Chapter One: Dive

December 22nd, 2017 03:00

Mt. Zyton, Earth-16

Flash zipped ahead of his teammate with a grin, relishing in the feeling of the rushing wind. His feet padded against the ground quietly as he dashed around the foot of Mt. Zyton, dutifully completing his recon before running back to where Superman waited for him.

"Did you see anything?" The meta asked, brushing a little snow off of his shoulder. The flakes had just started falling down, and Flash tingled a little as a large one landed on his nose. At least Superman had a cape—all Wally had was a super-thin spandex suit. He'd broken the one that had the heat-creating button and Batman was too busy to make him another one.

"No people. There were a few cameras, but they're motion activated." When Clark started, Flash waved him off. "Don't worry. I was too fast for them. There were a few heat sensors for the ground, but not even they can keep up with me." He grinned charmingly and Supes rolled his eyes.

"Okay. We'll head there on foot and then fly over the sensors." He decided, and Flash shrugged.

"Sure." They began walking. "So, Supes, got any plans for Christmas?"

"I'm spending it with the Kents." Superman smiled fondly as he thought about his earthborn parents. "They insist I bring J'onn and Diana, since they aren't spending Christmas with anyone. And of course Kara is coming, too. What about you Flash? Are you spending it with family?" He was asking honestly and curiously, but the words sent a pang of sadness through the speedster.

He still hadn't told the Justice League who he was. After Barry retired for a year, Wally had taken over. The Justice League had been formed, and when Barry took up the mantle again, they'd both agreed that Wally would still be the one to handle missions with the JLA. Since Founders were seldom called, as they had their own cities to worry about, Wally had let Barry handle Central City while he himself took up Young Justice.

And then Barry died, the chrysalis hitting him instead of his speed trail. Just the thought of it made Wally's insides churn. He'd bowed out of YJ soon after, intent with leaving the Kid Flash mantle with Bart, who, to be honest, needed something to distract him from the new gaping hole in his life. He didn't want to be comforted by the people in the League for having what he already knew was a crappy life story. He also had a feeling that if they knew a seventeen year-old orphan was fighting alongside them, they would have more than a couple things to say about it. Especially considering the debate people had about having kids fight on the battlefront recently, what with Jericho using Deathstroke to attack the Titans and everything.

"Not really. My family…they're too far away for me to visit them." His stomach clenched painfully at the thought of his parents.

"I'm sure you could use the zeta beam if you needed to." Clark added helpfully and to that, Flash had no answer.

"It's…okay. I'm going to spend the day at an orphanage helping out." He grinned brightly, pretending that he would just visit. That he didn't live in an orphanage. "Y'know, as Flash. Kids love Flash." Superman chuckled, and Wally figured he was off the hook.

"So Kara, huh? She over the whole clone thi—" He zipped out of the way as a laser beam tried to blast him from afar, running towards the building it was mounted on, and then, after gathering enough momentum, up the building it was mounted on. Faster than a blink, he dismantled it, thanking god that he was taking mehanics and knew how to shut it down. Superman flew up to join him on the roof, where men were filing out of ceiling doors to surround them. There were at least forty altogether, Wally figured, if there weren't more inside the building.

"You…take the ones on the left?" He suggested, before bolting towards the first row of lackeys. He grabbed each of their guns before they could react, popping out the bullets and zipping away to the next bunch. Then Clark would move in on the weaponless goons and take them out. "I think I've got an opening!"

"Take i—" Clark didn't get to finish his sentence because Wally was already sliding through the square-shaped hole in the roof, knocking a few more men out of the way and disarming them as he went.

The inside of the building was damp and warm, musty in a way that reminded Wally of the bathroom at the orphanage. Rolling his eyes and only breathing through his nose, he decided to walk down the low-lit hallway slowly. Everything was made of stone; it felt like he was walking through a drainpipe. He would hate to slip on something and break a bone or two. The rest of the lackeys were apparently either on the roof or elsewhere, because none had followed him and he didn't see or hear anyone.

Sighing, he checked his comm. link to make sure it still worked. It hummed in his ear when he pressed it, and he grinned in relief before resuming a faster pace. The stone slowly got more and more eroded as he kept walking, and at some point, it stopped being stone and started being really rocky dirt. Water dripped down from the ceiling into the soon ankle-deep rivulet that became the floor.

I must be in the mountain now. Wally realized, remembering why they were sent on the mission in the first place. LexCorp had begun a new operation called Dive, which would enter someone's mind and transfer them to another dimension. The ultimate end-goal was to be able to transport nuclear waste to other dimensions, so LexCorp would stop leaving nuclear trails hinting at their wrongdoings. However, only nerve signals could actually be used with Dive; it was more difficult with inanimate objects. Another setback: it could only be activated in extreme heat.

He kept following the trail until it abruptly stopped, leaving him with a hundred foot drop. Down below him, a giant cavern was spread out. Labs had been built around it, divided into two sections. One side of the cavern/lab was full of people in white lab coats, bustling around with clipboards and looking important. There were a few stationed in front of various screens, depicting heart scans and neural wavelengths, as well as brain and muscle stimulations.

On the other side of the lab was a man. Well—most of it was actually Dive, but in the middle of the contraption was a man. It reminded Wally of something from a show he used to watch, Lyoko something. The thing that tried to attack them and take their memories away. It had a clear, plastic-y bubble sort of head, with strange blue lights turning on and off inside of it. At least eight tentacles made of a spongy-looking material waved around, curled at the man's back, neck, and head. It held the guy loosely, tentacles twitching.

Ew. That had to be the nastiest looking piece of technology Wally had ever seen. And he'd seen some nasty stuff. He glanced back to the heart scans and frowned. None of the lab rats looked concerned, but the man was showing symptoms that predicted he would flatline soon.

Deciding he couldn't wait to find out if he would, Wally jumped out of the gutter-shaped tunnel and ran fast enough to keep himself from falling. His feet pumped against the wall of the cavern, and he pushed off at the last second and kept running until he reached what he assumed was Dive. Heat waves from around the room kept the operation alive.

"Supes? I found Dive." He ripped the tentacles off of the man, who fell to the ground with a grunt. "Get prepared to blast this place."

"Got it." Superman replied, growling. Wally could only assume his partner-in-justice had his hands full as is. "Just tell me when."

Wally turned to look at the lab rats. They watched him with wide eyes, obviously afraid and nervous. They weren't the eyes of killers. Wally picked up the guy on the ground and walked up to a taller, more muscular labbie. He spoke him, "Take him to safety." Before addressing the crowd itself. "Hey there, people!" He grinned blindingly. "This place is going to explode in…oh, I don't know, three, four minutes tops. I'd suggest running." He waited. The scientists stared at one another, looking blank and confused. "I said, start running before your faces get blown off!"

That seemed to get through to them. A woman screamed and ran to turn off the heat waves, and after that, it was like watching a kid step on an ant hill. People swarmed to get out, running to various ladders and climbing up to the elevator opposite the tunnel Wally had used.

"Do it in ten seconds, Supes." He said, eyes flicking curiously over to the cabinet of files across the room. He grinned, knowing he could read all of them in less than four seconds and get out in five.

"You sure?" Clark sounded hesitant.

"Don't worry 'bout me, Supes. I'm fast enough." Wally smirked.

"That's all I needed to know." Clark replied. "Going in ten."

"Gotcha." Wally sped over to the cabinet and flipped through the first hundred files, eyes wide at what cruel experiments had already been conducted. Two seconds later, he moved on to the next hundred. He was just about to finish up with the cabinet itself when he felt something snake around his ankle.

He froze. Fear crept up his spine, sending shivers up and down his back. He tried to tug his ankle loose only to feel another spongy tentacle curl around his neck, not squeezing, but not holding on loosely. He choked a little, trying to turn around to find another tentacle keeping his legs from moving.

Stark realization poured over him. The idiot lab woman had turned off the heat waves. The Dive was looking for heat. Wally generated a lot of heat; friction from superspeed, and all.

He was shoved against the wall, hitting his head, and felt the comm. link dislodge from his ear and fall onto the ground. They'd saved the world multiple times, but couldn't even get an earpiece that would stay in his ear. Three seconds until blow up time. He felt realization flood his senses. He was going to die. This was the end. Two seconds. Was this really the hero he had become? One second. No. He'd spent his life helping others and asking nothing in return. He was one of the founders of the Justice League. One of the founders of Young Justice. He was a hero.

Zero seconds, but Wally was not afraid.