Barry had been enjoying a late breakfast with Iris when the first robot appeared. He had a late shift, Bart was in school and Iris' article had made the front page. It was proving to be a good morning which as any superhero would tell you is an extremely rare luxury.
No surprise then when it was interrupted.
"Remind me why I accepted the transfer again?" He said to his wife with a wry smile before leaning over to kiss her. Before Iris Allen opened her eyes after their lips had parted, The Flash had pulled the blind man away from the grabbing robot.
The machine clutched at nothing but red and gold streaked air.
It tried to target Barry as he zipped across the park, unable to get a lock even when he paused to vibrate the fallen Maple at its resonant frequency. The branches shattered and mother and child were free.
Only then did Barry stop, waving his arms in the air to drag the robot's attention away from the fleeing mother. He was sure he saw someone else helping with the other citizens.
"Hey! HEY! HEEEEY!!" The robot's head turned and two lasers shot towards The Flash. The hit nothing but dirt, Barry was six feet to the left. The robot fired again. Barry was eight feet forward. Another shot. Another miss. The shoot, miss, shoot game continued as The Flash sped across to where Superman landed.
"Hey Blue," he said, not slowing for a moment and confident Clark could hear him, "I've got your back, Son." Then Superman was hurtling skywards, fist balled.
It didn't matter who you were, that was a hell of an inspiring sight.
Not that Barry had much time to watch it, there were still lasers and grabbing arms to dodge. Which he did, again and again until he was close enough to the machine to zip up it's leg and body. He came to a halt at the back of the machine's head, out of the reach of the arms and lasers.