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]

"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.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Sorry," Yamato says, when he hears that exclamation, his blank expression breaking into a grimace for just a second. "Worst is over now."

He sets about irrigating the wound with a saline solution, and once that's done, applies some antibiotic gel over it.

"Almost done."

[run_barry]

Setting his teeth as Yamato cleans the wound out, Barry just nods.

When Yamato is finished Barry inspects the job he's done, buying time with that while waiting to see what Yamato will say now.

Barry's expected more silence or an explosion and isn't sure which would be worse.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato remains more or less silent throughout the rest of the process, but by the end of it, the wound's sutured and bandaged up. Yamato keeps not saying anything while he packs up the surgical kit, only breaking the silence to quietly whistle a few bars of 'A Spoonful of Sugar,' making the kit vanish back into his sylladex.

"Sorry," he says, after a few moments, tone not as detached and unemotional as before but still a little flat and controlled. "I know you're going to say it's not my fault, but -- I was the one who suggested using the prisoners as bait at all, I wasn't quick enough to get comms back when the Commander took over, and I was the one who suggested forcing them to call for help. And now we've lost two of them, and worse, you got hurt. I let you down."

[run_barry]

Stitches are no fun either, but Barry handles those better than the process of pulling the bullet out.

When Yamato finally does speak Barry cants his head, surprised that Yamato's ire is with himself and not Barry. Thinking about it a moment, Barry realizes he shouldn't be that surprised at all. Of course Yamato would take responsibility, even when the blame shouldn't be landing on him.

Shaking his head a little, Barry says, "No, man. Maybe there was something else we could've done, but your plan was definitely the best chance we had of tracking the Commander down."

Short of waiting around for the meta to decide to go on another spree, forcing him out was really the only option.

"And we needed to," he adds fervently. "Look what he's done today. Besides all the robberies and trying to kill me a bunch of times the trick he did with the traffic lights was dangerous. Ruthless even. People could've been seriously hurt, and it's like you said earlier, if we don't stop him now he's just going to keep escalating."

Barry gestures at his arm and then shakes his head.

"As for this, chalk it up to being a vigilante." Which means it's not Yamato's fault, either. "I mean, because I am. I don't even blame Eddie, given what was going down and all."

He's not pleased with the detective, but it is Eddie's job to stop criminals and lawbreakers.

"You didn't let me down at all, Yamato. If I had done some parts different today we might have Camera Commander already, but the important thing is we've still got a chance to get him, because you were here."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

It's not that what Barry's saying doesn't make sense. It does, Yamato knows it does, but it doesn't feel that way, somehow.

"Don't say that. If you'd done things differently, it could've ended just as badly, or worse. You did more than anyone could ask of you," he says, shaking his head. "But I should've known he'd try to get into our systems, I just -- didn't think he'd be able to trace us back here, I didn't think he'd even realise we were scanning for him. And I should've known he'd try to pull that stunt with the traffic, but I didn't think he'd go that far."

He grimaces a little. "I can't help but think that I just made things worse. You might not think so, but you don't have an accusatory bone in your whole body, of course you don't think so. At the very least, we both know you'd never say it."

[run_barry]

"Wow Yamato, I didn't know psychic was something you could do," he replies, prickled a touch by that last part from Yamato because it implies Barry somehow can't be objective about the situation, even though clearly Yamato did nothing wrong.

"How were you supposed to know all that? I didn't. I trusted the systems here in the Cortex to be pretty well safe-guarded against stuff like that, and even with the guy shooting at me all day and trying to pull a SAW on me in that basement I didn't see him risking other people just to let two of his guys get away."