A wise man once said, "The difference between the student and the master is that the master has failed more times than the student has tried." Sure it was a teacher alien octopus man, but wise nonetheless.

Barry Allen, a.k.a. the Flash, Central City's Scarlet Speedster.

And Wally West, the Kid Flash turned true Flash.

I'm Dancesnapple, and I'm here to analyze their abilities to find out who would win a Death Battle...

MASTER!

Let's say that the story of Barry Allen is fairly well known at this point. Kid sees his mother murdered while his father is convicted for the crime, thus he spends his life gaining knowledge in forensics to find his mother's killer. Despite failing to save dad, Barry still manages to become an accomplished forensic scientist of the Central City Police Department, until one day, he's struck by lightning and thrust into a mix of chemicals in his lab. Upon waking up, he's blessed with the unbelievable power of super speed.

Unbeknownst to Barry, the lightning bolt wasn't a chance encounter. As it would turn out, his powers were connected to a well of power that channels the ability of all "Speedsters", the Speed Force. This force, while mostly without conscious, "Chose" Barry as a speedster, merely taking its chance to infuse him with its power through the symbolism of a lightning bolt. What makes Barry special, in particular, is that he is the first person to actually master and become able to enter the Speed Force realm itself, capable of generating power himself to strengthen it as a whole.

Barry has a large number of great feats to his character as listed from his own time in the real Death Battle series that this is inspired by, including being faster than an attosecond being just one. Calculations of the Flash have put him capable of going quite literally billions of times faster than the speed of light. Seeing as Superman can barely react to him on a good day, and Superman by well researched feats tops over 200,000,000,000x faster than light, or FTL(and getting faster), Flash's typical top speeds most certainly reach into the trillions of times FTL. Since our other combatant is also in the same range of speed, we'll try to talk about what makes them different.

The base Flash abilities asides from speed include:

Speed Force resistance when in motion.

Regenerative healing.

Ability to vibrate through solid matter.

The ability to vibrate molecules to synthetically make them lighter or heavier to run on gases and even through the air.

Throwing lightning.

And even the ability to siphon or steal momentum from other people and objects, and vice versa. This allows the Flash to take speed from others and add it to his own, as well as disperse his own speed into others.

Empathetic connection to other Speed Force users. This means he can sense the feelings of others connected to the Speed Force.

However, all those pale in comparison to Barry's most devastating ability, the Black Flash. Originally, the Black Flash was an entity that appeared at the time of near death for Speedsters and, with only a touch, could instantly kill them. This ability only works on those who are connected to the Speed Force. Barry has only ever demonstrated this power for a short time, but no evidence shows that he cannot use the power again.

Some may look at the Flash as say he's fast, but trust me, he's a whole lot more.

"I was never a saint. I was just a guy chasing justice." - Barry Allen.

STUDENT!

Imagine being young again, back to the days of dreams. You look to the world with wonder of what you can become, and you know exactly what your goal is … the hero who inspires you, the Flash.

Wally West, from a young age, yearned for nothing more than to meet and become like his hero. However, his parents were far from supportive. Being verbally abused, his dreams beaten down, and only encouraged to work in a factory like his father, Wally was apathetic. That is, until, a trip to stay with his Aunt, Iris West, who was having her bright relationship with Barry Allen.

Upon arranging a meeting between Wally and the Flash, little Wally asked every question he could, finding out each and every detail about how the Flash gained his powers. Although, the Flash was sure to specify that it was probably a 1 in a billion chance to ever work the way it did, and wouldn't ever happen again. Oh, how wrong he was. The weather turned to a storm and, just as the Speed Fore chose Barry, the cosmic force chose another as well, striking Wally as he was surrounded by the same mix of chemicals as Barry. Lightning indeed struck twice, and Wally became Kid Flash!

During his early career, Wally would be faced with many opponents and challenges on the level to challenge his master, Barry, but would use his head to win out each time. Like the forensic scientist, Wally became quite technically minded despite his excitable attitude. He enjoyed every bit of what he did, even taking souvenirs from successful times he helped save the day. As he grew older and faster, his ultimate test came when the Flash would end up GONE. Trapped in the Speed Force, Barry was lost to everyone, leaving the world without it's Scarlet Speedster. This was also compounded with the presence of Barry's future grandson, Bart Allen, appearing as the new side kick, Impulse. This was the moment that Wally stepped forward as Bart's mentor, Bart becoming the new Kid Flash, and Wally became the first side kick to officially don his masters role, the Flash! Even after Barry's return, Wally would remain a member of the Justice League AND Titans as a second Flash.

He's matched and defeated each of Barry's villains, outran the original Black Flash before his disappearance, and siphoned power from the all the Speed Force energy from multiple planets to BEAT TELEPORTATION ACROSS THE UNIVERSE!

His abilities are nearly identical with Barry's except for a few minor changes. He can create Speed Force constructs, physically manifesting energy parts to support his body. During his early career, he wasn't able to fully vibrate through solid objects, which would disturb the objects at the molecular level and cause them to melt. As he grew older and mastered the ability, he turned this into a weapon, melting problematic objects by passing through them if they gave him an issue.

However, while he never gained the Black Flash ability, Wally eventually developed an ability that Barry has yet to ever learn. By vibrating the molecules in his hand to increase density, vibrating just under the speed of light, his hand becomes as dense as a White Dwarf Star. With this much artificial mass in his fist, he delivers the fastest punch he can give creating... the Infinite Mass Punch! This would become one of the most powerful attacks capable of being used in the DC universe, so powerful that it became SUPERMAN'S most powerful move after he copied it from Wally during his time in the Justice League. When you create something that becomes Superman's strongest move, you know it's powerful. It IS only a one shot punch, and can heavily tire someone out and, if one is tired enough before using it, it can fail to meet expectations. But Wally has some serious endurance.

After Barry Allen participated in Flashpoint, wiping out the old Post-Crisis world to create the New 52, Post-Crisis Wally actually escaped the wiping out of the universe by running into the Speed Force. Sound Familiar? There he would spend months and months, even years possibly, as the New 52 universe blossomed, just like when Barry was once lost in the Speed Force.

Due to this predicament, there was no alternate Wally in the New 52, though there was a new Wallace West who became the new Kid Flash, but he was merely a slightly more distant relative of Iris. Wally watched as this new universe creation wiped him from the minds of everyone he loved. Superman was gone, presumed dead, Nightwing couldn't keep the connection to recognize him, his own former wife was now a single woman in this world who had never heard Wally's name. Everyone was forgetting his existence as he tried to warn them of the threat he sensed from inside the Speed Force. Everyone, that is, until he managed to finally speak to Barry.

Through their combined power, Barry managed to pull Wally from the Speed Force just before he would have disappeared forever, his memory of the Post-Crisis world coming back to him with Wally's presence. Wally has now become a member of the New 52 world, preparing for threats to come, but happy to be back with all those he loves.

And here is where we stand with modern comics, two Flashes with a bond that not even the destruction of a universe can destroy. Both have survived the cosmic power of the a force greater than them, and both have made their place in the heroes of legend. The question remains..

Which. Is. Faster?

"Keystone is under the protection of a man who can throw haymakers like machine-gun fire... who can create cyclones with a wave of his arm... who can outrun gravity. Keystone is my city."

Wally West.

Alright, our combatants are set. Let's end this debate. It's time for a DEATH BATTLE!

. . .

Location: Central City

Earth: ?

After the defeat and deaths of the main members of the Justice Leagues, remaining heroes set out to face the new threat. This unknown enemy has now placed different heroes in pockets of time at the time of each league member's death. The only way out of the loop? The end the loop the way it happened... To kill the league member's time duplicate. Wally West stands as the ruins of what was once Central City are rewound to the day the Flash was killed, the area bustling with people and panick as Wally takes the place of the threat that killed his mentor.

In front of him, a man in the famous red suit with a yellow lightning bolt appears. There's no talking to the time duplicates. They can't comprehend anything outside the scenario that they lived through. Wally's only choice was to fight. The younger Flash charges up, his red and silver trimmed new outfit from the New 52 sparking with silver lightning as the two Flashes narrow their eyes, disappearing from all eyes as they charge each other, fists pulled back and ready.

FIGHT!

Both punches land at the same time, both combatants vibrating through and skidding to a halt at the opposite places they started. Wally blitz's, ramping up the speed knowing that this location wasn't real, so holding back would mean nothing.

Barry sees the speed increase and counters it, narrowly dodging to the left as he absorbs the radiating power for speed. Speed Steal! Wally is forced to move slower before Barry rotates his arms to create a close range tornado shot, launching the redhead towards the nearest building. Wally spins, lightning sparking off him. He throws the lightning into the windstream, letting it fork around the currents into Barry, knocking him back into a car.

Wally twists to land on the wall of the building on his feet, taking running directly at Barry. The senior flash vibrates through to the other side of the blue car he'd collided with, only for Wally to speed vibrate through. Surprising Barry, Wally, grabs his mentor's arm, matching the two's vibrations and equaling density. Barry wrench's his hand away, but not before Wally speed steals the energy taken from him before back. The two struggle, tumbling over in super speed through a store window as they move at high speeds punching, kicking, and wrestling each other all other the walls of the room as yellow and silver lightning sparks through everything.

The blurs of red, silver, and yellow blast back out from the store, speeding into the distance of Central City's streets. From an aerial view, yellow and silver streaks zip through the alleys and streets, alternating roads and intercepting at various points, vehicles starting to rip apart from the force of them simply passing.

Wally and Barry both think the same thing. While these people are time duplicates, Wally isn't about to willingly murder everyone around for the sake of an easy win over Barry. They two speed from the city in the blink of an eye, suddenly finding themselves surging through forests and highways. Trees uproot with splinters and debris flying every which way, Wally catching limbs with one hand, vibrating the other through them, and throwing them at Barry, the atomic levels disturbed as the small splinters and sticks erupts in massive explosions, the two outrunning the shockwaves easily, but Wally knows a direct hit would knock Barry off balance for the next attack.

Barry speeds ahead, getting serious as he runs up a tipped over tree and launches himself into the sky, followed by a trail of explosions. Barry zooms into the sky, stepping off the clouds and running from cloud to cloud while vibrating his feat to match the clouds. Barry circles around the sky to collect a mass of clouds into a torrent of wind and water, sparking the clouds with his lightning as he directs everything with his speed to launch a vortex at Wally. The redhead smiles, challenge accepted. He charges the vortex. Just before hitting the massive wave attack, he holds his hands out at the vortex and adds his own speed to the force of the vortex, making it more powerful!

Barry, not expecting the force of maintaining the vortex to increase, loses control of the massive wave. Unfortunately, this maneuver also gets Wally caught up in it as the vortex chaotically scatters, the two Flash's struggling to regain balance as they collide, punching each other and knocking the other off course, two blurs separating and ripping through the forest to a grinding halt. Barry and Wally each get up from separate piles of debris, each regretting that last decision. Suddenly, both their bodies erupt in their colored lightning, vibrating their bodies. They glare as this fight is about to ACTUALLY start. Let's start at over a billion times lightspeed. Both disappear, the entire forest blasting apart as their battle is completely past the level of those around them. A global view of the planet shows the same sparks of silver and yellow now rapidly moving around it.

Snow, rock, sand, grass, water, Barry cuts off Wally in the Atlantic Ocean, punching down with full momentum, but Wally kicks up water and changes his density, jumping off the splash of water up and over Barry, the senior Flash's punch hitting the open water. The two blurs disappear as in real time, that section of the Atlantic plumes up as if hit with a meteor, a force even Atlantis would feel.

Cut to Siberia, an avalanche of snow blowing into a blinding mist with Wally missing a counter punch. Barry charges up a yellow bolt, launching the yellow bolt of lightning. However, Wally catches up to him, grabbing the throwing arm and twisting and redirecting Barry to launch him straight down into the ground, but no impact...

Across the planet in Middle American jungles, Barry vibrates through the ground, having phased through the entire planet and slowing his momentum to stop on the other side. He looks up, eyes widening as Wally has already gotten there as well, going into a full charge superman punch. Reacting to the attosecond, Barry ducks backwards under the punch, Wally blitzing past. The redhead slams his feat to the ground as he grinds through the jungle floor to a screeching halt, stopping just in front of a Mayan temple. He turns into Barry tackling him full force, both speedsters crashing through a jagged line across countries.

Wally trips Barry up as they strike each other apart, stumble, and both get to their feet, running side by side increasing their speed. Faster... Faster... Faster... Wally smirks at his mentor, enjoying this true test. "Let's take this to the edge." He rockets ahead of Barry, going full speed as he rockets off the planet, running literally through space, stepping on any particles he can. Barry follows after, keeping up with him as they eventually reach an end, the Source Wall. Wally and Barry each vibrate their feet in such as way that they don't actually touch as the two seemingly 'land' on the wall, the edge of the universe. It may not be used often, but Flash can run through space, so they have a short time to do this little spectacle.

With a single look and narrowing of the eyes, they glance at a small mark on the wall. They each look up as they take off, running directly past each other. They each fun straight along the wall, top speed, pushing their limits to the absolute maximum and beyond. The entire universe's circumference being traced in yellow and silvery white. On the other end of the universe, the complete opposite end of where they started, they see each other, time seemingly slowing as they pass each other, sharing a single glance. Time moves at their rate again as they each keep going. More. More power. More!

They pass the entirety of the edge of the wall, the mark where they started coming into view for both of them. They each see each other as they close in. They reach the mark at the same exact pinpoint moment, their speeds equaling as they disappear in a flash of energy...

Location: The Speed Force.

The bright flash of power appears and explodes, the power erupting and shaking the foundations of the Speed Force. From the light, both Barry and Wally lay on the ground, bodies vibrating, as they stagger to their feet. They each seem surprised, but not entirely off guard. Seems fitting that the ultimate contest of Speed would force them here. They square up, Barry seemingly getting a stone cold face, bracing himself for what he's about to do. With a surprising burst of speed, he charges at Wally, both of them having their speeds massively increased as Wally dashes to the right, Barry reaching with his hand and missing Wally's shoulder by mere inches. Wally skids to a halt, eyes going wide and touching his shoulder as if a chill just washed over it. He glanced at Barry who simply shifted between looking at his hand and glaring at Wally.

Wally's mind instantly had the answer: Black Flash. One touch and he's gone. For good. Wally bursts back to gain distance and stops a good mile away. He stares at Barry, knowing that at this point, it's time to go for broke. There's only one move in his arsenal he's sure Barry hasn't learned. His right hand begins vibrating, sparks charging around it as he gets into a running position. His hand vibrates faster... and faster. All or nothing. Whoever hits first is the winner.

Barry settles into a running position as they stare down, power of the Speed Force coursing through them and their environment. With a single unspoken signal, they blast off at full speed at each other. The space between them dwindles down to nothing as time seemingly stops completely, the two only a foot away from each other with Wally's fist pulled back and Barry's hand beginning to reach. They inch ever closer, time slowed to the point that an attosecond feels like a year. Wally's fist closes in to Barry as Barry's hand inches to Wally, less than a centimeter distance for each...

. . . . .

Location: Central City Ruins, Present.

A bright light sparks through the city as a red suited man is spat from it, smacking into the ground face first. The light disappears as the body lays there for silent moments. A sudden gasp and coughing fit sounds with Wally choking on his breath on the ground, alive. He lays there, simply staring into space for rest.

KO!

What the fuck?! They're just supposed to run fast, but that was just bullshit! Well, that's the Flash.

Barry Allen may be the source of the Speed Force's power, meaning he's what charges the Force's power for faster speeds, but Wally West has also been stated to MAINTAIN the speed force. They each have a relationship with the power, where Barry makes the power stronger, and Wally is always capable of using its strongest form. So, neither is capable of outracing the other since Barry sets the top speed and Wally is automatically capable of matching it.

Both have survived for years within the Speed Force, so neither outclasses the other in Stamina either. Both are more than scientifically inclined, having intelligence on par with one another. Now, let's get into the differences.

Barry's time in the speed force allowed Wally to catch up and even exceed him in experience and skill, whereas Wally's time in the speed force ended up fusing two universe's experiences for Wally technically giving him more, though we aren't using New 52 versions of them anyway. I only used Wally's new look to differentiate them. Wally has also weaponized more abilities of the Speed Force than Barry, where Barry only really had more advanced skill in vibrating through and into objects. Barry might have Black Flash, but both he and Wally have outran the original Black Flash, and Wally has a one shot technique as well with the Infinite Mass Punch. And trust me, when you make something that SUPERMAN takes to make his strongest attack, you've made something truly special.

As such, these two are almost pitch perfect identical in power, with only minor advantages in favor of one. Out of 100 matches, it's very liked that it would end in 51 wins for Wally and 49 for Barry. However, in the words of another famous speed loving racer, it doesn't matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning is winning.

The winner is Wally West!

NEXT TIME:

A cold mountain top, a lone warrior with a horned helmet. "Fus.." A throaty start. he looks up. "Ro DAH!"

A man by a blacksmith. Clad in armor, a cross on his chest, he looks confused at the blacksmith. "What's a paladin?"

Modern fantasy vs Old Fantasy. Dragonborn vs the Avatar! (Elder Scrolls vs Ultima)