***
After my talk with Tigress I told the team everything she told me, but everything she told me still didn't help us solve our problem with Zoom.
"Do you think you can get anything else out of her?" Caitlin suddenly asked as we drank our usual morning coffee together.
"She hates Zoom that much was obvious." I replied, still thinking about everything she told me and a part of me couldn't help but remember what Dr. Wells told me about my future.
"Everyone hates Zoom. Especially after what happened." She muttered referring to what he did so Barry. Leaning forward on the counter with her coffee cup still in hand, she had an almost desperate look in her eyes. "Maybe it wouldn't hurt to ask her again. I mean she did tell you something."
"I don't think so." I told her honestly. "We're lucky she even told us what she did, I mean Zoom has something against her. Whatever it is...it has to be important for her not wanting to help us defeat Zoom."
"It's just for one I want us to be one step ahead of our villain not a hundred steps behind. Because then people get hurt."
I sighed knowing that she was thinking about Ronnie and Eddie. "How about we head over to S.T.A.R. Labs now?" I suggested as I stood up walking over to the sink to wash my coffee cup. "Who knows maybe today we'll actually get a break and nothing crazy will happen."
Caitlin rolled her eyes as she pulled on her coat. "Come on Diane when are we ever that lucky?"
***
Caitlin and I walked into the lab to find Wells studying Barry as he trained on the treadmill. The three of us stood there trying to figure out how to help Barry get faster. Caitlin kept a steady eye on his vitals and smiled as Barry hit his usual speed. "He just hit 1,375."
"What's the fastest Barry's run?" Wells asked us never taking his eyes of of Barry.
"Little over Mach two, when he ran back in time." I replied as we continued to observe Barry through the glass.
"That's not good." Wells muttered in disapproval before he turned on the mic. "That's good, Barry." He announce before moving his hand from the button and turning towards us. "We have our work cut out for us."
Barry walked out of the treadmill room catching his breath as he walked over to us. "I'm not getting faster, am I?"
"Well..." Caitlin and I began at the same time not really knowing what to say.
"No, you're not." Wells bluntly replied.
"All right, well, let's fix this, right?" Barry asked as if was really that simple. "I mean, I can't beat Zoom at this speed. It felt like I was standing still next to him."
"That's because you practically were." Wells told him. "Zoom is at least three, four times faster than you at this point."
"How is he so much faster than Barry is and Jay was?" Caitlin asked the question that we have all been asking ourselves.
"Physiology, form, strength, could be a number of things Attitude, diet..."
"Okay, all right, well, there's got to be something we can do about it, so let's just figure it out - fast, okay?" Barry ordered before his phone vibrated. He looked down at his phone in annoyance before looking back at us. "All right, I got to go."
Barry left the room leaving us with a very displeased Harry who was clearly extremely eager to have Zoom out of the picture. "So how are we going to help Barry?" Caitlin asked. "I'm out of ideas, and we've tried everything you've suggested?"
"Well, not everything." Wells muttered.
"What are you suggesting?" I asked as I crossed my arms over my chest.
"Crock I have a feeling that you won't be completely on board with this idea." He replied as we walked back into the Cortex.
"So you're telling me its a horrible idea." I simply concluded.
"No. It's my idea so its clearly not horrible." Wells replied in annoyance. "I'm saying my idea is something that you might nor necessarily agree with."
"Well I have to say that your argument isn't very comforting. Considering that your plan to get Zoom ended so horribly."
"Crock are you ever going to get over that?" He snapped at me. "Allen is fine."
"Let's change the subject and you tell us about this plan of yours?" Caitlin quickly suggested wanting to ease some of the tension.
***
"I can't believe you're The Flash." Kendra said in disbelief as she finally tore her eyes away from the Flash suit that was on display. "And that you work with The Flash."
Cisco chuckled as he looked over at Barry nervously, who was still slightly irritated at the fact that Cisco accidentally told her in the first place. "Yeah, let's keep that on the DL."
"This is the same knife that was used to kill the men at the docks." Barry informed as he gestured to the row of blades on the table. "Residue is a perfect match."
"So it is the same guy." Joe concluded as he took a closer look at the collection of blades in front of him.
"Definitely. But the thing is, these blades are old, centuries old."
"Do you have any idea why this guy would be after you?" Caitlin slowly asked Kendra.
"No, I've never seen him before in my life." Kendra assured us and it was clear that she knew as much about this man as we did.
"Well, he was certainly acting like he knew you. He kept calling her Priestess Chay-Ara." Cisco informed us.
"That's Coptic." Wells immediately recognized.
"You mean Egyptian?" I said.
"That's right. You know that language?" Wells asked clearly surprised, but the only reason that I did know multiple languages was because of the League.
"A little." I replied before turning my attention back to Kendra.
"Well, I grew up in Wisconsin, and I've never even left the States." Kendra continued to explain confused about this whole situation.
"This guy, he's clearly incredibly dangerous, so I need you to at least let us try to protect you."
"I can put a detail on her." Joe stated but Cisco immediately shook his head in disapproval.
"You didn't see this guy, Joe." Cisco stated earning an irritated look from Joe. "No offense, but I don't think a cop is going to be able to protect her."
"No, but we do have a few friends who could lend a hand." Barry said as he looked over at me. "But we're going to need to leave Central City."
"And go where?" Kendra asked as sh crossed her arms over her chest nervously.
"Barry can I talk to you?" I asked and he simply nodded as we walked out into the hallways with a very curious Cisco trailing behind us. "You really want to go to Star City?"
"Yeah, I mean come on, we don't need Team Arrow's help." Cisco added.
"Yeah, I think we do, man." Barry replied.
"Man, you've fought meta-humans with abilities a lot worse than knife-throwing."
"I don't think this guy's a meta-human." Barry stated. "There's something different about him, something, ah, mystical."
"Mystical, really?"Cisco asked in disbelief.
"We stop meta-humans because we're scientists. We can figure out what their weaknesses are, but we don't have any experience when it comes to guys like this, with magic." Barry said explaining his reasoning for wanting us all to go to Star City. "They do."
"Mm, this wouldn't have anything to do with Zoom, would it?" Cisco asked accusingly.
"No. I'm just trying to keep Kendra safe. This is the best way to do that."
"If you think this is the best thing to do then okay we're all with you." I assured Barry.
"But how do we even know Oliver and them even have time to help us?" Cisco asked, and I had to agree Oliver definitely had his hands full with Damien Darhk.
"How busy can they be?" He replied with a simple shrug.
"Actually really busy." I told him. "They're kind of dealing with a mystical being of their own."
***
"Zoom did what?!" Felicity exclaimed as she stood up from her chair. "Why didn't you tell me? Is he okay? Is he permanently damaged?"
"Permanently damaged?" I repeated, wondering what she even meant. "No, Felicity he's fine."
"Well he's still going to get a piece of my mind the second he steps a foot in here." She continued in irritation, and at that second the elevator doors opened as Barry and the rest of Team Flash stepped out. Felicity looked over at me sending me a quick smile as she walked over to them. "Barry, it's so good to see you."
"Felicity. Good to see you." Barry replied as Felicity embraced him before pulling away and slapping his shoulder.
"How come you didn't tell me Zoom broke your back?" She exclaimed before pulling him back into a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay."
"So this is what it's like dating her?" Barry asked Oliver once she pulled away.
"More bruises from her than from Deathstroke." Oliver replied as he placed one arm around my shoulder. "But it's not like you guys are doing much better with Diane."
"Very funny." I said as pulled away from him.
"Diane!" Thea exclaimed as she gave me a tight hug. "I've missed you."
"I've missed you too Thea." I replied as I turned over to Dig. "And you."
Dig walked over as he also pulled me into a tight hug before letting go. "You really need to visit more often kid."
"I will, I promise." I assured him.
Kendra walked to the center of the hideout as she looked around in complete awe. "Okay, S.T.A.R. Labs is impressive, but this is..."
"This is completely wrong!" Cisco suddenly exclaimed in horror as he walked over to the row of computers. "Did you guys even look at the specs I sent over? This is a tragedy. I'm mourning for the death of engineering." He continued as he looked over at Felicity accusingly. "Copper wiring to handle the processing speed from the Palmer Satellite, or else your system is gonna overload."
"Yeah, but that hasn't happened. I mean, it hasn't happened since last week. I mean, it didn't It happened yesterday." Felicity began to ramble nervously before turning over to Kendra. "Hi. I'm Felicity."
"I'm Kendra Saunders. I'm Cisco's...." She trailed of as she looked over at Cisco, their relationship status not clear to either of them.
"She's, uh, my, uh, new, beautiful friend who kisses me occasionally." Cisco replied awkwardly causing everyone to hold in their laugh.
"Right. Um, I'm Thea." Thea greeted. "This is John Diggle and my brother..."
"Oliver Queen. Yeah, I know." Kendra said with a bright smile as she looked over at Oliver.
"Hi." He replied slowly.
"Wow. Okay, first I meet The Flash and now the Green Arrow." Kendra chuckled with excitement as she took another look at the room around her. "Do you have any other surprises for me?"
"Please no more surprises." Cisco pleaded.
"Barry said that you need our help. Somebody very dangerous is after you." Oliver said not wasting any time on solving our current issue.
"Yeah, and I have no idea why." Kendra replied slowly.
"What does this guy even look like?" Thea asked.
"Hold on." Barry said as he picked up a pencil and notepad. He then used his superspeed to draw us a full portrait of the man. "Okay, this is him."
"Yeah, see, that's something I would never think of." Dig mumbled still not completely over the fact that there were people with abilities like Barry's.
"Hey, kind of rocking that Dothraki look, hot." Felicity muttered as she took the sketch away from Barry and began to walk towards a computer. "Let's see if facial recognition can find a match."
We all followed after her as she worked rapidly before pulling up an image of him. "That's him." Kendra immediately recognized.
"Yeah, strange. This picture's from 1975."
"Which would make him about 80 years old by now." Barry estimated, this situation only becoming more complicated. I took a closer look at the image, a part of me thinking that he seemed familiar but I couldn't actually sat from where.
"Okay, what else can you tell us?" Oliver asked Kendra beginning his interrogation.
"He said we've known each other for ages, but I've never met the man before." Kendra explained.
"There has to be some kind of connection."
"Not one I can think of. I just moved to Central City six months ago."
"Why'd you move there?" Oliver continued to ask.
"I just felt drawn to the city, I guess."
"Kendra, there is a reason this guy's after you." Oliver insisted. "Think."
"Look, man, we just came out here to hide out for a bit until we figure things out, so you can just take it down?" Cisco said clearly not liking the way that Oliver was talking to Kendra.
"You came here because you need our help. This is what my help looks like."
"Oliver, I just saved you guys from whatever the hell Flock of Seagulls was about to do." Barry reminded Oliver also becoming irritated with his attitude. "The least you can do is..."
"Barry, none of us have superpowers. You brought Kendra into our world without knowing who she is or what this dude that is after her is looking for." Oliver said his voice rising with every word. I saw as Barry tensed up at Oliver's reaction and I placed my hand on his arm silently telling him not to make the situation any worse than it already was. "You made all of us unsafe. So maybe you ask the questions."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We're all friends here, right?" Felicity intercepted as he placed her hands in Oliver's shoulders calming him down.
"Mm-hmm." Oliver agreed with a slight nod, but it was clear he was holding back his anger.
"Why don't we go back to our place and have some drinks, and we can talk?" She suggested as she looked at the rest of us for confirmation. "Cool."
***