Caitlin and Anna laid on their couch, watching a movie. Anna switched her positions every so often, making sure Caitlin was comfterable.
"Babe?" Caitlin whispered.
"Yeah?" Anna looked up at her face.
"I...I can feel Frosts feelings."
"You can?" Anna asked in surprise. "Did you tell anyone?"
"Only Harry. At jitters." Caitlin mumbled. "When I was telling him about it, a girl and a boy came up to us, spilling their drinks on our table. The girl started rambling and the boy stood there, trying to calm her down. Eventually we just left."
"Uh-huh." Anna said thoughtfully. "What was Frost thinking?"
"She was...desperate. Scared. For me."
"Yeah. Before I let her out of Flash time, she said not to let you die. Maybe she cares a lot for you." Anna suggested.
"Maybe." Caitlin repeated as Wanda Maximoff came on the screen. "You ever think she looks a lot like you?"
"Heard that so many times." Anna noted. "Why? You have a crush on her?"
"Actually, yeah. In the 8th grade someone showed me a picture of her and I was thinking, 'Wow, wish she was mine." Caitlin noted, looking up at her.
"Well she is." Anna smirked, kissing her. "She always will be." Both of them smiled into the kiss as Anna's hands drifted into Caitlin's hair.
"Bed?"
"Bed."
Barely 5 seconds after they were off the couch and in their bedroom, having a wonderful night that both of them enjoyed.
"What is all this?" Iris asked as Harry pushed a white board in front of another.
"This is gonna give us the edge we finally need to be smarter than DeVoe. Or me to be smarter than DeVoe, actually. Take a look at this." Harry motioned to a drawing on a board.
"What is that?"
"This is an intelligence booster." He motioned to Ralph. "You put this thing on Dibny here, and even he would be able to understand the point source construction. You put it on a real genius, I'll finally be able to out-think the Thinker."
"You know what, I'm not sure this thinking cap is the best idea you've ever had."
"It's an intelligence booster."
"You don't like it, blame yourself. You gave me the idea." Harry said. Cisco gave a small, what? "You're the one that said DeVoe planned all this just like Thawne in order to stop Barry. And you said that DeVoe became the Thinker the same night you became the Flash, and so I hacked into security footage of that night to see how he did it." Harry motioned to the screen, which shows DeVoe having a cap on his head and getting struck. "This is why he's so smart. DeVoe boosted his intelligence with neurochemical engineering powered by the dark energy from the particle accelerator explosion. And if we build our own, we can do the exact same."
"Wait, you wanna blast your brain with 10 billion joules of dark energy?"
"I've harnessed energy from the particle accelerator explosion before, and I can do it again."
"Yeah, but Harry, re-engineering your brain's neurochemistry, that's-" Caitlin started.
"DeVoe did it. So can I. How many more metas have to die before we finally stop DeVoe?" Harry asked angrily.
"Uh... not... Not me. I mean... I say we go for it. Right? Right, guys?" Ralph looked around.
"What do you think?"
"I say we explore it." Iris confessed.
"Why not?" Anna smirked.
"Yeah, I agree." Caitlin added.
"Ramon."
"No, this is way too risky." Cisco insisted.
"Of course it's risky, but if we succeed, we will save the lives of the four remaining bus metas, including a member of our team." Harry motioned to Ralph.
"You're talking about intense amounts of dark energy going right into your brain, right into that cap, that turned a mac and cheese loving pacifist into a homicidal maniac. You put that cap on, what's it gonna do to you?" Cisco asked threatingly.
"I've run the numbers dozens of times. The math and the chemistry check out. I can do this."
"I don't think you can."
"I can with your help."
"Not this time. All right, let's keep coming up with more ways to solve this." Cisco said before walking out.
"Just so I'm clear on this, someone finally came up with a way to stop this La-Z-Boy riding lunatic and we just might not do it?" Ralph questioned with a angry look. "That's really cool, guys." He added before walking out.
"I got this one." Iris followed after.
"Yeah, thanks." Barry sighed.
Harry motioned to the board. "This is the only way. I'm gonna do it with or without his help."
After a Meta had lost his powers abruptly, Team Flash was still finding the source. "So, I can think of a couple of ways this might have happened. If this Eric Fry metastasizes solar radiation to create heat, we could put him in the dark to de-power him." Caitlin suggested.
"But it was still broad daylight."
"Okay, maybe his internal biochemistry has been altered to create its own internal thermal combustion and he just ran out of fuel." Caitlin suggested again.
"Okay, so if this guy's not one of the bus metas, then that means that there's still three more out there before DeVoe gets to me. So, I'm safe. Safer, I'm safer." Ralph noted.
"Those are innocent people, Ralph."
"I'm innocent. I'm still gonna get terminated. Oh, my God. I'm Sarah Connor. I'm gonna go back to my room. Get some comfort food." Ralph walked out.
"Ralph..." Barry called after him.
"The way I see it, Fry walks into the bank with his fire powers, meets this other guy, and then his powers are gone. Coincidence? I think not." Cisco noted.
"So you think this guy did something to Fry?"
"I think we can ask him some questions."
"I interviewed every eye witness in that bank. Nobody knew who he was." Joe flipped his notebook open.
"Cisco, why don't you crosscheck the deposits from today with dad's witness list?"
"Way ahead of you. Everyone on the list checks out except Matthew Kim... An EMT out of Central City General." Cisco read out.
"Barry, let's go ask some questions."
"Oh, I'll go. Barry, you can stay here." Iris suggested.
"Um, okay." Barry said, as confused as everyone else.
"Well, you know, I never go out into the field, so I thought, you know... Yeah,"
"I mean, you're the boss." Barry confessed.
"Okay. Uh, Caitlin, why don't you see how this power stealing thing works, and Cisco, why don't you use the satellite's tracking perimeters to scan the city for dark matter?" Iris grabbed her coat. "Okay."
"I'll just come running if you need me." Barry noted. "Can I hang out here?" Barry asked when she was gone.
Anna giggled. "I always hang out here."
Anna and Barry sped forwards into an hospital office after a distress call from Joe.
"Flash!" Matthew held a knife to Iris's neck. "You're not the only one that's been blessed with powers. I'm helping people, too."
"Not like this." Barry sped forwards, moving the knife away and pushing him back.
"You did this, not me." Matthew stumbled back away and ran out.
"I got him." Barry tried to run forwards. "I lost my speed."
"What do you mean you lost your speed?" Joe questioned.
"Uh, guys," Iris held up her hand, shaking rapidly. "I think I found it."
Iris giggled as she sped around multiple times, purple lightning following her. "This is amazing."
"Yeah, it is." Barry agreed. Anna could hear the sadness in his voice.
"Well, I've run every test I can think of. EKG, cellular regression synthesis, brain chemistry, and dark matter confirms it. Iris is a speedster." Caitlin noted.
"So, what about Barry?" Joe questioned.
" Um... Everything that was a part of you... Your speed, connection to the Speed Force, the dark matter... It's all a part of Iris now." Caitlin explained. Barry looked at Iris.
"Can you..." Barry started, looking at Caitlin.
"Reverse it? I don't know. I can try."
"So, Matthew Kim isn't just removing DNA. He's transferring it to anybody he touches." Joe summarized.
"He's not getting rid of metas. He's creating new ones." Ralph said.
"Well, that's not the only thing. Guess who's got an apartment just a block away from the 405 bus line and rides it every day to get to work?" Cisco asked.
"So Matthew is our bus meta, not Fry. Which means that DeVoe is gonna come after him sooner or later." Iris added.
"And if DeVoe gets Matthew's abilities, he could take away all our powers."
"Unless we get him on our side first. Then he can remove the meta DNA from DeVoe." Joe assumed.
"Could that work?" Anna looked at Caitlin.
"I mean, yeah. It could. As best I can tell, Matthew's abilities work by melting down the highly concentrated bonds between DNA. That makes them totally pliable so he can extract them and infuse somebody else with the exact same meta DNA." Caitlin detailed.
"Science talk. Don't understand it, but love it when it comes out of her mouth." Anna smirked.
"Melting highly concentrated bonds. Melting Point. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I gotta write that down." Cisco noted.
"Okay, great, so you guys figure out how to get this Mr. Melting Point in the same room as DeVoe and not get his brains sucked out. I'm gonna go get a couple of bear claws and go back to my room." Ralph walked out.
"It's not Mr. Melting Point. Look, it's just Melting Point." Cisco ran after them.
"You know, somebody out there has Fry's fire powers right now. We need to find them as much as we need to find Matthew."
"I'm on it." Joe walked out.
"And I'll see if there's a way to reverse this." Caitlin followed.
"I'm gonna do a couple laps around the city." Anna tilted her head and ran out.
"Ramon! Where... There you are. What are you doing?" Harry ran into the cortex.
"Updating some software." Cisco didn't look up from his magazine. Anna rolled her eyes, knowing what was going to happen.
"Oh, good. So nothing. Great, I need your help."
"What do you want?"
"Do you have a microfilament compression wrench with a cobalt retrieving clamp?"
"Yeah."
"Yeah, where is it?"
"Why, so you can work on your death cap?'
"It's not a death cap."
"It's a death cap."
"No, it isn't."
"I hear there's plenty of tools on Earth-2."
"Yeah, well I'm on Earth1."
"Oh, you need a lift?" Cisco asked.
"I'll breach you there right now!" Cisco said as Harry mimicked him in a higher tone.
"That's not what I sound like!" Cisco said as Harry did it again.
"Fine." Harry stormed out.
"Cisco, why can't you just help him?" Caitlin got up from her seat, Anna following behind.
"Why am I the only one who thinks putting a rageoholic and dark matter together is a bad idea?"
"He's trying to stop DeVoe. That's not a bad idea."
"He's trying to match his intellect with a mad man whose innovations are warping his brain. Have you not seen Spider-Man 2?"
"No." Caitlin said plainly.
Anna fake gasped. "How can I live with you?"
"How can you live with yourself?" Cisco asked. "You literally have a Wanda Maximoff copy in your bed."
"It might be dangerous, but it also might work. And we're kind of running out of ideas. Besides, Harry's gonna do this whether you help him or not. So maybe there's some way to make this thinking cap and to keep him safe." Caitlin suggested before walking back to the medbay.
"We are watching that movie. Tonight." Anna insisted, munching on a chip.
"What's happening?" Barry and Iris rushed into the cortex, where multiple alarms were blaring.
"Baldwin Tower's on fire. CCFD's responding, but there's people on the top floor they can't reach." Cisco explained.
"Okay, Caitlin, Killer Frost is on fire duty. Anna, Ralph, Cisco, suit up." Iris informed.
"Yeah. Not a chance. This could just be a trap for DeVoe to get us out in the open."
"Hey, I think we got a bigger problem. We don't have a Flash anymore." Cisco informed. Anna waved her hand in Cisco's face.
"Yeah, we have two." Caitlin motioned to Iris and Anna.
"I don't think she's ready for all that. I mean, she just got her... You just got your powers." Barry insisted.
"Um... No. I wanna do this."
"Okay. Okay, all right. We'll monitor from here, then." Barry noted.
"Okay, well, you can't go out there wearing that." Cisco motioned to Iris's Star Labs shirt.
"Oh. Right." Iris sped forwards, switching clothes with Caitlin.
"Sorry, Cait. Mask?" Iris looked to Cisco.
"Right. Thank you, Jesse Quick." He handed Iris a full black mask.
"Nice." Iris said before speeding away.
"Guess you're on comms." Ralph noted to Barry.
"Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, how do I... How do I..." Barry looked around the monitors.
"Other monitor." Cisco motioned.
"I'm here." Iris said as Anna joined her in front of the building.
"Okay, Iris, there are five people trapped on the 14th floor. You and Anna need to get them out of there as fast as you can." Barry said through comms. Iris and Anna sped ahead, grabbing each person and putting them on solid ground.
"We did it." Iris informed.
"Great work, okay? Now you gotta get back in there and put out the fire." Barry instructed.
"Right." They both sped upwards. "What do I do?" Iris looked at Anna.
"You know what to do. Use your arms. Create wind funnels. Suck all the oxygen out of the room." Barry informed.
"And the fire will go out. Just like he's done a thousand times." Iris repeated. Both of them started spinning their arms, but Iris's wind funnels only gave out oxygen.
"It's making it worse." Anna informed.
"Just go the opposite direction, okay?" Barry said. One of the poles fell on top of both of them, knocking them to the floor.
"Iris, what was that? Iris!" Barry yelled.
"Giant rock." Anna muttered, groaning in pain as she tried to lift it up.
"My leg is pinned. I can't move." Iris informed.
"Okay, you have to phase through it." Barry explained.
"What? I don't know how."
"You have to vibrate your whole body, okay? You just... you have to feel it." Barry said in panic.
"I can't. I can't move. I can't do it." Iris insisted. Another pole almost fell on her, but Anna caught it.
"On the count of three. I'm gonna throw this away and lift it." Anna informed. "One...Two...Three!" Anna yelled, grunting as she lifted the pole off of them, Iris slid out and Anna phased through. An arm grabbed them and pulled them through a breach as Iris coughed multiple times. Anna struggled with her breathing as she gasped for breath. She leaned against the doorway, Caitlin rushing up to her and checking over her.
"I'm...fine." Anna gasped out.
"There's a lot of smoke in you." Caitlin noted, pulling her into a hug as Anna continued to cough heavily.
"There's still a little bit of irritation in your lungs from all the smoke you inhaled last night, but you should be good to go soon. And your leg's already healed." Caitlin informed. "Anna, you have a little more smoke than Iris, but you'll be fine."
"Shouldn't have let her go out there. You weren't ready." Ralph looked at Iris.
"I saved a lot of people last night, Ralph."
"Yeah, and Cisco had to save you."
Barry broke it up. "All right, look, we just need to make sure this doesn't happen again. We have to find Matthew Kim and whoever he transferred Eric Fry's powers to."
"How close are you to reversing this?" Harry looked to Caitlin.
"I don't know that I can."
"What?" Harry and Anna asked at the same time.
"I was up all night trying every conceivable solution. Dark matter splicing, pattern DNA cloning, even regrowing meta enhanced stem material on a cellular level. Nothing will work. I cannot replicate Melting Point's powers." Caitlin explained.
"So unless we find him and get him to reverse what he's done..." Barry started.
"Iris is Team Speedster on a permanent basis."
"Great, that's, uh... That's great. I'm gonna go work on my will." Ralph moved out.
"Ralph..." Barry called after him as Harry walked out with Cisco following.
Anna leaned against Caitlin's shoulder. "If he'd taken mine too..."
"Don't talk like that." Caitlin whispered, kissing her cheek as Barry and Iris exited the room, leaving them alone.
"Satellite is tracking temperature at the same intensity as the bank robbery, so..." Harry explained as they had found the meta with Fry's powers had been found.
"That's him."
"Yeah."
"So who's that?" Cisco motioned to the edge of the camera. "Matthew Kim."
"Kim's gonna try and steal his powers." Wells assumed.
"All right, let's go." Cisco motioned to Anna and Caitlin.
"Power Couple for the win." Anna high-fived her fiancé, grabbing her hand.
Iris walked in with Barry. "No. You guys are on point. I can do this." Barry and Iris talked for a minute, then Iris turned back to the group.
"Also, I'm not sure my clothes are gonna work this time." Caitlin added, motioning to her flannel.
"I think you look hot in my clothes." Anna whispered, making her blush.
"I have a fix for that. It's the best I could do on such short notice, though." He held up a bag.
"Thanks, Cisco." Iris said before speeding into the clothes and running out. The shirt she was wearing fell to the floor.
"I got hangers." Cisco said sarcastically.
"All right, here we go." Barry motioned to the monitors.
"Remember. She gets stuck, it'll take me about 20 seconds to get there, and about the same amount for Cisco." Anna reminded. "She's on her own." They watched through the life footage as Iris moved Matthew out of the way, right before he was roasted. She stepped forwards, closer to the Meta as he set the ground on fire.
"All right, Iris, we need you to run around him. Create a vortex. The lack of oxygen should extinguish the flames." Barry instructed through the comms.
"Can't get close to him!" Iris yelled in panic.
"Temperature's at 800 degrees."
"Like, how hot is that?" Ralph questioned.
"As hot as lava." Caitlin summarized.
"Guys, we need a plan!" Iris yelled. The fire expanded higher, creating a vortex around the Meta.
"What the hell is that?" Ralph said as Anna cursed under her breath.
"That is a thermo cyclone." Harry noted.
"That fire's gonna get too close to those apartments." Cisco reported.
"And thousands of people will die." Caitlin added, making Anna shift on her feet.
"What do we do?" Anna looked to Barry.
"We turn this thing on." Harry reaches for the helmet.
"Harry, no, don't." Cisco pleaded.
"Iris needs answers."
"Hey, we haven't-"
"She needs answers!"
"Come on, guys! What do I do?" Iris yelled through comms. Harry turned to Barry.
Barry nodded."Do it." Harry places the helmet on his head.
"Hang on, Iris. Hang on." Barry assured her.
"There are 4,827 ways this could go, and all of those ways will fail except one." Harry said quickly. "If Iris uses her speed to draw enough water from Central City Bay into her wake, she could extinguish that blaze."
"You want her to create a tidal wave?" Anna questioned, leaning against the wall.
"It's our only hope." Harry assured.
"Iris, I need you to run as fast as you can. On the water." Barry added.
"On the water? What?"
"Make sure when you run you dig your heels in and you move back and forth in a tight formation." Barry instructed.
"Why?" Iris asked.
"So you drag as much water ashore as possible. Put out the cyclone." Barry informed.
"You want me to create a 100-foot tidal wave? Are you crazy? I can't do that." Iris yelled back.
"Yes you can. You told me that you used to be fearless. I know that you still are. You're the bravest person that I know. You can do this. I know you can. We all do." Barry encouraged as he looked to the whole team. "Now run, Iris. Run." With that last word, Iris sped towards the bay, creating a water cyclone and aiming it back to the city.
"Yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's it. And then tight formations, okay? Tight formations. That's it, Iris. Keep going. Keep going." Barry encourages as Iris rushes to shore. The tidal wave collapsed over the fire vortex, putting it out completely.
"Yes!" Barry yelled. Caitlin threw her hands in the air as Anna threw her arms around Caitlin.
"She did it." Anna smiled.
"Nice work." Barry told Iris.
"I'm so sorry I did this to you. I thought I was cleaning up the city, but I was just making it worse." Matthew confessed in Star Labs, Barry and Anna in their suits.
"Well, we stopped him. He's in Iron Heights, and that's all that matters now." Barry assured.
"You sure you both wanna do this?"
"It's your call." Barry turned to Iris.
"I have to say running on water is really fun. But, if you guys will have me back, I would love to get back behind the console again." Iris confesses.
"Of course." Caitlin smiled.
"Please, and thank you." Cisco pleaded.
"All ready?" Matthew questioned.
"Yeah." They both said at the same time. Matthew grabbed Iris's shoulder, his fingers growing red for a second. The fingers on Barry's shoulder grew red again, then disappeared.
"That's it?" Joe questioned. "You okay baby-girl?" Joe motioned to Iris.
Iris shrugged. "I think so."
"What about you Flash?" Caitlin questioned. Anna crossed her arms in contempt. Barry ran around the cortex multiple times.
"I feel great." Barry confesses.
"Hold on." Anna raised a finger. "Only one way to be sure." She grabbed a cup off the table, throwing it to the floor, but Barry caught it right before it would smash.
Cisco laughed. "My boy's back."
"Well, that's the last time I'm using this power. The city was almost destroyed because of me." Mathew confesses.
"But you had no idea that would happen."
"Yeah, don't be so hard on yourself, pal." Ralph insisted.
"I thought I was chosen for a higher purpose. This can't be the plan for me." Matthew insisted, turning to leave.
Barry stopped him. "But maybe you were chosen for a bigger one." Anna rose an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?"
"The guy we mentioned, Clifford DeVoe, he isn't gonna stop until he gets all the bus metas. Which means we have to stop him. We could use all the help we could get." Iris explained.
"Are you sure I can make a difference?"
"Absolutely. DeVoe's shown weakness against other bus metas in the past. With your help, we might actually have a chance." Caitlin assured. Anna leaned against the railing.
Matthew paused. "How do we start?"
"I'll give you the tour." Cisco motioned to the doorway.
"All right." They both left the cortex.
"So, Bare..." Joe turned back to the speedster. "You never made your own tidal wave before."
"No, I haven't."
"I have." Anna piped up. "Quite hard."
"You go, girl." Caitlin nudged Anna's shoulder as everyone left the cortex to let Barry and Iris talk. As Caitlin was about to leave the hall, Anna grabbed her hand, spinning her closer to her and dipping her downwards as she squealed in surprise. Anna gave her a soft kiss, passionate, but short.
"What was that for?" Caitlin wrapped her arms around Anna's neck.
"For being you." Anna whispered, placing her forehead against Caitlin's. "Beautiful, amazing, hardworking, you."
"I'm flattered." Caitlin's face turned pink.
"Glad you are." Anna held out an arm. "Shall we?" She motioned to the elevator.
"We shall."