(The Flash) Frozen Flashpoint: Chapter 5 – Failed Attempt

Chapter 5 – Failed Attempt

Summary: A new meta threat is destroying the city and team Flash argue.

Barry’s mind immediately shifted from his suspicions about Caitlin’s behavior to crisis mode as the alarms kept going off and Cisco ran into the room with Harry hot on his heels.

Cisco was the first to speak, his voice frantic. “Yo, we have a huge problem.”

Caitlin gave a flat look to Cisco and replied, “We heard the alarms too, Cisco. Why don’t you tell us what we’re dealing with?”

Barry watched with everyone else as the main screen showed footage from a street security camera of a blonde man with disheveled hair, his eyes glowing red as explosions kept coming out of his palms.

The street was under construction and it was a Sunday, so it was empty, but construction equipment kept flying around as the madman kept cursing and laughing, sending more explosions in every direction. Every so often, he would yell out, “DIEEEE!”

Barry used his speed to put on his suit and stopped for a moment to survey the cortex. By doing so, he saw Jessie using her speed to put on her own suit.

Barry completely stopped and gave her a surprised look. “Where did you get the suit?”

Jessie gave him an odd look and supplied the obvious answer, “Cisco made it for me.”

Barry nodded a little awkwardly and corrected himself, “Okay, I meant to ask why you’re wearing it now?”

Jessie looked around as if someone else was going to answer, but when no one did, she spoke again. “Umm, because we’re going after the bad guy?”

Barry put his hand up. “Hold on… we? Since when are you going on the field?”

Jessie seemed to get mad now as she replied with a huff, “Since you trained me?”

“Trained you?!” Barry cried before pointing out without mercy, “You just finally learned how to phase today. There’s still too much for you to learn before you can handle metas on the field.”

If Barry was without mercy, Jessie was downright brutal as she gave him a deadpan look and asked in fake innocence, “And when you went after your first meta, remind me what skill level you had?”

Barry looked down, not wanting to answer that question. He heard Cisco snickering at his predicament and wanted to glare at his best friend, but doing so put him at risk of Jessie’s ire.

Of course, looking away didn’t stop her from keeping her attack as she gasped mockingly and very sarcastically spoke, “Oh right! You just found out you had speed and went out against the advice of your idol and girlfriend.”

“Umm, she wasn’t my girlfriend at the time,” Barry raised his head and pointed out weakly, but Jessie just glared at him.

Barry looked at Harry and asked desperately, “Come on, Harry, you’ve got to agree with me here.”

Harry gave a short nod and said firmly, “Allen is right. You are not ready for the field yet.”

Jessie glared at her father and accused him, “You wouldn’t let me on the field even if I had twice Barry’s experience.”

Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Jessie was much faster and much angrier as she shouted at him, “The whole point of us staying here is so I could train and gain experience! So how can you justify me not going out?!”

Harry opened and closed his mouth a few times before his face contorted into an unpleasant expression and he said reluctantly, “Fair point.”

“Harry!” Barry cried, and the older man just shrugged in return. Barry was counting on Harry to put this problem to rest, but now it fell to him. He looked at his student with a firm expression. “You still don’t know what it feels like to be on the field, and this meta is too dangerous to be your first out there.”

Jessie turned toward Caitlin and asked in full annoyed mode, “Can you please talk some sense into your boyfriend?”

Caitlin let out a long-suffering sigh before standing up and walking around the table to stand next to Barry.

She looked at him and said, “Bare, you can’t protect her forever. You’ll have to let her out on the field eventually.”

Barry was getting frustrated by everyone not seeing his point. “I will, I promise, but not this time.” He said before he began waving toward the screen that had the image of the meta mid-explosion release and spoke again, “Look at him. He’s powerful and clearly mad with this power, and he’s already too close to a main street of the city. He’s too dangerous for someone who just finished learning the basics to deal with.”

Caitlin gave him a deadpan look that screamed, “Really?!” while Harry kept his opinion to himself. Then Cisco spoke, “Umm, guys, he started attacking civilians.”

Barry growled in the back of his throat; they didn’t have time for this! He turned to Jessie and said, “Fine, you can come, but you have to listen to me. Now move!”

They both took off at super speed toward the street Cisco showed on the screen. Barry touched his comms and asked, “What are we dealing with, Cisco?”

Barely a second later came the reply, “Kurt Bran. Hot-headed criminal with a long rap sheet. His ability is in his sweat. Somehow, it’s a flammable chemical and reacts to the air around it when force is applied.”

Barry gave the new information a second to sink in before a plan was formed in his mind. “So if he can’t move his elbows, he can’t create those explosions. Jessie, you focus on evacuation. I’ll deal with Bran.” He ordered.

“Aye aye, Flash.” Jessie responded at the same time they both stopped at their destination.

Bran was sending blasts in all directions, destroying cars and anything he could reach while people ran away from him in fear.

The meta seemed to get bored of destroying random things. He looked around and saw a man in his late 60s standing nearby. Bran smirked and raised his hand toward the old man.

Barry felt a hole in his gut and called to his apprentice, “Jessie!”

Bran smirked as he drew his elbow back, but as he began pushing it forward, a flash of yellow lightning passed in front of him, and a moment later, the old man was gone. The explosion created by the meta left a hole in the pavement where the man had once stood.

The blond frowned as he looked around, then spotted Barry. While the frown stayed, a small smirk curled his lips as he shouted, “Flash! Came to see all those people die?”

Bran pulled his elbows back and got ready to send some explosions toward the panicking bystanders, but each time he aimed at someone, they would disappear in a flash of light. The man lost his smirk and looked around with a scowl.

That was the moment Barry chose to attack. While the meta was distracted, Barry charged at him. In Flash time, he noticed a thick cable lying on the floor amidst all the other debris from the meta’s destruction.

With his speed, he managed to tie Bran with the cable right around the elbows, locking them in place at the sides of his body.

Barry stopped in front of the criminal with a smile on his face and said, “I think it’s time you cool down a little.”

Bran snarled and shouted, “I WILL KILL YOU!” straight into Barry’s face.

Barry blinked and responded with another pun he just couldn’t resist, “Has anyone told you you have an explosive personality?”

Bran gritted his teeth, and then Jessie’s voice came from behind him, “Did you really just make that joke?”

A moment later, Jessie was standing next to him in the same pose, with both her fists pressing against her waist and a smile on her face.

Bran moved his eyes between the two of them before muttering, “There are two of you.”

Bran growled under his breath and clenched his fists. A moment before it happened, it hit Barry like a truck—there was one more way that Bran could create a force that would generate an explosion from his sweat.

Barry called out to Jessie just as Bran began unclenching his fists, “Jessie, get back!”

Jessie’s eyes were locked on the prisoner’s moving fingers. Barry could see she realized what was about to happen but was frozen in shock.

Without a second thought, Barry used his speed to run toward Jessie and pulled her away as far as he could manage as an explosion left the tips of Bran’s now straight fingers.

The explosions weren’t nearly as powerful as those from his entire palm using the force of his elbow, but it was strong enough to cause some damage to the pavement around him and create a dust cloud.

When Barry ran into the dust cloud, Bran was gone. He looked at Jessie, who was now shaking the shock off slowly, and sighed heavily.

When they ran back inside the cortex, it was only Caitlin there, sitting at her table and looking concerned at Jessie.

Jessie did look a little worse for wear even though Barry had made sure she wouldn’t receive any injuries from the surprise explosion.

But he could understand that she was blaming herself for the meta escaping, which was only partly true. “Jessie,” Barry called to her gently.

Jessie turned to him, and Barry could see tears beginning to form in her eyes as she spoke weakly, “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry. Because of me…”

“No.” Barry cut her off before speaking gently again, “It wasn’t your fault. Bran could have used any civilian as a distraction. There were plenty of those on the street.”

Jessie lowered her head and whispered, “But I froze. I…”

Barry laid a hand on her shoulder and stopped her with his encouraging words, “Everyone freezes their first time on the field like that. I did too. You need to ease yourself into stressful situations like that if you have the opportunity. And you do.”

Jessie nodded, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips. Barry then smiled at her and spoke in a lighter tone, “Let’s just say next time you’ll trust my judgment and we can call it even. Deal?”

Jessie did smile this time and said, “Deal.” She then went to the corner of the room to find where to put her suit.

Barry noticed Caitlin smiling at him from behind her desk. After a short moment, she spoke, “Good job, Bare. You are a good mentor.”

Barry went around the table close to her while saying wistfully, “I hope so.”

But when he went for a hug, he noticed Caitlin’s body stiffening.

Barry felt a pang in his heart and knew he couldn’t push this conversation back any longer. He took a step back and with a heavy sigh declared, “We need to talk, Cait.”

Caitlin tried to play it off as a joke, probably hoping to distract him. “Really, Bare? This cliché? You’re better than that.”

Barry gave her a flat look and instead pushed on, “For the last week you’ve kept your distance from me. Flinching every time I touch you.”

Caitlin looked scared and anxious. She tried to say, “Barry, I…”

But Barry cut her off, even though it caused him unspeakable pain. He forced the blunt statement out, “If you don’t want to be with me, just say it.”

Caitlin’s scared and anxious look morphed into pure horror as she immediately and with no hesitation replied, “It’s nothing like that, Bare. I promise! I love you!”

Barry felt elation at her words, an enormous amount of relief, but those quickly morphed into despair. He looked closely at his girlfriend and begged, “Then please tell me, Cait, what’s bothering you so much?”

Caitlin tried to muster her expression into a smile but she couldn’t really manage it. Still, she tried to sound comforting when she spoke, “It’s nothing big. I’m dealing with it.”

Barry looked at her dark screen and then back at her and asked, “Is that what you’ve been working on all this time and always hiding?”

Caitlin gave a short nod but no other explanation of what it was or why she was hiding it.

Barry tried to plead with her again, “Please, Cait, I’m worried! You are exhausted, always afraid, and working on secret projects. You’re my girlfriend and I’m starting to be too afraid of what’s happening to you.”

Caitlin began shifting uncomfortably on her feet. It looked like she was struggling with what to say.

After a few moments, she opened her mouth, but instead of a sound from her lips, the entire cortex was filled with the sound of an alarm, but it wasn’t the meta alert.