Okay guys, I know. SUCH A SHORT CHAPTER! Sorry! I'm so busy, it's crazy. It's my first week of college and I'm rushing for a sorority, which is really tiring. I'm going to try and get a chapter up once a week, but no promises!
I really want to thank everyone who reviewed! Even if it was just one word! ;) It definitely warms my heart.
Honestly guys, keep it up I'm going to need the morale/motivation to keep me ALIVE. Haha, so please enjoy this short chapter! I'M SO SORRY!
Shayera was amazed at what just happened, as well as the rest of the league. Wally had, through sheer willpower and an odd combination of genius and stupidity, created his own superpowers. He made himself a metahuman.
"I am going to hit Wally so hard when we get out of this."
"If we get out of this," Green Lantern tried to look around, but all he saw was a repeated scene of Wally in the hospital. Superman, ever the positive one, turned to the team.
"We will get out of this. Flash has already figured out how to counter what Dr. Destiny is doing, it wont be long until he actually gets us out."
"Maybe. Countering Dee's actions could be preoccupying his thoughts."
"Bruce, would it kill you if-" the boy scout clutched the sides of his head in surprise, but it was over before he could react to the odd sensation. "What was that?"
"What'd you feel?"
"Like someone touched my head. It just...tickled."
"J'onn must have found us," Wonder Woman interjected, "it shouldn't take us long to get out of here."
"I know you and Batman are new to this dream escape act, but it wasn't so easy last time. And not too mention what Destiny's pulled off is a whole lot different from before." John rubbed his head. It felt like he had just been touched too. Regardless of what he said, the renewed hope was undeniable, and each member clung onto it.
"What is the dilemma?" Dr. Fate lowered himself next to J'onn, who had been trying to enter the founder's mind for the last ten minutes. Every time, he was blocked by his worst fear and weakness: fire. The martian stood up to see numerous thankful citizens, who all followed their advice and cleared the area.
"Something is blocking me and I can not get past it. It is not their own consciousness that manifests it. We will have to load them onto the javelin and stabilize them in the watchtower." Fate nodded, feeling a sense of urgency, and chanted a spell. His words reverberated throughout the street, echoing off the towers of Metropolis as a bright light surrounded each founder, and began to load them into the javelin.
J'onn watched Dr. Fate as he noticed something odd about a particular founder.
Did Flash lose weight?
He didn't have much time to contemplate his observation when the familiar static of the comm link sounded in his ear.
"How's it going down there?"
"Fine," J'onn replied, his hand held to his ear, "the citizens were freed fairly easily. Dr. Fate said the spell on them was simple, only tiring to perform it on such a large scale."
"And the others?"
"They seemed to have had complications. They are not frozen, but I cannot access their mind. Someone has incapacitated them."
Mr. Terrific sat in the watchtower contemplating this, staring at the newly saved Metropolis, bustling with movement. He stared at the screen, trying to figure out why a villain would bother with freezing the city if it was so easy to release anyway.
"Man, we walked right into it."
"I don't follow you, Mr. Terrific."
"We walked right into their trap."
J'onn scowled. The situation was getting worse by the second.
Wally was now standing in the middle of an deserted field in a mini-flash outfit. His mentor stood across from him.
"Can I get my own outfit?"
"What's wrong with mine?" Wally scratched the back of his head and resisted the urge to rip off his cowl.
"It's itchy! My hair is sticking to my head. And my eyes tear up from the wind. How can you run with them uncovered? And this is a little too much red between the two of us. If I'm going to pick up any girls, they have to be able to tell us apart. Plus-"
"Okay!" Barry was rubbing his temples. So this is what Batman felt like. "We'll design a new suit when we get home."
"What's my superhero name?"
"Really? You have to do this right now?"
"Yea! I need to know what persona I'm going for. Maybe Light-speed, Impulse, Quick Feet, Hermes... " Barry contemplated running away and leaving Wally in the middle of nowhere, but then he knew he'd be sleeping on the couch for a month. His Uncle decided to try and help.
"I don't know, Speedy."
"No way! That's too obvious."
"You kind of look like one. Something about the red hair..." Wally rolled his eyes.
"I got it! Boy Flash! You know, cause they call Robin 'Boy Wonder?'"
"We're not copying them, kid."
"Ok...Hey, that's it! You always call me kid, so why not put it in my name. How about Kid Speed?"
"I think Kid Flash sounds better." Barry smiled. He liked the sound of that.
"Fine. Whatever. I just feel like such a biter when I do that." Wally pretended that he didn't like it, but he was actually more than happy to share a name with what he considered was the greatest hero of all time.
"Get over it. Now do you want to learn this or not?"
"Sir, yes sir!"
Barry pointed to a tree far in the distance, only a black speck on the horizon.
"Run there as fast as you can. Don't hold back."
"Got it," Wally turned to Barry with a cheesy smile, "I'll be back in a flash."
A sudden gust of wind was the only indication that his nephew had left. Repressing a remark, Barry observed his protege as he ran to the tree in back over the course of five seconds.
"Huh," he said as he saw Wally panting in front of him, "why are you so tired?"
"I'm not tired, I'm hungry!"
"You need to eat more now, especially since you're also a growing kid." Barry thought about this. A teenager. A teenage boy. A teenage boy with a hyper-metabolism. "Man, how am I going to feed you...Anyway! I'm pretty sure you run a few mph shy of the speed of sound."
"Is that...good?"
"Well, I can run over the speed of sound. I produce a sonic boom whenever I get up to those speeds. Theoretically, you should be able to too. How did you feel during your run?"
"Fine. But then I felt like I hit a wall." Barry's eye brows rose. That was new. Even when Barry hit his top speeds, he still felt like if he wanted to, he could go even faster. It was liberating, like there were no boundaries. There was something more going on with this, but he decided to leave it alone for now. No need to scare the kid before he even starts.
"Maybe that's your limit. Okay, now that I know your average speed, next important thing you have to learn: how to slow down." Wally didn't bother to hide his confusion and frustration; his face said it all. "Take it from me, kid. It hones your concentration and control. The reason you see everything moving so slow around you right now is because your molecules are vibrating at high speeds, invisible to the naked eye. You have to focus on those molecules, and take their speed away. This is basically how you access and store your powers."
Wally listened carefully before closing his eyes and focusing his energy. He felt his muscles, then his organs, his cells, his molecules...there. He felt each piece of his existence excited, moving uncontrollably in their very limited space, and through a few deep breaths, made them all return to their normal pace.
"Pretty good. Eventually you'll be able to do it without thinking."
Throughout the day, Flash taught all the tricks he knew to his young sidekick, who learned them eagerly and with intense vigor. From learning to create tornadoes with his arms, to just decelerating before entering a room so that papers don't fly everywhere, Wally was honing his skills and beginning to control his speed. Wally's dream had come true, and there was no way he would let it go to waste.
A couple days later, Uncle Barry came home with a package in his arms. He ran over to Wally, who was using his high speed to clean his room.
"Delivery." Wally looked up and saw his Uncle. Grammy's grin broke out across his face.
"Is it..."
"Yep."
"Sweet!" Wally opened the packaged, only to be faced with a huge red lightning bolt surrounded by a yellow material. He pulled out the suit, and speed changed into his new costume. Wally's red hair showed through yellow face mask, and a pair of goggles sat on top of his forehead. The lightening bolt, earpieces and bottom half of his suit were all a deep red, like his Uncle's. Wally marveled his appearance in the mirror.
"So cool! If this doesn't attract the ladies, I don't know what will." Barry rolled his eyes at his nephew's actions.
"Wanna put it to the test?" Wally's eyes widened.
"You don't mean..."
"Yep, we're going on patrol today." Barry used his ring and speed changed into his own suit.
"I hear Captain Cold is terrorizing the city bank." Wally could not stop the crazy grin on his face. Barry had never seen the kid so excited.
"Last one there is a Bat!"
"It's over, Flash. Look at you, you're shaking! You're about to fold."
Ugh. Hate to say it, but he's right. I'm running on fumes, and I can't focus any longer. I have to forget the pain. Forget the hunger. Forget the bad guy, and just do this!
It was slipping; he could feel it. The scene was leaving him slowly like water running through his fingers.
I know what memory Doc is trying to show next. His spell only shows bad memories, but it's obviously not showing all of them. He's skipping some. The dude's picking and choosing from the spell. Maybe if I pick a memory that's still bad, the spell will play it for me, but I won't need to focus on it.
"Honestly, Flash. I'm tired of waiting, will you please just give up?"
Worth a shot.
Flash thought of the initial memory and the view changed to the precision that only Doctor Destiny's thoughts had previously contained. The super villain's laughter echoed in the small room.
"I have to admit, I didn't think you would try that. Not that I'm complaining. You really are trying to avoid this, aren't you?"
"Duh."
"Technically," the Doctor was looking through the glass screen, a crazy smile on his face, "the spell caster can make it so that the spell responds only to them. But I don't think I'll change this yet, I want to watch this."
Flash thought about this.
"You're bluffing. You didn't cast this spell. You're just channeling this mumbo-jumbo, but you can't control it." John Dee was surprised, but mostly angry. His fury silently seethed behind his skull eyes. This baboon should not have been able to figure that out. He gripped his scepter tighter.
"I never realized you were so selfish Flash, you're throwing Batman under the bus for this."
Flash didn't respond because he knew this was true. Knowing that this memory would cause Batman a lot of misery, he still chose it because it wasn't as bad as the one Dee was thinking of. Besides, the dark knight could handle it.
Okay. After this one's done, I'll have to try and grab the doctor's magic toy. I don't have enough juice left in me to try for more.
One more time: I'M SORRY!
But please, any opinions, comments, criticisms even are welcome. Even if it's just one word sooooo...
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