run_barry | The Great Escapes

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.

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"Great," Barry says, taking a moment to disassemble the weapons he pulled off of the men he just took care of.

He's only stopped in place for a moment before he has to duck out of the way of a volley of bullets.

He knocks the two going for the rear of the transport backwards, then zips around to duck behind the front, asking Yamato, "How long until you have his location?"

Barry can't mop up the rest of the guys here until they have Camera Commander pegged.

Of course, bullets ripping through the air again are a good reminder that taking these guys down isn't quite as simple as all that.

"Not long, but it's not an exact science," Yamato says, glancing at the scan, which is currently narrowing the search to about four different areas in the city. "Let me worry about his location. You can worry about all of the heavily armed men trying to kill you."

One of the two going for the rear appears very much to be down for the count from the impact of a speedster knocking into them at high velocity -- Yamato can see him roll onto his side, and can practically hear the pained groan the man must be making. The other one struggles to his feet and starts going for the back door of the transport again.

Worse, Yamato can see that the two coming from the front are practically spraying the entire area in bullets.

"Two at your twelve, one at your six trying to open the transport again, and one -- I don't know, somewhere on your right, but he's in my blindspots," he says.

Ducking behind the passenger side tire, Barry crouches as low as he can without laying down to stay clear of the gun fire.

"Twelve and six, eye out for the other guy, got it," Barry replies, trying to work out just how he's going to handle the situation.

Keeping everyone in the transport is still top-priority, but with the gun fire Barry can't get up to deal with the guy moving on the backdoor again.

"Can you tell me when the two up front are going to need to reload?"

On Yamato's screen the search area narrows down to three parts of the city, and then two, just before it goes down to one it winks out. A moment later and the screen comes back on, only now the image is Yamato looking back at himself.

The comm-link connection between Yamato and Barry breaks, and over the earpiece in Barry's cowl and the speaker in the Cortex a synthesized voice speaks up.

"Trying to find me?"

Yamato scowls, less out of anger (although there's plenty of that) and more because that bubbling, unpleasant feeling of terror that another friend of his might die without him being able to help is starting to rise up in him again.

"Well, look who finally decided to chat. I was starting to think you were giving us the cold shoulder," he growls, opening up the display on his wrist computer and starting up Koushiro's cracking program, typing away at it as he works to get back into the Cortex's systems. "Still not brave enough to put in a personal appearance, though."

Edited Date: Feb. 3rd, 2019 10:28 pm (UTC)

"Yamato? YAMATO?" Barry calls back, panic welling a moment when the strange voice cuts in on the comm-link.

"It did take me awhile to locate and get into your system," the voice admits. "But now that I have-- "

On Barry's end the line goes dead.

"Yamato?" Frantically Barry tries again and again to connect and gets no response from Yamato or the other person. "Dammit!"

With no outside help, and knowing there's a strong chance that Yamato and the others in S.T.A.R. Labs could be in danger, Barry starts frantically looking around, trying to figure out what to do.

His gaze falls on the door to the cab of the transport, and an idea forms.

"I think he can handle things on his own for awhile, don't you?" the voice says to Yamato. "As for personal appearances, why do that when I can send someone instead?"

From outside the room GP comes squawking and shrieking, flying in a wild panic into the Cortex and straight to Yamato.

The feed on the monitor switches from the frontal view of Yamato to one coming from the outside corridor. It draws closer and closer and then it shows the open doorway to the Cortex.

The video is coming from the robot Girder that Cisco built to help Barry train, and the big bot now stands in the same room with Yamato.

Imposing to start, the robot has been upgraded since. In addition to being bigger and faster than the previous version, this robot is also mobile and seems to be carrying what looks like Cisco's prototype lightsaber in one hand.

Yamato narrows his eyes when he sees Girder (oh hey, it has a lightsaber! That's ... that's just a whole thing, isn't it), taking a step backwards. He pulls his belt off, wrapping it around one fist, and hums the first few bars of Mack the Knife, summoning a small survival knife in his free hand.

He leaves Koushiro's cracking program running on his wrist computer, although without a human operator, it makes for a rather clumsy, brute-force way of getting into a computer.

"Kiddo's going to kill me for wrecking his robot," Yamato says, cracking his neck and taking some steps away from the console, into the more open area of the middle of the Cortex. "C'mon, then. Let's see how fast this thing is now that it has legs."

The Robot Girder follows Yamato, its movements aren't exactly fluid, but when it hauls back to throw a punch the swing at Yamato is swift, and it has a follow through punch ready to throw with its other arm.

Back in the alley Barry is working to be quick himself. Yanking open the cab door, Barry uses it for cover as he jumps inside, slides across to the driver's side and throws that door open as a shield while he jumps back out and speeds around the back of the truck.

The man back there almost has the door open and Barry hits him in the jaw with a speed punch. Watching the man fall, Barry is just turning around to deal with the two with the guns up front when he gets struck in the face with a fist out of nowhere.

Hitting the ground he suddenly remembers about the one on the right in a blind spot.

Yamato weaves around the punch, letting it pass by him, and even if he's still terrified on Barry's behalf, he still can't help but grin wolfishly.

He ducks under the follow-up punch, although it's close enough to ruffle his hair, and lashes out in response -- a quick strike of his knife towards Robot Girder's neck. He doesn't expect it to do much damage if it lands, he just wants to test the robot's reaction time, and just how sturdy and flexible its joints are.

The robot pulls back a touch slow and the knife glances off of metal paneling.

In retaliation Robot Girder draws back for another punch, marching forward to try and crowd into Yamato's space before throwing the blow.

Barry meanwhile has a bad guy looming over him, and with the gun fire stopped he can assume there are two more now coming around the transport to join him.

Looking up at the man Barry realizes there is something he can do in this situation, but he hasn't actually ever tried it for real. Still, Yamato isn't back in his ear yet so something must be happening, and in less than five seconds others are going to be coming around to kill him and let more bad guys loose so...

Bracing himself for a moment Barry then moves, kicking out in a leg sweep X had shown him. His motion and aim is a little off and he doesn't quite catch the man's ankle properly, but it does enough to knock him off his feet and Barry is quick back onto his.

"Holy cow that worked," he says, stunned. His momentary elation is ended when one of the men with guns finally rounds the truck and sees Barry. Immediately the gun fire starts up again.

Well, he expected that. Still, it's useful data.

With the robot moving forward and not a lot of space to maneuver in, the best Yamato can do is turn his face with the punch. That redirects most of the impact, but it's still a metal fist colliding with his face at high speed, and there's a slight spray of blood from a split lip, and Yamato stumbles to one side as the force of the blow rattles his brain around.

"Not bad. But you're telegraphing too much," he growls, backing off, although he's still grinning. "And I don't have time to give you a boxing lesson today."

He's moving forward again immediately, moving to jump on one of the consoles and spring off it and around Robot Girder, landing behind it.

He's moving as soon as he lands, trying to use one hand to wrap his belt around one of Robot Girder's wrists, and the other to drive his knife into the gap between two metal panels where Robot Girder's arm meets his shoulder.

If he gets both the wrist caught in his belt and the knife wedged in, he fully intends to follow up by dragging the wrist back and pushing the shoulder forward, jimmying the knife deeper in, trying to rip the arm clean off. He's plenty strong, and he has every intention of using that strength and the leverage the knife and belt give him to tear through the arm.

Edited Date: Feb. 4th, 2019 06:12 am (UTC)

Robot Girder makes a grab for Yamato and just misses. Committed to that movement, the robot can't get turned around in time to prevent Yamato from getting behind it.

Yamato snags its wrist and the knife drives home, and Robot Girder struggles trying to keep its arm from being ripped off.

Weapon still in its other hand, the robot tightens its grip on the lightsaber hilt which hums to life with a 'PSHEEWW!', a blue-green shaft of light extending out. A moment later and the device shudders and the hum turns into a 'ZAAARK!' and the shaft of light shoots off as a bolt of energy which explodes against the far wall before the hilt itself blows up, taking off Robot Girder's hand.

In the alley Barry moves to duck around the transport again, but the second gunman comes around that corner. With mere heartbeats to think, Barry suddenly remembers he's not actually boxed in this time. He's got plenty of room to run, and so he does; abandoning the transport for the moment and racing away down one of the alleys and around the corner.

A few seconds later and he comes running in from behind the first gunman, having raced around the block and down another alley. Knocking the man out from behind. Barry uses the same trick utilizing the transport this time, racing around the vehicle to come in behind the last man and knock him off his feet.

Doing a quick headcount to confirm that's everyone, Barry nods to himself satisfied. With all the gunfire happening he also takes a moment to inspect the truck, and gives a rap on the side.

"You guys all okay in there?"

Yamato grins a little wider when he sees Robot Girder's attempt to lightsaber him backfire, although he has to grimace and turn his head away as the explosion singes him.

He keeps pulling on the wrist and pushing on the shoulder, digging his heels in to keep Robot Girder from dragging him off his feet, twisting and pushing in the knife until he eventually hears the tearing of mechanical inner workings, followed by the arm coming loose enough for him to rip it away and toss it to one side.

"Just so we're clear, CC-Computer-Dude, if the Flash has a single bullet hole in him when I next see him, I'm going to do the same thing to you."

And then he's darting around to the front of Robot Girder, moving to drive the knife as deep as it will go in between the metal plates around its neck and, if he can get it in, following up with a hefty punch to the handle to drive it all the way through and, hopefully, sever the neck entirely.

Edited Date: Feb. 4th, 2019 06:12 pm (UTC)

"No, you can't, this stupid-- "

Robot Girder flails around ineffectively while its arm is ripped off. Short a hand and an arm now, it doesn't do any better fending off Yamato's frontal attack.

Metal shrieks and sparks fly as the knife drives in. Robot Girder takes one final swing at Yamato with its missing hand, then topples backwards.

Over the speaker Camera Commander gives an angry shout as his pawn goes down.

Still cutoff from the comm-link, Barry has his ear pressed against the transport vehicle, trying to hear any responses from inside. What he hears instead is an angry shout from behind.

"All right, FREEZE!"

He doesn't have to turn around to recognize Eddie's voice, and Barry can't help heaving a sigh.

"Oh, come on," he breathes to himself, holding in place for the moment as he tries to figure out this new situation.

Yamato leans out of the way of the swing, and watches as Robot Girder goes down. After a moment, he touches his split lip, wincing. "Ow, ow, ow, ow. Ow."

He puts his belt back on and settles at the console again, bringing his wrist computer up and starting work on getting back into the systems. Now that it has Yamato operating it again, his computer's cracking program is much less of a blunt instrument and rather more effective at the task it was designed for.

Yamato, for his part, remains focused on it, methodically trying to work his way back into the system.

GP waits for a long minute to ensure the coast is clear, then comes out of hiding to wander over and inspect the downed robot.

The screens on the console don't switch over to any new images, perhaps indicating the Commander's attention is elsewhere. Instead the monitors remain on the glitching view from the robot, which is now GP's face getting up close and personal to Robot Girder's camera.

With Eddie's gun trained on him, Barry tries to work out his options.

"Get on the ground, now!" Eddie commands.

"Detective, you don't-- " Barry starts trying to explain, but then a loud bang on the transport door from the inside cuts him off. It's followed quickly by another and Barry jerks.

The next set of events happens in a rush. Barry's flinch sets off Eddie and he fires. Pain bursts loudly in Barry's bicep even as he moves to get around to the back of the truck again. Barry gets there just in time to have the door burst open and slam him in the face, knocking him to the ground as the criminals in back spill out.

On his back and dazed, Barry tries to gather his wits about him and make out all the shouting going on.

"Careful, GP. It might still be able to kick or something," Yamato murmurs.

Without the distraction of the fight, he can feel panic welling up in him again. He keeps it under control as best he can, working as quickly and methodically as he can. He can't much tell if he's getting much pushback from the Commander, and with the displays still trained on the robot he's not really able to gauge how much progress he's making.

He tries getting the comms back online first, but he has no idea based on what he's seeing on the displays as to whether he was successful or not.

"Flash, you there?" He asks, testing out the connection. "Sound off if you can hear me."

Edited Date: Feb. 4th, 2019 07:18 pm (UTC)

GP blinks at Yamato, squawks at the robot, then toddles away.

"Yamato?" comes back the dazed reply from Barry. Still on the ground, Barry reaches up to rub his head which causes a sharp pain in his arm. "Oh, OW."

That spike of pain does force clarity and Barry sits up, looking around frantically.

"Yamato! The transport-- everyone's out!"

At least Barry's talking, that means he's not dead. Yamato relaxes a little, but only a little. 'Alive' doesn't mean 'uninjured,' after all.

"I'm still working on getting cameras back here, but there's only so far and so many directions they could go," he says, and now that the comms are back, he starts working on getting the cameras back, his voice going flat. "Be methodical. Go in a grid formation, over a five-hundred meter radius from your position. If you see one, grab them."

It's a makeshift solution to a bad problem, and not a very good one, but it's the best Yamato can offer while he doesn't have cameras. He focuses as much of his attention as he can on getting those back next, working frantically.

"What the hell happened? Are you alright?" Barry asks, finally getting to his feet.

He tenses, ready to run, and then gunshots sound and Barry turns his head.

"Eddie."

Swarmed by some of the men from the truck, Eddie fires his gun into the air as he struggles to keep it from being wrestled away.

Quickly Barry moves, slamming into the group of men and knocking them back before swooping up Eddie. Once again he takes the detective to safety, this time at the mouth of an alley five blocks away. He practically drops Eddie on the curb thanks to the weak grip in Barry's injured arm.

He doesn't pause to try to talk to Eddie this time, just keeps running until he can duck around the corner and stop to inspect his bloody arm.

"Dude, Eddie shot me." And it's a whole new experience in Not. Fun.

"Everyone here is fine," Yamato says. "Did you know that Cisco made a new, better version of Robo-Girder that can move around and actually fight decently? The Commander took control of it. It's been dealt with."

He pauses, glancing over at Robot Girder, with its arm six feet away from its body, its other hand in pieces, and its neck barely hanging by a few pieces of metal with a knife embedded in it.

"Cisco is going to be pissed."

He scowls when he hears what Eddie did. "Are you okay? If you need to retreat, then retreat. We can think of some other way to get all the escapees back behind bars."

Yamato's not actually entirely confident that that's true, but he'd rather let the mission fail completely than risk Barry's health any more, and the best compromise he can think of is to leave it up to Barry's judgement.

"I know he had been working on one, but I told him I wasn't going to fight any more of his robots," he replies, surprised at what Yamato had to deal with.

There is still a fair chance Cisco will be pissed.

"I'm sure he'll get over it," he offers to Yamato hopefully.

Looking over the damage to his arm, and considering the situation, Barry shakes his head.

"Yeah, I'm okay. It's just my arm. The bullet is still in there, though." Which means his body isn't going to be able to heal itself until he can have it pulled out.

"I'm going after the escapees." With that he starts running, going back first for the men he'd saved Eddie from.

"I'd happily fight it again if he rebuilt it. I was, er, in a hurry this time."

He didn't get a chance to appreciate everything the robot could do! It's very tragic.

"Okay, I'll work on getting the cameras back and then see if the scan managed to get any results," he says. "And I can treat your arm when you're back. Just try not to make the wound any worse."

He doesn't sound all that happy about it, but there aren't a lot of good options here, and it is Barry's call.

It takes him a few more minutes of working, but he eventually starts to get spotty, glitching camera feeds of the road, and the roads around it. He starts running through the footage, trying to locate what directions each escapee went in.

"Better you than me," Barry notes about the robot, and that's true for a variety of reasons.

The group of men Barry had left have taken to running, but they haven't got far when Barry catches up to them. One thing Barry learns right away, he's not so great throwing left punches. Still, with speed on his side and the men unarmed, Barry manages to take them down.

Borrowing a shirt sleeve from one of the downed men, Barry uses it to bandage his arm and calls back to Yamato, "I'm fine. Can you at least get me a count of how many were on the truck?"

"What's wrong with Cisco's robots? He's made great progress with them."

Because, obviously, the only problem Barry could possibly have with them is that they're not advanced enough, right?

"Sixteen," he rattles off, when Barry asks his question. He'd kept count when he was altering the schedule, after all. "It was pretty packed. Judging by the cameras, at least three fled east through the alleyways, and maybe four headed west through the alleyways on the other side. I'm still trying to track the others."

"Well, I've got four here. So... twelve left." Great. Doubly great, Barry realizes, "The truck they used to block off the alley is gone."

That's an obvious issue, but for now Barry decides to work with what info they have and go after the knowns on foot.

Choosing west, Barry heads in that direction first.

"And there's nothing wrong with the robots, I just don't like getting knocked around by the tin man." The first Girder-bot had definitely done more harm than good for Barry.

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I think it chose you

The Great Escapes