After Caitlin explained the stone samples from the jaguar, she walked out from her office into the cortex where Kara, Iris, Barry and Ralph were. "So this stone sample shows absolutely no unique attributes of any kind normal granite statue. Except it's filled with traces of the dark matter on a molecular level, as if it's been flooded with it," Caitlin explained to them all.
"So, another bus meta?" Iris asked, pointing out the obvious.
"One that somehow brings inanimate objects to life and uses them to kill," Kara said, hesitation in her eyes as if it didn't sound real but knew it was real.
"How can this possibly be possible?" Barry asked, practically reading Kara's mind.
"My best guess?" Caitlin asked. "This meta has the ability to leave a psychic imprint on objects a sort of telekinetic puppeteering through a subconscious link,"
"That's really smart, 34-25-34," Ralph said and Kara slowly looked up at him annoyed.
"Did he just give my-"
"Ignore him," Kara said, looking back at Caitlin while Barry mouthed, stop, to Ralph.
"Um, well, look. The good things is, our rifles have a blow statues to hell setting, so when this meta does show up," Iris said before she snapped her fingers. "We'll be ready."
"That's my girl," Kara said with a smile before the two high fived.
"I hope we're ready now," Joe said as he walked in, holding a file. "Our victim's name is Jim Fox." He then pressed some buttons on the screen while everyone watched him. "He was an auctioneer at Wetherby's." The screen showed a bunch of ancient artifacts from different Native American tribes. "He was transporting a Native American artifact when he was attacked. We just don't know which one."
But when Kara saw a certain necklace with a bison on the screen, she curiously pressed it. "It's a bison necklace," she softly said before looking at Ralph. "You said you saw a bison on the bus, right?"
And Ralph nodded, causing Kara to smile, looking back at the screen. "Vindicated," Ralph told Barry.
"No one said you were lying," Barry said.
"I could see it in your eyes," Ralph said and Barry rolled his eyes.
"According to this auction report, the necklace was separated into three pieces. The first was in the briefcase, the third is unknown, but the second was in the hands of a private collector," Caitlin said, reading off the screen.
"Christoph Banks," Joe also read off before pulling his phone out. "I'll get the CCPD. Get his address. He may be in danger."
He then walked out as Kara smirked up at Barry. "We should pay him a visit," she said and he smiled down at her.
The two then looked at Ralph. "You ready to suit up?" Barry asked.
"Oh, yeah," Ralph said before he started to walk out of the cortex, but then walked back in. "Where is my suit?"
———
Ralph stood in Cisco's Workshop, staring at a tarp on top of a mannequin while Cisco showed the structure on his windows tablet. "Now, this is just a prototype, but she's got an adaptive nano-weave structure that is — wait for it — malleable on a sub-molecular level," Cisco explained.
"Don't know what that means, don't care. Just yank the tarp off. I'm ready for my super-suit," Ralph said and Cisco looked at him annoyed.
"Ralph," Cisco said before he got up and yanked the tarp off the mannequin, revealing there was nothing behind it. "This tarp is your super-suit." Ralph stared at him confused as Cisco squished the tarp down. "When you stretch, it stretches. When you squish, it squishes."
"Squishes into something butt-ugly," Ralph said as Cisco handed up the small rolled up tarp. "Where's the style? The flair? Dibny needs to peacock."
"Dibny needs to wear the prototype Cisco so loving made for him," Cisco said before he grabbed his windows tablet. "Either that, or you fight crime naked." But he could feel Ralph smiling to himself. "Nope! Don't fight crime naked!"
Ralph pouted as Cisco left, and then he uncrumped the trap, and it looked like a baby onesie. "What is this, a puppy's raincoat?" He asked.
Unknown Location
That night, in an office of some type, a man by the name of Christoph Banks was pouring some drinks for him and a Native American woman, surrounded by Native American culture. "The collection really is quite impressive, isn't it?" He asked but the woman stayed silent. "It's taken no small amount of resources to acquire. I'm just glad to share it with someone who appreciates it," he then walked up to her, handing over the drink.
"That I do," she said.
"So, this book you're writing. It's on Sioux artifacts?" Christoph asked.
"My entire bloodline is Sioux — Lakota, to be exact," she said and Christoph smiled.
"Ah, then you're gonna love this," he said before he placed his glass down and walked over to a artifact.
He picked up what seemed to be a smoking pipe and showed the woman. "This is a Lakota peace pipe. Had to have it taken apart and repaired so it can be smoked. Wanna try it?"
But this deeply triggered the woman, it was like he destroyed Jesus Christ's tomb, or Zeus's temple. "That which you call a peace pipe, is no such thing," she started and Christoph looked confused. "It is a sacred gift for prayer from Ptesan-Wi, bringer of the seven sacred rights the White Buffalo Calf Woman. You'd never hang a Christian cross upside down or lay an American flag on the floor. Yet, you destroy that which is wakan what is holy by letting it touch your filthy flesh. But I am here to tech you the price for your impudence."
"Who do you think you are?" Christoph asked.
"I am the Black Bison," she said.
She then simply tilted her head and the metal armor behind Christoph awoken, like someone was inside. But no one was. Christoph turned around confused just to see the armor walking towards him. It grabbed Christoph by the neck and lifted him off the ground, choking him while the woman grabbed a necklace with a bison on it.
Suddenly, The Flash and Supergirl zoomed into the office with Ralph in his suit. "Enough," Flash said and the woman looked back at them surprised. The armor threw Christoph on the ground as the three sternly stared at it.
At least, The Flash and Supergirl did. "Whoa. Now, that is a cool suit. Remember to take some pics for Cisco," Ralph said but then the armor punched him through a glass wall.
Immediately, the woman took off and the duo were about to go after her when they stopped because of Christoph. "Help! Don't leave me!" They looked back to see the armor was walking towards him threateningly. So The Flash phased himself into the armor, then shredded it to pieces.
Supergirl helped Christoph up from the ground and made sure he was okay as Ralph ran out from the glass wall. Just to pout at the two. "You let her get away."
"And what were you doing?" Supergirl asked him. "Oh, that's right, you got your ass knocked around like a rag doll."
STAR Labs
The next morning, Caitlin walked from her office to the cortex, holding the armor helmet while Barry, Kara and Ralph watched some security footage. "I'm getting the same traces of dark matter from this that I was from the tiger statue," Caitlin said, walking up to Iris and Joe at the computers.
"Looks like our meta isn't restricted to animating just stone," Iris said.
"No, but she does have some limitations," Kara said before looking back at Iris for a moment. "Out of all the artifacts in the office, she could only control the knight."
"So then maybe her psychic imprint abilities are just restricted to effigies," Caitlin said, causing Ralph to snort, which made Kara look at him annoyed.
"It just means statues," she said.
"Yeah, I don't know. Sounds kinda dirty to me," Ralph said and Kara rolled her eyes.
"So if the statues look like people or animals, she can bring them to life. Mm. Good things there's only thousands of those in the city," Joe said before the computers beeped.
"Oh, I got a hit on facial recognition," Iris said, and pulled the information up on the screens for Kara and Barry.
"Mina Chaytan, Professor of cultural anthropology? She's a teacher?" Kara asked.
"Was," Iris said, reading off from Mina's file. "She became an activist, but she lost her job seven months ago after being arrested."
"Breaking and entering, trespassing, burglary," Caitlin said, also reading off from the file. "Quite an activist. The charges were dropped, but the university still let her go."
"She was trying to reclaim several Sioux art pieces from the museum," Joe read off and Barry looked back at him. "Chaytan was at this even before she was a meta."
"Yeah, except now she's upped her game to homicide," Barry said, before looking back at the screen. "She wants the third piece of that necklace? Let's find it before she does."
"Okay," Iris said before she and Joe looked at each other. "West and West are on the case." They both walked out of the cortex and Caitlin walked back into her office, leaving just Barry, Kara and Ralph.
But when Kara and Barry looked back at Ralph, they saw he looked upset about something. "What's wrong with you?" Kara asked and Ralph looked up at the two.
"You let her get away," Ralph said and Kara stared at him offended. "We could've caught her."
"Yeah, we let her go, but we also saved Christoph Bank's life," Kara told him.
"Kara's right. That was the most important thing in that situation," Barry said.
"Really, Allen? Because to me, when I was a cop, getting the bad guy that was the most important thing," Ralph said and Barry sighed.
"And you wonder why you got kicked off the force," Kara told him and Ralph crossed his arms.
"You're the Flash and Supergirl. You could've saved him and caught her," Ralph said.
"All right, look, Ralph. I'm always gonna make the decision to help the person in danger first. That's what we do here," Barry said but Ralph scoffed.
"All right, well, we'll file that under superhero lesson of the day, you know?" Ralph said before he walked off and Kara sighed, shaking her head.
"He's unbelievable," she muttered.
———
Meanwhile, Harry was arguing with Wells 2.0 and Herr Wells in the Speed Lab. "You look like a plucked chicken," Wells 2.0 told Herr Wells.
"Guys, guys!" Harry snapped and they looked at him. "I still think the best thing we can do is figure out what DeVoe's goal. And then from there, we can track all-"
But Herr Wells scoffed as Cisco slowly walked back into the room. "That's a simple plan from a simple man," Herr Wells said.
"That's not helping," Harry said.
"Why don't we use the Bates-Novick method first?" Wells 2.0 asked as Cisco stood in the back of the room. "We determine why each meta developed their super powers and then we smash them to bits."
"I've seen a lot of strange here, but this takes all the cakes," Cisco muttered to himself. "Okay, Council of Wells!" They all looked back at him as he walked up next to Harry. "How we doing? Have we found our mystery foe yet?"
"No, we can't even agree on what methodology to use," Harry said and Cisco looked at him.
"What?" He asked. "You've had an entire day."
"I know," Harry said before Cisco looked at the Wells.
"Wait — Weren't there three of you?" Cisco asked.
Just then, H. Lothario Wells's hologram, popped up, and he standing to the side, talking to someone off hologram. "Whoo! Thanks for the merry-go-round, sweetheart. You know what I mean," he said before chuckling, then he turned to Harry and Cisco.
But his pants were down, revealing his lower area. "Oh, sorry. I had to take care of some off-camera business."
"Oh, my God!" Cisco yelled, putting a hand up, trying to cover up what he just say.
"What?" H. Lothario Wells asked.
"I can see your frank and beans," Herr Wells said.
"Come on, now. I do my best thinking commando. Plus, it ain't like we all haven't seen it before," H. Lothario Wells said.
"I haven't seen it!" Cisco yelled, keeping his eyes to the ceiling.
"Ah, you Earth folk," H. Lothario Wells said as he pulled his pants up. "You guys are so uptight."
"I can — Can we just get back to the task at hand?" Harry asked. "We need answers."
"The best answer is always the simplest. Why don't we go to every DeVoe we can find and interrogate 'em?" Wells 2.0 said before he pulled out a flame torch, and turned it on.
"What, even the baby DeVoe?" H. Lothario Wells asked.
"Especially the baby DeVoe," Wells 2.0 said.
"Baby violence solves nothing," Herr Wells said.
"Guys, guys-" Harry said as all the doppelgängers started arguing. "All right — gentlemen!" They looked at him. "Clearly, this isn't working. And by the way, it's not me. It's you." He then pressed a button on the computer, which disconnected all the holograms, and stepping back next to Cisco, who covered his eyes with his hand. "This was a bad idea."
Cisco removed his hand then placed it back on his eyes. "It's like your junk has been burned into my brain," he muttered.
"You're welcome," Harry said.
———
Barry, Kara and Ralph followed Iris into the cortex after she and Joe found out some information. "We've got the third piece of the necklace," Iris said before pressing a button on the screen. "My dad found out that it was on display at Central City Museum, but when they figured out that it was a target."
"It's on the move," Kara said.
"Yeah, it's being transferred via armored car to a secure storage facility in Brookfield Heights. I pinged the truck's GPS," Iris said and Kara nodded.
"Good work," Kara said, while taking her glasses off, setting them down on the counter.
"All right, Ralph? Let's go," Barry said before he walked off to change.
"I'll get my ugly suit," Ralph said before he walked off.
Streets of Central City
When Flash, Supergirl and Ralph got to the scene, they saw Mina walking away with the artifact, from a caveman statue, besides a armored truck. "Hello," Flash said and Mina looked back at them. "Are you ready to go to jail?"
"This doesn't belong in an auction house. It doesn't belong in someone's collection. It belongs to the Sioux people...my people," Mina said.
"Mina," Supergirl said and Mina looked at her. "I understand your pain, but-"
"How could you understand?" Mina asked and Supergirl tensed up.
"Mina, I know you've been through a lot, but this is not the way to-" Flash tried to intervene.
"I don't need to listen to men like you anymore, Flash," Mina said and Flash stayed quiet, not sure how to approach this problem. "A few weeks ago, something inside me changed — changed for the better — for the more powerful. And now there's just the Black Bison."
Suddenly, the caveman statue came to life, grabbed The Flash and threw him to the ground as Mina ran to her car.
Supergirl helped Flash get up and together they zoomed up to the statue to fight it. But right before Mina could make her escape, Ralph stepped in. "Oh, no, you don't," he then extended his arm, latching onto the car, so it couldn't drive away.
The Flash and Supergirl both punched the caveman but he threw them both in different directions. Supergirl got thrown against a power line, while frightened citizens who stood by.
Right when Supergirl began to sit up, the power lines from above fell down, and shocked her with electricity. She yelled out in pain as The Flash looked over in her direction, immediately worried. "The power lines!" Flash called out to Ralph. "Get those people clear while I help SG!"
"But I can catch the meta!" Ralph called back, still holding onto Mina's car.
The power line pole started to fall down, and the citizens started to run off in fear, but a little girl fell down in the middle of the street. "Laura!" Her mother called out.
Supergirl watched as the pole fell on the little girl and Mina crashed her car nearby. "Told you I'd get her," Ralph said but his smile dropped when he saw Supergirl's expression.
She looked to be in emotional pain, guilt, even though she couldn't do anything. "No," she muttered before she was able to pull herself to zoom over.
The little girl was unconscious, and stuck under the wooden pole. Supergirl pulled the pole off the little girl before holding the girl in her arms. Her mother sobbed heavily, begging for her daughter, while Supergirl checked her x-ray. "She's still breathing," Supergirl told the woman. "I will fly her to a hospital."
"Oh, thank you, Supergirl," the woman said and Supergirl smiled before she flew off.
As Supergirl flew, The Flash looked at Ralph disappointed, knowing all this could have been avoided if he did what he was told.