Gilded Cage
Between her attire, her manner, and her apparent lack of need for sleep, Dr. Anders was perhaps one of the strangest people Wally had ever met. But that didn't stop him from being thankful for her vote of confidence when it came to proving the truth of his story.
"It's absolutely amazing!" Dr. Anders looked up from the viewport of whatever it was that she was using to scan Wally's cell sample.
"What is?" Fury asked.
"He's from somewhere else in the multiverse alright," she replied as she pulled on a pair of bulky goggles with green lenses and various flashing lights around the rim and started peering at Wally through the wall of his cell. "But his atoms aren't disintegrating like I'd expect. That must mean that physics works mostly the same where he's from as it does here."
"Except for time travel apparently," Peter put in.
"Well that is interesting."
"How do you know he's from another reality though?" Fury pressed, still obviously skeptical.
"How about you just listen to the expert," Wally remarked sardonically.
"Oh I'm far from an expert," Dr. Anders replied without any indication that she'd registered Wally's tone. "But there is a particle that I've found associated with all matter that I've dubbed the Anders Boson."
"Seems a little full of yourself," Fury muttered under his breath.
Dr. Anders either didn't notice or else didn't care because she went right on talking and peering at Wally through her strange green goggles. "I've developed about twenty hypotheses where that's the particle that identifies which universe the matter is from. Twelve of those have been invalidated by this discovery because they depend on the spin being the identifier while the remaining eight depend on vibration."
"And Wally's Anders Bosons have a different vibration from ours?" Peter asked.
"Yes, matter from our universe appears to vibrate at about twelve thousand five-hundred times the frequency of his but I'd need better equipment to be sure." The mad scientist suddenly stopped peering at Wally and turned her attention to Fury. "Could you maybe drop one of these walls so I can get a closer look at him?"
Fury looked like he really wanted to say no but he acquiesced. Soon, there was nothing but air separating Wally from the rest of the room.
"Am I free to go now?" Wally asked, standing up from the stainless chair.
"Go? You can't go," Dr. Anders protested.
"Why not?" Wally asked.
"You're from another universe. The insights you provide could help me develop a complete theory of the multiverse."
"As much as I'd like to help you doctor, I'd rather not be a guinea pig," Wally replied as politely as he could manage.
"I completely understand," Dr. Anders replied sincerely. "But my understanding was that you're stranded here and you don't really have anywhere to go."
"I'll manage," Wally replied evenly. "Like you said, I'm stranded. So I have to."
"If you come to the academy and help me with my research, I can complete a theory of the multiverse. That would be the first step to finding you a way home."
Home?
"How do you know you can get me home?" Wally asked skeptically. "When I first found out about guys like Pym and Stark, I thought they might be able to get me home but one's more paranoid and cranky than this guy," Wally jabbed his thumb at Fury, "and the other one's dead."
Wally noticed Peter wince when he finished and immediately regretted his casual phrasing and abrasive tone. He'd guessed that there'd been some sort of connection between Peter and Stark that went beyond mentor-student or leader-teammate. Peter's reaction only served to solidify that suspicion.
Surrogate father maybe?
"Sorry," Wally apologized softly.
Dr. Anders's manner was much more serious and subdued now. "The answer, Mr. West, is that I don't know if I can get you home. But how can we find out if we don't at least give it a shot."
Wally considered her words for a moment before nodding. "Okay."
"Excellent! I'll just gather my things and we can go to the quinjet."
"Hold on," Fury cut in. "I didn't say you could take him."
"She's not taking me," Wally put in. "I'm going freely."
"I didn't say you were free to go either," Fury insisted.
"So what am I supposed to do then?" Wally asked irritably. "I thought we already established that I'm telling the truth and all I want to do is go back home. If Dr. Anders can get me there than good for me and then I'm out of your hair so good for you too."
"You're telling the truth about being from another universe," Fury replied sternly. "I don't know about anything else. For all I know you're here to do reconnaissance for an invasion."
There was a moment where Wally and Fury just glared at each other before Wally broke the silence. "I take it back, you are way more paranoid than Pym. I mean seriously? An invasion from the multiverse?"
"Wouldn't be the first time," Fury remarked.*
"Now you're just saying things," Wally deadpanned.
"I think he's fine Fury," Peter replied. "My spi—"
"I don't trust that sixth sense of yours," Fury interrupted. "It didn't help us with Beck so there's no guarantee it'll help us with this interdimensional speedster." Fury turned back to Dr. Anders. "He stays here."
Despite the finality of his pronouncement, Dr. Anders chose to argue the point. "That won't work. All my equipment is at the academy."
"Mrs. Stark left plenty of materials here for you to work with. Just upload the designs and the nano-fabricators will do the rest."
Dr. Anders stood her ground. "Those designs are proprietary and belong to the academy. How do I know you won't just record and steal them?"
"Have the other Wells hack the place and check if you're that concerned," Fury returned. "It was child's play for her to get in earlier. Or just bring your equipment here."
"What about my day job? It'll get pretty expensive, using all that jet fuel to fly me back and forth between here and Willowdale and we don't know how long this will take."
"Stark Industries is releasing arc reactor powered aircraft in a month so that should solve that problem," Fury returned. "Come up with all the excuses you like Doctor, the speedster stays here."
"And what if I decide to just run," Wally cut in. "I'm certainly fast enough."
"You can't run forever," Fury replied with a dark grin. "And besides, your options are limited as to where you can run to. The British still want you for stealing EDITH and the only country that won't hand you over is the one you're in right now."
Wally had almost forgotten about being framed for the crime of the century. He'd been so caught up in the thought that he might actually get back home that he'd stopped thinking it might be a problem.
"Why can't he just come to the academy?" Peter asked. "You could still keep an eye on him there."
"Either you stay here, or my men hunt you down and hand you over to the British." Even though Wally thought Fury was being ridiculously unreasonable, he was certain that Fury could carry out his threat. So, once again, Wally was forced to acquiesce.
"Fine, I'll stay put."
"Good." Fury redirected his attention Dr. Anders and Peter. "Now I'm sure I don't need to tell you that this is on a need to know basis. The fewer people who know he's here the—"
Fury was interrupted by the soft yelp that came from Peter who had just pulled out his vibrating phone. "Sorry, I should take this," Peter apologized quickly before accepting the call and ignoring Fury's grumbles.
"Hey MJ— I know, and I'm so sorry it's just that— You do? Yeah, we don't think he did it so it's probably the man-Alice."
"What did I say about need to know?" Fury asked angrily prompting Peter to cringe.
Peter continued talking into his phone. "Yeah, apparently I'm not supposed to talk about that either. Again, I'm so sorry. I'll make it up to you, I promise. Thanks for understanding."
Fury's fury was still red hot when Peter hung up. "Sorry about that," he apologized again. "It's just that I forgot to let her know that you'd picked me up and I wouldn't be able to meet her."
Wally couldn't restrain the smirk that crept onto his face. "She wasn't too happy with being stood up I take it."
Peter nodded sheepishly. "But my roommate was still there when she arrived so she said it wasn't too bad."
"I'm so glad Artemis and I never had that problem, with us both being superheroes and all." Wally turned back to Fury now. "So do I have to stay in this cell or do I at least get to explore the place?" Wally asked. Despite how late it had to have been and all the tranquilizers he'd been pumped full of Wally was beginning to feel the urge to move. He'd been stationary for too long which was always uncomfortable for a speedster.
Fury eyed him suspiciously for a moment, as if trying to make up his mind. "Parker," he said at last. "Show Mr. West to his room."
"His room?" Peter asked in confusion.
"Next to Wanda, I'll have her help keep an eye on him. If there's anyone he's going to have trouble escaping, it's Scarlet Witch."
"Um, this is the first time I've been to the new compound," Peter said after a moment's hesitation. "I don't know where Scarlet Witch's room is."
"South wing, second floor," Fury replied tersely as he turned to leave the room. "And don't forget to grab his things on your way."
"Okay. I'll make sure I do that sir."
Dr. Anders broke the awkward silence that had descended on the room after Fury's departure. "I'll wait by the quinjet. I assume you'll be coming back to Willowdale?"
Peter nodded. "Yeah, I'll meet you there in a bit Dr. Anders." He then turned to Wally. "I guess I'll show you to your room then?"
Wally nodded in reply. "But first, I need to get my stuff."
"Where's that? Do you need help?"
"One of that Fury men probably has it and no, it's not much." Wally followed Peter out of the white room and into a dimly lit hall. Due to the low lighting, Wally didn't get the best look at his surroundings. From what he could tell though, this part of the building was some kind of temporary detention center with a few labs and what looked like an infirmary interspersed with the cells.
Sure enough, Wally found a surly looking bearded man with dark hair waiting for them at what he assumed was the compound's main entrance. "Is black leather and surly expressions your guys' uniform or something?" he asked as he accepted the plain brown backpack from the man. Wally didn't get a response, not that he was really expecting one. So he just continued to follow Peter to the south wing.
"Don't mind him," Peter said. "Dmitri's always like that, at least that's how he was when Fury hijacked my school's Europe trip."
"I understand this Earth just suffered a major catastrophe but if we're being totally honest, Fury and his guys could stand to be a little more turbed. In fact, if London was any indication the whole world could probably stand to be more turbed," Wally replied as they continued down the hallway.
"Turbed?" Peter asked clearly confused.
"Sorry," Wally replied. "It's a thing my best friend Dick used to do. We started calling them 'unwords'. Like whelmed instead of overwhelmed or underwhelmed, or turbed instead of disturbed."
"Sounds like it caught on," Peter said with a small grin.
"Eh, the only one that I think really stuck with the team was whelmed. It's just that when I got here, I didn't really have much to remember them by, just everything up here really." Wally tapped his head. "So I started using Dick's unwords more, almost subconsciously."
A moment of silence passed between them before Peter spoke up again. "So you were speaking from experience then, back at the hotel."
Wally sighed internally. "If you're talking about the whole double life superhero thing, then yeah, I've got plenty of experience. That's why Artemis and I got out, that and…"
And your friends don't always make it back.
Peter looked like he wanted to press Wally on what the "and" was but thankfully he didn't. Instead he said, "You being from another universe actually makes a lot of what you said back there make more sense."
That confused Wally. He'd thought their conversation had been a fairly normal one, given the circumstances of course. "Like what?"
"You didn't really seem to know who Mr. Stark was, or I guess it was more like he wasn't that big a deal to you. Like you hadn't really been exposed to just how important he was, as Iron Man, as an industrialist, as an Avenger."
"I suppose I understood it in abstract. It's not like I didn't read up on things after I gave up on trying to get home. You know, just so I didn't stick out too obviously. But I see what you mean," Wally replied as they climbed the stairs to the second floor of the south wing.
"Well, Dr. Anders can help you now," Peter reassured.
Wally smiled wanly. "I hope you're right."
"I think this is it," Peter said at last, stopping in front of a door. The door next to it had a nameplate on it that read "Wanda". Now that Wally looked around, he noticed a few of the other doors had similar nameplates.
"So all the Avengers live here then?" Wally asked. "They rebuilt pretty fast. I heard the original place got totaled when the purple giant showed up last year."
Peter just shrugged as he pushed open the door and let Wally into the room. "I think most of them are actually empty most of the time," Peter replied. "Most people have their own things I guess so this place is really just for if they need a place to crash or for those who don't have anywhere else."
"Or for Fury's prisoners," Wally replied as he set his bag down on the bed.
"You're not a prisoner," Peter insisted.
Wally smirked cynically. "But I'm not allowed to leave the compound and I even sleep right next to the guard," he replied.
Even in the low light, Wally could read Peter's expression and tell that he knew he was right, even if he didn't want to admit it. Instead, his gaze shifted to Wally's backpack. "Is this all you have?" Peter asked. "I could probably ask Fury to get your other things and bring them here. He probably wouldn't do it but it wouldn't hurt to try."
"Nah,"' Wally replied. "This is it. Like I said, I didn't come here with much, I even had to buy a couple changes of clothes when I got here. I just came with this old thing really." Wally reached into his bag and removed his tattered speed suit and goggles. The yellow had turned brown in some places and there were some holes from the static discharge and frictional heat he'd generated before realizing how much faster he'd gotten.
"Is that?"
Wally nodded. "It was designed to be durable and low friction and to help with static discharge from when I run. But I also used to be slower, and it looks like the material wasn't really able to keep up with my new speeds. The goggles were to keep the wind out of my eyes. It's a lot like my uncle's, the biggest difference is the color scheme. His is red with yellow lightning."
"Can I?" Peter asked, gesturing to the suit. He came over and felt it when Wally nodded his assent.
"I really looked up to the Flash when I was a kid. So much that I wanted to be him," Wally said, slowly losing himself in his memories as his restlessness and presence of mind from earlier were drained by his physiological need to sleep. "Then I found out he was my uncle." Wally laughed a bit at the memory. "I found his notes, tried to replicate his abilities. Put me in the hospital, nearly killed me. I really worried everyone too." Wally glanced back at the suit sadly, not really noticing the sympathetic expression on Peter's face as his thoughts shifted to more recent events. "My parents, Uncle Barry, Artemis, the team… They all probably think I'm dead."
"They won't for long," Peter said at last, handing the damaged suit back to Wally. "We'll get you home. But first, I think you need to sleep."
Wally nodded tiredly and Peter turned and left, shutting the door behind him. Wally stuffed the suit back into his bag and set it on the floor next to his bed. It had been one hell of a day and he definitely wasn't feeling the aster. He didn't even bother to turn out the lights or change out of his clothes before collapsing on the bed and falling asleep.
*With regards to Fury's remark about invasions from the multiverse, I'm referring to Dormammu's attempt to swallow the universe into the Dark Dimension. Even though that's a mystic arts thing, I just kind of assumed that Fury would know about that, you know, because he's Fury
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Is it just me or does that phrase work better if it's Batman instead?