(no subject)

[thescarletspeedster]

Barry's near the end of a long patrol that he tacked onto an already long workday, but he still takes the long route home. Whether one can actually sail away from Darrow or not, the view of the ocean and the smell of the salty air is too good to pass up, and Barry races along the shore, enjoying the way the sea mist seems to hang like a fog within the speed force. He leaves a crackle of red electricity in his wake, delighting a few of the children playing in the sand, and nearly pauses to help one little boy with his sandcastle when he spies something moving along the cliffs above.

It's a...robot...thing, he decides when his eyes can make sense of the large white and orange ball, flying across the bermuda grass in pursuit of - "Aw, a butterfly!" exclaims Barry with a grin, wondering what the little guy intends to do if he catches it. Collect it? Examine it? He has his hands on his hips and ready to behold whatever happens next, but then the robot begins to streak dangerously close to the cliffs' edge.

"Hey!" Barry calls up, "Hey! Robot...sphere! You're too close to the - "

But it's too late, the robot catches up with the butterfly just as the ground beneath it runs out, and for one second, it looks as if the robot will crash to the sand far below.

But one second is all Barry needs.

He races forward in a burst of electric light, running straight up the cliffside until he reaches the robot, suspended almost motionless and hovering in the air. It's heavier than Barry expects, but it's easy enough to put his arms around it and carry it a safe distance from the edge. "There we go," says Barry, depositing the machine onto a safe, marked path. "We almost lost you there."

Comments

[hellofarebel]

Poe had been in the middle of some repairs and he'd assumed that BB-8 could take care of himself, able to do some work without actually fixating on the droid. Turns out that he's completely, absolutely wrong, and BB-8 has vanished from his spot. Instantly, Poe's on his feet, digging out his phone to activate the tracking on BB-8, sprinting until he nearly falls off the cliff's edge himself, staggering back to find a man putting BB-8 down on a path.

"You know I can't find replacement parts for you here!" Poe says, riddled with panic and worry, even as BB-8 beeps back at him that he would have adjusted and cushioned his fall. "You're just lucky this nice man caught you," he interrupts, glancing to said nice man in a...really weird suit. "Is this a jogging thing? I mean, I get that people here run in weird things, but this seems weirder than usual."

[thescarletspeedster]

"Uh, well, sort of," says Barry with a laugh. "I'm the Flash!" He waits for some sign of recognition in the man's eyes, but there's none, and Barry turns a quick circle, showing off his lightning bolts. "The Flash? The Scarlet Speedster?"

His face falls a little. He's been in the papers lots of times, even without Iris to rally for him. "I'm a superhero?"

[hellofarebel]

He's not entirely sure what the Flash (or flashing anyone) has to do with this, and Poe would think this was completely weirder than it was, but he's the guy yelling at a droid who only speaks back in binary, so maybe he's not allowed to point fingers when it comes to strange, but maybe he just can't help it. That outfit is really, really odd. "Sorry, where I come from, we've got normal heroes," he says.

"Most of us just wear normal things? You know, jumpsuits, clothes, the occasional cape," he admits, "I think that's more for aesthetics than hero business, though."

[thescarletspeedster]

"Oh, right, well," says Barry, running one gloved hand down the leather stretching over his other arm, "It's functional. It's made from a special material that resists friction so I don't burst into flames when I run at superspeed." Left to his own devices, Barry wouldn't have chosen a skintight red leather outfit, but he's grateful for what he has.

He looks down at the robot. "You saw my speed, right?"

[hellofarebel]

BB-8 pipes back the exact speed, which can't be right. Poe gives the man a disbelieving look, having missed the actual running bit. "Okay, either BB-8 is glitching or you're faster than any ship I've ever flown in," he says, and he's not sure which of those two options seems more realistic. Truthfully, he's leaning towards the latter, if only because he prides himself on Bee's programming.

BB-8 starts to ramble on about wanting to run time trials, which has Poe feeling overwhelmed. "Calm down, hey, maybe he doesn't want to be your science subject," he tells his droid, giving the man an apologetic look. "I think he's bored, you clearly fascinate him."

[thescarletspeedster]

Barry watches the exchange with amusement, but it quickly morphs to surprise. "Can you understand each other?" he asks. "Wow, I was kidding - um, hi," he says, greeting BB-8 personally now, "I'm the Flash, nice to meet you."

Barry looks up. "How fast did he say I was going? I'd put it around mach 2 myself, and honestly, I wouldn't mind a few speed trials. I used to do them all the time at home."

[hellofarebel]

"I've learned enough droid over the last few years to understand BB-8 a little, but I'll probably never know exactly what he's saying," Poe admits. "He says it's about mach 2 and then a long list of exact decimals, which doesn't mean much to me. You're very, very fast," Poe offers, like he can be somehow helpful in this case.

"Sorry, I'm a pilot, I don't really get into the science side of things so much," he admits. "Also, The Flash? Legal name?" he can't help but tease with a bit of a smirk. "Was Speed-Man taken?"

[thescarletspeedster]

Barry brightens for BB-8's assessment, only to grimace faintly for Speed-Man. "They tried calling me the Streak when I first started out," he says, wincing all over again. "Believe me - The Flash is a huge improvement."

He looks down at the robot - or droid, apparently - in fascination. "I've never seen a spherical robot before. That's a great design idea. I bet you can get around anywhere, huh?" he asks.

[hellofarebel]

Poe feels like he's allowed to laugh at that because it's pretty funny. "Well, if you were the Streak, you might have wound up under people's attention more, though once they saw the suit, they'd know you're not stripping out of that in a flash," Poe says with the sparkle in his eye of a man who knows he just delivered a quality joke.

"BB-8's pretty versatile," Poe agrees, translating BB-8's proud acknowledgement. "Stairs can sometimes take a bit longer, but he's equipped for them. We made sure of that," he says, sharing a proud look with his droid.

[thescarletspeedster]

Barry blushes faintly. It's true that both the nicknames he's sported over the years have had double meanings - he's just not sure why they all involve getting naked in public. He's never been an exhibitionist. Poe, at least, seems to agree, and Barry happily turns his attention back to BB-8. "We?" he asks. "Did you program him? He's way more advanced than anything else I've seen in Darrow."

[hellofarebel]

"He came with his own programming, but I made some tweaks along the way," Poe says with a fond smile at the droid, seeing as he can't lay claim to all of BB-8, but he thinks that he can at least boast a little bit of pride at how incredible he is.

"I'm a pilot, back home, but we use droids to help us with our navigation, repairs, all the things that humans are slow at doing compared to a machine. We work pretty well together, though, even if there aren't any ships around to fly, not the way we did at home," Poe admits, "It's why I've been trying to keep BB-8 from getting too bored."