Finishing Business 3
With Cisco and others.
After Caitlin had left, Harry had come back from wherever he was, throwing a bag of big belly burgers to Cisco and taking his daughter out of the S.T.A.R. Labs to see this Central City for a bit, instead of just locking her down in there. He really wanted to but the team had stopped him.
When everyone was gone, instead of just staying in the Cortex, Cisco moved to his lab, working on a chest plate armor-looking thing, taking its size and placing wires on top of it, before jolting down the measures that he had.
Like that, noon had turned to afternoon, and with no one to come and check up on him, 6 hours had quickly passed for Cisco. But thankfully, he had already foreseen something like this happening, which is why he had an alarm set up on his phone.
[TUCK TUCK] [TUCK TUCK]
Though impressed with his focus, he wasn't surprised. So turning it off, he left his stuff where they were, walking towards the Cortex, already expecting his team. But coming up in the room, it was empty. Which was a very usual sight, even Barry's Flash suit was on the mannequin.
"Guys?" He spoke, a weird feeling of spookiness creeping up inside of him. "yeah?" Thankfully, a feminine voice answered him, making him sigh. Exiting from the workshop, Jesse, followed by Harry came into his view, "Where is everybody?"
"Oh, Barry is on a date with Iris since the city's been quiet for a while." Jesse replied with a smile, "And Caitlin?"
"She hasn't been back," Harry answered this time. With a weird face of confusion, "That's weird..." Cisco commented, taking out his phone and calling the said person.
...
...
...
The weird feeling came back inside him, his confusion turning into concern after the third ring and even then, it wasn't being picked up.
...
"Hello?" 'Finally!' Cisco thought upon hearing the woman's voice, his worry and concern gone for a split second. "Cait, Whe-"
"I am at home right now, busy. Call you another time okay? Thanks," She cut him off, before hanging up.
Hearing the beeping that indicated that the call had ended, Cisco took his phone away from his ear and looked into it, his worry coming back full force, though there was still confusion in it. "Ramon?" Harry spoke, bringing the engineer's attention to him.
"What did she say?" Jesse asked, seeing his complicated expression, "Something's wrong," He spoke, not really answering them but hearing the seriousness in Cisco's voice, the father and daughter frowned in concern, copying each other without knowing.
If it was another time, Cisco would have enjoyed it, but not now. "What did she say?" Jesse asked again, "That she was at home, busy." He answered her, moving to the computer in the Cortex, furiously typing on the keyboard. "Oh... Ar-"
"Yes, I am sure, something's wrong!" Cisco interrupted Jesse, pressing enter, "Because she's not at home at all unless she can teleport to the other side of the city instantly." He told them and immediately, the duo ran to him, looking at the screen that he was seeing.
"Call Barry." Cisco glanced at Harry, the order clear, before he turned back to typing on his keyboard, with multiple windows, security footage of the surrounding S.T.A.R. Labs on his, and multiple other screens that were in the room, each showing an angle that couldn't be picked up on other cameras.
"Barry, urgent, come back to the lab," Harry spoke into his phone before hanging up, his eyes also looking at the footage in front of him, but finding nothing. The main entrance was on Cisco's screen, watching Caitlin leave the lab, her face blank.
"She didn't even take her car," Jesse spoke, already knowing and bonding with Caitlin enough to know that she loved that car even when their new home was just 15 minutes of walking distance. As soon as Cisco stood up from his seat, Barry flashed into the middle of the room, searching for everyone.
"Hey, what's the emergency? And where's Cait?" He asked and Cisco answered. "The emergency is Cait." "What?"
"She might be kidnapped," Harry spoke while Cisco entered his workshop and came back with his gauntlet and goggles on him. "What about Mike? Where is he?" Barry asked with concern and worry. "In our world, he wanted to take care of Zoom," Harry answered. Barry's eyes widened in stupefaction, "WHAT?!"
"Focus!" Harry yelled at the speedster, making him come back to attention, "Mike can take care of himself, we need to worry about Caitlin."
"I'm taking care of Mike," Cisco spoke, equipping his gauntlet and then his goggles. "Then I have Caitlin before something happens to her." The speedster told them and with a flash, he was gone from the room, the mannequin now naked.
As soon as Cisco activated his powers, he was back in the middle of the storm, surrounded by visions but instead he focused on Caitlin first to warn Barry regarding any surprise. With a bit of concentration, he had already located Caitlin in the corner of a messy room, her eyes and expression blank, just standing aimlessly.
And next to him was a surprise alright, because there was a giant, familiar gorilla, caressing Caitlin's cheeks, saying something to her. "Grodd! Barry, Grodd has Caitlin!" Cisco yelled at the coms, warning the speedster who stopped just short of entering the building. The vision turned to Barry, "he has her in his mind control." Cisco spoke.
Upon hearing that news, Barry clenched his fists in anger, smashing them on the wall nearby, cursing silently in anger before getting away, to not warn Grodd. "I'll work on something against that, I need to know the specifics of how his powers work," Harry spoke up with his no-nonsense voice. "I'll help," Jesse volunteered.
"I'll help with that as well, Cisco, what about Mike?!" Mike spoke through the coms, already heading back towards the lab at full speed.
Concentrating and picture Mike, Cisco came up... blank, as if something or someone was interfering with it. "What the..." He muttered, ignoring the question from Harry and Jesse, focusing back on Mike or Toxin.
With each passing second, a frown appeared on his face, a scowl that was seen by the father and daughter. "Ramon," Harry called out to him, "What's happening? Did you find him?"
Shaking his head, "No... It's... I can't see him..." Though a gust of wind appeared in the room, Cisco ignored it, staring at the storm, trying to locate Mike but it wasn't showing itself. "Cisco, what's wrong?" Barry asked his friend.
"Barry, I... I can't find him." The metahuman stuttered, slowly panic creeping into him. There were only visions of the past Mike in front of him but not the present one. "How?" Barry asked, shocked and worried, "I-I don't know! I can't see where he i- Wait!" He stopped.
And as if to answer his comment, all the visions, or vibes as he calls it, stopped in their place, the storm gone. He was seeing a past moment of Mike playing right in front of him, the one that asked him to open a breach into Harry's world. "Cisco?" Jesse called out to him.
"I can see the past, but the present and future of him, I can't find him, I can't locate him!" He informed them, making Barry scowl in worry and frustration, followed by Harry and Jesse. "But... Maybe I can find him with this." He offered, confusing the trio in front of him.
Shaking his head, "Barry, we need something for Grodd." Harry reminded the speedster, "Right, let's go." He spoke, guiding the genius man to Caitlin's workshop since she had most of the report on the metahumans that they faced.
Jesse only glanced at Harry hesitantly, but finally, decide to stay with Cisco. But seeing the engineer move his hand around in the room as if solving a giant puzzle, she couldn't wait to clear her confusion. "Cisco, What are you doing?"
"I am making a timeline of Mike's past, from when he left, to finally, where he might be." He informed her, not stopping for a bit. Almost 2 minutes later, in front of Cisco was a huge screen that was playing Mike's adventure in the other world.
From the moment that he was swinging aimlessly, helping a person or two, to him muttering something before changing his direction and heading towards the forest, swinging. With his whereabouts clear, "He was heading towards Zoom's lair again." Cisco spoke, not seeing Jesse's color drain from her face, her legs going weak for a second before she calmed down herself.
Skipping forward like a video on youtube, Cisco saw glimpses of his friend searching the now empty base, only to stop in front of a dead body. He could clearly see Mike's anger but speeding forward, that's when everything went downhill for his friend.
He was ambushed by sonic attacks, falling down on his knees, clutching his head in pain. But even then, Mike didn't give up, pushing himself to stand up and get out of the room, with the fake voice laughing at him, enjoying his suffering.
"Cisco," Though Jesse called out to him, he ignored her, watching his friend, a hero, crumble down on the ground again from all the pain inflicted on him. No matter how he had tried to stop the sound, nothing worked and all Mike could do was try to crawl out of the place.
"Don't worry, I'll say hello to your team for you." The fake voice spoke, before the far ends of the cave exploded, each set of closing getting closer and closer to Mike. With his eyes widened, "The speakers, they're the bombs!" He muttered in shock.
But his warning didn't do anything to help Mike, because the one that was closest to him, exploded right on his face, knocking him away, the ceiling falling down on him. And all Cisco could do was stare at his friend trying to scream in pain before falling unconscious due to the pain.
"CISCO?!" He finally heard Jesse's voice, "What happened?!" She questioned him once he saw his head turning towards her, his eyes staring at hers if it weren't for the goggles. "He's-... I..." He stopped himself, uncertain what to say.
The vision hadn't ended with Mike falling unconscious. As if something was pushing him towards the exit of the room, Cisco could see the ceiling of the place falling apart and then closing the hole on the side of the mountain, dust flying everywhere.
"Cisco!" Jesse called out to him, bringing his attention to hers, 'There's... no way he could have... survived that...' He thought, his eyes not leaving the dust, a feeling of hopelessness taking over him. But as soon as that happened, he remembered Caitlin. And as if to play a cruel joke, the visions showed him her sister figure.
Her subtle smiles whenever Mike entered the room, her eyes opening just a bit and her smile widening just a bit whenever Mike was around the team, talking to them, laughing or joking with them. His powers showed him when she had awakened from her nightmare during Mike's adventure to save Jesse.
And saw the most beautiful sight of his life, a mother caring for her unborn child, while lovingly talking to the baby about the father. And then, remembering Mike's last expression of despair, probably remembering exactly the same person that was kidnapped by a gorilla that wanted the pregnant Caitlin.
With all the tension in the air, the only thing Cisco's brain managed to do was freeze, stop, and cease to function just for a split second. Then the feeling of hopelessness hit him, the feeling of despair, the feeling of depression, and anxiety of losing a friend, and on the way to losing another one. The feeling of being lost.
He removed the goggles, his eyes teary and his stomach churning badly, whatever he ate a couple of hours ago, felt like was moving back into his stomach from his intestines, and then up his throat.
And then came the feeling of violently being sick. All of it happened under 5 seconds before Cisco was starting to bend down, a frantic Jesse crying out his name in worry, making Barry and her father come to the room.
The speedster seeing his friend's condition, knew quickly what to do, flashing to the corner of the room, taking the trash, and flashing back in front of Cisco, gently pushing Jesse back, before placing the trash in front of his friend's Cisco.
And as soon as he deactivated his speed, the vibe metahuman gagged inside it, letting everything out. Though they all wanted to know what happened, they could give him a second or two to calm down.