Super Rageaholic

[run_barry]

Cisco returns to the Cortex from his, seemingly, quick dash out, looking frazzled.

The news out of Milliways isn't good, but Cisco has confirmation that Barry has left the bar now and so, out of breath from running back up to the Cortex from downstairs, Cisco rushes in and points at the computer system.

"Okay… run it now," he gasps.

Diggle gives him an odd look, but Felicity gets right to work and declares, "I have him. Facial recognition picked him up on a traffic camera downtown."

She works the keys, enhancing the image and then breathes a gasp.

"Oh, God."

There on her screen is Barry, exactly where Yamato said he'd be. Cisco bites his lower lip and looks on, watching the screen where Barry is in the suit, standing in the middle of the road about to face off with Detective Eddie Thawne.

*****

After leaving the bar Barry is wound up past his breaking point and he's tired of everyone and everything getting in the way of what he wants; people telling him what he can't do, and having what he can't have.

Even his supposed friends have turned against him and Barry has thoughts of Yamato's betrayal on his mind when he runs down Eddie.

It isn't hard to find them, Iris and Eddie, and it's just as easy to run up alongside of their travelling car and yank Eddie out of the passenger seat.

Barry tosses Eddie to the ground and the man rolls across the pavement while Barry watches.

"I heard you've been looking for me," Barry sneers, his voice vibrating with anger and his powers as he thinks about Eddie trying to campaign for a task force to stop the Flash. "All this time you've been trying to catch me, and I caught you first."

Eddie draws his gun, and the thought of being shot by him before enrages Barry further.

This time Eddie doesn't have the drop on him and Barry neatly dodges every bullet that is fired his way.

"Who the hell are you, huh?" Barry demands.

Giving up on the gun, Eddie gets up, trying to come at Barry and Barry grabs a hold of him and uses speed and momentum to fling Eddie around like a rag doll. Once more Eddie eats asphalt and Barry grimly enjoys watching him struggle on the ground.

After stopping the car Iris scrambles out and runs over to Barry and Eddie. She shouts Eddie's name and her urgency pushes Barry to come down on the man.

"You think you can just come along and get to have whatever you want?" Barry asks, advancing on Eddie as the detective crawls along the pavement. "What gives you the right?!"

Eddie plays dumb, but Barry doesn't care. Only Iris's frightened voice calling out makes him pause for a moment.

"What are you doing? What has happened to you?" she asks, voice anxious and confused.

Barry gives a quick, jerky head shake, denying anything is wrong. "I feel fine."

"You are not fine," Iris insists and her adamance riles Barry further, because how could she know when she doesn't know anything?

"How would you know?" he shoots back, vision swimming red with his focus on Eddie; not giving a glance back at Iris standing in the street behind him. "Because you write about me? You don't know me! You don't know who I am. You never did."

As much as he wanted her to, as much as he wanted to share, she doesn't know the real him.

It's enough that for a moment a swell of heartbreak hits, quelling the anger. And then Barry realizes why she doesn't know him, and it's because of others like Eddie.

That thought sparks the fire again and it burns through Iris's next plees, turning the world red and pushing Barry to continue his assault on Eddie.

In a rush Barry speeds forward, grabbing Eddie on the ground, ready to destroy the man when a 'THWISH' sound breaks the air and suddenly Barry is wrapped up in a cable delivered by an arrow and yanked off of his feet and away from Eddie by the man in the hood across the street.

"Run!" the Arrow shouts to Iris and Eddie while Barry struggles with the bindings.

Iris flees in one direction and Eddie scrambles to his feet, running away from the scene.

"You need to Calm. Down," the Arrow orders, bow in hand, holding onto the cable wrapped around Barry.

Barry gets up, looking at the man with a grim smile.

"And you need to hold on," he tells Oliver. Grabbing a hold of the line that was meant to stop him, Barry tears off down an alleyway, dragging Oliver behind him.

With a sudden stop Barry whips Oliver past him in a skid.

The man is fast to react though, the moment he has any control over his own movements Oliver has his bow drawn and is firing an arrow in Barry's direction.

Barry dodges the projectile easily, letting it go past him to embed into the side of a dumpster behind him, then turns a dark smirk on Oliver.

"You missed."

Oliver just shakes his head. "No."

The arrow explodes, throwing Barry forward and to the ground. For a moment Barry's dazed, and when he picks himself up and looks around, Oliver is gone.

From behind a sharp, familiar pain stabs into his shoulder and Barry cries out as an arrowhead pierces him.

The hurt is followed quickly by a sudden loss of motor function and drain on his energy. Barry feels his whole body trying to give out and he sags on his feet, vision swimming, threatening to dim.

"Two thousand milligrams of horse tranquilizer," Oliver explains from behind, "it should be hitting you any time now."

For a moment Barry is left gasping, struggling to stay upright. He drops to one knee, feeling the effect of the sedative trying to drag him under, but refusing to go.

Reaching up, Barry wrenches the arrow out of his shoulder and throws it aside. He forces himself to stand, his own rage and powers fighting the tranquilizer in his system, burning through the chemicals until there isn't anything left to slow him down.

Turning around to face Oliver, Barry's vision burns bright red as he glares at the man.

Now, he's really pissed.

With speed and anger Barry attacks Oliver, showing the man just what he can do, proving that he never needed Oliver's stupid training.

From the rooftops back down to the alleyways Barry fights Oliver, racing rings around the man as the hooded vigilante tries to catch him.

Oliver brings his fighting skills to bear, but he's practically standing still up against Barry's speed, and Barry maneuvers under and around every punch and kick, dodging Oliver's blows easily.

When Oliver finally gets a tag in Barry makes him pay for it. As he did on Yamato before in the bar, Barry uses his speed to pummel Oliver from every direction. With speed punches Barry punishes Oliver before delivering a final hard blow to knock the archer to the ground.

Again Oliver turns to his dirty tricks, but this time Barry is ready for it. When Oliver triggers remote arrows from his motorcycle to try and shoot Barry in the back, Barry turns around just in time to catch them.

"Fool me once," Barry says, then a moment later he gives a shout of pain when Oliver flicks out his hand and delivers a third arrow, this one a small dagger-like thing that stabs Barry in the leg, piercing through to the other side.

It drops Barry down to one knee and gives Oliver time enough to get back up.

Ripping the arrow out of the meat of his thigh with another shout of pain, Barry forces himself back to his feet, squaring up against Oliver once more. Barry's unsteady, his injured leg almost refusing to take any weight, but Oliver looks even worse.

With an arm wrapped around his middle, sagging on his feet, Oliver looks over at Barry.

"I still believe in you, Barry," Oliver says, voice rough with exhaustion and pain.

Barry doesn't need Oliver to believe in him. He doesn't need anything from the man. The idea of having to have Oliver's approval sets off another wave of rage and Barry charges again. Hauling back, Barry throws a hard punch at Oliver, intending to end this.

Oliver surprises him though. Suddenly coming alive with more speed and energy than Barry thought Oliver had left, Oliver catches Barry's fist. Stunned for a moment, Barry reacts too slow and Oliver takes advantage, spinning Barry around into a head and arm lock and holding him in place.

Barry struggles in the hold as the S.T.A.R. Labs van suddenly comes barreling down the alleyway towards them. Screeching to a halt in front of the pair, the van's side door flies open to reveal a light display panel rigged up inside.

The lights come to life and Barry is mesmerized by the kaleidoscope of colors. He stops fighting Oliver and stares at the flashing light show, feeling the haze of red hot rage flicker and finally fade.

It's like a great, roaring inferno suddenly snuffed out, pulling the anger out of Barry and leaving him sagging from the lack of oxygen. Shutting his eyes, Barry rubs his head which is still pounding, but his thoughts are finally clear again.

Standing behind Barry, watching and waiting, Oliver speaks up.

"Barry, you okay?"

Turning around to face Oliver, Barry's expression is pained and apologetic, but he flashes a brief smile to let the man know it's him.

"Oh, this is going to be a special kind of hangover," Barry says, panting.

Oliver smiles back, giving a relieved chuckle and then steps forward to help the hobbled Barry, putting one arm under Barry's, offering support.

"Oliver, I'm so sorry," Barry says, the first of a long line of apologies he knows he owes.

"It's not your fault," Oliver assures him.

Barry can only hope everyone else is as forgiving.

[ooc: dialogue taken from episode 1.8.]