(The Flash) Frozen Flashpoint: Chapter 18 – First Move

Chapter 18 – First Move

Summary: Some people don’t appreciate having their day interrupted. DeVoe makes his first move, and so does Team Flash.

Barry entered the cortex using his speed. Once he reached the middle of the room, he stopped and gently put Caitlin down.

Barry looked around to see the worried faces of Harry, Cisco, and Wally. Before he could ask anything, a blue-and-orange lightning strike entered the room, and a moment later, Jessie and Lyra were standing in the cortex as well.

Both of them wore summer dresses with shorts underneath and sandals on their feet, their hair in ponytails, and sunglasses covering their eyes. Even through the glasses, both girls looked annoyed.

“Uncle Cisco, you’d better have a good reason to call us here. We were having a shwei time before your panic attack,” Lyra said, clearly displeased by the interruption to her day.

Jessie took off her sunglasses and nodded. “Yeah, we had to drop a water volleyball game just before we won and come up with an excuse for suddenly leaving.”

Lyra immediately pouted and grumbled, “Didn’t have to say I was having my time of the month, though.”

Caitlin giggled while Jessie shrugged helplessly. It was Wally’s expression that made Barry angry. The young man was obviously still thinking about the water volleyball game—and the implication of the girls in swimsuits. Considering one of them was his underaged daughter, Barry took offense and used his super-speed to slap Wally upside the head before appearing next to Caitlin the next moment.

“Ow!” Wally cried, shaken out of his thoughts and rubbing the back of his head. When he realized what had happened, he glared at Barry and snapped, “I was thinking about Jessie! I’m not a pervert, you know!”

Before Barry could reply, Wally yelled again, “Ow!” This time it was because Harry had thrown a piece of metal he had nearby.

Wally turned to glare at the older man, only to take a step back when he saw the harsh look the genius was giving him. It was scary how Harry still spoke evenly. “Don’t think like that about my daughter.”

Lyra, on the other hand, stomped her foot and pouted. “Why is anyone who thinks about me a pervert?!”

Okay, this was getting ridiculous, and Barry really didn’t want to have this conversation with his daughter. Luckily, before it could go any further, Joe entered the cortex.

Cisco let out a sigh of relief and said loudly, “Joe, the man of the hour, just in time.”

Joe looked around in confusion for a moment before shaking his head and adopting a more serious expression.

He went behind the desk to plug something into the computer and displayed it on the large screen in the room. As he uploaded the videos, he said in his deep voice, “Two hours ago, two meta prisoners escaped Iron Heights.”

Barry noticed that while Lyra’s face paled slightly, her eyes shone with determination for what was about to come. Barry switched his gaze to the detective and asked, outraged, “How could they have broken out?”

“They didn’t,” was Joe’s only response as he started to play the video.

It was a security feed from a cell. Inside, Simon, the meta Jessie and Frost had defeated over a month ago, was sitting on his bunk and scratching his already red neck, a look of fury on his face. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a small blue orb of light appeared. In two short moments, the orb expanded until the light faded, revealing a weak-looking man sitting in a hovering chair that took up almost all the available space in the cell.

Simon looked shocked at him, so the man in the chair took the lead. “Excuse me for my unannounced visit. My name is Clifford DeVoe, and I have a proposition to offer you.”

Simon shook his head to make sure he wasn’t seeing things before asking, still shell-shocked, “How did you get in? And why didn’t any alarms go off?”

Barry turned to Joe. “Really, why?”

Joe paused the video and sighed. “He hacked the system and turned down all the security. Lucky for us, after talking with Captain Singh, he managed to convince them to take the cameras offline. That’s why I had to go there to pick up a copy of the footage.”

Barry nodded and turned back to the screen as Joe hit play again.

DeVoe just chuckled. “I’m afraid that must remain my trade secret.”

Simon collected himself and asked, curious, “What deal do you have?”

DeVoe smiled as if he were talking to a student and said in his baritone voice, “I require some, as the young say, ‘extra muscle’ for my plans. If you work for me, I promise you the chance to sow chaos throughout Central City—and, even better, the opportunity for revenge.”

Simon smirked and snarled, “Those bitches Quick and Frost will pay. I’m on board.”

“Excellent,” DeVoe responded before pressing another button. The two of them collapsed into themselves until they were gone in a small orb of blue light.

Barry frowned, not liking where this was going. The feed switched to Bran’s cell, where the blonde was punching the walls. Just like before, DeVoe appeared inside without triggering a single alarm.

The conversation between those two went almost the same, with the exception of Bran’s cruder language.

The selling point for the hothead was when DeVoe said to him with a smile, “You will be able to unleash all that anger, so you may dethrone The Flash and be known as the number one meta in the world.”

Bran had a disturbingly wide grin on his face when he left the cell alongside DeVoe.

Harry hummed before saying, “So, this is the beginning of DeVoe’s plans.” When all eyes were on him, he elaborated, “As mentioned in the video from the future, DeVoe recruited criminal metas to serve as his army. It looks like he’s just begun, and we know who he’s likely to send after the first part of his chip.”

Everyone nodded, but Barry was still frowning. Something that had bothered him until now made a lot more sense—and not in a good way.

“You’re right about those two, Harry,” Barry began. “But I don’t think they’re the only ones he already has on his side.”

Harry frowned, and Barry sighed. “I told you not to dismiss him, Harry. Didn’t it strike anyone as suspicious that we haven’t had to deal with a single meta in a month? Not even the small-time ones we usually get every week.”

Caitlin frowned, realizing where Barry was going. “You think DeVoe recruited them and ordered them to stay down until he’s ready to move?”

Cisco was frowning now too. “And because he doesn’t know we’re onto him, and with the engagement, he hoped we’d let our guard down with the relative peace.”

Joe then added, “The fact that he doesn’t know we’re aware of him is the reason he didn’t consider the possibility that the cameras were offline and out of his reach. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have shown himself like that.”

Jessie let out a heavy sigh. “So, we’re at an impasse. We have the element of surprise since we know about him, but we don’t know how many metas he already has on his side—or what their powers are.”

Cisco jumped to his feet and shouted, “Actually, we do have one advantage over him!”

Everyone looked at him with anticipation. He pressed a few buttons on the keyboard, and an image of a weird-looking electrical circuit appeared on the screen as Harry narrated, “We still haven’t managed to create the chip Lyra mentioned, but we have reached the point where we can say for sure it will have to include these Cabrio Transmitters.”

Cisco then picked up, “Right now, only one company in the country is working on this tech—Mercury Labs. The best part is, they just finished testing their one and only prototype at an offsite location just outside Central City. The test was a success, and tomorrow they’re moving it to one of their main hubs.”

Barry gave a short nod of understanding. “So DeVoe will go after it tonight.” He received twin nods from Cisco and Harry.

Barry took a moment to consider the situation. By going out tonight, they’d be showing their hand to DeVoe, letting him know they were aware of his plans, which would make him more cautious in the future.

On the other hand, if they succeeded, they’d at least delay DeVoe’s plan by a few months, giving them time to research all the known metas to estimate the size of DeVoe’s army.

Definitely worth it. With another nod to himself, Barry began to speak to everyone. “Okay, so we’re moving tonight. The team will be me, Jessie, and Cisco. Lyra and Frost will stay out of this battle unless backup is absolutely necessary.”

Suddenly, Caitlin’s voice sounded a little deeper, and her hair turned silver as she spoke. “You’re not benching us because we’re your family, are you, Speedy?”

Barry had to gulp at the edge in her voice, but he quickly shook his head and explained, “You two are our wild cards when it comes to DeVoe. Neither of you were around at this point in his original timeline, so he has very little data on you. Better not to give him more to work with.”

Frost seemed to consider that before shaking her head. “You have a point, but still, most of our abilities would’ve already been revealed after all our fieldwork. But you’re right—a surprise strike team in case of emergency is a good idea.”

Lyra smiled and jumped in place a couple of times. “Oh, so you’re having Uncle Cisco stay here because he’s the one who can open bridges straight into the fight, and Mama will do better in a surprise attack than me. So, they stay here, and I go with you and Auntie Jess.”

Barry narrowed his eyes at the future teen. She was acting like a kid who got her way, but he could see something else behind her blue eyes—something dark and dangerous. There was no doubt in Barry’s mind she was eager for the fight. What worried him was the reason.

With everyone in agreement, they began preparing themselves.

FF FF FF FF FF

The Flash, Quick, and Speedstorm were all standing on the roof of the building, waiting for DeVoe to make his move.

Suddenly, in the middle of the dark and silent compound, an orb of blue light appeared. A moment later, four people materialized.

Two of them were Bran and Simon. The third was the tallest of the three, with his hair dyed bright red. He was wearing a sleeveless dark tank top. The last member was short and wore a purple hoodie that covered his head and most of his body, though his creepy smile was still visible.

Simon was the first of the four to speak. “You know what the professor wants. Get in there and find it. If anyone sees you, kill them.”

Bran and the red-haired man smiled ferally, while the short one kept his creepy grin and said, “I just hope there are some female security guards.”

Barry frowned and whispered, “Okay, we need to intercept them. Watch each other’s—”

Before Barry could finish speaking, he saw a streak of blue-and-orange lightning speed past him down the building. Barry exchanged a look with Jessie, and they both hurried after her.

Barry caught up to Lyra and pulled her back while in Flash time so the criminals wouldn’t notice. From their point of view, Lyra and Barry had stopped at the same time, with the girl shooting her dad a quick glare before aiming it at Bran and Simon specifically. Jessie arrived next to them a moment later.

Simon’s face contorted with fury, and he began scratching his neck with four fingers while snarling, “No, no, you’re not supposed to be here! Why are you here, Flash? And Quick and Speedstorm?! This was a covert mission! We had ‘invisible mode’ on! How did you find us?”

Barry had practiced the following lies. There was a high chance DeVoe would see through them, but the attempt to conceal as much as possible was worth it. With a shrug, he said, “Heard two thugs disappeared from their cell, and I thought to myself, where would two criminals want to spend their first and last free night out of prison?”

Bran growled and raised his hands, ready to fight. Simon snarled again and brought his second hand to his neck, scratching both sides of it.

The short man, on the other hand, smiled even wider and said gleefully, “Who cares? He brought two hotties for me to play with.” He said it while making a squeezing motion with his fingers.

Barry scowled at the perverted man, while Jessie made a disgusted face. Lyra, though, just kept glaring at Bran and Simon.

Bran then chose that moment to growl, “Come at me, speed freaks! I’ll make you DIE!”

Lyra seemed to snap and rushed the man. Before Bran could even consider using an explosion, Speedstorm tackled him, and their fight carried them to the farthest corner of the parking lot.