The Great Escapes

[run_barry]

Since Yamato offered to come to Central City and help with the epidemic crisis, things have been crazy, but handling them has been a whole lot easier now that Barry isn't operating alone.

He even got some rest in, on Yamato's orders, and they've got a bit of down time as far as emergencies in the city go so they're using it to work on other problems.

While Yamato recalibrates the S.T.A.R. Labs satellite to track the new meta they suspect is behind a whole bunch of the crime, and a death-trap or two set for Barry, Barry is getting his science nerd-amateur virologist on, trying to find a cure to the bug that has so much of the City down; including his team.

Sitting at a desk in the Cortex, Barry works away with a microscope taking notes on a tablet. Beside him are several boxes of chicken nuggets which he's working through, with a few empty ones already in the waste bin nearby.

In the middle of the space on the floor GP the porg is munching on shrimp treats while bopping around an inflatable S.T.A.R. Labs beach ball.

Comments

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato is starting to realise that he hasn't actually eaten yet. Not for lack of availability of food, and he's pretty sure he could ask Barry to go and get him a burger, but he's been absorbed in work -- recalibrating the satellite is a slow, careful process, not least because the data he got from his scan is, while useful, not extensive.

Still, Barry might occasionally catch Yamato's attention drifting over to his chicken nuggets, and the brief flickers of a facial expression that would not be altogether out of place on a puppy watching someone eat.

At the moment, the computer is building a predictive model (the fourth one, after Yamato decided that the first three weren't fit for purpose and set about changing the parameters) for dealing with shifts in the signal, which means that Yamato just has to wait.

[run_barry]

GP scampers around, enjoying the new space. Every now and again his ball bops Yamato's way and GP pauses to squawk at him loudly before scampering after the toy.

Straightening up from the microscope, Barry arches his back and rubs his eyes, trying to recover from being stooped over and squinting for so long.

"Man, why is Wilford's world so crazy?" he sighs. "I-- "

Barry pauses, looking towards Yamato he catches him staring. Recognizing the expression, Barry gives a chuckle and lifts one of the still full containers. "Dude, did you want one?"

Come to think of it, Barry hasn't seen Yamato eat at all recently. "I can also run and get you something, if you want."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Don't strain your back, Gramps. Remember, senior citizens should do frequent back exercises to remain flexible in their twilight years," Yamato says, very gruffly and extremely somberly, raising a finger. "If you're going to be hunched over, take a few breaks."

The question catches him a little off guard, and he gives a slightly nervous chuckle. "I guess I am a bit hungry. I don't know if there's anywhere nearby that does burgers or something."

Although 'nearby' takes on a different meaning when there's a speedster to hand.

[run_barry]

"You're the worst, you know that?" Barry said, now trying to relax in his chair and make it perfectly clear that he's fine, except okay yeah he's a little sore at the moment but it totally isn't because he's old.

Rolling his eyes, he stands up.

"Write down what you want on your burger and I'll go make a Big Belly run."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Would you say I'm a 'damn whippersnapper?'" Yamato asks, innocently. "Just asking."

He pulls out his notepad, though, scribbling some stuff down. "Big Belly? I actually don't think we have that in my world. Or maybe it's not made its way to Tokyo, but we've got most of the big American chains. WcDonalds, Burger Lord, Pizza Shack, Texas Fried Chicken ..."

He might be joking, but if he is, he's not letting on at all.

[run_barry]

GP goes scampering by again, stopping to squawk at Yamato.

"You tell him, GP," Barry says, then holds his hand out for the paper.

"I can't tell if you're messing around with those names, or if you're being serious and every fast food joint in your town is some weird knockoff trying to avoid copyright infringement."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato squawks back at GP, quickly, before handing the paper over to Barry. The burger listed on there could probably be adequately described as just a heart attack with added spices, although since Yamato's not sure how to write the English names for some of the ingredients, a few of the items are more just descriptions.

"Heyyy, Odaiba doesn't have any weird knockoffs. Our fast food joints are great."

[run_barry]

"Only one way to prove that," Barry says, grinning.

Feed some to Barry.

For now, though...

Barry glances over the paper and then nods, "I'll be right back."

And then he's gone, leaving Yamato and GP to each other.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato eyes GP for a few moments.

Then: "Hey, GP. Wanna learn how to say 'geriatric' and use it to mock Barry? There's a treat in it for you."

[makes_the_toys]

GP stares back.

He doesn't know the rest of what Yamato is saying, but 'treat' stands out as a familiar word and GP hops up and down squawking before managing to get airborne and flutter over to land on the desk beside Yamato.

"He seems to like you," notes a voice from the now open lab door.

Sitting in his chair with a blanket across his lap is Dr. Wells, regarding Yamato with a calm expression.

Dr. Wells sits straight and relaxed, although his pallor is a bit pale and there's a roughness to his voice caused by coughing. It's also evident in his somewhat rumpled clothes and hair that he's only recently out of bed.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"He, ah -- he's just used to me by now, I guess."

Yamato turns to give Dr. Wells a sidelong look, before turning around entirely. The nerves of meeting someone knew makes him tense up again some, standing up straight with his shoulders squared and his chin tilted up a little.

"Dr. Wells, I'm guessing?" He says, rather gruffly. "I'm Yamato, I'm a friend of Barry's and Cisco's. I'd offer to shake your hand, but ..."

You know. Virus.

[makes_the_toys]

Maneuvering his chair, Dr. Wells turns so that he can slide the lab door closed again, then wheels around, approaching Yamato, but keeping the desk the young man is working at between them.

"Yes, I'm Dr. Harrison Wells," he says, inclining his head towards Yamato. "It's good to meet you. Caitlin filled me in a bit on some of the details."

His expression remains composed, not giving away any reaction to Yamato's nerves or the situation that brought him here.

"I can't say yet that I fully understand how you came to be here and from where but, I do greatly appreciate you offering your help to Barry."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"That definitely makes things easier," Yamato says, cracking a momentary, awkward grin. "Caitlin sort of caught us off-guard. And I don't think she was particularly pleased with any of us. For, er, obvious reasons."

Sudden stranger in secret base, barrage of information about interdimensional drinking establishment, finding out Barry and Cisco have been lying, abruptly finding out about Barry nearly giving himself a glucose crash, the whole shebang.

"I'm sure Barry and Cisco will be more than happy to fill you in on their science theories about the Bar, and if you have any answers about me or my reality, I can try to answer them," he says, awkwardness flickering back to gruffness. "But thanks. I'm just glad to be able to help a little. And it's good to see up close what progress Barry's made with learning the ropes of being a superhero. He's done a lot of good work today, I'm pretty impressed."

Wells is difficult to read, Yamato's finding, and his whole manner and composure reminds Yamato oddly of Gennai, more than anyone else.

[makes_the_toys]

"Yes well, like myself, Caitlin takes the well-being of Barry Allen quite seriously," he replies, a shadow of intensity rising and passing quickly in those few words.

Gracing Yamato with a pleasant smile to try and calm the boy's nerves, Dr. Wells says, "We'll get the full story from them about this bar eventually, I'm sure. Right now my curiosity is about the place itself, or more the people, than the science. Exactly how long have you known Barry?"

It would seem some time for Yamato to comment on Barry's progress.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato's eyes narrow just a fraction of a centimetre, and a certain amount of intensity rises from him to meet Wells' own, just for a few seconds. He's not entirely aware that he's doing it.

"By his reckoning, since a little before he got hit by lightning," he says. "And by mine -- apparently about ten years, but I don't remember most of it. My timeline's a little contorted -- he met me when I was seventeen first, then eleven, back and forth for a bit, and most recently he ran into me when I was eight."

[makes_the_toys]

Dr. Wells lifts his chin, arching an eyebrow.

"Well now, that is interesting. It's no wonder then that he trusts you so well."

Moving his chair, Dr. Wells steers across the floor, navigating the space within the Cortex. He gives a passing glance over what Barry was working on, then comes around the far side of the desk where Yamato is, stopping when they're fully facing each other.

"Timeline contortion that's something we haven't dealt with here yet," he says with another smile. "Is that typical in this bar?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"I hope he does, at least."

Barry's difficult for Yamato to read in an entirely different way to Wells, because that puppyish optimism of his is sometimes like an impenetrable forcefield. It's a problem Yamato has with Taichi just as much.

"No past or future Barrys and Ciscos have come in yet, if that's what you're asking. If a Future Cisco with an eyepatch and a metal arm or something shows up, I'm sure you'll hear about it," he says, cocking his head. "In general, though, it's not unheard of, but my timeline seems a lot twistier than normal."

[makes_the_toys]

He inclines his head, taking that bit of information and internalizing it.

"It'll be very interesting if it does happen," he notes before he turns his head and starts coughing.

It's a short spell, and he moves the chair backwards a foot or two, creating a bit more space between them.

"I'm sorry, I definitely don't want to get you sick. This virus it's a nasty one."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Don't push yourself too hard," Yamato says, gruff but openly concerned, because even if he's not entirely sure what to make of Wells, the man's still in his vicinity, which means he gets to be mother-henned.

"If you haven't had a chance to eat yet, you should have something while you're down here. Keep your strength up," he adds, circling around Wells to go pick up one of the boxes of chicken nuggets and bring it over. "Here."

[makes_the_toys]

Dr. Wells accepts the box with a short chuckle and a smile.

"Thank you, Yamato. I probably should eat something. This illness does leave the body rather drained."

Opening the box, he's bemused by the chicken nuggets, but doesn't hesitate in taking one up.

"So the world you come from, how different is it from ours?" he asks.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"My world's really a collection of worlds. There's Earth, which is pretty similar to this world, except we don't have any superheroes, but there's also at least three other worlds connected to it, probably more," Yamato says. "I've only visited two of those, though."

And one of those was the Dark Ocean, and it wasn't so much a visit as him unintentionally using his powers to forcibly manifest it around himself.

He rubs the back of his neck, thinking for a moment. "The world we -- me and my team, at least -- most interact with is completely different -- it's populated entirely by monsters, has a whole different set of natural laws, stuff like that. I took Barry and Cisco to visit it not long ago," he says.

[makes_the_toys]

"Fascinating," he replies. "I know other scientists theorize about the multiverse but your world seems... different than that. Not parallel to our own, but a whole other world with its own tangential worlds connected to it."

He sits and mulls this information for a long moment before nodding to himself and refocusing on Yamato.

"A world of monsters doesn't sound very safe. Was this trip just a visit, or were they helping you with something there?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"They were safe, don't worry," Yamato says, a little wryly, because Wells isn't wrong, most of the Digital World is dangerous once you get off the island. "It was just File Island I took them to -- basically everyone there is friendly, a lot of them are either old friends or former lieutenants of mine."

Admittedly, they all no longer remember being those things, but the fact that they're good people is still something Yamato can vouch for.

"They were helping me with something. I lost my abilities recently, and there's a mission right now that required me to leave the island and go out into the more dangerous parts of the world. I asked Cisco to build a kind of stungun, and he wanted some scans and samples," he says. "He did a good job. Not had much of a chance to test what he made out yet, but the theory is sound."

Yamato's very proud of Cisco for doing in a few weeks what the Bureau hasn't been able to do in seven years.

[makes_the_toys]

"Lost your abilities?" he asks curiously and with some measures of concern.

Hearing about what Cisco did for Yamato, Dr. Wells smiles and gives a nod, his own pride in Cisco showing.

"Cisco is very resourceful. I'm quite often impressed by his ingenuity."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Yeah, something happened a few months ago, and my team and I all lost our powers at once," Yamato says. "We're not metahumans like Barry or anything, our powers come from some -- I guess energy beings that live inside us, so the prevailing theory right now is that they've just decided to cut us off."

Well, it's Koushiro's theory, and one Yamato's been subscribing to so far. Yamato knows Barry has a different one. And he's also starting to suspect that Koushiro's objectivity on the matter might not be any better than his own.

He does smile a little at the compliment Wells is paying Cisco. "He is. And I still need to pay him back for making it for me."

Yamato has rarely been keen on letting debts go unpaid, even if the other person has no intention of calling it in.