Flash

Issue #4

"Time-trippin'"

My name is John Fox. I'm the fastest man alive.

At least…I sort of am. It's a long story.

You might say I'm a man who ran out of time. Literally. I grew up in the 27th century and eventually fell into a job as a tachyon physicist. Don't get me wrong, I know that sounds fancy in the 21st century, but in my time? Not so glamorous. I spent a lot of time in my lab working on various projects.

One day, a villain named Manfred Mota came along and totally wrecked a bunch of stuff. I could give you more specific details but the point is there was a bad guy packing some serious power going nuts and there weren't any heroes around to stop him. I was sent back in time to grab the Flashes who had defeated him in the past (your time) but I was unable to recruit anyone. On the return trip, however, I was imbued with speed powers of my very own. I stumbled around a bit but I eventually came out on top and saved the day.

Big hero, right? Lots of prizes and women! Glory for all!

Hardly. Since my return, giant leaps in the advancement of a robotic police force called Speed Metal took over the hero gig. These superfast tin cans zipped around the city while I was reduced to guarding the Time Institute. My chances of being a hero were dead. I was a security guard and nothing more.

In retrospect it really wasn't that bad. I had a couple of random adventures (nothing serious worth mentioning) and I was actually getting paid to protect the Institute. I could continue my research there and be left alone. It was actually a pretty sweet setup. I didn't see it that way at the time, though. I just wanted to be a hero like I had seen on the old holovids.

That's when I bumped into Wally West. Nice guy and one of the biggest heroes of his time. You would be surprised of the things he could do. Well…can do. He's not dead, regardless of what people have been saying for the last year. More on that later, though. Don't worry, we'll catch up.

Wally was doing a little time-vaulting of his own and he landed right next to me. We didn't exactly hit it off. We weren't enemies or anything, but we weren't exactly brothers, either. Anyway, I got to thinking. I remembered that the world was destined to undergo a second Ice Age and that the Flash was nowhere to be seen during the crisis. So, I made a decision. I was going to go back in time and take Wally's place. I would become a hero and try and alter the past to pull humanity out of one of its darkest hours.

Things didn't go as planned.

You have to understand that a lot of Earth's history was lost during a major catastrophe. As a result, I only have a rudimentary knowledge of what happened before my own time. Mostly the big events are what stick out (I know quite a few Flash facts, too) but I couldn't tell you who won the 2014 World Series. All I knew was that there was going to be a worldwide threat and there was no Flash to stop it.

By going back in time I ended up severely screwing over Wally. He had just gone through a rather intense battle with a guy named Savitar and had been forced to enter the Speed Force. He won but he still needed to find his way home. The love of his life, Linda Park, was his beacon and the only thing that enabled him to return from the Speed Force without missing his mark. When I showed up and planted a big wet one on Linda (I know, I'm an idiot), Wally's link to her was messed up and his beacon went bye-bye.

I couldn't hack it as the Flash in the 21st century and Wally eventually came back. Needless to say; he was pretty pissed. To make things worse, Speed Metal came looking for me since I sort of made my initial time-jump illegally. Wally helped me escape them but I knew it was only a matter of time before they sent more after me. So, I pulled up my pants, tightened my bootstraps, and took off into the timestream to find my fortune.

I made a couple of pit stops in the 30th and 41st centuries but mainly I was just trying to stay one step ahead of Speed Metal. It was pretty exhausting being a fugitive. Then that's when it happened: Wally, the guy I screwed over, saved my life again.

I had just left Speed Metal and the year 4113 behind me when I felt a huge tug in the Speed Force. It was like a shockwave had been sent rippling through and it hurt like hell. I suddenly found myself totally powerless, unable to move as fast as I had been. What made matters worse is this happened while I was jogging through the timestream. I sort of fell off track and started ricocheting off of the confines of space/time. Things got seriously freaky for a while as my perceptions of reality were drastically manipulated by the ambient time/speed energies.

I felt my consciousness begin to slip away. It was horrifying. It was like a rock climber slowly loosing his grip. You know you're about to fall to your death and there's nothing you can do to save yourself. All you can really do is pray.

Then I felt something brush against my mind. It was a small tingling at first but it quickly sharpened into something more concrete. I hadn't even realized I was holding my eyes shut in terror but then I opened them and boy was I surprised.

Among the swirling lights of the timestream was a single, red thread of condensed energy. I reached out and grabbed it, slightly surprised that I could actually feel it in my hands. Before I knew what was happening, I was ripped out of the timestream and thrown into some kind of pocket dimension. At least, that's what I thought it was at the time.

Light was completely absent from this place. There was absolutely nothing to be found anywhere. I was floating in a dark void that I can only compare to space, the only difference being that I wasn't immediately killed from a vacuum. The emptiness loomed all around me, except for one, single, solitary thing.

Wally West, glowing bright enough to light a city block.

There he floated, right in front of me. My first thought was some supervillain had gotten the better of us but Wally quickly told me what had happened. A year ago, there had once again been a Crisis and one of the key people involved was a kid named Superboy Prime. Somehow, Wally had pulled this Superboy Prime into the Speed Force in an effort to halt his destruction. He had to team up with two other classic speedsters, Jay Garrick and Bart Allen, in order to hold the rogue teenager at bay within the confines of the Speed Force. Jay apparently bounced out right away and Bart had been rapidly aged yet again. Wally struggled to hold Superboy Prime at bay but eventually he escaped.

Wally, however, had exerted so much energy that he was now trapped in the Speed Force. Wally explained to me that the Force's interaction with Superboy Prime, a being who reeked of extradimensional energy, had somehow changed it. The Force no longer could contain itself on one dimensional wavelength and it threatened to cross over into our plane and vaporize anything it touched. It would have killed us all, sweeping across even the timestream, making all of creation null and void. The only thing holding it back was Wally.

Wally had absorbed the entire Speed Force. He now was the Speed Force. It had been a constant struggle for him to keep the Force from slipping out and destroying everything. That was why my speed had left me; Wally had to recall it or else I would have been a conduit for the Speed Force to leak out of. As soon as he did that, however, he felt my consciousness touch his own (my guess is my being in the timestream had something to do with it). He reached out and tried to grasp my consciousness much in the same way I had grabbed onto his. We sort of saved each other, I suppose.

You see, Wally's beacon, Linda, was gone. He had no idea where he was. But by using me as a sort of grounding wire, he finally had control of the Speed Force. The dark void we were floating in? That's what was left of the Speed Force realm after he had absorbed it.

So, there we were. Two guys, one of whom had no real reason to like the other, sitting in a black nothingness. I was completely powerless and Wally was a god. Without me to ground him, though, the Speed Force would lash out and destroy the universe. We were sort of unsure about what step to take next.

We floated there and debated a few things, like what to do next. We liked the idea of keeping the universe from being destroyed, but sitting in empty space isn't the last thing I want to do before I die. Plus, we didn't even know how long I could survive there. If I keeled over from lack of nourishment the Speed Force would probably run rampant.

We reached a conclusion. Wally would send me back to Earth, to his time, and I would find a solution to the problem. I would remain his grounding wire and funnel the Speed Force out of him so that he wouldn't become exhausted from the strain again. There was just one problem.

When Wally yanked me back from the timestream, a little piece of it apparently came along with me. Fragments of chronal energy had mingled with the Force and Wally was feeling the effects of it, which was apparently being augmented by someone in the 21st century. Surprise, surprise; it was Zoom. When the chronal energy mixed with the Speed Force, Zoom (whose powers are time-based) latched onto the Force ever-so-slightly. It was hypothetically possible for Zoom to figure out how to gain access to the Speed Force and get to Wally, something I know he would love to do. The point: Zoom had to be taken down.

Thus, Wally dramatically placed me right in front of Zoom at the Flash Museum. Since I was channeling the Force directly through Wally, I didn't have much of a problem keeping up with Zoom (even though my mind was a bit foggy after being shipped in a bolt of lightning). He had the edge in velocity, but if he had been aware how close he was to some serious power there could have been hell to pay. Since the transportation from the timestream to Wally destroyed my costume and time gauntlets, Wally provided me with a suit comprised of Speed Force energy. He said he once used something like it and it might take some getting used to. Mine was blue (my favorite color).

After swiping some clothes from a laudromat, I headed to the first place I thought to look for help in Wally's city: the Garrick's house. Nobody was home, though. I checked out a newspaper and saw that Jay had suffered a heart attack and was still in the hospital. According to the paper, Jay had the heart attack right about the time I had popped back into this timeline. Perfect. I was indirectly responsible for this. Or at least, I thought I was. My sudden appearance here must have been the cause. It couldn't have been a coincidence.

I raced over to find Mrs. Garrick standing in front of the emergency room entrance, slightly taken aback by my arrival. I had forgotten that the only speedster left in this town was her husband. I probably should have thought things through a little better before rushing up to her.

She took me inside to where Bart was waiting and I started to answer all of their questions, telling them all about Wally, the Speed Force, and Zoom. I left out the part where I could be responsible for Jay's condition. That pretty much brings us up to where we are now.

Bart was sitting across from me in the waiting room with a sad look on his face. I can only imagine what he must have gone through. Wally was like a big brother to him. To lose that ..well, I really just can't imagine. Now to hear he might be alive? Inconceivable.

"I know this is a lot to handle right now," I told them. Joan looked up at me with something in her eyes. Was it hope? "I promise that Wally is going to be okay. We'll figure a way out of this jam."

"Is there anything you can do for Jay?" Joan asked me. Wow. I really didn't know how to answer that.

"What exactly happened to him? The paper didn't give a lot of details." If I was going to try the hero thing again this was the best place to start. Jay was a good man and he still had a place in history. I couldn't let this be the end for him.

"He had just ran back from Asia," she explained. "We were about to eat dinner when he sort of ..just .." She started to sob and I put my arm around her. I've never even had a girlfriend for longer than seven days and her husband for the better part of fifty years was near death. She must be dying inside. "I'm sorry. I-I'm okay. Anyway ..that's when Jay had the heart attack. He clutched his chest and hit the floor. It just happened so fast! I was so scared."

I caught sight of a man in green hospital scrubs walking our way. The mask he wore to keep from letting germs into the operating room was pulled down from his face. There was blood staining the front of his otherwise clean scrubs. Not a good sign.

"Mrs. Garrick," he said as he approached. "Might I have a word with you?"

"What is it? Is Jay alright?" The words seemed to hang in her throat. I wasn't quite looking forward to the prognosis, either.

"Your husband is stable for the moment," the doctor answered. "We performed the exploratory surgery but it didn't yield many results. According to your husband's brainwave activity, he appears to be in a coma. However, he's showing physical signs of response, like moving his fingers when they're pricked. That's uncharacteristic of someone in a coma. Your husband is in excellent health, Mrs. Garrick. We found no reason for the heart attack to have occurred."

"So, we're back where we started?" she asked.

"We're running more tests," the doctor replied, "but I'm afraid we are back to square one. He's been taken back to his room. You can see him if you like."

Joan slid back in her seat, the weight of the situation obviously getting to her. For some reason I felt guilty that my chosen field of expertise wasn't medical. I wanted to help but I had no idea how. My knowledge of 27th century medical advancements was severely limited.

The doctor, a moot expression on his face, turned to leave. I suppose someone like him has to deliver news like this all the time. I don't know which is worse: delivering bad messages or becoming emotionless like that.

"Do you want us to take you to him?" Bart asked. It was the first thing he had said in a long time.

"Yes," she whispered. "Yes we should go."

Making our way down the hall, we finally arrived at Jay's room. It was near the end of the hospital wing, cordoned off from most of the other patients. Jay had a room all to himself, which was mostly filled with various monitors chirping away and that antiseptic smell that is impossible to get away from in a hospital.

There he laid, motionless. His chest moved up and down, showing that he could still breathe under his own power. His eyes were closed and it almost looked like he was sleeping. In a sense, I suppose he was. We gathered around him, unsure of what to do. Joan looked like she was going to start crying again any second now and Bart ..well, Bart just had this look on his face like he was ready to give up.

"He looks so peaceful," Joan stated. "Just like when I get up in the middle of the night for a glass of milk." She set her hand down on Jay's shoulder to search for some type of comfort from her comatose husband.

"He's going to pull through," Bart said, even though the words seemed to catch in his throat. "He's the Flash. He has to pull through."

"He shouldn't be experiencing any pain," I tried to offer. I didn't know what else to do so I put my hand on top of hers, resting there above Jay's left shoulder. "At the very least, he is comfortable."

"I know you're trying to help, John," she replied somberly. "But I think I just need to be alone with him for now. It's just ..it's hard. I don't know the words to explain it. I feel cold and scared."

Zzzap!

"Holy--!" I screamed out. Joan had pulled her hand out from under mine to wrap around her torso. I just let my hand fall onto Jay's shoulder but as soon as I touched him I felt some kind of shock run up my spine. I yanked my hand back, surprise obviously showing on my face.

"What was that?" Bart asked, his eyes opening wide. "I felt that! When you touched him, I felt something!"

"I-I'm not sure," I answered. It didn't really hurt; I had pulled my hand back out of reflex. When I touched Jay it felt like there some sort of ..connection?

"What is it?" Joan asked. "What happened?"

"I think.." I mumbled, allowing my voice to fade out as I thought. I was sure of it now. I had definitely felt some type of connection click into place when I touched Jay. It felt like an electrical socket had been plugged in, only there was a hell of a lot more power behind it. I reached out with my hand again and held it over Jay's forehead, hesitating. I didn't know if I should try it again or not, but something felt right about it. I looked up into Bart's eyes to see if he had any reservations. He just silently nodded and steadied himself by grabbing the railings on the side of the bed.

I closed my eyes and lowered my hand onto Jay's forehead and as soon as I touched his skin, the invisible spark of energy ignited again. My gut reaction was to pull away again but I held on and applied a small amount of pressure. The connection bounced around for a moment but then it snapped into place and I was opened up to something I hadn't expected.

I felt energy rushing around in my psyche, pouring down my arm and into Jay's forehead. I thought I would feel exhausted but the energy just kept flowing from what seemed like an infinite source. Then my thoughts finally came together and I figured it out: the source was infinite. It was the Speed Force, flowing through me and into Jay. I could feel Jay's consciousness begin to bubble up from underneath the energy. It was like the energy had scraped away whatever was keeping Jay's mind down.

I pulled my hand back and opened my eyes. I stared at Bart who looked like he had just been hit by lightning. "That was the Speed Force," he said, "I felt it. You just--"

"Joan?" groaned Jay from on the bed. His eyes opened up and he looked at his wife, a small smile forming on his lips.

She broke out in tears of joy as she rushed back to her husband's side and fell onto him, wrapping her arms around his chest. Jay, through what looked like great strain, lifted his right hand and placed it on her head, holding her against him.

"Oh, Jay!" she proclaimed as her tears spotted the bed sheet covering him. "You've come back to me!"

---------------

The doctors verified it: Jay was going to be okay. They were baffled on what exactly had happened, and I'll have to admit, I sort of was, too. Bart and I left the happy couple to themselves so they could reconnect. The hospital wanted to keep Jay overnight for observation before releasing him, so Bart and I stepped outside to find our way back to the Garrick's house to spend the night. Joan, despite Jay's protestations, refused to leave. It was cute, actually.

"So," Bart began as we walked down the street, "what exactly happened back there?"

"You know how I told you I'm a conduit for the Speed Force right now?" I looked over to him and he nodded in understanding. Here we go; I hope he doesn't hate me. "I think that when I came back the resulting shock of the Force being in this dimension again was too much for Jay's system to handle. I think I kind of, uh, caused his heart attack."

"Oh." Bart walked beside me in silence. I know I wasn't directly responsible for hurting one of the people he looked up to most in the world, but it still felt like crap to know I was involved at all. "Yeah, I felt something too when he collapsed. Is he powered back up now?"

"No, I don't think so. When I touched his forehead I felt the Speed Force rush out of me and into him. He's still got his metagene, of course, but I think it just fixed whatever the problem was and I think Wally's hand was guiding it."

"How do you mean?" Bart asked.

"Well, Wally is the Speed Force now," I explained. "I felt the energy fill up Jay's mind and sift through it, like somebody was controlling it. It couldn't be anybody but Wally."

"Can you talk to Wally? Do you know when he's coming back?" The sparkle of hope was in Bart's eye again like before. He really cares about Wally, like family. They've been through a lot together.

"No, sorry. It doesn't work like that. I'm grounding him and he's funneling power into me but I can't really communicate with him. First thing tomorrow, though, I'm going to try and look for some help to try and get Wally out of this predicament."

"Why don't you just hit up your Justice Legion A friends for help?" Bart mentioned casually. "They were some pretty powerful guys."

"Who?" I've heard of the Justice League, the Justice Society, the Justice Triune ..never a Justice Legion. "Who are they?"

"Seriously?" Bart asked, stopping beside me on the street (we had gone about a block from the hospital). "Oh. Maybe you haven't gone that far in the future yet. Nevermind. Time travel can get really confusing."

"Yeah, it gives me a headache sometimes thinking about the things I've done in the past but haven't gotten to in the future yet," I replied. Whatever he was talking about I'm sure I would figure out eventually. Until then, I would rather not know. I turned back to walking done the street and Bart did a little hop-step to fall back in line with me.

"So, you're directly linked to the Wally Force now, right?"

"Heh," I chuckled. "Something like that, yeah."

"So, you're kind of like the Speed Force's avatar now, huh?"

I hadn't thought about it that way. I guess I sort of was. As far as I knew no one else on the planet was being powered by the Force anymore. It was just me. Kind of intimidating to think of it like that. "I suppose I am, Bart. But, you know, I've been thinking. Maybe we could reconnect you with it like I did with Jay, only make it permanent."

Bart looked straight ahead at the street stretching further than we could see. I didn't realize he would have to think about it. I thought he would jump at the chance to be a hero again. I know I would.

"I haven't moved faster then everybody else for the last year," Bart said. "For the longest time I was desperate to get back into that life again. I felt like I had been cut off from my friends even though Robin told me there's always a place for me in Titans Tower. I saw him the other day, you know? Robin I mean. He said something that got me thinking."

"What did he say?" I was surprised to hear Bart talk like this. I honestly didn't know what to make of it.

"He said that I should enjoy the vacation and get out there to experience the world as different person. I think he might be right. My entire life has been a blur, John. As soon as I took my first breath I was off and running, literally."

"I'm not sure what to say, Bart. I'm proud of you, I know that, and I think Wally would be, too."

"I'm not giving up," Bart commented, and I knew he meant it. There was a taste of stern resignation in his voice. "I'll get back in the game someday, just not today. Don't count me out just yet."

"Well when you do decide to get back in the game," I began with a smile on my face (I had been waiting for a set up like this), "maybe I can hook you up with one of these."

Bart stopped to look back over his shoulder at me to see what I was talking about. I concentrated and the old clothes I had yanked from the laundromat faded away into my blue Speed Force suit. The solidified energy swirled around me and covered my entire body except for the top of my head where my black hair stuck out (lenses had formed around my eyes so I could see).

"Wow!" Bart exclaimed. "That's just like the suit Wally made when he tried to compensate for his broken legs a couple years ago! What's with the blue, though?"

"Blue is my favorite color," I defended. "No good, huh?"

"Traditionally the Flash always has a red uniform."

"Oh," I said, mimicking Bart from before. That was something else I had let slip by me. I didn't intend to become the Flash again. I just came back to get everything figured out with Wally and then I would be on my way, but Jay was going to be recuperating for awhile and Bart wasn't ready for the mantle. Zoom had done a lot of damage to the Flash's reputation (since the public was unaware of who it really was in that crimson suit).

I closed my eyes and concentrated on the fabric of the Speed Force costume. The blue color of it grew darker and then shifted over to purple as I tried to bend the energy to my will. Finally, the color turned a deep crimson and I opened my eyes. A string of yellow energy reached from my left shoulder to my right hip, crossing my chest. The single string vibrated back and forth as it crackled with energy.

"The lightning is a nice touch," Bart commented. "Traditional, but New Age. I like it. I'm not sold on the totally covered face but it works for you."

I wasn't sure where I was going to start looking for help with Wally, but now that I had adjusted the suit everything seemed slightly better. It felt like I was doing the right thing. Maybe it was Wally poking around inside my head but I swear I felt like the Speed Force approved.

"Looks like I'll be doing the hero thing full-time again," I said.

---------------

FLASH FACTS

Whew!

Finally we've found out the secret of Wally West's disappearance and the fate of the Speed Force. It seems like it's been a very long journey to get to this point. When I found out what the real DC was doing with the Flash legacy, I cringed. I love the character, I'm a huge fan, Bart Allen is great. I'm just not ready for him to be the next Flash yet. There's still a lot of stories left in Wally West and I feel like whatever they do with Bart is a rehash of Wally's earliest experiences in the crimson uniform.

That being said, why did I pick John Fox for my Flash series? The answer: he's hardly used anymore and I feel like there is a lot of ground to cover with his character. You'll see what I mean in the coming issues.

Next issue: New Genesis!