Just Your Friendly Neighborhood Meta-Human

[Author's Notes]

I obviously do not own the Flash or Spider-Man, I did not create them, and I am no way associated with their respective copyright holders. They have been used without permission for entertainment purposes only and no profit has been made in the production of this story. All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction and may contain action sequences, suggestive content, strong language, and partial nudity. Read at your own discretion. Please enjoy the story and provide feedback...

[Chapter One]

Barry Allen was late, again. Joe West knew he should be aggravated with the crime scene tech's habitual tardiness but he privately found it amusing.

And how could he not? For he knew Barry's secret, one that most did not. In reality the geeky young man, some one he considered to be his son, was in actuality a bonafide superhero.

Thanks to getting struck by a bolt of lightning supercharged by a strange device known as a particle accelerator, Barry was now what was termed a meta human, and there were apparently more people out there that were like him and affected by the same event.

He now possessed super speed and was able to shatter all land speed records, able to even break the sound barrier. The irony of being so super fast yet always late is exactly why he found it so amusing.

And there he was now, on time... Well, on time for him.

"So nice of you to join us, Barry."

It was a lame joke, but Barry still smiled in return.

"You wouldn't believe it but there was a car chase on my way to work, due to an armored car robbery. I actually almost got ran over."

"That could only happen to you. Did you see anything flashy?"

That caused a certain conspiratorial smile to creep onto Barry's face, but he shook his head. "The axle snapped suddenly on their rear wheels. You know what the odds are of that happening to someone?"

"You have better lifetime odds of winning the lottery."

That sudden answer didn't come from either man. The strange voice was female and had a slight accent. The owner of the voice was a young looking woman, on the tall side with a boyish figure and face with short brown hair in a bob haircut. She wore a crime tech jumpsuit, per regulation, zipped down part of the way due to the unseasonably warm weather they had been having lately, and under that she wore a blue buttoned up shirt. Around her neck was a camera and she had a pair of round glasses perched on her face.

"You must be the new crime scene photographer. I swear, recruits are getting younger and younger every day."

"It probably won't make you feel any better to hear I recently turned twenty."

"Not in the least. I'm Detective Joe West, by the way."

The young woman smiled politely at him and shook his offered hand firmly. "Petra Parker. I've heard a lot of good things, it's an honor to be able to work with you."

"Where do I start?"

"Over here, but I should probably warn you that we have something really graphic. We don't know what exactly we have, but I can tell you at least that much."

When Barry and Petra ducked under the police tape and went into the alley, where the crime scene was, it didn't take long for them to see what he had ment. They noticed the smell first, and it was like a really bad roast.

Indeed, there were three corpses and they were badly charred beyond identification. They could've been anyone, really.

"There was a 911 call earlier today, complaining of screaming and gunfire. But, and here's the kicker, there were no witnesses to the fire that did whatever happened here. And it was already over by the time first responders gotten here."

Petra got to work straight away, and if she was disturbed by the scene she didn't give any indication of it.

"Burning this bad usually means that DNA identification will be difficult to make, Joe. You'll need to use their dental records, if we knew where to look for them."

"I would suggest starting with the criminal databases." Petra opined, getting in close to photograph the placement of the bodies. And she stopped, having apparently noticed Barry and Joe's stares. She pointed to the misshapened guns clutched in the hands of the corpses, "I don't think the typical person carries around machine gun pistols like these guys did."

"Good catch, miss Parker."

"Please, call me Petra. Miss Parker is my aunt, Detective West."

"And you can just call me Joe. Have any other observations?"

"Nothing else was touched by the fire, whatever it's source, and there doesn't appear to be any accelerants so it's like they were the source of the fire."

Barry nodded in perfect agreement and added, "It also happened in a hurry..."

"Hold on, wait a moment!" Joe demanded, disbelief clearly evident on his face. "Are you two seriously suggesting spontaneous human combustion? That's a myth!"

Petra gave Joe a strange look, "There's a man in town that can apparently break the speed of sound on foot and you think spontaneous human combustion is a myth?"

Well when she put it like that, Joe had to admit that Petra had a certain point. Especially given some of the meta-humans that he was aware of. Come to think of it, spontaneous human combustion wouldn't even be the strangest thing to happen since the day that the particle accelerator went online less than a year ago.

"But we weren't suggesting spontaneous human combustion anyhow."

"Yes. It's unlikely that three people would spontaneously combust at the same time."

"So what are you suggesting?"

Both crime scene technicians shrugged. "Could be dealing with someone with a flamethrower, but those are strictly restricted and they aren't exactly practical weapons in the first place."

Barry nodded in agreement. "Could be dealing with someone with pyrokinesis."

"The psychic ability to generate, manipulate, or control fire mentally by accelerating molecules to the point of ignition. It's a term coined by Stephen King." Petra added helpfully when she noticed the detective's confused expression, and then admitted out loud, "Not that long ago I wouldn't even be considering that possibility seriously."

"You two don't know, do you?"

Barry and Petra both shook their heads. "Not without tests, until then we can't be certain." Barry added.

But Joe was already certain that would be the case so he wasn't disappointed, really. Petra stood up, apparently done taking photographs of the two corpses at this point.

"Okay, I'm going to get some more pictures of the surrounding area. I should be done and have them on your desk by this afternoon, Joe."

Once she moved on out of earshot, Barry spoke to Joe in a conspiratorial tone. "I'll get enough samples and make sure to share them with STAR labs, if only to eliminate meta human activity as a possible source of this."

"There has been another meta human on the lose in Central City recently, targeting the same kinds of criminals that the Flash has been..."

"That Spider character? I had a couple run ins with him, including one as recently as last night."

"How's that been turning out for you?"

"Umm... Well... I don't know how he does it but he keeps on embarrassing me and I haven't even gotten a good look at him yet. However if you're about to ask if I think he's responsible for this, I would have to say no. He doesn't seem to have fire related abilities, nor does he seem to be the kind of person who would do this sort of thing."

Joe shook his head sadly, pretty certain that it was Barry's carelessness that was causing him to lose to the Spider. But had to agree with the assessment.

Whoever the Spider was, they weren't responsible for these deaths...

...

Detective West didn't know it but the masked vigilante he knew as the Spider was a lot closer then he could have possibly had known. Something that had caused Petra no small amount of concern when she had finally met Joe West and Barry Allen.

The concern was unreasonable, she knew. As the Spider she wore a full face mask that didn't even reveal any hair, she also used a home built voice modulator. And due to her boyish build and modest-sized breasts she was fairly certain most people thought she was a young man, something she used to her advantage to keep her secret identity secret.

Maybe that concern had something to do with the fact she knew Barry's own secret identity because of his own carelessness in running around without his mask and had figured out Joe West's connection to the Flash. Apparently they have yet to even connect her to her alter ego, either that or they didn't feel the need to confront her about it.

Still made her a tiny bit nervous.

But what were the odds? "Parker luck, true to form." She said to herself, laughing a little at her long running in-joke as she took her last photograph.

[To Be Continued...]