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."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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 -- ..."

Barry glances at Caitlin who looks at him concerned, and then Cisco who looks a little helpless, then focuses on Yamato.

"Of course you didn't," Barry says, shaking his head a little.

Cisco and Caitlin remain quiet for the moment while Barry continues.

"I know you wouldn't deliberately do something like that, Yamato."

Yamato's shoulders stiffen more as Barry starts talking, fully expecting him to yell or tear into him. When that doesn't happen, he relaxes a little, even if he's still tensed like he expects the calm to change to anger any second.

"If it starts acting up again, I can rein it in and keep it under control. I'm prepared for it now, it just -- it just caught me off guard," he says, talking a little too quickly, still not making eye contact.

He slowly relaxes his jaw, rubbing a hand over it, and then over the back of his neck. "I'm sorry," he says again. "Are you okay?"

Edited Date: Sep. 28th, 2019 04:43 am (UTC)

"Pretty sure it caught us all off guard," Cisco pipes in. "I mean yeah, it's Christmas time, but the forecast didn't say anything about a Winter Wonderland hitting today."

"I'd really just like to know what happened," Barry says, arching his shoulders expansively in a lost gesture. "I'd rather not set it off again."

Barry can't help noticing the tension, or how Yamato isn't really looking at him, and it's a reminder that they are still sort of working through things. Barry's definitely not mad, but now that it's on his mind he makes a conscious effort to tread a little more carefully.

GP goes running by and Barry watches him splash into another puddle on the floor before turning and nodding to Yamato.

"Yeah, I'm fine. There really wasn't much for me to do out there, just check up on people and clear the road in a couple of spots. Everything was pretty fine, the cops can handle what was left."

Yamato takes a moment to try to force himself to relax, because it's becoming clear now that he doesn't need to be braced for anything, there's no anger incoming, Barry isn't going to suddenly announce that he hates him.

It mostly works. Forcing relaxation can only do so much, but he pushes himself to make eye contact with Barry, and to try and be less tense. He still looks like he's wound tighter than a badly made clock, but he's better.

"If it happens again, I'll stop it before it does anything," he says firmly. "But -- yeah, we should figure out what happened. I don't exactly know."

Beat.

"Um, and I should mop up all the water I got over your lab."

"At this point I think it's Cisco's job to clean up," Caitlin notes, looking down at the puddles. "It's his space bird making a mess with it all."

Yamato doesn't really look a whole lot better, but Barry can see that he's trying and so Barry hopes that they're swinging back towards things being okay.

Trying to keep the positive note Barry says, "If nothing else I guess this means your Crest isn't completely dead or dormant."

Looking at Cisco, Barry asks, "Cisco, you wanna get something set up?"

"Hey, he wouldn't be splashing if there weren't puddles in the first place," Cisco argues. "Besides, it's instincts, he's a water space bird."

GP runs and does a belly flop into a puddle, splashing around and then hopping up to shake off water everywhere.

"He's also kind of a jerk," Cisco adds, frowning at GP.

Cisco nods to Barry and says, "Yeah, I'll get a mop and some scanners."

"Cisco's right, I can clean it. It won't take long," Yamato says, shaking his head. "It's the least I can do."

He crouches to scritch GP's head, taking a second to just push himself to relax a little more.

"Yeah, I guess so," he says to Barry. He touches his limiter for a moment, just testing the temperature. "But I don't have my powers back or anything like that, it's gone dormant again."

He rubs the back of his neck, thinking. "It shouldn't have freaked out like that. There's not a lot of stuff that can make it even react at all, let alone do that."