Episode 12 - The Sound and The Fury

Later at night, the police were chasing three people driving motorcycles through the city as a red streak and a violet one zoomed across the city and passed the officers. "Everyone has a hero, someone they look up to or admire, someone they just wish they could be." Barry says as he and Macanese follow the motorcyclists. "It's easy to believe in heroes. What's hard is when our heroes stop believing in us."

"Oh, Barry, Macanese, there's an intersection coming up. Hurry!" Caitlin calls through the comms.

"This should slow 'em down." Cisco smiles. He presses some keys on the computer, which was connected to the stoplights, causing it to stop on red. This made all the cars stop but it just made the criminals speeding on the motorcycles split up.

"Guys, which way?" Barry asked them.

"Left." Caitlin called.

"Right." Cisco answered.

"Right." Caitlin replied.

"Left." Cisco argued.

"Stop!" Macanese ordered. "You both hear you're telling us two different things, right?"

Wells wheels in and goes over to the comm system. "Barry, Macanese, listen up. Listen carefully. Here is what you're going to do. Now, the Queen is trying to make it to the bridge, but I have a shortcut wait for it, and left... left... Right…"

Barry and Atchaco were listening to Wells's orders and they went two lefts and then did a sharp right until they reached where they needed to go. "I see her!" Barry shouts.

"Make her go west before Fremont." Wells tells them.

"Okay, how?" Barry asked.

"I'd recommend a detour." Wells smiles. Barry and Atchaco blow her way with some traffic cones. "Now, the King is headed for the entrance to the interstate."

Macanese zooms inside the van and uses it to block the king's pathway. "What entrance?" She asks.

"Atta girl." Wells cheers as all the criminals all meet up at a crossroads. "Check…"

Barry and Macanese zoom around the criminals and take their keys. "Got the keys." Barry tells him.

"Mate." Wels finishes as the cops surround the criminals and Barry and Macanese zoom away.

At STAR Labs, Barry walks into the Cortex first and Cisco walks up to him. "Give me some!" Cisco laughs. Macanese follows closer after and high fives Cisco as well. "Yeah!" Cisco cheers.

"Efficiently done, Mr. Allen, Lady Macanese." Wells compliments them.

"We need a picture." Cisco suddenly said.

"Pretty sure rule number one of having a secret identity is not taking pictures of yourself in your super suit without a mask on." Atchaco admits.

"Oh, come on, please!" Cisco begged. "This is just for us. This is to document all this."

"Who knows?" Wells wonders. "Maybe people in the future will want to know how all this happened."

"All right, well, if you want the future to have the whole story, then, we all need to be in it." Barry reminds them.

"First, let me put on some makeup?" Caitlin questioned.

"The future does not care about your makeup." Cisco answers.

"Besides, you already look great the way you are." Macanese complimented as Cisco gives Barry his phone and he stands next to Wells. Macanese goes and stands beside Cisco and Caitlin stands on the other side of Wells, leaving a space between Macanese and Caitlin for Barry to stand in.

"Okay." Barry says, readying the phone. "Big smiles." Everyone smiles apart from Macanese. "Three... two... one." Barry then clicks the button, zooms and stands next to Macanese as the picture gets taken and then goes back to where he was standing and holds the phone. "Ha!"

"Does that count as a selfie?" Caitlin asks.

"Absolutely." Macanese answers as she goes into civilian form and Barry hands Cisco back his phone.

"Sick. Came out good." Cisco laughs as he looks at the photo.

"Thanks for talking us through things out there." Barry tells Wells as he walks back over to him.

"My pleasure." Wells replies. "Well done. I have to say it was a bit of a rush feeling like a…"

"A hero." Barry suggests.

"Yeah." Wells agreed.

"You're pretty good at it." Barry admits and then he walks out of the room with his arm around Atchaco's shoulder.

Later at Joe's house, Barry and Atchaco walk in to see Iris standing there. "Hey." Atchaco and Barry said in unison.

"Hey." Iris returned.

"You do realise the whole point of moving out is not being at home anymore, right?" Atchaco questioned.

"Ha-ha-ha." Iris answers. "I forgot a few things." She turns towards Barry. "So... how is it living back at the house?"

"Hey, Bar? Hey, Atchaco." Joe greets them as he walks in.

"Yo." Barry replied.

"Atchaco, are you going to be staying for dinner?" Joe asks.

"Of course, you can't get rid of me that easily." Atchaco smiled.

"Great." Joe said as he turned to Iris. "Babe... spaghetti a la me. You sure you don't want to stay for dinner?"

"Thanks, but Eddie is painting all day and I swore that I would help." Iris answered. "Although, I'm really just going to do that thing where I get a little paint on my hair and on my nose."

Joe laughed slightly. "Oh, hey, someone from Central City Picture News called you the other day, I left the number on the fridge." Joe informs her.

"What? Why didn't you tell me?" Iris questioned.

"Chill! Just did." Joe reminded her and Iris ran over to the kitchen.

"Hey, I heard that some members of the Royal Flush Gang are headed to prison." Joe tells the two speedsters and they nod, and then they hear a scream and Iris comes running back into the room. "Is that a good scream or a bad scream?"

"Good!" Iris squeals. "So good! I just got offered a job as a reporter at Central City Picture News."

"That's awesome!" Barry replies.

"The editor's a fan of my blog!" Iris admits.

"That is amazing." Atchaco tells her and Iris quickly gives her a hug.

"Oh, my God!" Iris cheers.

"Oh, God." Joe gasps with a smile on his face.

Later, Wells wheels into his home and once inside, he steps out of his chair with a soft smile on his face. He walks around his house as he turns on his stereo and listens to some opera music. As Wells makes himself a drink his phone vibrates and he answers it. "Harrison Wells." He greets the person on the other end and all of a sudden his stereo shuts off without him even having to touch it. "Hello?" He asks them.

"We both know what you did." A voice calls and Wells hangs up his phone while walking over to his safe. He quickly pulls out a gun and points it into the air. "It's time to pay the piper!" The voice calls again, this time through some speakers, and the glass above him shatters and Wells uses his little amount of speed to get out of the path of the falling glass.

The next morning, cops were all over Well's house when Joe, Barry and CyAmze arrive on the scene, the three of them didn't even know the house belonged to Wells's until the front doors opened and Wells wheeled himself out. "Come in." Wells tells them. "Look, Joe, I apologise for all of this. It just... it really feels like a case of so much for so little. The police should not have been called. I got a prank call before all this happened." The others look behind him to see glass all over his house.

"This feels like more than just a prank, Doctor." Joe points out.

"Well, there are those who feel I did not suffer enough from the particle accelerator explosion of last year, and some of them act on it." Wells reminds them as Caitlin and Cisco rush over to them.

"Dr. Wells. Dr. Wells, are you okay?" Caitlin asks him.

"Dr. Snow, I'm... I'm fine." he tells her. "A little chilly. Otherwise, I'm fine. Hello, Cisco. Make yourselves at home as best you can. I'm gonna make a hotel reservation." Wells then wheels himself away.

"Oh... This place is so sick." Cisco laughs as he looks around.

"Yeah... hey, what took you guys so long?" Barry asked.

"We got lost." Cisco answered.

"We've never been here before." Caitlin admits.

"Really? Never?" CyAmze questioned.

"He tends to keep his private life private." Caitlin tells them.

Suddenly, Wells is pulled into a flashback of an event that had happened in his house. Wells was playing chess with another man, and both were speaking in Latin. "A precipice in front, and wolves behind." Wells tells the other man.

"In other words, you're between a rock and a hard place. Check." The man says.

"The King is dead." Wells says, making his final move.

"Checkmate." The man replied as Cisco walks up and knocks on the glass door, he has his hair in a ponytail and a suit jacket on.

"Dr. Wells?" He questions.

"There he is." Wells answers as he stands up from the table. "Hartley, allow me to introduce you to Cisco Ramon. Mr. Ramon here is one of the finest mechanical engineers I have ever seen."

"Wow. I can't believe Harrison Wells said that about me." Cisco gaps.

"I'm sure he'll prove to be an invaluable member of your team. Trust me." Wells tells them.

"You, I trust." Harley replies. "I don't foresee myself trusting someone who showed up to his first day of work at a billion dollar research facility wearing a T-shirt that says 'Keep Calm and Han Shot First.'"

"Huh... would you give us a minute please, Cisco?" Wells questions.

"Yes, sir." Cisco answers and walks out of the room.

"I realise you don't have to explain your hiring decisions to me, but maybe for the sake of a fun exercise, we could pretend you did." Harley told Wells.

"I have a good feeling about him. Just as I did about you." Wells admits.

"Oh…" Harley laughs.

"Hartley... You're still my guy." Wells reassures him. "And nothing and no one is ever going to change that." And then Wells is pulled out of the flashback.

In the kitchen at Wells's house, Eddie walks up to Joe. "I canvassed the street." Eddie tells Joe. "No other reports of vandalism. No strange cars. Get this... Wells says he's right there when it happened. All that glass shattering down around him and he can't walk?"

"And he didn't have a scratch on him." Joe pointed out.

In another part of the house, Barry and CyAmze were looking at the glass from the room and in seconds they had put one part of the glass pieces of the window back together like it was a puzzle as Wells came into the room. "There's no point of impact." CyAmze notices. "No rock or bat or... any solid object went through these windows. It's as if they just shattered themselves."

"This wasn't some teenage prank?" Barry asked.

"No, it wasn't." Wells shakes his head.

"But you don't want our help. Why?" CyAmze questioned.

"Because I already know who did this." Wells admits. "Hartley Rathaway."

"Who is Hartley Rathaway?" Barry asked.

"Hartley Rathaway is the prodigal son. And he has returned." Wells explains.

Later, at STAR Labs, everyone was looking at one of the monitors in the Cortex. "Hartley Rathaway possesses one of the finest scientific minds I've ever encountered." Wells informs them.

"Any ties to Rathaway Industries?" Joe questioned.

"His grandfather founded the company, his father expanded it, and Hartley here was set to inherit the throne." Wells tells them.

"What happened?" Barry asked.

"He came out to his parents. Old money, old values." Caitlin explains.

"They were estranged when we met, but brilliant. I couldn't have built the particle accelerator without him." Wells admits.

"You guys have never even mentioned his name." Atchaco noticed.

"That's because Hartley had a challenging personality." Caitlin told them.

"What she means is he was mostly a jerk. But, every once in a while, he could be a dick." Cisco simplifies and Joe laughs.

"Let's just say that Hartley, like many outliers, had trouble relating to his peers." Wells said.

"Yes, but he was always your favourite." Caitlin pointed out.

"The chosen one. He referred to himself like that." Cisco admitted.

"So if you two were so close, why would he target you?" Joe questioned.

"Hartley left S.T.A.R. Labs about a year ago after we had a... a disagreement." Wells summerises.

"About what?" Joe asked.

"Look, don't worry." Barry said. "We'll stop him. We won't let him hurt you, any of you. Let's get back to our lab, all right?" Joe and Atchaco nodded and they left the room.

"I could've gone my whole life without seeing that jerk again." Cisco told the others as he was pulled into a flashback. Cisco was walking in the hallway with Hartley and then walked into the lab. "Yo. This place is so dope." Cisco smiled.

"What a coincidence. We were thinking of making 'Yo. This place is so dope' our new slogan." Hartley jokes.

"If you're so convinced, Dr. Wells made a mistake in hiring me, why don't you try proving it to him?" Cisco questioned.

"Magnetic flux is measured by what?" Harley asked.

"Hall effect pick up." Cisco answered.

"The dual of a parallel R-C circuit?" Hartley continued.

"Series R-L circuit. I can go all day, pal." Cisco chuckles.

Caitlin slowly clapped as she walked up to them. "Hartley, it looks like you have met your match." She tells him as she shakes Cisco's hand. "I am Dr. Caitlin Snow. It's very nice to meet you."

"Cisco Ramon." Cisco introduced. "Nice to meet you."

"And just ignore Hartley. We all do." Caitlin smiles.

"Tell your boyfriend I need his specs on the synchrotron by the end of day." Hartley ordered.

"Actually, it is the end of Ronnie's day." Caitlin informs him. "We are leaving early." She turns towards Cisco. "My boyfriend is taking me out of town for our one-year anniversary."

"Aw. That's sweet." Cisco tells her.

"Thanks." She replies. "I'll see you guys on Monday." She finishes as she walks away.

"See ya." Cisco calls before turning to face Hartley. "She seems nice. You don't."

"I give you a week. Max." Hartley warned. Cisco glared at him and was then pulled back into the present.

Iris walks into Central City Picture News with a smile on her face and goes to sit next to someone at a random table. "Hi. I'm Iris West. It's my first day." Iris smiled.

"I can see that." A man replied.

"Really? Does it show?" Iris questioned.

"Uh, the fact that I've never seen you before shows." The man answers as another person, probably the boss, walks in.

"Mr. Bridge! Nice of you to make an appearance at a staff meeting." The boss says.

"I do love a good shmear." Mason replies.

"Everyone, welcome Iris West, our new cub." Larkin introduced. "Anyone want to volunteer to be her mama bear?" The turn to Mason. "Mason, you picked a bad day to actually show up."

"I don't nanny." Mason growls.

"I lost the ability to make a joke back in '05." She reminds him. "Today, you do. Deadlines. All new stories are due on my desk at the end of the day."

"Oh, actually, I had an idea for a piece." Iris tells them. "There's this program in Keystone that helps battered women get back on their feet."

"Ah, that sounds really great, West." Larkin tells her. "But actually, any thoughts on a piece about The Flash and Thunder, something you haven't written about yet, something new?"

"Um, no. Not currently." Iris answers.

"All right." Larkin replies. "Sally forth, everyone. Sally forth."

Later at Barry and CyAmze's lab, they were both demonstrating something to Joe. "Everything has a natural frequency." Barry reminds him as she hits a wine glass with a fork and it tings.

"And since sound is expressed as a vibration, if the pitch of the sound matches the natural vibration frequency of an object, then…" CyAmze continues and Barry puts on protective glasses. CyAmze then turns the knob on a machine and it emitted a high pitched frequency and shattered the wine glass, and everyone laughs.

"So, you're saying that can happen to anything, Not just glass?" Joe asked.

"Oh, yeah." Barry answered. "I think that's absolutely what happened to the windows at Wells' house."

"He's using some kind of sonic technology, like my sonic cannon in my arm." CyAmze explains changing her arm into said weapon momentarily.

"I'm getting this feeling that Wells is hiding something... about what's going on with this Rathaway character…" Joe said as he reached for something.

"Don't touch that!" Barry orders. "I mean, it sounds like this Hartley guy was a pill before he went all super villain, so I... I get why he never mentioned him."

"Like he never mentions his girlfriend that got killed." Joe sighed.

"No." CyAmze agreed. "How do you know about her?"

"He's taking up a big part of our lives." Joe reminded them. "I wanted to know more about him."

"I mean, if you want to know more about him, you could just ask me." Barry pointed out.

"Sounds like you don't know him as well as you think." Joe notices as Eddie walks in.

"Joe. Multiple 911 calls. Rathaway Industries is under attack. Sector cars are en route." Eddie informs him and then the two of them walk out the room as Barry's phone buzzes.

"Hey. Barry, it's Caitlin." Caitlin said as Barry answered the phone.

"I think I know why you're calling." Barry tells her.

Minutes later, Harley was breaking all the windows at Rathaway Industries with a set of special gloves he was wearing when the police arrived. Harley turned around and used the gloves on their cars. "Get down on the ground!" Yelled one of the police officers.

Macanese and Barry zoomed up to Hartley and shoved him onto the ground. "It's over, Rathaway." Macanese tells him.

"You know my name." Harley chuckles "I know some names too. Caitlin Snow. Cisco Ramon. Harrison Wells. I can hear the radio waves emanating from your suit." He points at Barry and then points at Macanese. "And your cybernetics. About 1900 megahertz. Is that them on the other end, listening? Are they gonna hear you die?"

"No. They're going to hear you get your ass kicked." Barry laughs.

"Okay." Hartley smiles as he emits the sonic waves from his gloves and Barry goes crashing into a glass column. He then turns to Macanese and does the same thing to her, and she goes flying across the floor and Harley chuckles. Barry then slowly stands up and zooms around the police, throwing their batons at Hartley, then using that moment of distraction from Hartley, Barry zooms over to him and takes his gloves. Macanese zooms behind Hartley and trips him up by grabbing his leg and flipping him over before putting her foot on his chest to keep him from leaving.

"Looks like you're not as smart as everyone says." Barry informs him.

"Smart enough to have figured out who Harrison Wells really is." Hartley admits. "You see, I know his secret."

Later, at STAR Labs, Barry, who was still in his suit, was holding Harley by the arms as Macanese stood behind them just in case Hartley tried to escape. "Being scooped up by a guy clad in head-to-toe leather is a long-time fantasy of mine, so thanks." Hartley jokes.

"Well, beating up and bringing justice to a douchebag who doesn't know what he is really doing, was one of mine, so thank you." Macanese smiled as Cisco and Caitlin walked into the room.

"Well, well, well, the gang's all here." Hartley notices. "You've lasted a lot longer than I would've thought, Cisco."

"And you didn't last ten seconds against The Flash and Thunder." Cisco comments.

"I was thinking of calling myself Pied Piper." Hartley tells him.

"Hey! I assign the nicknames around here. Although that one's not bad." Cisco admits.

"Caitlin... Never did get that wedding invite." Hartley laughs.

"Shut the hell up!" Barry orders as he shoves Hartley.

Cisco pushes Hartley in front of him and then shoves him forward. "Stay in front of me."

Minutes later everyone is standing inside the pipeline with Hartley standing in one of the cells. "The scanner is detecting foreign metallic objects in your ears. Take 'em out." Cisco orders as he looks at the scanner.

"I can't." Hartley replies. "I suffered head trauma when S.T.A.R. Labs exploded. My hearing was severely damaged. Without these, I'm in pain you can't imagine." Caitlin walks in and stands next to Cisco. "We all lost something that night. Ha. Very clever repurposing the anti-proton cavities into confinement cells. Wells' idea, I'm sure."

"It was mine, actually." Cisco corrects.

"Cisco… Sigas suplicando la aprobación de tu maestro. (Cisco… Still begging for his master's approval.) " Hartley mocked.

"Si eres tan inteligente, ¿por qué te encuentras en una jaula? (If you're so smart, why are you in a cage?) " Cisco asked him.

"Hartley, don't make this more difficult than it has to be." Caitlin begged.

"J'ai oublié. Vous ne l'aimez émotions. Ils sont salissants. (I forgot. You don't like emotions. They're messy.)" Harley laughed.

"Enough, Hartley." Wells argued as he wheeled into the pipeline. "Give us a minute."

"See you soon, Cisco." Hartley calls as Cisco and Caitlin start to walk out.

"Doubt it!" Cisco shouts back as he walks out of the pipeline with Caitlin.

"Vestra silentium loquitur volumina. (Your silence speaks volumes.) " Hartley tells him.

"Nemo surdior est quam is qui non audiet. (No man is more deaf than he who will not hear.) " Wells replies.

Atchaco and Barry were sitting at the monitors as they watched and listened to what was happening downstairs. "God, I wish I'd taken a language in high school." Barry complained.

"Thank goodness for Triton." Atchaco laughs as she looks at Barry, who is now glaring at her.

Back down in the pipeline Wells was talking with Hartley. "How did you know we were working with The Flash and Thunder?" Wells asked him.

"I wrote a hexagonal algorithm tracking all of their sightings, extrapolating a theoretical exit trajectory. In other words, every time they ran from the scene of a crime, they ran in this general direction." Hartley explained.

"You are brilliant. And... any anguish you have been through because of me was never my intent." Wells reminds him.

"Not bad…" Hartley admits. "As far as heartfelt apologies go. Except that wasn't for my benefit. That was for both of you, Flash, Thunder. Feels good to have the great Harrison Wells behind you, doesn't it? But one day, this man will turn on you two…" Hartley laughs as he glances at the camera in the corner. "In a flash... And even you two won't see it coming. I only hope that he leaves you two in better shape than he left me. If you're lucky, you'll only be dead. Because every day I have to live with the agonising, piercing screaming in my ears." Hartley laughs again. "I almost forgot... I told your pets I know your deep, dark secret, Harrison. Have fun letting them in on that one."

Minutes later, Wells wheels into the Cortex where everyone was waiting for him. "I assume you were all listening." Wells said. "Well, Hartley was telling the truth. I have not been honest with you. With any of you. The accelerator... Hartley warned me that there was indeed a chance that the accelerator could explode. His data did not show 100% certainty, just that there was a risk, but it was a real risk. And yet I made the decision that the reward... that... everything we could learn and everything we could achieve, that all of that... simply outweighed that risk. I'm sorry."

"Then the next time you choose to put our lives, and the lives of the people that we love, at risk, I'll expect a heads up." Caitlin growls as she storms out of the room. Cisco glares at Cisco and doesn't say anything as he two storms out.

"After the explosion, when everyone else left you... Caitlin and Cisco stood by you. You owe them more than an apology." Atchaco reminded him.

"They might soon get more than that with Hartley so intent on sending me to the next world." Wells replies.

"What are... that wouldn't make it right with them." Barry informed him.

"You broke their trust. Our trust." Atchaco told him. They both look at Wells and sigh as they walk out of the room.

In another part of Central City, Iris walked over to her new boss. "Oh! Hi, chief. Is that what people call you?" Iris questioned.

"Uh, no. Not really. Listen, eyewitnesses say that The Flash and Thunder thwarted an attack downtown today. Look into it." Larkin ordered.

"Uh, yeah, sure." Iris answered.

"Great." Larkin smiles. "Mason, you're looking particularly rumpled today."

"Mm-hmm." Mason grumbled as he continued to work, and did not even bother to glance up at his boss as Iris walked over.

"So, what are we working on?" Iris asked him.

"I am following up on a lead on corruption at the DWP." Mason answers. "You... well, I think you just got your assignment from Larkin, didn't you?"

"Look, I'm not stupid, okay?" Iris replied. "I know that Larkin hired me because he thinks that I have some sort of in with The Flash and Thunder. But I am serious about being a journalist."

"Why?" Mason wondered. "Because you write a blog? My mother writes a blog."

"I may not have a lot of experience, but I do have…" Iris tried to argue.

"Spunk?" Mason butted in. "Grit? Gumption? What is this, a Chick-Lit novel?"

Later at Jitters, Barry and Atchaco were sitting together, and were both sulking when Iris walked in. "No, no, no, I am having the worst day ever." Iris complained. "We can't all be having the worst day ever. Okay? And I was really looking forward to getting some good complaining in."

"Well, fire away." Atchaco sighed.

"Okay, well, turns out that the real reason they hired me is because they think I have some sort of connection to The Flash and Thunder, which I don't." Iris explained. "Not anymore, well at least with the Flash anyway. And I've been teamed up with Mason Bridge, who is a legend, who I admired, before he told me I was a worthless, talentless millennial."

"Well, the people we admire aren't always who we'd like them to be," Barry reminded her.

"Well said." Iris complimented. "So, I'm screwed."

"No, look…" Atchaco stated. "If this Mason guy doesn't see what a talented journalist you are, then he's probably a lousy writer."

"He won the Pulitzer. Twice, I think." Iris said.

"Oh. Good for him." Barry replies.

"Thanks, Barry, Atchaco. Having someone believe in me, it's, um... a small... really, really big thing." Iris mumbled.

"Yeah." Barry answered as Atchaco smiled a little.

"Yeah." Iris agreed.

Back at STAR Labs, Cisco was tinkering away at Hartley's gloves when Caitlin walked in. "Where's Dr. Wells?" Caitlin asked him.

"I'm not sure." Cisco answered. "Barry and Atchaco were right. Hartley was using sonic resonance. The intensity regulator's measuring decibels. But you know what's weird? He had it set to the lowest setting."

"What do you mean?" Caitlin questioned walking over to him.

"Well... He could've completely destroyed his father's building if he wanted to in one blast." Cisco explained.

"So, why not just do it and leave?" Caitlin asked. "I mean, why stick around and run the risk of getting caught?"

"Unless he wanted to be caught." Cisco realised as he ran over to the computers to see the live feed of the pipeline cell they were keeping Hartley in., but find him gone, so Cisco wastes no time in pushing a button that sounds an alarm through the building. "Dr. Wells! There's been a pipeline breach." Cisco called into the intercom system.

Wells was in his secret room when he had heard Cisco so he sped out of there. "Hartley." He screamed as he stumbled against the wall, his speed draining. "Ah! Not now."

Cisco ran out of the Cortex and told Caitlin to stay where she was. Down in the pipeline, however, Hartley had taken out a metallic object from one of his ears and automatically started to hear a high pitched frequency. He groaned at the sound but powered through it and stuck the object on the door of the pipeline and then took off. A few seconds later, Cisco runs into the pipeline and it explodes leaving Hartley to walk out with a smile on his face.

Back up in the Cortex the alarms were still blaring away. "Cisco, can you hear me?" Caitlin shouted. Caitlin turned around and Hartley was standing right behind her, Caitlin looked scared momentarily before being hit across the face and rendered unconscious. Hartley quickly grabs his gloves and runs over to the computer. He takes a usb and sticks it into the computer and starts to download the files while fighting the pain from the ringing in his ear.

In the hallway, Wells was still laying on the floor, but he quickly takes out his phone and calls Barry. "Hey, what's up?" Barry asks when he picks up his phone.

"Listen to me Hartley escaped. He's loose in the facility." Wells informs him.

"Okay." Barry gasps. Atchaco looks at Barry but she doesn't even have to ask anything and so they both zoom out of Jitters. Iris was walking back to their table with her coffee. "Okay, your turn, why are you having the worst day…" Her voice trails off when she realises that Atchaco and Barry are gone.

Back in the hallway of STAR Labs, Wells was still lying on the ground trying to get up when Hartley walked up to him and kneeled down so that Wells could see his face. "Tell me, Harrison. Am I still you guy?" Hartley questions with a grin on his face. Seconds later, Barry and Atchaco arrive to see Caitlin lying on the floor.

"Hey! Are you okay?" Atchaco asks her.

"Yeah, uh, Cisco and Dr. Wells." She groans. They both zoom out of the room, but stopped when they found Wells, sitting in his chair, in front of the elevators.

"He's gone." He tells him.

Later, Cisco is laying down on a bed when he starts to stir. He slowly peels open his eyes to see Atchaco and Barry standing there. "Hey." Barry smiles.

"Welcome back, Mr. Ramon." Atchaco greets.

"Ooh." Cisco groans as he sits up. "Oh, man. Caitlin?"

"Hey. She's fine." Barry reassures him as he points towards Caitlin.

"You need to rest." Caitlin tells him as she walks up to where she is sitting. "You have a concussion. You're lucky."

"Please tell me you got him." Cisco begged and Atchaco and Barry shaked their heads.

"I guess the attack on his family's company was a fake out so we'd catch him." Atchaco explained.

"And give him direct access to S.T.A.R. Labs." Caitlin sighed.

"Why?" Barry asked.

"I should've known he was up to something. This is my fault." Cisco complained.

"Hey, man. This is on us, too." Atchaco reminds him.

"I shouldn't have left before…" Barry tried to say.

"This is no one's fault but mine." Wells tells them as he wheels into the room. "I earned the blame... I'm not interested in sharing it. Hartley doesn't think I've paid for my crimes. And he's right. He won't stop until I do." Wells starts to wheel away.

"Where are you going?" Atchaco questioned.

"To earn back your trust." Wells answers as he is pulled into a flashback. Wells was standing in front of the door to the pipeline when Hartley walked out of it. "Hmm... now what were you doing in my accelerator?" Wells asks him.

"Thought it was our accelerator." Hartley answers. "Because it will be our fault if we turn this thing on and blow a hole in Central City."

"Non facile de terra ad sidera via. (The road from Earth to the stars is not easy) " Wells replies.

"You are waging the lives of everyone in this building." Hartley explains. "Everyone in this city. If you don't have the courage to admit you could be wrong, I will do it for you." Hartley then starts to walk away.

"Hartley Rathaway…" Wells calls but Hartley does not stop walking away. He only does so when four guards go and stand in front of him. "Your position at S.T.A.R. Labs is terminated."

"If you think you can shut me up…" Hartley tries to say.

"Oh, I know I can, Hartley." Wells reminds him. "Because if you breathe one word of any kind of unsubstantiated accusation, I will make sure the only job you ever get in physics is teaching it to high school juniors." Hartley just glares at Wells before he leaves with the guards and then Wells comes out of the flashback.

At the precinct, reporters, including Mason and Iris, were there as Wells was giving a press conference. "What is going on here?" Iris asks.

"Press conference." Mason whispers back.

Wells wheeled himself up to the press. "Thank you for coming on such short notice." He tells them. Hartley was also watching the press conference on TV as he was transferring the files he stole from STAR Labs to his gloves. "And for those of you that read the ten-volume report issued by the Norris Commission, well, I commend you on your tenacity. You already know, then, the circumstances that led to the explosion of the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator. Or rather, you think you do. Now, the Commission's finding was that the catastrophe was caused by a chain of events that nobody could have predicted, including myself. The truth is... I was warned there was a chance the particle accelerator might fail. I was warned by a former colleague... a friend. I chose to ignore the warning and in so doing, I let down all of you. As new friends pointed out…" He looks over at Atchaco and Barry. "I failed this city. I failed this city and I failed those who trusted me the most. By coming forward today... it's my hope I'm taking the first step toward regaining that trust. And your trust as well. Are there any questions?"

Everyone starts to talk at once but Mason managed to speak out first. "Do you have any intention of rebuilding the particle accelerator?" Mason asked him.

"Miss West, do you have a question for me?" Wells said, ignoring Mason's question.

"I don't believe you answered my colleague's question, Dr. Wells, so I'll ask it again. Do you have any intention of rebuilding the particle accelerator, either now or in the future?" Iris questions as she holds up her phone.

"Of course not." Wells answers.

"Thank you for your answer, Doctor." Iris replies.

"It's my pleasure." He tells her and everyone starts talking again. Atchaco and Barry smile at Wells helping Iris out. "No further questions." Iris smiles as she puts away her phone and Wells wheels away.

"Hey. What was that?"Maso asks her.

"Gumption." Iris answered as she walked away.

Back at STAR Labs, Wells goes up to Caitlin. "Has Hartley made contact yet?" Wells asks her.

"What makes you so sure he will?" Caitlin questioned.

"Because he's Hartley, and he'll want to have the last word." Wells answered as Cisco got up from the table with files in his hands.

"Cisco, you should be resting." Barry reminded him.

"The answer to why Hartley fooled us into catching him is here, and I'm gonna find it." Cisco told them.

"You have nothing to prove." Well replied.

"Not true." Cisco argued.

"Do you know why I hired you, Cisco?" Wells chuckled.

"You said you saw something in me, I know." Cisco said.

"What I saw was humanity." Wells admits. "You and Hartley, Cisco, you're both brilliant. You both are mental." He snaps his fingers together. "Sparks. But his brilliance subtracted from the experience of working here, whereas your brilliance, your heart, your warmth, your humor, it just adds to it. There is no chosen one, Cisco. No second or third favorite. Never was. It's just us." All of a sudden the speakers popped loudly.

"What's that?" Caitlin asked and then one of the lights exploded in the Cortex.

"Nice gambit, Harrison. But this isn't over." Hartley taunts.

"Hartley, what do you want? What do you want, Hartley? I already gave my mea culpa today." Wells questions.

"The city already hated you." Hartley reminded him. "You don't think I noticed that the press conference was a pathetic bishop sacrifice? No, no, no. I've played with you too many times to let you get away with that. This is between you, me, Thunder and The Flash."

"You don't want to play with those kinds of stakes with me, Hartley." Wells warned.

"Actually, I really do." Hartley replied. "What do you say? One last game of chess?"

"You and I both know that the winner of the game is the one who makes the next-to-last mistake, and you clearly have a move in mind." Wells noticed.

On the other side of the city, Hartley was standing in front of a bridge on a dam where all the cars were trying to pass. "You're right." Hartley tells him. "And I'm already at the board. So why don't you move your precious scarlet king and your fragile cybernetic goddess while I take out a few pawns." Hartley then points his gloves at the crossing and shatters the window in the booth.

Minutes later, inside STAR Labs, Barry and Macanese were ready to go. "All right. All right, Cisco, where do we go?" Macanese asked. "'Cause I, nor Triton, can find him."

"I can't trace the signal either." Cisco complained. "He could be sending his messages from anywhere."

"Cisco, scan for seismic activity." Wells orders. "If Hartley's using sonic blast, the vibrations could cause tremors."

Cisco scans and sees tremors coming from where Hartley is. "Look. Over here. Quake activity but no fault line." Cisco points out.

"The Keystone Cleveland Dam." Caitlin tells them.

Macanese and Barry start walking towards the door but stop when Wells shouts after them. "Barry, Macanese! Don't underestimate him. He's brilliant." Wells warns.

"Well, good thing we'll have you in here." Barry says, indicating to his ear piece.

Back on the dam, Hartley is looking around the road. Everyone in their cars had left apart from one woman who was too afraid to run away. "Rook to knight four." Hartley laughs as he shoots the woman in the car and it goes over the bridge. But in seconds the woman gets saved by Macanese and Barry.

"Barry, Macanese, you need to disarm Hartley immediately." Wells ordered. "Immediately! Do you hear me? He is a master of distraction. He is a master of hiding his true endgame." Hartley then shoots four cars with people still inside them but they all get saved by the two speedsters.

Back at STAR Labs Cisco suddenly shoots up in his chair. "A-ha!" He cheers as he sees something on the screen. "Uh-oh."

"A-ha what?" Wells questions.

"I figured out what Hartley stole from S.T.A.R. Labs, why he let himself get caught." Cisco tells them.

"Which brings us to the 'uh-oh.'" Caitlin wonders.

"He has all the data on Barry and Macanese's molecular scans." Cisco informs them.

"Why would he want that?" Caitlin asks.

"So he can get Barry and Macanese's frequency." Wells realises. "Barry, Macanese, you need to get out of there! You need to get out of there immediately!"

Back on the Dam, Barry and Macanese continue to fight Hartley. "It's over! You lose!" Barry tells him.

"Amazing." Hartley observes. "He replaced me with you two? Total morons. I got you two with the same trick twice."

All of a sudden there was a loud vibrating frequency coming from Hartley's glove, and if you listened closely you could tell it was two very similar frequencies he was emitting from his gloves. Barry and Macanese both cover their ears and fall to the floor, withering in pain. Barry groans as he tries to pull through while Macanese screams and hyperventilates, her enhanced hearing making it worse.

"I got the idea from watching you two and Harrison chit-chat.." Hartley informed them. "To use your suit and cybernetics own speakers to kill you both."

"Gah!" Barry yelled as Macanese continued to try and fight the pain.

"That feeling?" Hartley smiles. "That's your organs, Flash, and your machinery, Macanese, shearing apart. And you activated the frequency when you disarmed me. In chess, we call that a discovered attack. You don't see it until it's too late. Right, Harrison?"

Back at STAR Labs, the team were continuing to track Barry and Macanese's vital signs on the monitors. "Barry and Macanese's vitals are bottoming out. We need to do something." Caitlin told them as Wells wheels over to one of the computers.

"What are you doing?" Cisco asked him.

"Barry and Macanese are on the travel road of the dam, at rush hour, surrounded by cars. Many of those cars are going to have satellite radio. Satellite sends a signal to the car, a song comes out the speaker…" Wells tells him.

"Yes! I know how satellite radio works! How does that help?" Cisco questioned.

"Well, I'm gonna have the satellite send something other than a song." Wells informs him. "Hartley is about to hear something he was not expecting... a sound wave that will meet the frequency of and destroy his weapons."

Back at the Dam, the radio's in the cars suddenly tune into a different satellite frequency. "You two don't seem so special anymore." Hartley mocks. "Given how easy it was to bring you both down, I wonder if Harrison will even miss you." He looks down at Macanese and Barry, who were both still lying on the floor in pain, Macanese's hand intertwined with Barry's. Suddenly there was a loud whining sound coming from all the cars, and Macanese's body, and it destroyed the gloves, meaning Macanese and Barry were no longer in pain.

Hartley runs over to his gloves. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! No!" He picks them up as he begs that this isn't true. "Aah!" He quickly drops his gloves on the ground as they burnt his hands really badly before he falls to the ground screaming in pain.

Wells runs his hand through his hair with a smile on his face. "Checkmate." Barry stands up with the help of Macanese. "Barry, Macanese, can you hear me?" Wells's voice sounds through the earpiece, just slightly broken up.

"Sort of!" Barry told him as he wiped the blood off his face and Macanese did the same. They turned to each other and smiled.

Later at STAR Labs, Caitlin was standing with Atchaco and Barry. "How do you feel?" Caitlin asked.

"Fine!" Atchaco shouted.

"I mean there is a little ringing in our ears, but other than that I'm good, so…" Barry yelled.

"You're both speaking very loudly." Caitlin told them.

"Sorry." Barry and Atchaco said in sync.

"It's okay, it'll pass." Caitlin reassures them.

"Nice moves." Barry compliments as he gives Cisco a high five.

"Thank you." Cisco said.

"Anytime." Barry replies.

"I think I'm gonna take my doctor's advice and go lie down." Cisco smiles.

"What a great idea!" Caitlin tells him.

"Man, I feel like I'm hung over times ten." Cisco laughs.

"I'm not surprised." Caitlin chuckles as they walk out of the lab.

"It's difficult for me... to admit when I'm wrong." Wells admits. "Certainly, in front of an entire city but also... Also to my closest friends. So I hope one day to restore your trust and faith in me."

"That day was today." Atchaco says as Barry hands Wells a frame with the picture they had taken together and Wells chuckles. Atchaco smiles as Barry and her both walk out the lab.

"Not every hero wears a mask." Macanese smiles as she and Barry continue to run around the city together. "Some heroes save the day in the simplest of ways. By just being there for us... or letting us know we're believed in."

"If we're any sort of hero today, it's not because of our powers. It's because I learned how from the people in our lives... all of them."

Later, at the Precinct, Barry walks over to Joe's desk. "Hey." Barry greets.

"Hey." Joe returns, looking up at him. "Where's Atchaco?"

"I told her to go home and rest." Barry answers. "Or do whatever an alien cyborg does to rest after what happened today. Trust me when I say that if I wasn't here, I would be doing the same thing." Joe nods, understanding what he means.

"Man, that press conference today was something else. Dr. Wells... took a lot of guts to do that. I have to give him that." Joe replied.

"He has his moments." Barry informs him.

"What's up?" Joe asked.

"Must have been hard for you." Barry said.

"What? To be this handsome?" Joe laughs.

"Raising me." Barry corrects him.

"Oh. No." Joe chuckles.

"Well, a kid who loved maths and chemistry, whose idea of a fun afternoon was doing experiments in the garage." Barry reminds him and Joe laughs.. "Couldn't have been easy. As soon as I started AP classes, you had no clue how to help me with my homework."

"No." Joe agrees.

"You must have always felt like you were competing with Richard Dawkins and Neil Tyson and... Henry Allen too. But, look, none of them, no one... could ever replace you. Not even Wells." Barry reminds him.

"Aw." Joe smiles.

"All right, I'll see you at home." Barry replied after they both finished laughing.

"All right." Joe said.

"Hey, Eddie." Barry greets as he walks past Eddie as he walks out of the room.

"Hey, Barry." Eddie returns.

As soon as Barry had left, Joe quickly walked over to Eddie. "Hey, what'd you find out?" Joe asked.

"I searched Wells' entire house like you said. There was nothing. Are you sure you want to do this... Investigate Wells?" Eddie questioned.

"100%" Joe answered and Eddie walked away.

Later, down in the pipeline of STAR Labs, Harley was once again waking up in one of the cells, this time he had bandages over his burned hands. "Your evil hearing aids won't help you escape this time. So I'd get comfy." Cisco informs him.

"You must be enjoying this, Cisco." Harley replies.

"I am." Cisco admits.

"Ah, well, if that scares you, I can't imagine how you're gonna feel when you open up these doors and let me out of here." Harley chuckles.

"Hmm... maybe I'm going deaf, 'cause I could've sworn you just said I'm gonna let you out." Cisco told him.

"And very soon too." Harley smiles.

"Why would I ever do that?" Cisco questions.

"Because I know where Ronnie Raymond is." Harley answers. "I know what really happened to him that night. And I know how to save him."

Wells was standing in his secret room, wearing the metal device that had been sitting on his yellow suit. "Warning! Tachyon output has passed the acceptable tolerance range. Continued exposure is not recommended." Gideon warned.

"Increase to maximum, Gideon." Wells orders.

"Increasing to maximum, Doctor." Gideon replies. "Speed Force absorption at 35% and rising."

"I'm not stabilising." Wells informs the AI. "I can't hang on to my speed. It comes and goes, and I can not control it. Gideon, for how much longer is the Tachyonic device viable?"

"Calculations inconclusive. I'm sorry, Doctor." Gideon apologises.

"Oh, that's okay, Gideon." Wells tells the AI. "This was only meant to be a temporary fix. The real endgame is almost here."