DC Redux Presents

"Unlock"

An Eobard Thawne Story

Written By James Brady


Eobard's eyes drift open as he bathes in the glow of the open sky. His eyes look into the gaping ray of sunshine that looms through the haze of dark that surrounds him. He sighs as the black clouds swallow it again and he gets up from the path of ash he's found rest in. He looks back to his current situation and scans the surrounding area, rocks, rusty machinery, card board or something. He continues on through the wreckage of the old building scattering small piles of rubble with a long metal pole as he goes. He hears a whistle of wind and raises his head. His eyes fixate on an old large machine on the edge of the room. He wanders towards it and examines the rear, quickly finding a nut to unscrew and the metal grating of the machine pops open. He shines his flashlight inside as he scopes the machinery in search of anything that maybe useful. Fleeting glimmers of a reflective surface inside the old machine draws Eobard's attention. He reaches out and grasps the tiny shimmering object and brings it down into his palm. He sits back from the machine and looks towards his open palm.

A small golden key lies in his open hand, a lightning bolt logo emblazoned across it. Eobard's eyes suddenly widen in shock as he leaps from where he was sat and rushes down the road. He dashes through the streets of the dilapidated city, the wind in his hair and the dust by his heels.

"Mom! Dad!" He cries as he nears their make shift home.

Theodore and Angela Thawne look up from their small fruitless gardening patch to see Eobard nearing them.

"I've found it! I've found the key!" He shouts excitedly.

"No..." His father whispers under his breath as his son nears them.

"Let's see, let's see." His mother stammers in excitement.

The two gather around as they inspect the tiny object in their son's hand.

"Would you look at that..." Theodore mutters as his eyes rise from the key to meet his son's.

"Come." He says calmly as a beaming smile breaks out across his scarred and weathered face.

The family walk together through the streets of the crumbling city. Cars that either the Thawne's or raiders have looted for parts litter the roads of the city as a perpetual dusty wind surrounds them always carrying diseases on its tides cast inwards from where the ocean once was. Violent lightning storms that seem to target lonely travellers plague the area as the clouds block out any substantial light from the sun. The Thawnes remain in what was, Central City struggling for their every meal, desperately counting every day that they survive in this inhospitable wasteland. Those who have lived here either moved south in search of water or north in search of civilisation. The Thawnes remain.

They round a corner and face it. A faded golden statue of the 21st Century Superhero, The Flash stands in front of the once world famous Flash Museum at the heart of the once vibrant metropolis. They approach the titanium doors that have stood fast in the attempts of many to enter the building over the years. Eobard nervously steps forward and positions the key in the lock and slowly turns it. A low creaking sound is heard with a rumble of machinery before the titanium doors slowly begin to be lifted into the air. Cautiously, the family enter.

To their shock the building is almost perfectly maintained intact. Artefacts from the Flash's time travel adventures and visits to other worlds are perfectly preserved in their display casing. Huge images of the Flash and his various super hero team ups are proudly hung on the walls. They pass a silver helmet with wing tips on the sides and a yellow and red smaller version of the Flash costume. The weaponry of the Flash's nefarious Rogues gallery are kept in sealed casing next to their costumes. Theodore Thawne brings out his crowbar and smashes the casing taking Captain Cold's Freeze gun.

"Dad!" Eobard protests.

Theodore taps the trigger and out comes a bolt of high concentrated ice that freezes itself to the wall.

"Woah.." Eobard mutters.

"This could come in handy." Theodore laughs.

The family continue on through the museum as they come to a massive mural of the Flash Family each hero having signed their signature on the image. Eobard stops and stares at the image as he looks at each of the smiling faces all running together in unison as a family with the Flash himself leading the charge. He turns to see his mother and father scavenging through the museum behind him before looking back to the Flash family mural. On the wall next to the mural is a sign saying, Cosmic Treadmill.

Eobard follows the sign into a large dark room. He switches on his flashlight as he comes face to face with the machine. Held on a small pedestal the gleaming technological wonder of a machine made into a simple treadmill now covered in dust. Eobard steps towards the machine and reads the information sign.

The Cosmic Treadmill was a device created by the Flash in order to help him transcend time and space in order to travel backwards in time, at super speed. Created with the help of Ted Kord this is just the prototype and never actually allowed The Flash to successfully time travel. He was generous enough to donate it to the museum.

"What've you found there Eddie?" His father calls to him.

"It's a time machine. It doesn't work but it says that it was a 'pro-to-type?' Whatever that means."

"A time machine?"

"Yeah."

"My god do you know what this means?!" Theodore exclaims.

"What?" Angela asks following behind him.

"We could reverse all of this!"

"Reverse? What're you talking about?"

"Don't you see?! If we can get this machine to work we can go back in time and stop all this from happening! The Crisis can be averted, we could make a better world!"

"Theo, do you even know how this machine works? For all you know this could kill you."

"I've been repairing machine out of scrap all my life in this town Angela, this is just another one of them and if I die, isn't it better to have tried to save all those lives than to do nothing? We can do what those good for nothing heroes failed to achieve! Those fools allowed this all to happen in the first place and now it's up to us to fix their mistake. To fix the Flash's mistake."

"We don't know if the Flash is to blame for this, it's just speculation, it could've been multiple factors."

"The Flash was the hero of this city, Angela and look what he let happen! Look how they praised him erecting monuments in his honour and a building to show case his achievements. He was a God to these people once and now there is no one else to worship him because he let them die. He should have protected this city and he let this happen. Even if he's not to blame for the Crisis he's to blame for letting it destroy this city."

"We should do it." Eobard chirps in. "We should be the heroes the Flash couldn't be."

Theodore smiles at his son.

"We're not heroes, Eobard, we're just people who are going to do the right thing."

"Okay but this is going to take a lot of work." Angela sighs. "Let's make history."

Hours later the Thawne's have finished studying the Treadmill and Eobard is left alone in the museum looking through old magazines about the Flash's powers. He looks up to see the Flash's costume hung up in a show case. He gets up and walks over to it. He breaks the glass on the show case and opens it and takes the Flash costume down. He looks over the fabric carefully studying the design. He looks into the masks' holes in the face to see, what looks like, yellow. He sticks his hand into the mouth hole and begins to pull the costume inside out. He looks down at the now reversed version of the Flash's costume now primarily yellow with a red lightning bolt with a black background and hangs it back up in the showcase and stands back to look at his handiwork.

He takes the Flash key out of the lock and the titanium steel gates close behind him. He looks into the dark skies and sees the clouds rumble again red lightning crackles in the skies above.


Eobard Thawne will return in DC Redux's "Incandescent Legacy" by James Brady

Coming Soon