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]

"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."

[run_barry]

"Thanks," he replies, pleased with the compliment. "I guess some of the training is starting to pay off."

Except for in this instance he probably needed the guy to put up a little more fuss, just to let his buddies know something is going down.

Ready to give it another try, Barry sets after the next one.

This time when he zips over and pops in behind the bad guy Barry takes a moment to tap the man on the shoulder.

"Hey," he greets when the man turns around.

The man barks a sound of alarm and then Barry throws a quick punch at him. Only the man doesn't go straight down, he shakes off the blow.

"Uh oh," Barry murmurs.

Now, it's a fight.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"That's fine. Keep moving, don't slow down," Yamato says, calmly. "Focus on disarming them and pushing them together."

He glances at the scan. No real progress yet. As he glances back at the cameras, he sees the two near the truck moving around towards the front seats.

"The two by the truck are trying to run."

[run_barry]

"Right, okay," he says, struggling.

Ducking and bobbing between the two men who were trying to steal a car, Barry eventually gets the gun away from one when the other opens fire with his weapon.

The man's being indiscriminate about it which means Barry has to not only save himself, he has to get the man he's fighting with out of the way, too.

Tackling the guy behind a parked car, Barry covers him as bullets explode the car's windows.

Hearing the others are about to flee, Barry turns his head.

"Oh great-- UGH!" A punch in the face knocks Barry off of the man he just saved, and he hits the ground while the guy gets up to flee; delivering a solid kick to Barry's side and injured arm before turning to run.

Barry shouts out in pain, then almost comically springs after the man from the ground, wrapping himself around the guy's ankles. The man trips and goes down, chinning himself on the concrete.

More shots are fired and Barry moves to his feet, looping around a line of cars and racing back around to shove the shooter in the back. Tumbling over his own downed friend, the man loses his weapon and falls.

Barry doesn't waste a moment, there's a fire hose reel nearby meant for emergencies and Barry runs over to grab the hose, using it to wrap up the two men together.

Clutching his arm, Barry pauses for a breather.

"How far away-- is the truck?" he gasps back to Yamato.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato just barely suppresses a snarl when that kick lands against Barry's side. Seeing them get tied up in a fire hose is a little more satisfying, but Yamato's still worried about the damage that kick might have done to Barry's arm.

"Just heading out onto the road now," he says, glancing at the camera feed, where the truck is just emerging out into the morning sunlight. "North exit, turning west."

[run_barry]

That definitely hurt.

Barry is breathing through his grit teeth as he inspects his arm. A brief thought of his warnings to Yamato about amputation flit through Barry's mind, and he can't help chuckling at yet another instance of irony.

Or is it hypocrisy?

Of of the two, or maybe it's something else...

Shaking his head to get his thoughts in line and head back in the game, Barry straightens up.

"Alright, I'm on it. How's that trace coming?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Nothing useful yet," Yamato says, shaking his head. "That kick looked like it jarred your arm pretty badly, though. If you want to back off, we can figure out another way to do this."

Not that Yamato knows what that way would be.

"It's your call. You know the limits of what your accelerated healing can deal with. Just think about it with a clear head."

[run_barry]

"Yeah, no, I know. But I've got this," he says, taking off after the truck.

"These are the last two off that transport. I've gotta get them back."

And then maybe he'll consider a break before they engage Camera Commander.

For that to happen, though, they've still got to track down CC, which means not grabbing the two in the truck right away. Instead, Barry tries to do a better job of harassing them into making the call to their boss.

They turn west, and Barry figures the best way to make them feel in trouble is to make them go somewhere they don't want to. Cutting down another street, Barry gets up ahead of the truck and lines up a bunch of orange barrels and cones from a nearby construction site to try and route the truck a different way.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"All right, then. I'll have a surgical kit ready by the time you get back. Don't expect me to be as gentle as Caitlin."

After all, all of Yamato's knowledge of field medicine was taught to him by Jyou, who has the delicacy and bedside manner of an irate walrus.

He watches the truck on the camera feed, and sees them change direction suddenly, veering off down another road. "Doing good. Keep going."

[run_barry]

There's a long pause of silence and then Barry comes back, "Y'know, maybe-- maybe she'll be awake again by then. She could be feeling better."

That's Barry's new hope, next to the one that this plan of theirs will work.

Once again pushing faster to get ahead of the vehicle, Barry makes another blockade, this one out of a rolling dumpster he pushes out of an alleyway. If the truck makes this turn Barry is ready to run ahead again to create another detour.

He wonders just how long it'll take them to realize he's directing them towards CCPD.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Seems unlikely," Yamato replies, voice dropping into a deeply ominous growl.

As Barry works, he might hear a slightly knowing chuckle on the line as Yamato, with the benefit of several maps in front of him, realises what Barry's doing.

After a few more minutes, the scan gives a loud beep, as it gets a signal and -- with the more complete pattern Yamato added to the algorithm earlier -- rapidly homes in on it, until it narrows to a single, beeping point near the outskirts of the city.

"Got a lock on him, and a complete radio and dark matter signature logged. We should be able to keep tracking him now, even if he stops using his powers."

At around the same time, road just ahead of Barry and just behind the truck becomes a mass of traffic jammed together as the traffic lights across three blocks change in such a way as to produce a torrent of cars, all skidding to a stop as they find themselves in gridlock, barricading the road as the truck picks up speed.

[run_barry]

All of the running and work is winding Barry down, and it's a huge relief when Yamato announces the lock.

"Awesome," he breathes, slowing for just a few steps.

Suddenly the scene ahead turns into chaos and Barry's eyes widen.

"Oh man."

Picking up the pace once again, Barry rushes into the gridlock, zipping around as cars screech to a halt, some of them running into each other while others narrowly miss collisions.

Barry races to get to any pedestrians in danger and check on anyone in a vehicle that's been hit.

One old man he pulls out of the way just in time as a swerving car hops up onto the sidewalk. A bicyclist misses getting sandwiched between two trucks thanks to Barry. And when a truck hauling old tires drops its gate and the load comes tumbling out onto nearby cars, the tires wind up stacked beside the truck instead.

These feats take the last of everything, and when Barry zips away from the scene and comes to a stop behind a building several blocks away he's breathing hard, leaning up against a wall for support.

"Yamato, I can't-- the truck got away," he pants, disappointed in himself. "Can you help dispatch EMTs and firetrucks? I didn't find any major injuries, but there are some people kind of banged up."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato shuts his eyes, but holds back from making any sounds that might give away how he's feeling. Instead, he just turns his attention to making sure EMTs and firetrucks are dispatched to that location.

"That's done. Get back here," he says, after a few moments.

[run_barry]

Imagining how angry Yamato must be with him right now, Barry gathers himself together and nods.

"Be right there."

It takes longer than it normally would for Barry to get back to S.T.A.R. Labs, and when he arrives he doesn't whoosh straight into the Cortex. Instead he drops out of running outside of the door and comes walking in, pushing the suit's cowl back onto his shoulders as he goes.

"Man, Yamato, I was sure I could get them," Barry says, steps dragging and his whole frame slouched in exhaustion as he walks. "Maybe I should've routed them a different way. I didn't know he was gonna do the thing with the traffic lights."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato already has a surgical kit ready when Barry arrives, and is giving off no outward hints of feeling any emotions at all.

"It's not your fault, Barry. You were injured, tired, and caught off-guard. It happens. You did good work out there today," he says, sounding like he's still very much in mission mode, which is to say flat to the point of almost being cold. "I need you out of the suit so I can fix up your arm, and then we need to get you some food and a drink."

[run_barry]

Barry chews his lip to hold off a frown when he registers that detachment from Yamato which he translates as disappointment.

"Yeah," he says to Yamato's request, giving a nod and then setting about getting undressed. Removing the makeshift bandage from his arm first, which has soaked through, Barry then unzips the top portion of the suit and very gingerly shrugs out of the jacket.

The actions are performed with a whole lot of grimacing and pained sounds, and when the suit finally comes away to leave Barry shirtless he's unsteady and very obviously hurting.

"Never really wanted to know what getting shot feels like," he grits, looking down at his injured arm.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato's blank demeanour gives way for a second or two when he sees the wound, and there's a few seconds where he just looks guilty and ashamed. He quickly turns away to busy himself with opening the surgical kit, angling himself so that Barry can't see his face.

"Sit down, Gramps," he says, tone still completely flat.

When he turns back around, bringing the surgical kit to rest next to him and pulling out the equipment he needs, he's back to being completely detached.

[run_barry]

Barry catches part of that look and is hit again with the distance in Yamato's voice.

Taking a seat, careful not to jostle his arm too much as it's really starting to hurt now, Barry studies Yamato.

"You know this isn't your fault either, right?" he asks cautiously.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"I need to concentrate," Yamato replies, without giving much in the way of indication that he even heard Barry, sitting down and pulling a pair of gloves on.

He spends a few seconds looking at the wound, before setting about tying a tourniquet above it to cut off the flow of blood down into it. He settles back a little, picking up a narrow set of pliers and carefully dousing them in a little bit of rubbing alcohol.

What follows is a very cautious process of reaching in, grasping the bullet with the pliers, and carefully, carefully drawing it out along the path it entered through.

"Put pressure on it, I'll clean and suture it in a second," he says to Barry, pulling a small metal dish from the surgical kit and dropping the bullet into it.

[run_barry]

Barry withdraws on that curt reply, feeling like he's been kicked.

Shutting up, he holds his tongue on anymore attempts at conversation. He's about to speak up about them having better supplies here in S.T.A.R. Labs than the pliers Yamato brings out, then thinks the better of that and stays silent.

Mostly silent.

When Yamato sets to work Barry turns his head rather than watching, letting out lots of hisses and groans into his clench fist pressed against his mouth, and tensing despite his best efforts not to.

The bullet finally comes out with a loud 'OW!' from Barry and he clamps a hand over the wound, still grimacing through the hurt.