⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰
𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗪𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
girl goes fast
⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰
"STOP MAKING THE water splash on us, Juliet."
"But what's the fun in that?"
Barry had said that he wanted to get faster, so they set up a training program. Juliet was there as well for said training program, ready to hone in on her powers so they wouldn't keep flickering out. If she got more powerful on Earth-One, there was no reason why she wouldn't be able to stop anyone from Earth-Two.
So, Cisco took them to one of the waterfalls near Central City, where Barry would jump across with a push from Juliet. And — like Cisco said — Juliet had been mind-controlling the water to spray on them when they were least expecting it.
Juliet, Barry, and Cisco walked to the edge of the cliff they were on. She peered down below. Honestly, it was an extremely far drop, so much it was making her nervous, and she wasn't even the one jumping.
Cisco tossed a rock over the edge, watching as it fell, and fell, and fell into the pool of water down below. "Whoo-hoo-hoo. Uh, it didn't look this deep on the map."
"That's 'cause maps are flat," Barry replied. "This is, like, a thousand feet deep."
"Well, you want to get faster. Maybe plummeting to your death is the motivation you need."
"So, to reach escape velocity, you're gonna have to go . . ." Harry did an equation on his notepad before turning it to them. "That fast."
Juliet blinked at the number. "Damn, dude."
"Well, that fast is impossible, I can promise you that," Barry stated.
"Ah, nothing in life is promised except death," Harry quoted.
"Edgar Allan Poe?"
"Kanye West."
Juliet rolled her eyes. "I hate that guy."
"If it makes you feel any better, Evel Knievel cleared a line of cars that was twice this long, and he didn't even have superpowers, unless you count that sweet ass ride," Cisco cut in.
"Do you hear yourself?" Barry asked.
"What? Look, you're gonna be fine. I'm eighty-percent sure of it."
Barry nodded. "Okay."
"Seventy-six," Cisco corrected, and Juliet slowly looked over at him. "Like, a strong seventy-two. I can't stop, Caitlin, help."
"If you don't feel ready, you probably shouldn't do it," Caitlin suggested.
Cisco stared at her. "Not helpful."
"Look, Zoom's still out there," Barry insisted. "And once J and I find a way back to Earth-Two, I have to be faster than him. And, I mean, right now — I wasn't even fast enough to save Jay. I have to try."
Juliet gave him a soft smile and walked with him. "If you feel something controlling you, don't push back, it's just me. I'm just going to give you a little boost for now until you don't need me anymore. And don't worry, you're not going to die."
Barry sighed and nodded. "Thanks, J."
She squeezed his shoulder. "Good luck."
Barry pulled the hood of his suit up and crouched down onto the ground. Juliet held out her hand, her mind instantly connecting to his because she knew she wouldn't be able to concentrate on him as well when he was running.
Juliet watched as lightning flashed in his eyes before he sped off. Right when she saw his own lightning leave the cliff, she pushed her hand forward slightly, pushing him along. However, even that was enough — Barry stopped short in front of the cliff on the other side and began to fall.
Her eyes widened and she concentrated on him fully, stopping him in midair before he could fall. Juliet moved her hand towards her, making Barry come along until he got closer to the cliff. Finally, when he was right above her, Juliet lowered her hand until he settled back down on his feet.
"You okay?" Juliet questioned.
"Fine," Barry answered.
After not making the canyon jump, they all decided to pack up for the day and go back. Juliet teleported back to S.T.A.R. Labs and into her regular clothes, settling against the desk of computers. Barry then sped in next to her, which caused Jesse's popcorn she was eating fly onto the floor. He walked right towards Juliet while adjusting his jacket. She gave him a smile and settled comfortably against his chest as he put an arm around her.
"Scooch," Cisco ordered to Jesse from her place by the computer.
Jesse turned to look at him. "What?" She stood up, nevertheless. "So, how'd it go?"
"Well, he's not a red splat on the side of a mountain," Harry responded.
Cisco sat down in the chair. "That's our new definition of success?"
"It's one of them."
"So, you didn't make the canyon jump?" Jesse inquired.
"No," Barry voiced. "What else can we try?"
Cisco shrugged, eating popcorn of the jar Jesse had. "A bigger canyon?"
Barry just stared at him.
"Okay, fine, no more canyons."
"I know I can crack this, I've just been going about it wrong," Barry admitted. "I need to find my leg up. Have we factored in drag? Wells, can we rerun the simulation?"
"Let it go for now," Harry told him.
"Zoom's still out there. He's terrorizing a whole world full of people, your world. You know, I'm not doing this for fun."
"Fun," Juliet repeated. "Yeah, I had fun once. Haven't in a while though." She glanced up at her boyfriend. "That's depressing."
Caitlin nodded in agreement. "Barry, we've been working on this all week. You're tired, we're tired."
"Yeah, what we need is some downtime," Cisco revealed. "Downtime leads to increased productivity, ergo we have to have fun." He then stood up, his eyes widening in realization. "And the best way to have fun is for us to go out to the club. Am I right, Team Flash and Scarlet? Let's get turnt! No, but seriously, we need a break."
Juliet smiled a little. "I could go for a night out."
"You know, I think Cisco's right, and if I'm saying we need a break, then you know it's serious," Caitlin stated.
Juliet looked up at Barry again. "Baby?"
His eyes narrowed at her. "It's evil that you called me that." However, he was grinning while he said it, so Juliet didn't really believe it. "All right, let's go out tonight."
Jesse nodded. "Oh, yeah." She glanced back at Harry. "Can I go?"
Which is how Juliet found herself that night standing in a club with Barry, Jesse, Cisco, and Caitlin. Her dress was a short, low-cut black dress paired with red heels, her long hair cascading down her back. The music was loud and the club was packed, but she couldn't deny that she felt a sense of serenity as she sipped on her alcohol. Barry then reached across Jesse to grab the peanuts, but the Metahuman watch that Harry made her way instantly beeped.
"Oh, God, sorry," Jesse apologized. "It keeps doing that. My dad made me wear it."
"Don't worry about it, it's all good," Barry reassured her.
Caitlin put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm really glad you came, Jesse, even though this place is less than ideal."
The bartender then placed five shot glasses in front of them.
"Hey, toast?" Barry announced, picking up a shot and handing it to Juliet.
Cisco raised his shot glass. "To Jay."
Caitlin stared at her shot. "I wonder what Jay would say if he was here right now."
"What's a Kamikaze? And then you'd spend ten minutes explaining it."
"And he'd say, Just kidding, we have those on Earth-Two."
"Yeah, well, we don't have those, so . . ." Jesse began, picking up the shot glass.
"Not so fast," Juliet interjected, discreetly moving her hand down so it made Jesse put her shot back on the table. "I would very much not like to die at the hands of your father." She then took her shot and winced at the way it burned. "And you don't want that. Ugh."
"Oh, whatever, he's all talk."
"Yo, guys, what's up?" Iris' voice greeted from behind them.
Juliet turned, instantly smiling. Iris was right behind them, looking stunning in her blue dress and leather jacket. Wally was trailing behind her as well.
"Hey, you," Juliet replied, walking up to Iris and giving her a tight hug. "Blue is so your color."
"And I love your pop of red," Iris said.
"Thanks." Juliet pulled away from the hug and nodded to Wally. "Hey."
"Hey, interesting, uh, choice of venue," Wally admitted, making Juliet laugh slightly into her hand. "The tic-tac-toe theme is cool."
"Barry picked it," Cisco told him at the same time as Barry said, "Cisco picked it."
"I—" Barry began.
Cisco stared at him. "For real?"
"Yeah, I picked it. I don't go out much. It had four stars on Yelp, so . . ."
Wally nodded. "Okay, fair enough."
"So, who's this?" Jesse asked.
"This is Wally," Barry answered. "He's my . . . foster, or step — adopted . . . my new — this is W — he's my new friend. This is Jesse."
Jesse raised her hand, but since it got put next to Juliet, it beeped again, so she quickly lowered it. "Oh, uh, hi."
"Hey," Wally stated. "So, uh, Jesse, are you new in town?"
"Uh, yeah, you could say that."
"Yeah, me too. Are you — are you from far away?"
"Like you wouldn't believe."
Juliet glanced in between them, a smirk settling on her lips. She could practically feel the sparks radiating off of those two. Juliet glanced towards Iris, only to see her with the exact same expression.
Jesse glanced down at her watch, which beeped again. "Oh, uh, you know what? Would you just excuse me? Uh, I just need to go powder my . . . watch."
Juliet's jaw dropped open as she grabbed onto Iris' arm and pulled her towards the bar. "Excuse me?"
"I cannot believe what I just saw," Iris let out. "Oh, he so likes her."
"He just met her," Barry interjected.
Juliet gave him a look. "You know, it doesn't take everyone over twenty years to release they like someone."
"That was low, and you know it." Barry wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close to him, planting a kiss to her temple. "But I'm here now, forever lover."
Iris got her drink from the bar, and the three made their way to one of the other empty tables in the club. Juliet sipped on her own drink, her skin igniting from where Barry was resting his hand on the small of her back.
"So, how's Wally doing?" Barry questioned.
"Yeah, he's good, he's just diving into his schoolwork," Iris responded.
"Good."
"Yeah."
"I'm glad."
Juliet glanced out towards the dance floor, only to start laughing again. Cisco was dancing with Caitlin, and while Caitlin looked normal, Cisco was definitely doing some . . . interesting things.
"Oh, God," Iris commented. "Promise me if you two ever do get married, you will not do that dance at your wedding."
"Automatic divorce," Juliet said, taking another sip of her drink. "Sorry not sorry."
"I wish I knew when our wedding was," Barry admitted. "I seriously cannot wait to marry you, Juliet."
Juliet smiled at him, her face feeling warm. "I can't wait to marry you either." She leaned forwards and kissed him for a moment before pulling away. "I wonder if Earth-Two Juliet and Earth-Two Barry are doing okay. They're probably not in a club right now."
Suddenly, there came the sound of wind whooshing and a flash of yellow lightning — something that only happened when Barry ran, but since Barry was here, it couldn't be him. Juliet's eyebrows knit in concern as people got knocked over from the speedster, sending the club into a whirlwind of chaos.
"It was the Flash!" a girl exclaimed.
"My wallet's gone," a guy added.
Caitlin walked up to their table. "Someone took my purse."
"Go," Juliet urged.
Barry nodded once to her before speeding off. Juliet moved her hair out of her face from the wind, staring out at the door. Who was that, and where did they come from?
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THE CLUB WAS still a disaster when Juliet showed up to it the next morning. As an official crime scene, CSI's were needed, even though Juliet doubted her and Barry would find anything. Whoever this speedster was, all they apparently wanted was destruction. She absentmindedly shifted the end of her French braid off of her shoulder, walking inside to meet up with Joe.
"Hey," Joe announced. "What happened last night? I know you didn't rob these people."
"No, I was bored," Barry responded sarcastically. "Thought I'd have some fun."
"Well, look, whoever did this, they got everyone within a ten-block radius in under six minutes. You couldn't catch them?"
"No, this speedster's faster than me, I guess."
"Unbelievable," Joe voiced before looking to Iris, who was here for CCPN. "Hey, babe."
"Hey, so I spoke to that girl over there," Iris revealed. "She snapped a photo of the red blur. Look familiar?"
She held up her phone. Juliet reached out and took it, staring at it intently with Barry peering over her shoulder. It was basically just a figure in a red suit surrounded by yellow lightning.
"Well, that's not good," Juliet let out, looking up at Barry. "This picture and the one Iris took of you last year are literally indistinguishable." Juliet handed Iris' phone to Joe. "Everybody's going to think it was you."
"Don't worry, we'll figure it out," Iris reassured him. "We always do."
Joe handed Iris her phone back, which was buzzing. "Hey."
"Oh, it's work. I've got to go. Keep me posted, okay?"
"Joe, I don't want people thinking the Flash is a petty thief," Barry insisted.
"Well, we need to get to work squashing those rumors before they spread," Joe replied.
Juliet sighed. "Definitely easier said than done."
After evaluating the crime scene, where — surprise, surprise, Juliet found absolutely nothing — her and Barry went back to S.T.A.R. Labs to discuss with Cisco and Caitlin. Her hand was tightly interlocked with Barry's as they walked down the hallway with Cisco.
"I mean, where did this speedster even come from?" Barry complained.
"I don't know, man," Cisco voiced. "All I know is that blur made sixty smackeroos off of me. Ridiculous."
"Maybe it's another one of Zoom's henchmen somehow?"
"The breaches are closed."
"The only other way to become a speedster is from a Particle Accelerator explosion," Barry said.
"Okay, but then why only make yourself known now?" Cisco inquired. "You see what I'm saying? We'd have had to seen them in action before."
"I'm not saying it makes sense, I'm just saying that's the only other way to become a speedster."
"Actually, there's another way," Caitlin admitted.
Juliet tilted her head at her. "What do you mean?"
"I'll show you."
Caitlin brought them into the room adjacent to the medbay, where a lot of the medicine they used were locked up. She opened up a locker and grabbed a test-tube holder. In one of the circles was one tube full of a red liquid.
"It's called Velocity-Nine," Caitlin explained.
"Ooh, that's a sexy ass name," Cisco voiced. "What is it?"
"It's a speed drug. Jay took it when you were on Earth-Two to save the city from a Metahuman."
"What?" Barry responded. "How could you not tell me this?"
"I promised Jay I wouldn't," Caitlin insisted.
"Jay? What do you — why?"
"Because Jay knew how dangerous this drug is," Harry answered. "I should know, Barry. Snow and I worked on it together."
Barry let out a deep breath. "Guys, I have been busting my butt out there, pushing myself to the limit, trying to get better, trying to be faster, and you're telling me that there's been something this whole time that could've helped me? This could've helped J and I take down Zoom. It could've helped me save Earth-Two Joe, save Jay."
"Jay was sick," Caitlin cut in, and Juliet looked over at her, her heart sinking into her stomach. "The drug that he took to regain his speed was also causing cellular degeneration. It was killing him. I tried to help, I tried to find a cure, but in all my experiments, the effects were just temporary. The V-Nine is deadly."
"You could've told us, Cait," Juliet told her softly. "We're a team, we're not supposed to keep secrets."
Cisco placed a hand on her shoulder. "Caitlin."
However, he suddenly gasped. Juliet turned her attention to Cisco, whose eyes were wide and he looked shaken up.
"Are you okay?" Caitlin asked.
"Did you vibe?" Harry added.
"Uh . . ." Cisco trailed off.
Suddenly, the alert sounded throughout the cortex. Juliet immediately straightened up, now on high alert.
"Metahuman." Cisco raced over to the computer. "Yeah, social media app for the win. Bad Flash is back."
Juliet teleported into her suit before teleporting out of S.T.A.R. Labs. She knew that dealing with speedsters weren't really her thing, considering they were had to concentrate on when they were going so fast and she couldn't run like that, but she could at least try to do something. She stopped on the sidewalk, watching as the speedster broke into the cars parked on the street and made all the pedestrians fall.
"He's coming up on Fifth and Everett," Cisco announced. "Barry, you can use the alley to cut him off."
Juliet went there, materializing back into her normal self. She watched as Barry came one way and the other speedster come the other way. There was a collision, but instead of the other speedster, like Juliet expected, Barry flew up into the air and crashed onto a taxi before slamming onto the ground.
Her eyes widened, but then her body left the ground. Juliet felt herself fly before she slammed onto the ground on her back. She groaned in pain, the world around her turning red for a second. Juliet rolled her head over, only for shock to slightly wake her up.
A girl, wearing a red suit and a red mask with her hair braised back into a bun was standing there. Yellow lightning surrounded her figure before she ran off.
Juliet let her head fall back down on the concrete. "Fuck."
She started off by touching her back so it could heal itself before pushing herself up a little. Juliet teleported both her and Barry back to S.T.A.R. Labs, and they changed into their regular clothes before Barry got whisked off to the medbay by Caitlin. Barry sat at the end of the bed with Juliet next to him, her legs in his lap as Caitlin cleaned up the cuts on his face. The two explained what they saw to everyone, which now included Joe.
Cisco laughed a little. "A lady speedster. It only took us two years, but we finally got one. A lady speedster. Hey, here's a question for you, purely scientific, was she good-looking?"
Barry stared at him. "I don't know why you think I would answer that when my girlfriend is right next to me, but, you know, I was a little busy getting my ass handed to me, so I didn't really notice."
Juliet shrugged. "I noticed. She was hot."
Cisco pointed to her. "See? Thank you, JJ. She understands science."
"I'll get her number for you the next time she sends me flying. Don't worry, I got you."
"But the question remains, who is she?" Joe questioned.
Barry tapped Juliet's hip, and she swung her legs off of him so he could stand up, only for him to grab onto her hand and drag her with him into the cortex. "I have no idea."
"We could run her through the facial recognition," Harry suggested.
"She was wearing a mask, though," Juliet said.
"What was her suit like?" Cisco inquired.
"Hey," Caitlin scolded.
"Hey, it's a valid question."
"It is, actually," Harry agreed. "How was her suit constructed?"
"It was good," Barry replied. "It was very good. It was like mine and J's. It was made by somebody who understands the needs of a speedster."
"So that would be someone with access to tech and a lab," Joe stated.
Caitlin's eyes widened. "Oh, no. I'm having a very bad thought." She shrugged off her lab coat and walked over to the computer, pulling up a picture of a girl. "When I designed V-Nine, I was having trouble re-formatting the extracellular matrix, so I called a colleague of mine at Mercury Labs for some assistance, Eliza Harmon."
Juliet raised an eyebrow. "So she knows how to make V-Nine?"
"No, I followed the protocols of information compartmentalization. I only gave her three of the eight components necessary for V-Nine's structure."
"Okay, so she didn't have the full recipe," Barry said.
"Unless she reverse engineered her own V-Nine," Harry suggested.
"Eliza's a genius, but that's way out of character for her," Caitlin protested.
"Well, it's worth taking a look," Joe insisted.
"I'll go see her."
"Hey, I'm coming too."
Barry sighed. "Great. I'm gonna go train." He glanced down at his girlfriend. "I'll see you later."
He kissed her quickly before walking off. Juliet stared at him go for a moment. She wondered why he was acting so weird, but when she glanced over, she saw that the Velocity-Nine was missing from from the test tube holder. Juliet's eyes narrowed.
And, well, Juliet was going to be damned if she let him take that.
〖 ϟ 〗
okay why did like nothing happen this chapter. next one is more interesting I PROMISE