F I F T Y - T H R E E:
horrors of bugs

"Guess who I am?" Bibiana said. She pointed her Nerf bow at Cisco's head and shot the toy arrow. It didn't go far, causing her to look at the arrow that fell a couple of inches away from her. A sigh escapes her lips as she took off the green hoodie she was wearing.

"A weak impression of Oliver," Cisco guessed with a laugh.

"It looked easy when I saw kids playing with this," Bibiana admitted. She set the toy down and took a seat. It was back to work the second Barry walked in with evidence from a crime scene.
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"Death by apitoxin," Caitlin informed the group. The hacker did not like the sound of that.

"Honeybee venom," Dr. Wells translated.

"Bees. Why did it have to be bees?" Cisco asked. Bibiana was just glad they weren't dealing with spiders. "Y'all, I don't do bees. Ain't nobody got time for bees."

"When a honeybee stings, the stingers are torn from their abdomen and they die," Dr. Wells explained.

"That's what they get," Bibiana muttered. She wasn't a fan of insects, especially the arachnid group. Those eight-legged creatures could die and she would throw a party.

"There were no stingers in the body and no dead bees in the car," Barry informed them.

"A honeybee can only deposit 0.1 milligrams of apitoxin when it releases its stinger," Caitlin explained.

"Yet Ms. Kang was found with enough venom in her system to kill a herd of elephants," Dr. Wells said, looking at the information. "It appears not only is a metahuman controlling these bees but also increasing their toxicity."

"Bees communicate by releasing pheromones," Barry explained. "Maybe this meta is controlling them through secretion?"

"Anyone wanna join me in getting a beekeeper suit?" Cisco asked.

"Me," Bibiana answered.

"I'm pretty sure I can outrun a bee," Barry replied. He turned to look at Bibiana and Cisco. Were they serious about getting bee suits?

"Just don't run into a lake," Felicity informed them. Bibiana quickly turned around to see her friend. "The bees will wait for you to come up for air. Then they'll sting you. Discovery Channel. Turns out there is a lot to discover."

"Felicity, what are you doing here?" Barry asked.

"Can you guys come outside for a sec?" Felicity asked, motioning outdoors.

"Sure," Bibiana said, grabbing her green hoodie and toy bow. The girl was thinking it was Oliver the person they were going to meet up with outside.
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"What exactly are we waiting for, Ms. Smoak?" Dr. Wells asked, after waiting outside. There was nothing out there for them.

"Up there," Felicity said, pointing towards the air. Something was flying through the air and heading towards them.

"Is that a bird?" Caitlin asked.

"It's a plane," Cisco replied.

"No, it's Superman," Bibiana corrected them. It was not Superman, judging by the rough landing. The flying person was somewhat like Iron Man.

"It's my boyfriend," Felicity told them. The robot man took off his helmet to reveal Raymond Palmer.

"Hi. I'm Ray," he greeted happily. Bibiana let go of the toy arrow, causing it to land a couple of inches away.
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"Ah. My ears popped, so that's something," Ray said. Bibiana was excitingly looking at the Atom suit. It was reminding her of Iron Man on a whole other level.

"You're lucky you didn't break your neck," Caitlin told him. "What is it with billionaires being superheroes?"

"Half the time I think they have nothing better to do or they have gone through a rough time," Bibiana muttered, looking at the suit.

"So have you picked a name yet?" Cisco asked.

"Just don't do Ant-Man or Iron Man. Marvel had called dibs on that name a long time ago," Bibiana informed him.

"I'm kind of partial to the Atom. Shhew," Ray told them.

"Are you married to that, or...?" It appeared Cisco was not fond of the name. The girl was sure Cisco thought he could come up with a better name.

"Your A.T.O.M. suit. Quite the technological achievement, Mr. Palmer," Dr. Wells told Ray. "I'm impressed."

"And he is never impressed," Caitlin informed Ray.

"Well, thank you," Ray replied. "But I can't seem to keep it up."

"He means the suit," Felicity told them.

"Yeah, I mean the suit," Ray repeated.

"I can attest that everything else works fine," Felicity explained. "There's nothing we need to fit in that area."

"The sex is great," Ray said. Bibiana mentally slapped the both of them.

"Oh, God. The two of you are perfect for each other," Bibiana let out.

"God, there's two of them," Caitlin noted.

"I know from Felicity that you have been very helpful with Barry and the Flash suit. And with Bibiana and her Electric Storm suit," Ray said. "And I was hoping to get another set of eyes on my..."

He looked at Felicity.

"Problem?" Felicity offered.

"Problem," Ray repeated.

"Any friend of the Arrow's is the friend of--" Dr. Wells was cut off.

"Hell, yes," Cisco answered.

"I'm in too," Bibiana added. She was all about the heroes and she enjoyed making suits. Just not as much as Cisco.

"Uh, guys, we kind of have a lot going on already," Barry told them. "There's a metahuman killer that can control a swarm of bees."

"Cool," Ray commented. He looked at Felicity and realized what he said. "I mean awful."

"I'm sure Caitlin and I will provide ample support, Barry," Dr. Wells assured Barry.

"And I will be happy to sit this one out," Cisco said. Everyone turned to look at Bibiana who was already ending a purple sting of electricity in the suit.

"I'm with Cisco," Bibiana answered. "Bugs aren't my thing."

"You--?" Barry started off.

"Ray, why don't you stay here and work on your suit while Barry and I run to Jitters for some java?" Felicity asked her boyfriend.

"Sounds like a plan," Ray told her.

"Ow!" Bibiana yelped. She wasn't prepared when the purple electricity returned to her system. It took a lot of concentration to not get injured by her own powers.

Ray and Cisco soon joined her and started to talk about the suit.

⇝⇝⇝

"So you put solid oxide fuel cells into the belt?" Cisco asked.

"Yeah, that's the only place to hide the hardware," Ray answered. Bibiana popped a peanut into her mouth while studying the diagrams in front of her.

"Hmm. Well, they should be generating enough energy to power the suit," Cisco replied."It could be the operating temperature. I mean, you're essential--"

"Overheating the system. I figured," Ray said.

"That would explain why the shock hurt," Bibiana mumbled, running her hand through her hair.

"But if we insulate them with a ceramic compound--"

"We may improve the operating efficiency," Ray finished Cisco's sentence. "You really are quite clever, Cisco."

"He gets that a lot," Bibiana said, turning to the device next to her.

"How do you turn this thing on?" Ray asked. Motioning to the device Bibiana was messing around with.

"Uh... I don't really know. Cisco?" Bibiana asked her friend. She turned around and saw him staring off into space.

"Cisco? You okay?" Ray asked.

"Yeah," Cisco answered. He seemed a little distant. "I haven't been getting enough sleep, so..."

There was a beeping noise until they heard Caitlin's voice. "Cisco, Bibiana, we need you up here."
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Electric Storm arrived at the scene at the same time as the Flash. They entered a room and saw another dead body.

"We're too late," Barry informed the group over his earpiece.

"Something is missing," Bibiana muttered, looking around the room.

"Where are the bees?" Cisco asked. That put Bibiana on the edge as she carefully scanned the area.

"I don't know. There's no sign of them," Barry answered.

"Oh, this is like a horror movie," Bibiana whispered. A buzzing noise caught her attention causing her to look at the dead body. A bee flew out of his mouth. Followed by more.

"Nope. Nope. Nope," Bibiana muttered. She quickly turned into electricity and left the building. The girl was not going to risk getting stung. Not many people knew, but she was allergic to bee stings.

Once she was outside, she looked at the building and noticed Barry was still inside.

"Oh, no. I'm officially the worse girlfriend," Bibiana muttered. She started to head towards the building but Barry ran out. He was being covered by the swarm of bees until they left.

The girl didn't remember when Joe got there but they were both kneeled by Barry's side.

"Barry," Joe said.

"Hold on," Bibiana muttered. Useless facts about bees sped through her mind. None of them was the one she needed.

"Barry, stay with us," Joe told the unconscious boy. He started to pump Barry's chest while Bibiana called Cisco. She quickly put him on speaker.

"Help," Bibiana quickly said.

"Cisco, Barry doesn't have a pulse," Joe informed the long-haired boy.

"Step away from Barry and Bibiana," Cisco told Joe.

"Why?" Joe asked.

"Bibiana is going to act like a defibrillator," Cisco informed them. Joe took steps back while Bibiana charged up her hands.

"Bibiana, charge yourself up to 360 joules," Caitlin told her. The girl thought that enough electricity in her hands.

"Charging in three, two, one," Dr. Wells counted down. Bibiana placed her hands on Barry's chest and watched his arms and legs fly up.

"Hit him again, 400 joules," Caitlin told Bibiana.

The girl brought it up by forty joules and paced her hands against Barry's chest again. Barry started to cough. Bibiana helped Barry sit up.

"Barry," Joe said, also helping Barry up.

"Oh, thank God," Bibiana whispered.

"Joe, Bibiana," Barry said.

⇝⇝⇝

"That's it for the backup defibrillator," Cisco said, after checking the suit. "It's completely fried."

"Sorry," Bibiana muttered an apology. "Might have slightly overdone it."

"You're lucky to be alive, Mr. Allen," Dr. Wells told Barry.

"I was very specific that you not die," Felicity said.

"Yeah, it's a pretty big thing for her," Ray said.

"Cisco, what happened out there?" Barry asked. "I followed your directions exactly."

"I'm sorry. I led you the wrong way," Cisco apologized. "The schematics that we had, they, um, weren't up to date."

"They weren't up to date? What do you mean? That's never happened before," Barry said. Bibiana looked down at her feet and tried to act like she didn't forget to double check all the schematics.

"And what? You think Cisco or Bibiana were trying to get you killed?" Felicity asked.

"No," Barry replied. "Why would they do that? That doesn't make any sense."

"I know. That's why I was joking," Felicity said. Something was up and Bibiana wanted to know what it was.

"Barry, it's our job to protect you, and today we failed," Dr. Wells said. "But that will just serve as a warning for all of us to be more vigilant in the future."

"I would also like to apologize for leaving you behind," Bibiana said, scratching the back of her neck. "I forgot to mention my allergies to bees."

"Good news. The apitoxin is out of your body. Your levels are back to normal," Caitlin informed Barry.

"Terrific," Barry said, running away. Papers flew in the air before Barry returned dressed up. "Ray, Felicity, Bibiana, we're gonna be late for dinner."

"I was not informed of dinner," Bibiana replied. She looked down at her sweatpants and the green hoodie. Her hair was also in a messy bun. It was certain that her attire was not sexy nor appropriate for dinner.

It also wasn't appropriate for work but she really didn't care about that. They were used to her dressing in sweats after the accident.

"Are you sure that's wise, Barry?" Dr. Wells asked.

"You just died," Caitlin told him.

"Maybe you should order in tonight," Cisco suggested.

"I like that idea," Bibiana said before motioning to her clothes. "I'm already dressing the part."

"Yeah. We could totally cancel," Ray said.

"I'm fine. Alive. Hungry. All right?" Barry told them. "Let's go."

Bibiana picked up her toy bow and left following Barry. She had to figure out which of her few dresses, she was going to wear.

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JMC