Short on Time

Chapter 34

Barry and I walked in making Cisco whistle, "and the happy couple arrives."

I rolled my eyes as I glanced down at my ring finger, "don't tease us."

Cisco winked at me before changing the topic, "as some of you may well know, I've been deeply embroiled in a secret, one-sided battle with an invisible enemy."

"No, not the Turtle again," Caitlin said.

"What? What is the- Or who is the Turtle?" Barry asked.

"It's Cisco's white whale," Caitlin said.

"Half whale, half turtle," Jay asked.

"No. Do you see what you're doing, Caitlin? Everybody's confused now," Cisco said as he typed away on the computer. "I stumbled upon a few of these cases when we were looking for the Reverse Flash, robberies that were seemingly committed at high speed people holding their beloved items one second. Those items were gone the next. Tell me what you see."

"So he can what? Stop time?" Barry asked.

"No, no, no. Look at the time code. It's still running," Cisco said. 

"Yeah, okay. So if he's not stopping time, what is he doing?" I asked.

"He's slowing down everything around him. And that is why we call him the Turtle," Cisco said.

"Why have you never mentioned this guy to me before?" Barry asked.

"Oh, I don't know, I think we've just been a little distracted, you know, what with Captain Cold and the Weather Wizard and Gorilla Grodd. Do I need to go on?"

"Okay, so if we can catch him, figure out how he uses his powers," I said.

"Maybe we can show Zoom what life is like in the slow lane."

"How would you even know where to find him?" I asked.

"Well, the robberies in the videos all correspond with police reports that were dismissed as lost or missing items instead of thefts. The suspect's M.O. being Items of immense personal value," Cisco said.

"Uh oh, it appears that there's a press conference at CCPD, because the Vandervoort diamonds have just been recovered," Caitlin told us.

"From Hell's heart, I stab at thee," Cisco quoted.

"Really?" I asked. 

"Well, the good new is whatever the Turtle did, it only affected you temporarily," Caitlin said when Barry came back.

"Yo. What was it like being in Turtle Time?" Cisco asked.

"Yeah, no, it was weird. It was like waves of inertness like all the energy was suddenly sucked out of my body, and then it would return," Barry said.

"That's because that's exactly what was happening. He has the ability to transfer all the surrounding kinetic energy into himself. Leaving everyone else in a temporary state of potential energy," I said and Jay and Harry nodded in agreement.

"So why could I still move?" Barry asked.

"Your speed," I said simply.

"Your speed allows you to change positions faster than anyone else," Harry added.

"So you can convert your stored potential energy back to kinetic energy," Jay said.

"Excuse me, where are you going?" Cisco asked as Harry walked away.

"Trying to figure out how to use this against Zoom. You remember Zoom?" Harry mocked.

"Cisco, please join me. We'll use your idea and take it to new scientific heights and save the world. Yes, I'd love to!" Cisco mocked.