Steps

Step 15.3: Metas and Marshmallows

Leah lay in her own bed, thankful for the silence it brought. No nurses, no beeping machines, no dim lights to keep her awake, yet she still couldn't sleep. Nova was stretched out along her side, head just barely peeking out of the covers. She hadn't left Leah alone since she hobbled through the door earlier in the afternoon. Poor cat, she hated to be left by herself.

But now that Leah was alone, she found herself more anxious than she'd been in years. She was bothered, not by her current condition, but rather by what had caused it. Or rather, who. A woman who could literally create ice out of seemingly nothing. Bizarre as the Barry's powers were, this woman topped him in every way. And what of the others? There were other's right? More people with powers? Wasn't there a news article a few weeks ago about a guy who's body was made of literal molten asphalt? How crazy did people's powers get exactly?

Leah sat up to the best of her ability and cut on the lamp by her bed. Obviously, she wouldn't be sleeping tonight. Too many thoughts flying around in her head. Grabbing her remote, she turned on the TV and navigated to a random episode of Star Trek, then lowered the volume.

She flopped back down and leaned over the bed, swatting underneath it until her fingers grazed her laptop. Finally. She grabbed it and rolled herself back up and over on the bed. Not an easy feat with one leg immobilized. But once she got settled, she went to work.

It should have been an obvious thought that Ray had info on metahumans on the server. Barry's name had been flashed at her so many times already. But if Ray had Barry's info, there had to be info on the others too, right? She distinctly remembered seeing a file not too long ago labeled 'central', so surely he had at least a little info. There was only one way to find out.

The first step was remotely hacking into her own server. Not too hard; she knew the active pitfalls and was easily able to exploit them. The second step was getting to the database she wanted. Ray kept all the files in such an odd order, it took a while to find the one she wanted. He'd mixed this particular file in with Level 3 operating procedures for the suit, and a bunch of what appeared to be trash code. Why he didn't keep logical folder structures, she had no idea. Leah hovered her cursor over the file.

Central City Database files

Seeing this, reading this... she was about to go in deeper than she ever planned. Metas could be dangerous, she knew that. Learning about who they were and what they could do would most certainly make her a target. But technically, she already was one. Two attacks in less than 4 months. This was getting ridiculous. It bothered her to not know anything about what was going on. Fear of the unknown, she supposed. At this point, being blind to everything around her was becoming less of an option. She had to know. She clicked.

Her screen blacked out as normal, but instead of the A.T.O.M. logo, she was greeted with the logo for S.T.A.R. Labs and a login dialog. So, this file was stored on S.T.A.R.'s mainframe? Leah debated with herself for a while. On one hand, she wanted this information, and since Ray had access to it that meant she probably could as well if she asked. On the other hand, she wasn't in an asking mood right now, and so getting to the file would most likely involve hacking into S.T.A.R.'s system through a backchannel. It had been ages since she'd done anything like that. And since this was more for personal gain, she knew that it would eat her up inside if she didn't find anything.

Technically, hacking into S.T.A.R. would be breaking the law, and if she got caught, things could end ugly. Not just on her government records, but with Cisco as well. She winced at the thought. She'd just gotten him, and she wasn't quite ready to lose his friendship yet. But right now, he was possibly dying because of some evil metahuman ice queen. That thought alone was enough to send her over the edge.