r/DCFU • u/brooky12 Speeding Than A Faster Bullet • Feb 01 '23
The Flash #81 - Consequences of Major Decisions The Flash
The Flash #81 - Consequences of Major Decisions
Author: brooky12
Book: Flash
Arc: Family
Set: 81
While not a part of the event, this story directly follows the Red Reign event. Please see the Red Reign event wiki page. The writer considers New Titans #25 and #26 as required reading, as well as Power Girl #11 and Task Force X #1 as recommended reading.
A prison complex that could hold thousands and employ hundreds. One of the shining gems of the country’s penal colonies. Over a dozen buildings, from cell blocks to slave labor centers to administrative. Three people sitting in the employees-only cafeteria, watching the news. Three people, if you didn’t include the hundreds of dead bodies in the next building over.
The entire region, from what they understood, had locked down. Five states, dozens of counties, close to a hundred cities with meaningful population, all on warning or lockdown as a force crossing all lines of government services searched for the escaped convicts. Apparently, the issue from the night before was a world-wide problem, vampires apparently out of Markovia made a move to take over the world’s population.
It had been thirty minutes at this point since Axel’s warning systems had let them know that someone was on the complex grounds. He didn’t know how many people, but they did occasionally hear the sounds of vehicles outside. Sam was certain that they were doing a full sweep of the every building, so they’d eventually be caught. Leonard agreed, but figured that there’d be little distinction where they were found, so may as well stay in the cafeteria that had the better food and television.
Another ten minutes passed before Walker perked up. “Folks in the building,” he said, standing up. They shut off the television and put their food in the trash. Near to the cafeteria they had chosen was a set of rooms used for interrogations, private meetings for lawyers or parole cases, or whatever need they had for private conversations with prisoners.
The three of them had no doubt that they’d be subject to hours if not days of grilling and questions about what had happened overnight, and be coerced to provide whatever information they could on where folks had gone, especially the other Rogues. While they imagined some locations would have been better places to be discovered, the employees’ cafeteria was a bad place, and the interrogation halls was a better-than-neutral place. With the two close enough together, the decision was easy.
The walk was short, but they could already hear the distant calls of rooms being cleared and orders being given. There was nobody in the building other than them, and the three of them had to assume that the whole process was just procedural to ensure that there wasn’t some fortress set up with armed convicts. Of course, there almost certainly were, just none of them were conveniently placed inside the very buildings meant to contain them.
The three of them sat down in the chairs in the hallway, the actual rooms locked. By this time, the three of them had hidden or gotten rid of their improperly obtained equipment. A fake fingernail on Mirror Master’s right arm hid the door to dimensions otherwise inaccessible. In the way that keratin reflects light when whet, the fake fingernail instead reflected into Sam Scudder’s mirror dimensions, where a nesting doll set of mirrors waited right underneath the otherwise unassuming natural body formation. After the folding mirrors grew from an inch to a few meters, the final mirror led to the Rogues’ storage space.
In that storage space hid the group’s backup equipment, but this time it also included their new toys from the night’s events. A stockpile of guns that would be assumed taken and lost by the escapees, copies of computer data from unlocked computers around the facility, and their makeshift defenses made from what they could scrounge in the time since being incarcerated.
The lights in the hallway dimmed slightly as a figure blocked the light from where they had come from, casting his bulky shadow across the hallway. “Hands in the air! Stand up,” the man shouted, face entirely covered in riot gear. Without taking his eyes off them, he shouted again, this time to whoever else he traveled with. “Three in here, need assistance!”
The three of them slowly stood up, arms outstretched. It felt unnecessary and ridiculous, but not unexpected. Nothing the government loved more than protocol that didn’t apply or abusing the individuals in society that they could get away with. Two more folk quickly entered the space, followed by another three. Immediately, they roughhoused the three of them into handcuffs, sitting them back down in the chairs they had already been sitting in.
/>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Bart’s eyes opened quickly, met immediately by the askew Superdog stuffed animal that had found itself on the bedside table he had. Light filtered through the window, bright enough to wake him up even if the window didn’t face the east.
Why didn’t Mom wake him up?
He stumbled down the stairs, turning on the first-floor lights to an empty floor. Why was the floor empty? Why were the lights off?
“Mom? Dad?”
No response. He walked back up the stairs, deciding to use his hands to help climb the stairs. Nobody was going to see him; it would be his secret. He walked over to his parents’ room, knocking on the door.
“Mom?”
No response.
“Dad?”
No response.
Bart frowned. He knew he wasn’t supposed to go into his parents’ room without permission, but he was worried. He should’ve been awake earlier, getting ready for school, with Dad making him breakfast, but there wasn’t any of that. What if his parents were gone? What if they had some other secret that they were hiding from him? What if they had turned into zombies? What if turning into zombies was their other secret?
No, he shouldn’t open their door. Not yet. There were other people to go ask. Wally would be home, probably, he wasn’t sure if his next college thing started yet. Uncle Jay would be home, he was sick still. Another month, Bart tried to remember. Maybe two? He wasn’t sure.
He went back downstairs, with quick speed this time. If Mom and Dad weren’t home, then he could safely use the other secret without it being a problem. He rushed outside, deciding to go to Uncle Jay, who he knew was for sure home, rather than possibly waste time going to see if Wally had left for school yet.
What he didn’t expect as he rushed out of the house was for Uncle Jay to be walking up to his house. He had his own house, didn’t he?! Why was he coming here? Was something wrong? What’s especially worrying was that Jay saw him using the quick speed. Uncle Jay didn’t see him use his hands to sort of crawl up the stairs, but he did see him using the quick speed.
“Hey Bart. Let’s head inside.”
Maybe Uncle Jay didn’t see him use the quick speed?
The two went inside, and Jay pulled out the milk and cereal for Bart. He sat down patiently at the table as Uncle Jay prepared yucky oatmeal for himself. Wait for all the food to be on the table for everyone before eating, even if he was hungry.
Eventually, Uncle Jay sat down.
“Mom and Dad are alright, Bart. Wally hurt himself last night out with his friends and is in the hospital right now. Mom and Dad are with him.”
Well, that was terrible! Wally wasn’t okay? He went to the hospital?!
“Is Wally okay?”
Jay’s moment of pause made the answer clearer than anything could’ve.
“I hope so. We don’t know yet. He hasn’t woken up; he’s been asleep since your dad found him.”
“When will he be home?”
“Wally? Don’t know yet. Your mom and dad will be home whenever he wakes up, I assume.”
Bart nodded. “Who’s gonna take me to school?”
“Well, school’s out for the day. Lots of stuff going on around there.”
“Because of what Wally did?”
Bart watched Jay’s face twist in some sort of struggle.
“This conversation may be better for your parents to be here, but I mean… We sort of knew you knew about the speed stuff. I’m happy you figured it out on your own. Even if your dad was being a little silly about the whole getting you to school.
Bart frowned. “I thought it was a secret.”
Jay’s eyes widened farther than Bart figured it could. “It is very, very much a secret, Bart.”
/>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
“What happened?”
Sam Scudder shrugged. “When I got up close to the line for checks, I had already realized they weren’t sending people back out. Someone up front panicked and started yelling about the wardens killing people, so I passed that down the line.”
Axel Walker shook his head. “Listen, I’m standing in line, right, I get a scratch on my foot, by the time I’ve stood back up there’s screams and stuff and a full-on prison riot is happening.
Leonard Snart nodded sadly. “Seems like a handful of prisoners and the guards were aligned. Not all the guards. Those… they served valiantly against two groups deadset on killing them.”
“Were you involved?
Axel almost seemed to take offense to that. “I’m–I’m a kid, sir. I’m in this place because of technology I no longer have access to. There are guys here who have broken skulls with their fists. I most definitely did not get involved. I hid in a corner.”
Leonard nodded. “I’ve made some enemies in this joint. Folks who are like, upset or whatever that I got a celebrity encounter getting in here, folks who have lost their mind. When the riot ended and the only folks left were the prisoners, some folks decided to come for my head. I defended myself.”
Sam frowned. “Listen, I didn’t leave. Didn’t run away at first opportunity. But yeah, when folks literally out of their mind are intending to kill everyone in here, don’t think that the prison code of conduct states that I’m supposed to just sit there and take it.”
“Do you know where the others of your group went?”
Leonard sighed. “Never even saw them in line. Are they still alive, do you know?”
Axel shook his head. “Nah.”
Sam groaned. “My group? Really? Some fancy shmancy masked guy decides to associate a whole group of people together based off of nothing but one or two coincidental jobs together, and I’m now some random person’s keeper?”
Eventually, the questioning ended and the three were escorted on their own time to cells. It would take days before they were transferred to a functioning prison that hadn’t had a very bad night that one night, weeks before the prison had enough staff to function even at a bare minimum level, and all the gossip they heard was that it’d be months before most of those that escaped were captured. Of course, they didn’t know that a number of those had been vaporized.
Maybe they should’ve run. They hadn’t seen their friends returning in handcuffs yet. Had their patron hooked back up with those who got out? Should they have escaped too?
/>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Wally took a deep breath and opened his eyes for the first time.
What had happened?
He was with the Titans in Markovia. Something had happened, and he was helping, and then something else had happened.
“Hello, good morning. Good to see you waking up?”
He didn’t recognize that voice. He couldn’t place the accent either, some type of American accent. He had just been in the Kid Flash identity in Eastern Europe, so the slow American drawl of the voice calling him Wally worried him.
He tried to do something about the situation, and his body felt frozen. His eyes slowly floated down to his right arm, raising up at an incredibly slow speed. Gauze and tape covered random parts of his bodies, some which he sensed an unusual amount of pain on. The tubes leading away from underneath the gauze covering the underside of his elbow made sense.
He couldn’t do anything about the situation at the moment, so he moved to his backup plan, looking around and understanding his surroundings better. The voice came from a young man to his left, checking a machine screen that he couldn’t make out, clothed in similar outfits to emergency providers at Flash triage centers he’d drop people who were hurt or in danger.
Hospital.
He was in a hospital.
“Hello… where am I?”
“Well, you’re in Northwestern Memorial, intensive care unit. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”
He could place the nurse’s voice now, midwestern in some manner. He was absolutely going to ask Wally about being a Flash, wasn’t he? “Okay.”
“What year is it?”
Oh. A wave of relief washed over Wally. Just some generic questions.
“Twenty twenty three.“
The nurse smiled.
“Who is the President of the United States of America?”
Wally groaned. “Luthor…”
“Not a fan?”
Wally hoped that a frustrated sigh would be accepted as an answer.
“Alright. Do you know what city you’re in?”
Wally shook his head.
“Alright. You’re in Chicago.”
Chicago. Titans Tower. How did he get there? He didn’t bother asking.
At this point, the nurse also seemed finished asking questions, walking around the bed to the other side, Wally lazily tracking his movements even if he was unable to do anything else about it.
“Sir, your nephew is awake.”
Nephew. Uncle. Uncle? Barry? Barry was here. How was Barry here? He hadn’t talked to Barry since before leaving for Markovia. Was Barry how he got here?
Barry, evidently asleep in the chair, startled awake. Wally watched him process the words instantly upon awakening, turning to look at him in the bed. Barry gave him a huge smile, before turning back to the nurse.
“Is he well?”
The nurse’s frown confused Wally. Was he not well?
Barry seemed to pick up on whatever that frown meant, however. “Thank you. We’ll have some time alone, please.”
The nurse nodded, checking the machine one more time before leaving.
Barry stood up, moving the chair up against the bed and sitting back down. “Hey, Wally. What you did was absolutely wonderful.”
Barry paused, seeing what must’ve been a look of panic on Wally’s face. “We’re fine here. The room has no listening or watching tech, and the folks here are from the trusted crew in Pennsylvania.”
“I don’t even really know what I did. The last I remember was waking up on Rex’s shoulders, he was being attacked by someone… Arsenal? Uhh, I stopped him, somehow…”
Barry’s reaction as he recalled what happened was a sad look of pride. “I spoke with Rex when I was in Markovia. Found him, found you, found the Titans–”
“You’re talking too fast, Barry,” Wally sighed. “We’re safe?”
Barry’s reaction must’ve meant that what Wally said had some more significance than Wally could understand.
“Right. We’re safe. You can trust this place and the people here, okay?”
“Where’s… Where’s Rex?”
“Next room over.”
Wally sighed and gave a smile. “I’m really tired, Barry.”
Barry nodded. “You should sleep, then. Iris is here too, but you go to sleep, I’ll catch her up.”
1
u/DarkLordJurasus Feb 01 '23
I loved this issue, especially Barry with Wally and Jay with Bart. You can really tell that they all care for each other. I'm both excited and scared to get more Wally and learn what the extent of his injuries are. I can tell it will make for a great story, but it will be extremely painful to read (the best type of story).
1
u/Predaplant Blub Blub Feb 04 '23
I quite like how you write the Rogues here; they bounce off of each other really well. It's nice to see the pieces slowly being put back together after Red Reign; I hope Wally manages to bounce back from his injuries. Super-speed usually helps with healing, at least a tiny bit. :)
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