Wally West sat down in the middle of a destroyed building. Around him was rubble; barstools, a broken ice cream machine, napkin dispensers that were burnt and warped. He sighed. The first ice cream he had gotten there was five scoops of rocky road and five scoops of cookies n' cream, his uncle Barry had treated him.
"I'm treating you to ice cream cuz I like ya kid, not cuz you get good grades in chemistry." Uncle Barry laughed and ruffled his hair. The ice cream shop owner knew Barry and wasn't too surprised with Wally's huge order.
"Everyone in your family eat like that Barry?" He chuckled "I could get rich if you held family reunions here."
Uncle Barry... where was he now? After the war many people had relocated, many had lost their homes, and oh god so many had died. Wally stood up and looked around. He was in the heart of the city, where it had been hit hardest. There were bomb shells all around him, and he kicked them as he walked.
No one had been prepared, they thought they had locked Vandal Savage away for good this time, but they should have known he would be back with violence.
Somewhere above him, an alarm went off. He had heard similar alarms in war movies and as training drills, and it always meant something bad. Suddenly he was being summoned to the Young Justice Headquarters.
"Vandal Savage has launched an attack upon Central City, Gotham, and Metropolis. We have stopped his air forces from going further, but Savage himself was not in any of the attacking planes. We have reason to suspect that he has the Kasnian government under his control" Batman looked at the team grimly. "While we handle the situation on top, you must go undercover to Kasnia and remove Savage's control."
Wally stopped walking, he was in front of his old middle school, the flagpole was remarkably still standing, but the flag had been burned away. He heard the clanging of the rope against the pole, and the whistle of the wind blowing through what was left of the empty halls. Many had used the school as shelter when their own homes were destroyed, sharing what food and supplies they had with each other, but now the school was scheduled for demolition because its structure had been compromised.
"Wally, honestly, how do you get such good grades in chemistry but fail English?" His friend Linda was puzzled. "English is the easiest class ever!"
Wally shrugged, "It's not my fault the class is so boring, besides, what do I need to study for when I have you to help me?" He cocked an eyebrow at Linda and grinned.
Room 201 was their English classroom, sometimes they speculated that it was meant to keep students as miserable as possible. The only light they got from outside was from three thin, long windows up close to the ceiling. The fan on the ceiling creaked, and the air conditioning seemed to break down in the summer months, only to return with passion in the winter. There was no whiteboard, since the room hadn't been renovated in years, and the only door was up front, close to the teacher so no one could sneak in or out of class. Wally hated that class.
Room 201 had been his English classroom, Wally stood at the door looking at the chalkboard with Crime and Punishmentnotes written on it. The notes came to an abrupt halt in the middle of a word, eternity (at least that's what he thought it was going to say, it looked like "etern") He guessed that an air raid alarm had sounded in the middle of one of their classes and the teacher had just dropped everything. He looked at the desks, some of them were still in place, many had either fallen or been moved away. His desk was still standing, near the front of the room so the teacher could keep an eye on him. Wally moved on.
He exited the school building and walked towards his favorite burger joint. It was funny how so much of his life had revolved around food before, nowadays he never felt hungry. This place had the best burgers and fries, so much better than MacDonald's or other fast food places. They had unlimited toppings and bottomless fries; at least, they claimed to be bottomless, but Wally had a feeling his stomach could have put up a good fight until their potatoes ran out.
What was left in their food stock had been overrun by rats.
Wally walked to the park, three blocks away. Here there were some people; mostly cleanup crews and some old homeless people (it seemed everyone was homeless now). The lake was still there, it was still blue, and there were still ducks on it.
"Don't be afraid of the ball son" Rudolph West was exasperated. Six year old Wally either missed the ball completely or refused to catch it. "Just keep your eye on it and it will be fine!"
The sun was going down, there was the smell of barbeque in the air, and the clouds formed pink and purple swirls in the sky. "I wanna go home, dad, let's go out to eat!" Wally suggested, trying to avoid the subject. He didn't like the idea of getting hit in the face with a rock-hard baseball.
"One catch Wally, if you get one catch we'll have pizza later." His dad encouraged. Wally hesitated, he didn't like the condition, but he nodded reluctantly and opened his baseball glove.
He had caught the ball and they had combination pizza delivered that night. Later on when he got his powers, Wally could probably have picked the ball out of the air while it was in motion, but his dad still encouraged him to play catch anyways.
Tension was growing around the globe. The UN was blaming the Justice League for provoking Savage into an attack, while the Justice League was finding it hard to maintain its diplomacy and coordination. At the same time many riots were breaking out across the United States blaming the government for its overdependence on the league, and for its seeming lack of concern for its citizens.
The Young Justice team was moving full speed towards Kasnia in the Batsub. "How come we can't go by air again?" Wally asked nonchalantly.
"They would detect us and take us out before we could get there. That would be a bad move on the United States' part, and we would probably die also." Robin answered in a foreboding voice.
"Dude, don't be so depressing all the time, think about it, we're in the big leagues now! Batman's trusting us with a mission that can save the world!" Wally smacked Robin's back. "Promotions are sweet."
Robin's countenance didn't change. "There's nothing sweet about this Wally. This time the stakes are so much higher."
They had arrived in Kasnian waters, and then there was no more time to talk because they had a mission to complete.
He arrived at a memorial. It was a wall with names written all over it and toys, mementos, various items people's lives laid on the ground by the wall. There were flowers and letters, pillows, keys, clothing, almost anything small and ordinary could have meant a lot to someone in another life.
There were letters written on the wall too, most of them sounded similar, but they probably were of extreme significance to someone else.
Dear Jason, I can't believe it's been four months since you died…
Dear Mom, I love you so much and miss you every day…
Hey Wally, I kind of hate you right now for making me feel this way, I'm so sorry. I wish things had been different, I wish it had been me instead of you…
He paused at the last one, reading it several times. There was something important about this one, he kept reading, even though his brain screamed at him to stop before he found out.
"Hey Wally, I kind of hate you right now for making me feel this way, I'm so sorry. I wish things had been different, I wish it had been me instead of you, I wish we never went on that dumb mission, I wish none of this ever happened and that we could just chill together in that ice cream place you told me about but we never went to. Anyway, we exposed Savage and he was taken out by Superman and Batman, we think he won't be coming back for a long time, unless he finds some way to get back from space… Anyway what am I even talking about, I miss you. Come back and let's get ice cream, come back and make stupid jokes, I don't care, just... stop being dead. I'll see you again sometime. –Robin"
And it all came rushing back to him.
"Aqualad! Me and Kid Flash found Savage, requesting backup" Robin yelled telepathically. The team had infiltrated and split up in pairs to search for evidence of Savage's manipulation. Robin and Kid Flash had been lucky(?) They found Savage in the Queen's study, and he had attacked them without hesitation with a smile on his face.
"What's the deal with this guy? Is he some sort of maniac?" Kid Flash asked, dodging bullets like they were butterflies. Finally when Savage ran out of bullets he rushed forwards and kicked Savage into the desk, then pummeled him to the ground with his fists at the speed of sound. Then he turned back to Robin and dusted off his hands. "Looks like that's taken care of".
Except it wasn't, because Vandal Savage was a madman who never stayed down.
"KF MOVE!" He responded to Robin's warning too late, because suddenly Kid Flash's legs were kicked out under him, and he was pinned under an enormous Savage man who smelled like tobacco and looked even worse up close. The man had a gun in his hand, which confused Wally, because they had waited for him to empty three guns already. Two batarangs embedded themselves in Savage's arm and started beeping. Wally recognized them as the exploding kind, and sure enough the man was blasted off of him after a few seconds.
They say that a hair trigger will fire a gun at the smallest pressure, and Savage had his finger on the trigger the whole time.
At the same instant he heard Robin's batarangs explode there was a different explosion from Vandal Savage's hand, and then Kid Flash was bleeding.
"Oh god oh god. Stay still. Stop..stop moving…stay calm, WALLY WILL YOU STOP MOVING?" Robin yelled into his face while trying to staunch the deep red blood flowing out of Kid Flash's chest. There was pain, it felt cold, and Robin's hands felt warm. Robin's hands were covered in blood, and it was getting everywhere. "Stop moving, it'll be ok." There were tears coming out from under Robin's mask, which he tried to wipe away but just ended getting his whole face covered in Wally's blood.
"Dude, you should probably get that looked at." Wally said, half asleep. He was starting to feel dizzy, and rivers of blood were soaking everything around him. Where was it all coming from?
"KF, stop talking, just calm down." Robin said, "The Justice League will be here soon, you'll be ok." Robin wiped his face and nose again.
"It'll be ok Rob, they'll be here soon" Wally said to Robin, who was quickly losing his composure. He had never seen Robin cry during a mission, and he tried to reassure the younger boy. "Let's just…wait…" Except now he was so tired, and he couldn't think straight. There were noises around him that he didn't recognize, and someone was shaking him.
And then there was nothing.
Wally stumbled backwards, "I'm dead" he realized. "I'm dead and we never got to eat ice cream..." it was an interesting revelation in death, but it was a source of regret. Wally turned away from the wall and ran. He ran past his old schools with dusty old classrooms, through the park where he caught his first baseball, no one around him noticed a teenage boy running at super speed. He ran past the ice cream shop where he had loved spending weekends. He ran past houses and buildings and hills and lakes and was eventually in Gotham City.
Dick Grayson was in school; it was interesting how life seemed to move on even after catastrophes. Wally could see him through the window of Gotham Academy.
"I'm sorry Robin, I should have been more careful, I can't believe I'm dead and we never got ice cream. I can't believe I'm dead." Wally leaned his head on the window and took a deep breath. "Someday you'll be here too, and then we can get ice cream, then we can make dumb jokes, and hit on girls, and.. and get ice cream." He closed his eyes. "Stay in the aster bro."
Dick stared out the window at the sunny day, he thought he had seen someone there but when he looked again it was gone.
Wally was back in the ice cream shop, he was six years old and playing catch, he was in school bored out of his mind.
He, Robin and Aqualad infiltrated Cadmus and found Superboy.
He had met M'gann and Artemis, he saved a young Queen.
All the events in his life began to blur together and he was everywhere, experiencing all of it. In general it hadn't been half bad; most of it had been awesome.
He had no regrets. He closed his eyes.
The ghost of a redheaded speedster sat down in the middle of a broken ice cream shop. Visible for a split second, and then one could only see the heat of the summer radiating off the cement, drifting into the clear blue sky.