Dropping In

[swoopyhair]

Once he'd gotten word from Noah that it would be safe, Peter was eager to visit Central City and see Claire. It was nice to hear she'd finally settled down, and something he expected to happen sooner or later. What he didn't expect, however, was to hear she'd gotten herself into a relationship. At least not so soon after moving in.

But he understood all too well what it was like to fall in love with someone at first sight. He was glad that it seemed to be going much better for his niece than it had for him.

There was also some lingering curiosity about the dream he'd had. The one where he was in that weird room with Claire and a bunch of people he didn't know - her friends, he would later learn after talking with Noah. He assumed he'd meet them eventually, though maybe not today. It would make sense if she wanted to introduce him slowly and let them build up trust in him. She'd never been so open with her relationships that he could remember - the last one he knew anything about had been with Gretchen and even then he barely had met the woman. Peter didn't want to push too hard and end up distancing himself from Claire all over again. He was all too aware that his involvement with Sylar had put a strain on them, and he wanted to use this time to try and set things right.

Claire had texted her address just after moving in, so he knew right where to go. But rather than teleport directly into the apartment, Peter popped into the hallway. He was planning to surprise her, and now that he was there, he hoped she was home so he didn't have to text her and ruin the surprise.

He knocked twice, then waited for her to answer.

Comments

[swoopyhair]

Peter felt better too, and it was almost a surprise to him. Like he hadn't realized he needed it. He smiled at Caitlin, then glanced up at Harry when he made his presence known. There was a soft chuckle and a nod in response. He could feel that a lot of Harry's attitude was mostly bluster, and that it came from a place of caring. The enhancement to his empathy came in handy for things like that, now that he was used to it.

"Appreciate it," he said earnestly. "You guys have a really good team, here. I'm glad Claire has you all."

Because Peter's just visiting. He thinks.

Claire blinked in surprise, head tilted. "No Canada or Mexico? That's... whoa. I didn't realize Harry was a veteran." But with the way he handled that rifle, it made sense.

"My bio-mom traveled through Mexico. I wanted to see the places she told me about," she explained. "I also went there with my bio-dad once, but I mostly went back because of her. Just went to Canada to see Niagara Falls - better view from that side. There's a lot more traveling I want to do, but I'm happy to have a home now." Claire smiled almost dreamily, then perked up with a giggle, suddenly remembering, "Y'know, Barry said he was gonna take me to dinner in Italy for our second date."

[iamnotuptight]

Honestly, Harry half expected the multi-powered kid to have been able to detect him there. Either via his empathy or some other skill, but he'd take not being called out as a win. The two had needed a moment and he knew he couldn't give Caitlin the comfort she needed. He was just a grumpy old jerk who was pricklier than a cactus. Every time he tried to fix a delicate emotional issue, he ended up making it worse. So he'd leave it to the professionals and stay in his lane. He fixed science problems and played dodge the angry Meta. He was much better at the first one than the second one.

"They're a good group of kids." Harry agreed then motioned with his elbow and Cait started walking again. ...but she might have found Peter's hand again subconsciously. Oops.

"I've never really been able to travel. Alternate dimensions excluded. Dad's big on education and I was the brightest kid in the school. I graduated early. Studying for five majors and haven't had time for much else. I guess with super speed, it's an option now, but... between school and being Jesse Quick... I still don't have much time." She seemed a little envious, but still smiled brightly.

"Yeah, he'll tell you he's not." She said.

"Not what?" Harry asked as he walked into the room, handing a cup of coffee to Cisco.

"A veteran." Cisco answered for her then happily sipped his warm java juice.

"Because I'm not. I was drafted. Left the service as soon as I was able to. I didn't want anything to do with that damn war." He shrugged.

[swoopyhair]

Caitlin's emotions had been strong enough that he couldn't really focus on much else. It was also a little out of sight, out of mind since he couldn't see Harry, nor did he hear any stray thoughts. But mostly Mr. Hero had been distracted by the damsel in distress.

He pressed on as Caitlin did, not pulling away when her hand found his again. If she needed the comfort, he had plenty to offer. Because of course she couldn't be reaching out for any other reason, right? Sure, Peter.

Claire glanced up as the others joined them, noting Peter and Caitlin holding hands with a smile. She wouldn't call them out directly, because she wouldn't embarrass Cait like that. However, she also knew if she thought something loud enough, Peter would hear it.

Almost moving as fast as Barry and me...

All in good fun and teasing, of course, but it was enough that Peter had to play off with a quick look in his niece's direction. He couldn't even be mad, because he knew how close he'd been to pushing Claire away, and it was nice to goof around with her again. Brat. There was no real bite to it.

"I dropped out of college, but I wasn't gonna do anything remarkable there anyway," Claire said to Jesse with a laugh. "I don't know how you do all that without falling over exhausted. It's something to be proud of."

"What war?" Peter asked, somewhat confused. Given they were talking about Harry, clearly it was Earth-2, and he didn't know how different their history was.

"Jesse was just telling me Earth-2 has North and South America and not all the countries in them, 'cause I mentioned that I went to Canada and Mexico," Claire said. "There was a war about it, apparently." Once again she was letting her mind wander, thinking about all the different Earths. They weren't really good thoughts, and it showed.

[iamnotuptight]

Cait needed the comfort. But there was also a little something else behind it. However, unlike Barry, she was happy to move at a slower pace. Especially after being burned by Hunter, so it had been entirely subconscious. Which meant it was a good thing Claire didn't call them out aloud, because Cait would've snatched her hand back out of embarrassment and been extra aware of herself from then on out. Another sign of affection wouldn't slip past her icy walls.

"Not all of us are psychotic like familia de Wells." Cisco said with a chuckle. "We just get one degree and learn everything else on the job because it's fun and useful. This man has seven PhDs!" He pointed at Harry. "He collects them like Pokemon! That's one too many for a party, dude!"

Harry ignored Cisco's antaginising. "Just because we have very few serial killers, doesn't mean our history is any less sordid." Harry half explained. He watched Claire then locked eyes with Jesse, nodding towards her. Jess somewhat understood and bumped Claire with her hip, smiling playfully.

"Hey, it's all in the past. And nothing for you to worry about." Jesse's bright smile could light up a room, at least in Harry's proud opinion. "And besides, Peter's fiiiiinally here, so we can test his theory!"

Neither of them were going to bring up Earth-X. It's like He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. It didn't even get a number. Just an X so people knew NEVER to go there. It was worse than the black hole Earth.

[swoopyhair]

Peter, to his credit, didn't let go of Caitlin's hand. He could endure a little teasing from Claire, especially since no one else seemed to notice him looking at her. It also helped that his niece seemed happy about this new development. If it seemed like he was somehow making things awkward, he might tread more carefully. For now, he was happy to follow Cait's lead - he didn't mind moving slowly, since he was, to steal Harry's phrase, getting back in the saddle.

Claire's mini-spiral had been more about the possibilities of herself on other Earths. Which was probably a bit of a blessing, because had she considered something as universally terrible for the world as Earth-X, she might have derailed completely. As it was, the bump from Jesse was enough to knock her back into reality and the present moment, and she offered a sheepish little smile. Any other Claires on any other Earths would have to sort themselves out. She had the kind of life she'd dreamed about, here. It was hard not to be at least curious about the possibilities, but she had to rein herself in from getting too in the weeds thinking about the what ifs.

"I'm pretty sure Jesse's gonna be running circles around you while time is stopped." Finally Claire spoke up, teasing Peter out loud on a much safer topic. She'd never do that to Caitlin. There's probably a Girl Code about it or something.

"That might be the case. I dunno if Hiro ever stopped time around any speedsters," Peter said thoughtfully. Since it felt rude to stop time without warning, he added, "Here we go!" and gave Caitlin's hand a squeeze. He wasn't sure how many people he could include in stopping time, so since he was already holding her hand, he figured she could observe. For science, of course. He focused for a second, and in the blink of an eye, the trio of Claire, Cisco, and Harry would be frozen in place. The room would be totally silent, not even the hum of electronics to be heard, everything appearing as if in a freeze frame.

[iamnotuptight]

Caitlin was in awe as things froze and went still and quiet. "This is like Flash Time, but without the hum and crackle of the Speed Force." She admitted. "Oh, uh, Barry and other speedsters like him do this thing where they move so fast, it looks like the world is frozen. They can bring people they're touching into it with them, just like this," she held up their joined hands. "and no one else will even know they've moved."

They would see Jesse slowly start moving. Crackles of yellow lightning following her movements like a long exposure video. The tendrils of lightning grew and branched and arced around her as she gradually sped up until she was moving in time with them.

"This is awesome!" Jesse giggled. "As soon as you said you were going I started going into Flash Time to counter and it actually worked!" She zipped to their side, leaving a trail of lightning behind her, much faster than should be possible, not that she knew that. "Wanna see something cool?" She reached for Claire and the blonde was surrounded by Speed Force arcs just like Jesse as soon as Jess touched her. Claire would immediately be brought into the frozen moment with them.

[swoopyhair]

Barry hadn't mentioned Flash Time, so he was grateful for the explanation. He wasn't sure he'd need to use it, considering he already could stop time. As Jesse started moving, he looked up curiously, his smile slowly growing wider. Her enthusiasm was infectious.

Claire was startled briefly, but made a quick recovery as soon as she realized what was going on. "Ooh, are we doing a wombo-combo with Flash Time, or are you just that fast?" she asked with amusement, looking around at the trails of yellow lightning. Jesse had been next to her, not in contact with Peter, so he couldn't have brought her in along with Caitlin.

"You might be able to move fast enough that you wouldn't need Flash Time," Peter said. "FI mean, if you were already running when I stopped time, you might just keep going."

"That could very well be the case with Thawne or the God of Speed. Barry said they're both faster than him," Claire pointed out, somewhat concerned. "Stopping time isn't going to be enough to stop either of them."

[iamnotuptight]

"Little bit of both. I'm fast enough, but I think I'd totally need Flash Time to bring someone else in." She nodded, agreeing with Peter, still super excited. "Flash Time is just pure speed, but I'm vibrating instead of running, so I'm pretty sure I'd run fast enough." Jesse was beaming and practically bouncing with Claire beside her.

"We can do another test with me running on the track and see how it affects me. Assuming you can do that more than once." The last bit was a playful challenge. "I had a big breakfast! I can go all day."

Caitlin laughed at Jesse's energy and could just see a lot of Harry's antagonistic nature in her. That same teasing he only every used on Cisco because the two were like children.

[swoopyhair]

"I can keep this up and see how you run, or I can end it and start up again," Peter said, then laughed a little. "You're not gonna wear me out, don't worry."

"Whatever we test is gonna be helpful. The more info we have about how powers interact, the better." Claire was more subdued than Jesse at the moment, but still just as cheerful. She couldn't help but miss Barry a little. He'd love this. Hopefully Peter wouldn't mind repeating some tests. "There might still be some brownies left if you need a pick-me-up after," she added, teasing.

[iamnotuptight]

Jesse somehow smiled brighter and bounced from foot to foot with excitement. "Oh! Um, if I let go of Claire, she's gonna freeze again." She looked at Claire again with an apology. "But this is really fun and interesting! I love seeing how our powers interact! I don't get do do this kind of testing much. I mean, we did some training with Cisco's powers but that was a lot more of just testing my reaction times and dodging breaches."

Cait looked uneasily off to the side. "Barry did some riskier testing with Cisco's vibe blasts, but that was against my wishes and not something either of them would probably repeat against anyone else. Barry was hit with Reverb's vibe blasts, he was Cisco's Earth-2 doppelgänger and Barry wanted to see if there was a way to get out of that attack if he were to get hit again by another variant like Reverb or evil Breacher." The tone of her voice suggested, he didn't find the result he was looking for in his tests.

"Hey, Peter, if I bring Claire to you, will she be able to stay in sync with us?" Jesse asked, trying not to let the thought of Barry being hit with a vibe blast bring her mood down too much. She'd seen Cisco's vibe blasts and she'd seen Reverb's vibe blasts. She knew they could be pretty catastrophic. "I'm definitely gonna hit the brownies again when we're done!" She smiled at Claire.

[swoopyhair]

"Oh, yeah. I can get her." Peter blushed a little, leading Caitlin to take Claire's hand. "Gets more tricky the more people, but two is manageable."

Claire didn't love the thought of Barry getting hit with a vibe blast, but clearly he was okay now, so she didn't let herself worry about it too much. She figured she couldn't get that upset about him testing with Cisco, because frankly, it was the same kind of test she would want to do herself. If Barry was fine after, she could tank a vibe blast, no problem. She'd taken Hartley's sonic blast, after all, and now she'd shake both off easier since she wasn't nerfed by the Chameleon venom.

She could take an icicle through the leg too. The mention of Reverb reminded her reminded of Cisco's Vibe about Killer Frost. But she pushed that out of her head before Peter could accidentally pick up on it, and made a mental note to talk to Cisco about it later. Maybe there was a connection to the God of Speed Vibe, and Peter's dreams.

"At the Carnival, Hiro needed Ando's supercharger lightning to power him up enough to teleport, like... twenty people, maybe? That's how we moved the other Evos away from Samuel to make his power weaker," Claire explained.

"I'd borrowed Samuel's power to try and stop him, but at the time I could only hold on to one power." Peter didn't really miss that aspect of his ability, nor did he miss having the ability to move dirt. Maybe if Claire got it into her head to buy a farm someday, that sounded like something she'd do.

"Ready when you are, Jesse," he added with a grin. He'd seen Barry run, but he was just as eager to see another demonstration, especially in an environment made for just that, like the Speed Lab. The experience would help when he reabsorbed the speed and could actually train with it.

[iamnotuptight]

Jesse nodded and walked Claire over to Peter. "Good thing I'm not asking you to do twenty people. I'm not sure how we'd replicate that kind of ability." She admitted. "Cisco and my Dad have been able to use tech to recreate some abilities and things like Velocity are able to give temporary speed, but I have no idea if that's something that can be done with Evo abilities for you. Dad built special glasses to tap into the fear receptors in Cisco's brain to help with his vibes and Cisco designed gauntlets that help him focus the vibrational energy easier in his vibe blasts to make it more potent. Things like that. Dad also built a tachyon enhancer to help Barry absorb tachyons and run faster. Though, that one was going off Thawne's research. Thawne just never managed to build his own." Jesse sounded proud of her dad, able to succeed where Thawne hadn't.

"I'm sure if you can stomach his mood swings, Harry would be willing to look into testing possibilities for you." Caitlin agreed with a warm smile and gave his hand a squeeze almost subconsciously.

Once Jesse had Claire handed off safely, she grinned at Peter and counter down, "3, 2, 1--" Then took off, zipping around the circular track around them like a streak of yellow lightning. She tried not to move fast enough to catch her STAR Labs shirt and sweats on fire, but she wasn't slow by any means. After about fifteen laps around the track she zipped back and paused. "Hold that thought." She zipped out of the room. When she came back, she was clad in her red, black, and gold suit. Now she could run. And run she did. Jess took off at even higher speeds. Enough that between time trying to stop her and the Speed Force trying to accelerate, she was creating a tidal wave of friction around the track. It built up until it reached critical and surged outward like an EMP.

The surge knocked her on her ass, along with everyone else in the room and plunged the building into darkness, but wouldn't leave any lasting damage besides a few bruised tailbones, maybe some broken mugs, and frizzy hair. No one has any pacemakers, right?

[swoopyhair]

It might be worth it to pay Ando a visit for that ability, to test and see if and how it worked with Metas, Peter thought. If Ando had gone back to Japan, maybe he could convince Claire to come along. He was sure she'd like to see Tokyo.

Uncle and niece watched with unabashed delight as Jesse ran the track. It was nothing new to Claire by now, but it never failed to amaze her, and Peter was still getting used to that kind of speed.

Sorry, Thawne, it wasn't going to be so easy to impress her anymore.

The EMP blast knocked Peter right down, breaking his hold on both Caitlin and Claire, as well as breaking his concentration on stopping time. She went flying with a startled squeal, carefully shifting into a sitting position.

"Everyone okay?" Peter called out. He nearly brought up a ball of lightning to illuminate the dark room on instinct, but stopped short, remembering the earlier discussion. "I can light us up, unless my light source would upset anyone."

"I heard glass or something break," Claire warned. She guessed it was probably the coffee mugs, or maybe some equipment. "What hit us?"

[iamnotuptight]

Caitlin groaned and sat up, dusting off her pants. She heard Cisco hiss then gasp lightly before hearing shuffling in the complete darkness. A phone light lit up an area in her peripheral. It reflected off of pools of dark liquid on the ground that made her heart stop briefly until she realised they were spilled coffee.

"I'm good." Cait answered carefully.

Jesse's yellow lightning was blinding in the dark as she raced to Harry's side. "I think too much electricity built up in my wake. With time frozen, it just kept building and building where I ran then detonated." Jess answered. "Too much stored energy in one place."

"So, the test went well?" Cisco asked, but there was a slight edge to his voice, like maybe he was in pain.

"The light will be fine, Petrelli. You've given us proper warning." Harry answered. "You kids okay?"

[swoopyhair]

The room was then lit up with a soft, blue glow as an orb of lightning hovered above Peter's hand. He looked to Caitlin first, relieved that she was fine. The dark liquid on the floor gave him a similar panic until he too remembered the coffee.

Claire's association with blue lightning was the same as Peter's - Elle Bishop. They were bittersweet memories. She'd been hit with full blasts of it more than once, but she'd also found an odd kinship with the other blonde. Despite all the issues the two had, they were essentially two sides of the same coin.

"We know for sure now that stopping time can't stop a speedster," Peter said, then frowned. "Though with some unexpected side effects. Maybe... now that we know about it, we can find a way to use it to our advantage."

"Cisco? You don't sound so Gucci..." Claire recognized that edge in his voice and was immediately concerned. She already was so used to ignoring her phone whenever she was around Harry and/or Jesse, that she sometimes forgot it existed, or else she might have thought to use its flashlight. Peter's light was enough for her to make her way over to Cisco and Harry.

Peter trailed behind, his paramedic instincts on alert now.

[iamnotuptight]

"I just landed in broken mug." Cisco answered, holding his hand up in the soft blue light. A few speckled cuts were peppered along the heel of his rught palm. "No Breaching for me for a couple days." He lamented. "But I collided with Harry, who I know won't tell you shit, so look him over first."

Harry shot Cisco a grumpy glare and Jesse immediately started fussing. She found a long cut on the Radius side of his forearm, also from ceramic shards. She began rapidly apologising and Harry grabbed her face in both hands, pulled her close until he bumped their foreheads together, "My Jesse Quick, it's not your fault. I'm okay. Cisco's okay." He used Cisco's first name to drive the point home. And she nodded. He let her go and stood up, giving Cisco a hand up.

"We're alright." Harry assured.

Cisco made an undecided whine sound through his nose. "I dunno. You might need stitches. I just need a bandaid." He joked.

Cait moved to Peter's side, not just to get a good look at Harry and Cisco. "You sure you're okay?" She asked Peter.

"I can tell you, it felt like I was running through something thicker than air. It was creating drag. Friction. But I shoulda known that would happen. Between the friction and the build up, that's how we throw lightning. We run so fast we loop the current on itself and build it up enough to direct it. It just didn't give it an outlet and it made its own. I didn't realise I was running fast enough to build it up like that." Jesse sounded desperately apologetic.

[swoopyhair]

Peter looked on with concern at Cisco and Harry, still holding the lightning up. "Yeah, I'm fine," he answered Caitlin, smiling at her in the cool blue light. "Probably won't be the last time I get knocked on my ass."

Claire seemed satisfied that neither of the two had any serious injuries. Harry's cut did seem worse, but it also clearly wasn't life threatening. Nothing Caitlin or even Peter wouldn't be able to patch up easily. She turned her focus to Jesse, a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up about it. We're all gonna be okay, and we learned something that we might be able to use against the growing number of threats against us! I'm calling this a win." She paused, looking around. "Uh... how do we get the power back on?"

[iamnotuptight]

Cait snatched Harry's arm when he seemed distracted so he couldn't fight her off so readily and turned it over. She looked the cut over and chewed on her lower lip. "It shouldn't need stitches, but only if you take it easy and let it actually heal after I dress it." Harry gave her a defiant look then she sighed. "Should I just stitch it, anticipating you reopening the wound?"

"No." He grumbled.

"Meet my most regular patient, second only to Barry Allen." Cait said to Peter with a soft smile. "Or maybe tied to, since Barry has a healing factor and only needs me for his most deadly injuries." She turned her brown gaze to Claire. "If you give Harry a run for his money on that front, I swear, I'll have Cisco engineer a bubble to seal you into for your own safety!" Since you ended up on her table already, Claire.

Jesse nodded and tried to smile at Jesse. She was still upset. She hurt, of all people, her dad. And she knew he'd never blame her. Which somehow made it worse.

"Oh, that's me." Cisco said, flexing his fingers. "Hey, Jesse, mind running me to the gen room so I can hit the breakers?" Jesse nodded, then her and Cisco were gone. After about five minutes, the building started to gradually him back to life in sections. Emergency lights came on, then regular lighting, slowly computers seemed to start booting up again. Jesse wooshed back into the room with Cisco.

"Okay, that's some impressive power build up. Jesse knocked out the entire building. Fortunately, the Pipeline is on its own shielded power source, so no one escaped." Cisco said.

[swoopyhair]

Claire knew it would be essentially the same situation if it had been her and Noah, so she understood that it was hard to let go of the guilt. She still felt bad about some of the things her dad had gone through to protect her.

"Now that I'm clear of the Chameleon venom, I should be healed up before I even make it to the table," Claire said, grinning at Caitlin as the lights were coming back on. "I would've shaken off Hartley's sonic blast in a minute or two, rather than an hour."

Peter looked to his niece with wide eyes. "What the hell did it take you an hour to heal from?" It sounded a little harsher than his usual tone, but clearly out of concern.

"A blast of 200 decibels. Apparently that sort of thing wreaks havoc on your organs. Dropped me like a sack of potatoes. Better me than this guy." She was almost nonchalant as she explained, flashing a quick smile at Harry. "Hartley worked with Thawne, who was posing as Wells, and... mistaken identity. But I did almost take his ass down before he blasted me."

Somehow, none of that surprised him, not the fact that she'd taken the hit to protect a friend, and not that she'd apparently gone down swinging. That was the Claire he knew - he couldn't help but be proud.

Peter again looked concerned when Cisco mentioned something called the Pipeline and people escaping. "Uh, what's that? Do you have... prisoners?"

"I don't remember seeing anyone else down there when I went after Caitlin before. Then again, we were preoccupied so I totally could have missed it," said Claire thoughtfully.

[iamnotuptight]

As soon as Peter showed his own alarm for Claire's health, Harry looked vindicated. "She listens as well as my own teenage daughter." He sighed. "...but if she hadn't been there, Rathaway would've probably killed me without hearing me out." He admitted.

Cisco looked uneasy. "Prisoners make is sound like... we're some kinda medieval dungeon. We hold Meta criminals in power dampening cells for the police because they aren't equipped to hold them just yet. And the last time there were Metas being held somewhere that wasn't here, some no-good assholes got their hands on them. General Eiling wants to turn Metas into super soldiers to fight wars. He nearly got Barry and Firestorm. So we're careful about who can access Meta-human criminals. ARGUS is trying to set up a safe, secure place for special case Metas like King Shark while Iron Heights is building Meta containment cells. They've got a couple, but not enough."

Jesse looked over to Peter. "For example, Mirror Master is down there. He can use any reflective surface like a wormhole and travel through it. So he has to be held in a completely matte cell. And Peek-a-Boo can teleport anywhere in visual range, so she has to be held behind one-way glass."

"They were down there. But because of the nature of their powers, they're kept hidden. Cisco Breaches them their meals. The Pipeline is the old particle accelerator. The cells are the old copper tubing retrofitted by Cisco and Dr. Wells--"

"--Thawne." Harry interrupted Caitlin.

"Yes, sorry, Thawne, with Meta power dampening tech. They don't stay down there forever." Cait clarified. "Just until they can be moved."

[swoopyhair]

Peter, having the same regeneration ability as Claire, knew all too well that it shouldn't take an hour to heal from, well, anything. Unless there was something in the kill spot - she'd saved him from that once. He trusted her ability more than most others, because of his own experience, but her recklessness and self-sacrifice still worried him.

Of course, he had the very same penchant for self-sacrifice, even without regeneration. It was how he'd met Claire in the first place, after all. So he had to look a little proud of her for saving Harry's life, knowing he would have done exactly the same.

The explanation about the Pipeline and those contained within made sense, once it was all laid out. He had to admit that he admired the idea. It was something that might have helped the Old Company not be so... terrible. Maybe it's something the New Company can look into developing. Surely someone like Mohinder Suresh could help. He knew Noah Bennet had to be kicking himself that something like this didn't exist ten years ago.

"Heh, Peek-a-Boo." Claire giggled. "That's cute." And there was a certain kind of irony around keeping Thawne in a cell he helped to build. "I don't like this General guy. He sounds too much like those government goons who wanted to use the Formula to make Evo soldiers. And Danko, who wanted to lock us all up."

"No thanks to my brother," Peter said bitterly. "Nathan was the one whispering those ideas in the President's ear. Tracy's managing to undo all that with this new administration."

"Probably a good thing it's not a medieval dungeon," Claire piped up cheekily. She didn't want to think about her biological father. "Then you'd have me asking for flails and whips."

[iamnotuptight]

Harry was a bit of a hypocrite on that front. He'd made it clear he didn't have a problem trading his life for any of theirs, but he didn't want the same treatment. It had panicked him that Hartley had dropped her protecting him.

Cisco certainly did brag to Thawne's face about locking him in a cell he helped create. Probably not his most sportsman like moment, but it felt like the only win they'd had over Thawne and he had wanted to savour it.

Caitlin smiled brightly as Claire approved the nickname and Cisco rolled his eyes, huffing. "Fine! Yes, you named one." Which only added insult to injury because he didn't name Mirror Master, either, Harry had, and both had adopted the nicknames. Then Cisco's expression turned grim. "Eiling was bad news bears. He keeps giving us shit, too. But he's kinda backed off since Gorilla Grodd, a Meta-gorilla mind controlled him into doing some shit. Eiling worked with Thawne briefly before Thawne kicked him to the curb."

Cait took over. "We were working with a highly intelligent gorilla project. Thawne didn't like the way Eiling treated Grodd, so he broke off the partnership. Thawne and I bonded with Grodd." She looked sad. "But he escaped and vanished after the particle accelerator exploded. ...anyway, Eiling wanted to weaponise gorillas like Grodd into soldiers. That wasn't what we were doing here at STAR Labs. Grodd got his revenge on Eiling by subjugating him to mind control for months."

"But don't worry. He's in a gorilla sanctuary on my Earth now that was built for highly intelligent gorillas like Grodd so they can be with others of their kind, away from human interference." Harry explained. He didn't like the explanation about Nathan though. Peter's brother. And he was sure he'd heard the name at least once before. "This is your biological father? Why would he do that?"

In an attempt to lighten the mood, Cisco jumped on the whips and flails comment. "Girl, we don't kink shame here, but what you and Barry get up to in the bedroom stays in the bedroom." He teased. Revenge for making him blush so much with the Becca comments.

[swoopyhair]

A... gorilla. Just when Peter thought he'd heard it all. The things he missed, keeping himself too busy to read the news. He was still not going to ask about aliens. The superpower stuff he could handle, easily, but multiple Earths and intelligent gorillas were wild enough for one day.

"Yeah, that's my bio-dad," said Claire, shooting her uncle a uncertain glance. Why was Nathan the way that he was? "Probably a mix of self-loathing and ambition, I'd guess. I don't think he wanted to be an evolved human."

He had to admit, s uh E wasn't wrong. "Sounds about right. Plus he let himself be influenced by the absolute worst people. Which was always frustrating for me, because I looked up to him. But swear he wasn't completely terrible. He did the right thing when it truly mattered."

She shrugged. "I wouldn't say he was irredeemable, no." Just like she'd told Thawne - it took a lot for someone to get to that point.

Cisco's levity was much appreciated, even if he made her blush up a storm. 'Cisco! I--" There were a few seconds of stammering before she recovered quickly and smoothly. "I was talking about the battlefield, but if that's where your mind goes, well. You'll get along with Becca just fine." Nice try, Bestie, but her revenge on your revenge was immediate.

Peter, on the other hand, was pretending not to hear any of it. He didn't need to know anything about Claire's bedroom, thank you very much.

[iamnotuptight]

Probably for the best, because not only was there the whole Kara and Clark thing from another Earth being aliens, but the whole Dominators thing nearly wiping out to Earth recently which was also a problematic one. Though it also involved time travel AND aliens. Sorry, Peter.

"Yeah, well, tough break. 'Cause Cait and I don't wanna be Metas, either. We don't always get what we want." Cisco said bitterly. He already didn't like her bio dad. Anyone who sounded like Eiling was not a good person in his book. Besides, anyone who upset Claire deserved to get punched in the nose in his opinion.

Harry was a bit more understanding. "Sometimes doing the right thing in the end is all we can hope for."

Cisco was briefly winning then right back to blushing. Dammit Claire!

Peter wasn't the only one pretending not to hear it. Harry and Jesse were tuning the two out too.

[swoopyhair]

Peter didn't time travel anymore unless he absolutely had to, but it was still something he can wrap his mind around - he'd even met a future version of himself from another timeline. He just wasn't ready for life on other planets.

For all of Claire's bitterness toward Nathan, and the things he'd done, she still missed him, occasionally. Or maybe she missed the father she wished he could have been. She'd seen glimpses of that man, entirely too fleeting. Harry's words hit home. Shit, now he was out here reminding her of both dads? Dad Energy off the charts, as she was in the habit of saying now.

"I adore you both exactly as you are," Claire said earnestly. "And I'm not just saying that 'cause Cisco's Vibes are helping to save my life. The negative aspects of what you can do don't define you."

"Claire's right," Peter agreed. "But I understand how difficult it can be. I had my powers taken from me once, then when I got them back I could only borrow one at a time until Sylar helped me evolve my ability. Having one at a time made things simpler, but I could never predict which one I'd need more at any given time. But now I like the way my power changed. It's more focused on the empathic part."

She savored that small victory over Cisco. "Sorry, Bestie. You were ahead for like five seconds."