Original Timeline, Hunter Zoloman, 2016
Zoom ran back into the past until he arrived at his destination. He was at his childhood home before everything had changed. The familiar building before him still gave Zoom chills and spurts of anger to this day. The word home was too generous. The building in front of him was made of some of his worst and scariest memories. The only reason the building still stood there was that it was the only place where he had any memory of the mother he once had.
Before him was the same old porch where he would play with his mother before his father came home. The bushes where he would hide when he did. The broken porch swing that gave way to his alcoholic father's weight and a reason to beat him one afternoon. The peeling paint that his mother promised would one day be fixed yet never was. The old oak door that led to the only hope he had of fixing all his mistakes in one fell swoop.
Zoom took a deep breath. Then another before taking the last chance at his salvation and opening the door.
He knew that doing what he was about to do would lead to a catastrophic change and could end him right here and now but he needed to do this. He needed to change his life the only way he knew how. He had to give himself a new life. He had to stop everything before it was too late. The confusion this would cause and any damage that happened he would be willing to take so long as he knew that this would get him closer to a better destiny. One where he knew he would be alright.
He zipped up to where his child self was sleeping. This kid would do things so unspeakable if left to follow his current path. But he wasn't going to. Not this time. His younger self needed to know what was going to happen if he was going to accept his new life. He knelt down and gently shook him awake.
"Hunter," he called quietly. "Hunter wake up."
"What?" the mini version of him asked as he started waking up.
"Hunter, my name is Zoom. I'm here to take you to a better place. You won't understand why it's better but it will be," he started.
"Who are you?" His younger self asked slowly waking up.
"I am a friend," Zoom said. "You can call me Zoom."
"That's a weird name" Hunter mused now wide awake. He was smiling up at him with fascination so vivid in his eyes. Zoom couldn't blame him. At eight years old, a strange man in spandex coming into his room dead at night wanting to take him away from this nightmare would be a dream come true. Being saved by a real live superhero was a wish his younger self would hold for a few more years until his dad would show him that they didn't exist. This time, it would be granted.
Zoom took his younger self for a ride to the apartment where he had created all the paperwork in order to make sure that they weren't erased by time. This conversation was going to take a little and he needed to make sure that neither of his parents were awakened during their chat.
"Cool." Hunter fawned as he started looking around the apartment. "Do you live here?"
"Urh," Zoom muttered. "I work here more than live here."
"Is this your headquarters?" he asked as he tried to piece together everything about the new superhero in his life. "Like the Batcave?"
"In a way," Zoom gave him. "Come, we have a lot to talk about."
He sat Hunter on a couch while kneeling in front of him. He looked straight into his younger self's eyes "Now, listen to me, Hunter. You're not safe here but I can bring you somewhere better. Somewhere safe and good where you will never have to feel afraid like you do at home."
"What about my father?" he asked worriedly. "Is he coming too?"
"No. You'll be in a place where he can never find you. He will never be able to hurt you again," he eased his tensing body. "So far away, it won't make any sense."
"What do I have to do?" he looked for the catch that was always there with anything good in his life.
"Not like what you're thinking," he assured him. "I will bring you to a family. A new home where you will live a little differently. When you get there, you're going to tell everyone that your name is Jay Garrick. That name will keep you safe. There are a few other things that you'll have to do but those things should be very easy. So, Jay Garrick, are you ready to go on your amazing new adventure?" he asked him, making sure that everything he said stuck in his little 8-year-old head.
"What about my mom?" little Hunter asked him. "Does she get to go to a better life too?"
He wished she could. He really wished his mom could have gotten a better life too. But he couldn't bring them both and it would be much harder for two people to do what needed to be done for him to have a good life. How was he going to explain that to him?
"I wish we could. I can only help children" Zoom said with a slight longing. Deep inside he wished he could save her too. He would if it wouldn't make Jay's chances at the life he needed impossible. "Your mom has to stay here. But you get to go with me so you can be a better man than you could ever become here. The man your mom wants you to be when you grow up. Your mom's going to be okay but we have to go now. Are you ready?"
"Yeah okay. I'm ready," he told him as he mentally prepared himself for this new magical event. He stood up on his bed and said, "let's go."
"Alright," Zoom said. "Let's get some of your things together and we'll go."
They zipped back to his old home and packed up what could fit in a suitcase, a duffel bag, and a small backpack of his things before he picked himself up and began the most important trip of his life.
First, he ran back to the future in order to get to a singularity. Second, he ran through the singularity and into Earth 1. Finally, he had to run into this earth's past until he and Caitlin Snow were the same age. He was running very short on time. He needed to do this quickly. He set Hunter down.
Zoom picked a foster home in the same school district as Caitlin. He knew that stacking the deck like this was very risky but the two most important things to him were, being good enough for Caitlin and ending up with Caitlin. Of course it was selfish, he was selfish, but this time was different. He had given his younger self the best cards he could but it was up to eight-year-old him to play the cards right without either of them knowing all the rules or what was in the other opponent's hands.
They stopped in front of a three-story house with neatly trimmed bushes and toys scattered across the lawn. He searched for one of the best foster homes in Central City. The foster parents had fostered children for years. All of them growing to live full and great lives.
He looked at his young self looking at the house with hope and he knew he made the right decision.
"Now remember. Your name is Jay Garrick. Don't tell anyone your real name or what happened. There is something else you need to do when you get there. You need to find a little girl your age whose name is Caitlin Snow. She will help you. Be a good friend to her and she will be good to you. She'll show you what love really is."
"How will I know where to find her?" Hunter now Jay asked.
"In time you will," he said vaguely. He couldn't give him everything. He needed to have a mission. Something to drive him.
"Are you going to be staying?" The look in his eyes as he asked him made him wish that he could be so much. One of the only good things that young him had seen and already he was leaving.
"Sadly, I have to go soon. There are many other kids that need my help." Zoom said. He put down the bag he had over his shoulder and looked at his younger self in the eye. He held the small shoulder of the kid who would hopefully become a good man. "Remember, don't ever stop trying to be a good man. If you keep being a good man, you will be rewarded in the end. Are you ready to live your new life?"
"Yes sir," he told him like he was a soldier in the army.
"Good man," he told him, smiling at his work. This version of himself would fade away but that was okay. This version, the Jay Garrick version of him, would go on to be someone that could earn the love of Caitlin Snow that this version of him would never be able to.
He brought him to the foster home he'd picked out for him. He had done all his research on the family, the other kids in the house, the school they would send him to, the crime that happened in the neighborhood, the morals they would try to push, everything. He knew nothing would be perfect but he had to trust that between this family and the things he'd tried to drill in his younger head that everything would be okay. He just had to hope that when the other version of him entered the system that he'd taken enough precautions for whatever the fallout would be. He had to let go now. This was for the best.
He knocked on the door of the house. Hunter/Jay stood beside him with his things. A woman came and answered the door. Her name was Mrs. Johnson. She was 32 years old with black hair, blue eyes, a nice smile, a slightly heavy build but not very. She had a caring heart, good moral values, a loving husband, would encourage his scientific mind, and maintained order through chaos.
"Good evening ma'am," he greeted her. She looked at him and Jay confused but still greeted them kindly. "Forgive us for coming so late but we had a lot of road problems on our way here. This is Jay Garrick, the new charge that is being placed here."
"Maria?" a blonde middle-aged man wearing pajamas asked as he came into the doorway. "Everything alright out here?"
This was Nate Johnson, her husband. His blue eyes looked down in a kind but confused expression at the two of them. He was in slightly worse shape than his wife but strength still held strong in his stature. His short hair was ruffled from sleep. A kind but tired smile put Zoom at ease with his role in the plan. He was the provider while his wife tended to the kids. He loved them with all his heart. He would be a strong role model for his younger self. He was tough but fair, firm but gentle, confident, and smart. He would teach him to be an honorable man while still encouraging him to follow in science.
"I'm not sure Nate. Did you file to house another child?" she asked him as she tried to sort this out.
"No, I didn't," he answered her as he looked at the man and the kid on the front step. "Are they saying I did?"
"We don't know who did," Zoom told them as relaxed as he could. He knew that this was going to happen. He was prepared for this. "We just got some paperwork that said Jay Garrick here would be residing here with the both of you. We flew in from Dover Maryland and drove from the airport here."
"I'm so sorry but I didn't submit or receive anything that said we would be taking in another child," she told them confused. She looked at little Jay. The love and kindness she possessed came to the surface as she placed her hand on the crook of Nate's arm. Zoom knew that he had chosen the right people. "Not that I wouldn't, this young man would be welcomed with open arms here but you know the government and their paperwork." Her husband looked at Jay too and he could see that he was feeling the same way his wife was.
"I do ma'am and I've brought all the documents needed for this and it has been signed by everyone needed besides yourself." Jay pulled the paperwork out of his bag. It took a lot of running around in time to make sure he got all the signatures. He did not want anyone questioning anything about this kid and the best way to do that was to get the real things. "Once you sign and mail this to the agency, he will officially be a part of your household."
They looked apprehensively as this whole thing seemed a little shady but they looked at the child again and imagined that he was here for a reason. "Nate, I think we could do it," Maria told him as she looked at him.
"I think that we could too," Nate told her as he took the paperwork from Zoom. Maria bent down a little to help Jay with his stuff and lead him into a better future.
"Come on, sweetie." Maria gave Jay a kind smile. "I'll show you to your room."
Jay looked at Zoom apprehensively. Zoom gave him an encouraging nod. He took a step forward into the house before turning back and hugging Zoom. Taking him by surprise.
Zoom shakily wrapped his arms around his younger self.
"Thank you. I promise to be a great man like you are." Jay whispered into his ear.
"No," Zoom whispered back. "You'll be better."
He let go of Zoom and followed Maria upstairs to his new room in his new life.
Before Nate could join them, Zoom stopped him for a second. "There is one thing you should know," he told him. "Jay's dad wasn't a good man. After coming back from the war, he became violent. He was an abusive man and was terrible to Jay and his mother. He told me in the car that all he wants to do is be a good man, unlike his father. Please help him do that."
"I promise you, that kid will learn what a real man is. I'll treat him like he's my own kid. Thank you. Safe travels to you sir," he told him as they said goodbye.
"You too sir," he told him as he walked away and the door closed behind him.
He walked down the walkway and looked back at the house. He could see the silhouettes of Maria helping Jay settle into the room in the upper right window. He could feel his younger self being nervous but hopeful. He could see the kindness and patience in Nate and Maria's eyes.
This was it. He really hoped that this worked. He only had one shot at this. That's why he was so careful about everything. He didn't have the option to try again if this failed. It wouldn't, he kept telling himself. He knew it wouldn't. He knew that everything that he could do had been done. He only hoped Jay didn't die during the particle accelerator explosion, turn into Ronnie Raymond, or die by some meta-human. He only knew that his life would be altered unchangeably now. There was one more thing he wanted to do before time catches up with him.
With a whoosh, he ran back even further into the past to hopefully keep from being taken away just yet. He ran to where he knew Caitlin would be.
He zipped and phased through rooms until he finally found her. Caitlin was 8-years-old at this time. He picked up his younger self when he was 9 but he'd brought him back an extra year in order for things to line up better.
He found her in her childhood home. A three-bedroom home in a nice neighborhood where scientists lived, and where a future doctor would flourish. He ran upstairs to her old childhood bedroom. She was asleep like any child at this time of night. She was asleep in her bed. A small pile of rather advanced books on her bedside. A bear with a lab coat tucked in her arms as she dreamed. She was so small, so pure. He hoped little Caitlin would sleep through this.
He carefully lifted her up from her bed and pulled her into his arms. She moaned at the sudden loss of heat but curled into his chest, finding him quite warm. He soothingly rubbed her back as he held her. He silently thanked her for all that she'd done for him. For giving him the strength he needed to fix his life even though it meant losing his current one.
Before he left he had been debating with himself about whether or not he should tell her anything. Maybe the two would gravitate towards each other naturally. Then again, maybe he would do something that made her not want to be friends with him and he should tell her that she had a mission from above that included him. He held her a little tighter as he weighed the options. He needed to do something soon as he didn't know how much time he had left.
He decided that if Caitlin were ever truly going to love him that it would be because she wanted to. Not because she had a voice of destiny telling her anything. Caitlin was already a wonderful person. She would see that Jay was struggling and hurting and would go help him. He hoped this version of him would be worthy of her.
There was one thing he did need to do.
When Caitlin had tested him, he thought it fit to do the same. There was something that caught his eye when he got the results back.
She had a marker for ALS. He hadn't had the time to mention it to her before he left so while little Jay was grabbing his things, he had gone out and picked up a cure for it. Having been tested and approved by every leading medical and scientific branch and been deemed safe for everyone ages 3 and up on Earth-2, he thought it would be prudent to give it to her now so she never had to worry about it in the first place.
It was the least he could do for her after everything. It was a shot but he had brought a stasis device with him to keep her asleep. He placed the device on her back. Once he was sure she would stay asleep, he cleaned the area and quickly gave her the shot. He put pressure on the spot for about thirty seconds to make sure the blood clotted and she wouldn't have any problems. After that, he removed the device and gently gave her a small kiss on the top of her head before slipping her back down into her bed.
He would never regret this. Because of her, he would forever be grateful for everything.
Once she was safely tucked in, he sped away into the night. He ran as fast as he could around the city one final time. He knew his time was coming to an end as he watched himself starting to practically pixelate into nothingness as the wind blew the leaving specks away to wherever things like him went to. He was glad he'd had enough time to do everything. Maybe whatever this world viewed as destiny took mercy on him and let him do this. Whatever happened, it was up to young Jay to be a better man and live a better life.
Hi everyone, I hope you enjoyed this prologue. I've already finished writing Episodes 1 & 2 and am a little less than halfway through with Episode 3. This is going to be to work alongside a lot of the preexisting show for a while before branching off almost completely. I'm excited to see what you think about this. Remember to please review along with following and favoriting.