Chapter 174: Hillel: Am I Cooked?!
It is in the character of very few men to honour without envy a friend who has prospered.
~ Aeschylus
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Caitlin’s primary personality regained control of her body.
Rubbing her temples in a daze, she could only recall fragments of her memories from last night: drinking with Hillel at a tavern, blacking out, dragging him all the way back to her apartment, and getting into bed...
Thinking of those absurd actions from the previous night, Caitlin’s pretty face blushed so intensely it seemed like it was about to drip blood, making her feel too ashamed to face anyone.
Panicking slightly, she wanted to get up, find an excuse, and flee into the bathroom.
However, she was surprised to discover that despite how wildly she had tossed and turned last night, her body not only lacked any soreness and discomfort, but instead faintly carried a warm vitality.
"Ahem!"
Hillel gave a cough. Shyly biting her lip, Caitlin pulled the blanket up to cover herself and scurried into the bathroom as if fleeing.
Near noon, Hillel and Caitlin finally returned to S.T.A.R. Labs.
Caitlin pretended to run into Hillel by coincidence.
"You know it was me who brought you here, right!" Hillel said.
Caitlin felt a wave of awkwardness. "Ahem, can we... not tell everyone about this first!"
"Sure, but I don’t think everyone else is a fool."
Sure enough, Cisco walked over holding a cup of coffee, his sneaky eyes sweeping back and forth between the two of them, his face plastered with a gossipy, wicked grin.
"Oh! You two... did you spend a wonderful night together? Let me guess, last night a certain aloof female medical doctor and some mysterious gamer both seemed to leave the celebration party midway!"
Caitlin’s earlobes turned slightly red as she let out a protest-too-much hum.
Then, looking straight ahead, she walked toward her workbench and pretended to throw herself into work.
"After working all night busily, I’m getting a bit hungry. I’m going to go buy something to eat!" Hillel turned and left.
Cisco chased after him, nudging Hillel’s arm with a wicked smile. "Awesome! Bro, how long have you even been here, and you’ve already won over our stunner! Did you have a pretty good time last night?!!!"
Hillel put his hands in his pockets. "Bro, this is called excellent character modelling! But are you guys sure Caitlin wasn’t affected by the particle accelerator? Ever watched Black Clover? She’s a rare twin-soul meta-human, you know!"
Cisco: "..."
He had originally been cheerfully eating melons, only to find the melon was harvested right on his own team.
"Wait... wait! Guardian, what did you just say? What do you mean by multiple personalities?!"
Hillel turned his head. "Literally what it sounds like. This morning, a secondary personality awoke inside Caitlin. To be honest, the experience is indeed novel."
"On the surface, she’s a rigorous and introverted highly-educated elite, but her hidden secondary personality turned out to be a rough and wild old ice maiden, full of wildness and also a tsundere. The vibe is way too strong!"
Bam!
Cisco’s brain instantly felt like it had been struck by lightning, his face turning pale. "Oh, God! Are you talking about... Killer Frost? She has truly fully awakened!"
"Oh, God! Is Caitlin really going to follow the old path of Earth-2?"
That probably shouldn’t be the case.
Hillel thought that judging by Killer Frost’s state today, she wouldn’t become a major threat.
"Alright, Cisco, don’t make a fuss over nothing, what a big deal! Leave Killer Frost to me. She won’t affect Caitlin’s primary personality. However, we need to find an opportunity to talk to Caitlin about this matter."
Cisco cried out in alarm, "Don’t you dare say it!"
"Caitlin has always been afraid of this. Let’s wait for a bit. Once she notices it slightly herself, we’ll tell her!"
Hillel wore a speechless expression. "When she notices it herself, do you think, with her personality, she’ll kick me away? Keeping secrets is not what friends should do!"
The Flash team always left themselves with hidden communication vulnerabilities.
If there’s a problem, spot it early, bring it up early, and then solve it early. Isn’t that it?
Dragging it out slowly just turns it into a big issue.
"That makes sense too! You haven’t told me anything about Killer Frost today, and I know nothing about it, okay?" Cisco instantly backed out. He shouldn’t have gotten mixed up in these matters.
"Hey! Isn’t bro code supposed to be in the heart?"
Cisco patted his chest. "Bro code is in the heart, but you carry your own burdens!"
Hillel slapped his forehead. "Cisco, don’t rush to slip away. How is your brother doing lately?"
Cisco was dazed by the question. "My brother? He’s doing great, of course. Although we don’t usually get along well, he called me a few days ago to brag that the family bought him another car... Why are you suddenly asking about my brother? Does this have anything to do with Killer Frost?"
"Not really. Just tell your brother to drive less lately!"
Just as Hillel finished speaking, he looked up at the sky a few times.
The Speed Force did not react.
From Caitlin’s Killer Frost to Cisco’s brother, the Speed Force wasn’t resistant to this at all?
According to the script of the Flashpoint event, Cisco’s brother would die in a car accident, Caitlin would become Killer Frost, and all the meta-humans within Flashpoint would revive anew in this world.
There was even Savitar.
He had already changed one thing and was now going to change a second thing, yet the Speed Force simply didn’t react.
There is definitely something wrong with this world.
The system intentionally stuck him for half a year to a year, leaving him in the transit station. Surely it doesn’t have some other hidden agenda, right?
Hillel felt increasingly creeped out.
Coupled with the chaotic phantom of the Speed Force he saw earlier...
There’s a problem! There is definitely a problem!
"Guardian? Is the personality in your brain still there?" Seeing Hillel spacing out, Cisco quickly waved his hand. "Hey! Say something! I need to find an excuse so my brother won’t show off his sports car lately!"
Hillel snapped back to his senses and stepped further away. "Uhm... I’m going to do a small experiment. You won’t be hurt, trust me!"
Cisco wore a baffled look.
Yet he saw Hillel getting ready to bolt at any moment.
"Uhm, these eyes of mine can see very far. Your glabella has been looking dark lately, specifically manifested as possible misfortune for a relative. The divination hexagram shows metal and fire intersecting, and combined with the sports car, I’m blindly guessing a car accident!"
As his words fell... nothing happened...
The Speed Force still didn’t react.
"A car accident?" Cisco expressed doubt. "You have precognitive abilities?"
"Sort of."
"What do you mean by sort of?"
Cisco grew a bit excited. "Alright bro, tell me honestly, will something really happen to my brother recently?"
"Uh, you have vibration powers yourself, can’t you just vibrate and find out?"
Cisco reacted and dashed out in a flurry, presumably to go find his older brother’s holy relics.
Hillel stood in place and waited for a long time.
Still nothing happened.
"Ha!"
"I thought this world’s will would be very harsh, but it turns out to be quite lenient!"
"System, to think you were so nervous earlier."
Just as the words finished falling.
A wormhole appeared right where Hillel was standing, directly swallowing him up.
Caitlin happened to be walking over to ask Hillel about some matters regarding Temporary V, only to see Hillel swallowed up right on the spot.
"No!!!"
Caitlin let out a scream.
...
"Holy shit!"
"Don’t mess around!"
"I admit I was talking too loudly just now, and I suck yet love to play, but I’ve long revered the Speed Force, please spare me!"
Hillel called out to the system.
The system gave no response at all.
"Calm down, traveller!"
A chaotic phantom emerged in mid-air, though its appearance could not be clearly seen.
A will emanated from within it, and a hint of goodwill could be felt.
"If we harboured any malice toward you, you would have been forcibly driven away back when you fought Zoom."
Hillel stood frozen in place, looking around in all directions.
He found himself floating in the center of the Speed Force storm, surrounded by a trackless void.
"Ehm, sir, talking to someone in this setting isn’t very sincere!" Hillel said.
If he were to fall out of the Speed Force, he would instantly be teleported deep into space, and it might take him several years of flying just to return to Earth.
"Apologies! But there is a sturdy wall in your mind, a rare sight in this world. We couldn’t materialise people or scenes you are familiar with to converse, so we had to use this method. Please forgive us!"
"That’s easy to fix. Build me a bedroom, and then summon Tifa or Aerith, and we can have a good chat!"
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