The next day I didn't go to the restaurant for rehearsal because Jake wanted to look for the sheet music for the songs we had picked, so that settled me in the house to organize things, tidy things up, and, eventually, take a break. When all of that was done, I head over to S.T.A.R. Labs to be with Barry and the others on trying to figure something out to keep Professor Stein stable. When I walk into the Cortex, I see Jax with Barry, Professor Stein, Cisco, and Caitlin. "Jax! You came." I say pushing a piece of hair behind my ear. "I thought about what you said, and I realized that you guys were right." he says and I smile at him. I walk over to Barry and grab his hand, "You could've texted me that Jax was here. I would've come sooner." I tell him telepathically. He just looks at me and mouths a sorry on his lips and I just smile at him. "I thought S.T.A.R. Labs had to shut down." Jax says as he walks into Barry's training room. "It's under new management. "Whoa. What kind of treadmill is that?" Jax asks and I smile at him. "Cosmic." Cisco replies and I just shake my head. "Cool. So, let's get started. You got some kind of Billion-Dollar-Man technology that's gonna fix my knee?" Jax asks and I bite my lip and look down nervously.
"Actually, Jax, this isn't about fixing your knee." Barry says and I look up at Jax with a frown.
"What are you talking about?" he asks.
"When the Particle Accelerator exploded, the energy wave that collided with you is known as dark matter." Professor Stein says.
"And, it didn't just hurt your knee." Caitlin says and I nod.
"It changed the molecular structure of your body." Professor Stein says.
"Whoa, hold on, Grey. So, you're saying I'm like one of those metahumans I keep hearing about on the news?" Jax asks.
"Yes, I am. Please, call me Professor."
"We think you have potential capabilities." Barry tells him and I nod.
"What kind of capabilities?" Jax asks.
"The same as Professor Stein." I say to him.
"The ability for your body to process fission and fusion." Caitlin says.
"And you can harness excess energy and turn it into these massive nuclear blasts. And you can fly. There's also that." Cisco says and I shake my head at him.
"So you're saying you can do all this?" Jax asks Professor Stein.
"Only during times of convergence with a willing partner."
"Convergence? You and me?" he asks and Professor Stein nods.
Jax just looks at us and starts to laugh, "No. This is crazy." he says and he starts to walk away. "Jax, this is your chance to right the wrong that was done to you." Barry tells him. "Yeah. Sorry, you got the wrong guy. I don't want nothing to do with this." Jax says and I frown at him. "Wait a second. We are giving you the chance to be a superhero, and you're going to say no that quickly?" Caitlin asks him. "Yeah. Not my kind of thing." Jax says and I want to reason with him. "If the man isn't willing to participate--" Professor Stein was cutoff before he could finish his sentence. "Look, I saw your test scores, Jax. Your grades were good enough to get into college, but you didn't go. Why? Is this the type of guy you are? One setback and you fold? Well then, maybe you're not the guy for us anyway." Caitlin asks pretty harshly. "Well, then maybe I'm not." Jax snaps back. "Jax--" I couldn't get a word in before he stormed out of the Cortex. "You didn't have to be so harsh on him, Cait." I say to her and she looks at me with wide eyes. "He's passing up an opportunity of a lifetime!" Caitlin says and I just groan in annoyance at the way she's acting. "Maybe, this just wasn't meant to be." Professor Stein says and I frown at him as he walks away.
"Caitlin, what do you-- I mean, Jax could be our last chance at saving Professor Stein." Barry says to her.
"He said "no" to being a superhero. Who does that? I mean, you didn't say no when you had the chance. And neither did Tori when we found out about her powers. Cisco would you?" Caitlin asks.
"Chance to have superpowers? Sign me up." Cisco says kind of oddly.
"Look, we're asking Jax to change his entire life. To sacrifice what he does have. I mean, that's not a decision that can be made lightly." I tell her.
"It took me and Tori a long time to figure out this whole hero thing." Barry says and I nod.
"Exactly. Which is why we need someone who wants to do this." she says and she walks away.
"Where are you going?" I ask her with furrowed brows.
"To get Hewitt back. We have to try again." Caitlin says.
I groan in frustration and run a hand through my hair as I pace back and forth. "Intenta hablar con ella, y ella solo llega a ser tan terca!" I say in Spanish and Barry grabs my shoulders to make me stop. "Tori, calm down, ok?" he says and I nod knowing he was right. "Can I just stay with you at the precinct? I have a feeling that if I stay home, I might go on a rampage." I say and he nods. We speed over to the precinct and head up to Barry's lab. I was sitting at his desk on my phone with one earbud in my ear listening to music to calm me down as I go through some song choices for a performance about 6 weeks from now. I suddenly hear heels clicking down the hallway and I see Patty walk in. "Hey, Barry. Hey, Tori." Patty says and I smile at her. "Hey, Patty." I say sitting up straighter on the chair. "Barry, I wanted to ask you if you were done analyzing the evidence I gave you on the shark teeth?" Patty asks and I look over to them with a raised brow as the conversation grabbed my attention. "Shark teeth?" I ask intriguingly and Patty nods. "The other day, I had found shark teeth in a case I was doing and I thought that it could be a metahuman, so I gave it to Barry to analyze." she says and I nod.
"Sounds interesting." I say to her and I glare at Barry.
"Here's the results." Barry says handing her the manila folder and she goes through the file.
I see her expression change from a bright smile to a look of confusion. "Human DNA?" she asks in disbelief and I look over to Barry. "Yep. Definitely not a man-shark. Not even a land shark, ma'am" Barry says in an accent making me laugh and I shove him playfully.
"Well, thanks for testing it for me." Patty says and she starts to walk away.
"Yeah. What are you gonna do now?" Barry asks her.
"I don't know. Probably file it under never-gonna-happen. I have another case anyway." she says.
"Anything I can help you with?" Barry asks her.
"No. No, no, no, no. Detective said definitely not." she says a little too suspiciously.
I wondered why she was acting like that, so I carefully read her mind and see her with Joe at Mercury Labs with Dr. McGee who said that she had saw Harrison Wells rob her lab facility and Joe telling her to keep it a secret. "Bye, Tori." I hear Patty say snapping me out of my trance and I smile at her. "Bye, Patty." I say sweetly and she walks out of the lab. "That was weird." Barry says and I nod. "Um, I'm gonna go talk to Joe about something. I'll be back." I say as I walk out of the lab as well and head downstairs. I see Joe standing near the window and staring out and I walk over to him. "Tell me that you are not actually hiding the fact that Harrison Wells might be alive." I whisper to him and he looks at me with wide eyes. "How do you know that? Did Patty tell you and Barry?" he asks me worriedly. "No. Patty was acting weird when she came up to the lab while asking Barry for the results of her "man-shark" case. I read her mind and saw you and her with Dr. McGee at Mercury Labs. She had told you about Wells and you told Patty to not tell Barry. Why would you do that?" I ask him. "You know how Barry is, Tori. If he finds out about Wells, he'll want to hunt him down, and he won't stop until he finds him." Joe says and I sigh knowing that he was right. "Don't tell him anything, Tori." he says and I nod. "Hey, Joe." I hear Barry say and he wraps his arms around me. "You ok?" he asks him.
"Yeah. Just had a hell of a day. Iris' mother. She told me she was dying." Joe says and I widen my eyes at this new information. "Yeah. And I know Francine. She's telling the truth about this."
"Does Iris know?" I ask Joe.
"Not yet." he responds and I look down. "Did-- Did you need something, Bar?"
"Uh, no. Nah, I just... Patty said that you don't want me on some case that she's on with you." Barry says and I look at Joe as he looks away.
"Yeah. That's how obvious she was." I say to him telepathically.
"No. I was checking out a lead. I'll let you know." Joe says and he takes a sip of his coffee.
"Alright. Cool." Barry says and he puts his hand under my chin and makes me look at him. "Home?" he asks and I nod.
*~*~
After rehearsal, Barry picks me up and we head over to S.T.A.R. Labs to see a report on the news. "What's being described as a "spontaneous energy malfunction" erupted last night at Eikmeier Technologies. Wanted for questioning is scientist, Henry Hewitt." the woman says and Cisco stops the footage. "Hewitt's dormant abilities must have triggered when we attempted the merger." Caitlin says with a frown. "I knew something bad was gonna happen. I felt it." I say crossing my arms as I lean on the table with one of Barry's arms around me. "This could be catastrophic. If his powers are anything like mine, he requires a grounding mechanism to stabilize his volatility. Otherwise--" Cisco cuts off Professor Stein. "Yup. He's gonna pop his top. And he's got a long history of violence, according to his police record." Cisco says and I widen my eyes. "Police record?" Barry asks and we turn to Caitlin. "I didn't find a police record." Caitlin says walking over to Cisco. "Yeah, of course not. It was sealed. But guess what? Your boy hacked in and-- Hold on. Wait for it." Cisco says as he types on the keyboard. "One count battery, two counts aggravated assault, court ordered anger management therapy." he lists all the records. "He seemed like such a nice guy. He even knew your Hudson nerd song!" Caitlin says motioning to Professor Stein. Professor Stein suddenly gasps and I widen my eyes at him, "You ok?" Cisco asks getting up and rushing over to him.
"It appears Mr. Hewitt's stability isn't the only one in question. I think I need to lie down." Professor Stein says and I frown at him.
"Yeah. I'll go with you." Cisco says helping him.
"Professor Stein is getting worse. And Hewitt's like this because of me. And now Jefferson Jackson will never come back because of what I said. I just didn't believe that he has what it takes." Caitlin says.
"This isn't because you didn't believe in him." Barry says and I nod in agreement as Caitlin looks at us in confusion.
"Sometimes, great possibilities are right in front of us, and we don't see them because we chose not to." I tell her.
"I think that we need to be open to exploring something new." Barry says and I nod.
"I'll be back." Caitlin says grabbing her stuff and heading out of the Cortex.
*~*~
I was worried about Caitlin. She'd been gone for a while now and we had no idea where she was and Professor Stein was getting worse by the minute. I suddenly hear heels clicking and I dash out of the medbay to see her walk in with Jax. "Caitlin." I say and she looks at me in worry. "What's wrong?" she asks and I motion for the two to follow me inside the medbay. "Good. You're here. This thing, it ran out, like, 30 minutes ago." Cisco says to her. "His temperature is 142 degrees and rising fast." Barry says. "He's going into rapid oxidation. We need to find a coolant." Caitlin says looking at Cisco. "Yeah, I think it's too late for that." Cisco says and I bite my lip in worry. "I'll do it." I hear Jax say and I look up at him while biting my lower lip. "I'll merge with him. You said this is the chance for me to a part of something bigger than myself, to help people. That's what I want." Jax says. "You're sure?" I ask him and he looks over to me. "Once you merge, there's no going back on this." Barry says and I nod in confirmation.
"And you said I could fly, right?" Jax asks Cisco.
"Damn right." Cisco says.
"Ok. So, what do I do?" Jax asks.
"Ok. Well, here's the abridged version." Cisco says walking away and Jax and I follow him. Cisco looks at me and I nod at him, "Ok, here's the non-scientific version of this. Cisco is gonna put a device on your chest called a splicer. With it, you'll be able to merge with Professor Stein." I explain to him and he nods. "This is it." Cisco says walking back with the splicer in his hand and placing it on Jax's chest. "You're doing the right thing, Jax." I say to him with a sympathetic smile and he nods at me. I turn to see Barry and Caitlin help Professor Stein over to Jax and Cisco and I back away. "You came back, Jefferson. Thank you." Professor Stein says and I smile at him. "Well, like my coach always said, "Out of yourself and into the team." Jax says and Professor Stein smiles at him. "So, how's this work?" he asks looking at Cisco. "Ok. All you're gonna do is touch him." Cisco says and I nod. "And then what happens?" Jax asks again looking at the others. "You become Firestorm." Caitlin says and Jax nods. Caitlin leaves Professor Stein's side and Barry walks over to me and grabs my hand anxious just like me to see if this works. Jax and Professor Stein touch and they merge successfully and I smile in excitement. "It worked!" I say and we walk up to Jax. "Jax?" Caitlin asks as we walk up slowly and he turns to her. "Is Professor Stein--" she starts to ask him.
"How will I know?" he asks. "Oh, so I get Grey as my co-pilot." I smile at him and laugh a little. "So when do we get to take this for a test spin?"
The alarm beeps and Cisco dashes over to the computer. "Uh, how about now? It looks like Hewitt's recharging at Central City High School's football stadium." Cisco says and I look over to Barry. I dash over to the suit room and put my suit on. Barry then picks me up bridal style and speeds us to the football stadium. Barry puts me down on the field as he speeds two football players off the field. "Ah... Hummingbird. Where's your speedster boyfriend?" Hewitt asks me as I hear Barry tell Cisco to cut the power. Suddenly, the power goes off and I look at him. "Hewitt!" Barry yells as he appears by my side. "You need to stop! This is not who you are!" I say to him. I hear something behind me and I turn to see Jax fly in. "Stein? You chose him over me? That's who I'm supposed to be!" Hewitt yells as he glares at Jax. "I'm deserve the Firestorm Matrix!" Hewitt says shooting at Jax and he flies back, but flies to keep himself safe. Barry speeds us over to Jax and I look at him. "You ok?" I ask Jax. "I was a quarterback. I know how to take a hit." Jax replies and I smile at him then glare at Hewitt. "Hey, guys, cutting the power didn't work. It's like the more we anger him, the stronger he gets!" Barry says to Cisco and Caitlin in the coms.
"That's it. It's like one of those, uh, controlled fusion devices." Caitlin says.
"A tokamak?" Cisco asks.
"Yes, exactly! And the more powerful they become, the more unstable they become. Make him angry and he'll blow his fuse." Caitlin says and I look at Barry.
"You up for a little game of "catch me if you can"?" Barry asks Jax.
"Let's go for it." Jax says and I nod.
Barry grabs my waist and speeds me down to the field. He puts me down a few feet away from Hewitt and he tries to shoot me. I flip away as Barry runs around getting him agitated. "Hey, Hewitt! Over here, hothead!" I yell and he shoots at me again and I flip away again. Jax was next to agitate him and he shoots fire at him. "Is that all you got, Hewitt?" Barry asks and I stand next to him. "Man, no wonder you didn't make the cut if that's how you fight." Jax says and Barry and I laugh. Barry grabs me and speeds me away as Hewitt get angrier and shoots his fire out. Jax swoops in and punches Hewitt square in the jaw knocking him out, then Barry speeds us back to him. "Not bad for your first go at this." Barry says and I look at Jax and nod in agreement. "Well, I had a great coach to help me through it. Isn't that right, Grey?" Jax asks Professor Stein. "Welcome aboard, Firestorm." Barry says to him and I couldn't help but playfully nudge Jax. "We're gonna be good friends." I say to Jax and he laughs and nods in agreement.
*~*~
In the afternoon, we head over to Professor Stein's house with Jax as they were about to depart to train together. "And how is Mr. Hewitt?" Professor Stein asks as we walk down the steps. "Seems like that last burst of energy has burnt him out." Caitlin replies. "Our tokamak's gone dark." Cisco says and I roll my eyes with a smile as Barry wraps his arms around me. "Hey, we're just gonna keep him safe and sound in the Pipeline till he decides to keep quiet about all this." Barry says and I nod. "So you're gonna meet up with Clarissa?" Joe asks Professor Stein. "We're meeting in Pittsburgh in three days. "Why Pittsburgh?" Jax asks him. "A colleague of mine was monumental in helping train Ronald and me. She's graciously offered to help the two of us as well." Professor Stein explains. "Well, how is she going to help us?" Jax asks again. "Well, there were many aspects of our abilities that we never quite achieved. Hopefully now, we can fully realize that potential." Professor Stein says and then turns to Caitlin. "My dearest Dr. Snow." he says and both him and Caitlin hug. "Ronald may be lost to us, but he will never be forgotten." he says to her and I smile sympathetically and put a hand over my heart feeling touched.
Professor Stein says his goodbye to Joe and then walks up to Barry and I. "Ms. Gomez." he starts to say and I throw my arms around him, embracing him tightly and he does the same. "I'm gonna miss you and that sweet smile and personality." I say as we pull away. "I will miss you as well." he says and then he hugs Barry. "Take good care of her, Mr. Allen." he tells him and Barry nods. As Professor Stein walks over to Cisco, I look over to Jax and Caitlin seeing them hug. I walk up to them as they pull apart and Jax looks at me. "You know, even if you aren't a scientist, Tori, you sure know what you're doing." Jax tells me and I laugh. "I try my best to understand what these nerds are saying." I say and we laugh together. "It's funny. We just met and it already feels like I've known you forever." I say to him and he nods in agreement. "I know what you mean." he tells me and we hug. "Take care, Jax. I know you'll be a great superhero." I tell him. "You take care, too, Tori." he says and we pull away. "And now, I believe it's time to take this show on the road, or to the sky, if I'm to be literal." Professor Stein says and Joe gives a fake laugh that makes me and Barry laugh as he grabs my hand and we stand a few feet away from Jax and Professor Stein. "Are you ready, Jefferson?" Professor Stein asks Jax and he nods. They both merge and then take off in the sky. We say our goodbyes to Caitlin and Cisco, and I walk with Barry and Joe. "That was one hell of a leap of faith that kid took, merging with Professor Stein." Joe says and I nod. "Yeah it was." Barry says in response and I look up at the sky. "Something tells me that he's destined for greater things as Firestorm." I say and Barry wraps his arm around my waist.