"Barry? Can you get to Star Labs, like, right now?" That was Caitlin, sounding on edge, and that was never a good thing. Barry nodded, forgetting that she couldn't see him over the phone.

"On my way."

He was at Star Labs before he'd even finished the sentence, zipping through the doors. Barry skidded into the cortex, and stopped dead. He blinked.

"Whhhhyyyyyy are there kittens everywhere?" he asked, turning. From his count, there were at least two dozen cats of various colors and sizes lounging, climbing, or darting around the room. But, with the aforementioned darting and tussling and kittens being kittens, it could have been more. It was probably more.

"Good question, Mr. Allen." Doctor Wells sat in his wheelchair, a look that was both bemused and annoyed on his face. A marmalade kitten had wedged itself between the floor and one of the wheels of the chair, and was chewing his shoelaces. "Ask another, if you like."

"Where did they come from?" Barry asked, feeling more confused than ever. Caitlin gave a tiny cry of surprise, which turned into a coo as a tabby kitten roughly the size of a tennis ball hooked its way up her long coat and into her arms.

"No clue," she said, scratching the kitten's ears. It purred, and tried to crawl inside her sleeve. "They were just. Here. Everywhere."

"O...K…. " Barry instinctively dodged as something dark flew at his face. The kitten landed behind him, having hurled itself from-yes, from one of the light fixtures, and shook its head, pale green eyes vivid against a grey face. It started to weave between Barry's feet, mewing much louder than anything that small should be able to. " Um. Has Cisco checked the security footage?"

"Nope, man, I'm down."

Barry started, looking around. He suppressed a shocked laugh. Cisco was lying face up on the floor behind one of the desks, surrounded by kittens. Several were running around over his legs, batting at each other and the headphones that were trailing from his pocket. One had fallen asleep on his chest, its head tucked under his chin.

"You...want a hand?" Barry asked.

"Naw, she's sleeping. I think I'll call this one fuzzwhump." Cisco craned his neck. "Caitlin's got Scrap. And the little one that just- dude watch out."

Barry had moved forward, forgetting about the kitten that was hell bent on tripping him. He tripped, but righted himself without so much as stepping on the end of a tail.

"That one's Havoc." Cisco grinned.

"I hope you don't insist on naming all of them, Cisco," Wells sighed, removing his glasses. "We are a research facility, and the headquarters for The Flash, we cannot have-" he stopped short as a solid black kitten with eyes so dark blue they almost looked purple managed to scramble up onto his lap and pressed itself under his hand. "We can't keep them."

"Just a couple?" Cisco asked. "Look, Scrap likes Caitlin!"

Caitlin had given up on keeping the kitten out of her sleeve, and on sitting down, her chair occupied by a calico and a smudgy black and white puffball. "I can't have a cat in my apartment."

"You could if it's an emotional support animal." Cisco countered as one of the kittens ran past his head, triangle tail brushing his cheek. "What else are we gonna do? Put them out on the street?"

Barry spotted two of the kittens, both golden brown tabbies, mock fighting, and scooped one up.

"They might have homes….or they might not. I could go check for missing posters?"

"Go." Wells waved one hand, the one not giving ear scritches to the black kitten. "In the mean time, I suppose someone should make sure they're...healthy. Fed." He sighed. "If someone could get that one out from under my chair?" Caitlin rushed to do so, keeping her arm straight to prevent Scrap from tumbling. Three more kittens took the opportunity to climb her coat as she did so, settling on her shoulders. As Wells left the cortext, Caitlin found her phone. Hopefully, Petco delivered. If not, well, she did have Barry Allen, Fetchquest champion of the west, on speed dial.

Three hours and six bags of kitten chow later, it was determined that none of the kittens matched any of the missing posters, none were microchipped or tagged, and all could eat nearly as much as Barry, relatively speaking.

A week after what was marked in the records as " Holy crap why are there Kittens" day, roughly half have been given homes. Joe had helped with that; several police officers he worked with had children. Eddie and Iris had taken in the golden tabby pair ( " I never did get Iris and Eddie a…"you moved in together" present." Barry had mused. "But, people gave Viking brides cats. It was an essential part of the household. Same principle applies.") and Captain Singh had point blank refused until the purple eyed cat (now named "Raoul") had put a paw on Rob's knee. It was really all over after that.

Even Wells got used to having kittens underfoot and underwheel, and the kittens learned several lessons: no messing with The Suit, certain acts are to be done in the Litter box, and Cisco always, always, always had kitty treats.

For their part, Team Flash learned that cats really can do what they like, laws of the universe be damned.

A group ("Clowder. A group of cats is a clowder. Or a glaring, but that doesn't really fit these guys," Cisco corrected everyone) of kittens had managed, somehow, not only to get into the pipeline but into some of the cells.

"Therapy cats?" Caitlin offered after a minute of wondering how exactly the fluffy sand colored kitten they've been calling "Peanut butter" had gotten into Peekaboo's cell without the woman escaping, and noticing that the metahuman was sitting, teasing the kitten with her fingers and stroking it. "I mean...rehabilitation was always a goal?"

"I guess. If it works, I mean. Some prisons use therapy animals for that, cats, dogs..." Barry rubbed the back of his neck. Two identical kittens, fox-red, named "Freda" and "Georgia", were in one of the empty cells, seeing how far up the padding they could climb. A third was fast asleep on Prism/Rainbow Raider's lap, purring loud enough that Barry could hear it echoing. Which really should not have been possible with the speakers off.

He paused. "Do you think these cats might have...powers?"

"Like...Metakitties?" Caitlin wrinkled her nose. "I don't think that's even possible. I mean, people, I'm still getting used to people with...powers, but cats? Cats are just odd. I don't think they need powers."

"Yeah. Um. Have you guys seen Nyoom?" Cisco's voice came from the intercom.

"Which one's Nyoom?" Barry asked, trying to remember. The final kitten count had been Twenty-seven, and Cisco felt the need to get each kitten's name 'right'. Even with half the kittens gone, it was still hard to tell." The one without a tail, or-"

He stopped as a white-grey blur hurtled down the pipeline past him, sparking white lightning.

"Found her."

Edited for minor continuity errors. Also, oh no, this is gonna be a full thing now. Not for a little while, but. 27 metakitties. oh buddy.