Pinch Hitter

[run_barry]

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."

Comments

[run_barry]

Barry's head jerks around in different directions as he tries to sift through the instructions and numbers Yamato's giving him while dodging bullets.

For a moment Barry fears he's surrounded by an army when he hears the figures two, nine and six, and then what Yamato is telling him clicks.

"Clock is twelve... three... " he murmurs to himself, trying to orient on a dial while pulling people out of the way.

Six is behind, and Barry turns just in time to duck out of the way of a volley. Using a counter for cover, he speeds around the two and takes them down; one with a crack to the jaw and the other with a shoulder-check into a kiosk.

'Balcony' registers immediately and Barry goes for the two up there, bullets following him as he handles the pair. Before he can head back down to deal with the rest, the path in front of him and behind explodes with bullets and Barry has to duck for cover. There's not much to be had, and the balcony isn't very wide, so Barry ends up backing as far away from the railing as he can and crouching low, trying not to be seen from below.

"I'm stuck!" he shouts at Yamato, chancing to lift his head to try and peek down and immediately having to duck again from more gunfire. "I can't see where they're at!"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Keep your head down, flatten yourself to the floor," Yamato says, calmly. "One is near the bathroom, but there's two down on your left and to the front, near the ATMs. Move towards those two on my mark."

He's concerned, somewhat, with how quickly the gunmen reacted to corner Barry. They shouldn't have all been able to react and coordinate themselves that quickly, especially in the confusion of a pitched fight.

More relevant presently, though, is that he's pretty sure that two of them are about to run out of ammunition.

"Five, four, three, two," he says. On cue, two of the three gunmen, including one of the ones at the ATM, have to stop to reload. "Go."

[run_barry]

Barry follows Yamato's instructions, getting himself down low, covering his head with his arms from the sounds and debris of gunfire, and waiting.

When Yamato starts the countdown Barry gears up and when Yamato calls 'go' Barry rushes forward in a red-streaked blur.

He runs straight into the two men, shoving one against the other and knocking them both back against the ATM. They hit the ground unconscious, their guns clattering to the floor beside them.

It takes Barry half a heartbeat to kick the weapons away from the downed thieves, and then he's zipping over to handle the robber by the bathroom.

With that man knocked out at his feet, Barry takes a quick look around, calling back to Yamato. "Is that it?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato takes a second to check the CCTV feeds from the streets around the bank. He doesn't see anyone approaching, which is at least a good sign that there aren't any reinforcements on the way to back the thieves up.

"For now. Good work, Gramps," he says. "Do you have anything to cuff them with until the police arrive?"

He pulls up police dispatch, too, checking to see if there's anything else happening around the city, if this robbery (or, his brain reminds him, potentially this trap) was just a distraction for something else.

[run_barry]

Hearing the coast is really clear this time, Barry relaxes.

"Not bad yourself," he returns with a grin.

Looking over the crowd of downed criminals, Barry thinks on a moment, then lights with an idea.

"Got it." A very short while later all the bad guys are missing one shoe with their hands now bound with the laces.

While Barry is taking care of that, the monitors in the Cortex light up with two new beacons; alerts to more CCPD activity.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato frowns again, bringing up the alerts on his screen. Another bank robbery, on the other side of the city, and what looks like a heist at some kind of absurdly high-end luxury clothing store, the kind of place that regularly takes in thousands of dollars from individual customers.

"I've got two more robberies," he says. "Bank and clothing store. The bank has more civilians and less security, make that your first priority, but try to be quick."

He pauses for a split second, then: "And be careful. Assume they're expecting you. There's something not right about this."

With that said, he sets about bringing up CCTV feeds for the bank, store, and streets around them, and -- after a few moments of frowny-faced attempts to figure out how to do it before he eventually gets the hang of it -- starts scanning for any unusual radio signals near the bank.

[run_barry]

"For real?" Barry sighs, exasperated with this new trend.

Leaving this batch of bank robbers to go and tackle the next, Barry legs it across the city.

"I'm gonna need quickest route to the clothing store for when I'm done at the bank," he notes as he runs, then asks, "And how do you mean, something's not right?"

He's assuming Yamato means more than just bad guys doing bad guy stuff across the city.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato studies the map for a second, picking out a route. "Got it. Tell me when you need it."

He frowns, rubbing a hand through his hair. "When you were in the bank, how much were you aware of what was happening around you? Where people were standing, where they moved to, how they were aiming?" He asks. "Being on the ground during a fight is confusing and stressful, but those last three gunmen were able to reposition themselves and start firing the moment you got to the balcony."

He glances at the scan running, then back towards the CCTV feed. "It'd be impressive coordination even if they were yelling instructions to each other, but I don't think any of them actually told the others what they were doing. They just did it, in nearly perfect sync."

[run_barry]

"Well... " Barry starts to say, thinking Yamato's questions are critique on how Barry handled the situation and got himself pinned-down. When he hears the rest it causes a 'huh' moment.

"They were pretty organized, and besides some cursing I didn't really hear any yelling or chatter."

Tabling those thoughts for now as he comes up on the front of the next bank, Barry announces, "I'm here."

This time when he races in he leaves the obvious robbers at the counter and speeds through the crowd first, looking for any plants.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"I see you," Yamato says in confirmation, keeping an eye on the bank CCTV -- well, usually where Barry's just been, given how fast he's moving.

He skims his gaze over the crowd, but the high angle of the cameras, while good for keeping an eye on where everyone's positioned, aren't a very good vantage point for figuring out if there's any plants.

[run_barry]

The crowd is small, and no one seems to be armed, so after a quick circuit around the small lobby area Barry hits the counter and the robbers.

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?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"You are being watched. There's a whole crowd of people watching," Yamato jokes. "But yeah, sometimes. If you're getting a gut feeling, just -- keep it in mind."

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."

[run_barry]

"Oh. I guess you're right." Self-consciously Barry turns to the crowd and gives them a little parting wave before he streaks off, heading South once he's out the bank doors.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato gives directions as Barry goes, and adjusts the scan for radio signals so that it's focused on and around the clothing store instead. He didn't pick anything up at the bank, but this whole thing has him on edge, and Barry's remark about feeling like he's being watched even moreso.

"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."

[run_barry]

"Probably just a malfunction," Barry says.

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?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato frowns, glancing back at the footage from the cameras around the store, cycling back five minutes at high speed to see if anyone leaves. There's nothing.

"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."

[run_barry]

"Huh." With the bad guys not in sight, Barry starts walking through the store, having a look around.

"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.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Luxury fashion boutique," Yamato replies, gruffly. "As in 'we're rich enough to pay for top of the line security mechanisms.' If someone manages to trap you in a small space where you can't run, you might end up being a bright red sandbag."

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."

[run_barry]

"You realize how Wile E. Coyote that sounds, right?" Barry points out, amused.

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.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"It's not my fault you have the Road Runner's powers."

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."

[run_barry]

"Oh yeah, it comes in handy," he replies. "Of course, it kind of ruins the door handle and lock."

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.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"I'm guessing you can't get in there and get them and yourself all out in under half a second," Yamato says, rubbing the back of his neck. "Even for you, that's a lot in a small time window."

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."

[run_barry]

Barry strongly considers it, even taking a step back and weighing the possibility that he could do it. In the end he has to reluctantly admit, "No. I could give it a shot, but if I didn't make it out... "

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.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato grimaces a little, because he can't imagine that leaving three scared people is easy for Barry, even if saving them right now really isn't a good idea.

"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."

[run_barry]

"Guess that means we're not dealing with an amateur, then." Of course the whole situation has been sort of saying that much.

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.