Author's note: I know, it's not Wednesday. As the immortal words of Doctor Emmett L. Brown go, "Yeah, well. I figured, what the hell" :o)
Disclaimer: I never dun nuffing. But I've found that a nicely general statement works better than a suspiciously specific denial. In any case, if I ever come to own anything Justice League-related, I promise I'll let you know.
Snapshot Collection
5. Fear
"I'm sorry, Wally."
They're all here, looking at him, and Superman's grim expression is worse than Batman's glare has ever gotten, and John won't meet his eyes and Shayera is gripping her own arm so hard it's gotta hurt … Diana looks like she might cry but won't allow herself to, J'onn has compassion written all over his face … Batman has his hardest Bat-poker expression on.
"I'm really sorry."
He knows. It's the only thing to do. That's why he finally stopped running.
That's why he'll never run again.
Power of this magnitude always comes with a price – and this is the price you pay for becoming the villain of your own story.
"Goodbye, Wally."
Two dots begin to glow red, and the heat evaporates the tears before they fall from Superman's eyes …
Wally wakes up, drenched in sweat and his heart thumping at top speed.
This time, it takes him twenty endless minutes before he can slow his heartbeat down to normal. That's five minutes longer than the last time the nightmare woke him up.
It takes him even longer to notice he's driven his nails into his palms again. His fingers hurt, and it's fortunate that he keeps his nails really short.
He doesn't remember having the old nightmare about getting stuck in super speed ever since he defeated the Luthor/Brainiac Thing with two heads. It never failed to end (except that one time with Doctor Destiny when the dream ended in a highly satisfying kicking of supervillain ass) with him waking up abruptly to a sense of dread and unnerving loss of all bearings for a few seconds, but nothing worse than that.
Right now, though, he doesn't know what he would give to have the old nightmare back.
Yeah. Bit chilling. I don't know whether Supes would fry his brain (Justice Lords style) or kill him (though my money's on a quick death) but that's not really the point. Just wanted to dig into a possible change in "worst fear ever", because as the series go Flash gradually discovers exactly what he can do with his powers (the 'speeding his heartbeat to make it look like it flat-lined' thing in A Better World is a good example) and it all kind of culminates in Divided We Fall where everyone (including the audience) realises just how powerful he really is. That sort of stuff can be enough to change a guy's most intimate fear, methinks.
Although J'onn's character arc was the most developed, there's a significant change between the early JL series Flash and the end of the JLU series, especially after the Brainthor thing. Fortunately, he still remains a goofy, approachable kinda guy, though :o)
Next up - "Each step is hard, and every stare is painful. But Shayera Hol holds her head high and keeps her back straight."