Oh. My. God. Guys, this is it. The final chapter of Struck By Lightning. We've reached it. Thank you to everyone who read this. You all rock. I'll say more at the end. But for now, enjoy.
"Alright. Is everyone clear on the plan?" Sara asked, her voice filtering through the earpiece Felicity had fitted him with earlier.
"The only part I'm not clear on is why Barry is a part of this." This time it was Olivers annoyed voice Barry heard through the comm.
"So that I can save your butts if you end up being too slow and this guy gets away," Barry replied, unable to stop himself from egging Oliver on.
"I'll show you who's too slow!"
"Boys!" Felicity yelled, causing them all to jump. "You can lay them out and measure later. For now, stick to the plan!"
The plan was this. Felicity, being the brilliant computer genius she was, was able to get a track on the signature of the skeleton key. That led them to Starling City First National Bank, where their guy and the police already were. Oliver and Sara were to enter through the side and back doors, in an attempt to try to corner their would-be robber. Barry, who was once again wearing the 'Not at all conspicuous' red sweatshirt, was stationed by the street, as a last ditch effort in case the other two didn't succeed.
Of course, Barry thought it was all seemed rather silly. The police had the building surrounded, so he didn't see a way their guy could give Starling City's finest the slip. He would admit that he was probably being a little biased, working alongside Central's police force, but he was pretty sure SCPD could do their jobs well enough.
But if it postponed his return to Central City, Barry wasn't going to start complaining.
So Barry stayed as far out of sight as he could without actually being away from all the action, as was his part of this mission. He needed to be able to reach any part of the building in a flash, so that included actually being able to see the building.
That also included his utmost control over his super speed, which he assured Team Arrow he had. He just hoped he wasn't lying.
Barry was stuck behind the police barricade, hood pulled up to hide his face as best as possible, looking the part of just another spectator. He was starting to wonder if anything exciting would happen when Sara spoke through the comms again.
"Barry! He got away! You're up!"
"Which way did he go?" Barry asked, already moving towards the alley to the side of the bank. There didn't seem to be anything there, just an old delivery van and lots of garbage.
There was a sigh that sounded very much like Oliver getting ready to deliver bad news.
"We don't know."
"Well that's helpful. He couldn't have gotten far yet, police have this place surr-" Barry trailed off as he noticed the van again. He was still a whole street length away from the alley, but was that a router antenna on top?
"Barry?"
"West Entrance. He's got a getaway plan!"
"You know what to do! Stop him!"
Easier said than done Canary.
Okay Barry, now's your time. You got this.
At that moment, their goon made his exit, smashing through the door and nearling crashing into the side of the van. He jumped inside and the van started, and was about to peel out of the alley, but there was suddenly an idiot in red standing in his way that wasn't there before. Barry, amazed that is actually worked, went to move towards the doors, when the van started reversing towards the opposite street behind them. Barry went to move in flash forward to block them again, but found his way blocked by a dumpster that definitely wasn't in his way before.
Damn. Alright let's try this again.
Barry tried to speed behind the van, but of course his abilities chose that moment to fail him. He cursed and jumped towards the van, grabbing the back door handle and managing to slide it open as the van kept moving, and was greeted by a man with a gun.
"Crap."
"Barry! Down!" This time Sara's voice was coming from right behind him, so he did as he was told, and got out of the way just as Sara fired at the man in the van. It sped away and Saras ran after it, getting off a few more shots before it was out of range. Oliver chose that moment to join them, and when he saw the van gone, Sara looking angry at the road behind the bank, and Barry on the ground, he said what everyone was thinking.
"Damn"
"You said you had control over your abilities!" Oliver yelled.
"I do!" Barry yelled back. "Mostly. Besides, this wasn't my fault!"
"Mostly doesn't cut it, Allen. He got away, in case you didn't notice."
"That's because you weren't able to stop him. I'm not the vigilante here."
"No, but you insisted you could help. You said you'd be able to stop him if he got passed us."
"Oliver, be fair. All of this is new to Barry," Felicity said. Her and Sara were standing by the computer bank in the foundry, watching Oliver and Barry throw words from across the lab table.
"I knew this was a bad idea," Oliver said, no longer yelling. That almost made it worse, because now he was using his vigilante voice.
"Fine. Sorry for trying to help." Barry took off the red hoodie, threw it on the chair behind him, and disappeared up the stairs into Verdant.
"Wow," Felicity said, turning back to the computers.
"What?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all, Oliver."
"Felicity." Oliver moved towards her, trying and failing to get Felicity to look at him.
"It's just funny," Felicity started, spinning around in her chair. "How jealous you are of him."
Oliver just cocked his head at her, raising an eyebrow in question.
"She's right, you're jealous," Sara agreed from beside her. Oliver turned his gaze towards her, and Sara raised her hands in a gesture of peace. "I'm just calling it like I see it."
Oliver scoffed and crossed his arms, giving the two girls the patented Queen 'I'm disappointed in you' stare. "How could you possibly think I'm jealous of him?"
Felicity and Sara looked at each other, silent communication floating between the two, before turning their attention to Oliver.
"Well, for starters, he basically has superpowers. If there was anyone who would be jealous of that, my guess is the infamous Starling City vigilante would be that guy."
"Okay, say I was acting out of jealousy, which I'm not, what do you want me to do? He said he had a handle on this, but the guy got away because he didn't"
"Oliver, he got away because we weren't ready. That means all of us, you included," Sara said. "Barry's had the abilities for what? A week? He's doing the best he can."
"He let him get away."
"He slowed them down enough for me to get a few good shots in. We were able to get a blood sample from the other guy in the van. Considering Barry has zero experience doing stuff like this, I'd say that's a good start."
Oliver sighed, realizing he'd been defeated.
"So what do you want me to do?
Barry was a little weirded out, but not actually all that surprised, that Verdant was empty. It was nearing early morning, so the club had closed hours ago. Even Thea had gone home it seemed.
That was well and fine by him. He found the quiet to be comforting, even if it let his thoughts run. And boy were they running. His head would come up with a new idea, plan it, think it through, find solutions, and move on to the next before he even realized it happened. He supposed it was another side effect of his abilities, just another thing to add to his list of weird.
Now if only a certain green clad nuisance would leave him alone, he'd be golden.
"Did Felicity send you up here?' Barry asked the moment Oliver came out of the door that led to the foundry.
Oliver nodded. "She said I need to apologize to you."
"Did she now?"
"She was right." That was a surprise to Barry, Oliver admitting something like that. He'd only known Oliver for a short time, but it was pretty clear how stubborn the man could be. "I've kind of been a dick this past week."
"Kind of?" Oliver stopped in his path to the bar to glare at Barry. "Right, sorry. Continue."
"This has got to be tough on you, and my attitude towards it probably didn't make it any easier. So, I'm sorry."
"Me too," Barry said, surprising himself, and Oliver too judging by his reaction. "I shouldn't have been there tonight. I wasn't ready. I just needed to prove myself I think."
Oliver took a second to observe the kid in front of him. And he really was just that. A kid who has barely experienced the world, being thrown into the worst of it with nothing more than a 'Good luck.'
"There's nothing you need to prove. Not to us at least." Oliver reached under the bar to pull out a bottle and two glasses, pouring one and offering it to Barry. "Life sucks, but you just have to take it one hit at a time. I'd say you have a bit of an advantage."
Barry didn't respond to that, instead taking the glass with a small laugh. "The owner probably won't like you taking her alcohol very much."
"She's my sister, I'm sure she's fine with it. You are 21, right?"
"Very funny."
"Look Barry, I might not agree with the methods, but the results speak for themselves. You have a chance to do some real good, be a hero. Once you get a hold of what you can do, you'll be able to save people in a flash."
For the first time since everything started, Barry allowed himself to feel a little hope. "You think?"
"Of course. Just maybe not here. One vigilante in Starling is enough."
Okay. The end. It's over. This is pretty big, considering how often I do multi chapter stories (read as: never) Originally, this was going to be two chapters, but I really wanted to get this finished today, so I smushed it all into one. The plan was to get it up before The Flash premiered, but, well, I have a bad habit of getting distracted (I blame Fullmetal Alchemist. It's my new obsession) Thank you all again for sticking around staying with me. If The Flash gives me as much wonderful things to work with as Arrow does, you'll be hearing from me again soon.
~Cadet Eyes