The Watchtower

August 28, 2010 14:20 CDT

"Flash - A04!" the artificial voice of the zeta tube announced as Flash half-way lumbered and half-way ran into the Watchtower and towards the conference room.

"Well, what do ya know! The fastest man alive is once again the last to arrive!" Hal Jordan announced from his seat.

Flash winced as he took his seat. Still, that was nothing compared to the freezing sting on his face from Batman's glare. "Sorry," he said, "I made a real effort to be on time, but there was a robbery at the bank, you see, and…"

"Enough," Batman cut him off. For once, Flash didn't care. He was just grateful he didn't have to explain his fight with his nephew. "As I was saying, in the past week, there have been a number of unusual energy spikes surrounding Central City recorded by our computers and S.T.A.R. Labs."

"Energy spikes?" Green Arrow asked.

Batman nodded. "Scientists at S.T.A.R. Labs are unsure what it is, but their source seems to share some similarities to the Speed Force."

That took Flash by surprise. "The Speed Force, you say? I never heard anything from S.T.A.R. Labs about this. In what ways are these energy spikes similar?"

Batman pressed some buttons on his holographic computer. From the center of the U-shaped conference table, a model of planet Earth appeared, hovering over them. "They do not seem to originate from this planet, and yet they occur all over the world. The first spike occurred thirty miles west of Central City on open farmland at 3:01 am CDT on August 21." A red dot appeared at the exact location on the planet. "This one is particularly significant because it was the largest one."

Hal, leaning back on his chair and head resting in his arms, asked, "Hey wasn't there some weird energy spike like this a few years back?" He casually turned to the Flash." It was the same day your nephew discovered your secret identity."

"August 18, 2007. I'll never forget." Or what I told him. "We were supposed to spend the day together, but I was called into work due to an explosion. There was no evidence of terrorism, gas explosion, or electrical failure. To this day, it remains unsolved."

"The energy spike appears similar to the one in 2007," Batman said.

"What were the locations of the others?" Wonder Woman asked.

Batman pressed some buttons. Then a second red dot appeared at Central City. "This one is most concerning. It appeared at Central City Police Station on August 20 at 4:00 pm CDT. Police reported that Captain Cold's ice gun was missing. However, Captain Cold was at Crossroads Correctional Center in Clinton County, Missouri where he is being held pending trial."

"Captain Cold's gun has been found today. Kid Flash and I fought a robber holding hostages at a bank in my city. He was armed with Captain Cold's gun. Unfortunately, we were unable to stick around and learn more," The Flash explained. "While I heard of Captain Cold's missing gun from some old police buddies of mine, that case never dropped into my department's lap. Therefore, I cannot give you any new information."

"That coordinates with the next dot. It appeared two days later on 8:oo pm CDT also in Central City." A third red dot appeared east of the second one.

"That neighborhood is formally called the Gardner Neighborhood but it's colloquially known as the Projects," the Flash explained. Kid Flash claimed he saw another speedster. Could he be right? "During our fight, Kid Flash claimed he fought against another speedster. He said he or she appeared as a yellow blur. Batman, was there an energy spike recorded today between 1:30 and 2:00 pm in Central City at the PNC bank on 13 Fox Avenue?"

The Flash watched Batman with baited breath. Five minutes later, a red dot appeared exactly where the Flash asked. A heavy stone sank in the Flash's stomach. His kid went up against a villainous speedster without backup. His kid got hurt in the process. His kid tried to tell him that, but he dismissed him, yelled at him, expressed his disappointment in him, and implied he didn't want him. Now it turned out his kid was telling the truth. What kind of mentor was he? No scratch that, what kind of uncle was he?


Buffalo Creek, West Virginia

August 28, 2010 14:52 CDT

Kid Flash laid face flat on a dirt road. For five solid minutes, he allowed himself to just be and just rethink his life, wishing the ground will swallow him whole or a flight of angels will pick him up and carry him away. Just anything to escape this already craptastic day that's just gotten even worse. The only reason he didn't lie any longer was that the cause of his accident spoke.

"Come now. Are you going to lie there forever?"

It was mocking and cruel, but Kid Flash could not summon the adrenaline to spring into a fighting stance. Instead, he slowly moved his arms to push himself up into a sitting position. He took his goggles off and got a good look at his surroundings. He was in a clearing cut from the surrounding forest for transmission lines. In front of him, there stood such a line. Red electricity cracked up the transmission line and across the wires to the next transmission line behind him. However, it was the source of the red electricity that caught his attention. There leaning against the transmission line was a speedster dressed very much like the Flash if the color scheme was reversed.

His face, however, shared absolutely no characteristic of Uncle Barry. Whereas Uncle Barry's grin lit up with joy like a 100 Watt light bulb, this imposter grinned like a wolf to the lamb. Although the imposter's eyes were hidden by white lenses like Flash's, Kid Flash could just tell they were filled with malice. Then there were all the scars marring the bottom half of his face and most likely the top half, too.

Kid Flash finally found his way to his feet. "Who are you?"

"I am the Reverse Flash."

"Well, that's creative."

"Creativity isn't what I was going for."

"What were you going for?"

"Poetry."

"Poetry's supposed to be creative."

"When it comes to revenge, imitation is more poetic than originality."

Kid Flash scanned Reverse Flash with more scrutiny. Let's see, he thought, costume shaped exactly like the second Flash and first's or mine? Check. Reverse color scheme? Check. Dude I have never met before and therefore could not have possibly done anything to? Check. Then that means…"What do you have against the Flash?"

The red electricity stopped crackling as soon as Reverse Flash straightened himself up. "Smart boy. You figured out my object of revenge."

"Yeah, well, it wasn't hard to figure it out what with that costume giving it away."

"However, you failed to deduce my target. I do not plan on taking my vengeance out on the Flash. I plan on taking it out on you."

Kid Flash gulped and a shudder crawled up his spine. "Why me?"

Reverse Flash smiled. "Because you're the Flash's partner, and I am not."

The wind rustled the leaves. "What? How? No, that's impossible. The Flash never wanted a partner. Still doesn't want a partner. He told me. Twice."

"And yet here you are." He then flicked Kid Flash's chin.

"Yeah…well…I basically twisted his arm until he let me be his partner. That was two years ago, and he made it very clear today that he still doesn't want me so I wouldn't hold out any hope that you had any chance."

Reverse Flash smiled like a child who knew a secret that his friend should have known. "I know. I heard your little argument, and I am proud to say I was partly the cause of it."

Kid Flash's eyes lit up. "So you were the yellow blur at the bank! I knew I wasn't going crazy!"

"I'm also the one who gave that pathetic man the cold gun."

"Why? It clearly wasn't because you wanted money."

"Like I said, revenge."

Kid Flash rolled his eyes at the non-answer though perhaps he should give the psycho wannabee some credit. Most villains would gloat, revealing their plans outright, giving the heroes a chance to escape or stop them. At least this villain isn't so stupid. Still, Kid Flash needed to know why. Perhaps he can use that against him.

"Ok but why exactly? And how? You said it was because I was the Flash's partner, but the Flash never mentioned you. Actually who are you?"

" No, he wouldn't have. My name is Eobard Thawne, and I am from the twenty-fifth century. Now in this century, the Flash is well loved by his city, and his true identity Barry is practically a saint among his family and friends in the Justice League."

Shocked, Kid Flash asked. "Wait? You know the Flash's real name?"

"Of course I do. As I've said, I'm from the twenty-fifth century. The Justice League, the Flash, the Flash Family, and even you Wally West have been dead long before my time. Corpses have no need for secret identities. As I was saying, in this century, the Flash is a mere metahuman beloved by everyone, but in the twentieth-fifth century, he is practically a god. The Flash Museum is practically a shrine to him, and I was its humble priest."

Kid Flash rolled his eyes at Reverse Flash's humblebragging. Forget what I said about being stupid.

"However, it wasn't enough. I wanted to meet the Flash. More than that, I wanted to be his partner. I got plastic surgery to resemble him and made a suit like his but with the opposite color scheme just like yours." An unsettling feeling took hold in Kid Flash's stomach. Reverse Flash continued, "I even tried to find a way to recreate his powers, but the chemical formula and the equation died with the Flash. Fortunately, I had access to a vast array of historical archives, and I was able to piece some of it together. The rest I had to infer. Despite my best efforts, I did not bestow upon myself access to the Speed Force. No, I created the Negative Speed Force.

"In the end, it didn't matter. I was still able to run fast enough to travel back through time. I practiced a bit, time traveling to moments of my own life and exploring how time worked. Then I was ready. I planned to time travel to the year 2013. The Flash was well established in his career and his marriage. That way I would avoid changing the timeline too badly, but to my utter shock I saw the Flash and a boy that looked exactly like you fighting a speedster that looked exactly like me. I could not believe it. I time traveled to a year earlier. I witnessed multiple events of the Flash, sometimes alone and sometimes with you, fighting a villainous version of myself. I witnessed the same in 2011. There seems to have been no encounters before this moment in 2010, but in all years, I have seen you – sidekick to the Flash. I've seen the way you two worked together and how he trained you. I've seen every ice cream run after a successful day of fighting crime. I've seen how he ruffles your hair and heard how his voice drips in affection every time he calls you Kid. You were his partner. You stole my rightful place and turned me into a villain. I had to know how this happened.

"It was August 18, 2007 when I arrived."

"Wait that's the day I learned that my uncle was the Flash!"

"That is no coincidence. You and your partnership with the Flash have been infesting my mind and caused a surge in the Negative Speed Force during my arrival. The excess energy caused a building to partially explode."

"And Uncle Barry had to cancel our plans," Kid Flash finished for Reverse Flash. " He was supposed to take me to the Flash Museum, but he was called in to work for an emergency. That emergency was an explosion. They never did find out the exact cause or if anyone was responsible. That was you this whole time."
Reverse Flash nodded. "Yes it was."

"And because of that, I spent the day with Aunt Iris. Afterwards, she sent me to put away her jacket where I found Uncle Barry's Flash notebook. That's when I discovered that Uncle Barry was the Flash. A month later, I used his notebook to perform his experiment and gained super speed. The next year I became Kid Flash." A gust of wind blew through the trees, filling in the silence.

"You somehow took advantage of my predicament and stole my rightful place at the Flash's side! Then if that wasn't enough for you, you made me into a villain!"

"What? I didn't make you do anything, dude. You caused that explosion yourself. It was mere coincidence I found that notebook on the same day, and I wanted superpowers so I can help my uncle not usurp you!" Maybe not the best idea to argue with a man as crazy as the Joker and as powerful as Flash, West.

"You did! There was no record of you or my villainous self in the future, and yet here you are!" Reverse Flash walked to Kid Flash who stood frozen in place. Then Reverse Flash placed his right index finger under Kid Flash's chin and jerked it up. "Now I could have traveled back in time to erase your very existence. I did that to my brother as punishment for taking all of my parents' love and attention from me, but the Flash cannot wallow in his agony and grief if he never had what he was grieving for. " Then Reverse Flash leaned over and whispered into Kid Flash's ear. "So instead we're going to have a little race and see who is worthy of being the Flash's partner. Last one alive wins." Kid Flash shuddered at the man's hot breath tickling his ear.

Analyzing his last fight, this man was faster than him and has better vibration control them him. Most likely he is equal to the Flash in both abilities and skill set. This and combined with Kid Flash's nonexistent energy levels, a head on attack would be stupid. He would need to run to safety and contact the –. Shit, he thought, they're in a meeting. I won't be able to get a hold of them. Besides, Uncle Barry didn't believe me the first time. He's not gonna believe me a second time. Kid Flash darted his eyes around the landscape. He needed to escape and think of a new plan.

All he could see was forest to his right and left and the clearing and transmission lines running down as far as the eye could see, but he knew it couldn't be that far till civilization. He just ran through part of a town. Somewhere behind him just out of eye sight was a substation. Reverse Flash's lightning seems a little wild. Perhaps he could run back to the substation and trick Reverse Flash into shocking himself. Then he could call Jay and no, he's on a daytrip to some uninhabited tropical island in the middle of God-knows-where with Joan as part of his birthday celebration, and he knows for a fact they didn't take their cell phones. Ok so that leaves Johnny Quick, his daughter Jesse Quick, and Max Mercury except that Johnny and Jesse were attending family therapy together with Johnny's ex-wife Liberty Belle and Max is on a time traveling adventure, fighting crime under one of his many superhero aliases. So there goes that plan.

He could contact The Team, but Batman made it very clear that they can only go on incognito missions approved by Batman only. This was neither, and besides, with the exception of possibly Superboy, none of them are fast enough to handle a speedster. This also rules out Red Arrow.

Wally was alone.

Utterly alone.

And he's running on fumes because his dumbass self forgot to eat at The Mountain despite being hungry which Flash so lovingly chewed him out for.

Well, just add facing a faster-than-light super villain as reason number four why this day is a disaster heavy on the dis.


Author's Note: The Reverse Flash's motive is a combination of his comic book character's motives in post-Crisis on Infinite Earthsand Rebirth. In the former, The Flash ran a story called "The Return of Barry Allen" in which Eobard Thawne was a huge fan of Barry. He altered his appearance and copied his powers. Then he time traveled to the past where he discovered that he was the Flash's greatest enemy. That psychologically broke him, turning him into the Reverse Flash. In the latter, Eobard is also a huge fan of Barry and has been masquerading as the Flash, but he gets to meet him during one of Barry's time traveling adventures to the 25th century. Barry imparts to Eobard that every second is a gift. Eobard takes this lesson to heart and stops pretending to be the Flash, becomes the curator of the Flash museum and a professor. Then he time travels tot he 21st century to show the Flash how far he came only to see him as Barry give the same advice to Wally. Crushed that he wasn't as special as thought, he swears to destroy Barry's future.