It's time.
With the arrival of Eddie and his task force, the team is ready. Everyone's in the cortex, looking at the trap.
Barry is somewhere else in the building, away from the cortex, like Dr. Wells asked, but he is connected with the team on comms.
"Okay, let's catch ourselves a speedster," Dr. Wells says. "Cisco, send the pulse," He orders.
"Sending tachyon pulse in 1...2...3..." Cisco does a little countdown and sends it.
They then wait and watch. A few minutes go by, but nothing happens.
"Send it again," Dr Wells says. "Okay... sending another pulse, 1...2...3..." Cisco sends another pulse, and after another few minutes, there is still no result.
"Again," Dr. Wells says. "Sending out another pulse," Cisco says and sends another one.
"Is this trap even going to work?" Eddie asks, getting frustrated.
"I've sent up at least three charges into open satellite. If anyone's looking for tachyonic particles, they'll know we got them," Cisco says, and the team goes back to watching the screens when suddenly.
There is a flash of red lightning, and a man wearing a full-body yellow suit seems to be trapped within the energy barrier.
They all watch with wide eyes, seeing the man in yellow try to break free from the trap. "Let's see what we caught," Dr. Wells says.
Barry, who is away from the cortex, also sees the man in the yellow suit trapped inside on his phone, which is connected to the S.T.A.R. Labs server.
He, of course, doesn't see anything wrong with it because phone screens are not fast enough to show real-time footage. Screens refresh every time to change the image they are displaying, and they are not fast enough to actually show what's happening in real time, or Barry would have immediately seen the facade that Dr. Wells is pulling against the team.
Barry smirks, already knowing what all this is about, but he plays along with Dr. Wells. Barry admits that acting oblivious, even though he knows everything, is a little fun. With how fast he is, all these schemes from Dr. Wells are completely useless. Overwhelming strength really does foil all schemes.
But now Barry wonders what Dr. Wells is planning? Just because he is somewhere else within the S.T.A.R. Labs doesn't mean he can't just run down there and foil everything Dr. Wells has set up; he must have planned something else.
And just like he expected, the emergency bells start going off, and in the comms, Barry hears Caitlin's voice.
"Explosions heard in the city center plaza. Multiple injuries have already been reported," Caitlin says.
"Flash, you need to go and save those people. We can handle it here. The man in yellow is already trapped. He is not going anywhere," Dr. Wells says.
Barry finally figures it out. If Dr. Wells can't keep Barry away from the lab, he will force him by causing chaos somewhere else, and since Barry is a champion of good, he cannot ignore the people in need.
"I am on my way," Barry says and leaves.
Back at the Cortex, Dr. Wells has a sly smile that no one notices as he starts rolling out, while Joe, Eddie, and the task force follow him down to talk to the man in yellow, well, to be accurate, a pre-recorded hologram of the man in yellow.
____________________
Barry arrives at the city center plaza and sees people running scared out of their minds. Barry can see the look of fear in their eyes. He looks around, trying to find a culprit, when suddenly an explosion starts to go off.
Of course, Barry enters Flash Time before the explosion reaches its utmost limit. Barry sees a mother and her child about to be vaporized by the fireball.
Barry immediately runs towards them, grabs them, and relocates them, but he doesn't stop here. He starts moving fast, relocating every person he sees to the cusp of danger, and while doing so, he sees the person responsible for all this.
A red-haired woman. She is grabbing small pellets before throwing them at civilians. Barry recognizes this woman. It's that Meta Human who can turn anything into an explosive by just touching it with her hand, the one who didn't show up when he was expecting her to.
But in the show, this one was supposed to be one of the good ones, so why is she committing acts of terrorism? Barry wonders.
Barry decides to put an end to this instantly. He runs to her, grabs her face, and moves it a little, and stops it without applying any speed force on her. He then grabs the charged pellets from her hands and throws them up in the sky before exiting Flash Time.
The girl immediately gets knocked out as her brain hits the inside of her skull, giving her a mild concussion. Barry, of course, held back a lot because if he had done it any faster, her brain would have been turned into mush.
Now out cold, he grabs her by her shirt and carries her back to S.T.A.R. Labs to put her behind the containment cell.
After putting Plastique inside the containment cell, Barry returns to the Cortex and sees Caitlin and Cisco looking at the screens. Barry stops, alerting them.
He joins them to watch as the man in yellow and Dr. Wells seem to be having a conversation, when suddenly, another alarm goes off.
"What is it this time?" Barry asks. Cisco switches to another screen to see what's happening. "Bank robbery, an active hostage situation!" Cisco says.
"On it," Barry says and immediately leaves. Barry realizes that Dr. Wells' plan is to keep him busy until his whole act gets complete, and it's indeed a very good plan because Barry will always prioritize civilian lives.
Barry arrives at the bank and sees people cowering in fear as a big man who is completely made of metal is destroying everything in his wake.
"Woodward?" Barry says, surprised, as this is the first time he has seen Woodward since his escape into the sewers.
This time, Barry's not going to make the same mistake. He runs up to Woodward, who is about to bring his hands down on a helpless old man. Barry grabs him by the legs and runs him out of the bank at above Mach speed.
He throws Woodward forward at Mach speed before making a run around the block at Mach 7 speed, arriving before Woodward and punching the shit out of his metallic face. The force of the punch immediately knocks out Woodward, and his metal skin goes back to normal. Barry then carries him back to S.T.A.R. Labs and locks him in one of the containment cells, when suddenly another alarm goes off.
"Flash, there is a fire at the west side gated residence," Caitlin says.
"On my way," Barry says and runs out of the Lab again.
'Looks like Wells is going to make me run a lot,' Barry thinks as he makes his way towards the gated community.