In the STAR Labs Med Lab, Caitlin sat in the bed, with a scanner to her now healed wound, seeing if there was any damage. But it seemed everything was okay. "Are you sure you're okay?" Ralph asked, standing by Caitlin, along with Barry and Kara.
"Yeah, I mean, the wound started healing before I even woke up," Caitlin said before she put the scanner away.
"You frosted out for a sec when we got here. It probably helped," Barry said as Caitlin got up, placing her jacket back on.
"Yeah," she agreed, beginning to leave the lab, needing to do other things.
"Hey, shouldn't you rest?" Ralph asked, slightly following her. But she looked back at him, like nothing was wrong with her. Because they're wasn't.
"Honestly, I'm fine. If anything, this has just made me more determined to get DeVoe. I'm gonna go help Cisco with that pocket dimension predictor," Caitlin said before she turned and left the room, leaving Ralph watching her go, still worried.
"Well...this could have gone badly," Kara said, her arms crossed.
"Yeah, all things considered, we got pretty lucky," Barry said.
"Lucky?" Ralph questioned and the two looked back at him, "Are you two serious? Am I the only one who's paying any attention here?"
"Ralph, the mission was successful. Caitlin's okay, and Edwin agreed to stay in The Pipeline. Edwin will be safe in there," Barry told him.
"Safe?" Ralph questioned, "Because DeVoe's never successfully attacked metas in a maximum security facility before. Oh, wait, he did exactly that."
"Watch it, Ralph," Barry warned.
"I have been watching. Watching DeVoe ahead of us at every turn, watching Caitlin get skewered, watching the metas drop like flies, one by one, because we can't save them. And why? Because we won't make the touch call and end DeVoe when we get the chance," Ralph told them off.
"I'm not doing this again," Barry muttered.
"Okay, Ralph," Kara sternly said, and he looked at her, "I know where you're coming from, but that is not the tough call, that is the wrong one."
"Oh, Mr. and Mrs. STAR Labs agree, how shocking," Ralph muttered, causing Kara and Barry both to send him annoyed looks, "I swear if I was running this team-"
"But you're not-"
"Alright, that's enough!" Kara snapped, "We don't have time to argue. We need to focus and stick to the plan. Find DeVoe, hit him with the scepter, and put him in the Pipeline. No one has to die."
"Huh," Ralph muttered, softly chuckling ironically, "...same plan again. And you wonder why he's always ahead of us," he then walked off, leaving the two standing there annoyed.
———
In Cisco's Workshop, Cisco was busy...gluing together a plane while talking obnoxiously loud in a Scottish pirate accent, "I cannot do it any faster, Captain! If I apply anymore hobby glue, this ship is gonna blow!" He then began laughing to himself before looking at the glue in his hand, "Wow. This glue's really something else. I should probably wear a respirator."
Suddenly, Cisco violently flinched when he heard items harshly clatter behind him. He turned around to find it was Harry, looking through Cisco's things, pushing items to the ground — clearly looking for something. "Where is it?" He asked.
"Where's what? The exit? It's right behind you, please and thank you," Cisco said right as Harry threw something over his shoulder.
"I can't find my Thinking Cap," Harry said.
"I-" Cisco started but Harry threw something over his other shoulder, almost hitting Cisco, "Hey! I don't have it, Captain Caveman!"
Harry was about to throw something else, but froze, slowly looking back at him. He then tossed the item to the ground before pointing at Cisco, "I never said you did, so why would you volunteer that information unless you do have it?" He asked and Cisco rolled his eyes.
"Get out," he scoffed, looking back to his plane.
"I know what this is about. You never wanted me to build this sucker in the first place, cause you never wanted me to be smarter than you. Well, guess what, that's funny, cause I already am," Harry said and Cisco slowly looked back at him, staring at him like he was insane.
"What the hell are you talking about?" He asked.
"I want you to-" Harry began, walking up to Cisco, and knocking his plane to the ground, causing it to shatter to pieces.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Cisco yelled, standing from his seat.
"Give me my cap!" Harry yelled back before he grabbed Cisco by the shirt, harshly pushing him against the clear board behind him.
"Hey! What?!"
"Give me my cap! Give it to me! It's mine! It's my cap!"
"Cut it out!"
"It's mine!"
"Harry!" The two turned back to find Joe standing the entrance of the lab, holding The Thinking Cap, "He didn't take it."
Harry immediately dropped Cisco, who gave him an annoyed look, "I didn't take it," he said before walking off to the side.
"You definitely have a problem, man," Joe said as he walked up to Harry, who turned to him.
"Joe, this is fine-" he started.
"No, uh, be quiet. Just listen. I've seen these signs before with my late wife, Francine. Back then, I didn't intervene so quickly, because I said to myself, I needed to be sure. But I was sure. I just didn't wanna see those signs in somebody I cared about," Joe told him before he gestured to the cap in his hand, "I can't make you stop using this. That's up to you. All I will ask is that you take a long, hard look at what it's doing to you, and how it's making you treat people you care about," he then placed the cap in Harry's hand before walking out of the room.
Harry stayed there for a moment, thinking about what Joe had said, before Cisco began to leave the room, "Ramon..." but Cisco ignored him, leaving Harry all by himself.
———
Meanwhile, on sub level 7, the elevator doors opened to the dark and abandoned looking floor. Coming out of the elevator, was the Elongated Man and Edwin Gauss. "Uhhh," Edwin muttered, causing Elongated Man to look back at him, "Where are we going again?"
"You're gonna open up a pocket dimension into DeVoe's lair, and I'm gonna stop him...for good," Elongated Man said.
"No, you're not," the two then turned to find that at the entrance of the corridor they were in, was The Flash, "Cisco installed motion detectors in The Pipeline intake. We thought it was DeVoe coming for Edwin. Now I kinda wish it was."
"Edwin can get him into DeVoe's lair. I can end this. All you have to do is let me go," Elongated Man told him.
"I can't let you do that," Flash said.
"Um," Edwin started, clearing his throat before walking up next to Elongated Man, looking in between him and The Flash, "Um, listen, I—I don't really do confrontations, so, uh, can I just go back to my glass cage?"
"We're both leaving in a second," Elongated Man told him.
"Okay," Edwin muttered before he stepped off to the side again.
"Just give me the scepter," Flash said, gesturing to the scepter that was in Elongated Man's hand, "I can take it away from you if I have to."
"Yeah?" Elongated Man challenged before he zipped his suit down, "Well, you're gonna have to take it out of me," he then stretched the scepter inside of Ralph while Edwin stared at him weirded out.
"Whoa, bro," he said, chuckling to himself, "Wow, okay, I'm actually glad I stayed for that. That was trippy."
"Don't do this," Flash said as Elongated Man zipped his suit back up.
"Do what? This?" He asked before he stretched out his fist towards The Flash.
The Flash quickly zoomed to the side, dodging the hit, before he slid under his stretched out arm. He then turned towards the wall, jumped up, kicked himself off of it, then flew right towards The Elongated Man, punching him right in the jaw.
His arm stretched back before he toppled to the ground, unconscious. The Flash watched him on the ground, a frown on him, "I'm sorry, Ralph," he muttered to himself.
———
Later on, in the med bay, Ralph slowly came to, finding himself laying on the bed. He also found Barry sitting nearby, with a bottle of alcohol by him. Ralph slowly sat up, even though every inch in his body ached from the punch he got. Barry turned to him, grabbing the bottle, and gesturing it to him, "Olive Branch?" He asked but Ralph gave him an annoyed look and Barry frowned, "You don't wanna have a drink with your buddy?"
"Is that what you call someone who just went all, Thor, son of Odin, on you?" Ralph asked.
"You can take it," Barry said, placing the bottle back on the desk.
"Yeah," Ralph muttered, using all his strength to pull his legs over the bed, fully sitting up.
"Look...I know you're worried about DeVoe, about what he might do to you, but there are some lines we can't cross," Barry told him.
"Wow..." Ralph muttered, before softly chuckling, "You really don't know as much as you think you do, rookie."
"I know what killing DeVoe would do to you. You would be throwing away everything you've done: to become a better man, to become a hero. You gotta realize that," Barry said.
"You...are a moron," Ralph told him.
"Ralph-"
"I am not afraid of DeVoe and what he might do to me. I am afraid of what he might do to you and Kara and Caitlin and Cisco, Joe, Harry, Cecile, Iris, Mon-El," Ralph said and Barry looked at him surprised, "DeVoe has taken out everyone who's gotten in his way, and Team SuperFlash — they will always be in his way."
"This was never about protecting yourself," Barry realized.
"I know that killing DeVoe would mean throwing away everything I've done to become a hero...but aside from my mom, this team is the only family that I have ever had, and I would throw myself into a furnace to keep them safe. DeVoe cannot have them. They are mine," Ralph explained, his voice shaking in fear.
Barry hesitantly nodded, understanding Ralph's side of things, "But what about what we want?" He asked, "You may not care about losing who you've become, but we do. We like hero Ralph," he then sighed heavily, "Please don't take him away from us," and then he got and left the room.
———
That evening, Barry walked back into the cortex where he found Kara, Iris, Mon-El, Cisco, Caitlin, Harry and Joe. "Well, Ralph was misguided, but he had a half-good idea," Barry told them.
"Which half?" Cisco asked.
"We use Edwin Gauss's powers to create a pocket dimension to DeVoe's lair," Kara told everyone.
"Yep, that's the half I was afraid of," Cisco said.
"It doesn't get more dangerous than this, so if we go, everybody needs to sign off," Barry said.
"Look, you two have led this team through every danger there is, so if you think this will stop DeVoe from claiming any more lives...then let's go get that bastard," Joe said.
"I mean, damn, Joe, when you put it all John McClane like that, of course I'm in," Cisco said as he walked up by Joe and Caitlin.
"I'm in," Harry added.
"I don't even need to ask Killer Frost what she votes," Caitlin said, standing from her seat, "We're in too."
"Me, too," Mon added.
"So it's settled," Kara said and they all looked at her sternly, "Tonight, we take on The Thinker."
———
The Speed Lab; Harry handed The Flash an extra scepter he made while standing next to Joe and Iris. The Flash then turned towards Supergirl, Vibe, Killer Frost and Mon-El. He then looked to Edwin, who was standing on the side, "Open it," he said.
"You got it, mega-fast dude," Edwin said before The Flash took his place with the other heroes.
"Open it again in 15 minutes," Flash told Edwin before looking back at Iris, Joe and Harry, "If we don't come out with DeVoe in cuffs, close it. Don't open it again."
Concentrating enough, Edwin brought his hands together, closing his eyes, and his pocket dimension to DeVoe's Lair opened up. Upon opening, The Flash, Supergirl, Mon-El, Killer Frost and Vibe walked through it, the dimension closing as soon as entering.
——— ~ ❉᯽❉ ~ ———
Edwin's portal opened up in DeVoe's Lair, it looking the exact same as it did when he kidnapped Barry over Christmas. The heroes walked right out of the portal, it closing behind them, storming right for the floating chair before them. It slowly turned towards them, Izzy DeVoe sitting in it, hooked up to the machines.
But before she could fully face them, Barry bent down, slamming the specter into the ground, guiding it towards DeVoe — but it did absolutely nothing. "It didn't work," Vibe muttered.
"Why would it? Sound doesn't work on a hologram," DeVoe said before she glitched away into nothing.
"If DeVoe's not here, then," Flash started before he and Supergirl looking at each other, realizing where DeVoe was. Their friends were in danger.
——— ~ ❉᯽❉ ~ ———
All the lights in STAR Labs changed purple, the alarms began to blare while the doors shut closed. In the Speed Lab, Joe turned to Harry concerned while Harry ran behind the computers. "What's happening?" Joe asked.
"Someone's taken over our systems and sealed us in," Harry said.
"A second pocket dimension opened up in STAR Labs at the exact same time as ours," Iris cut in, also behind a computer before their computers glitched, the color turning purple, "It's DeVoe."
"He used that first opening to conceal his own entrance. That's why our sensors didn't register," Harry explained to Joe.
"This is all apart of his plan: the Samuroid attack, us getting Edwin, using him to attack DeVoe's lair," Iris listed off, staring at her father while doing so.
"He wanted us divided," Joe said.
"Where did Edwin go?" Iris asked as Harry went to other computers.
"He's back locked in his cell, and we got DeVoe's pocket dimension energy coming from the Cortex," Harry told her, typing away.
"That must be where his chair is," Iris said, standing up from her seat, "If we can get to it, we can use it to get the team back."
"First, we gotta get ourselves out of here," Joe said before turning to Harry, who had walked back to the first computers he got behind, "Harry, can you unhack his code?"
"Trying, but it's too complex. If I had my quantum decryption keys, I could do it, but they're stuck in Cisco's workshop," Harry said and Iris snapped her fingers at him.
"But we're not stuck in here," she said before she pulled out her comm piece from her ear.
"What are you going to do?" Joe asked her.
"It's a little worst-case scenario that Kara had Cisco whip up," Iris said as she walked down from the platform she was on.
She then walked past Joe, towards the doors of the Speed Lab, before she threw the comm piece right at the door. It latched itself onto the door, rapidly beeping, before exploding, causing the door to explode as well.
The three quickly ran out of the lab, through the hallways, coming up towards the corridor where the elevators were. But Joe suddenly gestured them to stop when he heard someone get off of it. "Get back. Get back," Joe whispered as they kept their backs to the wall, "Harry, go get your equipment-"
"I'll go and hack the computers," Harry whispered before he began to run back the way they came.
"Iris, get to that chair," Joe whispered.
"Dad, you can't-"
"Go," Joe sternly said and Iris reluctantly ran off in the direction they came.
Joe then slowly walked into the corridor where he saw the Samuroid was the one who got off the elevator. The robot turned to Joe, who began to shoot at it with his gun. But the bullets bounced off of the robot.
The Samuroid then pulled out his sword, throwing it right towards Joe, who backed up right at the last second, the sword piercing into the wall behind him. "Ah!" Joe then grabbed the handle of the sword, pulling it out of the wall and walked right towards the robot.
———
Iris stormed into the cortex, the entire place lit in purple light, where she found the floating chair placed in the middle of the room. But suddenly, Marlize DeVoe dressed in her white lab coat, walked out from behind the chair, wielding a Samurai sword. "Ah," she muttered, chuckling psychotically causing Iris to freeze up in place. Marlize placed her sword behind her, trying to intimidate Iris with the dangerous weapon, "Miss West — I was hoping I'd be meeting your sister-in-law. Not her...fragile...best friend."
Iris slowly walked up to the console before pulling out a blaster rifle from underneath the counter. She turned the safety off, pointing it at Marlize, finger on the trigger, "You'll change your mind about that pretty soon," she said.
"Ah," Marlize let out, pulling out her sword to the side, "There's that passion I've heard you've had...but yet still to be seen."
"Kara told you to back off," Iris told her.
"I also remember warning her that her determination could easily be destroyed," Marlize said, wiping around her sword, trying scare Iris.
"Kara told me you asked her what she was willing to do for her husband," Iris said, narrowing her eyes at the crazy woman, "How about I show you our Danvers-Allen hospitality?"
Iris pulled the trigger, sending a blast for Marlize, but she blocked it off using her sword. They both began to run at each other, Iris blasting, Marlize blocking until they got up to each other. Marlize hit Iris with handle of her sword, causing her to stumble back. She then grabbed the blaster in Iris's hand, pulling it out of her grip and onto the ground.
Marlize then attempted to slash Iris with the sword, but Iris ducked down, escaping at the last second, reaching for the blaster, but Marlize kicked it away.
———
The Time Vault, Harry hooked his Thinking Cap up before placing it on his head, "Gideon," he said and the AI popped up before on the futuristic pedestal.
"Yes, Doctor Wells?"
"Increase the Thinking Cap's dark matter feed," Harry told her and an orange substance began to flood into the cap, right to his brain, "More."
"Warning: Safe zone parameters will be exceeded. Recommend—"
"Maximum capacity now!" Harry snapped but once he was fully hit with the overload of dark matter — he got electrocuted by the energy. He dropped to the ground, unconscious.