Return of Grodd

Peter has been trying to walk with help from his friends and family for support. Peter just takes a few small steps with the cane until he can't do any more and takes a seat on Wells old wheelchair.

"You're making progress." Barry says encouraging.

"Yeah, six whole steps. Someone get me the Bozo button." Peter says, not letting his broken spine getting in the way of his quips.

"Hey, give yourself some credit, man. You had your back broken." Cisco tells his friend.

"Yeah, a normal person would be paralyzed for the rest of his life." Iris informs Peter.

"Hasn't this ever happened to you before?" Joe wonders since Peter's been doing this for years.

"No, I don't recall ever fighting a demonic speedster who pretended to be a hero. He might be around when I was fighting the psycho criminal with a scorpion tail who tried killing me with poison. Or possibly the hunter who tries stabbing me with a sphere multiple times. No matter how times I've fought someone had they broke my back." Peter tells him, with a sort of sarcasm in the way he talked.

"How long until he's healed?" Barry asks Caitlin and May.

"The initial MRI I took a week ago showed a complete dislocation at the T12-L2 interspace of the thoracolumber junction." Caitlin shows them on the screens.

"But this is the MRI we took this morning." May says and shows that Peter is mostly healed, just a few more days should be enough for him to get back on his feet, literally.

"We're going to get you back in that suit, Peter, don't worry about that." Barry tells Peter as he's looking at his suit on the display case.

"What are we gonna do about Jay?" Peter asks them since he told them what his senses told him during the fight.

"No sign of him since May nailed him with that tranq dart." Joe states.

"And I haven't been seeing Jay around Central City, or vibed him since then." Cisco tells them.

"Maybe he's not coming back." Iris tells them, hopingly.

"I highly doubt that." Harry says as he comes back with his gun around his shoulder. "Which is why I'm gonna do something about it. I need access to your breach room and your speed cannon."

"Why is that?" Peter wonders.

"Because, Peter, it's time to go home." Harry tells them and that means he wants to go back to Earth-2.

"So, you show up on our Warth, you screw everything up, and now you wanna go home? Sounds very familiar." Joe tells Harry.

"Again, I'm not him. I need to go take care of Jay or Zoom, whatever you want to call him once and for all before anyone else gets killed." Harry tells them.

"What do you plan on doing to stop him?" Peter asks Harry.

"I'll think of something." Harry tells him.

"Wait, you can't leave." Caitlin tells Harry.

"Yeah, he can. Stein showed us how to send people through." Cisco informs her.

"I don't think that's what she meant." May tells Cisco.

"If you can stop Jay on your earth, you can do it here. Besides, you're a sitting duck out alone. We need your help to stop him." Caitlin tells Harry.

"She's right, we understand Jay has your daughter, but the best way to stop him is with us." Peter agrees with them but Wells just leave to pack.

"I'm not understanding you, did Zoom punch your brain loose? The last plan he gave us nearly got you killed." Joe informs Peter.

"And yet at the same time, you all thought Jay could be trusted and it turns out he was this years Reverse Flash." Peter replies to him. "And I'm not exactly going to be helpful until I get back on my feet, we're going to need him." He says since he still believes Harry can still help them.

Suddenly, an reminder goes off for Cisco saying he needs to get ready for a date in an hour. May has to head into work and promises to check on Peter later. Barry's phone rings and it's Patty and he leaves the room.

"Wow, I'm feeling kinda left out suddenly." Peter states to Joe who just laughs since they're the only two guys out of everyone who doesn't have a date.

-

Wells is getting a drink at a bar while trying to learn which breach will get him home as Caitlin comes in to talk to him.

"You should stay away from the cheese curds. They're addicting." Caitlin warns Harry.

"I'm gonna take a wild stab and guess you're here without the consent of the rest of your fabulous team." Harry guesses since only she and Peter want him to stay.

"It's been difficult, having you here, for all of us. But we can help you save your daughter." Caitlin promises him. "I know that's why you want to go home."

"Look, I made a mistake coming here and expecting this world Flash and Spider-Man to be able to stop Zoom. Who actually turns out to be my world's Flash, and my plan to stop him failed." Harry tells Caitlin. "There's nothing to do, except go back and face Zoom myself."

"So let's say you go back to your earth, and you fight Zoom. He will kill you." Caitlin informs him and that won't help Jesse. "The best way for you to help her, is to stay here and work with us as a mean to help us fight Zoom." She asks him and he still doesn't want to.

"Just be glad Peter and professor Stein never figured out how to close all the breaches, then you'd be stuck here." Caitlin tells him and Harry gets an idea.

"Wait. That's it, we close the breaches. All of them, except one. So Jay only has one way to get to this world. The one at Star labs." Harry tells her and Caitlin gets his idea.

-

The next day, Barry and Joe get called in on some attack at a laboratory. "Joe, I found these weird looking hairs all over the street. I'm gonna run them against the database, see what they say find." Barry tells him.

"Well, our victims name is dr. Jeffery Shore. A biochemist engineer here at Vaughan pharmaceuticals. Making him the second dead lab tech in two weeks." Joe informs Barry.

And just like the other tech, he had stolen a serum from their storage cooler. Something called Cortexin. What they use to treat encephalopathy, blood diseases in the brain." Barry states and the serum was gone when they found his body and his point of death was high above the ground.

"Hey, I'm here." Patty comes up to them since she's been running a little late and they fill her in on what she missed.

-

Peter is still at Star labs and is trying to do as much as he can to get himself back on his feet. He was at the moment balancing himself, which used to be an easy task for him, but every time he tries focusing, the haunting images of Zoom beating him to death.

Zoom's Dark, soulless eyes, demonic voice, and every time those images come back, he just falls into a panic.

"Peter?" May calls and Peter sees her worried.

"I'm okay, aunt May." Peter tells her and she walks up and sits down next to him.

"Talk to me, Peter." May begs him, and Peter knows he has to if he wants to get past this.

"It's just...Zoom showed everyone in Central City what he could do, and showed them Spider-Man is not gonna be able to stop him. I'm supposed to be able to protect people, but Zoom showed that Spider-Man is nothing compared to him." Peter explains to her and he doesn't see how he could match up to someone like Zoom. He's not a speedster, his senses can only do so much. Zoom's a unstoppable creature.

"Oh, what would Ben say?" May wonders and Peter thinks back to his uncle.

"Probably give a speech, something about how when we fall, the only thing to do is just stand back up and see how many hits it takes for us to stay down." Peter takes a guess and May agrees with that and laughs.

"Ben always had a speech for every occasion." May jokes and Peter laughs with her, remembering his with great power, comes great responsibility speech he once gave.

They just stayed there in a comfortable silence until Cisco came in and saw them while he was holding his face like he's gotten punched.

"Hey, either of you seen Caitlin?" Cisco asks them and they're confused why he would ask that.

"No, why?" Peter asks his friend.

"She just hit me in the face then ran away." Cisco explains and they're wondering why Caitlin would do that when they hear Barry and Joe yelling for them.

"Grodd, he's back." Joe tells them and they realize he has Caitlin.

Barry speeds outside, just missing Grodd and he's kidnapped Caitlin.

"I'm continually amazed by the similarity between our two earths." Harry says as they're searching for the giant gorilla on the computers.

"You've got talking gorillas on your earth, too?" Joe asks and he concurs with him. "Remind me to never visit there."

"But why would a psychic gorilla kidnapp Caitlin?" May asks after Peter explained the whole gorilla situation.

"I don't know, it doesn't make any sense. Caitlin was the one who he actually liked." Peter says, now being able to at least stand up on his own.

"He mind controlled two lab technicians to steal chemicals that enhance intelligence. So he must need Caitlin for something." Barry tells them and that could be a problem they need to deal with.

"Well, he seem to have left his bachelor pad in the sewers." Cisco says while looking at the sewer cameras.

"Grodd's a big ass gorilla. He can't just waltz through downtown in the middle of the day with nobody noticing." Joe states to them and he does have a point.

"Exactly, and if there's been sightings, We night be able to approximate his location." Harry tells Joe and he offers to go to CCPD and find reports of a gorilla and they all split up to do what they can leaving Peter.

"Don't start beating yourself up about this, Peter. There's nothing you could've done against a gorilla, even at full health." May informs Peter.

"I'm still not at full power. How am I supposed to help save her from Grodd?" Peter asks her, wishing he could sense Grodd, but he's always going in blind with that telepathic overgrown chimpanzee.

"You might not be able to flip, or dodge bullets, but you still have your brain. Start using it and help figure out where she is." May suggests and he knows that if he wants to help Caitlin, he needs to stop thinking about Zoom, and focus on why he became Spider-Man.

-

In Cisco's labs, Harry and Cisco are trying to figure out how to save Caitlin.

"So how did Grodd become sentient?" Harry asks Cisco.

"A few years ago, Star labs had this contract with the military to research and awaken latent mind reading capabilities for interrogation purposes." Cisco explains to him.

"And I'm guessing Grodd is one of the test subjects." Harry guesses.

"Yes, but then dr. Wells shut down the program, and we all thought it was to save Grodd from all of the crazy mind control experiments, but it was really so that dr. Wells could use the accelerator to create his own 1,500 pound mind controlling gorilla that he could manipulate." Cisco starts explaining.

Cisco looks at what Harry is doing on the computers and sees he's running an algorithm. "What are you doing exactly?" Cisco wonders.

"I'm running an algorithm meant to extrapolate Grodd's location from places we know how alewasy been." Harry says and the computer finishes and they see they all intersect and they have a location.

In the labs, May is giving Peter another exam to check if everything is completely healed yet. "No spinal cord edema. No trace of any subacute hemorrhaging. Bones have fused perfectly, you're all healed, Peter." May says with gladness and Peter doesn't know what to do about the images still.

"You know, Peter, Ben would always say if you want to get back to something, figure out where you started." May offers and Peter thinks back to when he was first Spider-Man when Cisco comes in with news.

"Hey, guys, I think we found where they are." He tells them and they join him in the cortex.

"Grodd has to be in one of these three bell towers. The only reason we couldn't find him on any cameras underneath the city before is because he upgraded from a bachelor pad to a penthouse, like a baller." Cisco informs them on what he found out.

"Okay, so we know where he is. What's the plan to get her out?" Peter asks as Harry is back in his doppelgängers Reverse Flash suit.

"We use me." Harry explains and they're shocked at the resemblance.

"If we can get Harry to convince Grodd that he's Wells, he's his father, he can distract Grodd, Barry can go in and get them both out of there." Cisco explains the plan and it's the only thing we've got.

"I'm not gonna be much help, if anything goes wrong." Peter warns them and they understand.

-

They checked the first two bell towers and are at the last one now. "Okay, let's go over the plan one last time." Cisco asks Harry and he doesn't want to. "Look, I just finished these anti-psychic ear buds. They could fail and if they do, you're toast, so you're gonna need to nail it if you want to live." Cisco tells him and Harry puts on his best Wells impression.

"Cisco. In many ways. You've shown me what it's like to have a son." Harry says, and Cisco asks him to try a bit harder, and more sincere. Once he finally gets it, Barry just has to wait for his moment.

-

May and Peter are just talking at Star labs as Peter looks towards his Spider-Man suit again that's on a mannequin next to Barry's. "Tell me what you first thought when you put on that outfit." May asks Peter, since he never truly explains why he became Spider-Man.

"I just...I don't even know myself. I was angry when Ben got shot, I wanted to stop the man responsible for killing him. But after time, I guess the idea of me being given these powers for a reason started coming in. I wanted to make a difference in the world, and that's what Zoom took from me. He showed the city, Spider-Man is not powerful enough to protect them." Peter explains to her why he feels like maybe Spider-Man should stop.

"Do you remember what I would say when you would fail a test in school when you were younger? You know, those rare occasions?" May asks him and he does, he remembers her exact words.

"Were only human?" Peter asks her.

"You're feeling the shame that you lost. What made you think you could become Spider-Man to beigin with?" May keeps asking him and Peter doesn't remember much about starting, but remembers what he took.

"I just took a leap of faith, and saw what followed." Peter tells her and she places her hands on his shoulders.

"Maybe it's time for you to take a second leap, don't you think?" May asks and Peter understands.

Maybe that's what he needs in order to get Zoom out of his head is to retake his first steps.

Then make Zoom pay for what he did.

-

The team later comes back with Caitlin and she explains that what Grodd wanted her for was so he could have more gorillas like him.

"What are you saying? He wants kids?" Cisco asks her. "Because I'm pretty sure one telepathic grape ape is more than enough for this city."

"I know somewhere we could send him." Harry tells them. "When the singularity exploded and I discovered the breach in Star labs, I ran similar tests and discovered the same thing, 51 additional breaches. The difference being the breaches in Central City are scattered throughout the city whereas counterparts in my world mist definitely are not." Harry says and explains he knows where they all are and where they lead onto his earth and shows one breach that will send Grodd to his world, a city of gorillas.

"Even if you're right, how do we bait Grodd to go through it?" Joe asks them when Peter gets an idea.

"I'll do it." Peter tells them and they're surprised he's offering. "Barry can bring Grodd to the location, and my strength matches Grodd's so I'll be able to hold him off. I've been hiding and playing dead for far too long...I need to take a leap." He says looking to May whos smiling.

-

Caitlin goes back to the tower and calls out for Grodd and as soon as he comes out, Barry speeds Caitlin away.

"You want Caitlin, Grodd? You're gonna have to catch up, first." Barry tells the gorilla and speeds off with Grodd close behind.

Peter is sitting against the side of a abandoned building, above where the breach is, and is waiting for the moment to kick Grodd into the portal. Barrry comes speeding up while Cisco and Harry get the speed cannon ready to send the gorilla through.

Barry comes to a stop and waits for Grodd. Grodd comes down and asks where's Caitlin, Peter takes this as his time to start swinging, when once again the images if Zoom trying to fill his mind, but he fights back against them.

His feelings of fear have been holding him back ever since Zoom tried breaking him. But what Zoom doesn't realize is that he can bend Peter Parker, but he will never break.

Cisco activates the breach and it starts pulling Grodd trough, but it's not strong enough. But adding Peter's strength, it is. Peter comes down on a web and goes for a full power kick and kicks the gorilla through the breach when they shut it down.

Peter just drops to the ground since kicking a gorilla still leaves some pain.

"Welcome back, Spider-Man." Barry tells him and he's happy that he was able to help get rid of Grodd for good.

-

They're all back at Star labs and are looking at the Reverse Flash suit.

"That thing seriously gives me the creeps. We should destroy it." Cisco tells them.

"Agreed, but maybe we should see how he got his suit to fit into his ring, first." Peter tells Cisco since they're both curious to how he managed that.

"Really you guys?" Barry asks his nerd friends.

"Hey, this came from the future, you know, that place where they have more advanced technology. I'm not letting it go to waste." Peter informs Barry who just lets them do what they want.

"So the place where we sent Grodd, what is it exactly?" May wonders, since nobody really explained it.

"It's a refuge where gorillas subjected to lab experiments, like Grodd, can roam freely." Wells explains and they see that's the best life for Grodd.

"I still don't understand, why do the breaches on our Earth lead to different places on yours?" Peter asks Harry.

"I don't know yet, Parker, but I do know we have to close them all and I don't know how to do that quite yet." Harry tells him and they agree to work together to find a way to close the breaches and stop Zoom.

"Say what you will, I'm just glad to be rid of that gorilla. If I never see him again, it'll bee to soon." Peter states and walks off, hoping that's the last Grodd will ever be interfering with their lives.

Hopefully.

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