Bully

[run_barry]

After last night's run in with a metal metahuman, and the training session he had with a friend from Milliways, Barry arrives at the station ready to work on the case and catch the guy who caused so much mayhem.

Finding out that he'll be working with Eddie instead of Joe dims Barry's spirit a little, but when Captain Singh announces the name of their culprit, Barry's pumped-up attitude deflates completely, and he's left stunned with flashbacks from childhood rolling through his mind.

Tony Woodward.

A jerk. No, the jerk, and Barry's childhood bully for years.

"Looks like you were born to take a beating."

Looking through the casefile, Barry suddenly realizes why the man's words from last night sounded so familiar. It was what Tony used to say to Barry every time he beat Barry up.

Eddie pulls Barry out of thought, and after an awkward encounter with Iris, Barry leaves Eddie to work the case from the CCPD angle while he heads to S.T.A.R. Labs to update the team.

*****

"Your childhood nemesis is now an unstoppable metahuman. That is seriously messed up."

Cisco says what they're all feeling, and he and Caitlin spend a moment commiserating over their own childhood bullies.

The talk isn't helping, and Barry stops them both with a shake of his head.

"Now that we've established that we're all uber-nerds, what are we gonna do about Tony?"

Cisco grins, wide and toothy, and leads them into the next room.

"We're gonna train you, man. Karate Kid style," Cisco says gleefully. "Behold! I call him Girder."

Cisco pushes back a screen and reveals a robot. Or rather, the top half of a robot. 'Girder' is a big metal practice dummy, remote controlled and totally unsanctioned by Caitlin.

It reminds Barry a little of the giant robots he faced with X in the Danger Room, only not so giant but somehow just as intimidating.

"Fighting is physics," Cisco coaches. "It's not about strength. It's not about size. It's about energy and power. Channel your speed the right way and you can totally take this bad boy down."

Barry gives the bot a wary glance, but still steps up to give it a go.

He lasts all of five seconds before he's down on the ground, clutching a dislocated shoulder in pain while Cisco and Caitlin look on wearing twin frowns.

*****

Caitlin fixes Barry's shoulder and the day just keeps getting better from there.

After being beat up by a practice dummy, Barry meets up with Eddie who's tracked down the Humvee Tony stole. When a man Barry and Eddie are questioning about Tony makes a run for it, Barry gets punched in the face while chasing him down.

Barry gets back to S.T.A.R. Labs to find out Iris is still putting herself in danger by posting an open message to The Streak on her blog. And, when he gets to CC Jitters, Iris tells The Streak that Tony was by to see her earlier.

That's the last straw.

Suiting up and ignoring Cisco and Caitlin in his ear, Barry runs to Keystone Ironworks; an abandoned facility that evidence Barry collected earlier points towards Tony being.

A speedy runthrough of the plant doesn't reveal Tony, but there are plenty of signs around to prove he's been there. Frustrated at not finding Tony, Barry lets his guard down and that's when the man arrives.

Once again it's a short fight, with Barry putting exactly none of what he's learned so far to use, and Tony throwing Barry around like a ragdoll before toppling a shelf of weights, scrap-metal and who knows what all else on top of Barry, leaving him for dead.

*****

"What were you thinking? What were you thinking?" Dr. Wells is livid.

After being pulled out of wreckage Tony left him in by Cisco and Caitlin, Barry is back in the infirmary in S.T.A.R. Labs being put back together again.

They're all disappointed in Barry and not shy about pointing out how Tony could have killed him.

"I know, all right? I know!" Barry shouts back, exasperated with the situation and himself. "In the past 36 hours I've had my ass handed to me twice by the guy that tortured me as a kid. I couldn't stop him then, and I can't stop him now! Even with my powers I'm still powerless against him."

Barry's outburst seems to temper Dr. Wells, and he comes back calmer, "Not necessarily. Cisco?"

Prompted by Dr. Wells, Cisco steps in to deliver his latest theory on defeating Tony. The idea stems from the fact that any material has it's breaking point, and it relies on Barry using his speed to hit Tony at just the right velocity and angle to compromise the man's metal exterior.

"How fast would I have to go?" Barry asks, uncertainty in his voice as he looks between Wells and Cisco.

The math comes back with a figure: Mach 1.1.

Caitlin is incredulous. "You want Barry to hit something at 800 miles an hour?"

It does seem impossible. It's certainly a speed Barry has never reached before, and while Cisco and Dr. Wells try to remain optimistic about the possibility, there's a huge downside that Caitlin anxiously points out.

"Do it wrong," she informs Barry, "and you'll shatter every bone in your body."


[ooc: dialogue taken from episode 1.6]