New Game

[run_barry]

Barry's ankle heals up just fine. His time out in Milliways means he's back on his feet the next day to spend time with Felicity.

They take a tour of Central City, hitting all of the sites thanks to superspeed travel between stops, and Barry has a great time showing off his city and talking a bit of superhero shop with Felicity.

Things are going well, and then on a stop for coffee at CC Jitters they get corralled into Trivia Night that evening, all Iris’s idea.

*****

Reluctant doesn't quite describe Barry's feelings towards the forced double-date with Iris and Eddie, but then Felicity shows up in a stunning dress and the two of them get their nerd on while taking their team into the finals. Things turn out to actually be fun, and even having Eddie there is only kind of awkward instead of full-blown uncomfortable; though Barry could still do without having to watch Iris and Eddie kiss.

During a break in the action, with Eddie grabbing more drinks and Felicity popping into the restroom, Iris speaks her approval of Felicity.

"Are you still gonna tell me that she's not into you?" Iris asks with a knowing smile. "Look at that dress. And, when I asked her the boyfriend question, she froze."

Barry's eyes lift in a half-roll and he gives a soft amused snort. "Yeah, you were particularly sly with that one."

Iris presses on. "Felicity is smart, nice, and pretty. And most importantly, she is the first girl that I have seen you with that really understands and appreciates you for the amazing person that I am always telling you that you are. She's perfect for you, so what are you waiting for, Barry?"

Barry's amusement dims as he listens to Iris extol the qualities she sees in him, and the answer to her question is one that he can’t tell her.

Eddie and Felicity return and they start the next round of trivia. Following a wrong answer by an overeager Eddie the game is interrupted by a message on Eddie’s phone.

"Someone spotted Snart," Eddie announces, grabbing his coat. "I gotta go."

Iris steps away with him and Barry and Felicity exchange glances. A moment later they’re both outside the coffee shop door.

"I'll cover for you," Felicity offers as Barry shrugs on his coat.

"All right, what are you gonna say?" Barry asks.

"I usually tell people Oliver's at a nightclub with a girl or nursing a hangover."

Barry shakes his head. "None of which will work for me."

"Bad stomach ache. Really bad diarrhea," Felicity offers instead.

"Yeah, I'm not really comfortable with that excuse-- "

"Just go!"

That urging gets Barry to run, leaving Felicity behind to work on the story while he sets after Snart.

*****

Snart was at the museum when Eddie was alerted, still after the same diamond that Barry stopped him from getting before. When Barry arrives Snart is trying to make a run for it and is holed up inside a theater facing off with Joe.

Barry has less than half a second to process the scene he runs in on; Snart, armed with some kind of weird gun, and Joe standing right in the path of it. Snart fires, his gun ripping off a crackling blue blast, and Barry just manages to push Joe out of the way and takes the hit himself. It knocks Barry off his feet and lays him out on the ground, his side suddenly on fire.

"You okay?" Joe asks, coming to Barry as they hide behind cover.

"It burns," Barry says through grit teeth, clutching his side where he's been hit with a cold so intense it feels like a fire brand.

"Time for a test run," Snart announces from where he's standing in the middle of the theater foyer, panicked people running around him. "Let's see how fast you are."

Ignoring the pain, Barry is back on his feet and racing Snart who opens fire with his cold gun. Snart targets people at random and Barry just manages to snatch them out of the line of fire before they're hit.

Each save Barry makes seems a heartbeat closer to being too late, and finally Snart aims on a man coming up the row inside the theater while Barry is still running down the stairs from a balcony rescue.

The dazzling blue burst erupts from the gun in Snart’s hand and Barry runs in its wake, trying to get ahead of the shot as the man standing in the aisle looks on in frozen fear. Barry reaches for the man, but the cold ray gets to him first.

"No!" Barry shouts, watching as the frigid wave spreads out over the poor man's body, freezing him solid. The man hits the floor, falling over with the dull-thud of a toppled statue and Barry drops down beside him, looking on with horror and sorrow.

[ooc: dialogue taken from episode 1.04]