run_barry | Guy's Night Out

After everything that's been going on lately, the time has come for a break. A planned visit from a friend is just the thing and with no major crisis going on at the moment, it's the perfect time to make that happen.

So, with an itinerary that includes science, food and video games, Barry is excited to bring Yamato in from Milliways for another trip to Central City.

Opening the door from the bar that's a broom closet in S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry gestures Yamato through.

"Here we are," Barry says with a smile. "Welcome back, dude."

The corridor, like most of rest of S.T.A.R. Labs that doesn't get used by Team Flash much, is usually pretty dimly lit, but today the passageway is bright in anticipation of their guest and the science that's about to commence.

Nodding down the hallway, Barry says, "Cisco and Caitlin are in her lab and we're all set up for you."

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"I can't believe you sent Cisco to sit in the naughty corner."

He can't believe -- no, actually, he can believe Cisco would do what Caitlin says, he's seen her annoyed.

As the MRI starts, Yamato seems pretty calm. A little fidgety, but more out of boredom with just lying there than anything else.

After about five minutes of scanning, though, the limiter that Yamato gave to Barry starts to react -- the blue lens set into it, with the symbol of the Crest of Friendship carved on it, starts to give off faint pulses of light. Slow at first, and then a little faster.

"He should know better than to annoy my patients," Caitlin returns.

There’s not much to do once the machine starts, so Barry pulls out his phone and fiddles with that while Caitlin monitors the MRI. Barry had set Yamato’s items into a metal tray for safe-keeping and doesn’t notice there’s anything up until the flashing starts to become more insistent.

The blue flickering glow finally pulls Barry’s attention away from his phone screen and he head-tilts at the necklace.

Leaning over, Barry crowds Caitlin out of the way a little in order to reach the microphone button.

"Hey, Yamato... your uh-- your Crest thing is doing something in here... "

Caitlin turns from her screen, ready to be annoyed with Barry now, but then spots the flashing from the tray.

"Oh."

Yamato blinks.

"... What? No, that shouldn't be possible," he says. "Even if my Crest wasn't dormant, it wouldn't be reacting on its own unless it thought it was -- I don't know, threatened by something from the Dark Ocean, or Infection-related."

And neither of those things are happening here, Yamato knows that for a fact.

That flickering is getting brighter, though. Brighter and more rapid. Another thirty seconds passes, before blue light starts streaming out of it.

The temperature plummets sharply, and doesn't seem to be stopping its downward descent. Across S.T.A.R. Labs, there are snowflakes materialising from thin air without falling.

Outside the Labs, things might be getting even stranger, as the sky darkens from day to night and the sun is replaced by a much too large full moon. Slowly, bit by bit, cold and snowy winds are starting to pick up across the city.

"It's definitely doing something," Barry replies.

When the flashing turns into streaming light Barry grabs Caitlin just as she hits the emergency shut off on the MRI console, and zips them out of the room.

Only his movements aren't as fast as they should be, and when Barry sees his breath forming on the air and feels the cold biting through his clothes he knows why.

"Yamato!"

Barry's shout is followed by Cisco's, coming in over the loudspeakers in both rooms.

"Hey guys! We've got a situation brewing!"

From the Cortex Cisco is looking at a whole slew of sudden emergency readings across the city while GP races around the room squawking his own 'MAYDAY' alarm.

Yamato barely feels the cold his Crest creates, but he hears Barry's shout, and Cisco's just after, and even if he doesn't know all the details he can figure out what's happening.

Once the MRI is off, though, the light from the limiter begins to fade, then sputters out entirely. Those snowflakes immediately melt back into droplets of water, dropping to the floor at once, as the temperature starts to even out again.

Outside the Lab, those winds slow to a stop, and a few seconds later the full moon fades as well, night shifting back to day as if nothing had happened.

"Guys? Guys, give me some kind of status update."

Barry stands for a moment, ready to act if anything else happens.

The light show seems done and Barry shifts, ready to take off, but looking at Caitlin first to ask, "Are you alright?"

Caitlin nods, "Yeah. Go."

With that Barry takes off in a gust, heading to the Cortex to see what's happening.

While Barry goes to check things out, Caitlin opens the door and heads for the MRI machine, activating the table to bring Yamato out.

"Barry went to check in with Cisco on the alerts. What was that?" she asks Yamato.

When Barry arrives in the Cortex Cisco looks up from the screens and gestures at them.

"Well, we've either got another Weather Wizard, Captain Cold has upped his game, or it's the end times. Blizzards just popped up around Central City and we've got a full moon out, with the spontaneous night to go with it."

Yamato is up off the table as soon as it's out, trying very hard to keep his expression flat and not look like he's completely horrified with himself.

"I don't -- is everyone okay? Nobody got hurt?" He asks. "That's not -- I've had MRIs before, years ago, I don't know why that ..."

Okay. He needs to explain.

"My powers, they come from a kind of -- extradimensional elemental spirit thing that lives inside me," he says. "And it can act on its own if it feels threatened, but that's not ... it's been dormant for months, and it shouldn't have felt threatened at all."

"We're fine," Caitlin assures Yamato. "A little chilly, maybe, but I've always been used to the cold. How about you?"

She looks him over, trying to assess his status and is maybe considering giving him another quick check up after all of that.

"Extradimensional elemental spirits are a new one for us," she says after listening to Yamato's explanation. "If it wasn't the machine do you think it was threatened by us?"

They were poking and prodding at Yamato, maybe his powers took exception to that.

In the Cortex Barry starts looking over the situation.

"I think it was Yamato's Crest," Barry tells Cisco. "It started acting up and all this happened."

"Well it's settled down now, but there are still a lot of calls lighting up emergency lines, you should probably get out there and do a run through," Cisco says.

He seems none the worse for wear, beyond being worried and perhaps more than a little guilty, but then it's always possible his tenseness is masking things.

"-- No, it wouldn't ..." He shakes his head. "It doesn't understand the world well enough for that. It only understands energy and data, it can't even recognise other people."

That streak of tenseness and guilt seems to be intensifying with every word he says. "I should go to the Cortex."

Caitlin is watching him closely, trying to read past that tension.

"We should both get to the Cortex," she declares. "We'll check out the situation and then we'll figure this out, okay?"

Not waiting for a reply or leaving any room for argument, she turns and starts leading the way.

"Your things are in there if you'd like to grab them. Just-- if you can, tell your spirit not to raise another fuss?" she says as they pass the control room, ready to wait for him if he'd like to go in and grab his stuff.

When they get to the Cortex Cisco is at a monitoring station and the suit is gone from its mannequin.

GP is splashing around in puddles of melted water on the ground.

"Dudes, what the heck happened?" Cisco asks.

Yamato grabs his limiter and digivice as they pass the control room, and by the time they get to the Cortex has one around his neck and the other attached to his waistband again.

"I don't know, my Crest just freaked out," he says, still tense, talking a little too quickly and in a little too much of a growl. "But none of the stuff that would make it freak out is anywhere near here and I don't -- ..."

Which is about when he sees that the suit is gone. His immediate thought is what if people have been injured and Barry's out helping them.

"... I didn't hurt anyone, did I?"

Edited Date: Sep. 25th, 2019 05:25 am (UTC)

Caitlin takes up a seat at the workstation next to Cisco's, checking out the monitors and bringing up the monitoring systems from Barry's suit.

"There are accidents being reported across the city. EMS is en route, but I don't see anything major," Caitlin reports.

"Your Crest started a blizzard and turned day into night?" Cisco asks, astonished. "Are we sure it's your Crest being a dick again and not some Icemon dropping into our world from yours?"

Yamato feels somewhat relieved when Caitlin reports nothing major, but the surge of guilt at there being accidents overrides it massively.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't realise that would -- ..." He cuts himself off, shutting his eyes. "Yeah. I'm sure."

"Hey guys?" Barry's voice comes in over the comms as he runs along the streets of Central City. "Checked out a few of the reported wrecks so far, just fender benders and one downed street lamp. Where are we on figuring out the cause?"

"All we know is Yamato's Crest decided to be an A-hole about something," Cisco responds.

"It seems to have stopped," Caitlin supplies, casting a concerned look Yamato's way.

"I'll run some scans when you get back, see what comes up," Cisco says. "In the meantime, hang a left and head to Lexington Avenue and Twelve, that whole intersection looks jammed up."

Leaving Cisco to handle coordination for the moment, Caitlin gets up from her station and steps over to Yamato.

"Yamato, I hope you don't think this was your fault. If you didn't know, then you didn't know."

There's another shot of relief when Yamato hears that at least none of the wrecks so far are serious, even if there's still places to check.

He barely hears Caitlin, though, and it takes a couple of seconds before his brain catches up enough to process what she's said.

"I -- ..." He starts. "I just hope that nobody's hurt."

Caitlin pats Yamato's arm and then nods towards the monitoring stations.

"How about you help us? You can sift through the channels and see which calls Barry should respond to and I'll monitor his vitals and the suit."

"Oop, that's Lexington and Forty-second, my bad," Cisco corrects. "Smudge on the monitor."

Barry shoots back a complaint and his blip on the screen alters course.

Yamato bites back a comment about how Barry probably doesn't want his help right now, how he's probably furious with him, and just gives a hesitant nod.

He's still too tense to sit down, needing to be on his feet, but having something to do and feeling like he's helping, even just a little, helps him calm down somewhat, slipping into mission mode.

When he sees calls that need responding to, he quietly gives them to Cisco to pass on rather than talking directly to Barry, telling himself that limiting the number of people talking on the line should help limit any confusion.

Cisco doesn't mind being the coordination funnel, it makes things a little easier for him when Yamato picks up on situations that Cisco missed.

It isn't too long before things seem to be calming and after scanning over his screens one more time Cisco announces to Barry, "Alright dude, unless Yamato has anything else I think that's about it."

A few seconds after Cisco speaks Barry comes gusting back into the Cortex, coming to a neat sliding stop in front of the monitoring desk.

Breathing just a little hard, Barry pushes back the cowl and rests his hands on his knees.

"That'll have to be it unless there's something major. CCPD was on scene at those last few stops." And Barry wasn't wanting to press his luck with them right now.

Giving a nod towards the other three, Barry asks, "How are we doing here?"

Yamato almost inaudibly exhales in relief when things start calming down. Knowing that nobody was hurt and the crisis is passing is a huge relief.

He tenses up again as Barry returns, turning towards him and just -- bracing himself for the torrent of anger he's convinced is coming. He's not wholly conscious of just how much he tenses up, setting his jaw and adjusting his footing like he's expecting Barry to hit him, shoulders going stiff as he avoids looking directly at Barry.

"I -- ..." He starts. "... I'm sorry, I didn't -- ..."