001 - Arrival

[fasterthan]

[Action - 1665 Nelson - Morning] [When Wally wakes up, the world is molasses.

No... that's not right. The world is still the world, it's just he's moving through it like it's molasses.

Okay that's kind of overstating it. But still. It's obvious from the moment he wakes up and tries to look around the room that he can't move even a tenth of the speed he's used to. In fact, he falls rather spectacularly out of bed when he tries to zip around the room and ends up flailing, tripping, and landing quite gracefully (and loudly) on the floor.

He's stuck at normal speed.

How...

He's kind of freaking out. The room is weird, there are weird pictures with him in them and the clothes are all wrong... and everything he does is so slow. True, he wasn't The Flash his whole life, he was normal once, too, but just like he had to get used to suddenly having super speed, now he's suddenly without it and he has no idea what's going on. Time to start talking himself through it.]

Okay. So I have no idea where I am, my suit's nowhere to be seen, and my powers are completely gone.

[He scratches his head.]

Guess this calls for some investigating.

Crap. Never was really good at that.

[He sighs.]

Guess I should start by getting dressed. Don't want to start an investigation in my PJs.

[He'll do so and start poking around the house.]

[Phone - Later that morning] So hey, Wally West here. Sorry for interrupting your beautiful morning but I'm randomly dialing and you're the lucky winner! I seem to be new here... uh... I think I got the basics down... mind helping me out with some specifics?

Comments

[has-no-plan.livejournal.com]

You're not the lord of speed, you just act like it. Always tripping me and telling people what to do...

What about your Uncle Barry?

[fasterthan]

Wait, really? Man, I trip myself too often to want to trip other people. Unless they're, you know, villains. Not that there's any other speedsters anyway. Only person I'd have to trip would be Superman and no way am I gonna do that. He's usually flying anyway.

Also no, no Uncle Barry.

Wow I'm screwing up all over the place tonight YOU DIDN'T SEE THAT ACCOUNT FAIL

[has-no-plan.livejournal.com]

All the time! "No Bart, don't do that!" and then he...you...whoever...trips me!

...No other speedsters?! But Uncle Barry was your mentor?!

[A Wally that was not Kid Flash. He cannot even consider that a possibility with all of the people expecting him to be Kid Flash.]

XD

[fasterthan]

Wow. Harsh. I mean, sure, I guess the easiest way to stop me would be to stick out a foot and trip me but ow that hurts. Sorry, man. Actually I probably shouldn't apologize, he sounds pretty different from me.

No, I never had a mentor. Had an accident with some chemicals and a bolt of lightning and TA DA superpowers. It was a pretty surreal experience and it's not the kind of thing that gets... duplicated. So no, no mentor. Had to figure it all out by myself. Might've been nice to have a mentor, though.

[has-no-plan.livejournal.com]

You're cooler already.

...That's what happened to Grandpa Barry?! ...Err...my grandpa. The...other...Wally's...uncle.

[This is too confusing for his tiny brain.]

[fasterthan]

This is too weird. I mean I'd get it if the other me went through the same thing I did, but it's all different! So this Barry guy went through the chemicals and lightning thing? How did you guys get your speed?

[has-no-plan.livejournal.com]

...Oh. Wally got struck by lightning too.

Max said he got it from Native Americans or something, Johnny and Jesse use their weird math stuff, Jay breathed in some funny stuff, and me, my cousin Jenni, my dad, and his sister were all born with it.

...But in the end it all comes from this weird Speed Force thing.

[fasterthan]

[There is completely flabbergasted silence on this end. Congratulations, Bart, you just rendered Wally speechless.

After a few moments though, he manages to recover.]

...that many? Seriously?

[He's quiet again.]

Wow, Bart. I'm jealous.

[has-no-plan.livejournal.com]

Well, my dad and his sister died before I was born, and Johnny did too recently...

[Pause.]

Huh? Why?

[fasterthan]

You got a whole big family of people you can share this with, and talk to when you got problems, and ask for advice and all that. Me, I got the team and my friends and all, and yeah I've got a family, but I'm still the only one like me.

[has-no-plan.livejournal.com]

It's not as cool as it sounds! They're all always telling me what to do all the time, like I'm not my own hero or something! "Go live in Nowheresville, Alabama, the most boring place on earth with the boringest, slowest speedster ever telling you what to do and to do it at normal speed!"

[fasterthan]

Well hey man, I don't know what the situation is behind all of that, but they're probably just trying to do what's best for you. I mean yeah, slow is boring, but it's true you can't be fast all the time.

[has-no-plan.livejournal.com]

Doing chores at normal speed is just dumb, though!

[fasterthan]

Yeah well that is dumb.

[has-no-plan.livejournal.com]

Finally, someone gets it! And don't even get me started on the homework! It's not like the teachers care when I take my tests at superspeed, either.

[fasterthan]

Well I dunno about the whole test thing, I never had to do that, but I mean I still have to go through a whole day of work at normal speed to keep up the whole secret identity thing.

[has-no-plan.livejournal.com]

[Sigh.]

Man, I hate secret identities!

[fasterthan]

It's part of the gig, Bart. Yeah sure it'd be easier if we didn't have to worry about that but then we'd get no downtime and that would suck.

[has-no-plan.livejournal.com]

But I always hafta lie and sometimes it's really hard and I forget.

[fasterthan]

Well yeah, the lying is hard. But it's important.

[has-no-plan.livejournal.com]

I know it is! Grife! Max's already beat all of this into my head enough!

[fasterthan]

Whoa, sorry dude. I'm not trying to harp on you or anything, I'm just saying.

[has-no-plan.livejournal.com]

Well, so am I!

[Pause.]

Oh. You're new...

...Do you uh. I don't know. Have any questions or need anything or something like that?!

[Other people have needs?! He forgets sometimes.]

[fasterthan]

I dunno, I've actually been getting a lot of info from other people. There anything you think is crucial to know?

[has-no-plan.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of supervillains here...

The town thinks one of them is my mom...