Clobbered

[run_barry]

Central City has been quiet, which should be a good thing, but with Barry and Iris still not talking it leaves a lot of free time for Barry to focus on and feel the absence.

It also means when his phone buzzes with an alert about a new posting on her blog, it takes Barry mere moments to read the story and react.

He knows she's at CC Jitters, and when he arrives in the suit, Barry sweeps Iris up in a blur and deposits her on the roof of the building, a place that seems like it's becoming 'their spot'.

Iris is delighted, laughing when she realizes what's happened. Sticking to the shadows, using his ability to alter his voice, Barry doesn't let her amusement catch, going for serious when he says, "You need to stop writing your blog."

If Iris catches his tone and demeanor, she chooses to ignore it, still smiling in her defiance.

"People need to know that you exist," she says. Taking the chance to try and turn this meeting into an interview, despite Barry explicitly telling her it isn't.

He keeps trying to convince her to stop with the blog, and she keeps dancing around the subject.

Finally frustration breaks and Barry raises his voice to stop her. "You're not hearing me."

"My hearing is fine, it's just selective," Iris says with a smile, and damn if it isn't her best 'get away with anything' smile.

"What should I call you?" she asks, and he finally gives in to answer, his sigh equal parts her winning and his 'name'.

"Anything but 'The Streak'."

That smile lights up her face again and she replies, "Fine, suggestions?"

He's not here for this, and honestly, hearing her banter so freely with someone else when she hasn't spoken to him, plain clothes Barry, in weeks… hurts.

"You said you were writing about me to bring hope to someone you cared about," he says, getting to the point of the visit, which is to try yet again to get her off her blog.

(And maybe remind her that Barry still exists.)

"How would he feel if doing that put you in harm's way?"

For the first time her smile flickers.

"He and I aren't exactly on the same page these days," she says, mellow for a moment, but rebounding quickly. "Besides, you're giving hope to a lot of people, so I'm doing this for them."

He realizes then that he's not going to win this one tonight. She's headstrong and willful as ever and Barry never could talk Iris West into or out of anything.

Not having a reply, he's saved the task of coming up with one by the sound of sirens blaring on the street below.

He cocks his head to listen to them, then throws her a resigned smirk, allowing that she's won here again.

"To be continued," he says. "Gotta run."

*****

The sirens lead to a high-speed chase, where some jerk is tearing hell around Central City in a stolen yellow Humvee.

The man driving doesn't show regard for anything, including pedestrians, one of whom Barry has to save from being run over, or cop cars as the dude plows through a police blockade without even slowing.

Barry runs down the vehicle and comes to a stop in front of it. Whether it's him or the chainlink fence blocking the road, the Humvee finally comes to a screeching stop.

"Step out of the vehicle!" Barry shouts, angry that someone could be so callous about property and lives.

The guy in the Humvee smirks. "If you say so."

He's a big dude, a very big dude, but it isn't so much his size that widens Barry's eyes when the man steps out of the truck; it's the way the man more than easily pulls the metal truck door off its hinges.

"Uh oh," Barry gulps, then dodges when the man flings the door like a frisbee right for Barry's head.

Barry just manages to avoid the flying door. Spotting his opening, he then winds back and steps into the hardest punch he can throw, aimed for the man's chin.

It lands, dead on target, and Barry cries out in pain as his hand crumples against the man's jaw, which turns to metal with the strike and then shifts back to flesh right in front of Barry's eyes.

While Barry clutches his shattered hand, reeling with the pain, the man makes his own fist; his arm shifting to metal up to the elbow. The sweeping blow he throws catches Barry square in the chest and knocks him off his feet.

Barry collides with the Humvee, tumbling over the hood and hitting the pavement hard on the other side. The wind is gone from his lungs and everything hurts. He has to fight to stay conscious and when he looks up the man, very obviously a metahuman, is looming over him.

"Looks like you were born to take a beating," the meta gloats.

The words strike a chord in Barry, but he doesn't have time to analyze it. He doesn't have time for anything except for getting the hell out of there.

That metal fist comes down again, but in a blink Barry is gone.

*****

Barry comes to at S.T.A.R. Labs, with Cisco and Caitlin hovering over him, and Dr. Wells not too far away. He honestly doesn't remember making it back to the lab, but even though treatment is painful as all get out, his friends take care of him and Barry is soon resting as comfortably as he can, given all of this injuries, of which there is a long list.

"Thirteen fractures, that's a new record. And that's just your hand," Caitlin notes, tightening the screws on the traction device being used to hold things in place while Barry heals. "You also have a concussion, three cracked ribs and a bruised spleen. Even with your powers you'll need a few hours to heal."

Her listing is clinical, but there's sympathy in the expression she turns on him and Barry manages a brief smile in appreciation of it and her help.

"What exactly did you hit?" Dr. Wells asks, studying Barry from his chair.

Barry shakes his head, adjusting a bit on the bed. "A man. A big, bad man. His skin changed when I hit him. Like, it turned to metal."

Wells's eyebrows lift a fraction, intrigued. "Interesting; a man of steel."

Cisco is too upset to be interested in some tin man. Arms folded, he steps up and admonishes Barry. "So you went after a metahuman, alone. Dude, why didn't you calls us?"

Barry frowns, and after a struggle, manages to sit up on the bed. "I didn't know what he was. Besides, I was-- off duty."

Caitlin makes a sound that Barry can't quite read, but Cisco eases up, saying to Barry, "You're lucky he didn't knock out your teeth. Those puppies don't grow back."

Thinking about the man, Barry goes back to the fight (if it can even be called that), and what the man said.

"The strange thing is, I feel like I knew him," Barry notes quietly.

"What do you mean?" Caitlin asks.

"He said something that was… familiar." Still unable to pin it down, Barry lets it go and refocuses on the important part, which is that the metahuman is still out there. "But, he's gonna hurt someone if we don't stop him, so how do I fight a guy that's made of steel?"

"We will find a way. Tonight, you heal," Dr. Wells replies, gently firm.

Considering how much he feels like he ran into a freight train tonight, Barry not so reluctantly agrees. "Yeah."

Settling back, he breathes a slow sigh; events of the night running through his mind.


[ooc: dialogue taken from episode 1.6]