⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗘

CHAPTER NINE
cool down

⊱ ──────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ──────── ⊰

JULIET LOVED BEING a superhero. She loved saving people in extraordinary ways and being looked up to even though her other persona had only been in the city for a short amount of time. However, the one thing she didn't like was the same one she shared with being a CSI — things getting interrupted.

She sat there on her couch, eating some of the chocolate chip cookies she had baked. Even after their whole conversation about Barry, Iris had still invited Felicity to do a trivia night at Jitters with her, Barry, and Eddie, obviously going for a double date sort of vibe. Juliet couldn't deny that she was upset, because she was, but she wasn't going to make a huge deal out of it.

Juliet was absentmindedly flicking through the channels on her TV when her phone buzzed. She looked down at the screen to see it was a text from Barry, saying that someone had spotted Snart on the streets by the Hall of Heroes. Juliet quickly teleported to S.T.A.R. Labs (where no one was in the cortex — strange), got into her suit, and went to the place where she knew the Hall of Heroes was.

She stopped on the sidewalk and saw that Snart, carrying a strange looking gun, walking quickly into a museum where Juliet knew a lot of precious items were kept. Juliet teleported inside the museum and saw that Joe was about to get hit by a stream of blue light coming out of the gun. It was strange — it looked to Juliet like it was a stream of ice.

However, before she could do anything, Barry in his suit ran up. He went to go run Joe away, but when he got hit with the blue stream, he ricocheted back. Both Joe and Barry landed on the floor in opposite directions. Juliet kept her gaze on Snart in his weird goggles, red energy starting to travel up and down her arms.

"You okay?" Joe asked.

Barry let out noises of pain, and Juliet looked down to see a patch of ice on his suit. "It burns."

Snart pointed his gun at Juliet. As soon as she pulled the trigger, she held up her hands, creating a forceful wall of scarlet energy. The ice stream hit it but was instantly melted by her energy. However, the longer it was on the energy, the more it started to break through. Juliet stared at the hole forming in her wall, slightly scared, before she let go and ducked. Snart then moved his stream towards Barry, who instantly ran away.

He looked up at the higher level. "Time for a test run. Let's see how fast you are."

As Barry ran with his yellow lightning following him, Snart tried to catch him with the ice. Juliet backed up towards Joe and helped him off the ground, willing her energy to calm down for now.

"You all right?" Juliet questioned.

Joe nodded. "I'm fine. Go help the others — get them out of here."

Juliet did was she was told. As people got in the way of Snart's gun, she teleported them away outside and then went back inside. Soon enough, all of the people were out. Juliet teleported back inside, only to be met with a tragic sight. Her eyes widened as she watched Barry try to save someone from being blasted, but he wasn't going to be fast enough.

Now, Juliet had no experience with moving big things with her mind. It was always small things she could control, but moving an actual human? That was different. But she couldn't let this man become frozen.

Juliet focused all of her willpower onto the man in front of her. She held out her hands, and with more energy traveling between her hands, she thrust them to the side. The man immediately got yanked by an invisible force to the side, out of the way of the ice stream. He rolled before laying there, clearly unconscious, but safe. Juliet let out a relieved breath and stumbled back a bit, black spots dancing in her vision.

In that time, Snart had managed to escape since both Barry and Juliet were distracted. She quickly jogged up to Barry, who was breathing heavily while holding the spot where he was hit. Juliet placed her hands on his shoulders and looked at him worryingly.

"I wasn't fast enough," Barry let out.

"But I was," Juliet reminded them. "That's why we're a team, remember? He's safe, it's okay."

Barry stood up straighter, wincing slightly at his wound. "Where'd Snart get that gun?"

"Not sure," Juliet answered. "Maybe some underground black market." She then set eyes on the ice patch of his suit. "Come on, we should get you back to S.T.A.R. Labs before that gets worse."

About an hour later, Juliet, Barry, Felicity, Cisco, Caitlin, and Dr. Wells were all gathered in the cortex. Barry's wound, which was now black, hadn't healed yet at all. Juliet stood there next to Felicity, her arms crossed across her chest.

"It's still numb," Barry said to Caitlin.

"It's presenting itself like third degree frostbite," Caitlin explained.

"I thought he had hyper healing," Felicity cut in, Juliet nodding in agreement.

"It's been slowed. If your cells weren't regenerating at the rate they are, your blood vessels would have frozen solid and the nerve damage would have been permanent. You're lucky to be alive."

"Snart wasn't a Metahuman this time," Juliet voiced as Barry stood up from the bed. "He had a gun that literally shot ice. I had to use my powers to literally make a human being fly across the room so he wouldn't turn into an icicle. Which, by the way, is really hard."

"According to his record, Snart didn't even bother to finish high school, so how did he build a handled high tech snow machine?" Felicity inquired.

"That's what I'm asking," Juliet replied. "He couldn't have the kind of knowledge or tech to make something like that."

"S.T.A.R. Labs build the cold gun," Dr. Wells suddenly revealed.

Juliet blinked in shock. Huh?

"Dr. Wells and Caitlin had nothing to do with this," Cisco quickly interjected, sounding very choked up and guilty. "I built the gun."

"You did?" Barry asked. "Why?"

"Because speed along with energy blasts and cold are opposites. Temperature is measured by how quickly the atoms of something are oscillating. The faster they are, the hotter it is, and when things are cold, they're slower on the atomic level. When there's no movement at all, it's called—"

"Absolute zero," Juliet and Barry chorused.

"Yeah. I designed a compact cryo engine to achieve absolute zero. I built it to stop the both of you. I — I didn't know who you two were then. I — I mean, what if you turned out to be some psycho, like Mardon or Nimbus?"

"But we didn't," Barry shouted. "Did we?"

"We built the entire structure you're standing in to do good, and it blew up," Caitlin argued. "In the wake of that, you can understand why Cisco would want to be prepared for the worst."

"The worst?" Juliet repeated quietly. "You really believed that Barry and I had it in us to be evil?"

"I just can't understand why you didn't tell us what you did," Barry admitted. "I mean, after all we've been through, I thought you trusted us. I thought we were friends."

"We are, Barry," Cisco insisted. He then turned to Juliet. "Juliet, come on—"

"I see where you're coming from, Cisco, I do, but we could've been more prepared if you told us about it," Juliet told him. "Someone could've died tonight because of that gun if I hadn't had a spur of the moment thought. I mean, what if it didn't work? What if I couldn't move a whole human body with my mind?"

"And I would've had to live with that."

Barry shook his head. "No, Cisco. We all would've."

He then left the cortex all together. Juliet let out a sigh, uncrossing her arms as she watched him go. She went go follow after him, but she soon heard the familiar whoosh, which told her that he ran away. Juliet stopped in her tracks and closed her eyes for a second. So much for that.

"Hey, Juliet," Felicity then called, making the girl look over at her. "Could I talk to you for a moment?"

Juliet nodded. She followed the blonde out of the tense atmosphere of the cortex into the hallway, placing her hands in the back pockets of her jeans. Felicity slowly turned to look at her, making Juliet stare at her questioningly.

"Is everything all right?" Juliet questioned.

"Yeah," Felicity replied. "I just . . . well, you seem to know Barry better than anyone, even Iris." She looked back in the direction that Barry had run for a second. "Will he really be okay?"

Juliet nodded slightly. "Barry gets like this sometimes. I see where he's coming from, but when he doesn't understand exactly what he's feeling, he gets a bit . . . defensive, I guess you could call it. But with some time, he'll come around. He just needs to process his thoughts."

"Through running?"

"Exactly," Juliet responded with a slight laugh. "It helps him clear his head, I can tell."

"What about you?" Felicity continued. "Are you okay?"

"I'm all right," Juliet reassured her. "Stings a little bit that Cisco thought I would've been evil, but considering the other Metahumans we've dealt with, I don't really blame him."

"You know, I haven't spent too much time with you this trip," Felicity admitted, a small smile growing on her face. Juliet couldn't help but start to grin as well, feeling a spark of friendship between them. "Do you want to grab a coffee?"

"I've got a better idea," Juliet suggested. "Big Belly Burger?"

"Oh, I'm so in."

ϟ ···················· ϟ ···················· ϟ

FELICITY AND JULIET had talked for well over two hours, both walking to Big Belly Burger and eating dinner together. Juliet had soon come to learn that her and Felicity had quite a bit in common and she started to feel that they would be good friends. Finally, after a while of them just sitting in the restaurant talking random nonsense, the two of them agreed that they should probably check on Barry.

The first place they checked where he could be was S.T.A.R. Labs, which ended up being where he actually was. They found him running on the treadmill, his speed increasing every second. Juliet and Felicity shared a glance before walking in.

"Barry," Felicity announced, but he just kept running. "Barry."

He eventually stopped, breathing heavily and sweat glistening on his face. Barry looked at the two girls in front of him as he placed his hands on his knees.

"What are you doing?" Barry questioned. "You should go back to your hotel and your apartment. Get some sleep."

Juliet raised an eyebrow. "Same goes to you."

Felicity nodded in agreement. "She's right, you should too. Not go back to my hotel — I meant get some sleep."

Barry sat down on the treadmill. "I can't. Every time I close my eyes, I see that man's face. I watched him almost die." He stood back up. "I have to go faster."

"No, you don't," Juliet argued gently. "I saved him, Barr. It's not your fault that you didn't, that's why we're a team. There's two of us for a reason." She paused for a moment. "And it's not Cisco's fault either. I get it, you're upset, and so am I, but his point of view makes sense."

Barry shook his head. "No, I get it. He didn't trust us."

Felicity stepped forwards. "Barry, when you met us — me, Oliver, and Dig — we were this well-oiled archery machine, but it didn't start out that way." Juliet's eyebrows slightly knit in thought — she had no idea who Dig was. "And unlike you guys, we weren't tossed together overnight, we came together one at a time. Believe me, it took much more than watching Oliver do the salmon ladder to make me trust him."

She then turned around and went to go leave. Juliet stayed in her place, staring up at Barry on the treadmill as he contemplated saying something.

"I've seen firsthand what this life can do to people," Felicity added, stopping in the doorway. "It's a lonely path. Don't make it any lonelier than it has to be."

"She gives good advice," Juliet said once Felicity was gone.

Barry looked down at her. "You really trust Cisco?"

"Yeah, I do." Juliet took a step closer to him. "Powers like ours can be used for some horrible things, Barry. I mean, the lightning in your house the night of your mother's murder — you and I both know that it belonged to another speedster. And I can literally blast people with energy and control things with my mind. I know why Cisco would want to stop me if I started to mind control people."

He let out a hesitant sigh. "I don't know, J."

"I know you're upset about what happened today," Juliet told him quietly. "If I hadn't moved him out of the way, he would've been frozen. Thank God it worked." She paused for a second. "I know we have a lot of burdens on us now that we're heroes, but we can't completely isolate ourselves. That's not healthy." Juliet held her hand out to him. "Now, are you willing to try and figure out a way to stop Snart with our team?"

Barry stared at her for a moment longer before ultimately taking her hand and stepping off the treadmill. Juliet smiled softly at him before leading him back into the cortex. The two of them let go of each other's hands while they stood at the TV that would tell them about what crimes were occurring. Caitlin, Dr. Wells, and Felicity were behind the desk, looking at the computers.

Cisco then walked back in, a tablet in his hand. "I figured out a way to track Captain Cold."

"You gotta stop naming these guys," Caitlin stated.

"Barry, listen to him," Dr. Wells urged.

Juliet nudged Barry's ribs. He glanced down at her for a moment, and she gave him a look. Barry begrudgingly turned around, Juliet following in his lead.

"How?" Barry inquired.

"The cold gun is powered by an engine control unit, a microcomputer that regulates air-to-fuel ratios so the sub-cooled fluid in the chambers don't overflow and—" Cisco started to explain.

"Explode," Felicity finished.

Cisco pointed at her. "Right. This E.C.U. was receiving updates wirelessly from my tablet. If I boost the signal using Central City's network and send a false update, we'll get a ping back, and then—"

"We can locate Snart," Dr. Wells voiced.

"How long will it take?" Barry asked.

"Uh, first I have to hack into the city's network, so I don't know, thirty minutes, maybe?" Cisco guessed.

"I can do it in less than one," Felicity revealed, sitting down at a table that had a laptop. "When it comes to hacking, I'm the fastest woman alive." She stretched out her arms and cracked her knuckles, but soon made a noise of pain. "Ow! That was not as badass as I pictured." Juliet let out a small laugh as Felicity's fingers started to fly across the keyboard. "All right, I'm in."

"Are you kidding?" Caitlin questioned in shock.

"All right, I'm sending the updates," Cisco said. "We're connected."

Felicity looked up. "Network is triangulating the location."

"We got him," Caitlin voiced. "He's heading west on Nelson toward the train station."

"If he's leaving, it appears Mr. Snart may have gotten what he came for," Dr. Wells stated.

Barry quickly sped into his suit. Juliet teleported into her suit as well and teleported back to stand next to Barry.

"When we put our minds to it, dude, nothing can stop us," Cisco said excitedly. Barry then reached up and touched his ear, making Cisco's smile fall off his face. "Oh, you turned your ear piece off. How are we gonna talk to each other?"

"I don't feel like talking right now," Barry responded.

He then ran off. Juliet let out a breath of frustration.

"I'm sorry," Juliet apologized to Cisco. "But don't worry, I'll keep mine on. Now I have to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid — well, I guess any more things that are stupid."

She then teleported to Central City train station. Cops were running around, trying to locate Snart, but she had a feeling that Snart would be getting on a train. Juliet teleported her way into the train that was currently leaving, and she saw Snart there with his goggles, parka jacket, and cold gun. Barry then appeared next to her, glass shattering around since he had to break in.

"You're being dumb," Juliet told him.

"Not right now, J," Barry replied. He looked at Snart, who pointed his cold gun at the two. "There's nowhere to run."

"I didn't see you before," Snart said. "Your mom know you're out past your bedtime?"

"If you wanted to get away, you should've taken something faster than a train."

"That's if I wanted to get away. I've seen your weaknesses at the armored car, then at the theater. See, while you're busy saving everybody, I'll be saving myself."

Snart then pointed his cold gun at the ground. He pulled the trigger, and ice blasted its way through the floor of the train, making it start to be unbalanced. Snart then moved towards the door. He paused for a moment.

"Good luck with that," Snart told them over the screams of everyone.

"This train's gonna crash," Juliet told Barry. "We have to get everyone out. Leave Snart for now."

Instantly, as she train started to go off the rails, both Juliet and Barry started to get everyone out of the train. Juliet focused on nothing but teleporting people out to safe parts so they wouldn't get hit with the train. Soon enough, they managed to get everyone out just as the train completely crashed. Juliet stumbled a bit forwards while Barry skidded forwards on the ground, pieces of the train catching on fire all around them.

Barry went to get up, but he soon got blasted with ice from Snart, making him fall back down. Juliet held out her hand, creating a wall of red energy like she did before, just to buy some time. Juliet focused all of her power into this one unlike before, but science won. The ice broke through her energy and hit her right in the stomach. She fell to the ground next to Barry, wincing in pain.

"Pretty fast, kids, but not fast enough," Snart said. The two of them continued to stare up at Snart as he kept his gun pointed at them. "Thank you."

"For what?" Barry replied, struggling to get out of the ice that trapped him down.

"You forced me to up my game, not only with this gun, but with how I think about the job. It's been educational."

"Drop it," the familiar voice of Cisco then demanded.

Afterwards came a whirring noise. Juliet peered around Snart to see Cisco standing there, pointing quite a large gun at Snart. Caitlin and Felicity were there as well, holding up a big machine that was attached to the gun.

"This is a prototype cold gun, four times the size, four times the power."

Snart looked back down at the two heroes. "I was wondering who you were talking to."

"Hey, unless you want a taste of your own medicine, I'd back the hell up," Cisco threatened.

"Your hands are shaking. You've never killed anyone."

"There's a first time for everything, Captain Cold." He hoisted up the gun more. "I will shoot you."

Snart stared at Barry and Juliet. "You win, kids." He stopped pointing the gun at them. "I'll see you around."

Juliet scowled at him. "Can't wait."

"Hey, leave the diamond," Cisco ordered as Snart started to walk away.

"Don't push your luck," Snart responded.

Cisco then turned back to Barry and Juliet with a shrug once Snart was gone, Caitlin and Felicity setting down the machine as it powered down. "Couldn't shoot him if I wanted to. This is actually the S.T.A.R. Labs vacuum cleaner with a lot of LED's."

Felicity crouched down next to the two. "Let's get you two warm."

Barry held out his hand to Cisco. "Thank you."

Juliet glanced over at him. "Are you done being stupid now?"

Barry groaned. "Shut up."

"What? It's a valid question."

Later, all of them were gathered back at S.T.A.R. Labs. Barry and Juliet had been treated for their wounds from the ice and were all warm again. Well, besides Juliet, who was still slightly chilly. She was wearing her jeans and one of Barry's sweatshirts that she had somehow accumulated (no seriously — she had no idea how she had come in possession of it.)

"We've been trying to track Snart, but he must have disconnected the signal somehow," Cisco admitted.

Barry nodded. "Well find him, Cisco. Together."

"You have a great team here, Barry and Juliet," Felicity announced. The two turned to see her standing there with her purse and jacket. "Speaking of teams, I should probably get back to mine."

"It was nice meeting you, Ms. Smoak," Dr. Wells told her. "Please extend a hello to the Arrow for us."

Felicity smiled. "I will."

Juliet stepped forwards and immediately pulled the girl into a hug. "It was so nice to meet you, Felicity. Please don't hesitate to reach out, you would be such a good addition to mine and Iris' girls night."

Felicity let out a small laugh. "Will do."

Barry then stood in front of Felicity. "Goodbye, Felicity."

"Bye, Barry."

The two of them hugged. When they pulled away, they stared at each other for a moment longer before Felicity left altogether. Juliet crossed her arms and stared out the doorway into the hallway for a moment.

"Remarkable young woman," Dr. Wells commented. "She's special."

Barry nodded. "Yeah, she is."

Juliet then looked up at Barry as the two of them started to walk out, and she stopped in her tracks. Barry looked back at her in confusion.

"Go after her," Juliet urged, a knowing look on her face.

Barry blinked. "What?"

"Go after her," she repeated. "I'm serious. Don't let someone like her get away that easily, Barr."

"You sure? I'll be back in time for our movie night—"

"Don't worry about it." She waved her hand forwards. "Run along, speedster."

Barry grinned at her, one that sent butterflies rushing throughout her stomach, before running off. Juliet stood there in the hallway for a moment longer, a small yet sad smile on her face. Because there it was — Juliet St. James, always sacrificing her feelings.

〖 ϟ 〗

oh boy let me tell you I am so excited for when team flash goes to star city in that one random episode of arrow