Author's Note: Thank you guys so much for the support! Sorry again for skipping last week's update, but I hope you'll like this one! Read, review, and enjoy!
Responses to Guest Reviews:
Cheesy cheese – Yeah, both Batman and Robin are able to do that and it doesn't even make sense. The magic of being among the only humans, I guess. Ha, I wish my life wasn't more important than this story. Thanks for understanding and thanks for the reviews!
Zatannagurl – I'd say that it'd be impressive if Daredevil and Batman managed to kill each other through dimensions, but knowing Batman, he could totally do it. I'm glad you liked the WallyxArtemis scene! Yeah, I can definitely get some bat bros in here. I was a little iffy about calling it 'Author's Note' because I know I hate it when I see that too when I get an email saying an author updated, but then I didn't want it to say chapter and get people's hopes up and then dash it by saying I wouldn't be updating. Therefore I chose the lesser of two evils :P Thanks for understanding and thanks for the reviews!
Guestz – I'm really glad you liked it! And I definitely couldn't leave poor Marvel out of it. I'll make sure to get that in there. That sounds awful! Yeah, everyone was definitely nice about it. Thanks for understanding and thanks for the reviews!
Guestr – It makes my week every time you guys review, so thank you!
Guest – I have to agree with you there. Can you even name something better than Daddybats? Thanks for the review!
Joe – I will do my best to make this situation a little better for poor Bats whose life basically sucks. Thanks for the review!
Guest – Thanks for the amazing review!
Flash Girl – Thanks for the wonderful review and for understanding!
Guest – This update is specifically for you since you wanted an update so bad. Thanks for the review!
WWWWWW
Wally was humming contentedly to himself as he munched on a tub of ice cream Iris had gotten him earlier, scooping with one hand and flipping through some notes with the other. He was reading at a pace somewhere between super speed and normal so he could have at least a little bit of retention from the reading he did. These were all the notes that DC and Marvel had compiled while they were trying to find him. The idea that they all tried so hard to take care of him was kind of amazing actually.
Barry (Earth 1) walked into the basement room with the dimensional screens in the background and Wally beamed at him, inordinately happy with his lot in life at the moment. Sure, he was in another dimension and currently had no way of getting home, but that didn't matter because everyone he loved were all here in this one room at once and he could see them just as easily as he could hear them. Sure, he couldn't smell them or feel them like he normally could, but that was okay because that would be fixed soon. Barry (Earth 1) smiled and said, "It's nice seeing you so happy. You were always happy, but it always seemed more like a mask than true happiness and trust me, I know masks of happiness."
Wally smiled back, genuine and full, "I think all speedsters know masks of happiness. But, yeah, I am happy now. I'm one step closer to home. With all of us working so hard on this, I'll be going home any day now."
Barry shook his head slightly, a smile tugging at his own lips, "I'm still not sure how to deal with the fact that there is another me out there. He seems different from me. Is that just because I'm biased and don't want to think about the fact that there is someone else exactly like me out there, or is he actually different?"
"Well, first of all, I'm going to be calling you Barry and him B otherwise I'll get confused." Wally said and Barry laughed in concession. Wally continued, "I mean, I obviously don't know you that well, but you are different. I can't truthfully tell you whether that's because you've grown up different than he did – he didn't have Iris and Joe back then. He was at the Central Orphanage and he also got his powers a little differently from you. There are a lot of differences between your pasts and the way you developed as heroes, but you two have a lot of the same quirks. Who's to say that by the time you become the age his is now, you won't act just like he does right now? But, at the very least, you don't currently act alike."
Wally heard the sounds of Barry worrying his lip with his teeth, the soft biting noise identifying the movement without Wally even needing to turn around. He had always cursed his super human senses even if they meant that he could run, but now that he had sight, they'd become even more of a hindrance. How did Clark or Conner deal with this all the time? It sucked. Then Barry spoke again, a tired quality to his voice, "Are you curious as to what the Wally West from Earth 1 is like? Do you want to find him and meet him?"
"If he's not already in the hero life, then I'm certainly not going to drag him into it. This isn't a life that we should just drag civilians into even if it's just by searching up their name and a little bit about them. It always escalates and they get dragged into this and their lives are ruined. There's no leaving this life unless by death." His words sounded bitter to his own ears, but luckily Barry didn't comment on it. He didn't need to.
Barry went on, "It freaks me out, more than I care to admit. I don't know why it bothers me to know that there's another me out there. I guess it's something about people always telling you that you're unique and that you will always special because there is no one out there exactly like you and then – bam – here's another person who acts like you and talks like you and even has the same heartbeat. How am I supposed to deal with that? I'm the fastest man alive – except for myself. He's older than me so he's obviously going to be faster because he's trained more, survived more. I'm not even better than myself. That doesn't even make sense! Anyways, it's stupid, just ignore me."
A voice laughed from the location of the portals, "That's a difference right there. Barry from DC would never say to ignore him. He's an attention leech."
Wally laughed in response, "We're calling him B now, Uncle Hal. Uncle B is just B and Barry will still be Barry. That way we won't get them confused. And B's not an attention leech! He's just friendly."
"He's got you brainwashed, more like it. You and your hero worship of the Flash. Foolish little child. Green Lanterns are so much cooler." Hal responded with a grin that Wally was beyond gratified that he could actually see. Wally had never drawn mental images of what the people he knew looked like, but somehow Hal's looks fit the personality and scents Wally had compiling in his mind in a little box labeled Hal Jordan.
Barry's curious voice entered the conversation, "What is a Green Lantern?"
"None in your dimension? Ah, that's a stupid question. They probably just don't have any humans in their ranks yet. I was the first human in DC's Green Lantern Corps. They didn't think that humans had it in them to be Green Lanterns, but I proved them wrong. Quite spectacularly, I'd say. Basically, Green Lanterns are the protectors of the universe, keeping the order and saving people. We get our power from this ring on our finger which is powered by the green energy source on Oa, the planet we're based out of. Wally's got a ring specially made for him by the Guardians – the ones that divvy out the power. Speedsters are the only non-Green Lanterns I've known who can use a ring although Green Arrow could resist one which was pretty impressive. Anyways, got a basic understanding?"
"Yeah, I think so." Barry smiled, eyes crinkling at the corners. This was so weird for Wally. Sure, he liked Barry a lot, but he wasn't B and none of the others were the way that Wally knew them to be because they were different. Traveling to other dimensions sucked. He wasn't sure if he'd come back to this dimension if he got a chance. Well, he'd come if they needed help, but he didn't plan to get attached to them like he did with the people in the Marvel universe. Although, he hadn't really planned to get attached to them either, but spending eight months in a dimension with them made it practically impossible to not get attached. He'd lived with them and fought with them for all that time. Those thoughts reminded him of Daredevil. Matt hadn't seemed all that upset, which was nice. They hadn't really had a real conversation after their whole argument and then subsequent kind of making up moment after the whole Reverse Flash debacle (Wally shuddered inwardly even thinking about that) and Wally wasn't really sure where he stood with Matt.
But then Matt had gone and argued with Bruce about what he should be doing and Wally just got even more confused. Did that mean that Matt wasn't mad at him anymore and just wanted to keep him safe and protected like always? Or did that mean that Matt was still mad at him and didn't want him to be around? And then there was the fact that Matt and Bruce were arguing in the first place. They were both like the dad he hadn't had in his biological father and he had really wanted them to get along and like each other. He'd been super nervous when he had realized that he was going to see them interact and then they'd started a fight and he'd been devastated. He hadn't known what to do. What kind of reaction does one have when their almost fathers started arguing over how much input he should have in the research to get home? Pitifully enough, his first reaction had been fear. He'd felt his eyes grow wide and he struggled to lower his heart rate as he heard them arguing. It reminded him terribly of when his biological mother and father started arguments when he was a child. He always came out of those beaten black and blue and missing supper for a few days. When Matt and Bruce argued, Wally had felt such an intense need to run and run and not come back because argument meant pain and hunger and a huge sense of uselessness. But he hadn't been able to run. He was confined to this stupid wheelchair and he hadn't been able to escape. The only thing that had saved him was Barry's comfortably familiar hand on his shoulder, giving him comfort that he'd been hard pressed to not lean into like a little kid.
Wally hadn't realized that the smile he'd been wearing all morning had run away from his face at some point during his inner musings until Barry's voice broke into his thoughts, "Are you okay, Wally?"
He didn't even get a chance to answer before Uncle Hal started talking, "They weren't thinking straight. They would never have argued in front of you like that if they were thinking, but they were pretty overwhelmed by the entire situation. You were right in front of them and you could see. That's a lot to take in. They both got rather spectacular scoldings though, which was amusing. Dick, Peter, Johnny, and Roy all ganged up on the two of them and told them how stupid they were being. Expect gruff kind-of-not-really apologies from them the next time you see them. Then again, Bar- er, B gave them quite the talking to as well, so you might get actual real apologies."
A smile slowly came back to Wally's face before he outright grinned at Uncle Hal. There were no words he could say to express the gratitude he felt. It wasn't just that he was thankful that Hal was there to comfort him, but it was the idea that he finally had someone to comfort him who had known him for max eight months. It was nice to talk to people who'd known him for most of his life. It was nice to see them too. It was almost perfect. All he needed now was to be able to touch them and get the sense that they really were real and he really was home. But he wasn't home yet. He needed to work on that. So Wally nodded to his pseudo uncle and Barry before turning back to his work and starting to test out his equations based on the research the DC and Marvel dimensions had given him.
He heard Barry and Uncle Hal get into a conversation behind him, the two talking avidly about airplanes (who would have known that Barry had a thing for planes and actually knew quite a bit about them?). Throughout the day, various other people came into the conversation either on the other side of the dimensional screen, or in the room that Wally currently sat. People continuously brought him food and ideas and smiles and kind words and Wally realized that he hadn't had this much fun in a long, long time. He'd needed this after his recent ordeals.
Eventually, it was just B, Uncle Hal, Uncle Ollie, and Barry talking and Wally just kept trying to not laugh when B and Barry said the same thing to each other at the same time. They gave each other such scandalized looks that it was near impossible to not laugh. At least, Wally thought so. And if the laughter was any indication, Uncle Ollie and Uncle Hal thought so as well.
They all sat and talked about various things for a long time, going from airplanes to life as a superhero, to their childhood, to tech, to kids, to whatever else randomly came up and it was kind of amazing. At least, it was kind of amazing until Oliver (Earth 1) walked into the room. All conversation paused as all eyes shifted to the newcomer and Wally held his breath as he waited for something to happen because, honestly, this could go any way. Wally was more than a little relieved when Ollie (DC) spoke randomly, "I call Ollie. You will be called Oliver and I'll be called Ollie and no one will get confused."
Oliver's only reaction was to narrow his eyes and hiss out, "Barry, I have some questions I'd like to ask you."
Wally watched at Ollie's eyebrows rose and a distinctly unimpressed expression settled across his face. Wally winced and figured that it was probably better if he got the two Queens separated before something bad happened. Speaking quickly, Wally rolled over to Oliver and said, "I'll answer the questions. Why don't we go for a walk around STAR labs? I wouldn't want to interrupt Barry's conversations with the others and I could probably explain things better anyways." He sent a wink (he'd been so impressed with himself when he realized he could do that now) in Barry's direction, receiving an eye roll in response (one that he wouldn't have known about without his newfound sight). He then started to roll out of the room, Oliver following reluctantly behind.
Oliver waited until they were out in the almost cool air of a summer night in Central City to start talking, "What was that thing?"
"I'm sure you don't want all the science behind it, but that was a dimensional hole – like the one I went through to get here – that the other dimensions converted into a screen that displays the room it is located in to the other dimensions involved in the hole. Basically, it's a trans-dimensional Skype device." Wally responded promptly.
"Was your original dimension the one with people in it or the one without? And who was the one who knew my name?" Oliver shot back impatiently.
"My original dimension – we're calling it the DC dimension – was the one with people in it and the other we're calling Marvel. This dimension is being called Earth 1. The person who knew your name was your doppelganger from my dimension. He's my Uncle Ollie. He's also the Green Arrow of that dimension. You two are pretty different." Wally threw back, less irritated with this man's attitude now that his Ollie was here and he could talk to him and he was almost home to him. It made it so much easier to deal with this crabby version who seemed to think that everything was a threat who was out to get him. Honestly, he was almost as bad as Batman and maybe even worse than Daredevil. It was ridiculous!
All thoughts of the ridiculousness of Oliver's behavior was thrown from his mind an instant later, however, when time seemed to slow around him – a speedster's own little version of a spider sense – and he saw in normal speed someone with blue lightning running straight towards him. Zoom. The man who broke his back. He was heading straight towards Wally and Oliver and his gaze seemed to be locked on the archer who wasn't even aware of the problem yet. Desperately, Wally cursed his useless legs and locked his wheelchair so it wouldn't start rolling around and causing problems for everyone and pushed Oliver out of the way. There was no way he was going to let Oliver be taken by this monster. He may not like the guy all that much, but he would never, never just sit there while people were in danger. Even if he couldn't protect the archer like he normally would, he would do the best with what he had – in this case, advanced warning.
It was as Oliver tumbled to the ground out of harm's reach that Wally realized that this was exactly what Zoom had wanted. Oliver had been too close to Wally and was likely to have been in the way if Zoom wanted to grab Wally. That was why Zoom projected his intentions to get Oliver so clearly. He wanted Wally to read those and get Oliver out of the way for him. And Wally had played right into it. Alas, there was nothing he could do as Zoom's arm snaked around his waist and ripped him from the wheelchair, painfully jarring his recently broken back. As the world flashed by and faded into a swirl of colors around him, Wally thought to himself that at least Oliver was safe. That was his last thought before he blacked out.
Author's Note: Sorry for the short chapter again! Hopefully once midterm season is over I'll be able to get some longer chapters in. Honestly, at this point, all I can really say is poor Wally. His life just infinitely sucks. Let me know if I did anything wrong or if you have any suggestions. Thanks for the reading and I'm going to ask for six more reviews for another chapter!