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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Yamato ducks his head. "Thanks. I mean it, I was worried that -- ... well, I guess it doesn't matter."

He's glad that Barry isn't angry. He's even more glad that nobody got hurt.

"You know," he says slyly, cracking his neck. "Pretty sure I said way back that I'd give you a really awkward hug once I could, Gramps. Would've done so earlier, but I didn't want to hurt those old man bones of yours, y'know?"

There's no glass wall to save you from being hugged now, Flash.

Edited Date: Sep. 29th, 2019 10:41 am (UTC)

Glad that they're both reassured and things are okay now, Barry smiles.

Giving a chuckle to Yamato's threat realized, Barry puts up an arm to invite the hug.

"Yeah, I remember. Bring it in."

Yamato laughs, cracking his knuckles before moving in for the hug, throwing his arms around Barry's shoulders.

It's not a long hug, but Yamato squeezes Barry pretty tightly before he pulls back, giving Barry an awkward but happy grin.

Barry returns the hug, giving a lauging 'ulp' on the tight squeeze and clapping Yamto on the back.

"Ahem." Standing in the doorway with the mop bucket in tow, Caitlin clears her throat and gives them a bemused expression when they break.

"I think Cisco is ready whenever you two are," she says smiling.

Yamato turns pink, and just barely avoids asking how much of that hug Caitlin saw, settling instead for wandering over and taking the mop bucket.

"Thanks. I'll just clean up here and then we can go."

Yamato is nothing if not an efficient cleaner, and it doesn't take long at all for him to mop up the puddles, setting the bucket neatly in one corner once he's done.

"Okay, let's go find Cisco."

His own smile a touch embarrassed, Barry touches a hand to his chest to indicate the suit.

"I'm gonna go get changed," he says, exiting in a whoosh.

Caitlin just smiles, helping out by using a rag to wipe down the few wet spots left on the desks and console.

When Yamato is ready she gestures out of the Cortex, ready to lead the way back to her lab.

"I know you and the guys have plans after this," she says along the way. "So we can run the next tests and let you go, and I'll compile a report to get to you before you head back to your world."

A beat, and then she gives a small chuckle. "You would think that would be more strange to say, 'your world', but it really doesn't feel that weird at all."

"You sure? I know Cisco wanted to shove me on a treadmill and get 'active diagnostics,'" Yamato says, cocking his head.

He flashes a wry smile at the mention of how strange -- or not strange, as the case may be -- other worlds are.

"It's the kind of thing you get used to pretty fast. I'd already been dragged to another world when I first ended up in the bar properly." Which is to say, the first trip he sort of remembers, because the ones when he was eight are a blank for him. "So it was just more of the same. Didn't feel that weird."

Edited Date: Oct. 2nd, 2019 09:07 am (UTC)

"Cisco just likes showing off his treadmill," Caitlin replies with an eyeroll. "We'll see what these next tests reveal and decide if elevating your heart rate will give us what we need or not."

Listening to Yamato describe his own experience, Caitlin smiles.

"I guess maybe everything we've done here has made adjusting to strangeness easier. If you'd told me a year ago that I'd be part of a superhero team saving the city from villains I definitely would have thought you were crazy."

She laughs and steps into her lab where Barry and Cisco are already waiting.

"I figured it out," Cisco announces proudly when he sees Yamato. "Our world has a Digital World and your Crest figured it out. Your arrival here triggered a breach and we've probably got Digimon coming through, we just can't see them because we don't have Digi-vision!"

"Your world is pretty damn weird," Yamato remarks to Caitlin, flashing a grin at her. "I mean, even before metahumans showed up, there were still superheroes like the Arrow, right? My world doesn't have any superheroes."

There isn't even one bow-wielding vigilante in Yamato's world. They have a marked lack of bow vigilantes.

As they enter the lab and Yamato hears Cisco's theory, he squints for a moment, before his gaze flicks over to Barry, then Caitlin, then back to Cisco.

"Okay, that's not ... impossible, kid," he allows, "but I don't know if it's likely."

"Well yes, but... " Caitlin pauses, brow furrowing a little as she realizes she doesn't have anything to follow that up with.

"I guess it is," she finally relents, giving a small shrug and a chuckle.

Listening to Cisco's theory and glancing back at Yamato, Barry, back in plain clothes now, gives a doubtful look Cisco's way.

"Yeah... I don't think that's it," Barry says.

"Oh c'mon, it makes perfect sense," Cisco says with a pout as he steps up to Yamato.

With a scanning device that looks a lot like a metal detector wand, Cisco starts to sweep over Yamato while looking at the tablet he's holding with his other hand.

"Checking to see if you and your Crest and putting off any energy or radiation right now," Cisco tells Yamato. "But for real, wouldn't I make an awesome partner for a Radicalmon or something?"

"You'd make a great partner for a Radicalmon," Yamato says fondly, reaching over to just lightly tap his knuckles against Cisco's forehead. "But I'm pretty sure there aren't any Digimon coming through to this world."

He gives Barry a slightly wry look, just so they're all totally clear on there being no Radicalmon. For now, at least.

He cocks his head. "But if there is an evil Digimon on its way over, I finished that, er, project you were helping me with," he adds to Cisco, holding still for the scan. "I haven't had a chance to properly test it yet, though, and the data integration coefficient was way higher than expected on the one test run I did do, and ..."

He's babbling, he realises. Nerves are making him babble. He's shutting up now.

"Yeah I would," Cisco brags, certain he and Radicalmon would be the greatest duo ever.

"What, you finished and you didn't share? You wound me, man." A hand goes to Cisco's chest to illustrate the mortal blow to his heart. "We totally could have gone to the airfield and shot rockets at you or something," Cisco notes.

Disappointed with missed opportunities, Cisco resumes scanning, pausing a moment and giving a little frown at his screen.

"Um... hey, guys? You wanna... " Cisco jerks his head, not so subtly gesturing at Barry and Caitlin to step away with him. "Just, wait right here for a sec, Yams."

"No one is shooting rockets at Yamato," Caitlin says, very firm on that.

Barry gives Cisco a curious head tilt and walks over. Caitlin looks equally puzzled as she steps in closer and takes a glance at the screen Cisco is holding.

"Oh," Barry says, his eyes widening as he looks down at the displayed readings.

Caitlin's own brows shoot up and she's just as surprised.

"Well."

"... Kinda want to get rockets shot at me now," Yamato says, just a little mournfully.

Ah, well. Another time.

Any disappointment on his part is quickly replaced by concern when Cisco gestures the other two over, and that concern is only amplified by their reactions.

"Guys? What's wrong, is it something bad?"

The aside turns into a huddle and the three puzzle over what they're seeing.

"Are you sure the scanner is calibrated correctly?"

"How is that even possible?"

"See how it bumps up every beat?"

"Is it him or the-- "

Eventually they realize they've left Yamato hanging, and all three turn towards him.

"Yamato... " Caitlin starts carefully. "You said you've had an MRI and testing before, correct? Those didn't turn up anything?"

"Right. When I was younger, Jyou's parents ran all kinds of tests on us," Yamato says, rubbing the back of his neck. "The tech on my version of Earth isn't anywhere near as advanced as the tech you guys have, but they couldn't find anything unusual."

"Hahaha, they weren't looking very hard," Cisco cackles, which earns a slap on the arm from Caitlin. "Ow."

Barry cuts in and starts trying to explain.

"Right. Well, as you know our tech here is pretty advanced, even for our Earth. This scanner is calibrated to pick up on a lot of different energy signatures and radiation emissions, from Dark Matter to UV and everything in between and outside of that."

Barry glances at Cisco for confirmation before going on.

"Right now, it's indicating that your output is off the charts. Like, literally, it goes beyond what we've measured on anyone, including my own energy output."

Cisco cackling like a mad scientist is almost reassuring. Yamato hopes he wouldn't be cackling like that if there was a serious problem.

He still has to blink at Barry a few times when he explains.

"Okay," he says, furrowing his brow. "That's -- I guess that makes sense. Sort of."

He cocks his head.

"... Is it a problem?"

"It doesn't make any sense," Cisco says with manic delight. "With these readings your heart should be exploding and Central City should be the site of a nuclear meltdown more powerful than the sun's core overloading."

"Cisco," Caitlin snaps at him.

"It's not a problem," Barry cuts in again, throwing Cisco a Look.

"We uh-- we're pretty sure," Barry adds, just a touch uncertain.

Caitlin steps over to Yamato and says, "The main thing is, your body seems to be handling it. All your other vitals are reading as basically baseline human, so whatever this is, it's not negatively affecting you, and it doesn't seem to be affecting anything around you. It's contained."

"Minus what happened earlier," Barry says. "But, I still think there was a trigger that caused that."

"Your mad scientist is showing, kid," Yamato says, rather fondly.

He rubs the back of his neck, thinking for a moment. "It's probably what Gennai or Centalmon would call the Light of Evolution. That's the name Digimon gave to whatever weird energy the Crests are made of or produce or whatever," he says. "I don't have any idea what exactly it is beyond that, though."

He gives Barry a quick nod. "Right. We narrowed down the trigger to something Infection related, or something that seemed Infection-related. And it stopped when the MRI machine powered down."

"For mine is an evil laugh," Cisco says with an over-the-top cackle.

"But for real, yeah, that's exactly the energy signature that's showing up here. You should totally let me take a shot at you with the Digi-Stun-Gun to see what happens. For science."