In A Blink ➳ Barry Allen/The Flash

39.

chapter thirty-nine ; fight for me

_________________

Walking back into the Cortex, Caitlin and Cisco explained that Grodd was a gorilla, much to the surprise of Natalie, Barry and Joe, who had been experimented on by Eiling five years ago when he and Dr. Wells were on good terms. The team-up was a part of a project that intended to expand the cognitive abilities of soldiers during battle, but Eiling's true intentions were to create 'super-soldiers' with telepathic and telekinetic capabilities and upon this discovery, Wells shutdown the project. Grodd remained at S.T.A.R. Labs, given Wells' soft spot for him, but after the accelerator explosion, Caitlin discovered his empty cage when she went to check on him.

The group, after being briefed on the new enemy, had concluded that Grodd was now a metagorilla, the possibility being that the dark matter wave had affected Grodd the same way it had Barry, mixing with all of the drugs Eiling had used on the gorilla. Caitlin had displayed images of brain scans she conducted, comparing an older one of Grodd and the recent one of Eiling, and noted that the two brains were lit up in the same abnormal way. Grodd, most likely, was connected to Eiling's brain, using him as a sort of puppet.

"I think we all know what happens when a super-intelligent gorilla who's pissed off at humans escapes captivity," Cisco remarked excitedly, much to the dismay of Joe, who only sighed.

"Are you talking about Planet of the Apes here, like James Franco, Andy Serkis, and Tom Felton? If so, Caesar was not a gorilla.." Natalie said nonchalantly as she played with the strings of Barry's sweatshirt as she sat by her cousin at the computers.

Cisco's excited smile turned into a frown as he glared at the brunette but before he could say anything Joe spoke up, "I do not like the fact that Wells rescued Grodd. And I don't think it's a coincidence that this gorilla shows up at the very same time we're looking for Wells. It wouldn't surprise me if Wells was using Grodd to distract us. If we find Grodd, then we find Wells. And if we find Wells-"

"-We find Eddie," Iris finished as she walked into the Cortex. "And I'm gonna help."

"Yes! More women in here," Natalie said as she hopped out of her chair and gestured for Iris to sit in it. Iris smiled gratefully at her friend's enthusiasm, given Joe and Barry did not look too happy at the fact Iris was involving herself. Caitlin smiled as Iris took the seat, "Know anything about gorillas?"

Iris nodded and went straight to work, pulling up articles of the strange, which for their current situation was about construction workers who went missing near the sewers where there were reports of strange animal-like noises. "The construction workers went missing around 5th Avenue and 10th Street."

"There's an access point to the sewers about two blocks east of that intersection," Cisco said as Natalie pulled her buzzing phone out of her pocket.

"Alright, I'll start there," Barry said as he took in Cisco's information and looked at Natalie, waiting to see if she would say what she was currently reading on her phone.

Joe lifted his head up, "You're not going alone, Bare, I'm coming too."

"Wading through miles of rats, roaches and human excrement, count me out," Cisco said with a laugh. When he noticed Joe's glare his smile fell yet again that day and sighed, "Count me in."

"It's your monkey," Joe retorted as the men prepared to leave.

Natalie locked her phone, just having finished reading the messages, and hopped up as well. "Wait, Nat, you're not going with us," Barry said, noticing her movements.

She shook her head, "I'm not going with you silly. Like Cisco said, it doesn't sound remotely fun. Singh needs me to organize some records for him, said I would get overtime since my actual job is supposed to be assisting you. Plus I want the extra money. I thought I would stop home first, change into some work-appropriate attire, go over some things to pack up, and then go to work."