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

[run_barry]

As Yamato goes over things Barry looks it all over, taking the time to orient himself to make sure he knows which way he's going.

"Got it. Just give me a go."

Getting into a ready position, Barry revved up, ready to run through this first phase.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Three, two, one ..." Yamato says, and presses a few keys. "Go."

The alert he sets off is a small one -- one that could easily be a glitch, or something rustling just the right way, or a mouse. He's still acutely aware that there's only so many of those he can set off before the Commander realises what's happening.

He opens two security doors at the same time, one at the top of the stairs, and one at the bottom.

[run_barry]

Barry hits it on 'go', rushing out of the control room and down the stairs to the next floor; a clock in the back of his mind counting the seconds.

He hits the next floor, through the doorway, and takes on the locked door.

The handle drops free and the door springs open on the final tic of Barry's mental timer, and he steps through and pushes the door closed again in a rush, ducking low and holding.

"In the office," he calls to Yamato in a hushed voice over the comm-link.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Good work," Yamato says. "Clearly they don't call you Super Fastness Guy for nothing."

Someone somewhere must have tried to use that as Barry's codename. Surely. Surely.

He notes the security doors automatically locking again, one after the other, and turns his attention back to the maps and camera feeds.

"Okay, I can't see you, which in this instance is good," he says. "The stairs to the next floor are on the other side, but it'll be better if you circle around the edge of the floor. I can set off a few more security alerts and clear the path for you, which should give you ..." He frowns. "Eight seconds to get to the stairs, down them, out onto the next floor, and then into the fourth office along."

[run_barry]

He rolls his eyes on that name drop.

"Literally no one has ever called me that."

Barry can't see Yamato's expression, but he's frowning too when he hears Yamato describe the next step.

"Cross this floor the long way, take the stairs and out, then down the hallway four doors. Piece of cake." His sigh on the ends says it's really not, but it should be doable.

"Tell me when."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"That's not true, I've called you that many times."

And so, surely, must other people! Right? Right.

"You can handle it," Yamato says, and although he sounds rather calm and confident about that, he's still a little worried. "Three, two, one, go."

He opens the security doors, sets off one security alert to draw the drones one way, tracking Barry and ready to set off a second alert to draw the drones in a different direction as soon as he needs to.

[run_barry]

"You remember how you said I was the worst?" Barry asks, shifting into a crouched starting position. "It's definitely you."

He's off like a shot, back through the door and swiftly out, hugging the wall as much as he can as he crosses this floor and heads for the stairwell.

Feeling the time crunch start to catch up, Barry takes the stairs three at a time as he races down. At the bottom he looses his footing just a bit, but manages to hold steady until he's finally stumbling into the office door.

Momentum knocks him into the door hard, and instead of having to vibrate the lock the door breaks in and Barry falls through, kicking it back closed right on the time marker.

"Made it," he gasps, on his back on the floor for a moment.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Please, you adore me."

He watches as Barry moves through the floor and down the stairs, and while he doesn't outwardly breathe a sigh of relief when Barry makes it, he's definitely doing it on the inside.

"Take a few seconds to get your breath back. I need to find you a good route through this floor," he says, eyeing the camera feeds. "Once we get you down to the factory floor just below here, you'll have more space to move around in, and we'll nearly be at the Commander."

The problem there being that security is heavy on this floor, not just in the form of drones but also in the form of traps and sensors.

The other problem being that Yamato's pretty sure there's no way the Commander's suspicions haven't been roused after two false alerts in rapid succession.

[run_barry]

"I'm good," he says, picking himself up but staying crouched.

"That one was a little close. Leap frogging around like this is kind of weird." Certainly different from his usual style of running headlong into things.

"Never really 'infiltrated' a place before," he says, giving a chuckle at just the idea of it. "I'm like a spy now."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"If I'm being honest, sneaky infiltrations have always been my least favourite kinds of missions, but we've had to do them a lot over the years. Sneaking into Etemon's pyramid, sneaking into Castle Vamdemon, sneaking into the Emperor's floating castle ..." Yamato says, conversationally, as he works on finding a route. "They're fiddly and delicate in all the most irritating ways."

He thinks he sees a route, and takes a moment to watch it on the camera feeds, picking out any traps.

"You're doing a good job, especially since this is your first time. Taichi screwed up our first infiltration mission pretty badly," he says, although he sounds fairly fond. "He made up for it later, though."

[run_barry]

"Well, that plus I imagine you don't get to fight that many people sneaking around like that," Barry replies, his smile evident in his voice.

"Yeah? What'd he do?" he asks, lifting his head just enough to peek out of the window in the door into the hallway.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Yeah, that's also kind of a drag," Yamato replies.

Just outside the door, a drone floats past, scanning the ground in front and behind it as it goes, but seemingly not looking into the office at all.

"He froze up. It's a long story as to exactly why, but he let his fear get to him and just froze. I had to bail him out, and Sora got captured," he adds. "But, y'know. When we went back in to rescue her, he grit his teeth, got her out of there, and saved the rest of us from being killed by Etemon, even though he was terrified the whole way through. What can I say, there are a lot of good reasons why the Crest of Courage picked him."

He finishes skimming over the camera feeds, leaning back a little. "Okay, I've got a route down to the factory floor, but this one is a little more delicate."

[run_barry]

Barry ducks, then peers after the drone when it goes by.

"Okay I got it, Captain-- no, Mr. Fight-tastic." It's a totally perfect name for Yamato!

Dropping away from the window, Barry sits down with his back to the door, listening to Yamato talk. "Way to go, Taichi."

Focusing up, Barry shifts into a crouch, bobbing his head in a ready signal. "Delicate, huh? What am I doing?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Now you're not even trying."

Yamato runs over the route one more time in his head. Then: "Okay. When I trigger an alert, you'll have four seconds to run north and take the second left, then duck into the conference room. There's a tripwire on the way, just after the left turn, so you'll have to avoid that," he says. "Once you're there, wait three seconds while I set off two more alerts, then exit through the door on the other side of the room, and you'll have eight seconds to run east, get down the stairs, and head through the door onto the factory floor. There should be another tripwire just before the stairs that you'll have to avoid."

He pauses for a moment, drumming his fingers on the console. "If the Commander's paying any attention at all, he's going to know that something's up once we do this, assuming he hasn't figured it out already. Be prepared for anything."

[run_barry]

"What? That's a great name."

Shutting his eyes, Barry pictures the route, repeating the details to commit them to memory.

"North, second left, conference, door... "

Clearing his throat, he speaks up louder.

"Just curious, what will triggering one of those tripwires do?" Not that he will, because he's got this.

He can't argue with Yamato's assessment on the Commander, "Yeah, if he doesn't know already. I'll handle him quick, make sure things don't get crazy again."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Dryly: "Lock down every security door in the building and redirect every security drone to your location, along with letting the Commander know exactly which tiny section of narrow corridor you'd then be stuck in. Don't trigger the tripwires."

He gives a slightly vexed noise, rubbing his chin. "Once you get down to the factory floor, you'll be directly above him and the control room, but there'll still be twelve feet of concrete and steel between you two. Luckily, so long as he doesn't close the ventilation shaft to keep you out, you can use that to get the drop on him."

[run_barry]

"Yeah, that sounds bad." Definitely don't trigger the trip wires.

"This is definitely turning into Mission Impossible now." Trip wires? Vent shafts? All they were missing was theme music.

"Of course, I don't think Tom Cruise had superpowers."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"I've never watched that movie," Yamato admits, after a quick glance around just to make absolutely sure there aren't any shadows that Cisco can mysteriously emerge from to protest at Yamato having not watched a classic.

"Anyway, focus. I'll count you in," he adds. "Five, four, three, two, one, go."

[run_barry]

"I think I've seen the first one once," he notes as he gets into a ready position, certain that Cisco would be showering them both with disapproval for that one.

Electricity crackling, Barry gears up and then goes, hitting each of Yamato's given directions one by one as he races along.

This time, their activity doesn't go unnoticed.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato sees the security doors start to shut a fraction of a second before Barry gets out onto the factory floor -- they're slow-moving, nowhere near fast enough to stop him, but fast enough that Yamato knows they've been caught.

The floor in question takes up a good two stories, with a walkway around the edge and, below, a mass of conveyor belts, machines, and workstations set around one vast, sprawling room.

"We're in trouble," Yamato says, as a dozen alerts flash up in Barry's location, followed by every security door in the building slamming shut and locking, and every maintenance and ventilation shaft being blocked with shutters. "I'll start working on getting stuff open, but you're going to have drones right on top of you in minutes."

[run_barry]

Barry stays alert and quick on his feet, nimbly avoiding every tripwire that Yamato had pointed out, and hitting every checkpoint on time.

It's a tough circuit to run, but Barry's feeling pretty confident as he hits the stairs with a second and a half to spare. That's when he sees the doors starting to close on him.

"Oh man... "

Knowing he needs to get out of the narrow corridor before he's trapped, Barry pours on speed, slipping past the heavy doors just before they shut.

Sliding to a halt on the catwalk just past the closed door, Barry turns to watch all the other possible exits close up.

"Bright side, I made it into the factory," he says, looking around the large space. "Plenty of room in here."

So there's that, at least.

While Barry waits for a probable drone invasion the elevator in Yamato's neck of the building comes to life.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"We avoided the worst case scenario of getting you stuck in a tiny corridor, at least," Yamato says, just a little wryly. His gaze flicks over to the elevator, then back to the console. "It looks like I'm getting some company too. That might delay things."

He sounds pretty calm about that, even if he's actually more than a little bit concerned that Barry's going to have to face down Attack of the Killer Drones (Now In Glorious 3D) without help.

"Take a few seconds to sweep the area, identify any cover you can use, any parts of the terrain you can use to your advantage," he says, standing up. "And remember, don't stop moving if you can avoid it."

He can see the tiny markers for the drones starting to encircle the factory floor now, ready to break in.

[run_barry]

"Are you gonna be alright?" he asks, concerned.

Not that Barry will be able to do anything from where he's at.

Listening to Yamato's instructions, Barry nods.

"Got it. Let me know when you've got things opened up again."

Refraining from reminding Yamato he promised not to die, Barry takes off down the staircase and starts racing around the factory floor, taking it in while he can.

Up on Yamato's floor the elevator dings and the doors start to creep open.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"I'll be fine. Don't worry."

He opens up the display on his wrist computer, quickly muting the microphone. If he's not fine, after all, he doesn't want it distracting Barry.

With that done, he pulls back his hood, waiting in place for whoever it is that's come to meet him.


On the factory floor, one of the security doors leading to the catwalks opens, just enough to let through a swarm of a dozen drones waiting in the corridor beyond, before it shuts again.

These ones aren't drifting slowly like the one in the hallway. Instead, they swoop about at impressive speeds, curving about the room and searching for Barry. Most of them appear armed with small guns attached to their bottoms, able to swivel around, but two or three -- seemingly built less for practicality and more for psychological warfare -- have loud, screeching circular saws protruding from their fronts instead.

[run_barry]

Barry doesn't press further conversation, knowing he and Yamato have both got things to deal with.

Barry stops behind a large piece of machinery for just a moment when the doors start to open, his eyes widening when he gets a look at the drones and their armaments.

"Seriously, CC?" Obviously this bad guy is nuts. But, he's also good at what he does because these drones are deadly.

Seeing how fast they are, Barry immediately launches back into motion, avoiding bullets as the armed drones open fire.


"I'm here," comes a voice from the elevator. Any reply that's given can't be heard, but it must be a go-ahead as the man steps off of the elevator.

He's the burly type, with a bat gripped in one hand and the other clenched in a fist.

Spotting Yamato, he barks, "HEY!" before striding forward, bat raised.