MONSTROUS.
002. | ❛ physics. ❜
"Wow, someone just blew up New York. During World War II." Crystal said looking down at the stats.
"Think we can all guess who that someone is." Sara singsonged the sentence with all of them knowing who the enemy was.
"Nazis. I hate Nazis." Mick spoke in his short sentences once again.
"Aided by some sort of time traveling ally, obviously."
"Wait, does that mean the Allied forces lost the war?"
"In which case, why aren't we speaking German right now?" Jax asked
"Because we're in the temporal zone." Ray answered as if it was obvious as to why they weren't speaking a foreign language.
"And because it takes time for the consequences of an aberration... even one as cataclysmic as this one, to ripple throughout time."
"So how much time do we have to stop it?" Crystal looked to Rip who seemed to hold all the answers.
"Isn't traveling to that particular time precisely what Rex Tyler told us not to do?"
"Well, what's the alternative? We let New York blow up? It's not like there are Time Masters left to stop it." Sara persisted trying to sway Rip to let them save New York.
"Miss Lance is right, we are history's last line of defense."
"I like the sound of that."
"I'd rather die than speak German."
Rip regained his thoughts before turning to them in despair, "Best case scenario, let's assume that Mr. Tyler is wrong and we all end up not dying in 1942. What if, in endeavoring to save New York, we make things worse?"
"What could be worse than a genocidal fascist nuclear-armed super power?" Martin questioned leading Crystal to pat her hand on Rip's shoulder.
"Relax, Captain. We got this." She walked away to the place where she would seek comfort in on occasions like missions. The library was like a sanctuary for Crystal, it was the only place where she wasn't reminded of Leonard in the slightest. But it still didn't stop her from hiding some of his belongings in the cabinets, somewhere no one could find them.
"Gideon, can you pull up the video?" Crystal asked facing away from the monitor while Gideon pulled it up. She couldn't bring herself to look at the still of the video or even play it, knowing at she would break at the first word or even looking at his clear blue eyes for the first time in months.
"Do you want to press play, Ms.Pierce?"
"No, Gideon. I thought I told you to call me Mrs. Snart."
"My apologies." Her voice disappeared as Crystal still faced away from the video, almost bringing herself to tears over something she hasn't seen yet. She took a deep breath before daring herself to turn around, and be face to face with her lost love. Almost in an instant she started feeling her throat close up, her eyes starting to water only preparing to hit the play button but footsteps were heard approaching causing Crystal to swipe left to get rid of the video.
"Hope I'm not interrupting." Ray asked as Crystal turned away and wiped the small tears that still loomed on her face.
"No, just reading up on 1942."
"You've been spending a lot of time down here lately, alone." Ray stated speaking to Crystal who turned around.
"Am I not allowed in the library?" Crystal asked feeling like she was being questioned by a police officer.
"Ah, you just never struck me as a book worm. I'm just making sure that you're not holding onto anything. I-I know a thing or two about grief, so if you ever want to talk about Leonard..."
"Thanks for caring Ray, but I have it under control. But either way I know where to find you." Crystal patted his shoulder with a reassuring smile before heading out of the library getting ready to suit up for their next mission.
_
"So how do we find Einstein in a city of 7 million people?" The team walked around a park which lead straight to Columbia University, once again Crystal was in a dress while the men dressed in suits with hats atop their head.
"Well, we just look for the physicist with the crazy white hair. I mean the other one." Ray joked to Crystal, who grinned lightly at the joke but paying attention to the task at hand.
"According to Gideon, there's a cocktail party at Columbia this evening."
"Cocktail party? Means booze. Where is it?"
"At Columbia, I just... Why does no one ever listen to me?" Rip said leading the group to the university while Sara ventured in another direction with Ray in pursuit of her with Crystal getting his attention
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Follow Sara, in case she needs backup." He showed his Atom suit while Crystal sighed letting him go after Sara while she attended the physics party with the men.
Once inside Columbia, it was quite magical like people say but being surrounded by smart people bugged her to say the least. Crystal as well as Mick grabbed a glass of champagne and started drinking to their hearts desire.
"Never been to a nerd party before." Nick said while Martin tried to educate him.
"You mean a physics symposium."
"Nerd party." Crystal said clicking her glass with Mick's while keeping a look out for Einstein.
"Keep your eyes open. We're sure to be in the company of German spies."
"Th-th-that's him. The greatest mind the world has ever known." Martin said making Crystal turn around and watch Albert Einstein talking to two woman and going down and touching their butts to which the lady slapped away.
Einstein merely laughed before uttering a pick up line, "I am merely demonstrating Newton's third law. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."
"I like him. He's a pig." Mick laughed before Rip made eyes with Crystal and the rest of the group.
"I just found our spies." He gestured back to the men wearing uniforms with patches.
"Them?"
"Notice their uniforms. The stitching on the lapels, it's exquisite."
"You mean to say fake." Crystal reaffirmed with a simple nod from Rip as they all continued to drink before moving on with their plan. They saw the soldiers going in and pulling out their guns, and heading forward giving them the signal to go in and kidnap Einstein.
"The extraction team is on the move." Rip whispered as Martin, Mick, and Crystal went to go talk to Einstein.
Martin pushed past them, "Let me talk, I speak physicist."
Approaching Albert Einstein interrupting his talk with the ladies with Martin's diversion, "Oh, Herr Professor, I'm so sorry to interrupt.l
"Who are you?" Albert asked with two ladies wrapped around him.
"My colleagues and I were just having a rather spirited debate about your theory of relativity. Perhaps you can help us settle it." As soon as Martin started talking physics the woman got bored and left his side in a disgusted matter.
"I was this close to getting them both to come back to my room." Albert responded with a little spark in his eyes.
"Well, what about your wife?"
"The one who died or the one who divorced me 30 years ago?"
"Come on, it's time to go." Crystal said hurrying the talking along with Mick grabbing the other end of his arm.
"What do you two think you're doing?" Einstein asked with Crystal giving a smile to the people around them to keep the normality while Martin explained.
"We have to get you out of here, your life is in danger."
"This is why I never travel without my security detail." Einstein grew weary and started yelling desperately for help. "Help! I'm being kidnapped!"
The police started shooting but not at them but at the spies that were shooting but Rip was faster than them taking them out one by one, as the others escaped with Einstein.
"We might not look like it, but we're the good guys."
"Why should I believe that you are really a physicist?"
Martin clocked Einstein leaving him unconscious as they led him out, "Because for every action... there's an equal and opposite reaction."
_
"So, while we were busy safeguarding Professor Einstein..." Crystal let it going for Sara to add on.
"The Nazis were busy kidnapping his ex."
"Her name is Mileva Maric, she's a fellow nuclear physicist." Martin informed them with Rip guessing the rest.
"Who, let me guess, had no one guarding her."
"Yes, Einstein's collaborations with Ms. Maric were a closely guarded secret between the two of them."
"A secret that the Germans apparently knew, so unless we can determine where they're keeping her while she manufactures their bomb..." Rip tried piecing the puzzle together but Ray already knew the respond to it.
"If I had to guess, I'd say she's with Damien Darhk's uranium."
"Damien Darhk?"
"As in... The man who murdered your sister." Crystal looked over to Sara having heard the name come out of Sara's name once or twice when they talked.
"How is Damien Darhk even alive in 1942?" Martin asked which is the exact way that Sara was brought back.
"Thanks to the Lazarus Pit, he hardly ages. Sara's kind of an expert on Damien Darhk." Ray kept jabbing at Sara, which Crystal nudged him telling him to stop.
"Drop it, Ray." Sara warned him, and if they all knew better they wouldn't rattle the cage.
"I'm sorry, but while you were all saving Einstein, Sara was off on her own secret side mission to kill Laurel's killer in the past."
"And I suppose you never thought about saving your fiancée?"
"Stop it you two, you aren't going to get anywhere with this bickering." Crystal said but it was like she was invisible to both as they kept jabbing at each other.
"Yeah, of course I did, but I never did it, because it's against the rules."
"What rules? We're not Time Masters, there are no rules."
"Well, if there were, there'd certainly be one about lying to your team." Crystal hit Ray again to stop him from digging himself a hole even further.
"Listen to yourself. Look, we get it, you're perfect. Always the Boy Scout, aren't you, Raymond?"
"Yeah, well, I could say the same thing about you being an assassin." Crystal kept distancing the space between Ray and Sara by pulling him further away but still didn't stop the insults.
"Stop it Ray, you're digging yourself a bigger hole. Please stop your bickering because you two are going to say something you don't mean. Insults aren't going to help us save New York."
"Well, if we're being honest, then let me get something off of my chest."
"Let's all just take a deep breath, shall we?" Rip tried breaking up the tension.
"You think that you're such a big hero, Ray? Without that fancy suit you're nothing but a self-righteous rich guy."
"Maybe you're right... but without my suit there's no way of finding Einstein's ex-wife, or Damien Darhk for that matter."
"Sorry, what are you saying?" Martin asked
"That anyone who spends a lot of time around uranium..."
"In this case Damien Darhk..."
"Picks up trace amounts of radiation, which my suit can track. And lead us straight to the Nazis' nuclear bomb."