe, why you're defending him."
"He's not my buddy, he's my patient," Caitlin said with bite. Her eyes flashed, quickly turning an icy blue that it seemed only Cadence noticed. She stalked out of the medical bay with the rest of Team Flash following her, ignoring Ralph as he called for them to come back, releasing his grasp on Barry as they did so. When Caitlin was sure they were alone, she continued. "And because I know what it's like to suddenly find yourself with extraordinary powers and to be totally freaked out by it. And so do you, for that matter!" She gestured toward Wally and Jesse. "And so do the both of you!" She addressed Barry once more. "You and I both woke up in this lab once knowing our lives would never be the same. So how about you give the guy a little sympathy?"
"Stick him with the Lorazepam and put him in the Pipeline," Cadence declared. She held up her hand when Caitlin opened her mouth to protest. "We don't know how long it's going to take to get him back to the way he is and we can't have him sitting here hearing everything that's going on and figuring out our identities. As far as the public knows, STAR Labs isn't open to anything but the potential Museum we're still putting together. Until we figure things out, it's the best for him."
"If that's what we're going to do, then we should try and see what it was with those guys that were after him in the launder mat," Joe suggested. He looked to Barry pointedly. "If you can keep your cool for a little while."
Barry shrugged but didn't respond. He simply continued to watch Caitlin as she turned on her heel and stormed off to do as she was told. Cisco quickly went after her. Iris appeared torn for a moment before excusing herself to get back to work.
Cadence looked at Jesse and Wally. "Training's done for the day," she said to them. She looked at her phone as it started to ring. "I have to go."
"Where are you going?" Joe asked.
"I've got someone I'm meeting with," Cadence replied. "To get more answers about the Meta Hit List."
Cadence stepped into the Saints and Sinners bar, heading directly toward the back, finding him slouched over a seat. She stepped up to his side. "I was wondering if you were going to show up," she said, leaning against him. She locked eyes with the bartender and made a gesture, briefly pointing to the closest tap to her.
Stratos lifted his eyebrows, staring down at the bar counter. "I was wondering when you'd stop stalking me," he remarked. He leaned forward, huddling against the bar. His bloodshot eyes blinked slowly as they worked to fixate on her, but when they did, she knew he had his attention.
"It's not stalking, Lucas, when I know exactly where you're going at every second of the day." Cadence reminded him. She shrugged, picking up the beer glass pushed to her and took a long sip. She licked the foam off her lips. "Humans are creatures of habit," she said, throwing the words he'd said at the start of her tenure with the Assassination Bureau back to him.
The side of his mouth turned up, clearly getting the reference. Then he leaned back, rapping his knuckles on the tabletop. "Lucas, huh? When did you stop calling me, Stratos?"
"Since Breathtaker was defeated. Just like you can start calling me Cadence, instead of Brigade."
"I don't think we're going that far." Stratos reached up a hand and rubbed at his eyes. He leaned in even further, looking back and forth. It was then Cadence noticed his knees bouncing up and down, his fingers bumping together as he wrung his hands together, the way his eyes kept darting towards the door and the windows whenever someone would enter the bar. In short, he looked nervous about something, or someone, coming after him. "I should go."
"Why so soon?"
"It's not safe."
Cadence shook her head. "Breathtaker isn't—"
"—This doesn't have to do with Breathtaker! You're not safe, either. None of us are. Not with that Hitman out there."
"You heard about the list?"
"What list?"
Stratos stared at her for a long moment.
At first, Cadence thought he was joking, but remembered he hadn't been around for a while. Had been off the grid. It was harder for her to find him let alone any of the other people that she'd ever had to track down before. Even if she knew he was more than likely to end up at Saints and Sinners, it didn't mean that he was going to be there. Though with how drunk he already was by the time of her arrival, it was only a matter of time until he showed up.
"You don't know about the Meta Hit List?" Cadence asked slowly, then used her powers to determine whether he was lying when he responded.
Stratos shook his head, reaching out his hand to run through his short-cropped hair. "I don't know anything about some list. All I know is the Hitman isn't going to stop until he gets all of us. I know you've been following me, but you haven't been the only one. No matter where I go, the Hitman eventually finds me. He's found some of the others."
"What are you talking about?" Cadence shook her head. She leaned closer to him and said quickly, quietly so that her words wouldn't trail over to the others that had entered the bar. "There's this list. All of us are on it. All of us metas that have been in the public eye. And some others. There's a bounty over our heads, we're worth a lot of money to be captured dead or alive."
Stratos stood from the bar stool and stumbled his way over to a pool table. At the last second, he almost fell, aiming to smack his forehead against the side of the pool table, he let out a low breath and visibly blew himself up into a upright position so that he could place his hands on the pool table.
"So that's what Hitman wants," he muttered.
"Who's Hitman?"
Stratos shrugged. "He wouldn't be much of a hit man if anyone knew who he was or what he looked like on a daily basis." His head rolled on his shoulders. "Don't you remember anything we did with Breathtaker?"
"That was different."
"Was it?"
Cadence pressed her lips together. Killing people for money. The only difference was, at the beginning, she hadn't known what she was doing. She was just making delivers and getting money for it. And then…she was right there along with the rest of them. I guess the biggest difference is how much money we got from it, she thought. Hundreds of millions of dollars would make anyone think twice of what they'd do.
"The only difference this time around, is that they're going after metas, rather than the normal people." Stratos cleared his throat. He suddenly sounded clearer than he had when she first arrived. His words stopped being slurred and his eyes were focused. "Which, I guess, is exactly what this city wants. We've got a chief of police who wants metas eradicated and a presidential candidate who wants the same. Why should we be surprised that metas are now being targeted even more than before? Why should we stay safe?"
"Do you think the Assassination Bureau is going to be targeted specifically?" Cadence asked slowly. "It was only a matter of time before we were found out, before we were connected to Breathtaker." She also didn't mention it was only a matter of time until all the reports on Iris's blog may be more of a hurt than help.
It hadn't helped at the beginning, where anything she wrote for The Streak made it harder for Barry to keep his identity a secret. Nevertheless, it had turned out to be helpful, something that the city looked to, to get answers that the media or other avenues wouldn't give them. The more Breathtaker was mentioned, the easier it would be to link them together.
"Can't say for sure." Stratos reached over and grabbed Cadence's beer, finishing it off in a long gulp. He slammed the glass onto the felt of the pool table, frowning when he saw the droplets that had splashed up. With a wave of his hand, he air dried the droplets, sending the pool balls shooting and spinning across the felt before they fell into the pockets, clearing the table. "But there's been some metas who've already been taken down. If you're telling the truth about the hit list, then the Hitman has made a cool sum of money. It won't be much longer until you and your team are the next targets, if not by him, then by someone else."
"They've already tried," Cadence said slowly. She curled her fingers around the side of the pool table, the wood warming beneath her hands. "They've tried to take out me and Barry already."
Stratos shook his head, shoulders slumping forward. The light disappeared from his eyes. "There's more than that coming." He shook his head and started toward the door. Cadence followed him, coming to a stop outside the bar. He looked toward the sky, as if planning his path of escape from her. "Whatever time I have left, I'm going to spend it with my daughter. And I recommend you do the same with your son."
Crack.
Something split the sidewalk in half, the ensuing power from the blast knocked the two apart. Cadence landed hard on the ground, bringing up her hands to cover her face as dust settled around her. She looked around, blocking out the sounds of the citizens of the street, screaming loudly as they ran.
Flipping her hair out of her face, Cadence spotted a tall, dark man standing in the middle of the street holding what looked like a bazooka over his shoulder. A lit cigarette tucked in the corner of his mouth completed the look. He grinned around the cigarette at her. "If I wanted to shoot you the first time, I wouldn't have missed."
Stratos flipped himself to his feet. He looked between the two before racing off in a whirlwind. The man shrugged and looked back to Cadence. "You're higher up on the list. I didn't expect to run into you so soon, but that's a high bounty on your head. For good reason."
Cadence stood and flicked her head to the side. The one moment made the end of the man's cigarette ignite and cause a ball of flame to plume in his face at the same time he fired off another, smaller gun toward her. She easily deflected the bullet coming toward her and faced the man once more. All before she heard a light ting and felt a sharp pain in the back of her thigh that knocked her to her knees.
Looking over her shoulder, Cadence quickly figured out what'd happened. The man had shot toward her, but not at her. He'd shot directly toward the doorframe of the Saints and Sinners bar, where the bullet hit the handle and ricocheted off to strike her in the leg.
A bait and switch.
But he didn't know she could heal herself. Cadence focused on pushing the bullet out of her leg—which hurt more coming out than going in—and looked back toward the man that'd attacked her, deducing it was Hitman.
His glasses had flown off with the force of the fireball before him. They skittered across the asphalt. He glared at her and Cadence gasped, stepping back. She expected a lot of things; burning eyes, blazing eyes, eyes filled with color. But not eyes that were completely black, an inky black that took all the whites away and left nothing to comfort the person looking at them.
It unnerved her. More than unnerved, shocked her; scared her to the point that she immediately turned and launched out an attack. She punched forward, a stream of fire coming from her fist that slowly, yet surely, turned into a bolt of lightning. A bolt of lightning that crackled and crawled out from her hand and across the street, crashing to the ground in front of him, filling the street with smoke.
He was gone when the smoke dissipated, giving Cadence the chance to bask in what she'd just done. She raised her hand, looking at it in surprise.
It was the first time that she'd ever created lightning, let alone had been able to through it. Lowering her hand, Cadence turned back to Barry—Flash—noticing him staring at her, eyes wide behind his cowl. He must've arrived as soon as the first attack went out. The citizens of Central City were quicker to call for help from Team Flash sooner than later.
Cadence folded her arms. "Tell me yours, I'll tell you mine."
Barry nodded in agreement.
A/N: And, finally, the first look at Hitman. At least there's some more explanation on that, and what he can do. It definitely doesn't help with that going on and the Bus Metas being a thing. DeVoe has a big point in the next chapter. I had to re-watch some bits of season 4 of The Flash to really get an idea of how to have things interweave and now I've got it!
Hope you enjoyed!
Cheers,
-Riles
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Ethan: Yep, that was DeVoe's voice in his head. Yes, Mayor Bellows is going to prison soon. There's going to be some changes to some things, of course, but he'll be there when Barry's there.
