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]

"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."

[run_barry]

"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.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Good news about that is I can probably track it," Yamato says. "It's a huge truck, it stands out, after all."

He starts doing just that, cycling back through the camera footage until he gets to the truck leaving. That doesn't tell him much about where it is now, so he starts running through footage in order, tracing its path.

"That's fair," he says, about the robots. "Getting punched by a solid metal fist can do a lot of damage, and if you lose, y'can't even say the better man won, because the better man is a robot."

[run_barry]

"Alright, let me know when you find it," he calls back, zigzagging through alleys searching.

He comes across the first two he's looking for while they're trying to break into a vehicle. One man is calling for the other to throw a brick that he's holding and the man does.

Both of the men are stumped when the brick seemingly disappears. Before either of them can fully process the situation, Barry delivers a hard knock to the back of each man's head and that takes them down.

"Yeah, don't I know it," he says about being punched with metal fists, then adds, "Ten left."

Dropping the brick he snagged, he starts running again after the other two that fled this direction.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Will do. And, er," he pauses, a little awkwardly. Then: "Sorry. This was my plan, and it went off the rails, and you got hurt because of it."

Yamato kind of wants to punch Eddie for that one. A little. A lot. A statistically implausible amount of times.

"I'm trying to get the scan back online, too, but it's taking a while."

[run_barry]

"Dude it's not your fault," Barry assures Yamato. "You get us back up and I'll run down these guys, and then we'll catch the jerk in charge."

Firmly believing that all that is possible, Barry pushes out a little more speed; ignoring any lagging feelings to uphold his end of wrapping this situation up.

He catches up to the other two runners and deals with them with minimal fuss, then turns around and rushes off to try and track down the three who fled east.

"By the way, how did you handle the robot?" he asks, curious.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato makes a brief noise of acknowledgement, although whether he agrees or not is, perhaps, not entirely clear from his tone.

"I tore off its arm," he says, somewhat distractedly, to Barry's question. "And then mostly severed its neck."

He does not take any responsibility at all for the exploded hand, that one is entirely on the Camera Commander.

[run_barry]

Behind the mask Barry's eyebrows lift.

"Damn, Yamato. Cisco might not be mad at all, that's pretty hardcore."

Flashing past the empty transport truck, Barry heads down the alley opposite the one he just ran.

"By the way, if that grunty noise is you not agreeing with me you're totally wrong. And that is something I'll fight you on." Possibly even literally, if it came to that.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato gives a quick, awkward laugh at that. "I guess."

He glances over at the console as the scan starts to come back online, but only flickeringly, not enough to be actually functional yet. He lets that work through rebooting, while he turns his attention back to tracking the truck.

"It wasn't a grunty noise," he lies. After a moment he adds, teasing: "And is that an actual challenge, Gramps? I never thought I'd see the day."

[run_barry]

"Yeah, well, don't you go and keep blaming yourself just so you can fight me, alright?" Barry returns, chuckling just for a moment.

As he runs grid patterns looking for the three escapees, Barry's thoughts track back to the more serious.

"How's it coming? I haven't heard from our friend again yet, have you?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"I don't know, it's tempting," Yamato chuckles. "But I'll try not to."

Whether he succeeds is not entirely in his control, but he'll try.

Barry's next question makes him make a thoughtful noise, eyeing the scan as it slowly flickers back to life. "Not yet. I don't know if he decided to run or if he's busy setting something else up," he says. "Scan should be back up and running in a few moments, and since he decided to attack the Lab, we should have a much clearer pattern for that signal of his. It'll make locating him easier, at least. We sure as hell can't let him get away."

[run_barry]

"Definitely gotta bring this guy in," Barry agrees.

Turning a corner and spotting activity down the alley he calls back, "Got two more of the runners, they just ducked into the back of a restaurant."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Good work. I've nearly got the truck's current location, I just need a few more minutes," Yamato replies. "How's your arm doing?"

Next to him, the scan finishes coming online, showing a red patch around a few blocks of city, stalled where the Commander stopped it. Yamato makes an irritable noise in the back of his throat, and brings up the algorithm on his wrist computer, setting about loading the new data they received from the attack on S.T.A.R. Labs' systems into it, keeping one eye on the camera feeds as he goes.

[run_barry]

"Still bleeding," he says, tightening the bandage around his arm a bit. "I'm alright, though."

Racing into the restaurant through the back door puts Barry in the kitchen. His two targets are right there and Barry shoves the first one up against a freezer door, knocking him out. In turning to face the second Barry just avoids a flying butcher knife which sticks into the wall right in front of his face.

"WOAH!"

It was thrown by a third man who is quick to start slinging more blades Barry's way. Grabbing a sheet pan off of a rack Barry deflects the blades only to have mixing bowl come flying in from the other direction and strike him in the side of the head.

"For real?" More kitchen projectiles come his way and Barry seeks cover behind a counter.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Barry, that's not alri -- ..." Yamato starts, feeling a pang of guilt that is quickly stopped by ... is that the sound of things flying through the air?

He brings up the camera feeds from around the restaurant, except the only camera in the restaurant just covers the front door and nothing else, and the kitchen doesn't have any windows for him to look through from the outside. He's completely blind.

"I can't see a thing. Sounds like ninjas."

[run_barry]

"They're-- throwing stuff at me!" he says, ducking to avoid being pegged with a meat mallet.

A round serving tray comes zinging his way, striking a cabinet overhead and hitting Barry on the rebound.

"Of, forget this!" he declares, looking around. There's not too much nearby except for food that's waiting to be prepared, so Barry seizes on that and starts chucking.

Tomatoes, lettuce heads, potatoes, eggs, cabbages and even a pork chop or two are thrown at a speedy rate and high velocity at the two criminals trying to shish kabob Barry.

The onslaught is enough to create a break in the cutlery coming his way, and Barry lifts a baking sheet and races across the kitchen, using it to knock the two bad guys out cold.

Dropping the pan and heaving a sigh, Barry rests for a moment with his back leaning against a dishwasher.

"That makes... five more left?"

Short break taken, Barry zips off, snagging a banana to eat on the way.

"Any luck on the truck?" Hopefully the last of the escapees will be in it.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"They pulled into an underground parking lot forty seconds ago, most likely to steal some less easy " Yamato says, and rattles off the address. "Camera coverage is pretty good, so I'll be able to give you some help with this one. It looks like all the remaining escapees are there, all armed."

He finishes up loading the new data into the algorithm, and sets the scan going again. It flickers out wide to cover the entire city again, but it doesn't seem to start whittling down the search area again just yet.

"I've started the scan going again, too. Whether it'll find anything if the Commander isn't actively using his powers, I can't say for sure, but it's possible."

[run_barry]

"Okay great," Barry nods, pulling a deep breath before taking off again; heading for the garage.

"We've gotta find him," he says urgently as he runs. "There's gotta be a way to get him to use his powers again if that's what it's going to take to get the scan to work."

What Yamato said before about Camera Commander going underground if the attempt with the prisoner escape fails has stuck in Barry's mind, and he doesn't want to have to spend the next few months waiting for the bad guy to turn up again. Especially if that next time means bigger and badder.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"His men must have some way to get in contact with him," Yamato says, after a moment of thought. "It can't just be one-way communication from him to them, that would make him incapable of coordinating them effectively. If he wants to turtle up, the best way to draw him out of his shell is to make them ask for help."

He pauses, rubbing a hand over his jaw and frowning at the console. "So, harry them. Disarm them, take a few down, but don't take all of them out, box them into the truck, keep on their tail when they try to flee with it. Force them to reach out and demand help."

[run_barry]

"Okay, I think I can do that," he replies, just a touch uncertainly.

Antagonizing people doesn't really come to Barry naturally (just accidentally, sometimes), but Yamato has given him good suggestions on where to start.

"I'm here," Barry announces, racing into the parking structure.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"I've got a visual on you. Be careful, alright? And don't do anything to make that arm worse."

Yamato would love to tell Barry to get back to S.T.A.R. Labs right now so they can get that bullet out and start him healing, but that'd most likely mean losing the five escapees -- and any chance at getting the Commander -- altogether.

"They're spread out right now. Two of them are still by the truck, and three of them are a little way away looking for good cars to use as escape vehicles."

[run_barry]

"I'll be careful," he promises, a breath away from cracking about the mother henning again until he recognizes that at this point it's a bit warranted.

Especially because his arm is really killing him right now and that's going to make this next bit pretty tricky.

With the goal being to stir the bad guys up and make them call for help, Barry tries to think what Oliver might do. The Arrow is notorious for striking fear into the hearts of criminals.

"Keep an eye on the guys by the truck for me," Barry asks Yamato, not wanting them to take off while he's dealing with the others.

With that Barry sees what he can do about the remaining three. The classic tactic always seems to be the taking each bad guy out one by one thing, right?

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Will do."

The scan appears to be slowly whittling down its search area, a positive sign that it's picking up on something, but the process is glacial, and every so often it widens its search area by a little bit again.

At least so far, none of the escapees seem to have noticed Barry, as far as Yamato can see. They're too focused on finding escape vehicles that won't be so easy to track.

[run_barry]

Barry maneuvers into position, speeding from one point to the next until he's close to one of the men. Just as the guy is turning around Barry zips over and clocks him with a rather well thrown left hook, laying him out on the ground without a sound.

Looking down at the man on the floor, and then over at the others who have no idea anything has just happened, Barry frowns.

"Whoops. I think I did that wrong."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Nice hook, though," Yamato remarks, settling his chin on his hand. "Getting a one hit knockout is pretty cool, even if the momentum from superspeed helps."