Ride the Lightning
Conduction 2.4
"Taylor, can you come into the living room please?"
"Sure thing Dad!"
Walking down the stairs I took a moment to look at my my left arm. The skin was still red and a little inflamed from the shoulder almost to my wrist. I knew yesterday that I had gotten burned in the fire, what I hadn't know was exactly how bad it was. While the sleeve of my costume was a little charred, it hadn't really melted or even burned that much. My arm had been a different story. Pulling off the jacket last night had been agony. Seeing the angry looking blisters running up and down my arm, some as large as the palm of my hand… that had been scary. I had tossed and turned uncomfortably in bed for hours last night, worried about how I was going to explain the burns, feeling the building pain of it all, and knowing that this morning would mean getting Dad to take me to the hospital. Instead I woke up to find all of the blisters gone. The arm was still red, but even that was fading.
Accelerated healing was cool.
Pulling my sleeve back down enough to cover my arm, I entered the living room to find Dad standing next to the couch.
"Morning Dad, what's up?"
"Have a seat Taylor. There are some things I want to talk to you about."
Well that was… ominous. I crossed over to the couch and sat down, doing my best to look innocent.
Dad walked over to the tv and turned it on. He switched it over to the VCR channel and hit play, walking over to sit next to me on the couch.
The tape started playing mid-commercial. 30 seconds later the commercial ended.
"Repeating our top story, a street confrontation between members of the Merchants and Empire 88 was disrupted through the intervention of a new Brockton Bay hero called The Flash. The altercation took place in the Old Bleaker neighborhood of the Eastern Docks. During the course of the battle Firefighters were dispatched to a 2 alarm fire which broke out at the scene. According to police reports The Flash evacuated all of the residents in the buildings at the time, apprehended each of the non-powered gang members, Stormtiger of the Empire 88, and extinguished the fire, all prior to the arrival of the PRT. PRT spokesperson Kristina Barrett declined to take questions, but did issue a short statement."
"The PRT would like to extend our thanks to The Flash for her assistance in dealing with this incident. Fortunately Protectorate heroes were on scene to secure Stormtiger and ensure the safety of the other First Responders."
Dad hit the pause button. Standing up, he walked into the kitchen. A moment later he was back, placing a chair in front of the couch."
"Taylor, I know."
Dad sat down in the chair, leaned forward and put a hand on my shoulder.
"Let's talk about it."
Since I've had my powers I have made it a point to pick up little bits of speed related trivia. In my head, I call them Flash Facts.
Yes, I'm a dork.
A lot of things can happen in a single second. In one second an average of 11 trees are cut down in the Amazon rainforest.
Flash Fact.
In a single second, the Earth travels 19 miles around the sun.
Flash Fact.
"Taylor, I know. Let's talk about it."
In the single second after my dad finished that sentence, time screeched to a halt. Every variation of what, how, and why went through my mind. In the end, I had no answers. I'm the Fastest Girl Alive… and my dad managed to take me completely by surprise.
Flash Fact.
Denial.
"What do you mean you know? Know what?"
"Come on Taylor. I'm putting my cards on the table. I know you have powers, I know you're The Flash. I've known for awhile now, and I want you to talk to me about it."
The way he was talking to me, there was utter conviction behind his words. I knew my dad. This wasn't a guess, he really did know. Again my thoughts started racing. Had he been somehow spying on me? Did someone else find out and let him know? Were we being blackmailed?
I took a deep breath, held it in before slowly letting it out. A little more centered I raised my eyes to meet his. They looked…. tired. Dad had the same slightly crumpled, lost look he has had since Mom died but now, looking hard at him, I could see a subtle difference. Like he had traded one weight for another.
"Ok Dad, you're right. I am The Flash. Sorry I didn't tell you. I guess…. I guess I didn't want you to worry about me."
Dad reached out with both of his hands, taking mine into his.
"Taylor, I'm always going to worry about you. The first night we brought you home from the hospital and put you to sleep in your crib, I worried. Your first day of school, I worried. Big events and small, I'm going to worry about you. That's kind of my job."
Squeezing my hands a little tighter, he slid forward in his chair, leaning his head towards mine.
"But what I want you to know, to remember above everything else, is this. I am here for you, even if it doesn't look like it, even if it seems like I'm distracted, I'm here. Just ask, ok?"
It took me a moment to realize that I had tears in my eyes.
"What do you want to know?"
"Tell me everything."
In the it took several hours to get through it.
It wasn't pretty. Dad asked me to tell him everything, and he asked it in a way that mattered, so I did. Over a year's worth of bullying. Notebooks filled with my records of each insult, every assault. My feelings of isolation. All of the reasons I gave myself for not confiding in Dad.
I think those hurt him the most.
Then towards the end, I told him about my discoveries in the hospital. My reading, my running, my healing. I was pulling my sleeve back down over my nearly completely healed arm when an unwelcomed sound intruded.
GRRRRrrrrrrrrGGGGGGLLllelleeee
I sheepishly put my hand over my stomach.
"Sorry about that, I guess I'm pretty hungry. Do you wan…"
I was cut off by an even louder rumble coming from Dad's midsection. We locked eyes for just a moment…. then erupted in shared laughter.
Wiping tears from his eyes, Dad stood up from his chair and stretched, reaching his arms towards the ceiling.
"Ok, enough soul baring for the morning. How about we get something to eat?"
"Sounds good to me. Want to go out? I know where we can get some great sushi. My treat."
"Great sushi huh? Where are we going?"
I shot upstairs, grabbing my backpack and some money from my bedroom and throwing my costume on. I stopped next to Dad long enough to smile up at him wrapping an arm around his waist.
"Seattle."
Across town, and slightly earlier in the morning, another conversation was about to place. Within the PRT headquarters, the various members of the Wards ENE were gathered around a table. As the clock on the wall ticked to 0600, the door to the room opened, admitting Armsmaster.
The blue armored hero gave each of the Wards a nod as he rounded the table, coming to a podium at the front of the room. Addressing himself towards Aegis, Armsmaster pressed a button, lowering the lights and turning on a screen embedded in the wall behind him.
"Aegis, thank you for getting your team here. I would like to apologize to all of you about the time, but I wanted to get this briefing out of the way now before you head to school."
"Not a problem Sir, most of us," Aegis paused to elbow the snoring form of Clockblocker, his head on the table to the right, "would have been up anyway. What's this about?"
Armsmaster activated a touch sensor in his glove, bringing an image onto the screen behind him.
"What you see here is the first clear image of the independant hero going by the name The Flash. This image was taken from the visor camera installed in Assaults helmet. Please take a few moments to study this image and make yourselves familiar with her appearance."
Around the table each of the Wards, despite individual variations in body language, showed signs that they were now paying attention. The image itself was of the hero standing in front of a still smoking tenement building. One leg was covered in containment foam, the arms folded under her chest, a golden lightning bolt on red emblem just visible.
"We have assigned The Flash the following ratings. Mover-7, with subclassifications as Breaker 1, Thinker 1, Striker 1, and Shaker 5."
Browbeat shifted a bit in his chair, letting out a long whistle.
"That's a spread. I thought I heard a cop say she was a teleporter, nothing about any shaker abilities."
"It does indeed represent a range, but it is important to remember the purpose of these ratings is not about evaluating how 'powerful' any given Parahuman may be, but in describing the type of response warranted. As far as teleporting goes, here we have her in her own words."
With another press of his control, the monitor went into a split screen mode. The original image of The Flash was on the left. On the right was a still frame of The Flash seated in a diner. A flick of the control and the image began to speak.
"Actually, I'm not a teleporter. I'm just really, really fast."
Another flick and the image paused.
"In assessing The Flash, what we have been able to determine is that her powers are based primarily around speed. Based on incidental surveillance and with the addition of her actions last night, both observed and implied, we have determined that, at a minimum, she is capable of traveling over 700 miles per hour."
Aegis shot Clockblocker a look, but didn't say anything.
"In addition to pure speed, The Flash is able to manipulate organic and inorganic matter at speed with no observable negative consequences."
Vista turned her eyes towards Clockblocker, but didn't say anything.
"Is that why she gets a shaker rating?"
"That's part of the reason Gallant. The other part? Last night she was observed putting out a fire which had engulfed parts of three buildings by running in a circle around it, creating a vacuum until the flames died out."
Kid Win subtly turned his eyes towards Clockblocker.
"Bullshit."
Armsmaster chose to ignore the outburst, though he was a little concerned when he noted Aegis and Browbeat apparently slipping money under the table into Kid Win's hand.
"I'm not going to go into the full details of The Flash's activities last night, I'm sure you will hear about them in the news. Vista here was partnered with Assault last night and had personal contact with her for almost an hour, please feel free to ask her to share her impressions. Ultimately the reason for this early morning briefing is this: The Flash has expressed the firm desire to remain an independent hero. We all know the statistics on such a path. That said, given her observed and implied abilities, it has been determined there is no way to hard sell her on the idea of joining the Wards. So our directive from on high is as follows. If you encounter the Flash in the course of your patrols, offer to work with her, be models of the right way to do things, and always report back on your interactions. That concludes this mornings briefing, make sure you all get to class."
Armsmaster activated his control again, bringing the light level in the room back up and turning off the monitor. As the various Wards pushed away from the table and began filing out of the room, Shadow Stalker remained seated in her chair, staring at the now blank screen.
The screen which had, just a moment ago, shown a girl who appeared abnormally tall for her age, with thick brown hair, pale skin, and a mouth too wide for her face. The expression on that mouth something you might see on a person who was worried about being attacked, but also worried about looking afraid. The voice had sealed the deal. The Flash wasn't a hero. She was a piece of shit weakling who lucked into powers which, in what might be the funniest joke Sophia had ever seen, let her do what she did best: run away.
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Topic: Verification
In: Boards ► Verification
FastestGirlAlive (Original Poster)
Posted on March 29th, 2011:
So I tried taking a picture of me using my powers, but they don't translate well to photography (i'm really, really, ridiculously fast). Instead I decided to just take a bunch of pictures while out on a run. I made sure I had a local newspaper in hand showing the date. Will that plus the location information embedded in the pic's count as verification?
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► Tin_Mother (Moderator)
Replied on March 29th, 2011
Yes, this will suffice.
Enjoy your tag, a few words of advice.
Remember the tos still apply to you. While we do everything we can to preserve members anonymity, we are limited by what you post.
Welcome to the board!
-tin_mother
************Author's Note**************
Ok, sorry for the lateness, the shortness, and the crappiness of this. For those who didn't know, I recently changed jobs. RIGHT AFTER I started my new job (which involves a pretty grueling and rigorous FTO process) things kind of went to hell where I live. We went on emergency staffing, and I worked 12-14 hours a day every day for the last little bit. I was already running behind on getting the next chapter out and, when all of this happened, I just lost the thread. I've now had my first few days off in a while and sat down to write determined to get it out and…. Nothing. I hated everything. My original intention was to keep slamming my head against the keyboard until story happened, but I decided that would just be a form of procrastination. So here is what we have.
Conduction, the second arc: done. Finished early. I didn't really have too many beats for it anyway, and the ones I have yet to get to will be worked into the next bit. I have tomorrow off, and will be spending it writing. I am off this weekend (and will be switching from days to nights as happens every month), so I will have plenty of time to write.
So Ride the Lightning lives, and the next arc will start SOON!
As a mea culpa, for the next 2 hours I will answer *most* questions and will take omake (lagniappe) requests as part of my "get the juices flowing again" initiative.