Only Because I Need You

Sighting

Team Flash gathered around the large image that Cisco was projecting. Caitlin watched in amusement as all of their heads tilted slightly and their brows creased inwards. Iris was latched onto Barry's arm, hiding her face behind his shoulders. The cortex was fairly dim, aside from the image Cisco was projecting. It was a humanoid woman of some sort. Her skin was cloudy and colourless, she looked like walking Jelly. Her fingers curved inwards into sharp harpoon looking appendages that were dripping with a thick, clear liquid. A shiver ran down her back. Her eyes were opened wide, but they held no emotion of proof of coherent thought. She could be the murderer they were looking for, "she was last sighted running just outside of Central City," Cisco told them, his frame was rigid at the image. He pulled up a map of the city, a small red dot indicating where the image had been taken, only a half hour beforehand.

"Okay I will head out there now," Barry announced, before he had finished his sentence he was gone in a gust of wind.

Barry was slightly shocked by the awful weather of Central City. Large golf-ball sized hail was falling from the pitch black sky. His gut churned uneasily. There had been a weather warning out all day. A tornado was supposed to hit a little ways away from the city. He shook his head, he needed to focus on one thing at a time. The Jelly woman. It would have sounded ridiculous to anyone who hadn't seen meta's in action before, but to Barry, it was just a part of his every day life. He reached her location in one second flat. She was just off of one of the main roads that lead into the city, which had become a silhouette against the dark sky. The Flash stopped in front of her. Her empty eyes didn't even look at him, she just continued to walk forwards, her frame was slightly bent over and she moved with a distinct squelch, "excuse me," Barry tried to catch her attention by waving a hand in front of her face. She didn't even blink. He pressed a finger to his earpiece, "guys she is unresponsive," he announced.

There was a slight crackle over the line, "Barry we have a bigger problem," Irises voice was filled with static, "the Tornado that was forecast, it's going to hit soon, and near to you,"

"Should I run this woman to safety then?" He asked. He noticed a small whirlpool of air beginning to form in the sky quite a ways away. He also knew that Tornadoes could move incredibly quickly, if he wasn't careful he could end up being caught in its path.

"Yes, try to get closer to her, but do not let her touch you with those claws," Caitlin ordered over the mic. Barry was beginning to suspect that this Jelly woman was the murder they were looking for. However her catatonic state was making him doubt that assumption. The whirlpool was growing at an incredible rate, creeping towards the ground. He needed to hurry. He reached out in an attempt to grab her, but her head snapped towards him, followed quickly by a swing of her sharpened claws.

He jumped backwards, her eyes followed his every movement, "I tried to reach out but she attacked me," he had to yell into his communicator as the winds around him picked up masses of speed. He glanced at the tornado, it had picked up a staggering amount of speed and was hurtling towards the city as an alarming rate.

"Barry focus on the Tornado," Iris spoke into his ear, "it has reached nearly a mile wide, and at this rate it will hit the city,"

He turned his attention to the tornado, it had grown so large that he could no longer see where it ended and where it began, "run around it in the opposite direction," Cisco informed him, "like you did with Weather Wizard,"

Barry took off running at top speed. The tornado was massive and it continued to move inconsistently, it took him over two seconds to run around it. The thudding of his heart matched the thudding of his feet. His muscles began to ache softly, but he pressed onwards, "Barry you aren't generating a large enough wind funnel, run faster," Harry's voice demanded in his ear.

"I'm trying," He bit back. His chest began to heave with strained effort. He needed to keep running, he needed to push onwards. The Tornado was growing closer and closer to the city. Beads of sweat dropped down his forehead.

"He can't generate enough speed, the Tornado is too big," Cisco's voice rang out in his ear, "he is only generating half of what we need, can we reach any other speedsters in time?"

"Can we call Wally, or someone from another universe?" Iris asked. Barry could feel himself beginning to strain to keep his speed up.

"No, that'll take to long, we only have a few minutes before that Tornado hits us," Harry scolded her. Their voices were being slowly muffled by the deafening wind that rushed past his ears.

"Guys we do have a speedster we can reach, in this very Lab," Caitlin's voice was small and meek, Barry had to strain to hear her.

"No, absolutely not Caitlin, there is no way he would help us and even if he did how do we know he won't kill Iris where she stands?" Barry's tone was a bit harsher than he had intended, but there had to be another way, they couldn't let that madman go free.

"Would you rather we all died?" Caitlin snapped back, her own voice was laced with panic and fear, "because that Tornado will rip apart Central City and everyone inside of it, including Iris,"

Barry nearly tripped up, he ground down on his teeth and pushed onwards. They didn't need Ethan. Caitlin of all people should have known that releasing a dangerous speedster would only do them more harm than good. It was an awful idea, he was about to list off all the things that could go wrong when Iris stopped him, "Barry it might be our only chance," he bit down on his lip. They couldn't actually be considering it?

"As much as I hate to admit it," Harry began, "the girls are right,"

"I hate Ethan almost as much as you, but we need to save all the civilians at all costs Barry, that is our job as Heroes," Cisco added, "and if there is a way we could save them all then it would be unfair not to take it,"

"Fine," Barry grumbled. The moment the words left his mouth and unshakable feeling of dread gripped his chest. What had he just agreed to?