Outsider Chronicles: Meta Not Para
There are plenty of people with powers in this world on both sides of the fence. I'm not that different from them, with one exception. I'm not a Parahuman. Instead, I'm the Fastest man alive and I will save my hometown.
Right, so this is the first of two ideas I have that will basically break Worm. You can probably guess what I have in mind. Anyway, lets quit messing and dive right in. Enjoy!
Chapter 1
My name is Barry Allen and I'm not a normal teenager. I might appear it from the outside, but from the very start I've been different. Why? Well I remember my last life and, because of that, I know exactly how much trouble I'm in. See, the world I've been born in isn't any version of the DC one, instead its Worm. When I first realized where I was, I nearly had a panic attack, doubly so when I figured out I'd been reborn into Brockton Bay. Then I decided that, since I couldn't do anything about it, I might as well suck it up and deal with it.
To be honest, it wasn't that hard. I mean, Brockton Bay might be a hellhole and with an infestation of nutjobs worse than Gotham, but even this city has good neighbourhoods and the chief director of Brockton General definitely makes enough to live in one. Yeah, my Dad was pretty high up all things considered. My Mum worked as an estate agent for one of the more upper class firms, so she made a decent paycheck as well and, as an added bonus, didn't end up getting murdered by a psychopath speedster from the future, so that was nice.
Other than a minor panic attack when I realized that yes, I was apparently Bets version of Barry Allen, complete with Henry and Nora as my Parents, and safely getting through my childhood without Reverse Flash fucking shit up, I knuckled down and to to work on getting a better life for myself than last time by becoming the best I could be. My aim? Become a CSI investigator. Why? Why not?
In other news, I somehow managed to end up in the same year and sharing a good many classes with Glory Girl, Panacea and a good chunk of the Wards, current and future. I got on well with all of them, although to be fair, the same could be said for most of my classmates. I had a reputation for being a nice guy and helping out where I could, although that unfortunately came with a reputation for always being late...somehow. I had yet to figure out just how I managed it since, no matter how early I left, something always happened that ended with me being late. Fucking universe fucking with me most likely.
Still, that little bit of universal fuckery has nothing on what happened to me on the December of my Third year of highschool. You can probably guess what happened.
For reasons I'm still not entirely sure of, I'd gone from reasonably smart to super genius in the process of being reborn, a trait that was rather helpful in my school work, especially the hard sciences. As a result, like many of the Honour Students at Arcadia, I was already taking college courses, in my case, chemistry and biology, as well as a bit of criminology on the side, all in the name of following my dreams.
As a result of this, I had set up a lab in my Parents attic where I could work on my more advanced stuff without having to hop on a bus to the university across town. Obviously, I couldn't get my hands on anything to exotic, but there was still plenty of stuff I could acquire legally with the help of the course professor and my science teacher.
The night bullshit struck was a surprisingly pleasant one for the middle of December. Oh, it was freezing cold outside, but it was clear and my space heater was keeping me toasty was I waited for my latest experiment to finish. Thats why when a loud rumble of thunder rolled over head, followed by a brilliant flash of yellow, I nearly jumped out of my skin.
"Where the heck did this come from?" I muttered as I moved over to the window and peered out at the ominous looking black cloud that was rolling over the city and crackling with unusual looking yellow lightning.
I frowned. Something about that lightning looked oddly familiar…
I watched the yellow lightning dance in the clouds, each strike creating a streak that seemed to be moving towards the center of the clouds, which were forming into the shape of a spiral with a hole in the middle. That...looked extremely ominous. I watched as the middle of the hole began to glow in a way that was in no way natural. The sound of glass rattling made me glance over my shoulder, just in time to see the fluid in the containers scattered around my lab start to float unnaturally. Then, my eyes went wide.
"Oh shit," I muttered, right before a massive bolt of lightning shot out of the hole, impossibly bypassing multiple lightning rods and high points, and hit me straight in the chest.
My last thought before I crashed through a shelf full of chemicals was that I really, REALLY shouldn't have been up here on the 11th.
Consciousness didn't so much as sneak up on me as it did hit me with the speed and force of a train and I jolted awake with a gasp and a crash as my sudden jolt dragged the IV that was hooked into my arm off its stand and caused it to fall over with a crash, scaring the life out of the poor nurse who was checking my vitals.
"Oh my god, you're awake!" she gasped, then blushed as I fixed her with a flat look, "Um, I'll go get the doctor…"
She hurried out of the room, leaving me to flop back against my pillows and stare up at the ceiling. Right, lets take stock. My name is Barry Allen, I got struck by lightning and tossed into a shelf of chemicals and woke up in hospital...I have no idea, but its probably been at least a couple of weeks. Why do I get the feeling that I no longer have an excuse for being late to anything?
The door to my room opened (ah, the perks of being the son of the hospital director) and a man in a white coat walked in.
"Well then Mr Allen, its good to see your awake," he said as he picked up the chart at the end of my bed.
"Thanks," I said, "How long was I out?"
"Four months," said the doctor, "It would have been longer, but Panacea was able to stabilize you. Your body's still doing some weird things though."
"Like?"
"Well, your heart rates up, your muscles haven't atrophied at all and your in remarkable health for someone who was struck by lightning and in a coma for three months," said the Doctor, "If I didn't know better, I'd say you'd Triggered."
I gave him a look.
"You mean I didn't?" I asked.
"Not according to Panacea," he said, "She can't touch brains, but she can see them and we took an MRI to be sure. There was a lot of unusual activity, but no signs of Parahuman abilities."
"Is that a fact," I muttered, thinking hard.
The rest of the day was spent with the doctors performing tests (which confirm that I was in almost disgustingly good health) and trying to convince Mum to stop choking me and trying to drown me in tears. I was kept in the hospital for a few more days so they could make sure that there was nothing wrong, mainly because my heart rate was still worryingly high for a normal Human, but they eventually concluded that it was nothing to be worried about and sent me on my way.
I on the other hand concluded that it was something for other people to worry about after I started seeing things in slow motion and managed to finish the crossword in five seconds flat. I could have done it faster, but then I'd have set the paper and pencil on fire and I don't think the doctors would thank me for that. Oh, and the lightning bolt gave me abs. Because of course it did.
Three days after I got out of the hospital saw me in the one place in the city that was privet enough to do a bit of experimenting. It was the place where most new Capes headed to try out their powers, the Boat Graveyard. Mainly because it was well away from the city and wasn't in any of the gangs territories. Of course, thats not to say that there weren't likely people keeping tabs on the area considering it was popular with new Capes, which is why I had a scarf wrapped around my face adn a pair of tinted, high end goggles over my eyes.
"Right, lets see what I can do," I muttered as I scuffed my trainers on the sand.
I took a deep breath, crouched….and pushed off in a blast of sand and a flash of light. In the blink of an eye, I was on the other side of the beach and embedded deep into the rusted side of a tanker.
"Owwww, that hurt," I groaned as I pulled myself out of the metal.
I looked back over the long trench of lightly steaming sand, then down at my clothes. To my surprise, they weren't on fire and, other than some marks from the rusted metal, were unharmed.
"Huh, guess I got the aura that stops the friction from making a mess of my clothes," I muttered, "Thats handy."
I took off again, this time managing to stop before I slammed into something, and kept going, zipping around the beach over and over again in ever decreasing circles as I got the hang of my speed. I wasn't going at full speed, not even close, but I couldn't exactly try and break the sound barrier on such a small stretch of beach.
I was just about to see if I could run on water when my phone went off and I went white.
"Oh shit, I'm late!" I yelped, "Again!"
I snatched up my discarded backpack and took off, heading through the streets at high speed and taking out a couple of muggers as I went. I have a feeling that they'd be references to a red blur saving people on PHO very soon, mainly because I was wearing a red hoodie.
Less than two minutes later, I skidded to a stop in an alley a short distance from a local burger joint that my friends and I frequented, mainly because we liked to keep our cholesterol at something below lethal levels like they had at Fugley Bobs. That place was more for the tourists anyway. The locals all knew that the best burger in town could be found at Big Belly Burgers.
I entered the restaurant and looked around, quickly spotting my friends in the corner and hurried over.
"Hi guys, sorry I'm late," I said.
"Your always late Barry," said Chris.
"Yeah, whats the excuse this time, black cat cross your path?" asked Dennis with a grin.
"No, I was saving a bunch of people from muggers while running faster than sound," I said with a grin.
My friends, who happened to be the Wards, all gave me a flat look, making my grin widen. Since I was always late due to the universe fucking with me anyway, I'd long decided to just embrace it and started coming out with Kakashi worthy excuses. Of course, this time I was being mostly truthful, but they'd never guess that.
"Where are the others?" I asked as I slid into the booth beside Chris.
"Carlos is busy with personal stuff and Deans sulking," said Dennis, "He and Vicky had another fight."
I rolled my eyes.
"Another one?" I asked, "Jeez, its a wonder that they're still together considering the number they have."
My friends nodded in agreement, before a waitress approached and took our orders. I grabbed the menu and promptly ordered enough food to feed an army.
"Um, are you sure your going to eat all that?" asked Chris once the food arrived, eyeing the large number of plates in front of me.
"Yep, I've had a pretty big appetite lately," I said as I picked up a burger and took a large bite.
Five minutes later, my friends were staring at me with shock, awe and a small amount of disgust as I drained the last of my massive milkshake and balanced the empty cup on top of the stack of empty plates beside me.
"Thats better," I said, "Now, whats for dessert?"
"How…" squeaked Chris, before clearing his throat and trying again, "How can you still be hungry after that?!"
I shrugged.
"I've had a bigger appetite than normal since I got struck by lightning," I said, "So, now I'm done traumatizing, how about you two tell me what I've missed in the last couple of months?"
Chris and Dennis glanced at each other.
"Um, you seem remarkably blase," said Dennis, "I mean, most people would take a bit longer than a few days to get over being in a coma."
I shrugged again.
"I'm adaptable," I said.
And in possession of a brain faster than most supercomputers. Hmm, I wonder if I could outthink Dragon? Probably seeing as shes currently rather limited.
"Since when do you know what the word blase means?" asked Chris.
Dennis just grinned. Before he could say anything though, a loud explosion from outside rattled the window in its frame and caused all attention to snap to it, just in time to see Uber dressed as a Judge from Dredd come haring around the corner with Leet in a mech suit of some kind at his side and an annoyed looking Glory Girl in hot pursuit.
"Oh hell, not those two again," grumbled Chris.
"Are you kidding?" asked Dennis, "This is awesome! Come on, lets go watch!"
Chris rolled his eyes, but followed the red-head as he ran for the door. I sighed and followed my friends. Something told me I'd regret this.
We joined the crowd watching from a safe distance as the 'ineffectual' Villain duo danced around an increasingly irate Glory Girls attempts to hit them. I tensed. Knowing Vicky like I did, it was inevitable that something was going to happen soon that would once again solidify her nickname as collateral damage Barbie and when it did, someone was likely going to end up in the crossfire.
A moment later, my prediction was proven to be completely accurate as Uber fired an explosive round at the same time that Leet fired a barrage of rockets from his shoulder pods. Glory Girl easily dodged the attacks, but they kept going and hit the wall of a nearby building, blasting a rather large amount of masonry free to fall towards a fairly large crowd stood below, watching the show. Without a second thought, I moved.
The world around me slowed to a crawl as I flipped my hood up, pulled my goggles out of my pocket and put them on, and pulled my scarf up to hide my face. It probably wouldn't matter since my friends knew what I was wearing, but it would stop random bystanders from learning my identity. With that done, I took off with a blast of wind that nearly knocked my friends and those stood closest to me off their feet.
Almost before the crowd of in danger bystanders could react to the falling stone, they were on the other side of the street and out of danger. Job done, I zipped back and relieved Uber of his gun and turned Leets mech off before either one of them could react.
"What the fuck?!" yelped Leet as his mech suddenly went limp around him, "Whats going on?!"
"Me," I said as I skidded to a stop a short distance away.
All three Capes turned to me as I idly tossed Ubers gun and Leets keys over my shoulder.
"Who are you supposed to be?" asked Uber, eyeing me up and down, "Some kind of Velocity wannabe?"
I snorted.
"Nope, I'm my own Speedster," I said, "Now, I strongly suggest you three knock it off and you two give it up. Your putting innocent people at risk."
"Hey, there the ones firing explosives around!" shouted Glory Girl.
"And how long will it be before you start throwing cars around?" I asked.
Glory Girl went red and glared at me. A flicker of movement drew my attention back to Uber as he pulled something out of his belt. I flickered and stopped in front of him, grabbing him by the arm before he could prime the grenade.
"Nope, sorry," I said.
Ubers eyes went wide behind his mask, but I'd already punched him three times in the chest and once in the solar plexus. He went flying back, the air blasting from his mouth as I spun, yanked Leet from his mech and tossed him after his partner. Before they hit the ground, I had cuffed them together with a set of handcuffs from a handy nearby cop and plonked down at said cops feet.
"Here, I think you can take it from here," I said.
"Um, thanks," said the man, looking rather confused.
"No problem," I said, "Always happy to help."
I glanced around at the mess the fight had made and frowned.
"Hmm, I should do something about that," I muttered.
The cop looked slightly confused, but I'd already moved. In the blink of an eye, the knocked over tables from the various cafes and restaurants, a few shattered plant pots, a tipped over bin and the rubble from the damaged building was either put back to rights or cleaned up into neat piles and put in binbags for easy collection and I was stood in the middle of the square, looking around with a critical eye.
"Hmm, better, but I should probably learn how to fix things for the future," I muttered.
"That was rather impressive," said a voice from behind me, "Unusual too."
I turned to see a tall, skinny man with balding dark hair, a scruffy beard and glasses.
"Whats unusual about it?" I asked.
The man gestured to where Glory Girl was floating a few inches of the ground, talking with a few cops who were taking statements.
"Most Capes seem to take way too long to end their fights," he said, "While it is true that sometimes ending a fight quickly is impossible, I've seen more than a few fights that could have been finished far sooner than they were. You dealt with those idiots as quickly and efficiently as possible, without causing any further damage, got the bystanders out of harms way and even cleaned up after yourself. Thats even more unusual."
I shrugged.
"My powers let me do it, so why not?" I said.
The man smiled thinly.
"Why not indeed," he said, "Either way, I think you'll be good for the city. It needs more heroes who are actually heroes and not glorified PR pions."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Not a big fan of the PRT?"
The man just smiled and shook his head. I looked back over at Glory Girl, just in time to see a few PRT vans turn into the area.
"Speaking of the PRT, I don't feel like dealing with them right now so I should be going," I said, "See ya!"
I blitzed away to find somewhere to change my clothes.
The man watched as the red clad Speedster vanished in a gust of wind.
"Yes, I think he'll be exactly what this city needs," he said to himself.
He turned and walked into a nearby car park where a curious looking girl was waiting next to a truck.
"What was that all about Dad?" she asked.
"Nothing much Speedy," said the man, "Just…meeting the new face."
"Uh huh, now do you mind telling me why we just bought a bow, thirty bushels of arrows and a tin a green paint?" asked the girl, "I thought you gave up archery after Mum died? You haven't called me Speedy since then either."
The man smiled.
"I thought I'd take it back up again," he said, "Certain things that have happened lately made me realize I miss it."
"Fair enough I guess," said the girl, "Now can we go home? I've got homework to finish."
She got in the car. Her father smiled thinly.
"Homework, sure," he said as he got in after her and started the engine.
Well...that was interesting...I think my muse has got away from me again.
Just to be clear, Barry isn't a Parahuman. His powers come from dimensional overspill science babble from the Particle Accelerator that gave Arrowverse Flash his powers. As such, most powers in the Wormverse tend to react...oddly around him. Thinkers can't get a proper lock on him, although not to the point where he can't be read, and Trumps that erase powers and whatnot won't work on him.
Hmm, I wonder who the man and his daughter was...geez, and to think I planned to be subtle about that. Eh, what the hell. One things for sure though, this is NOT a vanilla Wormverse.
And with that, I'm done. Don't forget to leave a review on the way out!