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]

"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.

[makes_the_toys]

"I'm very sorry to hear about the loss of your powers. You may know we dealt with that situation here with Barry fairly recently. It was very concerning for all of us."

Fortunately it wasn't a permanent thing.

"Well, you are handling his job now," he points out about Cisco. "Perhaps he'll see that as repayment enough."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Yeah, he told me about it afterwards. I'm glad he got them back," Yamato says, scraping a hand across the back of his neck. "The city's better off with him speeding around in it, after all. And I'm pretty sure Barry would be miserable trying to adjust to life without them."

But the fact that it was psychosomatic, and Barry's suggestion that Yamato's own power outage might be the same, has been rattling around in his head ever since Barry mentioned it, and it's a less than comfortable idea for him.

He cracks a slightly wry grin. "Nah, this doesn't cover my debt at all. This is just -- helping out some friends and making sure they're okay, since I happened to be around. It's not the same."

[run_barry]

"Living without speed would be quite a challenge," Dr. Wells agrees. "But more important yes, this city definitely needs The Flash."

A sneezing spell hits and Dr. Wells pulls a tissue from underneath his blanket to catch it. When it's done he looks far more weary for it.

"Well, for what it's worth," he says to Yamato with a wane smile, "your help means a great deal to us. As you can see, we're not in much shape to help Barry ourselves."

A gust of wind smacks into both of them heralding the return of the speedster they've been discussing. Carrying a couple of hefty looking paper sacks with 'Big Belly Burger' emblazoned on them, and a drink tray with two 'Big Guzzler' cups in it, Barry heaves a sigh.

"Sorry it took so long. All three of the places I went to were busy, so I finally had to just wait in line," he apologizes before realizing Yamato isn't alone in the room. "Dr. Wells, you're up."

Dr. Wells shakes his head, steering his chair back around the desk.

"I was up. Now, I think it's time I go and lay back down."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato ducks his head a little, although he does at least manage not to go pink. "Thank you, Dr. Wells. I -- appreciate it. Or, um, I appreciate you saying so? You know what I mean. I'm here to help all of you as well, so if you need something, just tell me."

He gives a slight, irritable growl at that gust of wind, because he wasn't expecting it at all, but he cheers up quickly when he sees the burger.

"Thank you, Gramps," he says, beaming at him as he picks up one of the burgers. "You're my favourite old age pensioner."

He gives Wells a sidelong look, and then, a lot more gruffly: "Try to finish those chicken nuggets on your way up, it'll help. And drink some of the shoga-yu when you're there, it might clear your throat enough to get some sleep. If you, Cisco, or Caitlin need anything, just ask or yell until we hear you."

[run_barry]

"I know what you mean," Dr. Wells says, giving Yamato a smile and a nod.

To Barry, Dr. Wells arches a brow. "Gramps?"

Barry shakes his head, then offers with concern, "Are you alright, Dr. Wells? Did you need a hand?"

Dr. Wells waves him off, heading out of the room. "I'm fine," he says, holding up the box of chicken to show Yamato he's heard him as well, and to reassure both young men he's been taken care of. "You two enjoy your meal. It was nice to meet you, Yamato."

Before he exits Dr. Wells calls over his shoulder, "Oh and, keep those glucose levels up, Barry."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Nice to meet you, too," Yamato says, inclining his head.

Once Wells is gone, Yamato settles into a seat again, unwrapping his burger and rather eagerly gnawing on it. There may be a few almost imperceptibly quiet, happy grumbling noises.

[run_barry]

"Working on it," he calls back to Dr. Wells.

Handing over fries and one of the drinks to Yamato, Barry takes the rest back to his desk to dig in on.

"So... you got to meet Dr. Wells," he notes casually but so-not-casual and in fact a little awkward and nervous about how it went and Yamato's opinion of the man.