Hello, all! A few quick announcements before we start. First off, thank you to everyone who takes the time to leave comments. It really makes my day.

Secondly, this episode is dedicated to all of the police officers and security guards who work in the DC and Marvel universes and don't get the respect they deserve.

Thirdly: In terms of continuity, this episode takes place a week AFTER the particle accelerator explosion. Also, there are no Mirakuru junkies running around. As to why, there's a hint in the episode, and the reason for this, and any other plot points that seem confusing, will be revealed in time. I have Plans, oh my yes...

"What's in Star City?" Martha asked.

"I had this friend," the Doctor told them. "Phil, his name was. Security guard at Queen Consolidated. Met him back in the '90s while Adam Strange and I were tracking this rogue Rannian revolutionary…"

He sniffed. "Try saying that five times fast. Martha, zigzag plotter. That control by your left hand. We're headed for December 18, 2008."

"Why's he calling you for help?" Barry asked, pushing a button at the Doctor's nod as the central column began to move up and down.

"He's not. That was his wife. He was killed last night."


The trio strode into Queen Consolidated, Phil's former workplace, Barry's eyes flicking around as he absorbed everything he could. The Doctor led them confidently towards a group of people gathered around a tablet. One was a grizzled-looking cop, another a tall black man whose posture and broad shoulders hinted that he was ex-military, a beautiful blond woman who looked a little like Kara, and…

"Oh my God, isn't that Oliver Queen?" Barry whispered to Martha.

"Oh, right, I forgot, you wouldn't know," she told him in the same tone of voice. "He came back in, uh, June 2007. Apparently he and some other guy were stuck on an island for five years."

"Wow. Everyone thought he was dead. His dad? Was he the other guy?"

"No…I remember hearing about it on the news. A little, you know? I think it was some Australian guy."

Oh wow. I'm about to meet a celebrity!

"This is what we're able to pull off the security cameras," the policeman was saying, holding out his tablet. "He was the only guy we got on video. The rest of the crew must have come in after him."

"Actually, it was only one man," the Doctor announced, coat billowing behind him as he strode over. "John Smith, with the Central City CSI unit. This is my partner, Martha Jones, and our intern Barry Allen."

He flashed the psychic paper. Barry saw Oliver Queen's eyebrows jump. His eyes flickered over Barry for a second, with a look of…recognition? Then he composed himself and shook their hands. His grip, Barry noted, was calloused and firm.

"Intern, huh?"

"Yeah, uh…"

"We've had all sorts of strange cases since the explosion a week ago," the Doctor interjected, and Barry nodded along as if he knew exactly what his friend was talking about.

"We have a case with some similar unexplained elements in Central City, so when we heard about this one, we came up here."

"And you think one guy ripped through this door like it was tin foil?" the policeman, whose name badge read Lance, questioned skeptically.

The Doctor sniffed. "One very strong guy, yeah. You saw those marks on his neck? Martha?"

She looked up. "It takes about, uh, 1,250 foot pounds of torque to break someone's neck. The bruising pattern we saw on the corpse…"

"Looks like the killer only used one hand," Barry put in. "I'm guessing you don't know how hard it is to break someone's neck."

"Hmm?" Oliver asked blandly. "No. No idea."

"Uh, we're going to need a list of the entire inventory here to figure out exactly what was stolen," a man at Oliver's elbow piped up.

"Probably an industrial centrifuge," the Doctor told them, leading the way over to where a stand had rested. "Allen, any ideas on the model?"

Barry squatted down. "There's three sets of broken bolts there, maybe, I dunno, the Kord Enterprises 2BX 900, could be the six series…"

"Very good," the Doctor praised, and Barry tried not to look too flattered.

"And what exactly is a centrifuge?" the policeman asked.

"It separates liquids," the blond explained. "The centripetal acceleration causes denser substances to separate out along the radial direction."

"And lighter objects move to the top," Barry nodded, impressed.

"What did you say your name was again?" she asked.

"Barry Allen."

"Felicity. Felicity Smoak."

"Anyway," Barry brushed at his hair as Mr. Queen went down one knee to study the bolts, "you can see the cracks heading towards the door. Footsteps. One guy. Anyway, it's just a theory. One backed by a lot of evidence."

"There has to be another explanation," the policeman scoffed.

"Yeah, okay," Barry shrugged.


Oliver had them set up some forensic equipment they'd gotten from a TARDIS storeroom in a corner of the lab. The Doctor went to work on assembling the equipment as Barry lent a helping hand and chattered about how he'd always wanted to become a CSI in his original life to clear his father's name, and Martha replayed the video clip from the security cameras.

"Hey Doctor, Barry, come look at this," Martha called. "It looks like this guy's skin…kinda changed, right before he knocked the camera out."

Barry leaned over her shoulder, watched as the man turned to glance up at the camera, and his breath caught in his throat.

"Oh my God," he breathed. He realized that his nails were digging into his palms, and made a conscious effort to unclench his fists.

"You recognize him?" Martha asked.

"His name's Tony Woodward," Barry almost growled. "He was a childhood bully of mine."

When his history had been rewritten, so much of Barry's life had changed too. Some things, though, hadn't—his friendships with Jaime Reyes and Kyle Rayner, for example, had stayed pretty much the same, or the time he got suspended for mixing glycerol with an oxidizing agent for his science fair project (he'd still gotten an A, though). Another thing that had stayed the same were his memories of Tony Woodward.

Geek, loser, princess, dork…those were just a few of the names he'd given Barry over the years, from elementary school all the way through most of high school, in addition to all the usual bully tactics like swirlies, noogies, and almost random shoves and punches. He'd backed off after Kara had put him in an armbar in eleventh grade in front of their entire geometry class, but he'd left behind a legacy of pain and humiliation that had lasted for years.

"Bare? You okay?" the Doctor asked gently.

"What? Yeah, yeah, fine," he shook his head. "Let's, let's, uh, focus on this."

"You're not the only one who had childhood bullies," his friend told him gently. Barry swallowed.


"Did you find anything?" Oliver asked a while later.

"Yeah, yeah," Barry straightened up from his computer. "There were trace amounts of sucrose and a spec of dirt the killer dragged in here on his boot. Which got us thinking."

"We checked, there's a sugar refinery two miles from here," Martha picked up. "The land around it is suffused in waste sugar. So I called them. They had a delivery truck stolen a few days ago. Their truck matches the make and model of the truck the thief used to steal the centrifuge."

"Can you track the vehicle?" Oliver asked. The Doctor sniffed.

"Is the atomic weight of cobalt 58.9?"

Oliver blinked. "I don't know. Is it?"

"Yes," the Doctor muttered. "Blimey, what do they teach you in schools these days?"

Oliver sighed through his nose.

"There's something else," the Doctor said, all levity gone. "The perp is Tony Woodward. He grew up in Central City, has a criminal record. Violence, petty theft, assault, going way back to juvie. He was affected by…what happened last week. He has the ability to transform his skin into metal, and superhuman strength."

"Great," Oliver muttered. "How do we stop a man of steel?"

"We've been brainstorming," Martha said. "We think that if we can hit him at Mach 1.1, even in his metal form, we'll be able to put him down."

Oliver's eyes flickered to Barry for half a second. "How do we do that?"

"We've reached out to Detective Joe West of the CCPD," the Doctor told them. "He's made contact with Central City's vigilante, the speedster. As soon as we get a hit, he'll run down Woodward and take him out."

"Oh yeah?"

"Uh-huh. Can you have Detective Lance get in contact with the Arrow? Have him pin down Woodward long enough for the speedster to hit him. It'll take the speedster a little time to work up enough momentum. He'll need Woodward to be more or less still for a few minutes."

"Do you think the Arrow will work with this speedster?" Oliver asked, folding his arms. "He's notoriously independent."

"Bit of a douche, really," Mr. Diggle, Oliver's bodyguard, added. Oliver's lips compressed just slightly.

"Oh, I think he will," the Doctor said cheerfully, sticking his hands in his pockets and raising his eyebrows at Oliver. "If he's not too green with envy."

Just then, the computer beeped.

"Facial recognition got a match," the Doctor announced, spinning on his heel to peer at the monitor. "52nd and Davies."

"I'll tell Detective Lance to get in touch with the Arrow," Oliver nodded, taking out his phone. "Better have the speedster get ready too."

"He will be," Barry promised.


Night in Star City. Those of a philosophical persuasion might have said that the lights of the city shone in defiance of the dark. Those of a more practical persuasion might have commented that the lights also made it a lot easier for the inhabitants of the city to get around. Tony Woodward, on the other hand, saw the lights of the city street ahead and was hoping that, now he'd delivered the centrifuge to a gang planning to use it to make drugs and been handsomely paid in return, they meant a good drink or five. At least, that was what he had been thinking, until an arrow thudded into the ground at his feet.

"Tony Woodward!" the Arrow announced. "You have failed this city!"

"Oh, yeah?"

With the exasperated sigh of a hard-working man who was being kept from his beer, Tony turned his skin to steel. He spun, grabbed the door of the nearest car, ripped it off, and sent it flying at the shadowy figure on the rooftop.

Before the door had even left his hands, however, the hero had ducked, rolled, and fired a grappling arrow at the opposite rooftop. As the door whistled overhead, he leapt straight off the roof, using the line to slow his descent. Tony let out a growl and charged as the dark green figure slipped into the alleyway.

He charged, swinging a fist that could've pulverized concrete. At the last second, the Arrow dodged aside, and Tony growled as his hand buried itself in a brick wall. He wriggled it out, growling again as an arrow glanced off of his metal skin. It was no more painful than an insect bite, but it was annoying. He turned and peered down the alleyway again. The Arrow had disappeared. He took a step forward, then another. Before he could move any further, a third arrow whistled out of the darkness and struck him in the chest. Instead of sticking or bouncing off, though, half a dozen cables sprang from the arrow and wrapped around him, pinning his arms to his sides.

"Come on!" Tony bellowed, struggling. Even with his enhanced strength, though, it took him a few seconds to break through.

It was a few seconds too many.

Just behind him came a boom, and before he could turn, there was a flash of incredible pain, then…nothing.

The Arrow looked up at his red-suited compatriot and nodded. "Nice job."

"Thanks!"

"Pleasure working with you. If you ever need anything…"

"You can always give us a call," the Doctor told Detective Lance. "I had a word with one of your tech people. We whipped up a force field that'll hold Woodward long enough for you to put together something more permanent. This won't be the last metahuman you have to lock up."

"Meta…human," Lance frowned, then shook his head. "Need to come up with a better term. Anyway, give my best to Singh."

"Will do," Martha agreed, following the Doctor's gaze to where Barry stood with Felicity, Oliver, and Diggle.

"It's been a pleasure meeting you, Barry Allen," Oliver was saying. "If you ever need anything, you can call on me."

"Wow! Will do. Thanks!" Barry said. "It's been, wow, huge pleasure. Really big. Really great to meet you in person. I mean…"

He kept babbling until the Doctor came over and shared a handshake with the others, then gently guided Barry and Martha away. As Barry hurried ahead, looking up with a grin at the blue skies above, Martha leaned closer to the Doctor.

"What's with that smirk, mister? You've been grinning like the Cheshire cat all morning."

"It's starting," the Doctor told her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "The age of heroes is beginning."

Yeah, Barry still thinks Felicity is cute, but obviously there's not going to be any major ship tease between them since he's already taken.

Next week: The TARDIS lands in Cardiff, the Doctor reunites with an old friend, and Barry makes a fateful decision...