Parker slouched in her computer chair until Barry returned. "Anything juicy?" she wondered dryly when he slid into the Cortex in a frantic rage.
"He tried to tell me I was just like him," exhaled Barry. His brow was furrowed profusely. Shaking his head, he fell into a seat next to Parker, staring at his knees in utter confusion.
"I see it," said Parker, squinting at him.
Barry's head snapped to her. "What?"
"Same background, same desire to be the fastest, blah, blah..."
"T-That's almost exactly what he said, Park, how did you...?" muttered Barry, then he stopped, "My speaker was on, wasn't it?"
"You know me," agreed Parker.
"Barry," said Iris softly, "you two are the farthest from similar as two people could get."
His mind wasn't stuck on building his confidence again. He was settled on ending the feud and the fascination with Hunter Zoloman once and for all. "We can't let Zoom destroy another building. We need to take him down now," he said.
"And how do you propose we do that, with an army of meta-human's laying waste to Central City? We couldn't stop Zoom on my Earth. What makes us different?" interrogated Harry.
"We... We have a Parker," suggested Parker.
"A pregnant Parker," said Harry negatively.
"Which means she's more generous than usual," offered Cisco.
Parker winced. "Am I, though?"
"We're a team. We start with the meta-human's, they're his armor. We take them down first, then Zoom's more vulnerable," said Barry strategically.
"Barry, we don't even know how many of his minion's there are," doubted Caitlin.
"Oh, Minions. One thing I refuse to let Mel witness," interrupted Parker.
"Preach," said Cisco with a high-five.
Iris raised her brow at them. "There could be hundreds, a thousand," she said to Barry.
"And all of them, they're all working with different powers," added Cisco.
"It could take weeks to track them all down," said Joe again.
"Remember when we discussed that positivism was a foreign thing on Earth-2? Yes, I believe we're Earth-2 all of a sudden," said Parker, "come on, guys. Where's my normally energetic and encouraging team? We don't have weeks. So, I need you all to think with me."
Cisco looked at Harry. "Told you she's more generous."
"What we need to do is come up with a way to stop them all at once," said Barry.
"Again: how?" asked Harry.
"Cisco," said Barry, "your goggles, your camera, they didn't work on Earth-2, right?"
"Yeah, it was a whole different frequency," he said.
"And the way you took down the Time Wraith's, that was based on frequency. Hartley's entire shtick..."
Cisco stood, chin tilted in the air with excitement. "I think I'm smelling what you're stepping in."
"Yeah," agreed Harry.
"Basically, we create some vibrational tech that can take down the Earth-2 meta's," suggested Cisco.
"Basically," said Barry, grinning.
"I like it," said Harry.
"Me, too," said Cisco.
"I'll help," offered Caitlin.
"I'll let you know if I hear anything from CCPN," said Iris.
"And I'll send my encouragements from this lovely chair," said Parker.
"You guys!" shouted Barry before everyone tried to leave. He spent seconds lingering his gaze on each member of their wonderful team. "We got this."
"Barr, can I talk to you for a second?" asked Joe once the team dispersed.
"Parker?" asked Barry.
She raised her hands. "I'm gone."
Parker left the Cortex. She ventured into what used to serve as the break room. She took a seat at the tiny table. Her gaze landed on the coffee machine. She squinted it at it, knowing it wasn't her money that purchased it. Coffee had never touched Parker's lips.
She looked between the machine and her stomach. She wondered if coffee was dangerous to the child within her stomach. The single danger she knew of was alcohol. Though, she had found a research that was exploring certain points during a pregnancy when alcohol may not affect the baby. You can bet she was excitedly waiting to hear the outcome.
Parker reached for the machine. Her fingertips never came near the contraption.
"Parker!" shrieked Cisco, "Parker! Parker!"
"Goddamn," she cussed, stomping back into the Cortex, "Why does everybody call my name all the time? Why do you all come to me for stuff? What is so important than everyone needs me all of the time? Can I get thirteen minutes without somebody calling for me? I don't even need kids! I have you all to... Oh. It's just you."
"I've been searching for you for the last twenty minutes," panted Cisco.
"Why didn't you just call on the intercom?"
"Caitlin was sleeping."
"What's wrong, then?"
Cisco inhaled a massive deep breath. "So, our deceased pal Laurel Lance is, as you know, deceased, right? Well, as much as we wish her to rest in peace, her doppelganger is doing the exact opposite. Remember Mercury Labs? Yup, it collapsed tonight because of Laurel Lance's doppelganger. But she told him that she goes by Black Siren, which is not a terrible name, but I do wish she would let me brainstorm some new--"
"I really don't need kids," sighed Parker.
"Why's that?"
"You give me enough of a headache as is."
"Thank you," he said honorably. He checked his watch. "Barry should be back by now. Let's go see him."
When the two arrived, Parker screeched. She saw Caitlin hovering over Barry, where dried blood was being carefully cleaned from his ears. She collapsed on his lap and took his face in her hands, frowning immensely.
"What?!" he shouted at her.
"Why do so many villains we go against use sound as a weapon?" winced Caitlin.
"What?!" he shouted again.
"Nothing. You're gonna be fine," pronounced Caitlin generously.
"So Wally just drove on up into the thick of it?" wondered Joe.
Barry nodded.
"Must have been some conversation you two had, seeing as though he did literally the opposite of what we wanted."
Barry chuckled at his wife. "This I can hear."
"It's not funny," said Joe seriously.
"I'm sorry."
"I'm not in a laughing mood."
"Look, Joe, I tried. I told you I would try, right? Wally's a determined kid," admitted Barry.
"Yeah, determined to get himself killed."
"Or determined to help people, and be glad, or I would not be standing here right now."
"Well, he was lucky tonight. I don't want to see the day when he isn't."
"Hey," said Barry softly, applying his hand to his father's shoulder, "we've got more than luck on our side, Joe."
Parker, Caitlin, Iris, and Cisco simultaneously rolled their eyes. Three of the four looked to each other, sharing a strong feeling it was time to leave before it came time for Barry to recite the speech from Braveheart to assure his father.
"Hey, you guys want to come watch me shock the living crap out of Harry?" offered Cisco.
"Oh, dear I would love to," said Caitlin.
"What an offer," agreed Parker.
"I'll meet you guys down there," said Iris.
"Coming," said Joe hurriedly.
The four raced into the basement to begin the experiment.
Harry took a seat in a chair set in the center of the room. Cisco applied glowing green sensors to Harry's temples. He placed his hands on the chair arms, anticipating the pain from the experience.
"Ready?" asked Cisco. He didn't wait for an answer.
"Ow," flinched Harry at the first press of the button.
"Sorry," said Cisco, hiding behind Harry to express his joyous smile.
"Ow."
"There we go," laughed Cisco.
"Are you kidding me with this?" snapped Harry.
"Hey, at least it works," said Cisco.
"Tremendous," said Harry sarcastically.
Barry slid past the experiment to approach his wife. He kissed her lovingly, to which she kept her eyes open for, entirely confused on why he talked to her. He opened his eyes and smiled. "How's my baby?"
"There it is," she sighed.
"I was talking to you," said Barry.
"In that case, I'm dandy, babe."
"What is this exactly?" he wondered.
"It's just a small source of joy, but more importantly, it's how we're going to stop zoom's army," explained Cisco.
"By giving them all electroshock therapy?" asked Joe.
"By giving them all dimensional shock therapy," corrected Cisco.
"This is where I play stupid and you explain science," admitted Joe.
"Okay. Fair enough. So, all matter vibrates at its own unique frequency, right? You disrupt that frequency, you disrupt that matter," said Cisco.
"Like how an opera singer shatters glass with her voice," said Iris.
"Very good. You get a sticker," said Parker sarcastically.
Iris took a breath. "You were nice to me for two days."
"Who said sticker's aren't nice? Right, Harry?"
"I saw nothing wrong with it."
"So," continued Cisco pointedly, "we found out all Earth-2 people vibrate at their own, more erratic frequency."
"Higher frequency," corrected Harry.
"Different frequency," continued Cisco.
"Higher," argued Harry.
"Higher frequency than we do."
"Right," said Joe.
"I ran this all past Hartley and he postulated that we could create some soft of dimension tuning fork-- voila --" introduced Cisco.
"Okay, you didn't do it yourself," snapped Harry, pushing the sensors from his temples angrily.
"Just let me have this one, okay?" begged Cisco.
Harry clenched his jaw. "Have it, have it," he muttered.
"Thank you! So, if you run around the city fast enough to create a refracting field, the device can send out a pulse that'll bounce off of it, split apart, and collide with itself over and over," explained Cisco.
"Amplifying it to an erratic frequency on the Earth-2--"
"Higher, higher frequency," corrected Harry.
"--spectrum," finished Barry.
"And when that pulse hits anyone from Earth-2..." said Cisco.
"...It'll disrupt their nervous system," said Caitlin.
"Earth-2 meta's go night-night," agreed Cisco.
"Even Zoom?" wondered Iris.
"Even Zoom."
"Harry and Jesse are from Earth-2, how do we keep the pulse from hurting them?" asked Joe.
He cleared his throat. "Oh, Detective, I didn't know you cared."
"Yes, you did."
"Well, we designed these headphones," said Harry, introducing a pair, " to protect us from the pulse."
"Beats by Wells," said Cisco.
A beeping from the computer interrupted the conversation.
"Cisco, it's your Meta-Human Alert App," said Caitlin.
"That's the high-rise development on the west side," said Joe when he looked at where the alarm had originated.
"Hundreds of people live there," said Iris.
"Ramon, you're up, let's go. Set that pulse off right now. Allen, you need to start generating that refracting field now," ordered Harry.
Barry looked lost. "But.. Black Siren can take down this building at any point. What... All those people, Wells--"
"How many more people are going to die while we wait?" asked Harry.
Barry sighed.
"Guys, which is it?" asked Joe quickly.
Cisco's head fell into his hands. Through his hands, they heard a muffled, "I think I just got the worst idea of all time."
"Is it better than Parker suggesting Waluigi for our child's name?" wondered Barry.
"Worse."