Spidey & Speedy - Central City Rush

Chapter 14 - I Won't Give In Because I Choose To Thrive

She kneels at the top of the steps leading down into the stands, then places the quarter on the concrete and pushes it downstairs. It rolls along, skipping merrily down the steps and getting some decent air time with its repeated bounces. We wait with bated breath for something to happen. Something like, I don't know, the quarter to zip across the turf so fast it leaves a small trail of smoke behind it.

Which is exactly what happens.

I expect the quarter to streak off in the direction of center field. It doesn't. Instead, it goes towards one of the goalposts at the end.

"I think this is usually the visitors' endzone," Barry says as we race after the quarter.

Eddie stops short in front of the quarter as it continuously spins in place, practically burning a hole in the center of the red "R" in "RUSH." "Now what?" he asks.

"Do we wait for another Rogue to show up?" I ask. "Maybe one some of us haven't met yet, so we can get an info-dump from Cisco and/or Barry and/or Caitlin while kicking their ass? The Rogue's ass, I mean."

"We can't all gather around this one spot," Barry says. "What if more of them show up elsewhere on the field?" He pats himself down, then shakes his head. "Crap, I left my quarters in my other suit."

Gwen checks her own pockets as well, along with her purse. "Sorry, out of change."

"Don't worry," Grayson says, pulling out no less than five more coins from his hoodie. "I got this covered."

"You don't think they're just gonna go to that same spot?" Iris asks.

Grayson tosses his coins in the air, and they all cut across the turf in different directions, fanning out away from this endzone. Gwen and I follow one, while almost everyone else pairs up to follow the rest. Caitlin and Wells, meanwhile stay put in the endzone.

Once we reach our coins and stand over them for a while, watching them spin and spin and spin, I turn around and call out, "What happens next?"

"I dunno!" Olivia calls back from her spot next to Grayson. "This is all new to me!"

"Same here!" yell Barry and Cisco.

Iris and Eddie say nothing.

"I'm with Peter," Ravi says from his new position next to Liv. "When does the fun begin?"

"And we're waiting...and we're waiting...and we're waiting..." Grayson drones, tour-guide style. He pulls out his phone and starts filming the stadium, no doubt on his secret sonar app. "And we've got something! Caitlin, Wells, right on top of you!"

They jump out of the way - especially Wells, who probably is more than a bit afraid that the next wormhole might swallow him up. Given that he doesn't belong in this universe, I wouldn't be surprised. Reality sometimes has an alarming way of self-correcting, I would think.

Nothing happens, though. No more villains appear. Neither Wells nor Eddie nor anyone else get taken away into dimensions unknown.

"Is it wrong that I'm actually waiting for something bad to happen?" Gwen asks. "Not that I want anything bad to happen, I just have...I just have a horrible feeling."

"Like, in the pit of your stomach?" I ask.

"Almost like I'm on my period," Gwen laughs. "Before you ask, I'm not supposed to have my next one for a couple of weeks."

"I figured," I say. "You never say when your periods are, but they do make you irritable, I've noticed."

"Should I find it sweet that you notice and care?" she asks. "Or disturbed that you know?"