Episode 31 - Flash Fanfiction - Nightfall

Chapter 3

As the five of them arrived onto the darkened, though still busy, street, The Flash had already assisted with a car accident getting the passengers out to safety before impact.

When he returned back to the rest of his group, who stood in the shadows out of the public eye, he asked Astrid if she had picked up on anything using her mind scan.

She continued to focus on anything that would give her some sort of a clue. "Still nothing..." she said frustrated. "There's a lot of panicked people... They're all scared! But I don't know what I'm looking for. If you think that this was caused by someone... I'm not picking up on anything that tells me that."

"No, that just doesn't make sense, Sutherland." Harry replied, "try harder! It has to be caused by someone or something!"

"Harry! I'm trying as hard as I can!" Astrid snapped back.

"Get off her case," Cisco said, looking up at the sky. "Astrid, do you still have access to your dad's helicopter?"

"We will have to get in contact with my father's old pilot, but that shouldn't be so hard. Why? What are you suggesting?" she asked him.

"Well, one thing I've noticed, is that there are no stars! So, if we fly up and around Central City's outskirts. Maybe we can see where the darkness ends. Maybe someone has thrown a huge blanket over our city." He suggested.

"A blanket, Cisco?" Caitlin asked.

"It seemed a lot less, scarier than the other theories that came to mind." Cisco shrugged.

"I wasn't expecting an idea like that to come from you, Ramon. Good thinking." Harry said.

Cisco stared at him, annoyed that he had both insulted and complimented him at the same time. Nonetheless, he took it as a compliment.

"Cisco, can you locate the number of my dad's old pilot?" Astrid asked, "I haven't needed the chopper, so I seem to have lost his number over time"
"That I can do." He said with a smile, he held his tablet in his hands and began searching.

"You guys?" Caitlin spoke up, "Did it just get a lot darker?"

"You noticed that too?" Barry asked her.

The group looked around them, the street lights had turned off, showering them in an even thicker blanket of darkness, except for Cisco's tablet, the group's phones and a few torches on the streets.

There was a loud bang, followed by a smash. The group looked up to see another car crash. Harry shun his large torch, helping the Flash get all the passengers to safety.

"Okay, I found his number." Cisco said as he called the pilot. He arranged for an instant pick up from the rooftop of STAR Labs, then breached the group back to cortex.

Within half an hour, the group had put on their regular clothes and were in the chopper flying upwards and in a northerly direction of the city. "It's hard to believe its midday." The pilot said.

"You're telling me." Barry replied, sitting beside him.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised, in a city like this. Even before Smallville's meteor shower, Central City has been a magnet for the strange and impossible. I wish I knew why."

Barry nodded, he wished that he did too.

On the benches of the helicopter, Dr Wells, Caitlin, Cisco and Astrid sat. "Woah, this baby is beeping off the charts." Cisco said, referring to the tool in his hands. It was a device to monitor unusual activity.

"Astrid, maybe you should run your mind scan?" Caitlin suggested. She was sitting across from Astrid and Cisco, and beside Harry.

"It couldn't hurt," Astrid replied. She closed her eyes to focus better, and immediately picked up on something. "Wow, I think I'm getting something." She said as she opened her eyes, surprised.

Before she could explain, the helicopter jolted. "What's going on?" she called out to the pilot, she was reminded of the time that she had been stuck in the elevator with Barry.
"Don't worry, Miss Sutherland. We're just experiencing some technical difficulties." The pilot replied through their speakers. He sounded confident.

The helicopter jolted again, and Cisco took a hold of Astrid's hand to comfort her. "Are you alright?" he asked her.

"I'm okay. Just a little PTSD, from that time in the elevator," she replied.

Suddenly, there was a violent shake of the helicopter. The propeller had stopped spinning, leaving nothing holding the helicopter up in midair. It immediately began to plummet from the sky.

Barry knocked out the pilot, to not give away his true identity, unbuckled him from his seat and dragged him from the chopper. He jumped and ran across every building that he came across, as fast as he could, faster than the helicopter could fall.

Once he made it to the ground, he laid the pilot securely by a dumpster and ran towards the building where the helicopter was about to crash.

He made his way up and stood on the rooftop, ready to make a large jump to the helicopter to save his friends. While he was there, he saw the figure of a hooded woman, draped in black, flying beside it.

Nonetheless he made the jump. The helicopter was still roughly 150 feet high, above him. He knew that he could make it in time, but he couldn't stop the impact that the crash would have.

The woman saw him and as time sped up again, it looked as if she had thrown something dark at him. To protect himself, Barry darted out of the way of the black projectile that was coming in his direction. Then he ran towards the woman, to knock her back before she could do something to the helicopter. But as he ran, he felt his speed diminishing. She seemed to be absorbing it. "What the hell?" Barry exclaimed.

From the moment that the helicopter had begun to fall from the sky, Cisco was not going to sit around and do nothing. He formed a breach in the middle of the floor, between the four of them, with his free hand.

"Let's go, you guys!" He demanded. They dove into the breach, first Caitlin, then Harry, then Astrid and Cisco, without a second thought. They landed on the floor of the street, escaping with only minor grazes.

"Is everyone okay?" Astrid asked, as she got to her feet.

Caitlin held up the light of her phone, the four of them all seemed fine. "I think we're all okay. But, where's Barry?" she demanded. They all looked up into the sky, to see the helicopter that they had just been in, crash into a building.

"Caitlin... Barry's the fastest man alive. I'm certain that he would have gotten out in time." Cisco assured her, putting his arm around her.

Astrid ran a mind scan, monitoring for Barry's thoughts. She was concerned that she couldn't pick them up. "Harry, can you take Caitlin back to STAR Labs? Maybe Barry is back there waiting for us, already." She said.

Caitlin knew that Astrid was trying to hide something from her, regardless, she felt that if Barry had been injured, he would indeed return to STAR Labs in search for them. So she and Harry left, making their way back to STAR Labs.

Once Caitlin and Dr Wells had left, Astrid turned to Cisco. "I couldn't read his thoughts. I need you to breach us up there asap!"

"Done, and done." Cisco said as he brought up his breach. The pair of them ran through it.