The sun beat down across the sands of Santa Monica Beach. All across the beach lay men, women and children of all ages out enjoying the California sun. Los Angeles had always been a changing city, ranging back from it's creation 1781 to the Spanish and had become home to many big pieces of history such as the incorporation of Hollywood and the boom of the movie industry. However while the rest of the United States, and the world at large, had seen the rise of superheroes and super powers, Los Angeles was left with no superhero to call it's own. That was until recently. In the past year Los Angeles had finally gained a superhero to call it's own who had raced onto the scene and had been named by the people as Momentum.
On that particular August morning the alarm bells of the OneWest bank in Santa Monica rang out across the area. Within the bank, a small group was holding the civilians inside hostage while outside the Santa Monica Police Department had formed a perimeter and were attempting to gain communication with the would be bank robbers inside. Lieutenant Knight of the department was coordinating the officers on the outside while Captain Diaz was organising the SWAT team that had arrived on the scene and working out potential ways to solve the current situation.
Meanwhile inside two of the six criminals had made their way down to the vault while the other four kept the hostages situated in areas out of direct view of the police under control. They had just started to relax from the assumption that the police would not attempt a breach when the hostage takers could hear sounds coming from outside of the building. As they strained their ears they could make out the faint sounds of arcing electricity. Thinking that it could be the police attempting to enter using new Wayne Technologies equipment, two of them raised their rifles but before they could start moving towards the door to attempt to look outside, they were faced with a loud bang followed by a flash of light and a high pitched ringing of their ears. Where there had once been just empty space now stood a figure with pure white hair and the unmistakable emblem of the Flash on his a second the would be bank robbers found themselves unarmed and zip tied, having been swapped in place with the previously bound hostages. As quickly as he had appeared, the figure was gone again before appearing a few seconds and a blur of red later outside of the bank with the six attempted and now bound bank robbers. With a wave and a nod to the police, he was gone again.
On a nearby rooftop he reconvened with a figure that was known and famous to the world. Clad in head to toe in a red suit that clung to his skin and showed only his eyes, the area around his mouth and his flowing red hair stood the third holder of the mantle of Flash, Wally West.
"Great work down there, you were in and out quickly with no injuries to anybody involved while also giving the police a gesture that showed you were there to help," Wally exclaimed with a smile and a pat on the shoulder. "You're really shaping up to be a great hero, soon you won't need me around to help teach you Chance."
Pulling down the scarf from over his lower facial area, the young hero in training pushed his hands into his pockets before addressing his mentor. "Are you sure? I still feel like I have so much to learn." Chance kicked the floor at his feet softly before beginning to speak again, "I just feel that I still have so much I need to learn from you, Barry and Jay before I'm ready to be fully independent within the city. There aren't really any other heroes I can share the responsibility with." The older hero patted his younger protege on his shoulder before directing him to follow. The two ran with Wally keeping pace ahead of Chance for a while before coming to a stop several blocks away at a park. Wally sat down on a bench before directing Chance to do the same beside him.
"Barry and Jay didn't have anyone to teach them at first and they both had cities they protected alone back in the day. Although I had Barry to teach me for a while, I still had to take the mantle after he disappeared. Sometimes the best way to learn is by doing and sometimes the task you have to do is hard. When the day comes for you to take this city under your own protection I know you'll be ready and if something happens that you can't deal with alone then you have methods to get into contact with Barry, Jay and myself who can get here to help in a flash." Wally chuckled at his pun before continuing, "there are also the Teen Titans in San Francisco, Green Lantern in Coast City and Green Arrow in Star City who you can speed up to for help if us three are busy. I believe in you, I wouldn't be here right now if I didn't." The older hero reached into his pocket and took out a small bar of chocolate before offering it to his protege. "Here, you'll need this since you've been running and your metabolism is a lot more powerful than even mine. Still waiting on results from STAR Labs as to why." The younger hero took the bar from Wally before rapidly eating it in his speed induced hunger.
"Thanks, I really needed that. Sometimes I forget to eat as much as I should of these and end up sleeping through a day due to exhaustion." The young hero proceeded to wolf down the bar that he had been handed.
"Well I've got to speed off, told Iris I'd go visit her up at Titans Tower for the weekend. I'll be just a call away if you need me." With that Wally flashed a smile and sped off northbound towards San Francisco. With a sigh Chance rose to his feet and ran off towards Hollywood Boulevard for one of his favourite activities - the tourism photography.
He started with his usual act of speeding down the entire length of Hollywood Boulevard before coming to a stop outside the TCL Chinese Theatre. Placing his hands on his hips, feet shoulder width apart and pitching his head up high in a heroic stare into the distance while making sure his neck scarf covered his face, Chance posed for the wide eyed tourists who were pointing, staring and quickly taking photographs. This was a tactic that Wally had taught him early on, impress the people, allow them to take photographs and then meet and speak to as many as possible. He had told him that it helped build public opinion that the hero was not dark and mysterious like Batman to the residents of Gotham but was instead friendly, approachable and down to earth despite of his superpowers in a similar vein as Superman was seen by the people of Metropolis. He made sure to pose for every photograph that he was asked for as well as to shake as many hands and speak to as many individuals as possible.