"Ugh…" The archaeologist pushed herself to her feet and wiped the sweat away from her forehead, "… what's the saying? Mad dogs and Englishmen- "

"- All for a good cause my dear." Interrupted her companion, a fond smile on his face as he twisted around to reassure the young lady

"Yeah, yeah…" Dr. Mary went back to her knees and went back to chipping away at the rock wall… until she spotted something bone-like embedded in the stone "… What's this?" When she brushed the dust and remnants of stone, the skull of what appeared to be an ape stared back at her.

Gently, she pulled the skull free and headed back over to Dr. Louis and handed it over to him.

"Hmmm…" he frowned, "… this is much older than it ought to be. This could be the greatest discovery in all of mankind."

PEW PEW PEW

The pair glanced overhead as unseen flying machine shot past them, gorillas on the saddle as they fired at someone flying away from them.

"Humans!" A white gorilla growled, quickly gesturing for his followers to turn back around and head towards… was that a city?!

The pair watched in amazement and shock as the gorillas headed towards the city, which shimmered slightly before being replaced with the image of a mountain.

"Ummm…. What was that?!"

…

"So, there I was, cornered!" Barry stated dramatically, before taking another huge bite of his burger, "Captain Cold honestly thought he had the best of me, but he didn't… and you know why? Be- "

"- Because you're the fastest man alive." Iris and Steve interrupted at the same, high-fiving each other as Barry pouted in disappointment.

"You've already told us story sweetie…" Iris patted Barry on the hand and smiled softly at him, "… I actually think you've told everyone this story."

Barry flushed slightly, "Did I?" He then shrugged and turned his attention back to Steve, "Got your attention off of Diana though didn't it?"

"Yeah… until you mentioned it again."

As Steve lost himself in his thoughts once again, staring down into his coffee, Iris rolled her eyes and nudged Barry in the side, silently admonishing him for bringing up the subject.

But she couldn't help but talk about it herself.

"Hasn't she said anything to you? Like a proper conversation?" she asked, a concerned look on her face as Steve shook his head.

"Not really. Good morning, good night… she's barely touched me since I told her I don't want to try for children at the moment." Steve then sighed, "I don't know if I can go on for much longer."

Barry winced, recognising the defeated tone in the omega's voice for what it was. However, before he could say anything else, he heard a car brakes squeal and people calling out in alarm from the streets.

Quickly glancing over, he saw a car racing towards the diner…. In fact, it was heading straight for them.

In less than a second, he had Iris and Steve moved to safety as the car smashed through the diner window.

"Rain check…" he quickly assured his wife, quickly changing into his flash costume and heading towards the vehicle to make sure that everyone was alright.

"Are you okay Sir?"

The driver forced the airbag back down, his face pale. "He's a madman!" he yelled, "He ran me right off the road! Someone's gotta stop him!"

"…. Right."

With an apologetic smile at Iris, Barry sped off, leaving the other two behind.

"It's times like that, where I remember what I fell in love with."

"…. His speed? Surely it's a hindrance at times?"

Knowing what Steve was getting at, Iris gave him a mock glare… before it turned into a smirk. "You should see his refractory time."

"Iris!"

"You started it."

…

The culprit was easy enough to find.

A truck was racing down the road, not caring what or who they hit, so long as they got to their destination. Thankfully the other crashes appeared to be quite minor, meaning that Barry didn't have the urge to stop and make sure people were alright.

And then the passenger started shooting at him.

"Oh, come one!" Barry exclaimed, moving from side to side in an attempt to dodge the blasts and try and stop the driver, running around traveling cars as he went, "Give me a break!"

In order to try and reduce the number of car accidents, Barry ran along the sides of the buildings, taking advantage of his new position and attempting to leap onto the van… only to stumble and fall off.

Within milliseconds, he'd righted himself and was back on the chase.

"Please let nobody have taped that…" he begged under his breath, "… please, oh please, oh please."

Unfortunately, another consequence of running along the side of the buildings was that the blasts hit the buildings… which meant that eventually, one of these old buildings was going to crack and crumble.

It just so happened, that a couple was right in the path of the falling rubble.

"Oh, come on!"

Quickly running a circle around the pair, he managed to create a small whirlwind that directed the rubble over towards a nearby skip. Once he was sure that everything had been cleared, he stopped and beamed at the pair.

"You guys alright?"

"Y-Yeah!"

"Cool! Keep safe!"

And then he went back on the chase…. Eventually, they'd run out of ammo.

Right?

….

Right.

When the passenger resorted to actually throwing the gun, Barry zipped around to the driver's side and tapped on the window.

"Pull over!" he ordered, "Pull over!"

Instead of doing just that, the driver forced the car to the left, clearly trying to pin Barry against the side of the bridge. Unfortunately, it back-fired as the van started to lean over too far and then tip onto its side, skidding along the road.

"Today just keeps getting worse and worse…" Barry sighed wearily, "… all I wanted was a nice day out with my wife and friend!"

Quickly, he climbed on top of the van and grabbed the driver and passenger, getting them to safety just as the van smashed through the side of the bridge and headed to the water down below.

Or, at least it would have if it hadn't been for the green bubble surrounding it.

"Drop something?" Hal smirked.

"Oh, come on GL!" Barry cackled, "I had that totally under control!"

"Oh, is that why everything's wrecked and on fire?"

"… I hate you. What are you doing here anyway?"

"Responding to a police call…" Hal moved the van back onto the bridge, "… someone hijacked a van full of radioactive isotopes."

They opened up the back of the van, and lo and behold… stolen radioactive isotopes.

Barry turned to the two unconscious men (having been knocked out when the van tipped to the side). "No wonder these guys were in such a hurry to get away."

As if on cue, the driver slowly came to, weakly shaking his head and groaning in pain. "W-where am I?"

"You hijacked a van full of radioactive stuff and drove it off the bridge… any of this ringing a bell?"

"…. What?" The man glanced at Hal, clearly hoping the other hero would say something else.

Hal just raised an eyebrow. "Let's see some ID…" he muttered, green strands reaching out and pulling the men's wallets from their pockets, "… Professor Arthur Chin and Mister Mark Stevens. Both work at the research centre where the isotopes were stolen from."

"Huh? And I feel guilty when I take paperclips from work." Barry chuckled

"Same… but let's see if we can get to the bottom of this."

…..

"I'm sorry, but I can't explain their behaviour." Dr. Sarah Corwin sighed wearily, "They're both highly respected members of their fields."

Hal nodded in understanding, "Hmm, they don't fit the profile of armed robbers?"

"To be fair, they've been under immense pressure to finish this project. It's possible they simply snapped under the strange."

As the other two chatted, Barry walked around the lab, his scientific mind going over-drive as he glanced at the monkeys in cages

"I wish I could help you…" Dr. Corwin muttered, "… but frankly, this whole thing seems preposterous."

"What were they working on?"

"That's classified."

Meanwhile, Barry had helped himself to one of the bananas in the nearby fruit bowl (sometimes he hated his metabolism) and wandered over to wear a gorilla was kept in a cage…. The hungry looking gorilla.

"Sorry mate…" Barry shrugged, pointing to a sign on the wall that read DON'T FEED THE LAB ANIMALS, "… but I really don't want to annoy this woman."

"If you gentlemen will excuse me, I have work to do."

As the Doctor walked away, Hal turned to Barry and shook his head. "She's hiding something."

"Agreed…. Think we need to call the rest of the League in?"

"No… let's keep this between us."