36

Recesses


"So that was…" Felicity asked once they got back to Wayne Manor. She looked towards Alfred, who dutifully walked around the foyer, collecting the girls' coats and offering them food before disappearing into the recesses of the house. The silent house that seemed more foreboding now that their good time was being taken over by more metahuman hijinks than they'd ever faced before.

"Amunet Black," Cadence explained. "Leader of the Network, metahuman black market, stolen technology…" She waved her hand in the air. "Etc. etc." She turned to Jesse, eyebrows coming together. "Is that not a thing on your Earth? The Network? Is her doppelganger a villain there?"

"As far as Earth-2 is concerned, Amunet Black is a flight attendant and only a flight attendant," Jesse replied. She shook her head. "Nothing through the CCPD that's ever come up with her name. Not even a shoplifting charge."

"So how do you know who she is?" Barbara asked, eyeing Cadence closely. "Sounds like you've been up close and personal with her for a while." She wheeled across the room and came to a stop near the Firestarter. "And with what she's worked for." She turned her attention to Killer Frost, who they gently laid on the couch. "How does she know her?"

"I used to work with her," Cadence explained, wearily rubbing her forehead. A headache was starting to form. She remembered getting them a lot when she had to deal with her while within the Assassination Bureau. Had never really paid attention to her while she was working under Breathtaker and the others, just knew that there were other dealings the powerful meatahuman was working on behind the scenes. "That's probably how Killer Frost is mixed in with this, too."

"By being her muscle," Iris realized. She then pointed to Cadence. "Sounds kind of similar to what happened with you."

"Except Amunet was a customer of the Assassination Bureau," Cadence explained. "And she was also someone who funded the AB when the time was needed. I never was her bodyguard…Breathtaker just knew that I knew how to reason with her."

"Reason with her like…" Barbara questioned.

"I didn't kill anyone if that's what you're worried about…" Cadence paused, pursing her lips. "Not directly anyway. Not for a long time." Barbara's eyebrows rose, but she didn't otherwise respond. "I get that a lot."

"So, Killer Frost…" Barbara changed the subject. "It's your friend Caitlin. You act as if they're two different people." She then tapped her fingers against the arm of her chair, quickly reasoning it. "Because they are two different people. Two people in on consciousness. Like—"

"Oh my God! Like the incredible Hulk!" All eyes turned towards Felicity, who clapped her hands over her mouth at her exuberant outburst. "I said that with…too much chutzpah, didn't I?" When all heads nodded she nodded, too. "Dialing it back."

"I was going to say 'Two-Face' but that works, too," Barbara agreed. "So, Amunet wants the part of your friend, Caitlin, that turns into Killer Frost. And wants to use Killer Frost, and Cadence, to be her bodyguards as she tries to peddle whatever drug it is that the Weeper's tears are making." Pressing her lips together, Barbara ran her hands through her hair. "Gotham's already a corrupted place, something like that, if it falls into the wrong hands, not even Batman's going to be able to stop the city falling into even further disarray."

At the name of the hero, everyone went silent for a moment. As if trying to determine if Batman—Bruce—was still in the vicinity. The house was quiet, the only the sounds of Alfred put putting around in an adjacent room could be heard. Bruce may have gone out to tend to his own vigilante work while they went out to find Amunet.

"We may have another problem to deal with before we can get back to Amunet," Iris suddenly said. "Or else, maybe, it's the same problem."

"What do you mean?" Barbara asked.

Iris gestured toward the couch. The now empty couch that was filled with an icy cold vapor that dissipated as the seconds passed.

"She's gone," Jesse gasped.


Brady paced the floor of STAR Labs, lips pressed so tightly together it looked like he'd sucked a lemon. Conner and Leah watched as he moved back and forth, the back of his suit drifting behind him as he did so. Things weren't going well. And they didn't really have much of a choice as to what they could do to fix things. If he called his mom…she'd be mad that he didn't follow orders and they went to stop a meta. If he called Barry…he'd be mad that he didn't' follow orders and they went to stop a meta.

If he told his dad he'd be in trouble. If he told Joe…he'd be in trouble.

There wasn't much he could do without getting in trouble in some way. Brady placed his hands on his hips and let out a sigh through his nose, practically pouting. What was he supposed to do? Help save the world or…

"You sure it was Rose?" Leah asked, finally breaking the silence of his pacing.

"I think I'd know my own classmate," Brady replied at the same time Connor said something. Brady turned to his best friend, noticing the smug smile sitting on his face. "Wait, what?" Connor's smile widened. "What'd you say?"

"I said, I think he'd know the girl he's in love with," Connor replied, making Leah burst out laughing and Brady's face to turn red.

Brady folded his arms, turning his gaze toward the ceiling. He waited until Leah stopped laughing long enough to say, "I'm not in love with Rose." He hoped that would have ended the conversation, but Leah and Connor kept going, as if Brady hadn't said anything,

"I thought he was in love with Debby," Leah remarked.

"Her, too."

"Will you two shut up?" Brady snapped. He glared at his best friends until they finally kept quiet. "And I'm not in love with Debby, either!" Not that he'd heard much from her, anyway. She'd never responded to the messenger cube he'd sent her. He tried not to think about it much but…it sucked when you liked someone and… He shook his head, changing the subject. "Anyway, if Rose is mixed up in this then…we have to turn her into Joe and the others."

Leah's eyes narrowed. "So why did you tell me to let them get away?"

"Because I needed to think!" Brady snapped. He let out another breath, suddenly wondering how his mom, Barry, and the others were able to come up with any decisions on their won. Too many things to work out, too many factors, too many people's opinions. Maybe he was too young to deal with that stuff and maybe it was a good idea they were benched.

"It's not like she's a criminal mastermind or something," Connor said diplomatically. "She was just…with her aunt. Maybe she didn't know what she was doing?"

"No, she knew," Leah reminded her. "She asked Mina 'did you get it'?" Leah leaned forward, resting her chin in her hands. "Maybe she knew what her aunt was doing, but I don't think she knew her aunt is a killer. That has to be hard to deal with."

"I know the feeling," Brady muttered.

It had been strange for him, to realize that his mom was, in fact a murderer. That she had killed people for money. That she had…taken someone else's life. But he knew his mom and knew it had to have been a hard decision to make. Some of the time, the decision had been because of him. And that was the hardest part for him to wrap his head around. That he was the reason why…but also had nothing to do with it. Just like Burnout had been a killer because it was only the life she knew, and it boded her well.

But to knowingly, willingly bring a little kid into it. That was a completely different thing.

"Maybe they're just doing what Mina said," Brady said after a second, mind whirring a mile a minute. "She just wanted her artifacts back, the ones from her people. That's it."

"It still stealing," Leah pointed out.

"And it did kill people," Connor agreed. "Remember the guy that was killed by the saber-tooth tiger statue. That's why we went out there in the first place." He shook his head. "You heard Black Bison over the links, she thinks anyone who doesn't respect her heritage deserves to be dead. She tried to kill Christophe."

"That doesn't mean Rose knows about it," Brady insisted.

"Which means she may be in danger," Leah said, finally cluing into what Brady was trying to get at.

Brady nodded. Then shrugged at her follow up question of what to do next. What was there to do? They go to school and tell Rose they saw her at the crime scene and have her wonder what they were doing there? Especially if she didn't see them. Then there was the other part, try to tell her the truth and…reveal himself to be a meta? That he was Shadowhunter and Leah was Geo? And have their identities revealed to someone who they may not be able to trust? She could tell the rest of their classmates then Alicia would know, then Chief Paulson…

Even worse, what if the rest of their classmates were anti-meta? A good majority of them put on a show of how much they enjoyed the Flash, thought he was cool. Liked Kid Flash and everything Team Flash stood for. But how many of them secretly regurgitated evil thoughts their parents may inflict upon them?

Before he got the chance to respond, his cell phone started to ring. He held out his hand and Connor picked it up from the counter, tossing it over to him. Brady's eyebrows rose, seeing a number on the phone he didn't recognize—hesitating as he listened to his mothers' warning of never answering for a number he didn't recognize—and said, timidly, "Hello?"

"Brady? Thank God you picked up."

"Cisco?" Brady's eyebrows came together. "What's going on?"

"I tried Caitlin and Iris and Joe and no one's answering."

"Well…I think Joe might be a little busy right now…" Brady said slowly…he was probably still at the crime scene he and his friends had managed to get away from without being detected. If anything, Joe was probably going to notice they were gone and wonder where they were. Or maybe not, he didn't want us there in the first place. Maybe he thought we went back to STAR Labs. Brady shook his head. The whole superhero thing was starting to get super complicated. "What's wrong?"

"Well, we're hoping you might be able to help us with something," Cisco said slowly. He chuckled. "You see, something happened."

"Like what?"

"Like…Barry's completely drunk, we ran into a guy who's been trying to kill us, and oh yeah—" Cisco laughed a humorless laugh. "We're in jail."

Brady's eyebrows rose at the same time his eyes widened. "You're where?"


Killer Frost sighed in relief, her breath forming in the air in front of her, when she heard foosteps approaching her. "You're late." She turned to greet her accomplice, then gasped lightly, under her breath, seeing Amunet casually strolling toward her.

"I'm right on time, actually," Amunet replied. Her smile pulled back, practically revealing all of her teeth. The same shark-like smile that let anyone who got in her way know she was gearing up for some sort of trouble. "What? Were you expecting a different meta?" Killer Frost clenched her hands at her side, making Amunet do the same, dropping a bucket to the ground just before she did so. The bucket made a loud clanging sound on the ground as she did so. "No one walks away from me, Frost."

With that, the bucket started to quake. The pieces of metal inside, that weighed it down, started to tremble and quake. Jittering back and forth under Amunet's power. Amunet reached out her hand and flexed her fingers. Within seconds, the shrapnel inside shot out and formed a gauntlet on Amunet's arm.

She punched forward. The metal on her arm seemed to come off and form a bullet as she brought her arm back. Her gauntlet its own gun. The metal continued on its trajectory forward, increasing in size as it moved forward. It became a block of metal that struck Killer Frost on the shoulder, the force of the blow knocking her off her feet.

Killer Frost rolled across the ground before getting back up, where she shot ice directly back towards Amunet. But the metal meta moved quicker, creating a shield that covered her body, then shot more shrapnel back into Killer Frost.

That time, Amunet managed to aim perfectly, striking Killer Frost in the shoulder and stomach, the metal pieces embedding in her skin, Knocking her to her knees as blood started to drip from her wounds. The pain blinding, shocking. Killer Frost gasped in pain, grabbing the piece in her stomach and tried to pull it out.

"Oh God!" Killer Frost cried and stopped pulling. The pain lessened, but didn't go away. Blood dripped to the ground, dripped off her fingers, the pads of her fingers had been cut open from trying to grab the shrapnel. "Ah!"

Amunet walked over to Killer Frost and kicked her in the side. Nudged the ice meta onto the ground with a strong movement of her foot. Stood over her scornfully, breathing deeply at the sheer rage sthat poured out of her, seeing her plans about to fall away. But she was a meta that couldn't and hadn't been stopped and wouldn't let a former accomplice saying 'no', get in her way.

"Did you really think I was going to let you just breach into the sunset?" Amunet snarled toward her. She knelt into Killer Frost's face, grabbed her hair and pulled her head back. She spat into the ice meta's fac. "You owe me your life." With that, she pulled back her arm, hand still covered in the metal, and started to punch Killer Frost in the face. "And I always take what I'm owed."

Thwack.

Thwack.

Thwack.

Over and over, Amunet punch Killer Frost in the face with as much force as she could muster. A wound opened above Killer Frost's eyes, draining blood down the side of Killer Frost's face. With each hit, Killer Frost's eyes started to turn back from the frosty gray color to brown. The white strands of her hair turned brown, one by one. Punch by punch.

Until, finally, it was Caitlin taking the blows being reigned upon her and not Killer Frost. But Caitlin who looked back into Amunet's face with nothing but fear. Amunet continued to punch her until Caitlin slumped against the ground. She raised her hand to punch once more, until a shot rang out, that struck Amunet in the shoulder.

"What?"

Amunet turned and heaved a heavy sigh when she saw the Gotahm City police standing behind her, guns drawn. The barrel of one was smoking, clearly he'd been the one that shot her. He looked at her for a second then barked, "Hands over your head, ma'am."

Amunet rolled her eyes. "Is there any part of the way I'm dressed leads you to believe I want to be called ma'am?" Without a backwards glance, she threw shrapnel into the two officers' chests, watching blood bloom against their chests before they fell to the ground. "Two more bodies for Commissioner Gordon to pick up. At least they'll be kept busy." The shrapnel came back to her hand and she looked at the knuckles, noticing the smudge on the front. "Ugh. Blood." Flicking out her hand, Amunet turned to address Caitlin, then sighed when she saw that the body was gone in a bolt of lightning. "Well, I guess I'll kill you later, Caity."


Caitlin sighed, pressing her aching fingers into the needle she pushed into the skin of her shoulder. Once she got that sewn up she could work on her face. And that was something she wasn't quite looking forward to. It would hurt. Just as her arm hurt. It was too bad she couldn't easily tap into Killer Frost's healing abilities. Made it so much easier to handle things.

Once that was done, she could get away. Far, far away without anyone finding her. Just as she planned to do before being roped into the trip to Gotham. It should've come as a omen to her, when the suggestion was made. Gotham was never a good idea.

"Ow…" Caitlin squeezed her eyes shut, trying to prick her arm with the needle once more. She looked up when her hand way knocked away and the needle was plucked from her hand. Saw Cadence standing above her, holding the needle to the light to ensure everything was in place. "It's already knotted, you just have to—"

"—I know," Cadence interrupted. She lowered the needle from the light and moved closer to Caitlin's arm. She grasped it in her hands, warming it under her touch in a way to numb it. "You can't be a single mother without learning how to sew. The amount of times I had to patch up Brady's things with little to no money was a lot more than I was expecting."

Caitlin smiled a little. "What happened?"

Cadence's eyes flickered over her friend's face. "You don't remember?"

"I don't remember anything when she's in control. Did she…I…" Caitlin swallowed hard. Squeezed her eyes shut. Whether it was from the pain of the needle or from the memories of having been the one to inflict pain on someone, she wasn't quite sure. It was a weird thing to go through, knowing that when she was asleep, another being was the one that was controlling her and her body. "Hurt anyone?"

"Just Norvok. Didn't kill him, though, unfortunately. He's always been a pain in the ass." Cadence smiled to herself. Focused on sewing the needle through Caitlin's skin. Her smile faded just slightly. "So the cure…"

"Didn't work. Not all the way."

"Which is why you wanted to leave."

"Yeah." Caitlin shrugged her uninjured arm. "And why I wanted to get away from Team Flash…why I stayed away from Team Flash as long as I could. When Cisco said he was going to bring Barry back, I thought maybe I could make up for the pain I caused but…she's getting stronger." Caitlin shook her head. "I never should've come back."

"That's not true, you can always come back to your friends." Cadence finished sewing Caitlin's arm, then reached out and pressed her hand to Caitlin's forehead, healing her cut there. Caitlin briefly wondered why Cadence didn't heal her arm. I guess I deserve a little bit of the pain I got. "And you know Cisco and I would've brought you back."

"I didn't know who to talk to."

"Talk to me. I'm your friend. One of your best friends."

"Yeah, who's trying to kill me."

"Does that sound out of the realm for me?" Cadence chuckled. "Once upon a time I was trying to kill my own fiancé. Do you know how many looks I would get if I tried to explain to people we met because I was trying to kill him?" She pointed towards Caitlin. "And I seem to remember you asking me to kill Killer Frost for you." She folded her arms. The minute I figure out how I can split the two of you, I'm going to do it. Just like I promised. I'm not going to leave you behind." She let out a long sigh. "God, I can't wait to kill her."

"You and me both," Caitlin agreed. She thought for a minute. "Sometimes, Amunet would speak directly to me through Killer Frost. I don't really know how she knew I even had the ability to listen but, she knew it. She'd taunt me. That's how she got Norvok to follow me around, they know who I am as much as they know who Killer Frost is."

"Sort of like a mind-meld," Cadence remarked. "But with a different entity inside you…your consciousness is still there…" Something suddenly occurred to her. "That means we could speak to Killer Frost if we need to…or pick her brain through yours?"

Caitlin shrugged.

Cadence placed her hands on her knees and leaned toward Caitlin. "Do you know what Amunet is using The Weeper for? Other than drugs? What does she need him for?"

"His tears, they're more than water. Since he's a meta there's some traces of dark matter within him. When they're ingested, like we saw in the club, the dark matter inside it alters the brain functions like a psychoactive drug. Like a love drug, from tears." Caitlin shook her head. "That's all I've figured out from being in the literal back of Killer Frost's mind."

"That means Amunet can control them through his tears," Cadence realized. She folded her arms. "It's like some of the patients I'd see come through the hospital when I was in residency. Certain drugs can make you do whatever the person who gave it to you wanted to do, like Mikuru. Like…the power of persuasion, once that self-control is controlled by someone else…it makes it easier for people to do their bidding." Cadence closed her eyes, understanding. "Meaning Amunet had money to keep her Network going but also has the ability to have people take the fall for her."

"It's brilliant," Caitlin admitted.

"Okay, so we both know it's hard for us to find her unless you know where she's going to be," Cadence said. "Because you can't track her, even I have a hard time doing it…" she trailed off, thinking for a second. "Unless you can track her dark matter signatures because she's a meta."

Caitlin's eyes brightened. "Her metal is made by some alnico alloy…which we can find using a geological scan of the city for small-scale signatures of that same metal. Which would lead her to—"

"—Lawrence Hills," Cadence figured out. "The only industrial area in Gotham that's bigger than anything in Central City ever could and the CCPD is already looking for her. She uses that as a place to hide and then funnels things from Gotham to CC so she can't be caught."

"If you go…I can't go with you. I'd be a liability."

"Don't worry, I already have a plan."


A/N: Oh, I'm so excited for the next/final part of this episode and things with Amunet. If I do say so myself, it's actually kind of epic. Especially with Jesse Quick and Oracle in the mix. And maybe an appearance from another DC superhero. ;)

Cheers,

-Riles