time_fragment_main | Network

[ Don't mind Sara if her phone sits on the arm of a chair, and she keeps this specific splice of the network open even though she's not saying anything and she's not within the range of her own camera to be seen either. There are a few reasons for all of that. All of this. ]

[Cisco's phone pings just as he's unlocking their front door, heading into the sparse apartment. The bags in his hand are meant to help fix the disturbing lack of decor, but he sets them aside in favor of checking his phone. They're forgotten almost immediately.]

Something you forgot to tell me, buddy?

[He can already tell Mick isn't home, and that just makes him worry more.]

Where are you?

[He hates doing this.
Hates. It.

But if Mick is going to live in the same space as Ramon, the same space as Sara and Leonard and the others, he has to control this. What if a nightmare triggers an inferno? What if he can't save them?]

When Leonard got here, I..
[Shut up Mick. Just do it. Be better than you were.]

I caught on fire. Some kinda metahuman power.

[Oh, Mick. Cisco can't even imagine how that must feel. To spend your whole life battling a compulsion like pyromania and starting to overcome it, only to suddenly have fire powers you can't control.]

Come home. I'll make dinner.

[He figures offering food is better than offering help, though Mick is definitely going to get some of that too.]

You gotta promise me.
You gotta breach my ass outta the building if I go up. [Sorry Cisco, he's not going to budge on this. The last time his illness got out of control his entire family died.

He will not survive if his control slips and kills the people he cares about.]

[He doesn't need to hear Mick's voice to hear the pleading in the words. Mick is really scared here. And it makes Cisco's chest ache.]

I promise, Mick. I won't let the fire spread.

Edited 2018-01-16 01:22 (UTC)

[Mick is fucking terrified. And it isn't something he admits to easily.]

You gotta make sure the others don't get hurt.
The fire hasn't hurt me yet.

[That's already a start at figuring out his powers. The fire doesn't hurt him, and it seems to be internally produced and externally expressed. He can work with that.]

Come home, Mick. We'll figure this out. Find a way to control your powers so no one gets hurt.

[Mick is trusting him to keep the rest safe. To keep Leonard and Sara and everyone else in the building safe if he can't control what's happening to him.

That.. that says something.]

Picking up beer.
On my way.

[And Cisco can do that for him. Obviously he cares about the well-being of the Legends and everyone else sharing the building with them, but he knows what it's like to feel responsible for the safety of the people he loves. He can make sure Mick doesn't lose anyone else.]

Grab a cooking sherry too.

K.

[And if he's taking a little longer to collect himself and then get the beer and the sherry - Cisco won't call him on it. He's sure of that much.

Close to a half hour later Mick is opening the door, bags in both arms. Beer, sherry and more food.

What? He likes to be prepared.]

[He's right, of course. Cisco can't blame Mick for taking his time, and he doesn't mention the delay when he hears the front door open.]

Dude, did you buy half the store?

[That's definitely more than beer and sherry.]

Who said I bought it all? [Because hello, criminal.

.. kinda.
Shut up. Never mind.]

Needed more of the basics. Figured we'd stock up.

Edited 2018-01-16 02:23 (UTC)

[Cisco just barely avoids rising to the bait. Mick Rory is a piece of work. But he knows the man could use a bit of a distraction.]

I'd better find a receipt in that bag, Mick.

[It's not really a threat given the twitch of Cisco's lips.]

Good luck with that, Ramon. [Beer unloaded. Whikey set aside. Produce first. Dry goods. One at a time as he tries to focus on that work rather than the reason for his initial call.

His need for help.]

[Cisco shakes his head at him, grabbing the sherry when it appears from the bag and getting back to cooking. He's a chatty guy by nature, but he won't force conversation on Mick right now if that isn't what he needs. He can cook in silence.]

[Mick isn't sure what he needs beyond to get rid of this damn power of his. He can't be a threat to the people who matter most in his life. He can't.

So he busies himself. Takes a beer. Lets Cisco cook while he goes to work on his gun. Anything to try and not think about what had been done to him against his will.

Again.

About twenty minutes later there's a sound curse from the table as the screwdriver melts in his hand.]

[Cisco doesn't even hesitate when he hears the curse. Two seconds later they're on the sidewalk outside their apartment building. He realizes a beat later that he'd overreacted. Nothing is on fire, and apart from a melted screwdriver, nothing is any worse for wear.]

Sorry.

[He's in the apartment. Then he isn't. Standing on the sidewalk, throwing the melted tool aside angrily.] Christ.

[Now he's an entirely different version of dangerous and this he can't control. Doesn't know how to.]

Sorry. I'm sorry. I heard you curse, and I just reacted.

[He feels like an idiot. He doesn't want Mick to think he's afraid of him, but he'd taken his promise very seriously. There are people they both care about in that building.]

It ain't you. I can't.. [A sound as he struggles for the right word, only compounding his frustration.

..

Is it just you Cisco, or is Mick's shirt starting to smoke?]

Mick.

[Calm. Cautious. He can see the smoke starting to curl up from his t-shirt, and Cisco is totally not prepared for this.]

I get it, man. Really. I've been there. But you have to take a beat and breathe.

No you don't. [How could he? He had been taken against his will again. Had things forced on to him again.] It's all happening again and someone I care about is gonna get hurt again.

[Cisco is way out of his depth here. Mick is right. He has no way of knowing the extent of everything that had happened to him while he was off with the Legends.

But there's someone who would know better than him.]

Mick? Mick, listen to me, okay? Stay here. Don't move. I'm gonna get help.

[Once he's sure that Mick has heard him and isn't going to run off somewhere, he opens a breach back into the apartment building.]

Sara! Sara, I need you!

[ Sara is busy. Not that this is anything new. But bookshelves are hella heavy and they don't move themselves. Especially not when you're 5'6" and refusing to consider the notion of asking for help. It's just a bookcase. There's a whole section of time, or five hundred, falling apart.

Still she stops with a half roll of her eyes as her name gets shouted down the hallway. Again.
Sara crossing the room, to half appear through her mostly always open door. ]

This better not be about some video game system or movie again.

Edited 2018-01-16 16:09 (UTC)

It's Mick.

[Because long-winded explanations will only drag this out and make the situation seem less serious.]

I need your help. Please.

[He opens a breach, offering her his hand.]

[ Her expression goes serious in a second, and her hand goes out to grab his. It's still not not-weird. The tunnel of pulsating light behind him, but it's not the first time she's seen it either. Everything, everything else entirely, is forgotten in a second on the words before it. ] Where is he? What's wrong?

Edited 2018-01-17 01:49 (UTC)

I breached him outside. It's his powers. I can't get through to him.

[As soon as her hand is in his, he's jumping through the breach. A moment later they're on the sidewalk, only a few feet from the still-smoking Mick.]

[Again. It's all happening again.
Whatever agency Mick had was stolen again.

Lenny with a shattered hand.
The eyes of the team staring at him like he was some sort of monster in that cell.

Lenny.
Dead.
Dead.

This time Mick is more than smoking. His arms are on fire. Blazing. His shirt is long since gone, the skin along his scars glowing like living fire. Lost in his attack, lost in the past, the fear. The certainty that again someone is going to get hurt because of him. Die because of him.]

[Oh crap. Oh crap. Did Cisco make a mistake in leaving him alone? He's gone full-on Firestorm, and the way his scars glow makes Cisco worry that Mick might not be as fireproof as Jax and the Professor.]

Mick, buddy, can you hear me?

[ The level of bad goes from something is wrong to flat out fuck in less than a second. The heat and the scent of burning and Mick. Mick. It up everywhere. Worse than earlier. Staring at the fire with a gutted fixation that looks all too like the edge of something that merges barely muted fear and danger in those eyes.

While Cisco is begging a question Sara doesn't wait for and Sara's voice does ask.
It's level and loud, not a question but a demand for attention, before walking toward him. ] Mick.

[It's delivered with the same sharp intensity, the same way that Snart would snap his name to get his attention, to pull him out of his head or out of his hurt and anger.

While it's not Leonard, it's still enough.
Because it's Sara.

Sharp and clear and cutting through the static in his head, even as the flames continue to flicker and dance along his arms and back.]

I can't stop it.
I don't know how.

[Cisco may not have the same connection to Mick that Sara does, but if there's something he knows something about, it's dealing with out of control powers. He can help with this.]

I think they're tied to your emotions, man. The more angry or upset you get, the hotter the flames. You have to think about something that calms you down.

[ She knows Mick well enough now to see the moment he hears her. She couldn't even define whether it's a flinch, or just a shift in attention, even without a chance of where he's staring, how he's standing. She doesn't stop coming closer, and the heat is even more intense this time. Just like the fire. Just like the glowing under those burns

Where is Leonard when he'd be good to have here, too?

Dangerous. Getting close. But when had Sara ever held back in that. ]

We're going to have to figure that out, Mick. I don't know why this is happening, but I know you won't let anything happen. I need you to breathe.

[Breathe.
He has to breathe.
Calm down.

It would be so much easier with Leonard close but in the past year and a half or so Sara and Mick have formed enough of a bond that she can reach him.

A grunt as he scrubs at his face. The flames along his arms and back start to dim.]

I can't.. it's too much.
Too much.

[Leo nods and holds out a stick he's picked up. In a moment it turns to ice and he drops it with a clunk.]

Looks like I got changed too partner.

[It says something when Mick doesn't immediately bark out a correction. They were.. better after getting the Professor back to his proper place in time. Resolved that while Leo wasn't Leonard and he wasn't Mickey they could still exist in one another's space and be okay.

Remembering those they lost.
Those that were suddenly given back.]

And you can control it?

Different how?

Powers.

You know how you get all frosty? I.. catch on fire. And I can't control it.

Have you recently been exposed to Dark Matter? Been near explosions? I'd like to run some tests, if you don't mind.

No. [You're pick what he's saying no to. But it's a safe bet he doesn't want any tests run.]

I was near an explosion that impacted the entire time stream, but none of this happened before I got here.

When did the explosion happen? Right before you got here?

[Mick, tests are important.]

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