Episode 5 - Plastique

"How often do you think about why your friends came into your life?" Barry asks himself. "Was it random, by design, or maybe a little of both?" He looks at Macanese who he was sure was going to fall asleep if it wasn't for their cyborg body, she was never a long day type person. "Regardless of the reason, some friends you just know are gonna be by your side for a while. Others, you're not so sure. And then there's that one friend who, well, you hope, someday becomes something more." Macanese smiles at him. "But "friend" will have to do it for now. And that's okay. I guess."

"I'm glad you invited Caitlin and Cisco." Iris tells Barry as she walks into the bar and sits by the two speedsters, Joe following her.

"They're cool, right?" Barry agrees.

"They saved your life, Barry. That makes them the coolest people I've ever met." Iris said. "It's nice that you guys became friends."

"I'll drink that, mate." Atacho says, raising her glass. "To friends, old and new." They smile and clint the class before downing the shots they are holding.

"Ooh. I'm up. Wish me luck." Iris tells them standing up and walking over to the karaoke stage. I'm going to destroy you.

"Don't get cocky, West."

"Guys? I have a problem." Barry tells them.

"We all do when guys like him exist." Cisco jokes patting his back.

"Yeah, he's so hot. Uh, I mean, genetically speaking. Because I'm a geneticist, of course. Oh, my God, do I sound like Felicity?" Caitlin mumbles, not really sure about everything she was saying.

"We're not talking about Eddie." Barry says. "We're talking about this." Barry says downing the shots that were on the bar table in front of them.

"We can't feel anything." Atchaco tells them. Caitlin looks confused for a moment but it goes when Cisco laughs.

"Yeah, that's usually what happens when you drink too much." Cisco retorted with a smile on his face. Atchaco shakes her head.

"No, the alcohol is not affecting me. I mean I literally feel nothing." Barry tells them.

"I'm the same, but I think mine might have something to do with my cyborg body, but as I take more shots I am starting to doubt it." Atchaco informs them.

"It's your hyper-metabolism. I need a sample." Caitlin tells them, reaching into her bag and searching around for something. I'll get more shots. I swear, I had a Vacutainer here.

"Wait, you carry a blood collection kit in your purse?"

"You have your hobbies, I have mine." Caitlin brushed them off. Barry looked at her weirdly as Atchaco and Cisco just ignored Barry's reaction.

Somewhere else in the city a Security Guard of some sort makes their way hastry up a building as a man looks through it as he cleans the window. "The 14th floor is secure." One of them calls over their comm system.

"Roger that." Another replied in his ear. The guard sees a woman going through all the files in the room he was just about to pass. He walked slowly towards them. He noticed something off about the drawer that she had taken the information out of. It was like it was blown off by an explosive.

"Hold off on that check. Lock down the building!" He shouted as he drew his weapon on the woman. "Hold it!" He ordered her.

"Don't come near me." She said scared, like she didn't want to do what she was doing.

"You need to come with me. Come on." He replied, slowly walking towards her, trying to calm her down and apprehend her. He looks down at her hands and they start to glow brighter with every passing second until they look like they are about to expel a large blast. "Get down!" The guard says as he brings himself to the floor. Just in the nick of time as suddenly there is a blinding light and a large amount of energy is expelled around the building followed by a loud bang.

The Window Washer who was outside when the blast happened felt the platform he was on shake violently and then he heard a snap as the cables gave way and he screamed as he held tightly onto the edge of the platform, 1 messley wire as all that was keeping him from having an early grave.

Back at the bar, Barry sighed as he placed down another empty shot glass. Atchaco looked at the multiple shot glasses in front of her, she had a bigger collection than Barry. "Still nothing?" Cisco said with a frown on his face. Barry and Atchaco share a bored glance at each other.

"If it was my cybernetics inhibiting my ability to get drunk, it would only be temporary and I would be drunk by now, but I regret to say that I cannot get drunk." Atchaco said sadly as she looked at the table. Barry looked at them with a bored and annoyed look on his face.

"I can't get drunk. I mean, I'm only 25, and my drinking days are already over." Barry complained. Atchaco elbowed him because she was only 22 and had only been drinking for a couple before her accident, she had even less time to get drunk.

"Come on, Allen. You're up." Eddie said, dragging him so he stood up. Suddenly Eddie's phone rang and he had to stop trying to get Barry to stand up as Atchaco laughed, then he answered it. He talked for a bit on the phone before looking annoyed as he turned to the other too.

"There was a bombing on 8th and pass. I got to go, babe." Eddie apologised, kissing Iris.

"Okay." Iris said, shrugging her shoulders, she was too used to this.

"Sorry, guys." Eddie said to the others before leaving.

"I've got an early shift at jitters. Barry, we'll catch up tomorrow." Iris said, walking out of the Barry leaving the other's in the room as Caitlin yawned.

"It's getting late, anyway, so I'm just gonna…" Atchaco said, pointing towards the exit.

"Help! Help! Somebody!" The window washer screamed as he clutched on for dear life.

"Guys, there's a window washer, and he's gonna fall." Barry said into his ear piece.

"Don't try to catch him. You don't have super strength." Cisco reminded him. Barry looked around to see if there was anything he could use as an alternative. He looked at Macanese, who he knows has super strength.

"I do." Macanese told him. "Can't I just catch him?"

"No." Triton, Macanese's AI said to her. "If you try to catch him you might break his back by him landing on your metal limbs, it wouldn't work." Barry sighed, well that was out of the question then, so what could they do.

"Well, is there, like, a bed store near here? What if I get a bunch of mattresses and stack them?" Barry asks, fear building up in his body as he cannot watch someone die in front of him because he couldn't do anything, not again.

"Barry, this isn't a roadrunner cartoon." Caitlin reminded him. Macanese laughed at his side, Barry glared and she stopped.

"Help! Help!" The Washer screams as he falls quicker to his impending doom and Barry stands worryingly at the bottom looking up at him, a million thoughts about what to do flashing through his mind, and he doesn't know if any of them will work.

"How fast would I need to go to run up the side of a building?"

"How far up do you need to go?" Cisco asked him as the Washer screamed again.

"I don't know. 50 metres, give or take." Barry told him.

"32.56…" Cisco mumbled as he wrote some numbers hurryingly on a piece of paper, doing some calculations.

"Guys, hurry!" Macanese screamed at Cisco as the Window washer started to slip on the piece of metal he was holding and Barry held his breath in fear.

"Just run really fast and you'll be fine." Cisco reassured him. "But you need to maintain your velocity on the way down, or…" He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.

"Or what?" Barry questioned him. Still Cisco didn't answer. Macanese suddenly realised and turned to Barry.

"Splat." She told him, smashing her palms together and Barry gulped.

"Great. No pressure." Barry told himself as he got ready to run up the building. The Washer screamed again. "All right. All right, all right, all right. Here goes." He then hurryingly runs up the building and catches the Window Washer as the last cable finally snaps. Barry turns around and heads back down the building as the platform the Washer was using falls with them.

Iris gets on the scene as Barry's feet touch the ground with the Window Washer. Macanese braces her feet hard into the ground and catches the platform so that it doesn't fall on top of Iris and them. They turn to her and Barry blurs his face so Iris doesn't recognise them. Macanese places the platform on the ground and turns to face Iris, not bothering to blur her face.

The next day at the precinct everyone was busying about over the bombing case, they had even called in Lady Macanese when they needed help to identify the bomb due to the technology not being reconsible as anything man-made, so bringing in someone who is friendly with the God of Technology to help them is a smart move. "Barry? Macanese? What have we got?"

"Bombers typically have their own unique signatures." Macanese informs him as her AI scans the area for secondary electronic signatures that were left from the attack yesterday. "Crimped wires, fragmentation. The level of sophistication is telling once I've analyzed it. You show me a bomb, I can usually find a clue in it, not to mention I can detect the signature that any bomb leaves, all different, all traced to one type."

"It sounds like there's a 'but' coming." Joe notices, eyeing Macanese.

"Yeah, I, or Triton, haven't found any sign of an oxidising agent. It's as if the floor just blew itself up. Hell, we can't even locate an ectrostis signature, which after a bomb goes off, there is always one left. It's one of those things you can't stop happening." Macanese tells him.

"Things don't just blow up." Joe reminds her, Macanese just shrugs her shoulders and continues to examine the crime scene. Eddie walks over to them. He does a double take at seeing a cybernetic superhuman at the crime scene, but he quickly pulls himself together and looks back over to Joe.

"Security guard said our bomber was a woman, red hair." He informs them by handing them a sketch of what the guard believed her to have looked like.

"Must've cut the security camera's feed." Macanese tells them, surfing through the events of last night from the cameras they had installed in the building. "There's no footage, but there might be something else." She tells them, guiding them over to one of the cabiants. "Some kind of small charge blasted the doorknob off." She tells them, and she then opens the cabiant.

"Any idea what's missing?"Joe asked.

"My guess is one of these files. It's gonna take days to figure out which one." Eddie sighs. Joe looks at Macanese and Barry talking to each other.

"Let's let Barry and Macanese do their thing." Joe said, steering Eddie out of the room. When the two had left Barry and Macanese went to either side of the room and at super speed they began to search through all the documents to see which one was actually left out. After no time at all, but a little time to them, they find the one they are looking for and go outside the room to where Eddie and Joe are standing. "You found the case for the file that's missing, good job." Eddie stares at them baffled but it quickly goes when he realises that Macanese has enhanced speed, meaning he ends up glaring at Barry.

Later back at the precinct Joe, Eddie and Macanese walk in to see soldiers swarm the Precinct. Officer Vukuvich walks over to them as he sees them come in. "What's going on?" Joe asked.

"I have no idea." Officer Vukuvich replied. "But they came in here like they own the place. Been talking to Singh for the last half hour."

"This can't be good." Joe sighed.

"General Eiling, this is Detective West and Lady Macanese." Singh introduced the two as Eddie stood awkwardly at their side.

"Detective. M'Lady." Eiling replied.

"What's this all about?" Joe asked, annoyed.

"The army's taking over the bombing investigation." Singh sighed, knowing there was no way around it.

"I'll need everything you have. Physical evidence, photographs, witness interviews, and all your personal notes." Eiling informed them. He turned to Macanese. "And any information on your cybernetics that will prove helpful towards this investigation." He handed her a USB drive which she placed into part of her arm.

"I've been on the job nearly 20 years and never heard of the army investigating anything civilian." Joe told him.

"Well, it's not civilian." Eiling retorted. "She's one of ours."

"We'll send over everything we got." Joe sighed as Macanese handed him back the USB with information she had saved on her cybernetics.

"Very kind of you." He said sarcastically. "I think we'll take it now, though." Joe glared at him, not really wanting to help with the cause.

"Give them what they want, Joe." Singh told him.

"You heard him, Joe. Give me what I want." Eiling smiled. Joe reluctantly handed him the file he had in his hands.

"Hey, what's going on?" Barry asked, going up to them with the box of files under his arm.

"General Eiling is relieving us from the bombing case." Joe told them. "Give these men everything that's relevant." Barry hands the soldier the box he was holding. As the soldier turns around Barry uses his speed to get a folder from the box. Joe signals for them to go over to the corner. "You and a few civilians from S.T.A.R. Labs might want to check into that." He hints at them.

"I think we might." Macanese replies as she and Barry walk away. Vukuvich walks up to Joe and taps him on the shoulder.

"Can I talk to you for a minute, Joe?" He asks him. "It's about Iris." Joe nods.

Later Joe arrives through the door of the West family home. "Hey, dad." Iris greets sweetly. "You're home early." Joe doesn't look at her happily, but rather annoyed.

"What were you doing at the bomb site last night?" Joe asks her, getting straight to the point. Iris looks at him dumbfounded. "Don't deny you were there. Officer Vukuvich saw you."

"It's... Complicated." Iris tries to say.

"You can't be coming to every crime scene because you're worried about Eddie. He's a big boy, Iris." Joe reminds her.

"I didn't go there to see Eddie." Iris tells him. "I went there to see the streak and the machine.

"The streak. Hmm, why is that?" Joe asks her.

"My blog." Iris answers. 'I've been collecting Internet posts about the streak and the machine sightings, and writing about them."

"Baby, they don't exist." Joe tries to tell her.

"Yes, there is." Iris argues. "I saw them last night, dad,both of them. I looked right at them. Something incredible is happening in Central City. And I am gonna write about it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get to work. Blogging about supernatural events doesn't really pay well." Iris said, kissing him on the cheek and walking out of the door, leaving Joe alone with an annoyed look on his face.

Later at STAR Labs the whole gang, minus Joe and Wells, were standing in the Cortex. "A va file number is all the info you have on the bomber?" Asked Cisco.

"CCPD has been ordered off the case." Barry sighed.

"Well, who has the power to do that?" Caitlin questioned.

"The army. Some General. His name was Eiling." Macanese told them.

"General Wade Eiling." Wells said as he wheeled into the room.

"Do you know him?"

"Yeah, I know him." Wells said. "About ten years ago, General Wade Eiling contracted S.T.A.R. Labs to develop enhanced gene therapies for soldiers. I was interested in the potential medical benefits for civilians. General Eiling really wanted to develop mind reading capabilities for interrogation purposes. I stopped the study when I saw his techniques up close, but our split was less than amicable."

"He took all the evidence I collected on the bombing. Everything but this folder." Barry says.

"Well... Lucky for us, the va finally joined the new millennium and digitised their records, so I have access to everything." Macanese said, still searching through everything, as she tried to find the file she needed. "A lot of redacted info. But our girl's name is Bette Sans Souci, an EOD specialist for the army." She says bringing up her file on the big screen so they can all see.

"EOD?" Caitlin asked, looking at her.

"Bombs." Cisco replied.

"Is there an address?" Barry asked.

"Hold on. Here, we go. One person in case of emergency. Cameron Scott. Inglewood." Cisco said reading off the computer so that Atchaco could get properly ready to confront her. The two looked at each other before running off the address. When they got there they saw Bette walking down from the fire escape, obviously trying not to be seen by anyone.

"Bette Sans Souci?" Barry said. Bette glances in their direction and then takes off running, unlucky for her they are speedsters and quickly catch up with her and stand right in front of her and Bette stops. "I need you to come with us."

"Don't touch me." She says as Barry brings an arm up. Barry then grabs her hand and she accidentally touches his chest as she tries to get out of his grip. Barry looks down as his suit starts to glow.

"Get whatever you're wearing off of you." Macanese shouts at him. "Hurry." Barry wasted no time getting himself out of the suit and running behind Macanese as it blew up.

Back at STAR Cisco leaned forward to the mic after Barry's suit stopped broadcasting his vitals back to them. "Can you hear me? Barry? Macanese." He said. Cisco turned to the others. "There must be a perfectly reasonable explanation for why they are not answering." He tried to calm himself. "Barry? Macanese?" He asked into the open air. As he said that the two of them came speeding into the room. Macanese had reverted back to her civilian form and she threw a top over to Barry, who no longer had his suit.

"Uh…" Caitlin said, looking confused.

"Don't ask." Barry tried to divert their questioning glares.

Cisco shook his head. "I'm gonna ask. Where's my suit?" He asked.

"It's... Gone." Atchaco informed him.

"What do you mean, it's gone?" He asked again. "What did you do with my suit?"

"It blew up, dude. I managed to get out of it before it went, 'kaboom.'" Barry told him.

"My suit went 'kaboom'?" Cisco asked, really not wanting to believe it.

"Fun fact about Bette Sans Souci. She's not carrying bombs." Barry informed them. "She touched the emblem on the suit and turned it into a bomb. She's a meta-human."

"With the ability to cause spontaneous combustion upon tactile contact." Wells said with a hint of curiosity as he wheeled himself into the cortex.

"She blew up my suit." Cisco complained.

"You have, like, three more." Caitlin pointed out.

"Okay, I have two." Cisco corrected her. "And I loved that one."

"All right, what else do we know about her?" Barry asked them, bringing their attention back to the situation at hand.

"Oh, I don't know. She's pure evil." Cisco stated. "We're gonna find this girl and send her butt into the pipeline. No one blows my tech to smithereens and gets away with it…" Cisco was about to finish his rant when Atchaco brought up her file, this time it was one with her photo on it. Cisco pointed up at it. "Unless she looks like that."

"I don't think she meant to hurt Barry." Atchaco informs them.

"Well, her being a meta-human explains General Eiling's interest in her." Wells reaslises.

"And why he stole the case from us." Joe complained as he walked into the room. "He didn't want anyone to know what she could do."

"Detective." Wells greets.

"Doctor." Joe says in return. "So... Human bomb. Must be Tuesday in Central City."

"Yes, and General Eiling's not one to give up a potential asset without a fight." Wells reminds them.

"We have to find her before he does." Atchaco told them.

"Barry? Atchaco? Can I see you two for a second?" Joe ordered. "When were you planning on telling me that Iris saw the streak and the machine?" The two of them followed him into the hallway.

"That was not planned." Atchcaoc told him. "She caught us off guard."

"We had a deal." Joe reminded them. "You keep her in the dark about the meta-humans, and I don't go Floyd Mayweather on you."

"Okay, Joe, I know." Barry sighed.

"And she's writing a blog now." Joe informed them.

"We already talked to her about that." Barry told him.

"Talk to her again." Joe replied. "And be more convincing."

"Okay. You mean, right now?" Barry asked.

"Yes, I do." Joe told them.

"All right." Atchaco said. Barry and Atchaco shared a tired glance and ran out. Later they were with Iris at Jitters.

"You've got to stop writing about these guys. They don't even exist."

"I saw them, Barry." Iris tells them. He wears a red suit, like, a uniform or something, with a lighting bolt on his chest. His partner when he is fighting, they have this metal body with red in it, they have a lightning bolt on their chest too."

"I mean, Iris, come on. You were drinking last night at the bar." Atchaco told him.

"I was not drunk, and I know what I saw. They both wear masks. I think the man smiled at me." Iris argues.

"Okay, first of all, if they are wearing masks, that probably means they don't want people to know who they are." Barry tells her.

"It doesn't matter who they are. What matters is that people know that they're out there. What is wrong with you? This is important to me. Why can't you be more supportive?" Iris complains.

"We're just... you haven't even put your name on it. How serious can you be about an anonymous blog?" Barry questions her.

"Okay, you know what?" Iris asks him. "Our entire lives, you couldn't scream loud enough that the impossible existed. And now it's actually happening in Central City. I have proof of it, and you don't want to know about it? That doesn't make sense. So when you two are ready to tell me what this whole routine is really about, then we can talk." Iris turns and walks away from them.

Suddenly Barry's phone rings and he picks it up as Atchaco looks at him. "Yeah." Barry tells the person on the other end.

"We've piggybacked into General Eiling's own surveillance." Cisco told him. "According to what they're saying, the lovely Ms. Sans Souci was just spotted in Inglewood. The same neighborhood as Dr. Harold Hadley's office, the military surgeon who performed several procedures on her. That's why she was looking for the folder. You got to get to her before Eiling does."

"Okay." Barry replied. He looked at Atchaco as she let all her cybernetics show and he changed into his suit. Then they ran off.

Later at night, Bette arrives at the office of one Dr Hadley. "Sgt. Sans Souci." He greets.

"You remember me. Good." Bette said. "Because I remember you, doctor. I remember waking up from a coma. You started cutting me open."

"I was only trying to help ease your condition. You couldn't control it." Dr Hadley told her.

"You did this to me. You and Eiling." She accused him.

Outside of the office, Eiling and his men arrived on the scene bearing guns. Then Macanese and Barry arrive inside the office next to Bette and start to go near her when. Suddenly they see the red dot of a laser pointer on her and then they hear a shot go off and hear Bette trying not to scream.

"Go bring me my asset." Eiling ordered.

Back inside the office Macanese and Barry walk in to see Bette kneeling on the ground. "You okay?" Macanese asks as she bends down in front of Bette.

"Look, we can get you out of here. We can help you understand what happened to you." Barry told her.

"How?" Bette asked.

"Because it happened to us too. Please." Macanese begged.

Suddenly one of Eiling's men threw a flash-bang grenade, but before it could hit the ground and cause an effect on the three of them, they were gone in flashes of lightning. "Target is gone." One of the soldiers informed Eiling.

Later at STAR Labs, Wells was talking to Bette about what had happened to her. "As the detonation dispersed throughout Central City. A number of people were exposed to a wave of unquantifiable energy. One of those people... Was you. You were in Central City ten months ago." Wells says pointing at her.

Caitlin hands Bette gloves to wear so that she won't accidentally blow something up, and Bette puts them on without hesitation. "I had just returned from Afghanistan." Bette starts. "I was there defusing roadside bombs and... Shrapnel ripped through me. I was flown back stateside. Spent months at the base recuperating and next thing I know, I became the thing that almost killed me. And Eiling's favourite, new lab rat."

"The dark matter must have combined with the bomb particulate inside your body." Caitlin informs her.

"I thought Eiling did this to me." Bette tells them.

"Eiling is not smart enough to create someone like you. Clever enough to see your value though." Wells replied.

"Do you know of any others who were changed?" Bette asked.

"There've been a few." Caitlin told her.

"But no one that looks like you." Cisco said with a smile on his face. Barry does a facepalm, while Macanese glares at him with her mouth open, they were meant to be professional. 'I'm sorry. That was inappropriate. Please don't leave.'

"I know how to perform a lobotomy." Caitlin said as she prepared to take a sample from Bette. A few minutes later they were all looking at it. "Her cellular structure is unlike anything I've ever seen, and I've seen Macanese's."

"Her nitrogen levels are off the charts." Caitlin says as she walks into Bette's room.

"Do you think we can help her?" Macanese questions.

"To answer that question, we have to understand how she works, and to understand that, first we have to study her in action." Wells tells them.

"You want her to blow stuff up?" Cisco asks as he starts to get excited. Yes, now we're talking. Not here. She's too unstable.

"I know. I know you know." Wells sighed.

In the medbay, Caitlin and Bette are talking with each other. "So this is your life now, huh? Testing people like me?" Bette asked.

"Stopping people like you." Caitlin corrects. "It's not what I thought I'd be doing. Actually, aside from Barry and Macanese, you're the first meta-human that we've tested."

"'Meta-human'?" Bette asks.

"It's just a term." Caitlin tells her. Suddenly she notices blood coming out of her shoulder. Oh, my God, what happened? Why didn't you say that you were shot?

"It just grazes." She brushes it off.

"There's something in there." Caitlin tells her, picking up a pair of tweezers and digging into the wound.

Caitlin brings out a small, metal ball looking object. Bette's eyes widen at the sight, knowing what it is. "A tracker." Bette gasped.

Suddenly, the computers start to beep in alarm and Cisco sees Eiling and his men coming up in the elevator. "Lock down the pipeline." Wells orders. "Get Bette out of here. I'll take care of Eiling."

"Harrison Wells. How the mighty have fallen." Eiling chuckles.

"General." Wells spits out.

"S.T.A.R. Labs. This place used to be so important. Tell me, what does one do after such a spectacular, public failure?" Eiling asks, no kindness in his voice.

"One adapts. One evolves. One becomes intent on reversing one's fortune." Wells tells him, trying to divert from the reasons he knows Eiling is here.

"Always the idealist." Eiling mocks.

"What do you want, Wade?" Wells asks, annoyed.

"Where's my asset?" Eiling says in a serious voice, getting straight to his point.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Wells say, playing dumb.

"We tracked her here, Harrison." Eiling informs him. "Turn her over to me before you see the rest of your precious palace crumble."

"Oh, Wade, Wade, Wade." Wells says.

Eiling motions for his men to look around as he looks at Wells. "We could've changed the world, you and I." He tells him.

Back in the Cortex, Bette picks up a Frisbee and throws it in the air as it quickly turns purple before exploding. "427 kPis. Her Trauzl rating is around 45." Cisco tells them. "That's the same as any plastique. Plastique. Ha... first try!"

Caitlin holds up the boomerang. "Didn't really think this one through, did you?" Cisco looks at her embarrassed.

Barry and Macanese walk alone beside Bette. "Downrange, insurgents started booby trapping cars. The rest of my tour, I was terrified to touch another vehicle." Bette told them. "Now, I'm gonna spend the rest of my life terrified to touch another human being. Have they tried to help you two?" Bette asks.

"Yeah, they've helped us learn how to use our powers. Not reverse them." Macanese tells Bette.

"If they could reverse it so you weren't a meta-human, would you?" Bette asks.

"A friend told us that we were given powers for a reason. That we were chosen." Barry told them. "We don't know if we believe that, but we always wanted to help people. Now we can." Barry finishes telling them before answering his ringing phone. Bette walks away. "Sorry. Hey, Joe."

"I see your little conversation with Iris was a rousing success." Joe sarcastically said to Barry. "She just posted another story about the streak and the machine."

"Joe, we tried. We really tried." Barry tells him.

"She's got her name on it now, Barry." Joe informed him. Atchaco's and Barry's faces pale, this isn't good.

"What? Joe…" Barry tried to say.

"It's my fault, I shouldn't have asked you two to say anything. I just wanted you and Atchaco to know. Okay? Bye" Joe finished as he hung up the phone. Barry sighed and looked at Cisco and Atchaco.

Cisco walks up to Barry and he looks down at the phone. "What was that about?" He asks him.

"Iris posted about the streak and the machine again." Barry complained. "She signed her name to it."

"Oh, that's not good." Cisco answers.

"No." Barry agrees.

"If one of these bad meta-humans we're dealing with figures she knows something…" Atchaco tries to say.

"Then they may target her, I know." Barry said, saying what Atchaco didn't want to say. "What can I do?"

"She might to Barry, but maybe she'll listen to the streak?" Atchaco offered.

"And the machine?" Barry asked. Atchaco nodded.

Later the Streak and the Machine stop outside CC Jitters, and knock on the door to get Iris's attention. "Sorry, we're closed." Iris tells them without looking up. When she did her mouth dropped. "Oh, my God, it's you."

"Iris West, I hear you've been writing about us." Barry said, vibrating his vocal cords and face so that Iris can't recognize him.

"You are real." She gasps. "I should, um... let me just clean up…" She goes over to continue cleaning but Macanese stops her.

"Meet us on the roof." Macanese tells her.

"We'll give you a head start." Barry laughs. Iris smirks and quickly runs towards the roof as the other two leaves and speed up to the roof. After a little bit Iris comes and joins them and they smile at her.

"I need you to stop writing about us." Macanese tells her, hands crossed across her chest, matching Barry's movement.

"There are a lot of people who need someone like you right now. To know that you're out there." Iris reminds them. Barry sighs, he can't have like this. "I have so many questions. Where are you from?"

"I can't say." Barry answers.

"Who are you then?" Iris asks.

"I can't tell you that, either." Barry replies.

"Where we are from does not matter, all that matters is that we are here and helping people. The road to get there plays no part. As for who we are, we are people who will do what we need, to get where this planet needs us to be." Macanese tells her.

"How can you do what you do?" Iris tries, trying to get a proper answer that can help her. Barry zooms around Iris. "You're a terrible interview." She tells him.

"Iris, if I knew how I could do what I could do, I would tell. But trust me when I say, neither of us really know how we can do what we do, and honestly we really don't mind it that way." Macanese informs her. Upon this Barry stops and looks at Iris seriously.

"There's more to this than you can understand." Barry reminds her. "Just trust me, please. I need you to stop."

"Can both of you ever stop?" Iris questions. "Running into buildings and rescuing people without them even knowing that you're there?"

"I don't do this for the glory, neither of us do." Barry replies.

"So why do you?" Iris asks him again. Barry sighs.

"Look, I have this friend, and he had something terrible happen to him when he was a kid. His whole life, he's been telling stories about this impossible thing. And people laughed at him, he had one friend that cared. Shrinks analysed him. And he's been searching for an explanation ever since. But now, suddenly, it's like he and his friend have lost faith." Iris tells them. "But you... you are proof that he wasn't crazy. Help me save my friend."

"He's a lucky guy." Barry tells her before he and Macanese run off. The next day Barry walks into STAR Labs, he walks into the medical room where Atchaco is sitting in Macainian form beside Bette.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Barry asks. "Did Eiling find out you're here?"

"No." Bette answers. "Caitlin was about to give me the not-so-good news." At that, Caitlin shows her the x-ray with a pitiful face.

"The shrapnel in your body has merged with you on a cellular level." Caitlin informs her.

"And the technology required to unsplice your DNA... it hasn't been invented yet." Wells says.

"Bette." Macanese says sadly, taking her hand and holding it in a show of comfort. "It's okay."

"Roger that. I just need a minute." Bette tells them, she then stands up and walks into the cortex. "Don't worry. Pretty sure I can cry without blowing stuff up."

"What now?" Cisco asks them as they sit in the medical wing so they can talk without Bette hearing them.

"She joins us." Barry says like he is stating the obvious. "Becomes a part of the team."

"Barry…" Caitlin says pityly. "You and Macanese have amazing abilities to help people. She makes things explode."

"She's the first meta-human not hell-bent on destroying this city." Macanese reminds them.

"It's too dangerous." Wells tells them.

"Well, she's not going in the pipeline." Barry informs them.

"I'm not suggesting she go in the pipeline, but were she to remain at S.T.A.R. Labs, it would put all of us at risk." Wells retorts.

"From who? Eiling?" Macanese mockes.

"Eiling is a dangerous man, Lady Macanese, you of all people should know that." Wells reminds them. "We do not want him as an enemy."

"After the lighting bolt, what if you hadn't found me or Macanese after her accident?" Barry questioned. "It could've been me. Hunted, on the run, cut off from everyone I know and care about. You guys saved me and Macanese."

"And I want to save her just as badly as you do, Barry, we all do." Replied Caitlin. Later at night Barry walks into his lab, and Macanese comes to help him, despite her being a Lawyer.

"Joe." Barry greets as sees him standing there, probably waiting for him. "What are you doing here?"

"Going over the materials in your mom's case." He tells him. "How's it going with you?"

"Stellar… Atchaco and I made friends with a human bomb who I promised I could help, and then, I couldn't. And I finally diagnosed why Iris is writing about the streak. She's doing it for me. To prove the impossible is possible." Barry summarised.

"How do you know that?" Joe questioned.

"The streak and the machine may have talked to her." Barry admitted.

"Barry, don't you think Iris would recognize your voice?" Joe asked.

"No, I can do this cool thing with my vocal cords, where I vibrate them so I sound like this." Barry said as he vibrated his vocal cords and showed Joe, who laughed. "I know. It's cool, it's cool."

"Whoa." Joe chuckled. "Well, you put that out there now, so… I want to keep her safe."

"You know the only real way to get her to stop is to tell her the truth." Barry admitted.

"Man, you really want to tell her." Joe noticed.

"I tell her everything, I tell Atchaco everything." Barry reminded him.

"Mm... Not everything." Joe said with a raised eyebrow.

"Is it that obvious?" Barry asked.

"Not to her." Joe reassured him.

"But how long have you known for?" Barry asked him.

"I have watched you be in love with Atchaco since you were old enough to know what love is." Joe told him. "And I've been waiting years for you to tell her. But you haven't."

"Guess I was too slow." Barry sighed. "I don't want to harm the friendship we have now, I don't want to feel like I can't help other people with her because we had a disagreement."

"When the universe." Joe stops. "When the Muliverse wants to make something happen, whether it be giving a young man lighting speed or giving a young woman the abilities of a god or just putting two people together, it has a way of figuring those things out. And I gotta get home." Joe walks over to Barry and hugs him before walking out of the room.

"Thanks." Barry calls.

Back at STAR Labs Bette was looking at Barry's suit when she heard someone come into the cortex. "Cisco?" She calls without turning around.

"He went home." Wells replies as Bette turns around and looks at him. "I think Cisco's developing a little bit of a crush on you."

"Not sure I'm prize winning date material anymore." Bette admits.

"Change is hard." Wells tells her. "The same accident that changed you put me in this chair." He points to the arm rests.

"Sorry. I didn't know." Bette looks down at the ground.

"I don't share that story with you to garner sympathy." Wells tells her. "I tell it to you to illustrate a larger point."

"And what point is that?" Bette asks.

"That I would do anything to get back what I lost. As would you." Wells informs her leans forward slightly.

"I would. I just don't know how." Bette said as tears continued to fall down her face.

"You soldiers call yourselves sheep dogs. Am I right?" Wells asked.

"Happy and normal until someone attacks our flock." Bette told him.

"Every good person who was changed that night, people like you, people like Barry Allen, people like Lady Macanese, those people are your flock now, Bette." Wells tells her. "And General Eiling will never stop attacking that flock, and he always gets his target. Unless you stop him. You know your duty, sergeant. Kill Eiling. One last mission. And then you go home."

The next day Atchaco and Barry walk into STAR Labs to see that there is one person missing from how many there normally is in the cortex. "Where's Bette?" Atchaco asked.

"She left." Cisco said with a sad smile.

"What do you mean? Where did she go?" Barry hurringly asked.

"She didn't say anything." Wells informed them.

"Well, where the hell could she be?" Barry asked, anger steadily filling his voice.

Out by a waterfront just on the outskirts of Central City, Bette was waiting for Eiling and the array of soldiers he would surely bring. When they do eventually come, they waste no time in drawing their weapons on her. "On me." Eiling ordered.

"I'm ready to give myself up." Bette surrendered.

"Oh, I highly doubt that." Eiling replied. "You think you can pull one over on me? You can't. Stand down, soldier."

Back at STAR Labs Atchaco spaces out a bit before looking back on them. "I got back on the military feed." She tells them as Cisco brings the feed up on the big monitor so they all can see. "Looks like they've gone to the waterfront to rendezvous with Bette. She's turning herself in."

"She's not turning herself in." Barry said as Atchaco changed into her Macanian form, and Barry changed into his super suit. The others nodded, knowing this was the only way and with that the 2 sped out of there.

"Please, let them get to her in time." Cisco said as the sparks they left behind disappeared into the air.

Back by the waterfront, Eiling walked a little closer to Bette, but was careful not to get too close. "All over the world, people are plotting to destroy our country. To end our lives. Brave American soldiers are gonna die in that fight, but they don't have to. Because of you, we could have victory." He told her.

"All I've ever wanted was to make the world a safer place." Bette reminded him as she picked up some rocks and her hands started to glow slightly. "And it will be when you're not in it." She looks at them and launches the rocks at them.

"Take cover!" Eiling shouts at the soldiers, making them all run and jump out of the way as the rocks land on the ground and explode, leaving Eiling unconscious on the ground. Bette walks closer to his still form with her glowing hand out infront of her. She was about to crouch down to kill him when Barry and Macanese appeared in front of her.

"What are you doing here?" She hisses at them.

"Being a soldier doesn't mean you're a murderer." Macanese tells her. "I'm a soilder of a different army, one not of earth and I have never killed, I never became a murderer and nor have you. So don't become one now." Suddenly Eiling wakes up slightly as he grabs his gun. He snarls as he aims in at Bette, and without hesitation he shoots her right in the chest, surprising the two speedster enough that they never had time to react.

"We're sorry." Barry apologised as they knelt down beside her. "We didn't see him."

"Don't be." Bette told them. "It's not your fault. I'm glad you stopped me." She gives them a weak smile.

"We're gonna get you back to S.T.A.R. Labs." Macanese told her.

"Barry, Macanese." She croaked out. "Dr. Wells. He... he…" She said as her breaths became shallower and shallower, never finishing her sentence as her last breath gave way. The two looked at each other with grief stricken faces, but the look on lasted a moment as they suddenly noticed that she had started to glow purple.

"Guys, we have a problem." Barry said into his ear piece.

"Is Bette okay?" Cisco questioned.

"No. Eiling killed her." Macanese stated, her voice filled with anger.

"She's glowing. She's gonna detonate." Barry informed them.

"Oh, my God, a mass that size, the explosion, it would be…" Caitlin started to say.

"Devastating." Wells finished for her. "Barry, Macanese, you have to get her away from the city."

"But there's no time." Macanese reminded them.

"Can I run on water?" Barry asked. "I built up enough speed to run up a building. How fast do I need to go to run on water?"

"Assuming your weight…" Cisco said as he started to do the maths. "450 pounds of force per step for vertical suspension. Accounting for fluid drag."

"Approximately 650 miles an hour." Wells told them.

"I'll do it, my cybernetics will protect me from the blast, I have a higher chance of living." Macanese said, turning towards him.

"I have to do it, I made a mistake and I have to correct it." Barry told her. "Besides, I can run on water, your cybernetics make your weight much bigger, it would be too hard for you to run on water."

"Okay." Macanese said. "But you'll have to outrun the blast or you'll die too." Barry picks up Bette's motionless body and runs on top of the water. When he got far enough he dropped Bette into the ocean. As her body sank into the water she glowed brighter and brighter until she exploded. Barry started to run back to land as Macanese waited for him. By the time he got to land the explosion had finished and Macanese looked at him sadly.

Later, back at STAR Labs, everyone was watching Eiling give a speech on the news about the explosion that Bette had created. Everything he was saying was a complete lie, and they couldn't do anything to stop what he was saying at the moment, or in Macanese's case, didn't want to. "Nothing out of the ordinary occurred." Eiling told them. "The military was simply conducting an underwater weapons test. There is no need for panic or alarm. Central City is safe. I guarantee you." Barry stared at the screen with his mouth open wide.

"He murdered Bette right in front of us." Barry growled. "And there's nothing we can do to him."

"Powerful men have a way of avoiding consequences." Wells tells them.

"You gonna be okay?" Caitlin asks the two. Atchaco nods.

"Yeah." Barry told her.

"You can walk on water. Puts you in pretty interesting company." Caitlin says to Barry.

Later at Joe's house, Iris was sitting at the dining room table when Barry walks through the door, being stopped by Iris. "If you came to do laundry, I already have a load in." He told him.

"Uh, no. I-I came to talk." Barry replies, sitting across from her. "Lady Macanese and I were working on a case. Someone I really thought I could help and friend. But they died."

"Barry, I'm really sorry." Iris gasped.

"We didn't know her that well. But it still hurts." Barry tells her. "And as bad as I feel right now, I know how much worse it is to lose someone who's family. Iris... Writing about this stuff, putting your name out there, it's dangerous. So I'm asking you one last time, please, stop."

"And I am asking you one last time to tell me what is really going on with you. Why am I the only one of us who's interested in this?" Iris complained.

"I guess, just, all this stuff with my family, I finally just put it behind me...I'm asking you to also." Barry informed her.

"That may have been how this started, but it's about something more than that for me now. Whoever this streak and the machine are, wherever they come from, I am not stopping until the rest of the world believes in them." Iris stood her ground.

"Maybe we shouldn't see each other for a while." Barry sighed, looking into her eyes.

"Yeah.

Later Barry was sitting alone at a bar, he was upset about the events that had happened that day. "Can I get another club soda, please?" Barry asked the bartender. Barry then saw someone lean over the bar with a prosthetic hand.

"Make that two, mate." They said. Barry looked up and saw Atchaco standing there and he was surprised. Why was she here?

"Hey." Atchaco greets him as she sits down, Cisco and Caitlin who had just come in following suit.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here?" Barry asked.

"We thought we should have a toast." Cisco said.

"Doesn't work on us, remember?" Atchaco said with an eyebrow raised.

"Barry Allen, Atchaco Cornwall, you two of all people should know that nothing is impossible." Caitlin says putting two vials on the table in front of them. "I distilled a highly fermented, potent suspension."

"It's basically 500 proof." Cisco sumerised. "I figured if anybody could use a drink tonight, it was you. So here's to Bette."

"Bette." Atchaco said, raising her glass and then clicked them together and drank their shots. "Crap."

"Whoa, oh. That hit too quickly." Barry complained as he and Atchaco laughed.

"Are you buzzed?" Cisco asked with a smile on his face.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm buzzed for sure." Atchaco replied. "Even my cybernetics weren't halting that."

"Whoa. Whoa, that is good stuff." Barry told him. "And it's gone." They sighed.

"Work in progress." Caitlin reminded them.

"For a guy who has experienced his fair share of mysteries, one mystery I still can't figure out is why some people come into our lives." Barry said to Atchaco. "Why do some people go, and others become a part of you? Some friendships feel like they'll last forever."

At the West household. "Hey, sweetheart." Joe said he walked into his home and saw Iris sitting in the living room.

"Hey. There's dinner in the fridge." She said without turning around.

"Okay, thanks. Iris, about your blog…" Joe tries to say.

"I don't want to talk about it, okay?" Iris pushes him off and goes to sit with Barry.

"And others end far too soon. Not every friendship is meant to last a lifetime. What does last forever is the pain when that person is gone." Macanese says, looking back at Barry as she gets a notification of an inturdered going into STAR Labs, Macanese ignores it when she sees who it is, Dr Wells will want to handle it.

General Eiling walks into the cortex and alarms sound, letting Harrison know that he has broken in. "I was wrong about you, Harrison. You're still one step ahead. Impressive for a man without the use of his legs."

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about, Wade."

"A girl who can transform ordinary objects into explosives with the touch of her hand." He replied. "Today I saw a man who can move faster than the blink of an eye. Today I also saw a woman with a cyborg body and powers beyond human comprehension. Extraordinary things really. The night your particle accelerator died was the night the impossible was born. I think we should start working together again, Harrison."

"I think you should leave." Dr Wells retorts.

"You know, I can have a squadron of soldiers here in minutes." He reminds him, trying to sound threatening.

"You know, I can have an army of press here like that." Dr Wells says, snapping his fingers. "Believe me, General, I'd be more than happy to testify to your involvement in activities that were less than humane. Threaten me again and I will end you, General. And I am not talking about your career." He threatens.

"You know, I figured out your little secret, Wells." He informs him and Dr Wells doesn't even flinch. "Won't be long before the public catches on as well."

"This is everything we've been working to achieve." Dr Well tell him. "We may have the same goals, General, but not the same means."

"I will not have this project end before it even begins." He argues.

"And as long as he's on my premises, I will not have him subjected to that kind of cruelty anymore." Dr Wells tells him angrily. "We're done. We're done. General. Get out." He looks at him a little scared before walking backwards and walking out of STAR Labs. Dr Wells wheels off to another room and he looks into the corner of the ceiling before standing up and kneeling down in front of a cage. Inside a gorilla is sitting in wait looking scared. "Hey. It's okay." He reasures it as it breathes heavily. "It's okay, boy. It's okay. He's gone. Don't you worry. I have a whole different future in mind for you."