Frozen Flashpoint

Chapter 34: Price of Guilt

Summary: The fight isn't over yet, and the price of victory reaches a new height.

No one who was standing in the streets near City Hall spoke. The only sounds were the wind, broken glass that was shattering on contact with the ground, and the random small flames crackling.

The streets suffered some damage. Most of it was due to Barry's, Lyra's, and Jesse's vacuum tornado. But even outside of it, there was ice covering big parts of said streets, holes that were caused due to Harry's shots or one of the metas' abilities.

The meta humans who sided with DeVoe were still laying unconscious without breath on the ground.

But Barry's eyes were locked on the chair barely floating over the ground with the slumped man inside. The random spark of electricity from Lyra's final attack could still be seen every now and then.

The darkness of the night sky began to grow brighter as daylight became closer. Barry was so immersed in taking everything in that he was startled when a familiar portal opened next to him and Cisco stepped out of it.

Cisco began looking around the scenery and whistled. "Well, you didn't consider your average taxpayer when you fought, did you?"

Barry shot him an irritated look and asked, "Are you serious right now, dude?"

Cisco raised his hands in surrender and said quickly, "Oh, ha, just trying to ease the tension in the air. I'm out of knives to cut it."

Barry just kept staring at his best friend with the same look on his face until a weak voice from behind Barry called out, "Cisco?" When Barry and Cisco turned, Jesse was sitting on the ground, obviously still exhausted from their winning tactic. When their eyes were on her, she finished her question, "How is Wally?"

Cisco rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Well, he is okay... it's just..."

Barry frowned, noticing there was something Cisco was holding back, so he asked again, "Is there something wrong with Wally, Cisco?"

Cisco kept rubbing his neck as he replied carefully, "Well, not wrong, more like new." Barry began to worry, and he could see Jesse was pushing herself toward Cisco as well. The engineer raised his hands again and quickly said, "Look, he is good, really good, but that is something you will need to see later."

Barry considered pushing the matter further, but he could hear the sincerity in his friend's tone, so he decided to drop the matter for now. Instead, he asked, "Did you ask Joe to bring people here to collect the trash?"

Cisco relaxed a little at the change of subject and nodded his agreement. "Yep. He should be here in about twenty minutes with a squad of officers and a few cars."

Barry nodded in acknowledgment. He was startled once again when the teasing voice of his fiancée came from behind him. "That was quite a run, Handsome. I guess I can give you the night off for this."

Barry blushed at her comment and hissed back at her, "Frost, not in front of the others, please!"

But Frost just kept smirking as she ignored him and turned her gaze toward Lyra, praising her, "And that was one spectacular finishing blow, Snowflake. You made your mama proud."

Lyra didn't even react to Frost's words; she just kept staring blankly at the floating chair and the man in it.

Before any of them could check on her, Harry's voice cut them all off, asking, "Has somebody else noticed the rising temperature around here?"

Harry had Jesse's arm around his shoulder as he supported his daughter so she could stand up. There were beads of sweat coming down their faces, though until now Barry believed it was due to the effort of the fight they were in just a few minutes ago. But as he began to pay closer attention, he did feel a little toasty.