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

"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."

"Do I have to throw you out again?" Caitlin threatens.

Ignoring the other two and considering the situation and information available, Barry mulls on what happened.

"Do you know how the Infection works?" he asks Yamato. "I'm guessing it's energy-related itself since it's from the Digital World, does it have an identifying signature?"

"I should, that'd be so interesting," Yamato says enthusiastically.

He gives a thoughtful hum to Barry's question, folding his arms.

"We don't know a lot about it. It's energy of some kind, but it's passed on the same way a biological disease would be," he says. "Victims can remain infectious but asymptomatic for varying amounts of time, but once symptoms set in they go berserk, and they also gain the ability to freely travel between worlds without Gates."

He thinks for a few more moments.

"It's pretty easy to tell when a Digimon in the latter stages of Infection is about to show up, though. Telecommunications get massively disrupted, along with any other radio-based technology."

"See, Yamato wants to help make advances in science!" Cisco says, gesturing at Yamato.

"You're incorrigible," Caitlin says, shaking her head.

Cisco's thoughts of a stun-gun trial are derailed when Yamato starts describing the Infection.

"Telecommunication disruptions, you say...? " he asks very thoughtfully.

"You don't feel like going berserk, do you?" Barry asks, and he's mostly kidding.

Canting his head at Cisco, Barry follows that thread.

"Electromagnets?" Barry suggests.

Yamato's gaze flicks from Cisco to Barry, and then back again, as he mulls that thought over.

"I guess it's plausible that Infected Digimon probably produce a really strong electromagnetic field," he says after a moment. "And if my Crest detected the MRI's electromagnetic field all around me, but couldn't trace it back to an actual Digimon, it'd be a short leap to assume I was Infected and it was in danger."

"Exactly," Cisco says, pointing at Barry. "An electromagnetic field could easily cause that type of interference, and that MRI was zapping you with loads of it."

"It did seem to take everything else in stride until the MRI, and stopped immediately after we turned it off," Caitlin observes.

"Simple test, we stick you back in and see what happens," Cisco suggests.

"Before we go there," Barry says, holding a hand up to halt Cisco, "Yamato, you said if you were ready for it you could control it, right?"

"Yeah, I can," Yamato says, giving Barry a quick nod. "It bleeds off energy in exactly the same way when I evolve Gabumon, I've got plenty of practice at suppressing it."

"Alright, great," Barry replies, trusting Yamato to handle it. "Caitlin?"

"Right. We're going in with some extra monitoring equipment this time," Caitlin says, stepping forward. "Just to see what we can track if and when we get a reaction."

She gestures towards a chair and says, "Have a seat, and we'll get you set up for this next run."

"Let me do some quick tweaks also and we should be good to go," Cisco says, heading over to fiddle with the machine first before hitting the control room.

Yamato tugs off his limiter and Digivice again, taking Barry's hand and dropping both into his palm with a look that says 'remember what I said about not breaking them,' before he obediently settles into the chair to wait.

Barry accepts Yamato's items, reminding himself of what Yamato said about his trust in Barry, and gives a nod.

Leaving the setup to Caitlin and Cisco, Barry heads to the control room to watch.

Caitlin affixes the monitoring equipment to Yamato and Cisco finishes up his work quickly.

"Alright, just like before," Caitlin says to Yamato, gesturing for him to lay down on the table. "We'll be monitoring, the plan is to let anything that happens play through. But, if you need us to just let us know and we'll shut down immediately, okay?"

"Yeah, will do," Yamato says, settling down on the table, staring up at the ceiling. "Here's hoping Cisco hasn't rigged the machine to give me an electric shock."