Previously, on Action Comics...
"C'mon, let's go home. Tell ya what, I'll even race you home."Barry said, knowing full well on Wally's love for running around.
Wally, not in the mood to talk about the weird man he started to think he imagined, smiled shakily as he agreed, getting in a running stance as Barry counted down from three to go.
Taking off, Wally and Barry were starting to be evenly matched, before Wally started to focus, lightning seeming to come from his feet as he zoomed toward home- unknowingly going faster than the speed of light.
Barry stopped and wondered where Wally went, for the second time that night, as Eobard Thawne watched the entire scene from his computer. "Three times the speed of light... Incredible. He'll be a part of the Rogues in a flash." He smirked at the pun he made, swirling around in his chair to look at the night life of Central City, an empty vile of the potion he had dubbed as 'SPEEDFORCE' in his hand.
Now...
After frantically searching for Wally, Barry finally went home, wondering if somehow the child had gotten home before him. Sure enough, Wally stood by the apartment door, barefoot and holding his smoking shoes in one hand, not looking too happy.
"Barry, my Doc Martins!" He complained, holding the shoes up to Barry. Grabbing them, Barry looked them up and down, before noticing- the soles were missing entirely, burnt out. It would've taken years to wear them out that much, or- in Wally's case- nanoseconds.
"It's ok, kiddo... We'll getcha some new ones. How'd this happen though?" He said, putting the shoes under one arm as he unlocked the door, stepping inside his small house as he threw his keys in a small dish. Undoing his tie, he turned around and looked at his nephew, curious as to what could possibly be Wally's excuse. However, he was stopped, as Wally suddenly fell to the floor.
"Wally!" Barry yelled out in shock, as he dropped to the ground and turned the child over. Blood trailed from the child's nose, as Barry quickly pulled out his phone and called 911 for the second time that night. Unknowing to him, that what really happened to Wally was caused by something the hospital could not solve.
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Twelve minutes later, the two were in the hospital, Wally being rolled into a hospital room on a stretcher. As Barry stood outside, he watched the doctors operate for an hour. Two hours. Three. It took an awfully long while, because the doctors didn't understand the speedforce formula in his blood. Walking out, an african-american doctor sighed and looked at Barry, pushing up his glasses as he stood over the worrying uncle.
"We can't wake him up. And no matter what we do, blood keeps flowing out of his nose. He'll need a transplant soon, There's some substance in his blood, but it shouldn't harm him or the person who transplants blood into him. We need your permission to take blood from him." He said with a calm voice, knowing fully well how Barry should react, having very much experience with this sort of thing.
"Y-yeah, sure." Barry croaked as he signed the waiver. "I can donate, we are both blood type B." He suddenly imagined life without Wally, and how depressingly boring it would be. Barry shook his head as he entered the hospital room, obeying as they cleaned his arm.
Taking a shaky breath, he nodded to show he was ready, and they put a needle into Barry's arm, blood chugging out of it as Barry sighed in anxiety. However, halfway through the operation, Wally awoke. Yelling in shock and surprise, Wally started shaking wildly, going at superhuman speeds as the needle went flying, spewing both of their blood everywhere, getting mixed together as the needle made a nasty scar on Barry's arm. He didn't care, though. He only cared for one person at the moment.
"Wally!" He yelled, jumping for his nephew- only to find nothing there. It was strange- he passed right through him, almost as if he wasn't there in the first place. Landing on the floor on the other side of the stretcher, he looked back at Wally, who apparently was calming down. Getting back on the bed and panting, Wally leaned his head back on his pillow.
"Barry... I met Jay." The young boy said as he closed his eyes.
"Who the hell is Jay!?" Barry shouted, in a mixture of joy, shock, and anger.
"Allow me to answer that." The entire room was interrupted as Eobard Thawne stepped in.
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Thirty minutes of discussion later, everything was wrapped up- making the whole process of Wally getting the speed force formula seem like an accident.
"So, Wally just couldn't handle the... speed force?" Barry said skeptically, staring at Thawne.
"Exactly. This 'Jay' he is talking about, I do not know of." He said, legs crossed as he sat across from the two. Thawne had been surprisingly cool about the entiire situation, instead of over reacting.
"That's not what Jay said-" Wally started, but was silenced by a glare from Barry.
"Must be delusional still from the blood loss. Tell me, did any of HIS blood get into your arm, Mr. Allen?" Thawne asked carefully, surveying Barry with his narrow blue eyes.
Barry honestly had no clue. Blood looked like blood to him. He obviously couldn't make out who's blood it was.
"I suppose there is a chance.. Why?" He rubbed the nasty gash on his arm, now covered by a bandage.
"See, you might also have the speed force formula inside of you. IF, that is, you did get the blood in you. Either way, call me if you see anything interesting starting to happen." Eobard Thawne said as he handed Barry a business card, standing and leaving swiftly.
Sighing and turning toward Wally, Barry thought long and hard. Speed force... sounded hokey pokey. Snorting, he stood up, going to get them both out of there.
A week later, the police had given Grodd plutonium. And then, Grodd asked for something else- a billion dollars. This demand was too much for the Central City treasury, and they had a quicker deadline. Which led to Central's two greatest detectives to figure out where the bombs were.
As Wally and Barry snuck out for the second time that month, Barry sighed. "Do we have to do this?" He said, curious as to why his nephew still wants to find the bombs.
"So I put on the metal soles you got us... I guess we just run around?" Wally shrugged, as he tapped the metal on his shoes together. Barry snorted as he got ready to start running. They didn't even know if he could activate the speed force formula inside of him. Trial and error.
"On your mark..."
"Get set..."
"Go." They said in unison as they took off. Soon they found the entire world turn an orange color, as everything slowed down. However, a tall man stood in front of them- moving as fast as them. Halting them both, he held his arms out, catching them both.
"Jay!" Wally shouted, as he looked up at the man.
"Hello, Wally. Ah, you must be Barry Allen. I'm Jay Garrick. Welcome to 'the Speedforce!'" He grinned. Jay was not a young man. He looked like he was in his late fifties. His hair was short and black, with the sides graying slightly, and his eyes were a hazelnut brown.
"You're- you mean-" Barry stuttered a bit, remembering the person Wally had mentioned.
"Let me explain..." Jay said, and started to tell them both a small story.
"Long ago, maybe twenty years, I was a janitor at Thawne Industries. One day, I stumbled on Eobard himself, him laughing like a madman as he held a unfinished version of the speed force formula in his hand. Surprised by me, he stuck me with the serum, telling me to run for my life. I did- and as soon as I started running I entered the Speed-force, this stuff all around us. However, I could never return." Jay looked down as he sighed.
"So, you can never go back?" Barry said, still in shock on the whole matter.
"No, I can't. You don't know what it's like, literally living in the speed force. Seconds turn into centuries for me, but I don't age. I can't age. At least not for another three billion, one hundred fifty three million, six hundred thousand years." He cracked a grin- surprisingly cheery, for a guy who couldn't be seen, heard, or socialized with.
"So... Why don't you..." Barry made a motion of shooting himself.
"I've tried. But when bullets are moving like snails..." Jay explained.
Barry scratched his chin carefully, as he looked at Jay. "So, I imagine with all this spare time you traveled the world..." He started.
"Every square inch of it." Jay grinned, feeling useful as he looked around. "I know everything, from the identities of vigilantes to what temperature your grandma is baking cookies."
"So what can you tell me about Grodd?" Barry said, as he pulled out a notebook, sitting on a mailbox as he looked at Jay, waiting.
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"That's about all you need to know," Jay finished, as he finished describing- in vivid detail- every component of Grodd's lair. Barry whistled as he thumbed through the short novel he could have just written, sighing as he grabbed Wally's hand.
"Well, it's time we head off." He said, nodding to Jay. "Wish we could take you with us, but..." He stopped as Jay waved a hand away.
"It's fine. I get it. Not gonna spend eternity with a man you just met, hehe." He chuckled a bit, as he pulled out a package from behind him, unwrapping it and showing it to Barry and Wally.
"Upon seeing and hearing about the new speed force formula you guys got, that actually worked... I figured I would get you guys some shoes that wouldn't burn out, among other things." He said, handing Barry the package.
Looking into it, Barry crinkled his nose. "Spandex? Really?" He scoffed, but Jay looked a bit hurt. After receiving a elbow from Wally, he nodded. "Thanks." Now I have to wear it. He thought to himself, as he turned to run out of the Speed force- holding his very own costume as he went.
Three hours later, Jay sighed. Not even half a nanosecond had gone by. Getting up, he decided to go to Niagra Falls. Again.
Three hours later, Barry and Wally were in their home, putting on their costumes as they got ready to go out to Gorilla City- in Africa. "This is embarrassing..." Barry muttered, but Wally thought it was the coolest thing on Earth.
"Hey, I have an idea- we can be the Flashes!" He grinned at Barry- who sighed and turned to Wally.
"We are NOT going to be the Flashes." Barry said as he got ready to run.
"Fine," Wally muttered slightly.
They both counted down together, before taking off, like bolts of lightning.
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