667. Chapter 667

It’s not much different for Kara.

There are things she can’t do anymore – and she’s frankly baffled, and tells him as much, that Barry has managed to fight so many bad guys without superstrength and the ability to (really) fly) – but she can still snag ice cream from Alex’s fridge and snuggle onto the couch before Alex even knows she’s in the apartment, so… it’s not that different for Kara.

Before and after the power-swapping meta invaded their lives and swapped their powers.

But for Iris?

Suddenly, she and Barry can’t make out without real risk of him breaking her nose.

They’d figured out long ago how to have him not… well… vibrate quick so fast during… activities… but this is a whole new set of powers to get used to.

Lena sympathetically supplies them with red sun lamps – ones that automatically seep through Barry’s suit at his discretion, because he’s having just as much trouble controlling simple things like steps that don’t break through the ground.

And at this rate, he’s more of a danger to the city than a hero.

And, to be honest, it’s more than a little cute.

For Iris, anyway.

“Okay, it’s not funny! I squint and suddenly I can… see things that I can’t unsee! I can hear things – do you know what kinds of… of bedroom things Mr. And Mrs. Garfinkle in 6B get up to? It… you can’t unhear that, Iris!”

At which point Iris breaks down laughing at her husband, and Kara takes pity on him, giving him her glasses to quiet his overstimulation.

At which point Iris suddenly goes from thinking her Barry is adorable to thinking he is extremely sexy, and Kara evacuates as fast as Barry’s superspeed will carry her.

Racing James – because James and Wally have swapped powers, and James is loving his every moment at superspeed while Wally is enjoying his newfound fighting abilities almost too much – is exhilarating, anyway.

Best let Barry have his little crises alone with Iris.

Just like Alex is having her… well, experiences… alone with Maggie.

Because Alex now has Caitlin’s ice powers, and she’s taking to them brilliantly.

“Oh my god, babe, you’re like Elsa,” Maggie’d snorted when she’d find out, and Cisco immediately decided that Joe wasn’t the only detective he loved.

“Would Elsa do this?” Alex is whispering now, conjuring small droplets of slowly melting ice to drip down Maggie’s naked torso, and Maggie writhes and chuckles, somehow absurdly turned on and amused at the same time.

“I wouldn’t know,” she pants, and Alex bites her lip as she creates small drops of ice lower, lower, lower…

“Never thought you being so cold could be so damn hot, Danvers,” Maggie chokes, but Alex’s lips, her kisses, are more than hot enough to compensate for the newly-flowing ice raging through her veins.

“You think Caitlin will let me keep her powers after we sort all this out?” she enthuses hours later, still naked, but completely nerding out now, standing over the sink and practicing different forms, different functions, different limits, of her power. “Imagine what I could do for the DEO if I could harness all this – “

“You realize you’re a massive nerd, right Danvers?”

“You realize you’ve wildly in love with me precisely because of that, right Sawyer?

And, across town, Joe is just grateful that it’s not his children that are getting up to the things Alex and Maggie are getting up to, because he can hear every thought they have.

“Imagine it like volume on your stereo,” J’onn had coached him through trying to tune out Iris and Barry’s… experiences… because he loves their relationship, but he doesn’t need to hear that much of it. “You can turn it down at will.”

“You know, I never really thought I’d get used to this whole superpower thing,” Joe’s telling him now, looking at his hands like they’re a marvel. “But now, I’m not even… a meta. It’s like I’m an…”

J’onn grins. “Actual alien?” he guesses, and Joe nods with a laugh.

They both jump slightly – J’onn more subtly, Joe reaching for his now unnecessary gun – when a blue portal appears out of nowhere next to them.

Winn tumbles out of it, breathless and laughing wildly, Cisco at his side.

“Whoa, that thing makes you way dizzier when you’re not the one controlling it,” Cisco points at the closing breach accusingly. “But my man! Nice work,” he tosses his arms out for Winn.

“That was amazing! Papa Bear, did you see? I’m like America Chavez! I can punch holes into spacetime!”

Joe and J’onn exchange a smiling glance, and Joe points his index finger warningly.

“Don’t you start calling me Papa Bear,” he cautions, but Cisco’s already planning to do exactly that.

And he’s about to say so, when his hair goes flying, and so do all the papers in the lab, because suddenly Wally and James are at his side, laughing and high fiving and hugging each other as James sets Wally down from carrying him at superspeed.

“Being carried by a new speedster is even cooler than getting carried by a seasoned one!” Wally practically giggles, and Joe raises his eyes.

“Better than being one yourself?” he asks with a small smile, and Wally shrugs as he shakes his head.

“Nope! But Dad, you should see how I can fight now, can I show you?”

“I’d rather not get my ass whooped by James Olsen’s powers in my son’s body, thank you,” Joe laughs, until they all stare pointedly at him.

“Ohhhhh,” he laughs again, in shock this time. “I can fly now!”

“Good god,” J’onn puts his head in his hand as father and son engage each other playfully.

“Hey, it could be a good thing to have a speedster as Guardian,” James grins, his hand on J’onn’s shoulder.

“All of you with new and untested powers? Sure, Mr. Olsen. What could possibly go wrong?” J’onn shakes his head with a subtle smirk and not-so-subtle joy in his heart that at least this attack has given all his children something to have fun with.