Bright light shone in, blinding Flash momentarily. As soon as his eyes adjusted, he noticed that this pocket dimension didn't seem very different from Earth.
Green plants and vines and trees grew everywhere. There were all kinds of flowers and insects and animals too. So far, so normal.
The Flash stepped confidently outside, dirt beneath his boots, cat at his heels.
"I don't see what's so bad with this place," Flash said, expecting a monster to pop out. His words usually had that affect.
But nothing happened.
"Take me to your master, kitty," he said after a minute. The cat didn't do anything. "Alright fine, take me to the people who feed you."
The cat jumped up and ran into the woods.
Wally shook his head.
It wasn't hard to catch up with the cat, though, admittedly, it was fast.
Cats can travel between dimensions, Wally thought as he followed after the feline. Well, I've heard weirder.
They stopped at a clearing, not unlike the one they had just left. The Flash mentally kicked himself. I didn't even look to see where we came from!
He never did look very far ahead…
"MEROW!" said the cat.
Flash stopped in his tracks. Right in front of him was a woman, gazing intently at a tree.
The woman was wearing purple and blue, her hair was up in an odd, high loop, and her glasses were slightly askew.
"Excuse me, ma'am," the Flash said cautiously. "Are you okay? And what's up with your hair?"
"It was in my way," she replied absently. After a minute, she turned and focused her attention on Wally.
Her eyes traveled up and down his costume. She had an odd look on her face.
"You must be a superhero," she said, finally. "Well I'm Sam." She stuck her hand out to shake.
The Flash looked down at the cat, then back up at Sam. He shook her hand.
"Hi. I'm the Flash, fastest man alive. Um…you wrote for help?"
Sam narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, I did. Despite this place being very interesting, I'd rather like to get back to my lab an examine some of these leaf samples." She waved some leaves encased in plastic at him.
"However, it seems that Kim can only transport me home through the grey room. And that's a problem because every time I try to enter, I'm stopped by these ugly red and purple monsters. They're really hideous."
The Flash shrugged. "Maybe I can talk to them."
Sam frowned. "Talking won't help. I already tried that. They growled at us and chased us downriver for miles."
"You and Kim, you mean."
"And my brother." Sam smiled.
"Your brother?" Flash looked around the surrounding vegetation. There didn't seem to be any movement.
"He's out there somewhere," Sam continued. "He'll be along. So can you take these monsters or can't you?"
The Flash puffed up his chest. "I think I can handle it."

Sam and Kim lead the way back to the grey room. It looked kind of like a shed from the outside.
"Alright, so where are they?" the Flash asked.
"Just wait a minute," said Sam. "They only appear when I try to go in. Watch."
Before Flash could tell her to let him do it, she hopped over some bushes and ran to the door. It was closed now, unlike before.
She reached out, ever so slowly to open the door and…
Something invisible shoved her backwards. She would have fallen if Flash hadn't jumped up and grabbed her.
"Thanks," she said, standing upright.
"I didn't see anything," Flash said. "It looked like you were shoved back by…nothing."
Sam nodded. "Yeah, they're invisible the first time you try. But if you try a second time, they appear and try to club you." She brushed some dirt off of her pants.
"Hey I have an idea," Flash said. "Why don't I just run up there and open the door?"
"Because they'll hit you…? Don't you think I've tried running?"
Flash turned and grinned at her. "I can run faster than you, trust me."
"Whatever," she said. "I still don't see how it'll help, because you'll be over there and I'll be here."
"I can carry you," said Flash.
"Well that makes running a bit pointless don't you thIIIIN-"
Flash had scooped her up, grabbed the cat and zoomed over to the door before she could finish talking. However, the creatures were waiting for him. The appeared, red and purple just as Sam had described. They were vaguely humanoid in shape, but they reminded Flash more of golems. They had black, squinty eyes and an odd fin thing on their heads. Their hands were large and blocky, and in them they held large clubs, easily bigger than a human.
Flash skidded to a stop. It took Sam a moment to regain her senses and notice them.
"Look out!" she shouted.
Flash zipped out of the way of a club, and continued running. It was pretty tiring carrying another human, so he had to stop pretty quickly. He set Sam down about two miles away.
"Wow," she said as she got her balance back. "Aren't you speedy."
"Nah, actually that's Green Arrow's sidekick," Flash replied as he checked to see if the monsters were following. When he turned back to Sam, he noticed she had that odd look on her face again, as if she were examining him like she had been that tree.
"What?"
"Moving at those speeds must surely involve light and tachyons." She had her scientist mode on now. "Maybe even traveling through alternate dimensions like Kim?"
Flash muttered something about the Speed Force.
"Can we get back to the subject at hand?" he said. "We've got these guys, and they're guarding the only way back. Somehow, they saw me coming, even though I was going pretty fast."
Sam nodded. "Speedsters, like you?"
"Not sure," said Flash. "Maybe. They don't exactly look built for running though."
"A speedster doesn't have to be built for running," Sam said.
Flash was about to ask what the heck she was talking about when he heard a something snap in the jungle behind him.
He swiveled around, assuming a defensive stance in front of Sam.
Was it the purple/red things? How'd they gotten so close without making much sound?
Whatever was coming started crashing towards them…