based off 4.03
luck be a lady
~*~
"Barry!" Cisco yelled as he was pressed up against the wall. "Where are you?"
"I don't know!" Barry yelled back. "I lost Caitlin, there's too many of them."
"No, you can take them, just listen to me," Cisco said quickly. "You just need to do one thing. Run, Barry! Run!" Barry let out a battle cry as he moved from his hiding spot. He attempted to shoot the kids when they got him first, his vest indicating he died.
"Awe, come on," Barry said holding his arms up. "They got me." Cisco and Olive made eye contact, annoyed with Barry's sad attempt.
"You have failed this city," Cisco growled out. He went around the corner, shooting at the kids when his vest beeped. Barry pointed up to the kid on the second floor who was blowing off his gun. Olive pointed her gun at him, getting him out easily. "That's what you get, Chad. For back shots."
"Suck it, old man!" Chad yelled at them. All three leaned back slightly, gasping at his comment. Caitlin ran up, looking at all three of their vests.
"Wait, did you guys die already?" she asked knitting her eyebrows together.
"Well, Chad-"
"He just told us-" Barry stopped, shaking his head. "Come on. Come on."
"I don't know what's wrong with kids these days," Cisco said shaking his head. "Churlish." Caitlin shot at Chad again, following Barry and Cisco. Olive trailed behind Caitlin as the game ended. They hung up their vests then sat at the picnic table outside. The kids started passing by, which made Cisco start going off. "You better watch yourself, Chad. Come at me at the paintball field next time. I'll kick your little a-ah-ha-Hey! Miss McConnell, how you doing? Chad's a treasure. He really is."
"Pretzel for Caitlin," Joe said setting a pretzel in front of her. "Corn dog for Iris, two franks for Cisco, cheeseburger for Olive, and three burgers, five churros and six funnel cakes for Barry." Barry rubbed his hands together with a large smile on his face.
"Look at all this junk. Guys I'm really sorry," Cecile said sitting down next to Caitlin and Olive. "If the pipes in the house weren't making this weird, annoying sound, I would have just actually had you all over for dinner."
"Squeaky pipes at the West house, what a surprise," Barry said looking at Iris.
"Oh, you're familiar with this sound?" Cecile asked interested.
"Oh, yeah, you mean the-" Iris paused and started making a squeaking noise to imitate the pipes. "Yeah."
"It's be doing that for... eighteen years?" Barry said like it was a question.
"Every house has its personality, Iris. Ours just likes to be heard," Joe said looking at his daughter. Iris pulled out her phone as it buzzed, her eyes widening.
"Oh, my gosh. They broke up," Iris said excitedly. "The Wexler-Waclawiks broke up."
"For real?" Barry asked.
"Yes!" Iris exclaimed.
"Hell yeah!" Barry said high-fiving Iris.
"Who are the Wexler-Wa-claw-ilix and why are we happy that their love is dead?" Olive asked looking at them.
"They're a couple that were getting married at the Propizio the weekend of the second. Which means now that the venue is open," Iris said with a smile.
"That's amazing. What good luck," Caitlin said with a smile. The sudden buzz of all their phones made everyone quickly take them out.
"Oh, guys. Breach alert. We gotta go," Iris said. They all stood up, Cisco grabbing his hot dog and running to the car.
*****
Team Flash ran to the breach to see Wally standing there with the breach open and waiting. Suddenly, Harry stepped through with a backpack, and messy hair. They all stopped at his presence, expecting Jesse and not him.
"Hey, Harry, um, is Jesse not coming?" Wally asked confused. Harry scoffed, trying to stifle a laugh.
"So, um..."
"I thought Jesse and I were having date night," Wally said motioning to the bear and flowers.
"Yeah, that's what you thought," Harry said with a slow nod.
"Who is that?" Olive asked leaning towards Caitlin.
"That's our friend Harry. He's from Earth two," Caitlin answered quietly. Olive nodded slowly, watching Harry give Wally a box. He turned it on, waving at everyone then turned to leave. The hologram started speaking, then began breaking up. Harry slammed his bag on the ground, walking back to Wally.
"Stupid hologram. You know, it's that darn Atlantean plastic," Harry said hitting the cube. "It's really shoddy workmanship. Sorry about this."
"What is- What is this thing?" Wally asked confused. Harry looked up immediately, shrugging at Wally.
"Break-breakup cube," he said pointing at it. "You don't have breakup cubes on your Earth? Oh, that's not good. Okay. A breakup cube is, uh, kind of what it sound like. You know, you record a message for the person you want to, uh. The person, and you, uh pick a music setting and then there's a tissue that pops out if you need that. You know, breakup cube."
"Jesse's breaking up with me with a cube?" Wally asked putting his hands on his hips.
"Seems like a really convenient way to break somebody's heart," Caitlin said crossing her arms.
"Exactly," Harry said extending an arm to Caitlin.
"What did she say? In the message?" Wally asked. Olive nodded, walking to the cortex so she didn't have to watch this unfold in front of her. She got a distress call from her phone about a robbery at the bank. She turned to see Barry zooming past her, Olive groaning.
"I'll sit this one out then," Olive said throwing her arm in the air.
*****
Team Flash stood and watched the security footage from the robbery earlier. The camera was going back and forth giving them no clear shot at who was stealing all the money.
"That's the least secure security footage I've ever seen," Cisco said with a shrug.
"Yeah, that's not even the strangest thing she made happen," Barry said motioning to the screen. "I mean, I slipped on a barrel of marbles. It was like I was in a cartoon."
"That's some seriously bad luck," Caitlin said leaning on the computer table.
"There's no such thing as luck," Harry said with his arms crossed and his face stone cold.
"Yeah? Tell that to my cousin Hector. He got jinxed by an ex. Hasn't been able to find a mall parking spot for three years," Cisco said with a shrug.
"Hey, so we ran the sketches you gave us through the CCPD data base and..." Iris said as she and Olive walked into the room.
"Her name's Becky Sharpe," Olive announced. "She's twenty-four years old, no priors."
"No priors? Then why is she in the database?" Barry asked looking back at her.
"Because in the last three years she's lived in Central City she's been rear ended four times, her identity stolen twice-"
"A cat burglar literally burgled her cat," Iris finished. Barry laughed as Cisco began making his point.
"Okay, you see, Harry? That is bad juju," Cisco said pointing to the screen.
"Okay, Ramon, what you call juju, I call quantum entanglement," Harry said looking at Cisco. Olive stood up straight, happy she knew what he was talking about.
"Are you saying that when discrete quantum particles are connected and when triggered, they simulate a synchronicity, that to the untrained eye-- well, the common eye-- could seem like luck," Olive said looking over at Harry. Everyone stared at her, speechless with her little science lesson.
"Y-Yes, yeah, that's what I'm saying," Harry said with a nod.
"How did you-"
"I used to be a teacher," Olive said cutting Barry off. "And I know a guy."
"So, if Becky can affect the particles around her in a positive way, then their connected particles start spinning negatively," Barry said continuing with their theory.
"So when good things happen to her, bad things happen all around her," Caitlin said.
"Great, she's got a good luck field," Cisco said with a nod.
"She's a meta," Joe nodded.
"She has to be. She was in the same accident with me," Olive said. Everyone looked at her, their eyes wide.
"You remember her?" Barry asked.
"Yeah. She ran onto the bus with this high squeaky voice and had just gotten fired from the casino, she wasn't wearing shoes either, had all her clothes with her in a suit case, and looked like she was having a really bad day. My guess was her bad luck life turned into good luck," Olive said crossing her arms.
"The bus? It happened on a bus?" Barry asked, his eyes widened. "Guys, if it was a bus, there could be at least thirty new meta's, including the driver."
"Cecile needs me back at the house. You guys let me know what you find out, alright?" Joe asked pointing to Barry.
"Alright," Barry mumbled. Joe left, and Harry pointed to the screen as Cisco was scrolling through.
"There."
"Yeah, I-I see it," Cisco said moving his hand away. "Yeah, the suit definitely registered trace amounts of dark matter on Becky."
"So if there was another dark matter incident..." Caitlin started.
"We need to figure out how and where it happened, A.S.A.P. Olive, do you remember what day it was when you got your powers, and where?" Barry asked looking at her.
"I don't really remember anything from that day before the time I got my powers," Olive said with a shrug. "I wish I could help more, but I could only tell you what people look like."
"I'll calibrate your satellite to scan for the same dark matter found in the suit," Harry said walking out.
"Uh, no you won't," Cisco said looking at him.
"Yeah, I will," Harry said still walking out.
"Don't touch the sat-" Cisco then ran after Harry at that point, "Don't touch the satellite!"
"I'll be touching it!" Harry shouted.
"Don't!" Cisco yelled. Olive smiled at their banter, turning to Barry and Caitlin.
"Oh, something just arrived for me at the loft. I gotta go!" Iris said. She ran out of the room, Barry looking up a second later.
"What?" he asked. Olive smiled, looking between Barry and Caitlin.
"I'm going to head out to see if I can find any leads on Becky, find out where she is," Olive said backing away.
"Alright, call us if you see anything," Caitlin said. Olive waved slightly, running out of the room.
*****
After searching for a good hour, Olive only ended up finding nothing. She was positive Becky was in plain sight, but that would be stupid. Though, it wouldn't. If Becky knew that she was lucky, of course she would be in plain sight.
Anywhere that could cause former enemies or bad fall outs extreme pain would be the first place to go. Plan accordingly. So, Olive started looking in restaurants for Becky, but kept finding nothing. Eventually she decided to go back to S.T.A.R. Labs. When she walked into the cortex, she saw everyone in a circle.
"What's going on? What did I miss?" Olive asked confused. She saw the dark looks on their faces, her face shifting as well. "What happened?"
"Olive, when you got your powers, you were on the four-oh-five bus, right?" Caitlin asked looking at her.
"Yeah, I was. Paid for some guys bus fair. Why?" Olive asked folding her arms over her chest.
"We think that you were exposed to dark matter that we released, which is where all these new meta's are coming from," Caitlin explained to her. Olive nodded, wondering what the big deal was.
"Then why the sad faces? Come on, you're team Flash. You've stopped greater evils than just a few bus meta's," Olive said looking at them. She noticed Harry wasn't in the room, then turned all the way around to find him. "Where'd Harry go?"
"Cisco made him mad, so he's going back to Earth two," Iris answered. Olive looked at Cisco, her arms in the air.
"I'll go get him," Olive grumbled. She jogged out of the room and down the hall to go get Harry. She walked into the breach room to see Harry stuffing his bag. "You can't leave so soon, we need your brain."
"Ramon seems to think otherwise," Harry said still stuffing his bag.
"Cisco is just in a bad mood because he feels responsible for creating all those bus meta's," Olive said walking down the steps.
"He is responsible," Harry retaliated.
"But so are you for giving him those calculations. So is Caitlin for helping, and Iris for not shutting it down, and Joe for supporting it. Everyone had some sort of blame for it, but now you just have to deal with what you did," Olive said. Harry turned to look at her, his eyebrows knit together in confusion. "You can't run from all your problems." Harry stopped, setting his back pack down.
"Fine," he said with a huff. "I'll help."
"Good," Olive nodded, "because I do not want to be the only person in that team that knows all about quantum physics." Harry chuckled, following Olive back into the computer room.
"Guess what?" Cisco asked pulling up the Jitters security camera. "I found her. Barry is going to Jitters now to talk with her."
"See? We're not jinxed," Olive said motioning to the screen. She fist bumped Cisco, then sat in the chair as they waited for Barry to pop up on the screen.
*****
"So what are we gonna do?" Cisco asked. Barry had just gotten back from talking with Becky, and things weren't looking so bright for Team Flash.
"I don't know. I mean, I'm not sure yet," Barry said shaking his head. "I can't get close enough to her without triggering bad luck."
"Seriously, that girls a hazard," Cisco said as he was leaning back in his chair. "Hazard, that's the one. Maybe that means the jinx is gone."
"Her powers only work in her immediate vicinity. She didn't jinx us," Barry said looking around at each of them.
"Well, the house is still falling apart," Joe said with a shrug.
"It's been falling apart for years. Just, like, really slowly," Barry said looking at Joe.
"Plus, Jesse dumped me, too," Wally said.
"I-I know dude. And that, you know, that sucks," Barry told him.
"And you and Iris lost both wedding venues," Olive added.
"I didn't tell you that- wait. Will you stop reading my mind?" Barry asked. Olive held her arms up in defense, stepping back.
"And we're up against a meta we can't even touch. And we're the ones who made her in the first place," Cisco added on again.
"Guys, do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound?" Barry asked holding his arms up in disbelief. "We have not been jinxed or cursed. All right? We make our own lives. So, what do you say we focus and we figure this out?" Barry picked up his buzzing phone, turning away from everyone. "Hey, Iris... You're where?"
*****
Everything was going smooth sailing. Barry and Iris had come back from getting "married", Cisco and Harry "made up", and now Becky's field was expanding. Which meant you didn't have to be directly next to her to be cursed with bad luck. You could be anywhere.
"Guys, there are low probability events happening all over the city," Caitlin said in a panic.
"Becky's quantum field is expanding," Olive said looking at the screen.
"Okay, that's not possible," Harry said confused.
"Yeah, no, her powers are localized," Barry said as he tapped through the screen.
"Not anymore," Iris answered. The quantum field kept expanding, going higher at this point. "Guys, the quantum field is getting higher." The sudden beep of alarms made all of them look up.
"Mayday, this is flight five-one-two to tower. Lost an engine and are coming down," a pilot said over the inter-coms.
"When did Hazard get so powerful?" Iris asked looking at Barry.
"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so-"
"The more good luck she experiences, the more bad luck she spreads," Cisco and Olive said at the same time. They looked at each other, then back down at the screen to decide how to stop her.
"She must be experiencing an extreme level of good luck for her quantum field to be expanding like this," Caitlin said holding her arms up.
"Where is she now?" Barry asked.
"She went back to work," Iris said furrowing her eyebrows. They all looked at the screen to see Becky at the casino with everyone crowding around her.
"Guys, if Becky keeps winning then bad luck will keep spreading," Barry said quickly. "This could destroy the whole city."
"Okay, keep calm, alright? Nothing's going wrong here," Cisco said. Olive waited for an alarm again as Cisco said his words. The sudden whir of the building made each of them look up.
"Guys, the particle accelerator turned back on," Iris said trying to turn it off. They all looked at Cisco who was at a loss for words. "It's gonna explode." Iris looked back down at the screen, clicking on the time frame. Harry and Cisco ran out of the room as Barry got on his suit. Olive grabbed her suit that Cisco made and flew to the lake shore where the plane was heading."Four minutes to particle accelerator activation. Harry, Cisco, status report."
"The generators turned themselves on. We got to shut 'em down," Cisco said. Cisco and Harry worked on the accelerator as Barry was at the casino to stop Becky. Olive looked up at the plane to see it heading for the city instead of the water.
"Iris, this plane isn't going to hit the water. If we don't cuff Hazard, it'll crash into the city," Olive said looking up at the plane.
"Is there any way you could hold it off until Barry gets Hazard?" Iris asked quickly.
"I can try," Olive shrugged.
"Then do what you can." Olive backed up a bit then extended her arms towards the air plane. It was going downward towards the city, and she was barely holding it back. She was trying to direct it towards the water when a bird came out of no where and hit her head. Olive fell to the ground, looking back up to see the plane going even faster. In the last second, a wave of blue went through the city. Olive stood back up to see the plane maintaining, and going back up.
"What just happened?" Olive asked turning around.
"They hydrogen electron collision released a charge that temporarily negated Hazard's quantum field. We did it," Cisco said. Olive laughed slightly, letting her head fall back.
"Finally, a win," she whispered. She turned, then made her way back to S.T.A.R. Labs.
*****
"Becky is locked up in the meta wing at Iron Heights," Joe said walking in with Barry.
"Something tells me our bad luck streak has come to an end," Barry said with a sigh.
"Good. We can't afford to blow this place up a third time," Cisco said walking into the room.
"So, look at these heat scans taken from the satellite. This is three weeks ago," Harry said. He pulled up a picture of heat scans on the bus that was right next to the speed force.
"That's the Central City bus?" Barry asked.
"That's the bus," Harry said.
"Each of these heat scans indicates a human body," Caitlin said pointing to the screen.
"Thirteen markers, thirteen meta's," Cisco said putting Killgore's picture up, Hazard's, then Olive's. "Now that we know how many there are, we won't have to wait for them to come to us. We can go right to them. And with Olive's help, we can get faces."
"Well, three down," Iris said walking behind the counter.
"Yup, we got this," Cisco said with a nod.
"Yeah, you do," Wally said. They all looked back at him quickly.
"What's wrong, Wally?" Joe asked concerned. Wally sighed, getting up.
"You guys tell me, I mean... the city was about to blow up. No one realized I wasn't here," Wally said walking forward.
"Where did you go, Wall?" Iris asked stepping out.
"I went to Earth two. I had to talk to Jesse. Hear it from her," Wally said quickly. "She told me she needs to focus on herself, and I get it. And I think I have to do the same, right? So... I'm leaving Central City."
"Where-- Where are you going?" Joe asked beginning to choke up.
"I'm gonna go stay with a friend in Blue Valley for a while," Wally told them.
"Every hero has their own journey. If yours is taking you on a new path, you owe it to yourself to go," Barry said with a nod. Wally nodded, walking to Barry and hugging him. Olive watched as Wally said his goodbyes. She was wondering if this is what it felt like every time she had to say goodbye to someone. The pain written in their eyes. The true and evident fear of something even worse happening to them.
It only brought her guilt. She couldn't blame anyone except herself now for falling into the same trap of loving and leaving every life.
~*~
get ready for the next chapter.
ralph's a-coming my dudes.