Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Teen Titans: Future Storm ❯ Slow Lightning ( Chapter 12 )

 

“Teen Titans: Future Storm”

Arc 3: “Quicksilver”

Chapter 2: “Slow Lightning”

Disclaimer: The concept of Teen Titans does not belong to me. The Flash and most related characters don't belong to me, either. Nightstar is owned by DC Comics and Mercury and Speed Demon originate from Marvel/DC with some alterations on my part. Any characters you don't recognize from the main DCU are most likely my creation, but I'll do my best to explain the more comic-exclusive characters to those of you who don't know the comics.

Author's note: For those of you surprised at how dark this arc is, that's how I write. No fluffy lighthearted stuff coming out of this arc . . . not very often, anyway.

If anyone was wondering why those athletes gave in so easily to Mercury despite their tough talk, you just don't mess with someone capable of killing you in the blink of an eye. The basic equation is Force = mass times acceleration; if the acceleration is Mach 5 and it's propelling a 115-pound mass, the force will most likely smash the target. Imagine what would happen to a human jaw struck at that velocity with that much weight behind it.

To the anonymous reviewer who has apparently deduced Black Flash's identity, kudos. Now continue reading to see if you're right.

Last night . . .

Iris West had returned to the West residence deeply unsettled by her fight with the Black Flash.

“Iris?” her mother Linda asked. “What's wrong? And what are you doing without your jacket?”

“It was dead weight, so I had to ditch it,” Iris replied, willing her costume away to reveal normal clothes.

“Were you attacked by one of the Rogues?” her father Wally asked.

“No, I can handle those guys just fine.” Iris answered with a dismissive wave of her hand. “It was someone else. She was dressed like Bart, only her uniform was black and red and the lightning bolt was facing the wrong direction. Her voice . . . it was like a broken record player, speeding up and slowing down randomly. And she was faster than I was.”

“A broken record player, speeding up and slowing down randomly?” Wally asked. His face revealed his dismay. “Oh, no.”

“What is it?” Iris asked, looking at her father in worry. She turned to her mother, who had the same look of dismay on her face. “Will someone tell me what's wrong?”

“Honey,” Linda replied, “we knew someone who spoke like that and who could move faster than a speedster.”

“Who?” Iris asked. “Who could possibly be faster than us?”

“Zoom,” Wally replied. “He used to be a friend, but some bad things happened to him. He got desperate, messed with technology he had no business messing with, and was knocked out of sync with the timeline, which somehow made him faster than anyone else. Even I couldn't keep up without borrowing speed from the others.”

“So what are you saying?” Iris asked. “That the woman who kicked my ass is Zoom on a gender-bend?”

“No, he's dead,” Wally answered heavily. “I killed him trying to stop him from killing Linda.”

Iris paused to take this information in. Her dad had killed someone?

“I know how it sounds, Iris,” Wally admitted. “I spent all this time teaching you how to control your speed so you wouldn't accidentally kill anyone and I did the same thing when I was still the Flash.”

“It was an accident, right?” Iris asked.

“Yeah,” Wally confirmed. “I didn't want to do it. I wasn't even planning it, but I was so desperate I didn't really pay attention to just how much force I was using. There wasn't even a body left; he was obliterated by his past self's attack when I knocked him into it. I think it was some kind of time paradox having to do with two versions of the same person meeting.”

“Was it that time paradox that enabled me and Barry to be born?” Iris asked.

“I don't quite know how it works,” Linda answered, “but Jay said that it triggered a `fissure in time' that undid the damage I suffered from Zoom's attack and restored my pregnancy just in time to have you two.”

Iris swallowed and ran her hand through her boyishly cut red hair. “So somebody had to die for me to be born?”

“We didn't want that,” Linda said. “We wanted children, but not at the expense of someone else's life, even if it was Zoom's.”

Iris sighed. “So whoever this Black Flash is, she's got powers like his and she came after me. Whoever she is, she was close to him.”

“There are a few possibilities,” Wally said. “On the one hand, it could be some kind of possession. On the other, it could be that somebody's figured out how to replicate the accident that gave Zoom his powers.”

“Do you think Black Flash will go after anybody else associated with us?” Linda asked.

“If she's anything like Zoom, yes,” Wally replied. “We just have to find a way to warn the others before it's too late.”

Tonight . . .

His name was Peter Allen. He was the Fastest Boy Alive, no matter what Adam and Barry said. And right now . . .

. . . he was screwed, in the figurative sense.

Mercury leaped into a kick delivered with enough force to smash concrete. Black Flash simply caught his foot, but he whirled into a kick with his other foot, only for that to be caught as well by the black-clad speedster. She proceeded to throw him aside and he crumpled to the ground.

“Hell,” he mumbled. “She's fast.”

“The son of the fourth Flash,” Black Flash hissed.

“How do you know that?” Mercury asked.

“I know all about you,” Black Flash replied, her words running together. “All of you.” She raised her hand, her fingers positioned as though she was ready to snap them. “Go to hell.”

She snapped her fingers . . . and a colossal sonic boom emanated from her, propelling Mercury and nearby parked cars some blocks away. The white-haired speedster ended up tangled up in a heap of vehicular wreckage.

“Damn,” he said to himself. “That is one powerful sonic boom.”

His musings were interrupted by a black-gloved hand reaching into the wreckage and pulling him out. He found himself staring into the red lenses of the Black Flash.

“Suffer,” she snarled, spinning like a crazed top into a throw that left Mercury tumbling on the street before coming to a stop. Seeing a light behind him alerted him that there was a car approaching him. He quickly leaped out of the way, only to realize that the driver was heading toward Black Flash.

“Crap!” Mercury exclaimed, easily catching up to the car. “Get out of here!”

The driver, a young man with a woman next to him, looked at him in surprise.

“You have to get out of here!” Mercury exclaimed. “Turn around and go back wherever you came from! I'm in the middle of a fight!”

“Playing hero as always,” Black Flash hissed. “Don't worry. It'll be quick. Painless.”

Mercury lunged to stop her, but he was too slow and she set off another sonic boom, knocking the car far away. Mercury ran desperately, trying to reach the couple inside the car and hoping that their airbags worked. Soon enough, he saw the car tumbling in the air and starting to descend. At that velocity, the landing would certainly kill them.

He used his own velocity to propel himself into the air and dive at the car. He vibrated his molecules until he was intangible and passed into the car, rendering the couple inside as immaterial as him. They safely evacuated the car just before it crashed, the impact twisting and crushing it until it was unrecognizable.

“My dad's gonna kill me,” the young man said.

“If you tell him what happened, he'll understand,” Mercury replied as he sped him and his date several blocks away from the site of the fight.

Unfortunately, Black Flash had gotten ahead of him. She punched him two hundred times in the stomach in one second, causing him to cough up blood.

“Get away from here!” Mercury shouted at the couple.

The couple obeyed, having clearly seen what sort of monstrosity he was dealing with.

Mercury threw a punch at Black Flash, only for her to catch it and twist his wrist until it sprained. He didn't even have time to speed-heal it, as she was on him again with a series of brutal strikes performed many times in the space of mere seconds.

“Screw . . . this . . .” the white-haired speedster snarled and started sucking the speed out of Black Flash. To his surprise, she just laughed and continued striking him at her usual inhuman speeds. “How?”

“You can't steal my speed,” Black Flash hissed before kicking him into a nearby building.

Seeing no other choice, Mercury began to run, hoping to give himself time to speed-heal his sundry injuries. He didn't get that time, as Black Flash was calmly standing before him. If it wasn't for the fact that her mask covered her entire face, he was sure he'd see a malevolent smile on her face.

“Trying to get away?” she asked with malicious coyness. She clicked her tongue. “No, no, no. You won't get away so easily. Not until I'm through.”

Mercury screamed in desperate rage and set off a sonic boom that propelled a car at her. Black Flash set off yet another sonic boom of her own, reducing that car to mangled scrap.

“You don't have the tools to defeat me,” she snarled.

“Wanna bet?” Mercury snarled, shattering every window within a two-block radius with the sonic boom from his speedy charge. Unfortunately, it proved for naught, as Black Flash caught his fist and slammed her knee into his stomach three hundred times in one second. Mercury coughed up blood, much to Black Flash's joy.

“Do you want to give up?” she asked.

Mercury simply used his free hand to flip her off.

“Rude little boy,” Black Flash hissed, grabbing his finger and breaking it. Mercury gritted his teeth to prevent himself from screaming. He wouldn't give her the satisfaction.

She let go of him.

“Remember the pain, boy,” she hissed. “Remember the pain and know that it is nothing compared to what I have suffered because of your accursed legacy.” She sped away, moving so fast that even Mercury thought she had vanished for a moment.

Mercury rose to his feet, feeling agony in every part of his body. This black-clad “Flash” had broken his finger, sprained his wrist, twisted his ankle, and probably given him some internal injuries from all the vicious punches she had dealt him. He coughed up some more blood.

Still, he had a mission. He took off at about a little past the speed of sound, running back to the meth lab D-Rag had pointed out to him. When he reached it, he found Nightstar and Bladefire there.

“Hey, Mercury,” Nightstar greeted. “You look like you got jumped by a gang and beaten to within an inch of your life.”

“I wasn't jumped by a gang,” Mercury growled. “I was jumped by another speedster.” He looked around. “It's empty.”

“Yeah, we know,” Bladefire replied. “The guys running this place probably figured what happened to Schuyler could be traced back to them and cleared out.”

Mercury snarled. “Get out. Get the hell out now.”

“Wait, Mercury, I really think -” Bladefire started to say, but Mercury glared at him.

“Don't think,” Mercury snarled. “Just get out.”

“I think we should listen to him,” Nightstar conceded.

“Fine,” Bladefire conceded, departing the lab with Nightstar.

Mercury looked around. “This is the place where they cooked up this crap . . . this crap that put Schuyler in the hospital . . .” He began to chuckle maliciously. “If they come back, won't they get an unpleasant surprise?”

He began spinning like a top gone diabolically insane, generating a windstorm powerful enough to tear the lab apart. The winds slammed the tables into the walls and ground them into pieces. They battered the walls themselves, threatening to collapse the building from within. Mercury watched the destruction he had set into motion, an expression of undiluted rage on his face.

The next day, Mercury had been healed of his physical wounds, due to both his own accelerated metabolism and Samara's powers. However, he was not quite healed of his mental and emotional wounds.

Quicksilver Log, Entry 3: I tried to find the meth lab D-Rag pointed out. Unfortunately, I got sidetracked by a woman dressed like my dad, only in black and red. I tried everything I had to fight her, but it was useless. She was faster than I was and I couldn't steal her speed. Worse, she beat the crap out of me and caused craploads of property damage. Of course, I contributed to that when I was fighting her.

By the time she left me alone, it was too late. The glitches that ran that meth lab had cleared out already. I trashed the place, of course. Made me feel better. A bit.

Don't know how I'm going to go to school with all this going on. But I gotta grin and bear it. End log.

Before he could go to his first class of the day, he was called into the principal's office.

“What do you want, Alderman?” he snarled.

“I'd like to know why you were interrogating the basketball team yesterday,” Principal Alderman replied. “Surely, you know that you Titans signed a contract stating that you would leave the investigation and punishment of student misdeeds to the faculty and administration.”

“Get bitten by a snake and die,” Mercury snarled.

“What was that, Mr. Allen?” Alderman asked.

“I don't have time for this,” Mercury replied. “I have an education to get back to and people to hunt down for selling bad meth.”

“And you think these people are in this school,” Alderman added. She let out a derisive snort. “Honestly, you are my perfect justification. Like all children, you think you know better, that you're above it all. Worse, you have the powers of gods, which enforces that train of thought, but as long as you are in my school, you will follow my rules. Are we clear on that?”

“Crystal,” Mercury answered with a snarl. “Now can I get out of here?”

“You're free to go,” Alderman replied. “For now.”

Mercury walked out the door, aiming a baleful glare at his principal before returning to his computer class.

When the lunch period came, he tracked down the basketball team.

“Hey, Pete, what's up?” Michael asked.

“What's up?” Mercury echoed. “What's up is that one of you glitches reported me to the principal.”

“It was our coach, man!” Michael exclaimed. “He heard us talking about you yesterday and he thought it might affect our performance, so he reported you in hopes that she could get you to back off.”

“Well, tell him it backfired,” Mercury answered.

“You wouldn't be coming to us unless the information was bad,” Michael said.

“The information wasn't bad,” Mercury contradicted. “The monkey-craps that were using the lab cleared out. They must have found out a Titan was investigating them. Now I wanna know if one of you tipped them off.”

“We didn't tip them off,” Lucas Rodriguez denied.

“Sure,” Mercury answered in a tone that suggested he didn't really believe them.

“You gotta believe us,” Michael said. “I didn't even know who that guy was! How the freak do you think I tipped him off?”

“You'd better not be lying,” Mercury spoke threateningly. “Otherwise, I've got all the time in the world to track you down.”

“I saw that, Peter,” Beast Girl said as Mercury sat down to eat.

“Yeah,” Mercury grunted.

“I know this thing with Schuyler's got you mad, but you gotta calm down,” she said.

“I'll be much calmer when the assholes who were selling that meth get what's coming to them,” he answered.

Beast Girl found herself fighting off a shiver. “You're scaring me.”

Mercury merely glanced at her before eating.

After school, the white-haired speedster confronted D-Rag again, this time forgoing niceties and slamming him into the nearest alley wall, controlling his speed aura just enough so that the force of the slam didn't cripple him.

“Whoa, chill!” D-Rag exclaimed.

“Those defects cleared out!” Mercury yelled. “I hope for your sake that you didn't warn them I was coming!”

“I didn't, man!” D-Rag exclaimed. “You think they need me to let them know that putting a kid in the hospital is gonna get the police - not to mention the Titans - on their case?”

Mercury let out a harsh sigh, pulling himself together. “Hell . . .”

“You're hurting real bad from this, aren't you?” D-Rag surmised sympathetically.

“Wouldn't you if it was your friend?” Mercury asked with a ruined smile on his face. He let go of D-Rag and paced in the alley, running his hands through the messy waves of platinum that were his hair. “Sorry.”

He ran to the police station, stopping in the forensics lab. “Hey,” he greeted Kate Whistler.

Whistler, a brunette in her mid-thirties dressed in lab clothes, barely looked at him. “Hey, brat.”

“Find anything?” Mercury asked.

“Hardly anything left and that was before you threw your little tantrum,” Whistler replied.

“You know you're almost irresistible when you're pissed off at me,” Mercury quipped.

“Don't you have a girlfriend to try those lines out on?” Whistler asked.

Mercury just chuckled silently. “But have you been able to find anything?”

“Forensics takes a lot longer than you're used to doing things,” Whistler answered. She smiled at him. “Don't worry, brat.”

“Can't help it,” Mercury said. “Worrying's easy to do when you're as fast as I am. But I'll rest easier with beautiful women like you on the force.” He sped away.

When he returned to Titans Tower, he was greeted by Adam Thawne and Jenny Chambers-Tyler, alias Velocity and Jenny Quick. Adam wore a costume identical in design to the one Mercury wore when out crime-fighting; only the colors were black and blue instead of blue and white. Jenny wore a dark red leotard emblazoned with a “Q” made from a circle and lightning bolt and goggles with silver buckled gloves and boots.

“Adam, Jenny,” Mercury greeted. “What's the occasion?”

“The occasion is that we're all being attacked,” Jenny replied tersely. “She's faster than we are and her speed can't be taken away.”

“That woman in black-and-red Flash gear?” Mercury deduced.

“She got you, didn't she?” Adam asked.

“Yeah,” Mercury replied. “She was relentless. I tried everything I had, but none of it worked.” He paused. “Is Iris all right?”

“She's fine, not for lack of trying on Black Flash's part,” Adam answered.

“Black Flash?” Mercury asked. “Is that what she's called?”

“That's what we're calling her,” Jenny replied. “She never actually referred to herself as anything other than `death' and `vengeance.' Melodramatic bitch.”

“How is she doing this?” Mercury asked.

“Wally and Uncle Max have a theory on that,” Adam replied. “They can't sense her through the Speed Force, so they believe her powers have nothing to do with it.”

“So she's naturally that way?” Mercury asked.

“Even so, we'd still be able to steal her speed on the basis of speed being born of kinetic energy,” Jenny cut in. “So her powers have nothing to do with the Speed Force or kinetic energy of any kind.”

“I felt something distorting around her,” Mercury admitted. “And her voice was just as distorted, sometimes speeding up and other times slowing down.”

“Time was what was distorting around her,” Jenny answered. “However she's managing it, she's bending time in such a way that it gives off the illusion of super-speed. Unfortunately, it's an illusion that's every bit as good as the real thing, if not better.”

“That was Zoom's shtick,” Mercury said. “And he's dead. Wait . . . is it his ghost possessing someone?”

“Not quite,” Adam replied. “When I fought her, I had the feeling that Zoom was someone close to her.”

“There are only two possible candidates,” Jenny added. “First, there's the possibility that his wife Ashley went nuts over Zoom's death and decided it was our fault somehow. The other is her daughter Ally; she's the right age.”

“Age doesn't mean jack, Jenny,” Mercury said. “The Speed Force gives us all increased vitality, which is why our parents look way younger than they actually are.”

“Still, it's worth looking into,” Adam insisted.

“Sure, but later,” Mercury conceded. “I got homework to do.”

“So do we,” Adam replied. “Come on, Jen.”

“See you around, Peter,” Jenny added. “3x2(9YZ)4A!”

Triggering her super-speed through the formula, Jenny sped away with Adam.

In a small dimly lit apartment in Keystone City, a young woman with light, almost blondish brown hair and glowing red irises concentrated, manipulating the temporal energy that flowed through her body into a costume. Skintight black fabric replaced her clothing, accented by red lightning wrapped around her forearms, calves, and beltline and a red lightning bolt on her chest. A black mask covered her face, red lenses allowing her to see and red lightning caps covering her ears.

“So you're the one stealing my thunder,” a harsh voice rasped out.

The young woman whirled to confront the voice, finding a man-shaped figure in red lightning-accented black biker leathers. Spikes adorned his shoulders and wrists, but that wasn't the unusual thing about him. The unusual thing about him was that his head was really a burning skull and his exposed hands were fiery bone as well.

“Speed Demon, right?” she remarked. “You were a hero once. What made you go bad?”

“Hero?” Speed Demon asked. “A regrettable time, when I didn't have near as much control as I do now . . . Black Flash.”

“Black Flash?” the young woman echoed. “Is that what they call me? Good name.”

“I see you like it,” Speed Demon remarked.

“So what do you want?” Black Flash inquired.

“I'd like to join forces with you,” Speed Demon replied. “You hate the speed brats and their elders as much as I do. If we combine our superior skills, we can eliminate them for good.”

“Really . . .” Black Flash murmured, making the word abnormally long. “We have very different reasons for doing what we do. You're just an arrogant demon who got his ass whipped by a pair of children.”

“And what are you doing this for?” Speed Demon asked. “No, let me rephrase that. For whom are you doing this?”

“They'll find that out when I'm good and ready,” Black Flash replied. She chuckled. “You have yourself a partnership, but I warn you: Betray me and your life is forfeit.”

“What makes you so certain you can kill me?” Speed Demon challenged, the flames around his skull flickering ominously. “I'm not a weak human speedster; I am the Gale Force of Hell! There are so many ways I could tear you apart right now, you time-bending wench.”

“And there are plenty of ways I could take you out of the picture, `Gale Force of Hell,' so we're even,” Black Flash answered, her words jumbling together.

If the demonic speedster could have, he would have smiled.

Mercury visited Schuyler at the hospital.

“Awake, huh?” he remarked.

“Yeah,” Schuyler answered weakly. “Man, was that stupid of me or what?”

“Uh-huh,” Mercury agreed wanly. “I've been looking for whoever it was that gave you that meth.”

“That guy . . . his name . . .” Schuyler murmured. “It's . . .”

“No, it's ok,” Mercury said. “You don't have to tell me right now. Wait till you get better.”

“Sure,” Schuyler whispered. “Thanks, man.”

“You're welcome,” Mercury answered.

Meanwhile, Max Mercury was meditating. It wasn't the normal kind of meditation; this kind worked by linking his mind and spirit with the Speed Force and letting its energies flow through his body. It allowed him to transcend his physical consciousness and ascend to a higher plane of thought, even if for just a while.

Despite the normally pacifying aspect of speed meditation, Max was still very troubled. The boy who had taken his name out of sheer adoration was not in the best of spirits. His friend was in the hospital because someone had sold him bad drugs and he was determined to avenge him. As if that wasn't enough, a madwoman with powers like and unlike theirs had brutalized him and his peers.

Who is she? Max wondered. Why does she want us dead so badly?

“Max . . .” a female voice hissed, dragging out his name maliciously.

Max drew himself out of his meditative trance, slowly of course; he didn't feel like getting the spiritual equivalent of the bends. When he fully awakened from that trance, he saw himself staring before a crow-black nightmare of the Flash.

“Black Flash,” he growled.

“Max Crandall,” Black Flash snarled. “The oldest speedster in existence. You guide the new generation. Your defeat will show them how weak they really are.”

“Or show them how weak you are,” Max retorted, shifting into his costume, a white shirt with a large collar and dark blue pants with blue gloves and boots and a blue mask that covered half his face.

“You want to fight me, old man?” Black Flash asked. “Your funeral.”

Max Mercury ran out of his backyard, Black Flash in close pursuit. She could have easily outrun him, but she wanted to see where he was going.

When he stopped, they were in a quarry.

“Ah, get us out of the way of innocent bystanders,” Black Flash rasped, her words coming on top of each other.

“Yes,” Max answered. “Now I can cut loose.” He snapped his fingers, triggering a sonic boom that knocked Black Flash back. Black Flash rose to her feet and triggered an even bigger sonic boom, kicking up gravel and rocks and sending them all flying at Max Mercury, who vibrated his molecules into immateriality so that he wouldn't be injured.

“You're better than I expected, old man,” Black Flash sneered. She charged Max and rammed him with enough force to crack a rib or two. Max took the pain and grabbed Black Flash, trapping her in a half nelson.

“You can't become immaterial, can you?” Max deduced. “Because your powers don't work that way, do they? You're not a real speedster, are you?”

“Maybe not, but I'm good enough to finish you!” Black Flash answered, her voice alternately speeding up and slowing down. She set off another sonic boom, forcing Max off her. Max flew into the quarry wall and crashed onto the ground. He got up, letting out a soft groan of pain. “Getting too old for this?”

“I may be old, but I know tricks you don't,” Max retorted. He increased the density of the air molecules around him and formed them into an invisible fist, one that he punched Black Flash with. “Like this one.”

Black Flash rose, but considerably staggered from the hit. “Good one, old man.”

Max was about to attack again, when he felt a heavy boot strike him between the shoulder blades. He whirled around to confront his second attacker.

Speed Demon.

“Working together, I see,” Max grumbled. “Makes sense; you both hate speedsters so much.”

“Hopefully, you're more of a challenge than your protégé,” Speed Demon sneered.

“My protégé wiped the floor with you before,” Max retorted.

“Yes, but the last time we met, I trounced him,” Speed Demon retorted before letting out an unholy roar. He pounded Max Mercury with the molecules that carried the vibrations of his roar, causing the oldest human speedster to crumple in agony. The demonic speedster laughed. “You're pathetic.”

“How can you do this, Jace?” Max asked. “You used to fight on our side!”

“Don't refer to me by that name,” Speed Demon growled. “That weakling no longer controls this fusion.”

Max snickered bitterly. “Of course not. It's full-on Gale Force of Hell now, isn't it?”

Speed Demon growled before kicking Max Mercury over to Black Flash, who sent him flying with another sonic boom attack. Speed Demon jumped into the air and punted Max into the ground. Max once again rose to his feet, in spite of the pain he suffered.

“Why the hell won't you die?” Speed Demon asked irritably.

“I'm a stubborn old man, that's why,” Max replied with a snarl.

“You can deal with the old man, Speed Demon,” Black Flash said. “I have pressing matters to attend to.” She sped away, leaving the two male speedsters to handle each other.

Meanwhile, the Flash and his predecessor Wally West were in the home of Ashley Zolomon.

“What happened to your daughter?” Flash asked.

“I have no idea,” Ashley admitted. “We haven't spoken in some time and that was before she was hospitalized in a coma.”

“Do you know how she ended up that way?” Flash asked.

“I don't know,” Ashley replied. “The day before, she was rambling on about a way to `set things right.' She sounded . . . insane, but she hasn't been in the best of spirits since Hunter . . .”

“I know,” Wally said sadly.

“You're here because someone's attacking you,” Ashley said. “Someone with powers like Hunter's and you want to know if it's Ally.”

“Or you,” Flash interjected.

Ashley looked at him. “Understandable enough. I was his wife and for all you know, his death might have made me crack, but tell me this: How would I gain the power to avenge Hunter if that were the case?”

“The Cosmic Treadmill,” Wally answered. “You knew it was involved in Hunter gaining his powers and you're smart enough to replicate the conditions of that accident.”

Suddenly, the front door blew off its hinges, propelled by a sonic boom. Speeding in was a very angry Black Flash.

“Flashes . . . stay away from my mother . . .” she snarled.

End Notes: Well, that's that for now. In the third chapter, you will see the conclusion of this part of the arc and the beginning of the next part.

Why did I name this chapter “Slow Lightning?” That was what Max Mercury called the Grim Reaper of Speed (Black Flash) in the comics that dealt with him. I figured it fit.

Well, a lot of stuff happened. A lot of exposition, which might have bored you, but the exposition was necessary to advance the plot.

To recap, Adam Thawne is the son of Thaddeus Thawne, the evil clone of Bart Allen in the Impulse comics. In my continuity, Thad reformed, developed a brotherly relationship with Bart, and eventually had a son. Jenny Chambers-Tyler is the daughter of Jesse Quick, one of the few female speedsters in DC Comics canon.

Max Mercury is the oldest human speedster in existence, partially due to the constant forward time-jumping he does. In Flash canon, he mentored Bart Allen and acted as a sort of father figure to him. In my canon, he also trained Thad Thawne as well as their sons.

For everything else, do some goddamn research, will you? If you want to know more about the Flash, do a Wikipedia search for him. It'll point you in some very interesting directions.

That's all the fun for now. Drop a review so I can find out what you think of this chapter.