Spidey & Speedy - Central City Rush

Chapter 12 - I Love Life's Surprises So Much

***BARRY***

We're all introduced to each other, allowing Iris and me to get our visitors' full names at last. I'm sure I'll never be able to pronounce, or even spell, Ravi's last name, which is Chakrabarti. As for his friend, I have to stifle a giggle at her name - Liv Moore - for two reasons. One, it sounds a little similar to "Olivia Miralo." And two, it sounds like the sort of punny name you'd see written on a fake-tombstone Halloween decoration.

After Ravi and Liv have their drinks in hand - my question is answered. "For starters," Ravi says, "we were actually planning to visit even before the black hole happened."

"But isn't it true that there've been more wormholes since the black hole?" Liv asks. She takes a long sip of her extra-spicy Cinna-Mocha - unbelievably, Ginny was able to find some cinnamon jelly beans after all. The hotness of that drink is enough to make the insides of my nostrils prickle uncomfortably, and I'm two feet away from Liv, not even downwind or anything. How her paper cup hasn't caught fire and burned by now, I have no idea.

"Something like that," I say, wiping my nose - and realizing that I've forgotten to shave. "Space-time continuum-wise, I think it's safe to say Central City's turning into Swiss cheese."

Ravi stirs his coffee. It's an interesting one, inspired by a Starbucks secret menu item. While the Starbucks version uses white mocha as its base, CC Jitters takes a latte, adds java chips, more java chips, and cookie-dough syrup. It's delicious beyond delicious, much better than the sickening sweetness of the white mocha. (To be fair, though, the one time I tried white mocha, I added a little more sugar than I should have.)

"Sounds like we've come at the right time," he says. "So, how do we find the wormholes? I'm guessing you must have a way."

"We do," I say, "but...but the guy in charge of our secret weapon is, uh, taking the day off."

"This doesn't seem like the sort of job you'd wanna take a day off for," Liv says. "Like...like..." She snaps her fingers a few times. "Like being a superhero. There's no time for breaks."

It's a battle to prevent myself from accidentally inhaling half my latte. And to stifle my laughter at Liv's comment, which is so much more on the nose than she must realize.

"They say these wormholes have been here for much longer than we think," Ravi says. He stops stirring his coffee, then licks the wooden stick clean before throwing it in the trash. "And that Northern California in general is full of these kinds of bizarre phenomena."

"Oh, you mean like the telluric currents?" Iris asks.

I stare at her. I'm a little bit shocked that she would mention anything like that - and especially that she's brought up a topic I can't recall ever hearing about before. Then again, fringe science isn't exactly my forte, other than the sort of stuff metahumans get involved with. Stuff Iris has had very little to do with compared to me.

Responding to my stare - as well as the matching stares of Ravi and Liv - Iris says, "I read an article while I was doing research on the Flash." I raise my coffee cup to hide my face as I start to blush very slightly. "They were talking about some kind of paranormal ley lines or something, and that Central City has one of the biggest concentrations of telluric currents in the world."

"I've heard of this too," Liv says. "Only Beacon Hills has more...but that's closer to San Francisco, not to mention way out of the way."

"And besides," Ravi says, "there's so much more action going on here anyway."

Iris and I exchange glances. "Maybe you're right," I say, "but we have professionals working on the wormholes as we speak."

"Nobody's saying there's not," Liv says. "In fact, there's video proof."