Cold to the Touch (Arrowverse Fic)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Crystal's POV

"Barry, bank robbery in progress at Cunningham and Sampere," Cisco spoke into the mic on the console

"Jesus Chri- another one?" I asked incredulously, taking the seat beside him. "I didn't even know we had this many banks in town."

"I got it." Barry replied, "Cris?"

"You're already closer. Go on without me." I told him

"On it."

"Wait, 'Cunningham and Sampere'?" Cait asked as she walked into the main room, "That's where I bank."

"Once super-thieves showed up, I went mattress." Cisco said before turning to me, a thoughtful look on his face, "How is Ernest doing?"

I breathed a laugh as I recalled our first meta, "Probably a good thing we haven't heard from him." I nodded back to the screen, "Barry done yet?"

"Looks like he just wrapped up."

"Wonder what the hell happened." I mused

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later in the day, Barry once more tested the strength of the metric shit-ton of paperweights in the Cortex, "So how'd the bank go?" I asked, not looking up from the screen in front of me

"I'd never seen anything like that before, Cris," he said as he took a seat on the counter beside me, "It was like everyone just snapped. One woman swore up and down she would never hurt another person, and she shot at a man."

"Anger, hate, aggression..." Dr.Wells spoke as he rolled into the room

"A Jedi craves not these things," Cisco responded in his best Yoda voice. When the joke didn't land, he visibly deflated, "No one is feeling that quote?" 

Barry ignored him, "Everyone in the bank went total savage for, like, five minutes. And then they were fine again." 

"Anger can be a powerful emotion. If this metahuman can engender irrational feelings of anger in his victims, he can do a lot of damage." Wells warned

"Detective West helped me get a copy of the CAT scans the hospital did on everyone at the bank," Cait said, walking in and plugging a USB into the computer, "Take a look." the scans came up on all the screens

"Well, look at this," Wells mused, "The emotion centers of the brains are still showing signs of being overwhelmed."

"Particularly the area that controls executive function." Cait noted, "That's the part of the brain that stops people from doing whatever random and potentially destructive thing that pops into their heads."

"How do you think the meta does it to them?" Barry asked

Cait shrugged, "That's the half-a-million-dollar question."

Barry's phone buzzed in his pocket. He quickly took it out and read the screen. Being as nosey as I was, I took a peek. It was a post on Iris' blog with the message, "Jitter's tonight?"

"Hey, if you guys figure it out, just give me a call, okay?"

"Is the Flash off to another rooftop rendezvous with Iris?" Cait asked, reading him like a book, "You know, Cris never met up with Theresa Menna this much."

"I should contact her," I mused. It had been a while, I'd been a little busy with the team stuff lately

"No," he answered a little too quickly, Cait raised an eyebrow at him, "Yeah, but she probably just wants to ask me - I mean, you know, him - about metahuman stuff for her blog."