Chapter 4

In which there's a surprise visit.

Robin and Superboy walked through the city with Kid Flash hoisted over Conner's shoulder. The streets were eerily quiet, even for the middle of the night. The few shady characters they had seen did look like they should be able to stand, let alone answer questions. A stench of pure alcohol reeked from them, and they gave no second glance to the group of teenagers even though one of them was passed out over the other's shoulder. Of course, they probably assumed he was completely trashed, like them.

The shops were dark and silent, their signs flipped to mark the building as closed. One shop on the entire block was open, a small electronics shop with several small television sets adorning the window display. They were chunky machines, with fairly small screens, much unlike the flat-screened TVs of today.

"These are like antiques!" Robin exclaimed, moving in closer to the window to get a better view. "Who still sells analog TVs?"

"Maybe they can't afford digital televisions."

Frowning at the news report, Robin turned to Superboy. "1991."

"Hmm? What?" Superboy asked in confusion.

"It's 1991." He gestured towards one of the televisions. An urgent news update was flashing across the screen. "October 22, 1991, to be exact. The South Rhelasian president's son was assassinated by North Rhelasian forces."

Superboy nodded; he had been learning about this in history class. The assassination had set Rhelasian relations back by at least a decade. "Why would they sell old TVs that show old news reports?" he grumbled.

"Kid Flash," Robin explained, poking the unconscious boy in the ribs, "sent us twenty years into the past!" Pulling at his dark shades, he adjusted his sunglasses dramatically.

"So Superman is a kid… Interesting." If Superman was just a boy, would that make him Superboy too? Conner could finally show him what it felt like to be ignored and blown off. He would meet little Superman and completely disregard the young boy.

"Conner, you don't even know Superman's identity, and we don't want to change anything. Since we are so far back, there is more that could change, and it could change more drastically. It's like a domino effect. If we change one thing so far back, events will just grow on each other until everything goes all weird. Have you ever watched a Sci-Fi movie?"

A loud groan from on top of Superboy's shoulder cut their conversation short. Wally moved one sore shoulder, and then began flailing about inside Superboy's secure grip. After a few moments, Superboy let go, and Wally flopped onto the ground with a thud. He was a bit achy, but he pushed it aside for the time being, deciding to focus on the angry and disbelieving looks coming from his teammates.

"Hi, guys. How long was I out? Did you manage to stop me from doing you know what? Is something wrong? Why are you guys looking at me like that?" His green eyes darted back and forth between Superboy and Robin, but their expressions were set.

"You. Took. Us. Twenty. Years. Into. The. Past!" Robin spat out between gritted teeth. "Now what are we supposed to do?

"Twenty years. That's a long time," Wally said, thoughtfully. "I guess the only thing we can do is rebuild the Cosmic Treadmill. But how are we going to do that? We're twenty years in the past, and the Flash is the only who knows how to build it. This is all your fault, Robin!" he yelled, face heating up.

"My fault? How's it my fault? You were the one who started all this! You were the one who brought us too far back in time! You were the one who said, 'what's the worst that could happen?'" Robin shuddered. At the moment Wally had said that, he knew something was going to go terribly wrong. He had been so stupid to let this all happen.

Superboy opened his mouth to join the argument, when the door of the electronics store opened with a chime. "Young men, please quiet down. You're disturbing the neighborhood. You should go home and go to sleep before I call the police."

Not wanting to get in trouble with the law again, Wally nodded and dragged the other teens along the road. They walked using normal speed, since Wally was so exhausted, until they reached the other side of the city, where the buildings stopped, and the road transformed into a long bridge.

"Where are we going?" Conner asked, concerned that the speedster was taking them on a wild goose chase.

"Central City's twin city: Keystone, home of the fastest man alive!"

"The Flash? But shouldn't he be a kid right now?" Superboy pictured the Flash, confirming him to be no older than thirty-five. There was always the possibility that his superspeed caused retarded aging, which could explain some of Wally's behavior…

"No, there was a Flash before him. He was part of the Justice Society. I think they're all in semi-retirement right now. He's like a Grandpa to me."

"A Grandpa…" Conner did not even have a father, and there Wally was, with a mentor, a grandfather figure, and an actual father.

They crossed the bridge. It was a narrow, metal suspension bridge, and there would not have been enough room for them to pass on foot if any cars were on the road that night. Luckily, the bridge was as deserted as the city streets, and the teen superheroes managed to get halfway across the bridge before Wally needed to stop for breath. He leaned down on the cracking pavement, staring of into the dark expanse of corn fields below.

"It's so peaceful here." Wally grinned at his friends, who seemed too impatient to appreciate the Midwestern beauty.

After he recovered enough, Wally and the others continued walking, but suddenly, a pair of bright yellow headlights appeared just in their line of sight, where the end of the bridge lay. Without a moment's hesitation, Conner grabbed Wally and Robin by their elbows and pushed off the ground. It was almost like flying, but not quite, as they soared through the air. Unfortunately, they had already reached the apex of their leap, and now the ground was getting closer and closer. Conner hoisted the two other boys up above shoulder height, and he allowed the brunt of the landing to fall to his own two legs. Even though the leaping would probably get them to their goal a lot quicker, there was a mutual decision to just walk normally. The large, bustling city was now in plain view and could be no further than a mile away.

About ten minutes later, they reached the outskirts of Keystone City. It was mostly suburbs, but the buildings were getting increasingly urban in feel as they walked. Dilapidated buildings were never a good sign, but at least the streets in the bad part of town were always less deserted at night. They had a strong urge to stop the drug deals and stealing, but they put their heads down and traversed the streets without looking back.

Finally, Wally led them to a nicer part of town, where there were fewer illegal activities happening in plain sight. Here, the people on the sidewalks at this time of the night were mainly scruffy homeless people trying to find a place to sleep or anxious teenagers trying to sneak back home after curfew.

"Do you know where Jay lived twenty years ago, err…now? You can't really expect him to have lived in the same place all of these years," Robin whispered over the rhythmic hum of city streetlamps.

A frown full of frustration came to the redhead's face. No, he hadn't thought of that. Why couldn't one thing finally go right for him? "He's got to live in the same place! Jay's the type of guy who settles down in one place," he reassured both Robin and himself.

They walked up the steps to a tall, red-bricked building. The pale door was covered in chipped, pale blue paint and the window frames were painted with the exact same color. Despite it being an apartment building with many different residents, each room had an identical set of drapes, in an odd shade of burgundy, covering the windows.

Wally found the listing for Jay's apartment numer and pressed the buzzer. A few seconds later, static crinkled, and a tired, semi-irritated voice spoke through the microphone, "Hello? Who's calling at this hour?"

The voice was unmistakably Jay's grandfatherly tone, and Wally resisted the urge to squeal with joy. Same old, predictable Jay. Wally smiled and began speaking the words he had been reciting in his head through their entire walk over, "Hi! I'm sorry for this late hour, but I'm the president of the Blue Valley Flash Fan Club, and a couple of our members just flew here to tell you something very important. We would really appreciate if you would let us in!"

Upstairs, in the warmth of his apartment, Jay Garrick let out a long, deep sigh. It was moments like this that made him want to travel back in time and make sure his younger self kept his identity a complete secret, but he would never do anything as irresponsible as time travel. He gazed out his slightly frosted over window, knowing that he could not let a couple of kids stay out there to freeze. Pressing the button to unlock the door, he returned to his bedroom to warn Joan about the surprise visitors.

No more than a few minutes later, there was a sharp knock on Jay's door, and he went over to let the kids inside. He was getting soft. For all he knew, they were a couple wannabe supervillains who did not understand the meaning of retire, and there he was about to let them into his home while his wife was lying in bed. He knew that it was way too convenient that all of the supervillains and superheroes had decided to retire at the same time.

The peephole gave him the opportunity to scope out his visitors before he let them in, and he was met with the sight of a pair of soulful, exhausted, green eyes; cold, serious blue eyes; and sunglasses, at night, inside a dim apartment building. The green eyes belonged to a smirking redhead who looked like he was using up all of his energy just to smile, next to him, a burly black-haired boy with an odd symbol on his chest had blue eyes, and another black-haired boy, this one shorter with a slim build, was sporting the dark shades. They looked innocuous enough, except maybe the burly one, or the fact that the younger one was wearing sunglasses at night, so he unlatched the door, letting the three boys inside.