Wally
Wally knew – as soon as he could know anything, really – that he was trapped in the riptide that was the Speedforce. He was ashamed to say that he did not know much of the mechanics of the source of his speed; really, he only knew what his uncle had told him, warnings against going too fast, of losing control and falling into the Speedforce's siren song. He figured, when he left the superhero gig, that it he would never come close to seeing that boundary, much less touch it, but there he was, speeding down the corridors of the force. In Becoming again, he had had to slow down, particle by particle, to even grasp his sense of being, but deep in his gut he knew that he had hit a metaphorical wall.
Swept up with the Speedforce's current, he could spy glimpses into other worlds and other times, could feel other speedsters tap into the fount of their power, and he could do nothing but continue to run with no end in sight. Once or twice, he could have sworn he was not alone in the slipstream, but the feeling lasted only a few moments before being whisked away on the wind. It was one such instance that Wally felt him before he saw him. For that matter, he heard him before he saw him, too.
The stream shifted around him, accommodating the new speedster as he streaked forward to join Wally. "Hey, hey, kid! The hell are you doing in here?"
Wally rolled his eyes. It figured that the first thing he would hear after god knows how long was that nickname. He was a full grown (kinda), responsible (not really) adult (questionable), for crying out loud!
"Oh, you know, just out for an afternoon stroll."
"Yeah, yeah, sure, smartass," the man chuckled lightly, and when Wally looked at him, he did an honest to god double-take at the crimson suit.
"Barry?"
The man frowned. "What? No, man, I'm the Flash. You know, fastest man alive, crime-stopper extraordinaire? Founding member of the League?"
"Obviously," Wally muttered to himself and shook his head. Not the Flash from his dimension, then. He sighed.
The man scrutinized him carefully. "How long've you been in here, kid?"
"I don't know," Wally admitted. "I can't stop running." A weight seemed to pull at his chest. "I'm so tired." As heavy as he felt, the words came out hollow.
The Flash's mouth dropped open, but he very nearly stumbled before he could say anything. At Wally's look, he looked bashful. "Sorry," he mumbled with a shrug, "I normally don't stay this long in the Speedforce."
Wally nodded in understanding. From what he understood from Barry, most jaunts into the Speedforce lasted mere seconds.
He was the exception.
"So, Globetrotter, what do I call you? Nice get-up, by the way."
Wally smiled humorlessly. "Kid Flash."
"No kidding." The Flash released a huff of laughter. "Ah, multiverse," he relented. "Weird. So what, you decided to pick up some cardio or something? Because I know I've felt you around the last couple of times of been in the neighborhood."
"Saved the world from destruction, and all I got was this lousy vacation."
"Been there, bud." The Flash held out for a fistbump, which Wally gladly gave.
"This is actually the first conversation I've had since," Wally admitted. Since when? Who knew how long it had taken him to reform? He could still feel the residual energy of the bomb running over his skin in waves.
The Flash seemed to flicker for a moment, and Wally panicked. What if this was his last conversation with a living being? Sure, he could keep himself entertained, but even he was pressed to do so for, oh, say an eternity. "Looks like my time is running out, Kid." The Flash sighed. "I'll be back, though. I couldn't just leave you in here. Any last words before I jet?"
Wally suddenly felt the impulse to tell this Flash everything – the team, the league, Stanford, Artemis – but instead settled on only one.
"Wally."
"What?" The Flash looked surprised.
"That's my name. Wally West."
The man beside him let out a startled laugh. He reached up and pulled down his red cowl. "Nice to meet you, Wally. I'm Wally, too." His grin reach up to his green eyes, and Wally ran a hand through his own shock of red hair. The Flash flickered again.
"Multiverse," the Flash repeated with the shake of his head. "Weird." Then Wally was alone again.
He kept running.
He kept running.
He kept singing songs in his head, too, but then they just started to loop, and there's only so many times he could replay the lyrics to "I'm Gonna Be" before he contemplated ending the Proclaimers for good. So the songs ended.
Instead, he thought about how life was carrying on back home. Surely school had started up again, and Artemis had some credits to catch up on since her "death" pulled her out of the spring semester early. He'd have to do the same when (if, a small voice echoed in the back of his mind, if) he came back. He is sure the League could whip something up like a coma-causing car accident or something – he was so close to his degree, he could almost taste it. He knew, though, that academics wouldn't be quite as smooth as before. All it took was a taste of the action, and both he and Artemis had been pulled back into the world-saving business.
He thought about all those other worlds he passed, and the Wally West he had met in the Speedforce. Did that Wally have an Artemis, too? Did she escape the Shadows in his world, or was she a villain like her father before her? Did she even exist? Out of all those worlds, he hoped that all the Wallys out there had Artemises, or someone that made them just as happy. Sheesh, he was getting sappy.
Screw it, he had earned the right to be sappy.
He hoped she was still wearing his ring.
Wally rubbed a quick hand over his face, halfheartedly wiping the tears that had gathered on his lashes.
He kept running.
He was prepared when Flash returned, felt the Speedforce wrap around him once more as he raced to join Wally's pace.
"Hey, Wally!"
Wally smirked. "Hey, Wally."
"Sorry to make you wait, man. It takes a little while to invent stuff like this, you know?" The other looked apologetic under his mask, which made Wally vaguely wonder how long the Flash had actually been away, but what drew Wally's attention was what looked like a metal baby carrier strapped to the Flash's chest. He raised an eyebrow and pointed at the contraption.
"Did you get pulled away from babysitting?"
The Flash laughed sarcastically. "Ha ha, yes, we're so funny. Don't knock it, dude, I've got one for you, too." He pushed a similar device at Wally, who took it with a little hesitation.
He turned it over in his hands a couple of times. The four "arms" extending from the central unit freaked him out, to be completely honest. "And this thing does what now?"
"You know how this multiverse thing works, right? I assume we're just as much of a beautiful genius in all the worlds out there."
Wally nodded, examining the device. The circuitry inside looked intricate and exact, but unlike anything he had ever seen. "Infinite number of worlds existing in the same place in space, vibrating at different frequencies."
"Basically. So you and I are vibrating at different frequencies, and if I'm gonna yank you out of the force, I'm going to have to match our frequencies. These," he knocked on the device on his own chest, "are going to make up the difference."
Wally snapped his attention back to the Flash. "Yank me out? You mean-"
"Yeah, man, you're due for a long nap and a super high-calorie meal or two. We'll see what we can get the cafeteria to whip up. Sound good."
It took a moment for Wally to get his voice to work, but he finally croaked out a soft, "yeah."
"Cool. Let's get you in this thing." Wally pressed the device to his front, and it must have had a sensor of some type because it tightened its arms over his shoulders and ribs. The Flash tapped something on the side of his gadget, and Wally felt his start to sync up. The Flash firmly grasped Wally's forearm, a gesture which Wally returned. "Hold on tight," he cautioned, "re-entry might be bumpy." Wally hardly had time to nod before he felt the sharp pull somewhere in his chest.
He felt himself skip a step, then another; he felt the Speedforce warp around him, trying to pull him back inside its racing current.
Then, he was out, and he hardly felt the metal floor before he collapsed onto his knees. He felt a hand land gently on his shoulder.
"Hey, Kid Flash," the Flash greeted. "Welcome to Earth." Wally snorted before he began to fade into unconsciousness.
He'd stopped running.