Sin City
Barry moved through the air as just a bright streak of lightning.
"He's not going to make it!" Iris screamed.
They all watched in horror as the stream of lightning started to lose height, coming down way too fast. And then Barry's feet hit the ground, only just making it to the outer edge of the cliff. He slipped a little, pulling himself up to keep himself from going over the edge.
He made it.
Barry gasped for air, taking a moment to compose himself before straightening up to look back at them from the other side of the dam.
"Woooo!" he cheered, throwing his hands in the air in triumph, "Did you see that?!"
Barry punched the air and bowed with a flourish. Everyone else, however, was just trying to control their heartrates, breathing sighs of relief.
"Barry!" Joe boomed furiously, "Get over here!"
"No problem," Barry grinned.
"Around the dam!" Joe ordered, "Do not jump again!"
Barry sighed and rolled his eyes, but thankfully he listened to Joe this time, running around the dam rather than jumping over it.
"Oh, man! That was awesome!" Barry raved as he joined the group, "That was one of the best rushes I've ever had! And I did it with a hangover! Next time, I think I'll be able to do it a lot—"
Barry was cut off by Joe roughly grapping the collar of his suit with two hands.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Joe yelled in Barry's face, shaking him furiously.
Barry laughed and shook his head.
"Relax, Joe," he grinned, "I made it, didn't I?"
"You could have died!" Joe shouted, pushing Barry back a few paces as he released his hold on his suit, "That was the stupidest thing you've ever done, Barry!"
"But it worked," Barry laughed, "I made the jump!"
He turned to Cisco then.
"How fast was I going?" he asked excitedly.
Cisco gave him a look of disbelief and shook his head.
"I wasn't exactly recording, Barry," he said seriously, "I was too busy worrying about whether or not you were going to survive the fall."
"Wow, you guys have so little faith in me," Barry laughed, shaking his head, "Don't worry, though. You can just record it next time when I—"
"There isn't going to be a next time, Barry," Iris seethed, "You're not jumping again."
"Hell, I'll do it right now," Barry shrugged, "I can do this all day."
"No, you can't," Joe fumed, "And you won't. We're going back to STAR Labs. Now."
"Oh, we are, are we?" Barry asked, raising his eyebrows in amusement.
"Yes, Barry," Caitlin said seriously, "We are."
Barry laughed and shook his head.
"Well, you guys can do whatever you want," he said, looking at his watch, "I need to get going. Got somewhere to be."
"Where?" Joe demanded.
"Don't worry about it," Barry said with a dismissive wave of his hand, "I'll be home by three. Here."
He tossed Joe his car keys.
"Take that home for me, would you?" he said with a wink.
"Barry," Joe growled, "Don't you dare—"
Barry took off with a flash of lightning.
"—leave," Joe finished, his hand closing in a fist around Barry's car keys.
"Where do you think he's going?" Caitlin asked worriedly.
"I don't know," Joe gritted, "But he's in for a serious ass-kicking when he gets home."
Twenty minutes later, they were all back at STAR Labs, Barry's Lamborghini parked safely in the lot by Cisco, who had been a little too eager to drive it. Joe was still fuming over Barry's recklessness, incoherently muttering to himself every few minutes.
"Got any read on his location yet?" he asked impatiently.
"Nothing yet," Cisco answered, frowning at the map on the screen in confusion.
"Are we sure he even has the suit on?" Caitlin asked seriously.
"He had it on when he left," Iris shrugged.
"He doesn't seem to be in Central City," Cisco told them, looking at the map, "Or in this state, for that matter."
"What do you mean?" Joe asked, "Where is he?"
"Nevada," Cisco answered, frowning at the screen.
"What's Barry doing in Nevada?" Iris asked in confusion.
Cisco suddenly gasped and banged his fist on the desk.
"That asshole!" he yelled.
"What?" the other three asked in unison.
"He went to Vegas!" Cisco said incredulously, "He went to Vegas and didn't invite me!"
"What the hell is Barry doing in Las Vegas?!" Joe demanded.
"No idea," Cisco muttered, looking at the screen in confusion, "But I'm never going to forgive him for not inviting me. I've always wanted to go there!"
"Barry's not answering his phone," Caitlin sighed, setting her phone down, "And his coms are turned off. I don't think we're going to get any answers until he gets back."
"Well, when is that going to be?" Iris asked, "It's only one right now. When he said he'd be back by three, did he mean AM or PM?"
"Not sure," Cisco said, "But I'm guessing he meant AM if he's all the way in Vegas. Granted, he can make the run in less than ten minutes, so who knows?"
"All I know is that when he gets home, I'm going to tear him a new one," Joe fumed, "He could have died today! I don't know what's going on with him, but I'm not liking it. His attitude. His recklessness. I'm done with this nonsense!"
"There has to be something more going on here," Iris insisted, "This isn't like Barry. I know he's been a little off lately, but it's been getting worse. There's something really wrong with him."
"That much is obvious," Joe said seriously, "But what?"
Cisco turned in his chair to look at Caitlin, a serious look on his face.
"The meta," he said seriously, "You don't think…?"
"It did affect him," she said, her eyes widening, "Just not in the way we were expecting."
"What meta?" Joe asked, "What are you talking about?"
"A few weeks ago, Barry did a quick run to help out with a public indecency call," Caitlin explained, "Some guy was…skinny dipping in the fountain at Washington Park. It really was a quick and easy call. The guy was streaking through the park, evading the cops who were chasing him, but the Flash managed to get a hold of him and deliver him over to police."
"Honestly, I'm pretty sure the cops just didn't want to tackle a naked guy," Cisco snorted.
"So, where does the metahuman come in?" Joe asked impatiently.
"Well, as Barry was handing the streaker over to the police, a nearby bystander looked at him and…Barry said the guy's eyes changed color and everything suddenly went red, just like it did with Bivolo. He said he was disoriented for a moment, and in that time, the guy disappeared into the crowd."
"So, the metahuman whammied him," Iris concluded.
Cisco and Caitlin both nodded.
"And you guys didn't think that was something to be concerned about?!" Joe asked incredulously.
"Of course we were concerned," Caitlin assured him, "I did a full range of tests on Barry when he got back, but I couldn't find anything wrong with him."
"But that's how it was with Bivolo, too," Joe said seriously, "You thought he was fine after the first time he was whammied, and then he wasn't."
"I know," Caitlin said quickly, "But Barry assured us he felt fine. He said he felt completely normal, and he wasn't acting angry or anything, so we figured the meta's powers didn't affect him."
"Well, clearly they did," Iris said seriously, "Barry has definitely been acting differently lately."
"I agree," Caitlin nodded, "But it wasn't this obvious at first. We thought Barry was just letting loose a little. We didn't think it had anything to do with the meta, mostly because we were looking for rage, like he had with Bivolo. We weren't looking for…impulsiveness."
"Really, this explains a lot," Joe said, "Not just with Barry, but with a lot of cases the CCPD has been getting lately: motor accidents, crazy stunts, public indecency. The metahuman must be responsible. When he whammies people, he…takes away their inhibitions, makes them do things they wouldn't normally do."
"But it must affect Barry differently," Iris pointed out, "Until today, Barry wasn't doing anything dangerous, just acting a little different than usual. The meta's powers must affect him slower, the same way Bivolo's did."
"Well, if that's the case, that means Barry's only going to get worse," Caitlin said seriously, "He's going to get progressively more reckless and impulsive the longer he's under the metahuman's influence."
"And with his powers, that can be a very dangerous thing," Joe said darkly.
They all looked at each other in alarm.
"We need to get Barry under control," Cisco said seriously, "Before he gets himself hurt or does something he'll really regret."
"Well, he's all the way in Vegas right now," Iris said, "We can't do anything until he gets back."
"You mean if he gets back," Joe said seriously, "Barry said he'd be back by three, but we can't really rely upon him to keep his word right now, and there is a lot of trouble he could get himself into in a city like Las Vegas."
Everyone looked seriously at each other in alarm, knowing Joe was right.
"Are we thinking what I think we're thinking?" Cisco asked after a moment.
"We're going to Vegas," Joe said seriously, grabbing his coat.
"Yes!" Cisco shouted, punching a fist into the air, "Vegas, baby! I'll book us a flight!"
"Are you guys serious?" Iris asked the others, "We're really going to Vegas tonight?"
"Yes," Joe said seriously, "We are. And we're going to bring Barry home."
By the time their flight landed, it was almost seven PM. Barry had been in Vegas for over six hours already, and there was no telling what he had done in that time. They all were fearing the worst.
"Do you have a read on his suit?" Joe asked as they were climbing into a cab at the airport.
"It still hasn't moved," Cisco said, "It's still at Caesar's Palace. Barry must have a room there."
"That's one of the most expensive hotels in Vegas," Caitlin said, "It's meant for celebrities and blue collar elites. How is he affording that?"
"I don't know," Joe sighed, running a hand over his face, "But I have a very bad feeling about all of this. If Barry has a hotel room, then he clearly lied about being home by three."
"Or he's in bed with another stranger again," Iris muttered.
"How on earth are we going to find him in a city this big?" Caitlin asked seriously, "This city is huge."
"Well, he may not have his suit," Cisco said, pulling out his laptop, "Or his personality, for that matter, but he still has his face."
Cisco typed on his computer for only a couple minutes before finding what he was looking for.
"Bingo!" he said in triumph, "I found him. Facial recognition software located him at the Bellagio. Thank God for the excessive camera security in casinos."
"He came all this way just to gamble?" Joe asked in confusion.
"Well, the metahuman does make people impulsive," Caitlin shrugged, "What's more impulsive than gambling?"
"I suppose," Joe said quietly, a horrible feeling in his gut.
They redirected their taxi driver to take them to the Bellagio then. When they pulled up and climbed out of the car, they couldn't help but look up at the building in awe. Although their circumstances behind coming here were stressful, they had to admit: Vegas was breathtaking. Cisco seemed particularly transfixed by the massive fountains outside the Bellagio, great jets of water shooting over four-hundred feet in the air, creating a wall of water that was over one-thousand feet long. Dazzling white lights lit up the display, mesmerizing bystanders.
"Come on," Joe said after a moment, "Let's find him fast before he hops to a different casino."
They all nodded and swiftly entered the building. Upon entering, they came to the horrible realization that finding Barry quickly was going to be a lot easier said than done. The casino was huge.
"Cisco," Joe said, peering through the crowd, "Did facial recognition tell you which game Barry was playing?"
"Are you kidding?" Cisco laughed, "It's a casino, Joe. I didn't get any of their footage. Places like this have security so tight, I might as well be hacking into the Pentagon. I can do it, but it would take me a while."
"Barry will be playing blackjack," Iris said surely.
They all stared at her.
"He may not go to casinos," she shrugged, "But blackjack has always been his game. He told me once that his dad used to play it with him, betting candy instead of money. Barry's been playing blackjack since he was five. That's the game he would gravitate to in a casino."
"She right," Joe said, "And he most certainly won't be playing poker. Barry has a terrible poker face."
Cisco couldn't help but laugh.
"So much for his favorite song," he chuckled.
The four of them quickly made their way over to the nlackjack tables then, peering through the crowds in search of Barry. It took a full ten minutes of searching the huge casino before Iris finally spotted him.
"I see him!" she said, pointing towards a table near the corner.
Barry was sitting at one of the blackjack tables, like she had predicted. He didn't seem to notice they were there. He was staring down at the table, an intense look of concentration on his face. He was wearing an expensive black suit and tie—clearly custom made—and he had more than a few empty glasses in front of him.
Iris started to head for the table, but she was promptly stopped by her father's hand on her shoulder.
"Hold up," Joe said seriously, "Maybe we shouldn't all rush in on him at once."
"You're right," Caitlin agreed, "If we try to ambush him, he'll probably bolt."
"He's probably going to bolt no matter what," Cisco pointed out, "And if he does, there won't be anything we can do to stop him."
They all stared at Barry from across the room, weighing their options. Barry still hadn't spotted them yet. His gaze was fixed on the table, his expression all too serious for a casino. His eyes followed the cards with scary concentration, his face made of stone as he watched the dealer lay the cards.
"Is he…?" Caitlin asked slowly.
"He's counting," Cisco realized, "He's counting the cards."
"Is that how he's been getting his money?" Iris asked seriously, "Counting cards? I thought he said it wasn't anything illegal?"
"Counting cards isn't illegal," her father sighed, "It's just frowned upon."
"And dangerous," Cisco added.
They all looked at him.
"What?" Cisco shrugged, "Haven't you ever seen 21? If casinos catch you counting, it's a quick way to lose a few fingers or get whacked off."
"You're thinking of the mob, Cisco," Caitlin said.
Cisco stubbornly shook his head.
"I'm telling you," he said seriously, "If Barry gets caught counting, he's going to get himself into serious trouble with the owners. They take people into the back room for this kind of thing. Or they'll eighty-six him."
"Eighty-six?" Iris asked, furrowing her eyebrows.
"Drive him eighty miles out into the dessert and put him six feet under," Cisco clarified.
"They don't still do that," Joe said, waving his hand impatiently, "They'll probably just blacklist him. Take him into the back and scare him a little at the very most."
"Well, I'm not too worried about that," Iris said, "Barry can just run away if that happens."
"Still," Joe said, "The casino will remember his face, and if he uses his powers to escape, he could potentially be risking his identity in the process. This place is full of cameras."
"We need to get Barry out of here," Caitlin said seriously, "As soon as possible."
"I'll go," Joe said, "I think this will go smoother if only one of us approaches him. I'll try to talk some sense into him."
"Barry isn't going to be easy to reason with," Caitlin warned.
"I know," Joe sighed, "But I don't know what else we can do at this point."
They all nodded, watching nervously as Joe then started to make his way over to Barry's table. Joe took a deep breath as he neared the table. Barry was right in front of him now, his back to him. Joe reached out a hand, but before he could lay it on Barry's shoulder, Barry suddenly spoke.
"You're underdressed, Joe," he said without tearing his eyes from the table.
Joe's hand paused midair.
"You knew we were here?" he asked in surprise.
Barry let out a small laugh, his eyes still following the cards on the table.
"You guys weren't exactly sly about it," he said, "And did you really think I wasn't watching my surroundings in here? I'm more careful than that."
"Well, I beg to differ," Joe whispered seriously, "You're not exactly keeping a low-profile here, Barry. You couldn't be more obvious about what you're doing."
"What do you mean?" Barry asked in mock innocence, "I'm just playing a little game."
"You're counting," Joe hissed, "You're cheating, Bar."
"Counting isn't cheating," Barry whispered to him, a wide grin on his face, "It's just using strategy and statistics to increase your odds."
"This is risky, Barry," Joe said seriously.
"Relax, Joe. I know what I'm doing," Barry chuckled, "I'm not gambling. It's not gambling if you're using a system based on probability and basic math. I mastered basic blackjack strategy by the time I was seven, and counting is incredibly easy when you have superspeed and a sharp brain. It's about time I start using my smarts and my speed to earn me a little extra cash."
"A little extra cash," Joe huffed, his eyes scanning over Barry's Brioni Tonal-stripe two-piece suit, "Says the guy wearing a five-thousand dollar suit."
"Double down and hit," Barry said to the dealer, ignoring Joe.
As he predicted, the dealer laid down a face card on top of Barry's eleven and then busted on his own hand.
Barry's lips twitched as he collected his chips.
"Barry," Joe said seriously, eyeing the chips Barry had in front of him, "You've won enough. Let's get out of here now."
"Can't," Barry sighed, "I just ordered another drink, and the deck is hot. I've been waiting all night for this."
Joe took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying not to let his frustration get the best of him. He had to remind himself that Barry wasn't entirely in his right mind right now and that patience would be far more effective here than trying to use force would.
"Bar, please just listen to me for a second."
"Go on, I'm listening," Barry said condescendingly, still closely watching the cards on the table without even glancing at Joe.
"You're going to get caught, Bar," Joe whispered, "I don't care how good of a counter you are, the casino is going to catch on eventually if you keep winning."
"I'm not stupid," Barry chuckled, "I never stay at a single casino for more than an hour in one night. I'll leave as soon as the deck cools. Hell if I'm going anywhere when the count's plus seventeen."
"Barry, you—"
"Split those, please," Barry said to the dealer.
The dealer gave him a confused look.
"Are you sure about that?" he asked, "You should never split two face cards. It's safer to keep the queens together and stay at twenty."
Barry nodded, his lips twitching in amusement.
"Split and hit," he said confidently.
The dealer shrugged and split Barry's queens. He hit on the first one.
Ace.
Barry gleefully clapped his hands together. Joe put a hand on his shoulder.
"Bar," he said worriedly.
"Next One!" Barry shouted happily to the dealer, "Hit again!"
Another ace.
"Winner, winner, chicken dinner!" the dealer called out, pushing a pile of chips towards Barry, "Double blackjack!"
Barry laughed and added the chips to his stack. Joe raised his eyebrows when he got a closer look at the chips Barry was playing with. They were five-hundred a piece.
He had just won twenty-thousand dollars in one round.
And Joe wasn't the only one to notice.
"Barry," Joe hissed when he saw a few large men in black suits start heading for their table, "It's time to cash out and leave. Now."
"Deck is still hot," Barry shrugged, taking his drink from the waitress and handing her a fifty-dollar chip for a tip.
"Barry, I'm serious," Joe said desperately, "We need to go home now. You're going to be—"
"Excuse me, sir," one of the men in black said, clamping a hand down on Barry's shoulder, "We need you to come with us."
"Not yet," Barry said impatiently, taking a sip of his drink, "Give me two more rounds."
"Sir," the other of the two men said, "You need to come with us, now."
The man roughly yanked Barry from his seat, causing him to spill some of his drink.
"Look what you made me do," Barry groaned, "You're going to owe me another drink now."
The man ignored Barry and started pulling him away from the table. In a panic, Joe did the only thing he could think to do.
"I've got this, gentlemen," he said loudly to the two men, pulling out a pair of handcuffs, "Barry Allen, you're under arrest."
"What?" Barry laughed as Joe pulled his hands behind his back, "You've gotta be kidding me!"
If Joe was a little rougher than necessary, well, Barry couldn't really complain.
"You have the right to remain silent," Joe recited.
God, he hoped Barry remained silent.
"Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. You have the right to an—"
"Sir," one of the security guards said to him, "What do you think you're doing?"
"Detective West," Joe said, pulling out his badge, "CCPD. This man is wanted for questioning in Central City. I'm here to detain him and take him back to Central County, where he belongs."
With that, Joe steered Barry out of the casino, reciting his Miranda rights.
"You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you."
"Joe," Barry laughed, rolling his eyes as they stepped outside, "You can stop now."
As soon as they were outside, Barry immediately phased out of the handcuffs, which fell to the sidewalk with a pathetic clanging sound. Joe internally cursed himself. He wished he had thought to carry power-dampening cuffs on him. He hadn't exactly been planning to arrest Barry, though.
"You could have at least let me collect my chips," Barry pouted, "I had over sixty-thousand dollars in there."
"Something tells me you have more than enough saved up," Joe said stiffly, "How long have you been coming here to do this, Barry?"
Barry shrugged.
"A couple weeks."
Joe sighed and shook his head. Just then, the other three came bursting out the casino door.
"Whew, that was close," Cisco said, "Good thinking, Joe, whipping out the badge and handcuffs."
Barry rolled his eyes, a small smile on his face.
"I have a feeling you guys aren't here to check out the night life," he said in amusement.
"No," Iris said seriously, "We're not. We're here to take you home."
Barry laughed and shook his head.
"Well, you wasted a trip," he chuckled, "I'm not ready to go home yet. Besides, I told you I'd be home by three."
"Is that why you booked a room at Caesar's Palace?" Joe accused.
Barry laughed.
"I just needed a place to put my suit," he shrugged.
They all blinked at him.
"You booked a thirty-five-thousand-dollar room just to have a place to put your suit?" Caitlin asked incredulously.
"Well, I was also going to use the room for…other things," Barry said with a wink.
"Told you," Iris muttered under her breath to the others.
"Relax, Iris," Barry laughed, "It's just sex. You know you're the only girl for me."
Iris opened and closed her mouth a couple times, taken aback by the blunt statement.
"Oh, come on," Barry laughed, "Why are you acting surprised? I confessed my undying love for you over a year ago. Did you think that just went away?"
Everyone looked awkwardly away from Barry and Iris, feeling uncomfortable to be standing here for this conversation.
"You have a weird way of showing it, Barry," Iris said coldly, "Jumping into bed with every girl you see."
"Like I said," Barry shrugged, "It's just sex. Didn't realize it would bother you so much."
Iris let out an incredulous laugh, giving Barry a look of utter disbelief.
"I seriously don't even know what to say to that, Barry," she said, shaking her head.
Barry shrugged then and put his hands in his jacket pockets.
"Okay," he shrugged, "What do I need to do to prove it to you?"
Iris blinked at him.
"What?" she asked.
"What do I need to do to prove to you that you're the only girl for me?" Barry asked calmly.
Iris stared at him and shook her head, her face burning slightly to be having this conversation in front of the others, who were silently averting their eyes as the two talked.
"You'll come home," Iris said after a moment, "You'll come home with us."
Barry let out a small sigh and shook his head, an amused smile on his face.
"I have a better idea," he smirked.
And with that, Barry suddenly flashed away, taking off across the water of the famous Bellagio fountains to add his own flash of lightning to the lights and water show.
He disappeared amongst the lights.
They all stood there in shock, none of them knowing what to do.
"Well this is just great," Joe muttered in frustration.
"What do we do now?" Cisco asked, "Barry could be anywhere."
"Everyone just stay calm," Caitlin said, keeping a cool head.
"Stay calm?" Iris asked incredulously, "Barry's running around somewhere in Las Vegas, under the influence of some metahuman that whammied him, and you want us to stay calm?!"
"Cisco," Caitlin said urgently, "Can you track him with facial recognition again?"
Cisco nodded and pulled out his tablet, repeating the same process as before.
"It looks like he went to another casino," Cisco sighed, "It's on Charleston Boulevard."
"Okay," Joe sighed, moving to flag down a taxi, "Let's go."
And so it started. The four of them climbed into a cab and made their way to the parking garage on Charleston Boulevard. By the time they got there, though, Barry was gone. Facial recognition then picked him up on a street camera on the strip, so they turned around their cab and went there. No luck. Next was another casino on the other side of town. They thought for sure they'd have him in one place for a while then, figuring he'd be there for at least an hour, but by the time they got there, Barry was gone—on the other side of town in another casino.
"He's doing this on purpose," Joe said furiously, "He's purposely going back and forth to casinos on opposite sides of the city so that we spend our time driving all night. I'm sure he's having a good laugh about it."
"We're just wasting our time," Iris sighed, "We've been chasing Barry for four hours, and all we've managed to do is blow over two-hundred dollars on taxi fare."
"Well, I'm sure Barry can more than cover it when he sees us next," Cisco pointed out, "He is definitely reimbursing us for this. Personally, I wouldn't mind if he got me a little extra something for the trouble…maybe a car."
The others rolled their eyes at him.
"We need to be smarter than him," Joe said seriously, "Right now, we're just chasing tails here."
"What else do you propose we do?" Caitlin asked tiredly.
It was nearing midnight, and they all were growing tired of Barry's stupid goose chase through Las Vegas.
"We could wait for him at his hotel," Iris suggested, "That's the one place we know he's going to be eventually."
Her father shook his head.
"No," he said, "I don't like the idea of just waiting up for him while runs around Vegas doing God knows what."
"Well, his hotel isn't the only place we know Barry's going to be," Cisco said.
They all furrowed their eyebrows at him.
"Right now, we know he's at a casino on the south side of the city," he explained, "And if we've learned anything over the last four hours of chasing him, we know where he's going to go next."
"The strip," Joe said, a smile forming on his face, "You're right. He's been alternating his casinos in a pattern. We can be one step ahead of him."
After turning around their taxi, Iris asked the pressing question.
"Which casino are we going to?"
"There are forty major casinos on the Las Vegas strip," Cisco said, typing on his tablet, "Barry's been to six of them tonight. While we've been driving all night, I've been tracking his facial recognition history over the last few weeks, and I located him at sixteen of them. It's unlikely he'd return to them so soon. I also managed to hack my way into some casino databases and know he's been blacklisted at eight of them."
"So that leaves…" Joe said.
"Ten casinos Barry could appear at yet tonight," Cisco concluded, "Granted, I may have missed a few in my search. I couldn't hack into every database, and facial recognition only gets us so far. Either way, it's narrowed down to these ten places, which is more to go off of than we had before."
"Good work, Cisco," Joe said seriously, "I think the best way to handle this would be to divide and conquer. A lot of these casinos are right next to each other. One person can probably cover two of them just by standing outside."
And that's exactly what they did. They each got out of the cab at different casinos, assuming their posts along different parts of the strips, on the lookout for Barry. Iris stood alone outside the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino, keeping her eyes peeled for a sudden streak of lightning to announce Barry's presence. That lightning never came. Barry didn't come running up to the casino.
No. Instead, he came rolling up, riding a sleek black motorcycle. Iris goggled at him as he dismounted the bike and sauntered up to her, still wearing his expensive black suit and tie.
"I see you guys finally changed your strategy," he chuckled, "I was wondering how long it would take you to split up. It's been amusing watching you drive back and forth."
Iris's hands balled into fists.
"There's nothing amusing about this, Barry," she seethed, "We've been looking for you for hours! Where have you been?!"
"Honestly?" Barry laughed, "I've just been enjoying the show. I stopped at a few casinos, won a couple K, but mostly I've just been watching you guys."
"Why?!" Iris demanded, "Why are you doing this, Barry? Why are you making us chase after you, worrying sick about you?!"
"Hey, I didn't make you guys come to Vegas," Barry shrugged.
He stepped closer to her then, invading her space until they were both breathing the same air.
"But I'm glad you did," he whispered, his eyes boring into hers.
Iris was momentarily stunned into silence, captivated by the intense look in Barry's eyes. The spell was broken, however, when Iris suddenly felt his hand slip out of her pocket.
"Hey!" she protested, when she noticed her phone in his hand.
"Can't have you calling Joe," Barry teased, "It took me all night to get you alone."
Iris goggled at him.
"You…you wanted us to split up?" she stammered.
Barry let out a loud laugh.
"Of course," he said simply, "Why do you think I ran in a pattern? I knew you guys would catch onto it eventually and devise a plan around it. I swear, you all don't give my intelligence enough credit sometimes. Then again, my legs were always more valuable to the team than my brain."
"That's not true, Barry, and you know it," Iris said angrily, "Will you please stop saying that?"
Barry shrugged and pocketed Iris's cell phone.
"None of that matters right now anyways," he said, running a hand along her arm, "What matters is that you're here, I'm here, and we're standing in one of the most beautiful cities in the world."
"Barry," Iris said seriously, "I—"
"Shh," Barry said, putting a finger gently to her lips, "I know you want me to go home, and I will. I'll make good on my promise to be home by three. I was always planning to honor that promise anyways. All I ask is that you let everything go for now. For just a couple hours, have some fun, Iris. We're in Las Vegas, and after all…what happens in Vegas…"
Barry leaned closer to whisper in her ear.
"Stays in Vegas."
"Barry," Iris said seriously, gently pushing his shoulders back so she could look at him, "You need to listen to me. You're not thinking clearly right now."
"Actually, I don't think my head has ever been clearer," Barry said, brushing her cheek with the back of his fingers.
Iris felt a shiver go down her spine.
"Barry," Iris said quietly, "We need to call—"
"I'll let you call Joe in two hours," Barry said reasonably, "Spend two hours in Vegas with me, Iris, and then I'll let you call Joe."
"Barry," Iris sighed.
"Or I could just take off right now, and we can resume our little chase game," Barry smirked.
Iris opened and closed her mouth, not knowing what to say. What could she do? She couldn't call the others with her phone in Barry's pocket, and if she refused to stay with him, Barry would take off again. If she stayed with him, then at least she could keep an eye on him for the next two hours, stop him from doing anything reckless. Really, her choice was made for her.
"Okay," Iris said quietly, "Two hours, and then we call my dad."
Barry's face broke out into a wide grin.
"I mean it, Barry," Iris said seriously, "Two hours. Promise?"
Barry laughed and stuck out his little finger.
"Pinky promise," he grinned.
Iris sighed and hooked her little finger with his.
"Okay," Barry said quickly then, "Let's go."
"Where are we going?" Iris asked worriedly.
"No time for questions," Barry laughed, "I only have two hours to show you all my favorite places in Vegas."
With that, Iris suddenly found herself to be moving, being flashed through Las Vegas by a very different Barry Allen than what she was used to.
What the hell had she gotten herself into?!