Forward ϟ The Flash

Chapter 4: FIRESTORM 2.0

"Hold him steady!" Cisco yelled as Barry and Rose held the professor down on the bed as he worked on getting him stabilized.

Looking down at her tablet, which was watching his vitals, Caitlin added. "He's dropping out. Cisco, we're losing him!"

He was finally able to attach a device to his chest as Professor Stein continued to unconsciously struggle underneath his friends' grasp. Seeing his head lit with a bright blue fire reminded Rose of Hades in the Disney version of Hercules. She could only hope that the mythological being wouldn't take him today. Activating the device from the computer, the fire flamed out and Stein stopped flailing. Rose dropped to her knees, both her and Cisco muttering. "Dios mio."

"He's getting worse," Barry stated as she rose back up from her crouched position.

"Look," Cisco's voice sounded defeated. "I did what I could to re-engineer Dr. Wells' original stabilizer to quell the reaction, but I don't know what he used as a power source. Best I could find was the one from his wheelchair."

The team exited the room, leaving Stein to rest, as Caitlin asked. "And how long will that last?"

"Well, that's the problem, is we had already used up most of its energy trying to dampen the metas' powers during our little rogue air trip with Weather Wizard and company. I think we got a few days tops. When he wakes up, I'm gonna transfer the stabilizer to this, give him a power cane, get him moving."

"So what are some ideas to stop the reaction?" Rose crossed her arms.

"I think I might know how to do that," Caitlin said as she quickly tapped away at her tablet, bringing up some data on Stein to the screens. "When the Particle Accelerator exploded, the dark matter that collided with Professor Stein fused with the Firestorm matrix and altered the normal molecular processes that occurs within his body. Those highly reactive molecules needed something to bond with in order to stabilize."

All eyes were fused to the screen as Cisco added. "And that's where Ronnie came in."

"Yes, and now that Ronnie is no longer a part of Professor Stein-" she answered hesitating at the mention of Ronnie.

Rose put her hand on Caitlin's shoulder, giving it a light squeeze, as Barry finished her sentence. "Those molecules don't have anything to bond to."

"So no Ronnie equals no merge which means Stein could go... well you know." Rose tried to avoid saying what they all knew would happen and opted to pulling her hands apart to simulate an explosion. "So what's the big idea, Cait?"

"We find another... participant."

"Okay, cool, so, how do we do that? Are we just gonna make a Tinder app for potential meta-humans? 'Cause I'm pretty sure merging with Stein and randomly bursting into flames sounds like the biggest "swipe left" of all time. And stop smiling like that." Cisco pointed to her as Rose's grin grew larger at the thought of a meta dating app.

Barry bumped her shoulder to pull her out of the thought. "I mean, even if we could find someone willing, Stein can't just merge with whoever he wants."

"No, he can't." Caitlin agreed, moving towards the computers. "But I have done some research and found two potential candidates that might be compatible with him. They both were affected by the dark matter, and they were both admitted to the hospital showing symptoms of gene rearrangement mutation. And they both share the same blood type as Professor Stein and Ronnie."

Rose crossed her arms and rocked back and forth on her heels. "All well and good, but we need them to match up in more than just that to see if they could even merge with him. Not to mention it is a lifelong commitment these candidates would be making."