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]

"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.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

The drones don't give much of a response to the question (apart from some possibly more enthusiastic whirring from their buzzsaws), but as soon as Barry is in motion, they start moving with a fair amount of coordination, with a few of them attacking from head on while several more attempt to circle around and get behind Barry.

Both are potentially fraught tasks when dealing with a target that moves much faster than them, but they are very much trying their best.


Yamato lifts his chin up when he sees the man, raising a hand in a quick greeting.

"'Sup."

He has noted that the man looks to be a good hundred pounds heavier than he is. And also the bat.

"Please tell me you're better at this than your boss," he says, flashing a quick grin. "The dude had access to a lifesize Rock'em Sock'em Robot and he still failed to deliver."

[run_barry]

So the bullets are bad, but the saws are scary, and Barry tries to decide which ones he needs to take care of first.

When he just misses being riddled by a drone from behind as he zips around a conveyor belt, Barry decides it definitely has to be the bullets.

With the drones trying to surround him, Barry works to make his path unpredictable by zigzagging around. Passing a workbench, he sees a giant wrench and grabs it up.

Pausing for a heartbeat and turning, he throws the wrench at one of the following drones, frowning when he misses spectacularly.

"Great." Bullets stream at him and he gets back to running, chasing after the wrench, hoping to try again.


"Little punk," the man growls, closing the distance and swinging the bat; away from the computers and control boards, seemingly mindful of damage to the equipment.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

The drones seem to figure that he's going for the wrench, and move (some more fluidly and gracefully than others) to try to make a circle around it, as one dives straight for Barry, buzzsaw screeching.


Yamato leans back, out of the way of the bat -- and while the man's reluctance to damage the equipment would usually be a useful advantage, he also needs that equipment intact.

So he slips by the man, backing out into the corridor, dropping into a fighting stance as he goes. It gives him less room to maneuver, but at the very least a wayward strike from a bat isn't going to wreck all the computers he needs.

"Try to keep up," he calls.

[run_barry]

Seeing the attack, Barry cuts left, running straight for one of the conveyor belts. He lags just a little, making sure the buzz drone keeps up, then drops into a slide that carries him underneath the belt, hoping the drone follows without making it clear.

Back up and running on the other side, he forgets the wrench and looks for something else. A work stool is handy as he runs by and he grabs it.

Running around a machine he comes back out on the other side, swinging the stool around like a bat at another chasing drone.


Whiffing on his attempt to hit Yamato with the bat, the man turns around, swinging his fist despite him being no where near enough to actually hit the quicker young man.

Beginning to get angry now, the big guy moves after Yamato, striding quickly out into the corridor and holding the bat in favor of hauling back his hand to meet Yamato with a right hook.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

The drones are, it would appear, quite fragile when faced with a heavy object hitting them at speed, and the drone in question flies apart into several pieces, just in time for two more to swoop in.

In one corner of the factory, meanwhile, another security door is starting to edge open, with several more drones waiting eagerly behind it.


Yamato ducks around the hook with a grin, as his left hand snaps out to try to land a counter-punch against the man's face, followed closely by a right hook of his own.

[run_barry]

Barry lets go of the stool as soon as the collision starts, and leaves the shattering drone behind as he keeps moving.

He baits another drone with a saw into following him closely and leads it around into one of the drones shooting at him, getting them to take out each other in a collision.

Taking these things out one and two at a time is not going to keep on working though, especially with more about to join in.

Working out a plan, Barry lights on a strategy that's going to be risky to do, but will hopefully take care of a bunch of the drones.

Cutting down on his full use of the space and instead sticking to one half of the factory, Barry zips around, zig-zagging and turning to keep out of the path of bullets, but also trying to collect a following of drones behind him.


Yamato is fast, and the man's head snaps around twice as each of those blows land. Short on speed, the thing the man does seem to have working in his favor is a pretty solid jaw, because although those blows land and rock him a little, he shakes them off pretty quick and goes back to fighting.

Trying to take advantage of the corridor, the man looks to crowd in on Yamato and keep the young man in front of him. Choking up on the bat, allows for shorter and hopefully faster swings and he takes a couple of those at Yamato.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

With Barry zipping around too quickly for them to get in front of him, the drones start to huddle in behind him, spraying bullets and gathering in greater and greater numbers: Two, then four, then five.

Meanwhile, the security doors finish opening and several drones come zipping out, swooping towards Barry and trying to get a good angle to shoot him down.


Without much room to dodge left or right, and with the man crowding in on forward space, Yamato is rapidly finding his speed to be almost useless here. He raises his arms to block instead, grimacing as the jacket's sleeves absorb some but nowhere close to all of the force.

He's hyper-aware that he can't just defend, though, that he needs to take this man down as quickly as possible, so he drops his guard to try throwing a haymaker -- wild, slower than his usual punches, and slow enough that before it has a chance to come anywhere close to landing, the baseball bat slams into the side of his head.

There's a blinding flash of pain, and he staggers sideways to collide with the wall, dazed and dizzy, his vision swimming.

[run_barry]

Staying ahead of the drones and their assault isn't an easy task, and Barry definitely feels a near miss or two with bullets as he races around gathering a small fleet.

When it feels like he has quite a few on his tail, and that trying to pick up any more would be a risk, he makes one more loop around the half of the factory floor he's been running, then streaks off for the other side.

The feat he's attempting is a hard one. He has to move side to side and erratically enough to dodge all of the bullets flying his way, but slow enough to keep the drones in close on his heels, while also building up enough speed for the next part.

The other end of the factory floor comes up quickly, and Barry bides his time until the last few feet. It's then he runs a straight line for the wall, punching in speed and heedless of the bullets coming while hoping this works.

Up until now Barry's kept it to one level with the drones. When he reaches the wall he plants his foot and runs up, counting on the drones to not be able to react quick enough to change course or follow.


Seeing Yamato stagger, the man grins.

"Not as fast as your friend is, huh?" he gloats. "Or was, I should say."

There's an air of grimly pleased finality in his voice, because surely the speedster is dead by now or will be soon enough.

He loosens his hand to let the bat slide through, gripping it again by the handle, then raises it up and brings it down to finish the job on Yamato.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Moving on a horizontal axis is easy enough for the drones, and moving downwards isn't that much more difficult, but moving upwards is a rather more difficult task. As Barry suddenly starts moving upwards, the drones tilt to start following him, far too slow, and there's the sound of some crestfallen beeping and whirring before they collide at top speed with the wall and explode.

The few drones that weren't following Barry start to swerve about to follow Barry, trying to catch him with bullets but keeping their distance, at least for now. But another door hisses open on one side of the catwalk, admitting a half dozen drones -- a few with guns, a few with circular saws, and a few that are emitting thick clouds of white smoke from their sides, breathable but difficult to see through. The room's large enough that it will take a while for it to fill up completely, but they certainly seem committed to the task of covering everything in smoke.


Yamato is pretty sure he's bleeding from his head. Extremely sure, even, because the blood's starting to pour down over his eye and cut off his vision on one side. He can't quite see the man's face, but he can hear him speak, even if it does sound like he's hearing it through a pool of water, and the sound of him so certainly talking about Barry dying is infuriating.

He sees the blurry shape that he thinks is the bat shift in the man's hand, thinks he sees it move upwards, and he's fairly sure this blow will split his skull open. He blinks rapidly, trying to clear his vision, pushing woozily off the wall just before he hears the rush of air as the bat swings down.

One hand goes up on instinct, and he feels the bat slam against it, hard enough that the pain reverberates down his arm. He closes his hand around it, gripping it tight and holding it still.

He straightens up, taking a step forward, still gripping the bat in his hand. "Say that again."

[run_barry]

Barry runs up and then makes a loop, coming back down to the factory floor. For a moment he feels pretty good about that working, and then he hears another door opening and sees whats coming in.

"Oh, c'mon."

The thought crosses Barry's mind that Camera Commander can't have many more of the machines left, and then Barry remembers he's literally in a factory built to produce the things.

Kept on the run by the drones that didn't bite it before, and watching as smoke starts to cloud the room from some of the new ones, Barry mutters to himself, "Yamato, I could really use some strategizing about now."

Changing course just in time to avoid bullets, and ducking right underneath a whirling saw blade, Barry feels it's just a matter of time before one of the deadly drones gets a hit on him. Which means he needs to do something before that happens.

Racing past one of the smoke drones he sees it rock a little in his wake and the smoke whip along in his trail and that gives him an idea.

"The basement... "

This space is much larger, so it's going to take quite a bit more effort to get the winds whipping in here but... what's worked once before...

Digging deep, Barry starts to run faster. A lot faster.


The man blinks in stunned surprise when Yamato catches the bat.

"What the-- "

For a moment he just stands there, uncertain, and then his expression darkens and he jerks on the bat, trying to yank it free of Yamato's grasp.

"You think either one of you makes it out of here alive? No chance," he says, before swinging a left hook at Yamato.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

The immediate benefit of the winds that Barry's whipping up is that the drones start getting nudged off course, having to try that much harder to keep up with Barry. They're solidly built, made to operate outside, but as the winds start to churn harder, their aim starts being that little bit less accurate, their speed just a touch slower.

But the same principle they used in the boutique's basement, the use of wind turbulence to amplify electromagnetic interference from lightning, that is still also clearly holding true: As the winds pick up, the electromagnetic discharge in the air becomes strong enough to be palpable. The drones aren't suffering the ill effects yet, but if the slightly panicked way they're spraying bullets everywhere they can is anything to go by, the Commander has some idea what Barry's doing.


Yamato can't dodge while holding the bat (which he keeps gripping tight, ignoring the man's attempts to yank it away), so he takes the hook, his face snapping to one side with the force of it. It'll leave an unpleasant looking bruise later, but for the moment, he seems largely unconcerned.

With a low growl, he gives the bat a yank of his own, moving to drag the man towards him with it. He snaps his head forward at the same time, in a powerful headbutt aimed at the man's nose.

[run_barry]

Coursing back and forth across the factory floor, Barry starts first with the grid pattern he used in the basement. The winds begin to whip, and he can feel the charge building up in the air.

This is probably a move that Camera Commander is expecting, though, and given that Yamato still isn't back online to jump in and take over once Barry breaks the connection between the drones and their operator, Barry has a different strategy and endgame in mind.

Running entirely too fast for any of them to actually chase him now, Barry's aim is to get the drones into a fixed position; using his movements, the wake behind him and the winds to begin maneuvering the drones towards the middle of the factory floor.

Once he clears the edge of the floor Barry gives up the grid pattern and starts racing in circles. He also leaves the ground and starts running along the walls, using the obstacle free path in lieu of a straightaway as he continues to build speed.

Arcing in rising and falling curves up and down the walls to avoid gunfire, he speeds round and around. The winds he's generating beginning to swirl and funnel in down on the factory floor.


Stumbling forward and straight into the strike, bone crunches and blood sprays with the headbutt as the man's nose breaks.

Barking in pain, he releases the bat to grab his nose, staggering backwards a step.

"You little-- " he curses, trying to reorient as his eyes water and blood gushes out. Dazed, he hauls back to throw a clumsy swing.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

The drones do their best to resist, they really do, but slowly, surely, they start getting dragged towards the middle of the factory floor.

They keep pushing against it, though, turning about to try spraying bullets in every direction they can, letting a series of furious beeps.


While the man is staggering backwards, Yamato snaps the bat over his knee, dropping the pieces on the floor.

He still can't see clearly, not really, but he can see the rough shape of that swing, and he ducks in under it, ramming his elbow towards the man's jaw, before following up with a hard swings at his ribs -- right, left, right, again and again.