Chapter 24: Cisco's tale

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Star Labs, Earth-1

The morning after Barry vanished from Earth-1

Cisco walked into Star Labs, a sour mood marring his usually cheerful face. When he had gone home last night, Barry's stuff was there, as Barry obviously hadn't been by to get it yet. Cisco had roughly packed it in a box and left it outside in the hallway. When he walked out his front door this morning, it was still there. He figured Barry hadn't come because he didn't have the courage to face him. The coward, Cisco thought angrily.

Cisco made his way into the cortex to see the Wests, Caitlin, and HR already there. They were discussing something in quiet tones but stopped as soon as they saw him, like children with their hands caught in the cookie jar.

"What's going on everyone?" Cisco asked as he walked in, noticing how everyone seemed to share an uncertain glance as though he was an intruder to some private meeting

"Cisco," Caitlin began gently as she walked over to him, "when was the last time you saw Barry?"

"We talked after he got back from seeing Albert," Cisco said shortly not wanting to talk about Barry, "why?"

"Because he's missing." Joe said and Cisco blinked.

"Missing?" Cisco repeated, not quite comprehending what he was hearing.

"We haven't heard from him since last night and every time we call his phone, we just get static." Iris said clearly worried.

For a moment, two sides of Cisco warred against each other. Dante's brother said he shouldn't care what happened to the man who killed his brother but Barry's friend wanted to make sure Barry was alright. After a moment, Barry's friend won out.

"The tracker in his suit will let us know where he is." Cisco said as he was walked over to the computers.

"Cisco, thank you." Joe said gratefully.

"We're not friends," Cisco denied before softening his voice, "but that doesn't mean I want him hurt."

There was silence in the room, the only sound Cisco typing and the computers humming as it searched for Barry. A beep sounded and Cisco frowned as he stared at the screen.

"This can't be right." Cisco muttered to himself.

"Cisco?" Caitlin called out.

"The tracker is tuned into the Star Labs satellite, which should track Barry anywhere in the world. But it's not picking up anything." Cisco muttered.

"How is that possible?" Wally asked confused.

"I'm not sure. Let me see where the signal stopped last," Cisco ran a scan and had the result within seconds, "Okay, it was downtown just after 1:00 this morning."

"Where exactly Cisco?" Joe inquired.

Central City

Late morning

Joe parked his cruiser on the side of the road and got out.

"Okay, I'm here Cisco." Joe said as he looked around the street.

"Do you see anything out of the ordinary?" Cisco asked over the comms and Joe looked around.

"No, not really. Some cars, trash bags, and…a traffic cam." Joe looked up and saw the camera.

Star Labs

Afternoon

Cisco had hacked into the traffic cam and was going over the footage. Cisco paused it and the screen showed an image of a red blur going through a blue portal.

"Is that a breach?" Joe asked.

"Yep. Barry went so fast that he opened a breach again." Cisco said as he leaned back in his chair.

"Again?" Wally repeated.

"When Barry first got his speed upgrade, he accidently traveled to another earth. Spent some time there, said something about a Supergirl, I don't know," Cisco said as he leaned back in his chair, "this is gonna be a problem."

"Why, can't you just go get him?" Wally asked, not understanding the problem.

"Do you know how many earths there are? Neither do I, because there are so many! It's like looking for a needle in a haystack!" Cisco snapped.

"So what do we do then?" Iris asked annoyed.

"We're gonna need some help," Cisco said after a moment, "we're gonna need someone good. Someone smart. Someone who takes impossible tasks like it's simple math. We're gonna need-"

Later, in the breach room, Team Flash stood back a breach opened up. A dark haired man jumped out and stood up as the breached closed.

"Harry." Cisco greeted.

"Ramon. Everyone. So Allen got himself trapped on another Earth again?" Harry asked.

"Yeah and we need your help to find him." Caitlin said.

"And my Doppelganger is incapable of finding him?" Harry asked as he looked over at HR with a hint of resentment on his face.

"He's a total fake," Cisco said and Harry was surprised, "he literally comes from the one earth where Harrison Wells is not a genius. You were right about him."

"Then why is he still here?" Harry asked confused.

"Because we couldn't do it without him." Cisco looked pained to admit it as HR bowed.

"You're welcome Francisco." HR said and Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Francisco?"

"Don't ask," Cisco grumbled as they began walking out of the Breach Room, "You're the Breach expert, any ideas?"

"The key is Barry's Speed Force signature." Harry explained.

"Speed Force signature?" Iris repeated confused and Harry sighed impatiently.

"Every speedster gives one off. It's always distinct to the specific speedster; even Doppelgangers from other earths won't have the same one. We find it, we find Barry." Harry explained.

Avenger's Compound

Now

"..And then we invented a machine designed to search for Barry's Speed Force signature and after searching half the multiverse for it, here we are a week later." Cisco finished his story and Tony stared at him skeptically.

"A week?" Tony said skeptically.

"Yes, is that a problem?" Cisco asked, not sure what was up with this guy.

"I know Barry," Tony said and Cisco started, "and if you're really Cisco Ramon, tell me something only Cisco would know. When Barry came back from creating Flashpoint, why were you mad at him?"

"Because he wouldn't go back in time to save my brother." Cisco said, a hint of anger and resentment unconsciously creeping into his voice.

"…Okay, I'm convinced." Tony said, still looking at Cisco oddly.

"Well then what's the look for?" Cisco asked irritated.

"You say Barry's been missing for your earth for a week?" Tony asked and Cisco nodded. "Well, he's been on ours for over a year."

"A year?" Cisco squeaked and Tony nodded. "But…how?"

"I don't know, how should I know? It's not like I'm a speedster expert." Tony said irritably.

"Wait," Cisco said as he thought of Barry telling him of Supergirl and Cisco's eyes widened, "oh my god."

"You know how it happened?" Tony guessed, recognizing the look of someone who had a revelation of great importance.

"I have a theory. I'll tell you once you tell me where Barry is." Cisco said, not quite sure he trusted this man.

"Yeah, that's gonna be a problem." Tony said awkwardly, knowing Cisco was probably going to take this badly.

"Why?" Cisco asked, a pit of dread forming in his stomach.

"Because he's in a maximum security prison." Tony said and Cisco could only stare at him, stunned as his jaw hit the floor.

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