Thap thap thap thap thap thap

Her sneakers beat out a rhythm on the asphalt.

Thap thap thap thap thap

Linda Park, seventeen years old, a freshman at Coast City University, smiled to herself as she made the turn on the campus racetrack. Her boyfriend had turned her on to the idea of jogging as a way to stay in shape. Plus, after a full day of studying indoors, it was an excellent way to unwind.

Not, of course, that she'd ever love running the way he did...

Then a red-and-yellow blur surrounded her.

Only the keenest of eyes could have noticed her pace slacken momentarily. "Hello there."

The blur turned into a lithe, spandex-clad boy with shockingly red hair, about her age and size, jogging beside her. "Hey, Jinx!" Kid Flash said, grinning widely.

"Wally!" she scolded. "I told you not to call me that!"

"Okay," he drawled, eyes sparkling. "...Lindybird."

"Wally!" she laughed, half exasperated, half amused. "You're incorrigible!"

"Yup. And you're invited to incorrige me all you want." With that, the Flash's protege took off on a full lap of the track, returning to her side before she could blink.

Linda Park, a.k.a. Jinx, a.k.a. (but only to Kid Flash) Lindybird, groaned. "Seriously, though--what if somebody heard you?"

He looked around. "Nobody here but us superchickens."

"All right, but--I just don't like being reminded of that part of my life."

"Sorry." He decided not to mention that he knew that she gained entry to the track by jinxing the lock and that she was out past curfew.

I hope he doesn't know I'm trespassing and breaking curfew, Linda thought to herself. Truthfully, she did tend to break some rules when they proved too inconvenient for her; but as for crime, she'd been completely clean for the last five months--ever since Wally entered her life, like a moralistic, wisecracking tornado.

But she still had an aversion to the name. Like most of the other HIVE Academy students, her name and costume had been designed by their career guidance counselor, Ms. Andi Edom. One look at her and she'd declared, "A goth, my dear, definitely a goth," and her appearance had been altered accordingly. Once she'd stopped applying hair dye and makeup, took out her colored contacts, and started going out in the sunlight more often ("90% of our 'work' was at night," as she'd once told Wally, she was no longer recognizable as the ex-leader of the Hive Five.

There's no way you could tell she was once one of Jump City's most wanted criminals, Wally West thought to himself as he effortlessly kept pace with his girlfriend, stride for stride. Her jet-black hair was pulled into a ponytail, which bounced gently on the back of her equally black hooded sweatshirt; faded blue track pants and white sneakers completed her apparel. Her skin had also reverted to its natural pigmentation, a golden tan. In fact, she looked absolutely normal in every way save one: her eyes.

He still remembered the first time he'd seen them without the contacts. He'd been away from Linda for two weeks on various missions since a few days after the defeat of the Brotherhood of Evil. When it was all over, he came to the apartment she was renting in Gateway City. He'd known that her initial appearance hadn't been her natural one, but he'd still been pleasantly surprised. "It won't be long now before you look just like a regular girl," he'd remarked.

Linda had hesitated and said, "I don't think so." Then, slowly, she'd taken off the sunglasses she'd been wearing.

He'd been dumbstruck. "Oh, wow," he'd whispered softly.

"What?"

"Your eyes..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Those eyes were downcast. "They're freakish."

"No, no, no..." He lifted her chin and looked straight into them. "They're like... like crystals--crystal balls... Like I can look into them and see the whole universe..."

"You--" her voice caught-- "you don't think they're--scary or anything?"

"I think you're gonna have to beat off the guys in your college with a stick."

She gasped, then grabbed him in a hug while sobbing near-hysterically. When she calmed down, he learned that he was the first person to ever compliment her pearly off-white irises, which, together with the catlike pupils they framed, had set her apart from the crowd since her birth. The other kids at the orphanage where she grew up tormented her over them; even when her powers manifested and she joined the HIVE--itself no hotbed of inconspicuous physiques--fellow students claimed to have been unnerved by them before she received her pink lenses.

While Wally's prediction hadn't come completely true--there were still some jerks who made fun of her--her self-esteem had received a tremendous boost that night. She no longer was the little girl desperately seeking the approval (and, by proxy, respect) of her elders.

Linda became aware that she was being stared at. "I've seen thatlook before. What're you thinking about?"

"Er--food."

"Food?" she repeated skeptically.

"Yeah, um, I think I'll go grab some burgers for when you're done."

"Is that all you were thinking about?"

"Almost." Then he gave her a quick peck on the cheek and zoomed out of sight.

Linda felt herself blush; then she laughed out loud. That Wally! She never knew quite what to expect from him.

* * *

"Watch this, Linda! Watch me!"

True to his word, Kid Flash had gotten burgers--pickles and onions for her, extra mustard for him--as well as a bottle of soda, from an all-night fast-food joint. When Linda had jokingly pointed out that he'd forgotten the "incredibly romantic straws," he'd fetched those too in the blink of an eye.

Now, as she sat in the bleachers finishing her meal, she watched her boyfriend's antics on the field below. She had to chuckle; that soda had probably been a bad idea, but Wally had no one but himself to blame for his attack of hyperactivity. Long jump, high jump, pole vault, even (comically) an attempt at shot-putting, every so often pausing to shout, "Watch this!"; currently, he was doing what he did best: burning up the track.

"Linda! Hey, Linda!"

She swallowed the last bite of the burger. "Yes?"

"Watch me! Watch how fast I can go!" With that, the whole lap became a red-and-yellow blur.

She rolled her eyes. Boys! As soon as this latest testosterone display was over, she planned to bid him good night. Already she was planning how to sneak back into the dorm...

She blinked.

Then she saw it again.

For split seconds, the image of Wally in mid-run had appeared in the blur. There it was again--and again!

"Wally...?"

Little tingles ran up and down her body. Then, abruptly, every single hair on her head stood on end.

"Wally??"

There was a sound now--like a cross between a crackle and a hum. The number of "still" images increased, as did the pitch of the sound. Small objects beside the track--rocks, twigs, litter--began to rise up into the air.

"Wally!"

For an instant, the blur disappeared entirely, leaving only Wally, directly in front of her, frozen in mid-stride.

Then there was an enormous burst of light.

And when Linda blinked the sight back to her eyes--nothing.

Kid Flash had vanished.