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"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Radio/TV

"Headset/Flashback"

-Scene Shift-

Chapter 9: A Quick Encounter

The mourning sun rose and shined upon Central City. From the sunlight, it revealed the bustling day going on with many of its citizens. People went to their jobs or simply got out to enjoy the day while the younger generation attended their school.

Through the morning traffic, a pair of electrical blurs could be seen swiftly maneuvering all over with the occasional instances of them getting onto the buildings to avoid pedestrians.

A small accident occurs, having a taxi end up colliding against a cyclist; who was now airborne. One of the blurs went on top of the vehicle and came forward to swiftly catch the cyclist. The other blur procured the bike and followed the former one before carefully depositing them to the hospital nearby.

One might consider this a strange occurrence for anyone not familiar with the area, but this was rather common in the Missouri city.

If you could slow these blurs down, one red and the other yellow, you would see the local speedster heroes of the Flash and his sidekick/protege Kid Flash.

The pair were doing their patrols until something were to occur: like a League situation, encountering someone from their rogues gallery or personal. And normally it would be primarily the Flash being present during the weekdays as Kid Flash would secretly be at school until late into the afternoon.

But today, the city was greeted with them both.

At this time, the speedster pair made themselves known to a small group of petty crooks who thought it was a good idea to rob a bank and tried to hold its employees hostage. Within several seconds, the two speedsters apprehended them, tying them all up with a lengthy rope and disassembling all their guns in front of their very eyes before disappearing as fast as they appeared.

Several blocks away from the bank, the speedsters began to slow down. Reason being the Flash was receiving an alert from his Justice League communicator built into his cowl. Before long, the League member led his protege towards a location for him to answer the League alert.

Making a few other turns, the speedsters ran up the walls and stopped at the rooftop of essentially the most well known location in Central City.

This city wasn't just the home to these infamous speedsters, but it was also the home to STAR Labs (Scientific and Technological Advanced Research Labs) one of the most advanced scientific research centers in the world. Since it's founding, it has attracted only the most intelligent and advanced people in the fields of engineering, physics and biology. The lab was a fortress for the scientific elite.

In fact, it was through STAR Labs that the Flash of the Justice League became the hero he is today; but that's a story for another time.

The Crimson Speedster brought a hand up to the communicator near his right ear. "Flash to Justice League, what's the situation?"

"This is Batman. You need to get to the Watchtower, now." The speedster heard the Caped Crusader say.

"Anything wrong?"

"Everything will be explained once you're here."

"Not even a hint?"

Flash swore he could feel the infamous Bat-glare all the way over from Gotham, or worse the Watchtower. That was something.

"Ok, fine. Give me a few minutes." The Flash ended the call before turning over to the younger speedster. "Sorry, Wally. League issue."

"No problem, uncle Barry. I'll keep watch while you're gone." Said his nephew-in-law. "Though if it won't be too much trouble, mind bringing me a souvenir if you were to go out for another mission."

The Flash gave a brief nod before speeding off to the nearest Zeta Tube station, which was located within the STAR Labs building. As he did, he looked back to where his nephew-in-law was at with a small frown on his face.

He can still recall what occurred to Wally when he and the rest of the League returned from their off-world mission. The redhead teen was rather shaken up with several instances when the world was systematically affected by John Dee's actions. Wally did talk it out with his parents and his aunt Iris, but Barry thought it may be a bit better to have him brought to Dinah; who was not only just the Black Canary but the League's psychologist.

While it would be good to bring Wally to her for some sessions, Barry needed his consent or else it wouldn't be really effective.

"Can't be babying him all the time." He told himself as he got to the Zeta Tube station and was soon warped up to the Watchtower. "Just hope nothing bad happens while I'm gone."

Meanwhile…

Through one of the city's many alleyways, a Dream Corridor appeared. Its grainy substance whipped about as Roxas stepped through it before it collapsed onto the ground.

Blue eyes took in the sight of the cars and other pedestrians passing past the alley's opening. Making his way out of the alley, Roxas looked around to briefly survey his new surroundings.

"Wonder if I actually got to the right place."

It was a little hard for him to relatively "eyeball" where he can end up on the fly with these Corridors. Back in the Organization, his superiors opened up a Dark Corridor for him to go to his next missions on various Worlds. Afterwards, he'd be able to know where to head back to them for later assignments. Later on, it was him going on instinct with memories he unknowingly procured from Sora.

Now things were different.

Never being at some locations at all, he needed to find some references in order to hopefully get it right.

He had a successful attempt back when he first met Zatanna, due to M'gann showing him a small image in his head of where to appear in Manhattan. When going to visit Matthew's hometown, he needed to look up the location and see several images before testing it out before exploring the Louisiana town with the Dream raven.

There was still more for him to learn and he's got plenty of time to work out the "kinks".

Pulling out his Dream phone, Roxas had a list written down on a number of places he wanted to see here. There wasn't anything of importance he needed to do for Morpheus or Lucien at this time, so he decided to check out STAR Labs amongst other places.

It was actually the reason why he was in this city in the first place.

Through some conversations with M'gann over the phone, he learned about STAR Labs; more so of the first one here in Central City.

Through them and their early experiments on Zeta-beam technology back in the 1950's, her uncle J'onn was accidentally transported from Mars and was stranded on Earth for decades. And the year before the turn of the new millennium, they worked on a Particle Accelerator which would potentially help change the scientific community with their understanding of physics, and bring about advancements in power and medicine. Yet the explosion when the accelerator was turned on caused many meta-humans to essentially be born in the city; one of which was The Flash.

A hand grasped onto his shoulder, which not only brought him out of his thoughts but it soon tugged him hard into the nearby alleyway.

His back impacted the wall. Before he could respond, his face was met with a six-barreled revolver.

"Wallet and phone." Said the mugger. "Give me 'em, now."

Blue eyes blinked in mild confusion. "You're… robbing me?"

"Yes."

"Huh… this is a first."

The mugger gave Roxas a bewildered look, seeing how calm the kid was. He then shook his head to focus back on his present action. "You have the count to three to pull them out. One."

*Click*

The mugger pulled back the safety, showing he wasn't messing around on the threat.

"Two-"

"Can I at least say one thing?"

"What?"

"Sleep."

A second or two later, the mugger collapsed onto the ground in a state of unconsciousness, courtesy of Roxas' spell.

"That was rather quick… I think."

Roxas knew that since he began working with Morpheus, whatever Sleep spells he'd cast would be greatly strengthened, especially with his one particular Keyblade.

He'd done this in the past against Heartless and the occasional Nobodies, but never on humans or anything else. He never tested this recent upgrade out on the field quite yet, but this recent occurrence was a decent opportunity.

Getting out of the alleyway, Roxas looked around before seeing a couple of police officers come out of a nearby coffee shop labeled "Jitters".

"Oh, officer."

One of them turned to Roxas as the other went over to the nearby parked car. "Yes. Can I help you?"

"Yeah, I was almost mugged right around the corner."

The officer was alarmed, but was a bit more controlled. "You were? Are you alright?"

"I am."

"Do you know where the mugger went or-"

"He's knocked out. I can show you."

The one officer nodded before calling out to his partner for some assistance. They soon followed Roxas, who soon showed them the unconscious mugger. They might have passed him off as some drunk or homeless fellow until they saw the gun lying on the ground not far from the body.

Kneeling onto the ground, one of the officers pulled out a pair of handcuffs and handcuffed the unconscious mugger while the other went to check to see if the man was breathing or not.

Before long, Roxas was asked to stick a little longer to give a statement while the mugger was dragged over to the police car to be taken over to the nearby precinct.

"Okay, I believe that's everything." Said the one officer. "Stay safe out there, kid."

"You're welcome. Have a good day."

Saying his brief farewell, Roxas walked off to properly start his exploration within this city.

For the next few hours, Roxas found there wasn't much to really see in the city; publicly that is. Anything remotely noteworthy was the Gardener River and the Historical Center. Both were quite good to look at, but they might've been more enjoyable to see if someone he knew was with him. But that was just his opinion.

Roxas did go to STAR Labs and liked what he could see to a degree.

In the public sections of the facility, it reminded him of what he saw back at the Hall of Justice. Unlike there, Roxas saw there were far less displays due to STAR Labs being greatly focused on scientific works rather than any heroics. Not just this, but the Nobody couldn't really enjoy looking at everything, due to him assisting Morpheus in finding his dream ruby at the time.

There was a bit of a joke that the founding branch here in Central City might've been the unofficial Flash Museum, given how much the Crimson Speedster worked alongside the company over the years. Such an idea -however- was shot down, given how sensitive much of the work done at the labs would be compromised if it was fully open up to the public.

Besides, through interviews the Flash stated he didn't want a museum built and displayed in his honor anytime soon. He'd rather have all that money put towards the city in general for funding the various departments; especially the constructions for any repairs needed after any fights gone awry.

Though if a museum were to be built, it'll perhaps be done years from now.

Once leaving the Labs, Roxas wondered what he may do now. There was still plenty of time left in the day to do whatever before heading off elsewhere or going back to the Dreaming.

Soon passing by a restaurant named "Big Belly Burger" and glancing over to it, he recalled some information he got from his friends about this place.

It was considered very popular; so much so it has establishments nearly all over the world. Wasn't just due to how efficient it was in popping out orders within a certain time frame but of their recipes.

Not to mention it more or less snuffed out a lot of the competition over the years in the fast-food industry.

His stomach rumbled a little soon after.

'Now I know what I'm having for lunch.' Was the thought before walking in.

Once stepping foot through those doors, he quickly picked up several scents. Some was relatively normal with how food is prepared, but others seemed to be a little too strong for his liking.

It could be the factor of him never having any of this fast-food stuff, ever. And Sora never came to such a place during his adventures; so he was a tad unprepared on being here in person.

'There's always a first for everything.' He thought to himself.

Waiting in the decently long line, he wondered how the food would exactly taste. He hoped it would be good, or at least adequate.

Once at the register, Roxas ordered himself a basic hamburger combo with fries and a drink of his choosing. He might've gotten himself some other add ons like onion rings and a milkshake, but he didn't want to overwhelm himself and he wasn't that hungry.

Speaking of hungry…

Wally West, otherwise known as Kid Flash, was very hungry.

It was quite the downside of being a speedster.

Yes there were the perks like the well-known superspeed being chief among those powers. Yet there were many downsides to compensate, which seemed to be a cosmic "middle-finger" to their kind.

For instance, even if he has superspeed, he always seems to be late for a lot of things; due to him being distracted from wanting to help people along the way to his destination. His perception of time is slowed down, which helps at times to try and react accordingly on avoiding attacks or anything coming his way; yet if he were to get hit, the pain he receives intensifies for a seemingly longer time.

And then comes his metabolism.

Before getting his powers, he had a decent metabolism due to him wanting to be a runner years ago; wanting to be like his idol and hero the Flash, who he didn't know at the time was his uncle-in-law Barry. But when he got his powers, the metabolism became hyper-accelerated.

Yes he has absolutely no baby fat and has a good swimmer/runner build at his age, yet his hunger was an absolute pain in the ass. Him having to eat these somewhat gross hyper protein bars every day so he doesn't hurt his family's food bills. And whatever money he saves up, he ends up splurging on fast-food to help maintain his energy.

Which leads to where he is now.

Out of his hero attire and in his civvies, Wally was sitting at one of the tables in the Big Belly restaurant with his backpack placed beside him. His foot was tapping on the floor at a steady rhythm as he fiddled around with the number stand he was given for an employee to drop off his order.

He was at least thankful he showed up on the slow-ish period of the work day instead of the lunch rush. His patience would've waned thin as a result, on top of the hunger he was feeling. And glancing over at the wait line, he was thankful he wasn't in there right now.

All he could do now was wait for his order to be finished before he could finally dig in. Sadly, with the amount he was gonna have, it's gonna be a while until it's finished.

"Is this seat taken?"

Wally looked up upon hearing the question. Near him was a blue eyed, blonde teenager who looked a little lost and curious.

Registering the question, Wally looked around slightly and saw the place was rather packed with hardly any tables available. His eyes then wandered to the empty seat in front of him.

He focused back on the blonde and said "go ahead".

The blonde -who Wally didn't know was Roxas- nodded in thanks before taking the available seat and placing his number stand on the table.

Neither really spoke. The redhead was just more focused on keeping his patience in check. The blonde was a bit out of place in the present settings.

A minute passed before a waitress came over with a tray packed to the brim with food, steadily carried on one hand while the other held Wally's drink. Depositing them to the table, she took the number stand and left to return to take care of the other orders.

The speedster licked his lips, salivating slightly at the meal before him.

The blue-eyed blonde seated in front of Wally eyed the amount. "Quite the amount you have there."

Wally snorted. "Obviously."

"You sure you can eat all that?"

"More or less." Was the vague response.

Wally can actually eat all this and perhaps a bit more, depending on the time of day. Though for some cover-up, the speedster would just take the rest to go and chow down the rest elsewhere.

Roxas accepted it before absently looking around.

Some moments passed as Wally was slowly savoring his food when an employee brought the blonde's meal over. Once thanking her, the teen focused on his own food and observed it.

The Nobody ate a number of fries before taking hold of the burger in both hands and started nibbling at it. After some moments, he washed his pallet with his drink. With that, his taste buds were briefly assaulted with the variety of flavors.

"First time having a burger?"

Roxas nodded. "Yeah. Never tried this before."

"What kind of rock did you live under?"

"Huh?"

Wally thought this guy lived in a weirdly sheltered household, never having a burger before in his life.

"Never mind."

The speedster didn't mean to sound rude on the observation. He's just been a tad cranky for most of the day.

Once finished with a good portion of his food, Wally dug into his milkshake. Getting several bites in, he saw the blonde eying it for some reason.

"Yes?"

"What flavor is that?"

"Excuse me?"

"What flavor-"

"I know what you said, but why ask that?"

"Sorry. It just came out of nowhere. It's just that I've only had one kind of ice-cream before."

Wally merely bore a bewildered look, thinking the blonde was really unusual.

A sense of nostalgia blanketed Roxas. "Sometimes I'd try to hang out with my friends at the end of the day and have some sea-salt ice cream with them."

"Sea-salt ice cream?"

"Strange flavor, I know, but it's pretty good."

Just hearing of it somewhat made Wally think of saltwater taffy. Might have to look it up to try it out sometime. Though when thinking about it, the particular flavor might not be that well known or only sold at some location out there.

The speedster would be right, but not on this planet.

An odd thought came to mind as he kept talking to the blonde.

'Why does he sound like Dick?' He shook his head soon after. 'Must be my imagination. It's been a long day.'

*SCREEEEECH*

*CRASH*

*RRRRRRRRAAAAAAGHHHHH*

Following the beastial roar, screaming could be heard from outside the restaurant.

Almost instantly, many within the establishment rushed towards the windows with others pressed up right up to it. A means to see what was going on. Roxas was amongst them.

Everyone looking from the inside of the building saw a sentient creature made of molten asphalt. And presently, it was attacking a number of police vehicles which had chased it and crashed in the process.

For Wally, he knew who the cause of this was without looking; a member of his uncle's rogues gallery: Joseph Monteleone, aka Tarpit.

As many citizens were panicking or putting more focus at what's happening outside, Wally quickly grabbed both his backpack and the remainder of his lunch before heading straight to the bathroom. It was the only place where he can safely and swiftly change into his Kid Flash attire without any cameras present along with there being a window he can slip out from to the outside to help deal with the sentient tar pit.

Unbeknownst to the young speedster, he wasn't the only one with a similar idea.

If he were to stay in the bathroom some moments longer, Wally would've seen Roxas enter before conjuring and slipping on his Organization coat. Once worn, the greater Nobody used a Dark Corridor to get outside of the establishment to take care of Tarpit.

Exiting out of another Dark Corridor at some nearby alleyway, Roxas saw the Central City villain fending off against both the police and Kid Flash. And by the looks of it, they were having some difficulty dealing with the meta-human; especially the speedster who was scooping up one stranger after another away from the conflict.

Before he can give out a helping hand, Roxas spotted a little girl lying on the ground, unable to move out of fear, due to sentient asphalt monster being mere meters near her.

Propelling himself, Roxas scooped the child into his arms and leaped out of the way before the spot they once were was covered in the harmful substance, sizzling and smoking.

"Don't worry, you're safe." He said, placing the little girl gently on the ground.

"B-But my mom!" The terrified child began with tears gathering in her eyes whilst pointing over yonder.

Whirling around, Roxas saw a woman with similar features as the little girl lying on the street near the fight. She appeared unmoving as she was unconscious or perhaps worse. Not to mention Tarpit was near her and sought to use her for some purpose, like a hostage as some scenario.

Immediately, the Keybearer summoned his Keyblades and performed a Strike attack. His weapons spun and flew through the air before striking the monster's eyes. It roared in pain as a result with the Keyblades lodged into his head.

With them in place, he casted Sleep onto Tarpit. Before long, the metahuman collapsed onto the street.

Roxas thought it would truly work, having Tarpit go into a state of unconsciousness, but all he did was make it rather drowsy. Might because he didn't do a more powerful form of the spell, the villain being a bit resistant or due to the two Keyblades still inside of him.

Whatever the case may be, the Nobody needed to help the person in need.

During this bit of distraction, Roxas focused on the girl's mother and performed Flowmotion, having his form be encompassed in light and zoomed across the area to snatch the girl's mother before flipping around and returning with another Flowmotion.

Placing the woman on the ground, he got a better look at her as the girl hugged her mother. She was clearly unconscious and not dead, thankfully. All that he could see on her was a sorry sight that the grown woman's leg was burnt, courtesy of Tarpit.

"Whoa! How'd you do that?!"

Turning around, Roxas saw Kid Flash was behind him who had sped towards him some moments ago. A look of surprise was on his masked features.

"You new or something?" Asked Kid Flash out of genuine curiosity. "I don't recognize you at all."

"Or something." The hooded teen said evenly. He soon looked around, even glancing slightly at Tarpit who was trying to pry the Keyblades out of his head; which were magically kept in place. "Are there any ambulances coming?"

"Soon, hopefully."

"A hospital nearby?"

"Sadly no."

"And the Flash?"

"Not here, unfortunately. Justice League business."

Before Roxas could ask another question, he and Kid Flash heard Tarpit roar. Looking over, they saw him finally prying out the Keyblades out of his eyes through brute force. The mad meta-human tossed the weapons away and looked right at the two young heroes.

"Kid Flash, get these two away from here. I'll cover you."

The speedster didn't get the chance to respond as Roxas summoned his Keyblades back into his hand and charged in to properly take part of the conflict.

'How the hell did he do that?' Kid Flash thought to himself, swiftly taking the unconscious mother into his arms and had her child climb onto his back before speeding away to find some proper medical attention. 'Does he have some kind of unique tech?'

With Kid Flash gone, Tarpit focuses his attention on the hooded teen. There was the volley of thrown molten balls of fiery tar. On occasion, Tarpit stretched out his arms in order to hit or ensnare him.

As this occurred, Roxas dashed, lept and rolled away from the incoming attacks. It all had to be done in quick successions, especially when those molten hands began shifting into impromptu weapons like mace or ax heads. They were rather dangerous and the hooded Nobody didn't want to get hit by either of them as he saw the results of them hitting some nearby cars or buildings; of the fiery tar beginning to melt the surfaces.

Seeking to retaliate, Roxas swung his Keyblades and cleaved through the incoming molten balls. He then fired off several magical blasts at Tarpit from afar. They seemed effective to a degree as the molten monster roared in brief moments of pain.

It wasn't long before the greater Nobody came in and personal, striking and slashing Tarpit to and fro; swiftly and harshly.

By the time Kid Flash came back onto the scene, there were various puddles of molten tar scattered about.

"Did you do all this?" The speedster asked aloud before shaking his head. "No, wait. Of course you did."

Roxas turned over to see Kid Flash was present.

"How are they?" He asked, referring to the mother/daughter pair.

"Doing fine." The masked redhead then saw the asphalt puddles ripple. "He ain't down yet."

To prove this point, the puddles started to move upwards and started to form human sized individuals with no distinguishable features.

"Figured as much." Roxas responded, twirling his Keyblades in his hands and got into his battle stance.

Without any response, the various tar bodies rushed at the pair with the intent of ending them.

The pair of teens dashed out of the way and made their own attempts to thwart Tarpit and his copies.

Blades swung through the air, cleaving through the sentient asphalt enemies. They weren't like the Heartless, Nobodies and Nightmares but they were dangerous enough.

Left and right, Roxas whirled around to get rid of the charging foes. He lept in the air and spun like a buzzsaw to carve through enemies that tried jumping at him. He brought his Keyblades into the road and casted Earth, having the pavement crack and break in order to harm the foes who seeped into the road for surprise attacks. Soon enough many lunged and sought to dogpile him, yet were blown away with Roxas casting Aerora.

As this went on, Kid Flash sped around the impromptu battlefield. Picking up debris and throwing it at the various sized foes he and the hooded teen were facing. The speeded projectiles were able to make some good work in knocking them down or harming them momentarily before they got back up to resume fighting.

The speedster was forced to avoid one of the larger Tarpit copies. Its attacks were a bit wild and unpredictable. After several swings Kid Flash avoided, it formed and threw several flaming, molten tar-ball attacks.

Before long, the costumed teen spotted something on the sidewalk and smirked.

Coming to a halt, Kid Flash taunted some of the Tarpit copies that were chasing after him.

"Hey, barbeque! Hit me with your best shot!"

One of the Tarpit bodies lunged at the speedster. Wally moved out of the way before it made contact with him. Instead, it collided with the fire hydrant, melted through the painted metal and began releasing a geyser of water.

The amount of water coming out sprayed not just the one Tarpit copy but many others nearby. They began to rapidly harden before no longer moving. Soon after, a yellow blur went around, collided with each and broke them apart through brute force.

Getting the general idea, Roxas aimed his Keyblades and fired a massive ball of Waterga. After seeing a good chunk of them get soaked up and harden, he came in and cleaved through the Tarpit copies. Soon, he lifted his weapons into the air and formed a giant ball of water and had it implode for a Water Burst. Once all those were hardening up, Roxas thrusted his Keyblades up and casted Thundaga to destroy many of them.

Others kept coming in for the attack from a distance, hurling a number of flaming, tar balls at him and Kid Flash. This prompted Roxas to coat his Keyblades in Aero. Instead of throwing them for a Raid attack, the Nobody swung his weapons to and fro, shooting out powerful gusts of wind which cleaved and bashed through them.

Soon enough, he thrusted his weapons forward and focused. Wisps of light swiftly formed at the tips of his Keyblades before reaching their apex. Reaching the limit, Roxas fired off the Ragnarok shotlock attack, having many multi-colored orbs collide and destroy the rest of the Tarpit enemies.

Seeing them all taken care of, Roxas let out a small sigh of relief.

"Okay, do you have tech similar to Weather Wizard?"

Once more, the Nobody turned to the yellow-clad speedster.

"Excuse me?"

"Did you raid one of his safehouses or were you inspired in making those gaudy swords?"

"I honestly don't know what you're talking about. I didn't raid some safehouses to get these." Before Kid Flash could ask any further questions, Roxas interrupted the speedster. "We're not done yet."

From what the two teens could see from throughout the area, all portions of Tarpit congealed and reformed together into one entity. Instead of the one size earlier, it grew in proportions and let out a bellowing roar.

Its reformed fists swung to and fro that while quick was a bit slower than the small form it once had. What was lost in speed was made up for in heat.

While Roxas didn't feel anything, courtesy of his Organization coat, Wally sure could as his suit could still feel the scorch from the molten asphalt.

Needing some cover, Roxas plunged one of his Keyblades into the street and casted Earthra. A split moment later, a large slab of rock jetted out and formed a wall to protect him from the coming attacks.

His form of cover wouldn't last long, due to the molten asphalt coming over the rock slab and breaking it down.

Rushing out of the cover, Roxas casted Earthra over and over again to make more barriers for him to work with to protect not only him but also Kid Flash.

"We need to finish this." Said Roxas, eyeing much of the collateral damage around the area. "It's starting to get a little out of control."

The speedster was quick to agree. "We gotta freeze him solid somehow. It's the only way to stop him."

"You sure?"

The costumed redhead nodded. "I can go over to STAR Labs and get a nitrous bomb to-"

"No need. I can take care of this."

The speedster wasn't able to voice out a retort or argument, for the Keybearer quickly got out his cover and quickly fired off a volley of Blizzards at Tarpit.

As the enemy bellowed from the swift form of cold impacting him, Roxas zoomed in and coated his weapons in magic. Within a certain distance away from the meta-human, he enacted a dual Blizzard Raid, having his Keyblades coated in ice and rapidly striking Tarpit from afar. Just the single dual attack wasn't enough as this was happening several times with Roxas seemingly teleporting all over the place. With each successful strike, Tarpit was slowing down more and more with the growing ice build up.

Wanting to finish things off, Roxas became a blackened blur, disappearing from the sights of Tarpit, Kid Flash and other onlookers. The Keybearer soon appeared in the air and dive bombed, plunging his weapons into the sentient pile of asphalt. Focusing much magic into his weapons, he soon casted Blizzaga directly into the meta-human.

The attack surprised the molten asphalt creature considerably as he began to feel a great sense of cold from not just on the surface but from within.

To any onlookers, nothing seemed to happen for a second. A moment later, Tarpit soon exploded with large pieces of ice coming out, completely encasing the meta-human into a prison of ice. It roared in pain before he stopped moving entirely, due to him being frozen solid.

Kid Flash was practically gaping for several moments before shaking his head to recompose himself. Coming up to the entrapped villain, he knocked the cool surface a few times before whistling.

"Nice tarpit-sicle you made there."

"Thanks."

"Hopefully this'll hold long enough for the authorities to throw him in a special cell at Iron Heights."

"It will."

Roxas didn't know how quickly normal ice would melt from molten asphalt, but he believed magical ice would take a far longer time for Tarpit to escape from.

Without realizing it, Kid Flash quickly snatched one of the Keyblades from his grasp.

"What are you doing?"

"Okay, how does this work?" Asked the speedster, quickly looking over the weapon from top to bottom. "Where's the trigger mechanism? The ports and chambers?"

It wasn't long before the weapon flashed from Wally's hand and reappeared into Roxas' own.

"You also have teleporting tech too? That would explain how you kept reappearing all over and-"

Feeling uncomfortable with the questions, Roxas quickly conjured a Dark Corridor from underneath his feet and let it swallow him up, swiftly disappearing from the scene in the process.

"What the…"

With him all alone now, Kid Flash soon went to the nearby authorities to chat with them.

Minutes passed on by with various vehicles and containment units arrived onto the scene. The young speedster would've left already, but he was sitting on the sidewalk and slowly eating the remainder of his meal from earlier.

It gave him some time to think, replaying much of what happened in the fight in his head to form a number of scientific conclusions.

"Hey Kid, I'm back!" The voice of his mentor and uncle got Wally to come out of his thoughts.

Swallowing the last of his fries, Wally spoke. "What took you so long?"

"The League issue took longer than I thought. Sorry on that." The Flash looked around and voiced an inquiry. "What happened?"

"Tarpit showed up and-"

"Whoa! Hold up, you fought Tarpit? By yourself?" Flash asked his nephew, his eye lenses widening to their limit in surprise.

The older speedster looked over to a containment vehicle and saw the frozen Tarpit inside before the doors closed and was being taken away to Iron Heights. Seeing the large encasing of ice made him think Wally went to STAR Labs to acquire a nitro bomb to help take care of the villain from his rogues gallery.

"Uh, no. And I didn't get to do all of the fighting."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I mostly had to get the civilians out of the way. Even had to get some to the nearby hospital. There was someone else here who was distracting Tarpit and was the one to finish him off."

"Who?"

Wally scratched the back of his head. "I didn't get his name."

"Okay. But do you know what he looks like? What did he wear?"

"Yeah, this hooded leather black coat. He wielded these two weirdly designed, high-tech swords."

"High-tech swords?"

"They worked like the Weather Wizard's wand as it was shooting out water, wind, ice and lightning but I don't know how it really functioned. But they outright confused me as they seemed to make these rock slabs appear from the street. Not to mention the swords looked rather gaudy if you ask me."

"Gaudy?"

"Looked like giant, stylized keys of all things."

Unbeknownst to Wally, Barry was swiftly putting things together in his head. More so with this last bit of information.

'This Roxas kid was here.' He stated in thought.

He heard from Ollie that Roy ran into him recently at Star City.

On the bare simplification, Roy was captured and entrapped in some occultist's basement. The kid -Roxas- aided the young archer to fend off a horde of summoned demons before something resembling Sully from Monsters Inc showed up and brought it all to an end. The comparison helped a little more with the weird demon being very protective of the occultist's great-grandson.

Turns out, Roxas was only at the occultist's home to retrieve this grimoire he had in his possession before taking it to the Dreaming for safe keeping. And he wasn't seen sense, until today that is.

As much as the League members wanted to know more about Roxas, they couldn't interrogate Zatanna and M'gann or else it'll breach their trust; especially from John Zatara and J'onn respectively.

So until either girl was willing to speak about the hooded teen, the adults had to do things the hard way.

"Alright Wally, while we head back, tell me everything that happened."

-End Chapter-

AN:

Here's a chapter entry doing some focus on Kid Flash. I know it's relatively short, but I couldn't think of anything expansive to do at this period of the story timeline pertaining to the speedsters. And yes it's considered a bit longer than the focus on Speedy/Red Arrow in the last chapter but even on him there wasn't much I could think of with him.

As you readers can see to a degree, I'd be doing some chapters focusing (in a sense) on some of the proteges/sidekicks at this time. A means of having some of them having some vague familiarity with Roxas before he has to make proper introductions with the Justice League. Hopefully I'll do a good job on the planning and research before doing the real in depth stuff.

On some other news, boy the VGA 2022 occurred recently and saw the recent trailer for Suicide Squad Kills the Justice League. When hearing Kevin Conroy's voice in it made me feel happy yet sad, knowing the game was perhaps one of Kevin's final voice acting jobs before his passing.

Also Elden Ring won game of the year! Boy that was actually surprising to see as God of War: Ragnarok came out a month prior and many were sure it would've obtained the award, given it won so many others throughout the night. I mean, excellent story, acting, etc. Could go on with how awesome the game was. Though given Elden Ring has had constant updates to the game, especially the recent PvP Colosseum fights made things really popular for the Soulsborne fans.

Aside from all this, Christmas Day is here with New Years being this upcoming weekend. Hopefully 2023 will be far better for me in writing, on top of so many things, than this year.

Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!

R&R