Cisco and I watched Oliver's public service announcement he gave to Starling City on the news, and it seems now that he has chosen to be called the Green Arrow.
"I hate it when they put a color in their name," Cisco grumbled.
I laughed, "It's catchy."
Around us, Caitlin, Professor Stein, and Iris were gathering information on Sand Demon; Jay decided to stay in the pipeline until Barry decided to trust him, or until I made him get out.
"Yo," Barry greeted as he ran in.
Cisco got up and went to the monitor that displayed the results on the sand. "Yo," he explained, "the sample you gave us. Not sand, definitely human cells."
I smirked, and then joined everyone who watched Cisco explain. "Yeah, Barry sighed, "I already got that."
"I hate to say it," Cisco shrugged, "but I think this Earth-2 theory is starting to make sense."
Barry was shocked. "For real?" he asked sarcastically.
Iris glanced at me confused, and I announced, "Barry thinks Jay is lying about Sand Demon and everything else."
"My point is that I'm just not going to believe some guy that walks in here and says a few things that sort of check out," he explained.
I glared at him. "Sort of? He was right about Zoom."
Barry argued, "We don't even know anything about Zoom. What is Zoom? Is Zoom even real? Right now that's just a story around a campfire." He turned around, and asked Stein, "Have you found a breach yet?"
"Not yet," Stein explained, "but we know how to now."
Barry looked at Caitlin. "Have you found one thing to suggest that Jay is a speedster? Is the speedforce even in his system?"
Caitlin responded shyly, "It doesn't appear to be."
"See," Barry said to all of us, "we are scientists. You are a journalist," he pointed at Iris and then me, "You are the director of Star-Labs. We test, we prove, we report. That's what we do. Except right now, nobody here wants to do any of that except me."
The room went silent.
I calmly asked Barry, "Bar, can you meet me in my office for a second?" He ran both of us up to my office, and I shut the door. "Sit," I instructed him, pointing to the white chairs in front of my desk. Barry sat down, and I sat down in the chair facing him. "What's happened to you?"
"Me?" Barry asked dumbly.
I snapped, "Yes, you. The you that I fell in love with, the you that's my best friend, the you that became the Flash," I was obviously angry now, "I haven't seen that you in a long time."
He sighed, "A lot's changed, Finn."
"Yeah, it sure has," I scoffed, "You've learned how to not trust people. What is it about Jay that you don't like?"
Barry got up and sat down on the window seat, and stared out at the brightly lit city. "I don't know," he huffed.
I joined him at the window seat, and took his hand into mine. "It's because he reminds you of Eobard, isn't it?" I asked with a hint of sadness in my voice.
"We trusted that man for months," Barry said softly, "and you know what? Eddie is dead. Ronnie is dead. You almost died. And a whole lot of other people in this city, they're dead too. All because we trusted him. I'm not going to let us make that mistake again."
I cupped his cheek, and made him look at me. "Bar," I whispered, "not everyone is Eobard Thawne. You defeated him because you trusted in people. Because you believed in them. This team we have will do what we say, but if they think that you don't believe in them, it won't be long until they don't believe in you."
Barry wrapped his arm around my waist, and I came to his side to rest my head on his shoulder. He stroked the back of my hand with his thumb, and sighed, "I'm sorry for everything."
"Are you going to stop being an ass?" I smirked.
He smiled, "Yeah, I think I'm done with everyone hating me."
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"We're looking for any structures that promote humidity," Jay explained in the Cortex, "Greenhouses, grow rooms, anything of the sort. His body will literally start to fall apart if he becomes dehydrated."
Caitlin interrupted, "Like dry sand."
"Exactly," Jay continued, "Sand Demon always attacks on two fronts: he creates a diversion that strikes when you're distracted."
Barry questioned, "Okay, then what do we do?"
Jay explained, "We use your speed to get to him before the distraction can happen."
"Jay, how do I stop somebody who can slip through my fingers?" he questioned again.
Jay huffed, "The way I was never able to. With lightning."
Cisco jumped up excitedly. "Yo, are you about to pull a Zeus right now?" he asked excitedly. I laughed at his enthusiasm.
"What are you talking about?" Caitlin asked confused.
Jay explained, "Barry's going to hurl lightning from the energy he creates when he runs."
"Because lightning plus sand equals glass," I grinned.
"Time to learn something new, kid," Jay smirked.
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Barry ran around in a circle for nearly an hour trying to hit the target with a bolt of lightning, but he missed every single time. I watched with Jay as Barry stopped running, grabbed the lightning bolt, and threw it at the target dummy only to miss.
"Again," Jay instructed.
Barry huffed, taking off his mask, "I've been doing this for an hour. It's not working."
I looked up from my notepad where I had been scribbling down notes trying to figure out how to help Barry, and I commented, "It's because you're trying to rush it. My math says you're going fast enough, but, you always miss because you're not focused on aiming."
Jay and I got off of the platform, and he stated, "This is the one time where you need to slow down."
"Let the energy pass over you, then just direct it to where you want it to go," I explained.
"Alright, guys," Barry sighed, "I don't know if I'm going to get this in time."
Jay nodded, "You'll get it. I believe in you."
His voice was heavy. "The last person that helped me like this was a man that I looked up to. Idolized. He taught me how to get faster, how to get stronger, how to use my powers to save people. That same man murdered my mother."
"That's a tough break," Jay replied kindly, "but I'm not him."
Barry nodded. "Yeah," he whispered.
Then, breaking the tender silence, Cisco and Stein sprinted into the bunker, and Cisco shouted, "I know where they are!" We approached them. "The abandoned Woodrow Grow House. That's where Slick's keeping Patty."
"Dude," I ginned as I gave Cisco an epic high-five.
"And," he continued, "I was thinking, if I was Sand Demon and I was attacking a speedster on two fronts, I would probably want to slow you down by using a concussive bomb or something like that."
Jay said, "That's a good thought. He's actually used one on me before. His body absorbs the blasts so it doesn't affect him. Well, kid, we're going to have to think of something."
My eyes widened. "You know what?" I explained, "What if we give Slick a diversion?" I turned to Jay, "He knows you right? You said you went up against him before."
"Yeah," Jay sighed, "but Finn, I don't have my speed."
I grinned, "He doesn't know that. Do you have your suit?"
"Sure," Jay smiled, "Well, except my helmet."
Stein asked puzzled, "Helmet?"
"Silver kettle helmet? Gold wings?" Cisco asked.
Jay was over the moon. He asked excitedly, "Don't tell me you guys found it?" Barry looked at me with a goofy grin on his face, and I couldn't help not smiling too.
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Wow, so many updates! Yeah, lol, it's because I'm sick and dying. It started out as tonsillitis but now I have flu or some shit.
I need to pace myself with these updates.