Chapter Two

"I win!" a triumphant Kid Flash yelled, raising the game controller over his head and a disgruntled Robin stared at the TV in disbelief. "Another round?"

Wally was starting to get cocky, as usual. He had been beating Robin at Mario Smash Brother's Brawl for the last hour. Well, really he'd been cheating by using his super speed, but sometimes he just couldn't control it. And unfortunately, the only other person whom he could play video games against and legally use his speed was the Flash. But his uncle wasn't there, so he had no one to compete with.

"You're using you speed," reasoned the bird boy.

"No I'm not," lied the speedster, despite the fact that he was using his speed.

"You are."

"Are not."

"Are too."

"Are not."

Before their argument could get physical, they were interrupted by Wally's cell phone.

"Hello?"

"Kid, I need your help it's an emergency." It was his Uncle Barry, and he sounded ... out of breath?

Wally was surprised by this request, not that he minded, though. It was just the last he'd heard Barry was supposed to visiting his sister in some small town in Arizona. Barry had been planning the vacation for months. He had even gotten an exemption from Watch Tower duties to go see his sister. So what on earth could be the emergency?

"What's wrong, Uncle B?" In less than a second Wally had his uniform on and was at the Zeta-beam tubes.

"EriKa's speed's manifested."

"Huh?" Okay, Wally definitely did not know what was going on. He had thought that the Trickster was attacking or something. But he had no clue who Erika was.

"Get to Colorado Springs ASAP and I'll explain more when you get there."

Okay, this day just got weirder than normal, Wally thought as he did what his uncle told him to do.

Yep, this day just went from normal weird to extremely weird, Kid Flash thought as he listened to Flash fill him in on what had happened while they ran across the Continental Divide.

They were trying to find Erika Ericson, Wally's second cousin, whom he had met only once and that had not been all that grand.

It had been at Iris's and Barry's wedding. The Fates had not been kind when they had seated Wally across from Erika. The fiasco had started when he had somehow angered her and she retaliated by flicking a forkful of cake at him. And so began an epic food fight.

By the end of it, they were both covered in cake and other fancy foods, and, probably just to spite him, Erika had licked her arm clean like a cat.

Both of them had been six years old at the time, so the only thing that Wally really remembered about her was that she hated vegetables.

Wally couldn't help but marvel at how Erika had managed to get to the Rookie Mountains from Arizona without stopping somewhere along the way, especially considering this was her first time running like the speedster she was. Which also begged the question, how could she not have known that she was a speedster in the first place?

Barry had yet to answer the multiple questions that he had. Like, why was she a speedster in the first place? And why hadn't he been told that there was another teenaged speedster?

It took them nearly two hours and thirty minutes to find Erika. She must have known the area pretty well to have gotten this far and not run into something. Well, she had run into something that was the reason she had stopped in the first place. But if his prior knowledge about first time speeding was anything to go on, she should have run into something along time ago if she hadn't known the area well.

Barry muttered a string of uncharacteristic profanities when they found an unconscious, wounded, and vibrating Erika. If those profanities were anything to go by, one thing was certain about the future: Barry's sister was going to skin him alive. And Wally could understand why.

Even though he hadn't seen Erika since Barry's wedding, he could tell that she looked nothing like she would normally.

Both of her eyes were black, she had many cuts and bruises along her face and forearm, because she had been wearing sandals - a definite no if you're a speedster and running - it would appear that she had suffered injuries from stepping on cactus, and she probably had other injuries that he couldn't spot.

Though, the most surprising thing about Erika was that even while she was unconscious she was vibrating.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Wally asked, he surprised himself with the amount of concern his voice held.

"I don't know," replied Barry. "But she needs medical attention. I don't think her body can survive the transition without help."

The speedsters arrived at the Cave carrying the unconscious Erika.

Besides the Cave, the only other place where Erika could be treated properly was the Watch Tower and Wally doubted that the Justice League would appreciate Flash taking a civilian up there, even if she was a speedster.

Neither did the residents of the Cave, but where else were they supposed to take a speedster whose powers just started to surface.

For an instant Kid Flash and Flash got questioning glances from those assembled in the mission room for combat training from Black Canary. But that was only for an instant, because as soon as the two speedsters materialized from the Zeta–beams they took off towards the medical bay.

Well, actually Flash blurred towards the medical bay leaving Wally in the spot light.

"Who's Erika Ericson?" Megan questioned.

Darn it, Wally thought. He realized that there was no way of avoiding explaining what little he understood about what was happening to his teammates because the computer had announced the trio's arrival.

"Ummmm, she's my second cousin," he supplied.

"Why did Flash bring her here?" asked Black Canary.

"She's a speedster," he answered with a shrug, "and she's hurt."

"A speedster?"

"How can that be?"

"Bat's not gonna like this."