I'd like to note that the Flash that rescued Devin from the rubble in the first flashback chapter, which is Chapter Six - Remembering the Dead, is not Barry Allen, but Jay Garrick, instead.

WARNING: This chapter contains death. Read at your own risk.


Central City, Missouri

November 8, 1996

20:28 C.S.T.


Fourteen Years Ago


Devin is running through the hospital halls. He apologizs every time he bumps into somebody, then keeps going. Once he finally reaches his destination, he shouts, "Am I late?!"

"You just missed it, honey." A woman says.

"Dammit!" Devin says. "Mr. Wayne tried to get me here as fast as he could after I told him about the call."

"I'm sure he did." The woman says.

"It's a girl!" The doctor says.

"A girl?" Devin asks. "Well, Shannon, what should we name her?" He says to the woman.

"I've thought long and hard on this, and I love the name…" Shannon starts. "Maria."

"You're not the only one who loves that name." Devin says. "Maria Thompson."

"She has your eyes." Shannon says.

Devin takes a closer look. "She does, doesn't she?" He says. "She has your nose."


March 5, 1997

20:38 C.D.T.


Shannon is walking home from work and decides to take a shortcut through an alleyway. As she is walking, a man with a bandana covering his mouth and nose jumps out in front of her. He holds a gun aimed at her head.

"Don't move or make a sound." The man says.

"P-P-Please. D-D-D-Don't… Don't hurt me." Shannon says, putting her hands in the air.

"Cooperate and I won't need to." The man says. "Give me all of your money."

Shannon does so. "Please, I have two children." She begs.

The man starts walking away, but stops after a few seconds. "I don't care." He says. He pulls the trigger.

Shannon falls to the ground.


21:13 C.D.T


Devin is at home, enjoying some nice, well-deserved leisure time. It had been a long day. There had been an accident at Applied Sciences, resulting in a fire and FDCC coming by. Then… the dreaded beast known as paperwork. Ryan and Maria are asleep upstairs.

There is a knock at the door.

Devin walks over to the door and opens it to find two police officers standing in front of him.

"Are you Devi-" One starts.

"Relax, Joe. This is the guy, this is the place." The other interrupts.

"Hey David." Devin says, smiling. "What can I do for you?"

"You might want to sit for this, Devin." David says.

Devin then sees the grim looks on the men's faces. "Okay… What's going on, David? You're kinda scaring me…" He said as he sits down on the sofa.

The men walk in and sit down on the sofa across from Devin. "We found a dead body in Downtown." David starts to explain.

"If you want help with a homicide, you've certainly come to the wrong man." Devin says.

"That's not what we have to tell you." Joe says.

"Then… what is it?" Devin asks, almost not asking the question.

"Devin…" David starts. "It- It was Shannon."

The look on Devin's face went from concerned to shocked in the blink of an eye. "What?"

"I-I'm sorry." David says.

"Why…? Why? Why? Why? Why?!" Devin says. He starts crying.

David just sits there and waits for Devin to stop crying before saying "The CCPD is working on this. I promise you, we'll find out who's responsible."

"If you need anything, Wayne Enterprises is more than willing to help. You need it and we have it, all I have to do is put a word in with Mr. Wayne, and he'll have it here in no time." Devin says after pulling himself together. "Just find the man responsible."

David nods and stands up. "Come on, Joe. We should get back to the precinct."

Joe gets up and follows David to the door and closes it behind him.

Devin turns the news on.

"Breaking news tonight! Murder on the streets." The anchorwoman says. "We now go to Downtown Central City, where Aaron Smith is on the scene."

"Thanks, Diane." Aaron says. "Tonight at eight forty-six, a gunshot was heard throughout Downtown Central City. Shannon Thompson, wife and mother of two, was shot and killed. The CCPD assures residents that they are working on this case and this case only."

"We don't have any leads, yet, but we're close." An officer says. "We will find the killer and bring him to justice."

"In the meantime, Downtown residents worry for their own safety." Aaron says.

"If there's a killer on the loose, nobody's safe." A resident says. "Hopefully the police catch this man before he finds another victim."

"We all remember when Shannon's husband, Devin, had gone missing, trapped under the rubble of his lab, to be rescued by heroes Zatara and the Flash a month later. Her closest friends and other citizens rose to help her take care of her son, Ryan, and take care of Shannon herself and the baby she was carrying." Aaron goes on. "Now, we remember her as the kind soul who wanted to make the world a better place in anyway she could. This is Aaron Smith reporting live from Downtown Central City. Back to you in the studio."

Devin turns the TV off. He picks up his phone. "Mr. Wayne… Yeah, time off would be nice… Thank you Mr. Wayne." He hangs up and puts the phone down and goes to bed.


March 11, 1997

13:48 C.S.T.


Devin had just gotten back from Shannon's funeral. He has Ryan in his arms. His phone then starts to ring.

"Hello?" He asks.

"Devin, it's Bruce." Mister Wayne says.

"Mister Wayne. What a surprise! What do you need?" Devin says.

"It's about your time off. I know your wife just died, but you have to go back to work eventually." Bruce says.

"I know, Mr. Wayne, but I still have two kids to take care of, I can't just abandon them. They can't even walk yet. I mean, if I had one kid I'd be fine, but I have two. I have to be home for them, and it's not like I can take them to work with me." Devin says.

"What about a babysitter?" Bruce asks.

"I'm not about to trust a stranger to take care of my kids every day of every week, not right after Shannon's murder." Devin says.

"Then maybe you should put one of them up for adoption if you can't handle taking care of two children." Bruce says.

"What?! You're kidding! How would I that be any safer?" Devin says.

"I'd be willing to adopt one of them." Bruce says.

"Mr. Wayne, with all due respect, I don't exactly think that Gotham is the safest place for one of my children to grow up." Devin explains.

"Well, figure something out, or you might find yourself unemployed." Bruce says, and hangs up.

Devin puts the phone down. He goes upstairs and puts Ryan in his crib and walks over to Maria's crib. He looks at her long and hard as she sleeps. He sighed and nodded. "I don't have a choice. I'm sorry honey." He says to Maria, softly. He leaves the room and goes back to the living room.

He sits down and then takes a voice recorder out of his pocket. He starts recording. "The date is March eleventh, nineteen ninety-seven. Shannon died last week. I swear, nobody should ever have to go through this." He says. "I've tried making this world a better place through my work as a scientist, and I lost my wife and I'm going to have to give my daughter away because I failed doing it that way. Now, it's time I took action in a different way. I will become a beacon of hope for the citizens of this city, and others, like the Flash has become. I will become… a legend." He stops recording and puts the recorder back in his pocket.

He takes his laptop computer and goes onto Yahoo! and searches for people willing to adopt a baby girl. He goes through the results and finds a family that he is interested in. "Hmmm… The Ryters. Let's see…" He reads about them and he likes what he sees. He decides to give them a call.


Star City, California

April 4, 1997

11:39 P.S.T.


Devin has just left the airport and he is driving to the Ryters' house. He has Maria in the back. He asked a trusted friend to look after Ryan back home. Once he arrives, he gets out of the car and picks up Maria. He walks over to the door and knocks. The door opens and a woman stands there.

"Are you Veronica Ryter?" Devin asks.

"Yes. You must be Devin." The woman says. "Come in."

Devin walks in and sits down.

"And she must be Maria." Veronica says. "Honey! Get in here! Mister Thompson is here!"

A man, who Devin could only assume is Veronica's husband, walks into the room. "Ah. Mister Thompson, nice to meet you. I'm Matt." He puts his hand out.

"Devin." Devin shakes it. "The feeling is mutual."

"Down to business, shall we?" Matt says.

"Indeed." Devin replies. "I just want to make sure that Maria is going to live out the rest of her life in good hands. Ever since my wife died, I've been in a panic just trying to get to work. I can't do her any good, so I figured that somebody else could."

"And we are more than able to raise her safely." Veronica says.

"We'd never even think about hurting her." Matt says.

They go on talking for about an hour before Devin makes his decision: they are perfect.

"Well, I think you're great people and that my daughter would be in great hands if I put her in yours." Devin says. "I think you should be the ones to take care of my daughter."

Veronica and Matt both smile happily at hearing this. "We won't let you down." Matt says.

"You'd better not." Devin says, jokingly.

"We wouldn't even dream of it." Veronica says.

"Good." Devin says. He pulls a flash drive out of his back pocket. "Don't tell her she's adopted until she's ten or eleven years old, then give this to her and tell her it's a message from me, her biological father." He hands it to Matt.

Matt takes it and nods. "No problem."

Devin then takes a long, final look at Maria, who is giggling. Devin smiles. He hands her over to Veronica. "Goodbye, my shining star." He takes a folded piece of paper out of his front pocket. "I've already filled out my part of the paperwork, you just have to fill out everything else." He places it on the coffee table. "Once it's filled out, all you have to do is hand it in to city hall."

"Thank you." Veronica says.

"No, thank you." Devin says. He walks back to the car.


Central City, Missouri

August 12, 1997

11:45 C.S.T.


Devin is at home on his computer. He is working on his laptop, programming something. He grabs his voice recorder from the table.

"Okay, virtual assistant test number seven. The date is August twelfth, nineteen-ninety-seven. After six failures, I've figured out that the problem might be in the firewalls. Hopefully she works this time." Devin says. He hits the enter key and a voice comes through the laptop's speakers.

"Setup complete. Project ARIAS online. The date is August twelfth, nineteen-ninety-seven. The time is eleven forty-six A.M." The voice says. "What would you like me to call you, sir?"

"ARIAS, you may call me Devin or Mister Thompson." Devin says.

"Of course, sir." ARIAS says.

"ARIAS, pull up the blueprints for Project Legend." Devin says.

"Yes sir." ARIAS says.

The blueprints appear on the laptop's screen. Devin smirks. "This is only the first step. The start of my legacy. Where the legend begins."


May 21, 1998

22:56 C.S.T.


Devin is working late, but isn't anything for Applied Sciences. It looks like an exo-suit of some sort.

"Mister Thompson, I feel inclined to remind you that you have work tomorrow. You should get some sleep." ARIAS says.

"I'm close ARIAS. I'm so close. Just a few more adjustments." Devin says.

"Sir, you can finish this tomorrow, but for now, I recommend that you get some sleep." ARIAS says.

"I'll be fine, ARIAS. If I need to, I'll call in sick." Devin says.

"Sir, you used that excuse yesterday." ARIAS reminds her creator.

"Just give me a few minutes, then I'll be done." Devin says. He puts his tools down and stands up. "Done. Now, time to test it. ARIAS, activate it."

"Yes, sir." ARIAS says. The suit stands up and walks over to Devin.

"Yes! Umm… Have it walk outside." Devin says, excitedly.

The suit starts walking outside until it stops and catches on fire.

"Dammit!" Devin runs for his fire extinguisher and uses it to put out the fire.

"There was a malfunction in the mainframe, sir." ARIAS says. "Now, please, get some sleep."

Devin sighs. "I suppose you're right." He says. "Record the results of test number fifty-three." He starts walking to his bedroom.


June 29, 1999

21:56 C.D.T.


Devin is working on the suit again.

"Let's see…" he mumbles to himself. "If I reset the… no, that would change the internal… well, maybe if I reduce the number of… Aha! If I do this, then reset the internal router, that should do the trick!"

"Should I activate the suit, sir?" ARIAS asks.

"Yes." Devin says.

The suit activates and stands up.

"Have it walk outside." Devin says.

The suit walks outside. Devin followed.

"Now, have it fly."

The suit's thrusters activate and it flies off of the ground.

"Fire repulsors."

Repulsors fire out of the suit's hands and hit the ground.

"Yes! It works!" Devin celebrates.


August 26, 2000

21:39 C.D.T.


Devin is practicing in his suit. Ryan is asleep upstairs. A minute later, Devin hears a large explosion.

"ARIAS?!" He says.

"You should probably check it out, sir." ARIAS says.

Devin nods and flies out of the house. Once outside of the house, he hears another explosion, this one followed by screaming. He flies in the direction of the explosion. Once he arrives, he finds a gigantic robot attacking the city.

"Well, that's original." Devin says. He then notices a man walking out of his house, magician's wand in hand. "Giovanni."

"Sir, you can reintroduce yourself later. For now, giant robot destroying the city?" ARIAS says.

"Right, right." Devin says. He flies at the robot and starts shooting it with his repulsors.

"Sir, this robot doesn't have anyone controlling it, at least, not from the inside." ARIAS says.

"Good to know." Devin says. "Let's see… increase energy concentration in the repulsors by… five percent."

"Yes, sir." ARIAS says.

Devin continues to attack the robot with stronger repulsor blasts. "ARIAS, find me some weak points."

"'Find some weak points for me,' sir. Proper grammar." ARIAS says. Devin scoffs. "Found some in the knee joints. Marking them now."

"Good." Devin starts shooting at the weak points. The fight continues on like this for about a minute. Then some of the robot's plating starts to fall off. "ARIAS, is it weak enough for the unibeam to finish it off?"

"I believe so, sir." ARIAS says.

"Redirect all weapons' power to the unibeam." Devin says.

"Redirecting… done." ARIAS says.

"Fire!" The unibeam fires out of Devin's chest. The unibeam hits the robot and destroys it. Devin lands back on the ground. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall."

"HEY! YOU!" A man calls.

"He's angry…" Devin says in a singsong voice.

"Good luck, sir." ARIAS says.

Devin turns to Zatara.

"Watch where you fight! You could've killed all of those innocent people!" The magician says.

"You're right, I could've. That is, if you hadn't been there." Devin says.

"Who are you, anyway?" Zatara says.

"I am the Iron Legend. And I think I'd like to continue this conversation somewhere else." Devin says.

The two men walk into an alleyway. "The League isn't going to be happy with you!" Zatara said.

"I knew you had my back, Giovanni, just like you did two years ago." Devin says. He takes his helmet off to reveal his face to the magician.

"Devin?" Zatara says in shock.

"Yep! It's me!" Devin says.


That's the chapter! Another flashback. This gives the Iron Legend's origin story. Please remember to follow, favorite, and review!