In the cortex of STAR Labs, Barry was floating at the ceiling, with a large rope tied around him, held by Kara on the ground. "Baby, you okay?" Kara asked, seeing the annoyed pout on his face.
"I just want to get down from here as soon as possible," he muttered, "Why is it that I'm always floating at the ceiling?"
"Maybe you should try to burp yourself down, like Charlie Bucket," Ralph said as he, Harry, Cisco and Iris stood by, watching Barry.
"Ralph-"
"Anything?" Kara asked Caitlin, who was sitting nearby with Mon-El standing by her.
"Well, as best I can tell, Null's powers effect the density of his cells. It's like you've been filled with helium," Caitlin explained.
"Terrific," Barry muttered.
"Always knew you were a lightweight," Ralph said.
"I swear Ralph-" Barry muttered.
"Hey, is there a way to renegade gravitational-" Cisco started as Harry put the cap on.
"Gravitational force?" Harry cut in as Barry struggled to stay still, "Huh, turns out — not necessary."
Barry then looked down at Kara, pointing at her, "Do not let go," he whispered and she smiled at him.
"I won't," she whispered back.
"Based on Barry's standard mess and the gravitational force G and taking into account the half life decrement of Null's dark matter infusion, this effect should eventually just...wear off," Harry explained.
"Wear off?" Barry questioned.
"Your cells should return to normal, right about," Harry began before pushing Cisco out of the way.
"What the hell?" He muttered.
Kara gasped as she saw Barry suddenly drop to the ground, "Now," Harry continued.
Barry quickly got back up as Kara walked up to him, making sure he was alright despite him having speed healing. "Two for the landing, but perfect ten for the thud noise," Ralph joked, which the Allen's looked at him annoyed.
"Why are you joking right now? I mean ser— What the hell was that back there? Pretending to be Joe?" Barry asked.
"He did what?" Kara asked.
"I committed to the bit. I couldn't blow my cover," Ralph said.
"Ralph, what if that had happened outside on the street? I could have floated away into the stratosphere or fallen to my death," Barry told him.
"I would have figured something out," Ralph said and Barry exhaled annoyed before taking a step towards him.
"Out of the twelve bus metas we have found, DeVoe is in control of seven of them. If he gets Null, it'll be eight. If he gets control of her powers, we're talking about your life here," Barry said and Ralph frowned a bit, looking down at the ground.
Suddenly, he blinked and looked at Barry, "Sorry, I was just thinking about the end of Lost," Ralph said before imitating an explosion while Iris and Mon-El rolled their eyes in irritation behind them, "I mean, were they in purgatory? What did Kate really see in Jack—?"
"Ralph," Barry cut him off, sighing heavily, "I'm sorry, man, but I'm benching you."
"Why?" Ralph asked.
"Because you're constantly in the middle of a comedy routine instead of doing what you should. If you had just tossed me the cuffs, we would have Null right now," Barry explained to him.
"Yeah...or she could have ran out the door, and I stretched the cuffs on her when she didn't see it coming. It's fine," Ralph said.
But Barry sighed heavily, shaking his head, "Look, I'm doing what's best for you," he said.
"No, you're not. You're doing what's best for you," Ralph said before he walked out of the cortex.
———
Later on, back in the Speed Lab, Caitlin sat behind a desk, taking some antihistamine while Mon-El stood by her, and Cisco paced back and forth in front of them, fiddling with a bouncy ball. "What if we put him on an all-alkaline diet? Full of antioxidants," Cisco asked.
"Nope," Mon said.
"Okay, what if we — oh, what if we make a super shake full of, like, enzymes and- and probiotics?" Cisco asked.
"Neither of those are gonna work long-term, Cisco," Caitlin said.
"Okay, well, we got to come up with something, right?" Cisco said as he walked over by the computer, "I mean, how old is this guy anyway?" And when he saw how old he was, the ball from his hand dropped, bouncing onto the ground, "This guy's old. We have to solve this. Cause I don't know about you, but I actually like my life."
"I know this isn't the easy answer, but I think you have to tell him," Caitlin said.
"Cisky!"
The three tensed up to find Breacher had walked back into the Speed Lab, "Oh, hey...you. We were just talking about you," Cisco said.
"I've tasted all your donuts. Where's my cure?" Breacher asked.
"Well, it's a little, um, it's a little complicated," Cisco said but Breacher growled at him under his breath, "But!" Mon-El and Caitlin stared at him oddly as he grabbed the antihistamine bottle, "You are lucky, because your fix is as simple as taking one of these little pink pills," and he handed the bottle to Breacher.
"Blue," Mon said.
"Blue pills," Cisco muttered, "Right there."
"Anta-hista-mine," Breacher read off the bottle.
"That's right, an antihistamine. See, stamine, that's Latin for stamina. Which you have plenty of, you know. You have so much of it that it's actually hurting you. But this antimatter pill, it's gonna level you right out-" Cisco started but then watched as Breacher took out a pill and swallowed it, "Oh, you're taking it now. He's — He's taking it now."
Breacher grunted a bit before he turned back towards the Ralph cardboard, and shot out his hand. But when nothing blasted out, Cisco blasted out for him. He tensed up when Breacher turned towards him. "Why is my vibe blast different?" He asked.
"I think it's a side effect of the pills. Hasn't been thoroughly researched yet, but you know, there's headaches, nausea...different, uh, color vibes," Cisco explained while nervously scratching the back of his head.
"I'm cured. Thank you," Breacher said before he walked out of the lab.
But when Cisco turned back towards his friends, he received annoyed looks, "You do realize you're just making this worse?" Caitlin asked.
———
In the cortex, Kara and Barry stared at the bus meta board together while Barry had his stern thinking face on. "Nothing on Null so far. Harry's gonna try something else. We'll find her," Kara assured.
"We have to. Even if Ralph does everything in his power to screw it up," Barry said and Kara looked at him.
"Barry, that's not his intention," she said.
"Well, he could have fooled me," he said.
"It's his life. I mean, if there's anything he cares about, it's losing it," Kara said.
"Well, he's gonna lose it if he doesn't start think like me, like I taught him," Barry said which Kara raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"Think like you?" She questioned and Barry stepped away from her, annoyed, "He's never gonna do that, Barry, and you can't expect him to."
Suddenly, the alarms started to go off again, and Kara walked around towards the console, "Robbery at Central City Jewelry," she then looked at Barry.
"Let's go," he said.
"Wait, we should definitely bring backup," Kara said.
"Well, Ralph's too much of a liability right now. He stays benched," Barry said.
"Caitlin, Cisco? Mon-El?" Kara asked.
"They're with Breacher. It would take too long to wait for them," Barry said.
"Then what's the plan?" Kara asked right before Harry walked into the cortex, with his cap on.
"The plan is occultation," he said before standing before Barry, "You said her fingertips, they illuminated when she used her powers. That means dark matter accelerant, that means powers are generating from the optic nerve— What I'm trying to say is Null can't gravitate what she cannot see, so you vibrate beyond the speed of sight as you approach her eyeline-"
"I'll be invisible to her," Barry said before he looked at Kara, "It worked against DeVoe."
"Let's try it," Kara said before she and Barry both sped off.
Central City Jewelry
Null had successfully gotten out of the building, bag full of jewels, making a run for it when suddenly a gush of wind blew past her. She looked down at her wrists to find meta cuffs. She slowly turned around to he facing Supergirl and The Flash, her hands on her hips and his arms crossed over his chest. "Didn't see that coming," she said.
"It's kind of the point," Flash said.
"No, you didn't see that coming," Null said before she pointed up to the sky. The two turned around to find a car falling down the sky, a screaming civilian inside, "See, I call it my getaway car, cause either the person in there dies," and the two looked back at her, to find her pointing at the two of them, "Or you let me get away."
Supergirl grumbled under her breath before she zoomed up into the sky, skyrocketing right towards the crashing car while The Flash zoomed up a building to get to the car as well. The Flash phased through the car, grabbed the civilian, zoomed back down to the ground while Supergirl — she safely placed the car back on the ground so it wouldn't cause any damage and wouldn't hurt any nearby civilians.
Supergirl then walked up to The Flash who was comforting the clearly traumatized man. "You okay?" He asked and the man nodded, "It's okay. Just stay here," he and Supergirl then walked past him, stepping before a broken meta cuff on the ground.
STAR Labs
That night, Barry and Kara stood behind the console in the cortex while Harry frustratedly fiddled with his cap, standing in the middle of the room. "This useless piece of trash is...useless!" He snapped, "It's like I'm so dumb I can't even come up with a good synonym for this useless piece of trash!"
"Harry, you are not dumb," Kara said and he looked back at her, "No one could have predicted that Null would have picked herself out of the cuffs or taken a hostage."
"Nor did either of you predict the location of a one-hundred-twenty-pound woman using the curvature of space time caused by the uneven distribution of mass yet still somehow failed to account for the gravitational pull of a four-thousand-pound car floating right...above...her...head!" Harry argued.
"Scientists have spent decades trying to understand relativity and quantum gravity, it's-"
"This is not about understanding gravity, Allen. It's about understanding or not understanding her. As it turns out, DeVoe can somehow calculate human behavior," Harry said, before he started to fiddle with his cap again.
"Harry, stop," Barry said, "Kara and I are the ones who let her get away. You did your best."
"Did I, Allen?" Harry asked, facing him again, "Really? This is the second meta to evade the dampening cuffs," he then began to walk out of the cortex, "It's been almost a year, and where are we? And where's DeVoe?!"
Barry shook his head in frustration before looking over at Kara, who was rubbing her head in equal frustration. "What?" He asked, noticing something was bothering her.
She looked over at him, but shook her head, "Nothing," she said, which he gave her a look, and she gave in, "It's just...we went out into the field, we had a plan, and it didn't work."
"But they do for DeVoe. Harry's not wrong," Barry said, "DeVoe's give over every possible outcome before making his plans."
"Which we can't do, and neither can Harry," Kara said.
"Well, then what are we supposed to do? I mean, you just want us to adlib like Ralph wants us to?" Barry asked and Kara gave him a look.
"Barry...you didn't see it, but when you were in jail, Ralph rose to the occasion. He cracked jokes. He thought outside the box. I mean...he got the job done in the way that he knows how," Kara explained, "So, the question is, are you upset with Ralph because you think he's screwing around or because he's not following your plan?" And Barry just stared at her, thinking to himself.
———
Meanwhile, "Breacher!" Cisco walked into his workshop, holding a bottle of tequila, "I thought maybe we could have a drink. I don't know, you strike me as kind of a tequila guy, so..." but he froze in place when he found the antihistamine bottle on the counter, but no Breacher around, "Oh, crap."
He quickly picked it up, but when he did, he got a vibe. He found himself on an unknown Earth, where a man dressed up like Dracula stood before Breacher.
"You've come back to die, Breacher."
"The time has come, Crucifer. Die, vampire, die!"
The vibe ended and panic filled Cisco's dark eyes, "Frack me, he's gonna die," he muttered before he ran out of the workshop.
Unknown Earth
Standing before Crucifer, was Breacher, trying to blast him, but nothing was happening. "Die! Die! Die! — Wait a second."
Suddenly, a breach opened up and Vibe jumped out of it, holding some kind of blaster. "Hey, back up, yo," he said, softly pushing Breacher back before facing Crucifer, "Yo, Dust Till Dawn, I think it's time you saw some sun," which Breacher rolled his eyes while Vibe blasted the vampire.
But nothing happened to him, "Idiot! Sunlight doesn't hurt this type of vampire," Breacher told him.
"Whaaat?" Vibe asked before Crucifer snarled at them, "Time to go," he then opened up a breach and pushed Breacher inside it before jumping into it himself.
STAR Labs
The two crashed into Cisco's workshop and Vibe slowly looked up to find Breacher's angered look. "You said your antimatter-histamine would cure me," he muttered.
"Yeah, I did say that, didn't I?" Vibe said and Breacher growled before he got up, yanked Vibe to his feet, and shoved him against a desk.
"You lied to me. You said you could fix me. Now I'll fix you!" Breacher yelled before he tried to blast him, over and over and over again, but it didn't work.
"Breacher, stop!" Vibe snapped, "Your vibe blasts don't work," he then took off his goggles, a guilty and sympathetic look on him, "And they're not gonna work."
"Why not?" Breacher asked.
"Because of your age. I should have told you earlier. It's just I know how special our powers are, and you were so happy at the thought of having them back. And I miss your daughter. I just wanted to see her again. I'm sorry, Josh," Cisco explained and Breacher stepped towards, looking like he was about to punch him. But didn't.
"I hate you," he whispered before he turned around. A breach opened up and he jumped through it, while Cisco just stood there, taking the insult.
"You did the right thing," and Cisco looked over at the entrance of the workshop to find Caitlin peering in.
"Yeah," he muttered, "Thanks. Just wish he knew that."
———
Sitting upside down in a cell in the particle accelerator, was Ralph, stuffing himself with donuts, bored with himself and the building.
"This is an interesting place to hang out."
Ralph got up and faced in front of him to find Barry walking up to him, "You come here to suck the fun out of being benched?" He asked.
"I- No, I came for your help actually," Barry said.
"You want help from the guy who can't take anything seriously?" Ralph asked.
"Look, I'm sorry," Barry said as Ralph stepped out from the cell, "I shouldn't have been so quick to judge. But with DeVoe..." he leaned against a nearby wall as Ralph did the same on his end, "...so many steps ahead of us, it's just — to see you joking around in the middle of this just made me feel like you weren't taking it seriously."
"I know this is serious. I watched — I watched Izzy die in front of me. I'm scared out of my mind," Ralph said.
"Well, you know, you got an odd way of showing it," Barry said.
"Yeah, well, not everybody grew up with a super dad like Joe West who makes it easy to talk about your feelings," Ralph said and Barry softly frowned, "When I was ten years old, my dad walked out on me and my mom. And I was terrified. But my mom, she was even more afraid. So, you know, I just started making jokes. Started doing stupid gags and funny bits and whoopee cushions. Anything to push her fear away. And the thing is, after a while, I started to push my fear away too."
"I had no idea, Ralph," Barry said, an apologetic sparkle in his eyes.
"It's not that I don't care about beating DeVoe. It's not that I don't care about being a great hero. It's just that ever since then, anytime I'm afraid, I either hide — Or I make jokes," Ralph told him.
"Barry, we found Null. Central City Museum."
Barry pulled himself off the wall he was leaning on before looking at Ralph again. "So what do you say? You want to get off the bench? We really could use your help," he said.
"Well, if doo-ty calls," Ralph said which Barry gave him an annoyed look, "You get it?"
"Yeah, let's just go, alright?" He said as the two of them walked out of the accelerator.
Central City Museum
At a fundraiser that night, lots of people surrounded the place, dressed in their most expensive clothes, wearing their most pricy jewelry. But out from nowhere, Null floated up onto the balcony party, landing gracefully in the middle of everyone. "Now, this is my kind of party," she muttered as everyone looked at her confused, "Listen up, people! Anything that shines, shimmers, or sparkles," she then opened up her empty black duffel bag, "Goes in the bag," she glanced over to find a woman nearby, wearing a very expensive looking necklace dangling around her neck, "Ooh-oh, I love me some sapphires."
"You're out of your mind if you think I'm giving this to you," the woman said.
"Oh, give it to me?" Null questioned, "No, no, no. No, no. There's no need for that. No," she then placed her hand on the woman's shoulder, a blue substance covering her body, "I'll just take it."
And as the woman began to float into the air, Null snatched the necklace from around her neck. "And the rest of you...sparklies."
The woman continued to float high and higher into the sky until Supergirl was suddenly in front of her. She grabbed hold of the woman as the hero saw terrifying fear in her eyes. "I have you," she assured before she pulled the woman to the ground, then had her hold onto a railing, "Just hold on, okay? Hold on, it'll be over soon, I promise," the woman nodded before Supergirl faced Null's back as The Flash zoomed up next to her and The Elongated Man stretched down on the other side of her, "It's over, Null."
"So...back again," Null said before she slowly faced Supergirl and The Flash, noticing their backup was there too, "Oh, with a friend."
"A good friend, actually. We hang out on the weekends. I know where they live-" Elongated Man started but his words trailed off when they both gave him an annoyed look.
The Flash then examined the sky before looking back at Null, "No getaway cars this time," he said.
"Right. No cars. But there an awful lot of passengers," Null said, before she turned around, facing the civilians again, and bent down, posing like Black Widow once more.
Once her hand touched the ground, a blue substance began to cover the area, reaching for the civilians so they would float, then ultimately fall to their deaths. "She's gonna send everyone into the atmosphere," Supergirl muttered into her comms.
"Allen, Danvers, you gotta get everyone out of there right now."
And immediately, The Flash began to zoom all of the civilians out off the balcony party so they wouldn't get hit. But when Null suddenly disappeared, Supergirl walked up to The Flash, a curious look on her. "That's everyone, where is she?" Flash asked.
"I don't-" Supergirl started.
Suddenly, the both of them felt a hand on their shoulders. A blue substance covered both of their bodies and they began to float up into the sky as Elongated Man panicked. "No!" He exclaimed.
"Lookin' fly, Flash! You too, Supergirl!" Null called out as she watched the two heroes zoom up into the sky, "Back to business."
Immediately, Elongated Man yanked his arm into the air, stretching it out so that he could be able to touch one of them and pull them down. But to no avail. His arm stretched back to normal before pressing his comms. "Guys! I can't reach them!" He exclaimed.
"Cisco, you have to breach them somewhere."
"They're too high in the atmosphere. I don't have aim like that."
In the sky, zooming up into the atmosphere, Supergirl and The Flash held onto eachother's hands, just waiting until the effects wore off. "Let Ralph improvise," The Flash suddenly said, which confused Supergirl, along with everyone else on comms.
"What?" She asked.
"What?"
"What?"
"What?"
"What?"
"What?"
"What?" Elongated Man asked from the ground.
"Yes," The Flash said, back up in the sky, "Just do something Dibny-esque. Be your own hero. Just do it fast."
On the ground, Elongated Man panicked, like anyone would when put on the spot, "Uh, Dibny-esque. Right, um-"
"All about that bling," and Elongated Man swung around to find Null staring at a pedestal full of diamonds. She was about to take it all when she felt something click around her ankles. She looked down to find meta cuffs around her ankles, and behind her, was the Elongated Man.
"Ralph!"
The Elongated Man then looked up into the sky to find The Flash and Supergirl suddenly falling to the ground, the speedster unable to find a building to run off of, and the Kryptonian unable to control her flying.
"That was your plan? They're gonna fall to their deaths!"
"I know what I'm doing!" Elongated Man whined.
"Any time, Ralph!"
"Ten-thousand feet. They're falling fast. Now five-thousand feet."
As the two heroes got closer and closer to the ground, all Ralph heard were there screams — more The Flash's than Supergirl's, but he was getting there. He muttered to himself, pointing out at them in the sky, trying to figure out where they would crash.
And when he finally did, he ran out to where they would crash — and stretched himself out into a large whoopee cushion. The two heroes crashed right on top of it, completely fine. The Flash laughed in relief while Supergirl breathed in one, smiling as she did so. "Nice work, Ralph. Nice work," Flash said but both of their expressions dropped when "air" started to blow, making it sound like a farting noise, "You've got to be kidding me," and Elongated Man looked back at them, chuckling while the farting noises continued, "Ralph-"