"Hurry up, slow poke!" the blonde man shouted from a few dozen yards ahead.
"Bite me!" Lois shouted back.
She was running through Metropolis Square Park, named for the fact it was exactly one square mile. The jogging trail and bike path ran diagonally through the park, from the northeast corner to the southwest end. The curves and turns made it a little under a mile and a half from start to finish. Lois was roughly three hundred yards from the finish.
She placed her fingers to her neck and felt her pulse while checking the seconds on her wristwatch. Her pulse rate was elevated, but steady; her breathing controlled, and her pace was smooth. She was wearing a light blue sports top, dark blue jogging shorts, and blue and white running shoes. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail, now a little loose from the jog, and a fine sheen of sweat covered her exposed areas of skin.
The sky was filled with fluffy white clouds, with patches of blue sky and bright sun. The breeze was soft but consistent. It was a great day for a jog. The jogging path was lined with small trees and bushes, the leaves and flowers bright and full of color.
"Lois!" the blonde man shouted. "Hurry up for God's sake."
The company, on the other hand…
Lois drew even with him a few moments later. She gave him an evil look as she shook out her legs and paced back and forth, cooling down.
The man smiled at her and handed her a cold bottle of water.
She snatched it from him, unscrewed the cap and took short quick sips.
"Must you always be such an ass?" she asked with a smile.
"Speaking of which…" he laughed. "Isn't that where you told Bruce to stick his utility belt?"
Lois laughed hard. She looked at her jogging buddy; his short blonde hair a perfect complement to his bright green eyes. He was wearing his almost ever present smile, one that reminded Lois of the kid that just flushed the firecracker down the toilet. His name was Wally West, the Flash to some, and he was the fastest man alive.
And Lois considered him a friend.
They made their way to a strategically positioned hot dog stand. Lois got an apple. Wally ordered twelve all-beef foot longs and four sodas. Diet sodas! Lois looked at him in both shock and amusement.
"What?" he said with a smile.
"Seriously?" she mused.
He pulled her towards a park bench, his massive fest in arm, and sat her down beside him. "You know my metabolism is fifty times faster than a normal person. I have to eat like this to stay energized."
"And the diet sodas?" she poked.
Wally shrugged. "The sugar goes right to my hips." He grinned.
Lois just shook her head. They began to eat, Lois taking small measured bites of her hotdog, Wally stuffing whole hotdogs, buns and all, into his mouth, chewing them rapidly, swallowing quickly, then repeating the process.
Lois was both disgusted and amused by the sight.
A few moments passed as they sat and ate and enjoyed the picturesque day. Across the lawn, a group of kids tossed around a football. A few yards away, a couple enjoyed a picnic. Men and women on bikes, rollerblades and skates swooped past them. Half a dozen kites soared through the sky; one large and full of bright colors and doing amazing tricks. More than a few couples walked past them pushing strollers or carrying babies in their arms. Lois took it all in.
"What's it like?" she asked finally.
"What's what like?" Wally replied, half a hotdog still in his mouth, a smear of mustard on his cheek.
"When you run," Lois continued. "What's it like?"
Wally swallowed hard, took a long swig of his diet cola, and regarded her carefully.
"Is this an interview now, Ms. Lane?" he asked with a half smile.
"Off the record." Lois answered. "Scouts honor!" she said, the traditional Boys Scouts three-fingered salute raised.
Wally laughed, and then looked out at the sea of life and humanity surrounding them.
"You ever ask Superma… I mean Clark that question?" he asked.
"I have."
"And what did he say?"
"He said that you are faster than he is." She said bluntly.
Wally looked at her. "Really?" he beamed.
"Fastest man alive, Wally." She grinned. "That includes my husband."
Wally's smile widened a little. He was quiet for a moment, then he leaned a little closer to her.
"At first," he began. "It's loud. Really loud! All the wind rushing past your ears. I used to consider wearing earplugs." He grinned. "It doesn't really feel like I'm moving that fast, but like the rest of the world has suddenly slowed down; like everyone else is moving in slow motion. It's like one of those science programs where they show the water balloon bursting over the guys head at like a hundred frames per second or something like that. I feel like I'm moving exactly the same way I am now, but everything else is just creeping along."
Lois regarded him carefully as he spoke.
"When you break the sound barrier," he continued. "It's quiet. Dead quiet. Like you went deaf. But then you start moving through all these waves of sound; everything from a cars engine, to a woman's scream, to a bird chirping. But you're only getting a piece of it, then nothing, then another piece of sound, and then nothing again. The best way to describe it is like listening to someone play the piano, but they are just hitting keys at random and only one key every other second or so. They're not making music, just random noise. Silence… noise… silence… noise. It's both peaceful, and nerve racking at the same time."
"And when I go really fast, like twenty times the speed of sound or more…"
Lois whistled.
"Yeah…" Wally went on. "It's like the world just stops. Everything! It all just stops moving. The world suddenly becomes a huge wax museum full of frozen statues; kids in mid jump, birds in mid-flight, people in mid-step; they all just freeze. There's no wind. No sound. No smells. I can't even really feel anything either. It's like my entire body has gone numb to the world. I'm moving faster than the time it takes for my brain to register the sensations of what I'm touching." His eyes drifted out to the field of playing children. One of them tossed the football into the air. "Look." Wally pointed towards it. Lois followed his gesture.
"In the time it takes for that ball to get to the other kid, I could have written my name on it a dozen times." he explained.
"And pretty much leave the kid wondering how he ended up with 'Wally's' ball…" Lois joked.
Wally smiled for a moment, but then his features turned serious. "When I'm going that fast, that's when I have to be the most careful."
"Why?" Lois asked.
Wally looked at her. "Imagine driving a ten ton tank through a forest… at two-hundred miles per hour."
"Yeah?" Lois replied, an eyebrow raised.
"Lois… When I move that fast, I'm the tank! Everyone and every thing around me is the forest."
"Ouch." Lois said finally, understanding reaching her eyes.
"Yeah." Wally said solemnly.
They sat in silence for a moment, looking out at the people in the park.
"Have you ever traveled faster than the speed of light?" she asked after a moment.
"Only a few times."
"What's that like?"
Wally smiled widely at her. "Dark."
She punched his shoulder lightly.
They laughed together for a moment.
"You know what I do sometimes?" he said softly, leaning close to her.
Lois raised her eyebrow in response.
"Sometimes, when I'm alone with Iris, or the twins, I vibrate my molecules really fast, you know; slow everything down."
"Why?"
Again, his eyes drifted out over the park. "They're just so beautiful." he said softly. "So perfect. I spend so much time running from one fight to another; traveling around the world, through space, even time, When I'm with them, I just want to make those moments last for as long as possible."
Lois lane looked at him as if seeing him for the first time. "Wally West!" she beamed. "I never realized you were such a romantic."
"Guilty as charged." He smiled. "Although, if it makes you feel better; I also do it when Iris is in the shower!"
Lois frowned. "Another tender moment spoiled by Wally West."
"It's really cool though!" he went on.
"That's enough Wally."
"The water, it just kinda hangs in the air; it glistens all over her naked skin…"
"Way too much info there, buddy."
"And when it hits her body, I just glides over her-"
"I'm going to jog back to my car now." Lois said standing up.
"It's like watching Baywatch." he pressed on. "The unrated version! At a hundred frames per second! But much hotter! 'Cause, you know; she's my wife! And she's really hot!"
"Thank you, Wally. You have officially ruined the shower for me." Lois began to jog back up the path.
"What?" Wally smiled, jogging after her. "I'm sure Clark does the same thing."
"Oh God!" Lois shouted.
"I mean, I would…"
"WALLY! SHUT UP!"
They jogged all the way back to the northeast corner of the park. Wally laughed the entire way.