How's it going? To those who know me from my other fic, sorry for my absence as of late, I really wanted to make a new story and was trying to find a plot to write. Luckily, this came to me in about five minutes and I managed to conjure up a story for it. For those who don't know me, welcome! I really enjoy writing crossover fics and hope that you enjoy this one. The Flash is my favorite superhero and RWBY is a show that has so much potential, that I decided to write a crossover about it. The Fool and Fortune followers, the fic will still be updated, but I'll leave it up to you guys in the reviews to see which one you'd prefer to be updated.
Note: This Barry Allen is an AU one that I created. He got his powers at seventeen and some events played out differently than what we're used to. I hope you guys enjoy the story.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to The Flash (DC) or RWBY.
'Alright, Barry, you can do this! You're the fastest man alive! All you've got to do is hit five-hundred miles per hour, and then you can call it a day—'
Currently, adorning a red leotard-like full bodysuit with a cowl, Bartholomew Henry Allen was mentally preparing himself for the leap in speed he wanted to take. His suit was friction-proof that allowed him to run as fast as he could without his clothes combusting. He painstakingly handcrafted the suit, and, if he could be a little less modest, it didn't look too shabby. Composed of red and yellow abrasive and synthesized kevlar composite fabric, with the yellow fabric being shaped into lightning bolts down on both sides of his sleeve and three on the center of his chest, the boy believed it looked cool, but was open-minded to new designs.
He wanted to get his hands on better materials to protect himself, but the lack of money and being underage meant that he had to work multiple part-time jobs, which was a no-go for him.
'Killing my Love' by Leslie Parrish was currently playing in order to hype himself up for the run. The song really helped shift his mood to a more accelerated feel.
The seventeen-year-old boy was currently at an abandoned airfield, surrounded by quite a bit of speed tracking technology to help him train when there was no emergency. Although he was literally the fastest person on earth, he knew that he would be able to reach even higher speeds with some training and practice.
This airfield he was currently training at was something akin to a secret base that only he knew about. No one knew his identity and throughout the past four months of being a hero, he had been rather socially isolated. There was just no one to talk to about his double life. He still hadn't chosen an alter ego for himself, but the news and public calling him the 'Blur' or 'Whippy Quickster' was just terrible.
Honestly, it was like they didn't put in any effort at all.
Picking up a voice recorder off of a table, the boy flipped the switch on and began to speak into it.
"Test run, log number fifty-eight," the scarlet speedster stated clearly. "Attempting a new running form to try and resist as much air friction as possible. My fastest run so far has been four hundred eighty-three miles per hour. Hoping to reach five hundred by the end of the session. Trial and error will be used on running forms. Results will be posted shortly."
Placing the recorder back down, Barry, as his friends called him instead of his ridiculously difficult first name Bartholomew, began to do some stretches and small exercises to ensure he didn't pull a muscle or injure himself during the test run.
After warming up, the boy stepped up onto a set of blocks that were placed in the same way as a professional tracking field.
"Come on Allen, you can do this! It'll be a walk in the park."
The boy's mind began to flood with excitement he had never felt before in his life. He realized long ago that emotion helped him run better and under no circumstance would negative thoughts seep into his mind. Running felt like a freedom to him and was something that he could always look forward to.
"On your mark, Barry!"
A sound system he had installed began to produce the encouragement he needed. It was a familiar voice, one that he would never forget.
It was his late mothers. She used to cheer like this for him at his track meets when he was in elementary school.
How he missed her...
"Alright! Get set!" Barry leaned forward in his usual starting position and put his feet on the blocks.
"Go!"
The boy leaped out of the blocks and pushed himself to his limits. Said blocks were blasted to the next state as the force he left behind overpowered their weight. If a normal human would witness this, they would only be able to see a red blur for a millisecond.
"Now approaching four-hundred miles per hour."
Another voice had made itself known. It had a robotic tone and sounded feminine when it spoke. The voice was coming from an earpiece in Barry's cowl and could only be heard by him. Although the voice itself was robotic, it still felt very welcoming and pleasing to hear.
"Thanks, Gideon! Update me again in a couple of seconds!"
Gideon was the name of an AI Barry had developed about a month after he acquired his powers. His accelerated thinking allowed him to greatly reduce the time needed to develop the software and coding. It had been exciting at first, until he realized that Gideon speaking normally sounded like slow motion while he was running. So he was required to add additional support for Gideon to talk as fast as his adjusted running speed.
The boy in the red suit was currently pushing himself to the limit. He was beginning to feel the strain on his body and mind, even though he had only just begun to run. He didn't hate this feeling though. In fact, he was loving it. The shortness of breath, his muscles straining, the wind blowing across his face, every aspect of running was just so refreshing.
"Now approaching four-hundred and sixty-five miles per hour. You are close to approaching your top speed. Be careful to not overexert yourself."
"Don't worry Gideon, I'm doing just fine!" Barry responded with a grin.
"Your vital signs suggest otherwise. I suggest you don't make me worried."
'Dammit, why is she so protective?' Barry complained in his mind, even though he was the one who coded it.
The boy kept kicking his feet off the ground and tried to spend as little time on it as possible. His arms were swinging back and forth as he tried to reduce the air drag that was resisting against his body. The current running form he had planned to use was being changed on the spot. Trial and error was the key as he approached his top speed. He thought he would eventually find something that suited his style and then once again began to increase his speed.
"You have now exceeded your top speed and are currently going four hundred and ninety-seven miles per hour. Are you sure you can handle five hundred Barry?" The robotic Gideon asked, sounding concerned.
"I know I can! Just tell me if I hit it, Okay Gideon?"
"Understood, Barry. You are now at four hundred and ninety-eight, nine. You're almost there. Your vitals are telling me your energy levels are low, but you're nearly there... I believe in you."
Those last couple of words reminded Barry of his mother.
No matter how fast he ran or how far away he moved, there was nothing that could ever rid him of the memory of seeing her lay on the ground with her lifeless eyes. She had been murdered, and the culprit was never caught. The fact that the man who did it was still out there made Barry feel a sort of rage that he had long tried to suppress. Those emotions however also left a mark on him. A mark that made him who he was today. His powers only amplified his traits and turned him into the hero he was. He was now a boy with the power to stop those who wanted to hurt people, so that no child would ever go through what he went through.
"You have successfully hit five hundred miles per hour, congratulations Barry." Gideon complimented in her normal robotic tone.
The seventeen-year-old boy came to a sudden stop. The intense running had put a lot of stress onto his body and he bent over trying to get as much oxygen into his lungs as possible. Every fiber of his body was screaming, but he powered through and tried to break through his limits by using sheer force of will.
Barry took off his cowl and gave himself a pat on the back, literally.
"Good stuff Barry!" The now revealed blond-haired boy complimented himself.
The boy turned around and saw just how far he had run. His equipment setup was nowhere in sight, and he was nearly at the edge of the airport. Any further and he probably would've fallen into the lake that was right next to it.
"It's a good thing I hit my target when I did," Barry thought out loud while chuckling uncomfortably. "Gideon, how far away am I from the base?"
"You are approximately five miles away from our base. Would you like to add a message to the recording log?"
"Yes, Gideon."
"Now resuming recording."
"Continuation of test log number fifty-eight. New running form has been fully tested. It felt really weird running that way. I think I might look stupid, but considering no one can really see me, I'm sure it's fine. I managed to hit five hundred miles per hour but it did come with a tremendous amount of strain. More training is needed to ensure I can hold faster speeds for longer times. For now, this test was satisfactory and I will continue to train as much as I can. Test log fifty-eight, complete."
Barry let out a sigh and began to walk back in the direction of his base. His metahuman healing speed was already at work relieving his muscles, but it would still take a bit before he could start running again.
He could only really maintain a consistent two hundred fifty mile per hour speed without tiring instantly. Using his full speed in short spurts also worked, but he didn't do it unless it was absolutely necessary.
"Gideon, is there anything new popping up on police chatter?"
"Nothing so far Barry, and even if there was you are in no condition to go out there."
"I know that Gideon…" Barry replied downtrodden. "But you know I just can't stand by and let other people get hurt when I have the power to stop them."
"I understand that Barry, but if you make an error and are left incapacitated or worse, who will save the people then?"
The blond-haired boy didn't respond. Gideon's words kept reminding him of his mother's. It was the main reason he designed her.
"Vitals are stable now. You can run back to base if you so wish."
"Got it."
The boy put on his cowl, and let the electricity crackle throughout his body.
With a grin on his face, the boy got into a running position.
"That never gets old."
Hiding the equipment under a large tarp, Barry began to walk inside the abandoned station, taking off the gloves and cowl. He opened the only door to the building, which revealed a small area that had a couch, a mini-fridge, a pool table, and a T.V. A small private game room just for him. Off in the corner though, was a small mountain of fast food bags that looked like they had accumulated themselves over the course of two years.
In Barry's case, it took only two weeks to go through that amount of food.
"Damn, if someone walked in and saw… all of this, they'd be surprised I haven't died from a heart attack. Gideon, remind me to throw away all the trash."
"Noted. Anything else Barry?"
"Nothing for now," Barry slouched on the couch and laid down, putting his head on a pillow. "Actually, set an alarm an hour from now. I really need a nap."
A small beep went off, indicating the boy's words had been noted. Closing his eyes, he could feel the weight of his eyelids start to get heavier and heavier until at last he fell asleep.
Sometime later, his eyes snapped open. Barry pulled himself out of bed as he felt the need to get a glass of water.
It was like any other night. He had woken up due to thirst. It was practically a routine at this point. The silence of the night was something that he had grown accustomed to.
A screech pierced the night air and the sudden noise shook every bone in his body.
He didn't know whether to run towards or away from the sound. His body was paralyzed. He had never heard such a terrible scream like that one before, and it was coming from inside his house… What horrified him even more however was that it sounded exactly like his mother's.
That thought was what snapped him out of his stupor and made him run downstairs. He heard his dad shouting, but it didn't sound nearly as dreadful as the one from a couple of seconds ago.
"No, please! Stay with me please, Nora!"
Barry's heart dropped when he heard those words. He never thought he would have to hear anything like that this soon in his life. It only meant one thing.
"Dad! What happened?!"
The question was pointless for he already knew. He was just begging that his dad would say otherwise. His mind begged him to say nothing was wrong and that they were just joking.
The optimist and realist in him were juxtaposing.
"Barry, please don't come in here!" Henry Allen screamed, his voice breaking.
Barry felt tears forming in his eyes. Perhaps that was the reason he saw something that wasn't there? At the moment, his vision was at its worst, he could've sworn that he saw a red blur, something that looked almost exactly like lightning out of the window of his house.
He didn't care about that though, as he continued to walk forward, pushing the door open.
"Dad-"
"Barry, wake up!"
"Mom!"
Barry instantly shot up from his couch and felt the sweat on his forehead dripping down on his body.
"Are you alright Barry?" The robotic voice from Gideon asked in concern. "Did you have the nightmare again?"
"Yeah… I thought they finally went away." Barry said softly. "Did the hour go by?"
"No, your heart rate was spiking and I decided to take action before it got even worse."
"Thank you, Gideon." Barry weakly smiled.
Pulling out his phone, Barry saw that it was 7:24 P.M. The sun was beginning to go down, so Central City would have horrible traffic at this hour.
Not that it mattered to him, but he knew that his dad would probably be stuck in it. Which would give him the time needed to get back home without anyone knowing he was ever gone.
His dad had become a bit different after his mother passed away.
He didn't grow cold, he didn't isolate himself, or leave Barry to fend for himself. However, his normal happy attitude was just gone. He no longer smiled, and just seemed so tired all the time. It pained Barry to see his father like that every day. He didn't know if it was because they never caught the man who murdered the love of his life, or because he missed his wife.
It was probably a little bit of both.
'I can't blame him, but it's been six years…'
Barry shook his head and cleared his mind as he didn't want to mope around all day. He needed to get home and cook dinner for his dad. It was the least he could do for him.
As Barry turned off the lights to the room, he let out a sigh and only a red blur was seen leaving the airport.
Running into a shed in the back of his house, Barry tried to make as little noise as possible to not draw the attention of his neighbors. He had struggled with subtlety when he first got his powers and had crashed every day the first two weeks of getting his powers.
He took off his suit and, although it was a bodysuit, it was surprisingly easy to remove. A small little compartment in the floor was made to hide his suit from his dad, just in case he ever needed to grab anything from the shed. It didn't even look tampered with. That was how well Barry made sure it looked. He also covered it with a bit of dirt to make it look even less conspicuous.
Changing into a normal set of clothes that he left in the shed, Barry slowly walked out and entered his house through the back door.
He had already decided to cook a steak and make mashed potatoes as a side dish. It was just something he was craving and his dad would surely enjoy the meal.
He took out the steak from the fridge as he had left it there in the morning and walked to his pantry to grab a couple of potatoes from the sack. He used his speed to peel all of them and let them soak in water and went back to the steak.
After heating up the stove and was about to start actually cooking the meat and potatoes, the sound of footsteps approaching was heard at the front door, followed by a key being turned into the lock. He was surprised his dad had gotten home sooner than expected, but he didn't mind it.
"Hey Dad," Barry said loudly. "Just started dinner so it'll be a couple of minutes."
"Thanks, Barry, I don't know what I'd do without you," Henry responded weakly.
"Long day huh?"
Henry sat down at the table in the kitchen and put his hands to his face, trying to rub away the fatigued look that was plastered on it.
"I'm making steak and mashed potatoes by the way," Barry informed. "Is that ok?"
"Sounds great. Make sure mine is medium rare though."
"You act like I'd forget, and you don't ask for it all the time." Barry laughed.
Barry looked in the fridge again to get his dad a drink. He had made a sweet tea earlier as well and served him some to ease him back into comfort.
"Don't you have tomorrow off of work?"
"Yeah I do," Henry said with a feeling of relief. "It's my first one in four months, so I plan to enjoy it to the fullest with you."
"What'd you have in mind?"
"How about the Prime Time Central City Cougars game?"
Henry flashed two tickets in the air.
"How the hell did you get those!?" Barry exclaimed in shock. "Haven't they been sold out for two months?"
"I bought them and just told the hospital this would be the only day I request. Would've been a real shame if we couldn't get to use them."
"I've been dying to see them play! I just hope Brady doesn't terrorize us though."
"You got that right, I think we can win the Super Bowl this year."
Barry was overcome with happiness as the notion his father was giving. He hadn't seen his dad this happy in a while, but Barry could still see the pain in his father's eyes.
"By the way," Barry diverted, wanting to change the subject back to food. "Do you want your mashed potatoes thick or creamy?"
"Hmm," Henry stared off into space for a good ten seconds thinking. "I'm thinking it's a thick mashed potatoes kind of day."
"You got it, Boss."
Barry went to work on the potatoes as he let osmosis work on the steak while the salt and pepper sat on it.
"How's work been, Dad?" Barry questioned. "Is the hospital doing alright?"
"Yeah, the hospital has been seeing a lot more patients since the incident. It's overwhelming, and I'm sorry I haven't been getting home on time Barry, I just-"
"Dad, you're a doctor, don't worry about it," Barry interrupted. "People need you, and your skills are second to none."
"I know you think that Barry, but you haven't seen what I've seen. People coming in with injuries that shouldn't even be humanly possible. All of these people with powers? It's frightening to think that so many people decided to use their powers to harm others."
"But what about that blur guy?" Barry asked, trying to make it sound like a genuine question.
Barry couldn't tell his dad that he was the one saving people. If he knew he would either get a heart attack or plead him to not go. He wouldn't want to lose his last family member after all.
"I appreciate what he's trying to do, and in all honesty, he might be our only hope when it comes to dealing with people like that."
Barry felt a counter coming.
"But he's only one person. He can only do so much and Central City is the biggest city in America. He can't be everywhere at once."
Barry knew that too. The feeling of being outnumbered was something that invoked caution in him and to not go around doing things blindly. He always planned everything beforehand and surveyed the area to make sure there were no traps or something that would catch him off guard.
"He also is the sole reason why the hospital hasn't collapsed at this point." Henry awkwardly laughed. "If he wasn't here, I'm sure I'd never be home."
Barry could tell his dad was pushing forth every ounce of energy in his body to even produce that sorry excuse of a laugh.
"I'm sure things will get better. I know they will, Dad."
"I hope so too Barry."
Henry stood up from the chair and began to walk towards his room.
Barry was relieved that he at least thought highly of his superhero side. It gave him a reason to keep doing what he was doing.
About an hour after dinner, Barry was in his room trying to decide which jersey he should wear to the game the next day. It had been years since he had gone to a Cougars game, and he was sure as hell not going to miss this chance to go with his dad.
Finally deciding on an outfit, he set it to the side.
Barry had a smile plastered on his face and was whistling as he walked out of his room. He was planning to go into his attic as it was sort of a little man cave for him. The difference between this one and the one at the airport was that his dad knew where he was.
Bringing down the steps, Barry continued whistling as he walked up to near pitch-black space.
Reaching for a light switch, Barry flicked it on to reveal two bean bag chairs, a school desk with homework on it, a chalkboard, and a small cabinet that had different types of candy. Barry walked up to the blank chalkboard and stared at it for a bit before taking a deep breath. He reached out and flipped the board over which was covered with multiple newspaper clippings and various other sources of information regarding the death of Nora Allen.
He didn't like to admit it, but Barry developed an obsession with detective work. Learning as much as he could about the profession, the goal was that he could become a detective or forensic analyst in order to find out who really took his mother's life.
He stared at the information and read through all of it for what could have been near the one-thousandth time. No matter how much information he gathered or reviewed, no suspect ever arose out of it.
There was absolutely no reason for his mother to have died. His whole family was asleep, no doors were open and no windows looked to be tampered with. It was as if she had just fallen over and died. It was a complete shock considering no blood ever spilled from her body. It wasn't until the autopsy revealed that she had been stabbed through the heart.
It would explain the wound on her chest after they saw it, except for the fact that no weapon or object would be able to ever cause a wound of that degree.
The coroner said that it appeared as if someone literally shoved their hand in her heart.
There was nothing scientific about it.
Barry believed himself to be a boy of science, but he knew that something supernatural had to be involved in his mother's death.
And it had something to do with that red streak of lighting.
After all, his powers allowed him to generate a stream of orange lightning that trailed off of him every time he ran.
What if someone with a similar power as he has killed his mother that night?
What if-
'Barry, there's an ongoing car chase downtown. The police seem to have trouble keeping up with the suspect. I think you should go lend them a hand.'
"On it Gideon."
Barry turned off the light and went back down the stairs. He closed the trapdoor and instantly ran to his shed. His father said he was going to sleep right after dinner, so he wasn't worried about getting caught. Putting on his suit, Barry ran out and made his way downtown in hopes to find the car and subdue the driver. The difficulty lay with getting the car to make a safe stop and not run into any pedestrians.
Scanning the environment, Barry followed the noise of police sirens in order to narrow down his search for the getaway car. Once he saw the police lights, he knew that the perpetrator wouldn't be too far ahead. He kept running and eventually saw a large white van going nearly one-hundred twenty miles per hour.
Luckily for him, he was more than twice as fast as that.
Narrowing in on the car, Barry made sure to look through the windshield to ensure there was no more than one person. After confirming that the driver was the only one in the front, Barry was about to leap through the window and get the driver out of the car but was stopped when he just barely heard voices in the back.
"Please let us go! We've done nothing wrong!" a masculine voice whimpered.
The words the speedster heard alerted him that there were multiple people in the back.
Barry had to completely rethink his plan now.
Usually, in car chases, he would take the driver out and quickly move the car so that it would either crash into something that the city could easily replace. Most of the time, the car would be heavily damaged, but considering no one would be in the way and that he was out of sight, it was the best outcome he could think of.
Barry then changed his plan. Instantly opening the back door of the van, he would speed the people in the back out of there before getting the driver out. It was risky because the driver could be armed, but it was something that he had to do.
"Now or never!"
Barry used a super-speed punch to force the lock on the back door open. Once the door was ajar, he pulled on it and saw two little girls who looked no more than six years old both with short brown hair and matching outfits.
Twins.
He then looked at the man, who appeared to be in his late thirties. He had black hair with a clean shave and was wearing his suit quite loosely as he had just come out of a business meeting. His appearance screamed importance. It must've been the reason he was chosen by the perpetrator. Barry was used to canvassing areas and reading people. It was a good skill to have if he were to ever become a detective.
With Barry's brain affected by his powers he could process all of this information in just a split of a second, he reached out his arms to grab both of the girls first.
"I got-"
There was one fatal flaw Barry committed during all of this.
He had thought he accounted for everything and ran scenarios in his head in order to be prepared for everything, but he forgot one important factor.
Other people on the road wouldn't see the van coming.
The van took a direct hit in the front at an angle which caused it to spin out of control. Barry was disoriented for a second, and once he regained his composure, he saw one of the little girls go flying out of the back door.
Barry was sure that the child's face of pure despair and horror would haunt him for a while.
He pushed himself to the limit knowing it would put a strain on his body, but he didn't care for it and didn't want to care. As long as there was a chance she could reach her, he had to do it. With his arm stretching out he just managed to catch the girl before her tiny head could hit the ground and sped her to the sidewalk and instantly went back into the back of the van.
He grabbed the other girl and man as the car was beginning to slow to a stop. After dropping the family off, Barry felt the strain on his body from the huge spurt from earlier and came to a stop.
He didn't even realize his legs stopped moving until the man looked straight at him and opened his mouth.
"You are real. Thank you so much."
Barry gave him a nod of reassurance and ran back to where the crash occurred and saw the other vehicle that crashed into the van. He hoped both of the drivers were ok.
One look was all it took to make Barry fall into despair.
Both drivers were dead. A vast amount of blood was oozing from their now unrecognizable heads. It truly was a horrific sight to look at. Barry couldn't stand to keep looking at them.
He had seen bad injuries, but nothing was as graphic as the people he was looking at.
Barry knew he couldn't stay there, he could only run away.
Barry didn't know what to do, so he just let his legs do their thing.
Where would he go? What would he even do at this hour? Barry could think of only one place.
Reaching his hideout, Barry ran towards the center of the living room and came to a stop.
"AGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Barry let out a roar that all of America probably heard. His anger and grief were beginning to merge after the sight he had just witnessed and he just couldn't contain it any longer. In his four months of being a superhero, he had never seen anyone die. People had gotten hurt, but it was never severe. He would feel bad, but being injured was a lot better than being dead. That wasn't the case with what had happened tonight.
He saw two lifeless bodies.
Two people who had their lives to live, gone in a flash.
Where did he go wrong?
"Barry, I understand you're upset, but there was nothing you could do."
Gideon suddenly made herself known again, which snapped Barry out of his stupor of grief.
"Two people died, Gideon!" Barry was shouting, from rage or sorrow, he didn't know. "I messed up and now two people are dead! How could I have been so careless?"
Barry collapsed onto the cold concrete floor. He was fighting back tears. The lifeless eyes he had seen had reminded him of his mother. Those soulless eyes continued to haunt his dream.
Why did life throw so much his way?
"Barry, I know this is hard, and that you wish you could've saved them, but there's something important every hero must know if they want to continue doing what they do… and I know you won't like it."
"What is that?"
"Even with all your power and courage, you can't save everyone. There will always be someone that you can't reach or someone who doesn't want to be reached out to. I know this isn't something you want to hear but-"
"I know that!" Barry was still shouting, but his volume came from anguish this time. "I know that I won't be able to save everyone! But I at least have to try right!? If I had been smarter and faster, they would still be here!"
The irony from Barry's words cut deep within his own skin. His entire life he had wished to be smarter and faster, even before his powers. Now that he was the fastest man alive, he still always seemed to come up short. It was as if God was testing Barry to see how much torment he could go through.
Was he even worthy of wielding this power? He had always thought about it when it was bestowed upon him. Why was he chosen?
He wanted to believe there was a higher entity that gave him his speed. That they had deemed him worthy of having it.
But in the end, he always seemed to fail.
In the deepest part of his subconscious, he wished he could just run away from it all.
He tried his hardest to save and protect as many people as he could, but with that came even more isolation. What would happen to the people who expected him to be there and he wasn't?
Doubt filled the speedster's mind.
"I can't do this…"
Despair.
Torment.
Anguish.
Barry closed his eyes and envisioned his mother.
"Keep running my beautiful boy…"
Barry shot up instantly. His mother's voice sounded so real, and he knew it wasn't Gideon.
"Great," Barry weakly chuckled. "I'm losing it now."
The tears in his eyes didn't flow. He used every fiber of his being to prevent himself from crying.
"Gideon, ready the next test."
"Are you sure? You shouldn't-"
"Just do it! Please! I have to get faster, and that means dedicating myself to training as much as I can. I can't let this happen again…"
Barry ran to the start of the course and readied himself.
The mental image of the fear in the little girl's face etched itself in his brain. The death of those two was his fault. That's what he believed. Logic be damned. He wouldn't let it happen again. He couldn't.
The adrenaline, mixed with rage and misery made Barry want to throw up, but he forced himself not to think about it.
So he started to run.
He ran, and ran, and kept running.
He felt himself going faster, even faster than he had gone earlier today. His mind was focused on going as fast as he could.
He thought he heard Gideon telling him what speed he was currently going, but he was so engrossed in this run that he couldn't even hear her. Those words felt so far away… so slow...
His focus shattered when a dark blue cloud with what appeared to have lightning showed up in front of him.
There was no way he could stop in time. All he could do was run right through it.
The second he passed through, all the speed in his body seemed to be sapped away. He fell over at the sudden loss. His body no longer being accustomed to moving like this, and he rolled for a good fifteen seconds.
The grass below him charred a bit and the feeling of multiple bruises began to form on Barry's body. He hadn't felt pain like this in a while.
"What the hell!?"
He heard a voice and instantly put a hand to his face, praying his mask was on.
"What the hell was that? And where did this guy come from?"
While Barry couldn't see the person yet, he could recognize the voice to be female. But right now, he could only writhe in pain and was too exhausted to get up. Part of him knew he couldn't lay there forever. Grunting, he tried to push himself off, but his body didn't seem to respond.
"Is he unconscious?" Another voice that belonged to a woman asked, though she sounded a bit younger than the first.
"Go check if he needs help!" a male voice ordered.
Barry was still in a daze but he could feel the strength necessary to get back on his feet slowly return. Looking in the direction he heard the voices, he spotted six girls and two boys.
One of the boys had long shaggy blond hair with dark blue eyes. He appeared to be wearing a type of armor over a shirt and some plain jeans.
The other boy had pale pink eyes and had black hair with a strand of pink. He looked of Asian descent to Barry, and his green Chinese-like outfit appeared to confirm it.
Moving onto the girls, the first he noticed was incredibly tall and had crimson hair with emerald eyes. She looked like a warrior from Greek mythology and that honesty made Barry think she was the coolest.
The girl closest to her was significantly shorter but appeared much more energetic by the way she moved in place. Her short orange hair and aqua eyes were something that Barry noticed right away as the contrasting colors stole his focus.
The next girl had long blonde hair and lilac eyes. Barry was beginning to realize something was off because of how different their eye colors were compared to everyone he had seen before. The girl was wearing a brown and yellow-themed outfit which reminded Barry of a biker.
Another short girl who had black hair with red tips was also standing with the group. She had silver eyes which made Barry feel uneasy but thought they looked cool nonetheless. She sported a black dress with a red outline which made her appear gothic.
Next to her was a girl not much taller than her, but had white hair tied in a ponytail with a tiara and had light blue eyes. Her outfit looked simple with just a white dress and white coat with a red interior.
The last girl who was a bit separated from the group had long black hair with a bow and amber eyes. Barry thought she looked mysterious but didn't want to presume anything about any of the people in the group.
The outfits they were wearing looked ridiculous to him, but considering he was currently in a full-body suit, he had no room to argue.
"Wh- where the hell am I?" Barry gasped.
Barry looked around and observed the environment he was in. Central City didn't have this many trees, did he teleport somewhere? There was also a small monument with chess pieces on them. Where the hell was he?
"You're in the Emerald Forest," the blonde-haired girl informed, with a bit of hesitation in her voice. "Did you use your semblance on accident or something?"
"Semblance? And can you be more specific, please? Like where exactly the Emerald Forest is located?"
All eight people looked at him in surprise.
"It's in Vale? You know, one of the four major kingdoms?" The gothic girl said. She looked slightly younger than the rest of the group.
"Vale? Kingdom?"
Barry's mind raced as he tried to remember if any of those names sounded familiar. He didn't know of any places with those names. Was he in another country? They spoke English just fine, and none of them had a specific accent so they had to be American right?
As Barry questioned himself once more, his brain froze on a conclusion that he thought was impossible assuming these people were telling him the truth. But considering he could run as fast as an airplane, nothing was really impossible. It did make sense. The different hair color on the regal-looking girl and eye color on the blonde and black-haired boy wasn't biologically… common.
"Eh... This is going to sound weird, but what is this planet called?"
All eight of the people had a confused look on their faces.
"Remnant… are you trying to play some stupid joke on us? If so then it is neither amusing nor funny." The girl with white hair asked while sounding condescending.
Barry looked to the ground and started to laugh.
Tears began to flow from his eyes.
"H-hey, are you ok?" a girl with long black hair and a large black bow asked, not knowing what to do.
Barry tried to wipe his tears, but it was all for naught. They continued to flow.
"I was supposed to go to a football game with my dad tomorrow."
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I will do my best to update as much as I can. Please bear with me if I take the time to upload a new chapter.
Big thanks to HelixPenn, Darkbetrayer, and Maverick for looking over this chapter!