WHEN HEROES COLLIDE ➸ avengers x arrowverse crossover ✔️

xxiii. the tech squad

23 | THE TECH SQUAD

It had been a week since the disappearance of Oliver, Barry, Kara and Sara after their fight with the weird robots which had also immediately vanished. Cisco, Felicity, Curtis, Ray, Caitlin, Winn and Lena, named as the nerd group by Mick, were all living on caffeine and sugar during that time, dark bags under their eyes from the lack of sleep.

Winn and Cisco sucked on lollipops that were plopped in their mouths, an annoyed groan escaping their lips as they lazily spun around in their chairs, their findings leading to no ends while Felicity, Curtis and Lena continued to type away codes.

Ray and Caitlin walked in, carrying fresh cups of coffee and bags of Big Belly Burger for everyone, who took the food instantly and drained down their cups at a speed that could rival both Barry and Kara when they're hungry.

"Ughh! I keep on leading to dead ends," Felicity groaned, banging her head against the table in frustration.

Papers were littered everywhere and the whole of STAR Labs was pretty much a huge mess. All the monitors had dozens of tabs and webs up, all trying to scan and navigate their missing teammates.

Caitlin glanced at her friends worriedly. "Guys, you all need some rest. We can continue searching for them tomorrow."

Lena sighed before leaning her head back against the chair and closing her eyes. Something was missing in her algorithms, she knew it. If only their missing teams had a piece of their tech with them which she could track ....

The raven-haired woman's eyes widened, her fist slamming against the table, surprising everyone. "I got it!"

"What?" Curtis asked.

"Before they all got transported, they were wearing their comms, right?" Lena said as they all nodded. "What if we track down the frequency of those comms?"

"We tried doing that but it didn't work," Cisco pointed out, crossing his arms.

There was a glint in Lena's emerald eyes, one that told everyone never to go against her in a debate. "But there's always a backup signal alert on them. If we use the right algorithms, then we can pinpoint their location."

They wandered over next to Lena and examined her screen as she typed frantically while the rest of the tech squad watched her. After a couple minutes, the link to their missing teammates' comms began to highlight in red and the computer suddenly chimed pleasantly.

"No way!" Winn practically yelled in joy, high-fiving Lena. "It worked!"

"Barry knew about the backup signal and sent us an alert to help us pinpoint his location. Now all we need is to figure out which one of these Earths they're stuck in and Cisco can then open up a portal to bring them back," Lena stated, leaning back in her chair in relief.

The tech squad practically engulfed the raven-haired genius in a tight hug, who was flustered from all the attention before shooing them away from her. Hope and relief was plastered across everyone's expressions as they were now one step closer from bringing their friends back. 

---⤐ 🏹 ⬷---

Barry leaned back in his chair, tired of fiddling with his comms before staring at Steve and Clint who were seated beside him, snacking on a bowl of chips. Out of the corner of his eyes, the speedster saw a box of chess and decided to bring it over to the table.

He plopped the box on the table. It was worn out and falling apart, but Steve was able to make out the white capital letters printed on the top: chess. The blond super soldier stared at him with a raised eyebrow in a questionably manner.

"You play chess?" He asked.

The speedster shrugged in that odd way that meant both yes and no at the same time. He awkwardly sat down in a chair next to them and began to slowly assemble the pieces.  Once the board was assembled he pushed it into the middle without a word, but his eyes flickered across the board as he waited.

"Why don't you go against him, Cap," Clint grinned. "I wonder if you can beat this one, Barry."

The speedster glanced up at the super solider for a split second, a smile on his face before looking back down. Steve picked up one of his black pawn pieces and slid it forward two spaces. Barry fiddled with his pawn piece before using one of his knights to hop over the top. 

He sat backed and watched as his opponent studied the board. "I don't play much. I really haven't had a chance to. It has been busy, where I work I mean."

"So what do you do?" Clint was perched on the kitchen counter, watching their game as he munched on an apple. "You have a job? So you're not one hundred percent a guardian angel who zips around his city in a red onesie?" 

"Yeah, I already told you that. Nobody except a few know about my identity as the Flash. I rather keep it that way for security reasons," Barry replied. "When I'm not busy speeding around, I work with the police. I'm a forensic scientist." 

"Cool," Clint stated, continuing on enjoying his apple.

Steve waited for Barry's next move only to see the speedster's finger constantly pushing around one of his captured pieces which was the pawn. The blonde super soldier's eyebrows furrowed as he stared at Barry.

"You're not thinking about chess are you?" Steve realised.

"No," Barry replied shortly. "I'm thinking about the last time I played this game. It's just that the man who taught me ... turned out to be someone who wanted to kill me. But he needed me for something before he did. In his eyes I was just the pawn he could move, but also the knight and king in value."

Barry sighed at the memory before a smile appeared on his face, pushing his queen piece forward. "Checkmate."

Clint smirked. "So you're good at chess and eating three pizzas in one sitting. What aren't you good at?"

Before Barry could reply, a beeping noise could be heard from his comms, making the speedster's eyes widen as he rushed over to it. He picked it up, examining it as the backup signal began to glow red.

A wide grin appeared on Barry's face. "It worked! They did it! We can finally go back to our earth!"