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Pinch Hitter
Opening the door from Milliways Barry leads Yamato through and into S.T.A.R. Labs.
"And here we are, welcome to Central City and S.T.A.R. Labs."
They step out into a medical lab space, complete with fancy equipment and an exam table. The place looks pretty high-tech, but it's also currently a shambles. Things are knocked over on the countertops, several drawers have been pulled open and rifled through, there's an IV stand laying on the ground, and the red Flash suit is discarded on the floor beside the exam table.
It's the sort of scene that happens when a speedster on his last legs storms through an infirmary trying to help himself and not pass out in the process.
Glancing around, Barry frowns and rubs the back of his neck.
"Sorry about the mess."
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Disarming the pair, Barry has them wrapped up in the belt from the line stanchions in a few quick seconds.
Coming to a halt, he looks down at the two he's just secured, then glances around.
"You ever get that super creepy feeling of being watched?"
Trying to shake the feeling, Barry asks, "Which way am I going to the clothing store?"
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Gut feelings usually pan out well for Yamato.
"Head South. There's some pretty narrow alleyways you can cut through, I'll give you directions on the way."
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"It looks like the store has security systems -- shutters that slide down over the counters and doors to the back room, that sort of thing -- but they never activated," he says, frowning. "Those systems aren't exactly reliable, as far as I know, so it may be nothing."
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Thanks to the easy nab at the bank, and the shortcuts Yamato gives him, Barry makes great time to the store.
When he rushes in through the door he's expecting another crowd and a hold-up like at the two banks, but instead the whole front area is empty.
"There's no one here," he calls over to the comm back to Yamato.
Glancing over his shoulder back towards the door Barry asks, "Did they make a break for it?"
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"No, nobody's gone anywhere since the alert came in," he says. "Hang on."
There's the sound of very rapid keytaps from Yamato's end.
"My view of the interior isn't good, there's a lot of blind spots here," he says. "There are back rooms, and a storage basement, but I don't have access to any cameras there yet, they're either all locally controlled or broken." He makes a slightly irritated noise in the back of his throat. "This reeks of a trap, but I also can't dismiss the possibility that whoever's set it has taken hostages."
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"I gotta say, a fashion boutique is a pretty lame place to lay a trap," he muses, checking out the racks as he goes by. Someone could be hiding inside, maybe?
A mannequin gives him a start, but otherwise everything is quiet.
"I'm gonna check out the back. If you can't access the cameras then just bring up the floor plan and track the suit." That way if Barry does need to make a quick exit Yamato can guide him out.
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He does bring up the floor plan, tracking the suit's process through it. "I've got your location and the plan, and I'm going to keep trying to get the cameras," he says. "Be careful. And tell me what you see."
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Ridiculous Road Runner plot or not, Barry does heed Yamato's warning and treads carefully as he heads to the back.
"Employee door, but it's locked," he informs Yamato. Wrapping his hand around the handle, Barry vibrates it until the whole thing comes apart allowing the door to swing open.
"And now it's not," he updates before stepping through.
"I think I hear someone," he says, creeping ahead down a corridor. "Do the plans say if there's a cash office or a safe?"
Maybe their robbers are there.
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Yamato tilts his head a little as he hears the sound of vibration, and then Barry's update. "... I wasn't aware you could do that. Good to know."
He glances at the plans, frowning. "Yeah, there's a cash office, but it's heavily secured. If you trip the alarm system, every door and window is going to get blocked with four inches of steel, with maybe half a second's window of opportunity to get out. And it's small, you're not going to be able to build up any momentum in there."
He sighs a little.
"It's a bad idea. But there should be at least a few members of staff on-site, and we need to be sure they aren't in danger, since they all seem to have vanished."
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Hopefully the fancy boutique people won't mind.
Continuing down the hallway, Barry is frowning as well as he listens to Yamato describe the room Barry's looking for. The frown sets in even deeper when Barry comes across said room and sees there are people in it.
"Found the cash office. I also found the staff." Or at least some of them.
"There's three people tied up and gagged in the middle of the room," he says, standing just outside the threshold and looking over the doorway.
Yeah, this is definitely starting to feel like some kind of trap.
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He keeps tapping at the console, and for a moment, he gets a grainy image from one of the cameras elsewhere in the -- actually, he can't tell where it is. Not where Barry is. Possibly the basement.
"I've got a vi -- and it's gone," he says, as the feed blinks out again, just as something was starting to move. "I think I saw someone, but I didn't get a good look and there's no way to know what camera it was. There were storage racks, so the basement seems likely."
He glances back to the floor plan. "Best thing to do right now is a sweep of the whole place. Try not to go into any rooms and keep an eye out for any traps. If the staff are bait, then they're safe for the moment, at least."
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Then it would be over for everyone.
Agreeing with Yamato's assessment of the next course, Barry calls out to the three in the room. "I'm gonna get you out, I promise. Just hang in there, I'll be back."
The trio mutter back at him in urgent protest and Barry frowns as he walks away.
"I'm heading towards the basement. Let me know if any of the video comes back." As he says it, Barry glances up while walking beneath the black dome of a camera. "The camera's definitely aren't broken.
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"They're not on a local system, either, if I was able to get access to one of them," he replies. "My best guess is that someone's deliberately stopping anyone from viewing the feed. Not necessarily just us -- if there's an offsite security company with access, the point might be to stop them from viewing it, instead."
He glances at the floor plans, cocking his head.
"Looks like the basement is about the same size as the store and back rooms together, so it's not gigantic, but it's filled with storage racks and that makes it practically a maze. There is a way out if you need it, though, a delivery door that leads up and out onto the road behind the store."
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Barry locates the basement door, opening it carefully and peering down.
"Wow, this place isn't creepy at all," he notes as he descends the staircase into the dimly lit space.
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Beat.
"Needs work. I'll think about it," he admits, turning a little gruff. "Keep an eye out. Remember, you're likely not alone down there, and we should expect these thieves to be armed as well."
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Feeling like the cautions are starting to go overboard, Barry gives just a little bit of a sigh. "I'll be careful."
Stepping down off of the last step, Barry pauses, puzzled by a sound.
"I think I just heard a click." Moving his foot, Barry cants his head, looking down at the weird tile he's just stepped on. From up above he can hear clanging and slamming metal and he realizes what he's done.
"I triggered the security system."
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He does crack a little bit of a smile, and Barry might hear a slight chuckle, in response to Barry's sigh. He knows he's maybe being a little too pushy with the warnings to be careful.
-- Except then Barry triggers the security, so maybe not.
"It looks like all your exits have been blocked off with steel shutters," he says, tone very calm and even, if also a bit flat and expressionless. "But unlike the cash office, this is one big room, you might still be able to build up some momentum."
His eyes flick over to the radio scan which did, just for a few moments, pick up an unusual radio signal, coinciding with a smattering of faint dark matter readings from across the city.
"There you are," Yamato murmurs. "Barry, you likely have people converging on your location. I can unlock the security system, but I need you to run in a grid formation with enough speed to produce ... ah, let's see," it takes him a few seconds to run through the formula in his head, "twenty million electronvolts, so around thirty million joules, of electromagnetic radiation, and wind speeds of around fifty miles per hour, spread out through the entire basement."
He pauses for a moment, linking his wrist computer up to the console again.
"Don't worry, that level of magnetic radiation is barely equivalent to a low-power MRI. Apart from the wind knocking people off their feet, and a bunch of cell phones getting bricked, it's safe."
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"What people? Who's doing this?" Who would set a trap for him?
Not about to stand still, he starts moving along the wall and past the storage shelves, looking for a possible exit and anyone who might be down here with him.
"You want me to what?" Quickly he starts running through calculations in his own head, trying to figure out just how fast he'd have to go to do all that. "I don't know if there's enough room in here."
Of course, he doesn't exactly have a long list of options.
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He tilts his head a little, peering at Barry's position on the console. "Whoever's behind this isn't in the store, they're using some kind of wireless networking. If we disrupt it, there'll be a window of opportunity," he says. "You're right, you don't have a lot of room to work with, this is going to be delicate if you don't want to embed yourself in a wall. But I have faith in you. You can do this."
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Obviously he couldn't give whoever this was a chance to make that happen, and without any open exits he was going to have to make this work.
"Alright, okay." Glancing around for a starting point, Barry chose the top of the stairs. He zipped up to the top of the landing and then held, building himself up.
"Here it goes... " A deep breath and he was off, racing down the staircase and then through the maze of shelves in the grid pattern Yamato had asked for.
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As it rises, the interference affects their comms as well, enough that he starts to see the dot on the map blinking every now and then. He keeps one eye on it, and one eye on the scan, as that strange radio signal shows up again, stronger this time, then stronger still, with a flicker of dark matter readings across the city.
"That's right, keep pushing back," he mutters, quiet enough and far enough away from his wrist that he's fairly sure Barry won't hear and get distracted by it, as the signal grows stronger and stronger to push through the higher levels of interference.
His eyes flick over to the floor plan again, watching Barry's progress as best he can with the interference. There's not much longer before it'll be enough interference, but until then, all he can do to help Barry is watch.
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The wind he's generating is howling now, and Barry's crossing over his own trail again and again, causing the lightning in his wake to build upon itself and up the electricity levels higher and higher.
It's not enough, he knows it's not enough and tries to dig deeper. It's not only the confined space that's making this hard, Barry's energy is starting to flag, he can feel it.
Promising his body more meal bars and a shot of Digi-juice when this is over, Barry pushes harder and manages to pour out more speed.
"Almost... there... "
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He can't see what the wind speed is like in there, but he sees the radiation levels hit the target energy, and a few seconds later, he sees the strange radio signal flicker out.
"There," he barks, hoping that their own comm signal is strong enough for Barry to hear him. "Slow down, take cover, take a moment."
With nobody else getting in the way and keeping the security lockdown in place, Yamato works as quick as he can to get everything back up online and connected, working not at the console but at his wrist computer, with its Alternan tech and Koushiro's programs. Barry's vitals and suit readings appear first. Then, one by one, the CCTV feeds in the store start to appear.
"I've got visuals," he says, and gauges the location of the other men in the basement, all of whom are looking extremely disorientated now that the voice in their ear is gone and some gale force winds have battered them around. "Five guys -- three o'clock, six, nine, and two at eleven. They're confused and separated, you're fast, do your thing and then that's every hostile in the store dealt with. I'm disarming the security system now."
He glances at Barry's vitals, furrowing his brow. They're far from ideal, but Barry's in the home stretch now, at least as far as dealing with this trap goes.
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"Awesome. Glad it worked."
This time when Yamato gives direction on where the bad guys are Barry knows how to orient himself and follow them. He moves in a blur, counting each guy as they go down until the fifth one is taken care of.
"What about the hostages? Are there anymore besides those three?" he asks, already moving to go back for them.
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