JLU 2001 Fanfiction

    In a land of darkness, the demon Neron sat chuckling on a sort of throne. He looked up as even it that dark place, a shadow was cast on the wall, as a cloaked figure entered.

    “Well,” Neron said jovially, “What do you think now?”

    “Our little friend Wally West is proving to be quite…malleable. I must say that your own contribution to this may have been the deciding factor.”

    Neron bowed his head at the compliment. “I usually save my ‘gifts’ of power to those that sell me their souls. But the prospect of the Flash simply giving us his soul, without any knowledge of the trade, was simply too ironic to pass on.”

    “And so many others will get to come with him” the other man said, smiling. “He’ll make the final choice soon, now. None of his former friends will be able to divert him from the course.”

    “What about the Spectre?” Neron asked. “Could he dissuade the Flash?”

    “You’ve already seen the way West reacted to the Spectre. It shows that he’s even closer to our side than I’d thought. He acted as one who was equal with a divine force; he’s mere footsteps away from proclaiming his divinity. But I’ve continued to work on him; the voice in his head, of course,” the man laughed cruelly. “He persists in believing that the Speed Force is talking to him. Soon, he will know who his true master is.”

The Fastest Man Alive:

BLUR: Part 3 of 3

"When You Can't Run Fast Enough!"

Double-Sized Finale

by Tim Burns

    Linda Park looked through the back window of the taxi she was in, still not quite used to the red blur of constant motion that was the Flash; Wally West, her ex-boyfriend. Linda had moved away from Keystone City after Wally had left her for Karen Starr, known in the heroic circles as Power Girl. She had come back because the news service she was working with had assigned her to cover the story that many were describing is “the Flash goes insane.” And as she looked out the window at the red cloud, crackling almost indiscernibly with thin yellow bolts of energy, she didn’t find that assessment very hard to accept. Wally had certainly changed a lot in the past year; maybe it had started when he had split into two halves. He and his duplicate (or, the two aspects of him, Linda wasn’t exactly sure how it worked) had engaged in a race to decide if one or the other was slower. Instead, Wally had ended up in the past, only one person again, but when he had come back, somehow it had been Karen that was his anchor, and not Linda, as it had always been.

    Things had never been the same after that, for Linda or for Wally. Maybe this incredible change that had come over him had something to do with his new girlfriend. Maybe a guy like Wally needed the grounding element of a “normal” person like Linda, and without it, he was bound to go…crazy.

    Linda looked down. Thinking about it hurt her head; it just wasn’t nice to think about the possibility of someone she had loved so deeply a year ago being insane. She didn’t want to think about that; she decided that her story would be about the actual measurable effects of the Flash’s recent actions in the city, rather than any speculations about his psychological state.

    “This the place?” The cab driver asked, and she looked up to see that they had arrived at a small house in a quiet-looking suburb.

    “Yes, thank you,” Linda said, gathering her things. She got out of the taxi, a bit apprehensive to be stepping into the red blur. Consciously, though, she knew that anywhere a person was, the Flash would be maneuvering around, so that a person was never actually “in” the cloud, but that rather, it was all around them. Still, though, it was unsettling, and she felt goosebumps rise on her bare arms.

    As she pulled her suitcase out of the vehicle, she wondered why Wally hadn’t stopped to talk to her. She resisted the urge to say something, knowing that he’d hear it. Maybe she’d do it later, but now wasn’t the time. Linda paid the cab driver and walked to the front door. She knocked, and then a minute later, her old friend, Carly Jones, opened the door.

    “Linda!” Carly said, opening her arms for a hug. The two friends embraced, but as they separated, Linda noticed something; Carly looked a little different.

    “You look great,” Carly said.

    “So do you,” Linda replied, a forced lie. The truth was, Carly was looking…Linda couldn’t place it, but she thought that her thirty-four year old friend, who had always looked quite young, was finally starting to look her age. “Thanks for letting me stay here,” Linda added. “You sure it’s alright with Bill?”

    “Of course!” Carly said, helping Linda with her suitcase. “He loves having guests.”

    “Great,” Linda said. “So, everything’s going well with you?”

    “Yep. Things are really going quite nicely.”

    “What do you think about this whole thing with Wally?” Linda asked.

    “Well, I don’t know,” Carly began. “I don’t really think it’s as big a deal as a lot of people are making it seem. You know Ken and Judy Steinauer actually left because of what’s going on? I don’t really think there’s any reason for that.”

    “He is violating civil rights, though,” Linda offered. “He could just pick one of you guys up and drop you in jail, and you couldn’t do anything about it.”

    “Yeah, but he wouldn’t without a reason. He’s just trying to protect us, just like always. I don’t have a problem with that.”

    Wally laughed inwardly as he raced around Keystone City. Even after all the times he had done this, it never got old feeling the breathtaking rush of pure speed. He had no idea how many times he had circled the city…well, he had a little idea. He was now fast enough that, even if he talked to people or ate as he went, he was still fast enough to circle the city about a thousand times in a minute. He didn’t ever stop these days, ever since it seemed the worshippers at the Church of Triumphant Velocity were giving him even more speed and endurance. Assuming that, he could then calculate that he was making about 1.5 million laps around the city per day. And, he suspected, his speed was still increasing.

    Wally grabbed five-year-old Gracie Lawson, who was about to step in an anthill, and placed her gently down on the other side of it. She looked up to see what had happened, but by the time she did, he had already made a few hundred more laps around the city. There wasn’t really anymore actual crime these days, Wally thought; he had prevented most of it before it had happened. In doing so, he had deterred countless other prospective criminals from even trying. Now Keystone was as quiet as it should be. Wally stopped for a split-second to wave to some of his followers; he had given them just a little of his speed and they were using it for a rebuilding project for one of the less fortunate communities of Keystone. They waved back to the quickly fading image of Wally even as he passed by them a thousand more times.

    This is it, Wally thought, as he noticed the looks of happiness and contentment on the faces of his citizens. This is how I’ve always wanted things to be; how I’ve always wanted Keystone to be. It’s perfect. Wally thought about Linda Park, who had just arrived in the city. He had seen her in the airport, getting off the puddle-jumper, and getting into the taxi. He had seen her going to her friend’s house, but he had never felt strongly about talking to her. I’m with Karen now, he thought, There’s no reason to open old wounds. But as compelling as the argument may have sounded, he had to admit, to himself at least, that he was thinking about her a lot. Maybe he’d just go say ‘hey’ sometime, just for old times’ sake.

    There was one matter that the Flash had to attend to, though. It was getting to be about the right time for it. For most of the month that Wally had been exercising more rigid control over Keystone, the Weather Wizard had been living in a small apartment, working to build a new weather wand to replace the one that the Batman had taken from him.* He had been doing it right here in the heart of Keystone City, as if he would somehow be immune to Wally’s newly enforced authority, just because he was a costumed villain. Well, it was about time to change that.
[*JLU’s Batman #9]

    Wally figured it would be just minutes before the Weather Wizard finished his new wand. As he passed the shabby apartment on his usual patrol, Wally vibrated through the door for the best dramatic effect, and then grabbed the almost completed wand out of the hands of the Weather Wizard.

    Wally could hear the angered cry of the erstwhile super-villain for thousands of laps afterward. As he continued on, however, his interest in the Weather Wizard’s displeasure was eclipsed by a strange sight moving quickly down the street just outside of Keystone City limits. It was a robot, and it was moving very fast; for a robot, at least. Wally watched it with amusement through his next hundred cycles of the city as the robot sped into the red fog of his presence on tracked wheels. It looked like something out of Lost in Space, and Wally wondered if the guy operating this thing actually wanted to appear menacing or if he was just a sci-fi fan with way too much time on his hands.

    Still, it was pretty good as far as robots went, despite its less-than-threatening appearance. Robots had been around since at least the Red Tornado, Wally knew, so he didn’t really find it strange that someone could possess the technical knowledge to build one. But he did wonder where this one was headed, and if its designer or controller meant it for malicious ends. He examined it more closely as he continued to patrol the city, doing little odd jobs and things around Keystone even as he analyzed the robot for any signs of danger or foul intent.

    I don’t see anything on the surface that makes this thing look harmful, Wally thought, But you gotta ask yourself; just how many other reasons are there for a robot to just go booking toward a densely populated area? I can’t take a chance that it has a bomb or something even worse inside of it. He decided. I’m taking this thing down. Wally reached out a hand, intending to vibrate it rapidly through large panel of the robot’s exoskeleton, which would cause it to explode. That would either disable the robot for further study, or expose some wires that would allow him to pull the plug. But Wally never got that far. The instant that the Flash’s red glove made contact with the metallic surface of the robot’s body, Wally felt a mild electric pulse and found himself frozen in place. The red blur around the city dissipated for only the second time since he had began his nonstop patrols, as Wally found himself completely unable to move.

    It seemed like the sensation lasted for only the merest fraction of a second, but before he knew it, Wally found himself in the grip of one of the robot’s grabber arms, and just that quickly, the robot threw the Flash high into the sky with the ease of someone throwing a baseball.

    In a land of darkness, the demon Neron and his shadowy companion watched the occurrence through a mystical viewing portal.

    “What is that?” Neron asked, frustration and, perhaps, just the slightest bit of fear coloring his tone.

    “I don’t know,” the other being said, much more calmly.

    “At the Flash’s current level of power, he should be able to disable any opponent instantly!” Neron said.

    “Apparently, not this one,” the other said. “It shouldn’t be a problem, though, o magnanimous one,” he added sarcastically. “You are giving him power. Simply give him more.”

    Wally felt his breath leave him as he flew through the atmosphere above Keystone City. So this is what it feels like to fly, he thought, It feels a whole lot like falling. Wally rotated his arms as he began his descent, starting to churn the air currents to cushion his impact. Even as he marveled at how high the robot had gotten him, his brain started to work through the problem of how he had gotten into the situation. It must have been a force field, he concluded. A proximity shield around the ‘bot that sent some kind of paralyzing energy pulse. The Flash started kicking his legs as he rotated his arms at superspeed, causing almost hurricane-force winds in the near area where he finally came to a soft landing on his back. Wally stood up and brushed himself off, and noticed that people were watching him. He was in the heart of the city now, the commercial center, and it was midday. There were a lot of people around, and they all looked very surprised to see the hero of Keystone City appearing there as he did. Wally tried to hide his embarrassment, and then went back into action, restarting his patrol of the city. As he did, he saw that the robot was continuing its progress toward the heart of the city, at a very rapid rate. Wally realized that the strange thing was moving a lot faster than it had been when it started, and with its increased speed, it would probably be in the densely populated area of Keystone within minutes.

    But to the Flash, that was plenty of time. Still maintaining his cycle of the city, Wally began to circle around the robot, creating a wind vortex. He was moving fast enough to create a small tornado around the robot, but the powerful machine kept going, its own speed and force enough to power it through the incredible wind resistance. But it did slow it down, the Flash realized, and he wasn’t putting his whole speed into it so that he could remain on patrol all across the city.

    I need more juice, Wally thought, as he gritted his teeth, trying to push himself to go even faster than a velocity that, a month ago, was many times his top speed. The city’s quiet, he decided, Except for this, at least. And the way this thing’s going, it could be something serious. With one final lap, the Flash broke off his formerly constant patrol, and focused all his speed on the vortex he made as he circled around the robot. No more than a second later, the ‘bot’s tracked wheels raised just a millimeter or two off of the ground; it was enough to stop the robot’s movement. But even as Wally was starting to feel the thrill of victory over this automaton, the robot’s grabber arms came straight out, and then in the next instant, began to swing around it like rotor blades, mimicking the Flash’s own circular motion. Wally ducked the first arm, but the second one lowered to catch him. As he fell to the ground, Wally realized that the thing was matching his reaction time, if not his speed. He lurched his feet up, and from his back, threw a flurry of hyperspeed kicks at the robot’s midsection, hoping to knock it off balance. It was back in the ground now, but it wasn’t moving on toward the city. Apparently, whatever targets this robot had in Keystone City, the Flash himself was very high on the list.

     In the stand of trees alongside the road where the Flash battled the homicidal robot, a man took a closer look at the battle, seeing clearly that Wally wasn’t winning. The man was a stranger to Keystone City, but he, like many others who followed the news, knew what was going on here, although it was quite likely that this man knew a bit more than most others. As the robot’s arm swung toward the Flash, the stranger raised his hand in the direction of the robot.

    Suddenly, a green-gloved hand appeared on top of his, pushing it down forcefully to the stranger’s side. He looked up at his visitor, and recognized the chalk-white skin and glowing eyes of the Spectre.

    “I can help him!” the stranger said in protest.

    “You will not interfere in this fight.” The Spectre glared at the man, who realized that this time, the Spectre would accept no other response but quiet obedience.

    The stranger lowered his hands and watched the battle continue, fearing for the fate of Wally West.

    The robot’s arm hit Wally like a whip across the face and sent him rolling. He used that to regain his feet, and moved to put some distance between him and the ‘bot. Even though the robot was fast, almost as fast as he was, he had to use his speed to its advantage, to kick him out of reach of the robot’s strength and strategically plan his next move. This thing had to have a weakness; that was one thing that Wally had learned in his time on the JLA. Batman especially had always held to the tenet that everyone and everything had a weakness, and all you had to do was find it and use it against them. If he could stay away from this machine long enough to make a plan, he’d be able to beat it. And while the robot seemed to be roughly his equal in speed, its tracked wheels meant that it couldn’t turn as fast as he could. Wally West could corner like Barry Sanders.

    Wally ran a wide circle around the robot. He wasn’t trying to generate another wind vortex, he was just trying to keep moving at top speed so that he’d be able to move immediately if the ‘bot tried anything. As he cut this wide swath, he looked at the robot, trying to study it from a distance and figure out where its weak point might be.

    All of a sudden, the robot blurred out of existence. Confused, Wally turned, looking for it, and then he saw it, right it front of him. It moved so fast that even I couldn’t follow it, Wally realized, a cold shiver running down his back even as he concentrated on dodging a flurry of attacks from the robot. He was now many times faster than his top speed of a month ago, and despite that, the robot had just outrun him. It seemed impossible. But as he once again felt the impact of the robot’s mechanical arms, Wally knew with absolute certainty that this robot was getting faster. It was almost as if it was programmed to adapt to its adversary, emulate it even. Wally had heard of robots like that, even encountered one or two. But when it came to sheer speed, Wally could always figure something out. Unfortunately, speed and reaction time weren’t quite the same thing, and this robot also had the benefit of significant superhuman strength.

    As the ‘bot grabbed Wally by the neck and lifted him into the air, Wally realized something else about this robot. The force field surrounding it that had, earlier in the fight, sent an electrical impulse that temporarily paralyzed him was not active on the grabber claw that held Wally’s neck. In short, Wally wasn’t paralyzed. He theorized that the force field was simply tuned to block incoming force, not every contact that the robot made. If Wally had grabbed the robot’s arms with his hands, he speculated, the force field and its intrinsic energy charge would then paralyze him, but otherwise, he could still move. That’s its weak spot, Wally realized, and then the robot slammed his body forcefully into the ground.

    In the brief moments as the ‘bot’s other arm came quickly down toward Wally’s face, he thought that he would never get a chance to use his newfound knowledge. But before the damaging blow was made, Wally saw a pair of wiry hands grab the arm, and immediately tense as they were affected by the paralytic charge of the robot’s force field.

    “No!” Wally yelled hoarsely as he saw that it was the original Flash, Jay Garrick. Jay had quite possibly saved Wally’s life with his decisive action, but it was likely that he was just opening himself up to similar peril. The robot flung Jay away, slipping his arm out of the old hero’s frozen fingers and then sending him crashing into a nearby tree. The robot’s viewing lens turned toward Jay, as if scanning him, perhaps even discerning the amount of damage he had caused. Wally realized this was his chance; he vibrated his body, focusing on his neck muscles where the robot’s grabber claw held him to the ground. An instant later, he phased through the robot’s arm, causing it to explode. Wally looked up at the smoking end of the stump the explosion had left, and was disappointed. Perhaps it was too much to hope that the small explosion would destroy the robot completely, but he had hoped it would have at least done a little more damage than that.

    The robot scanned his decapitated arm, and then turned again. Jay Garrick was also back on his feet, and coming from the other side was the old speedster, Max Mercury.

    “Don’t touch it!” Wally yelled, his voice hoarse from pain and exertion. “It’s got a paralysis field.” There were three heroes there, each of them possessing speed far beyond that of normal humans, and none of them could raise a hand against this menace. Given pause by Wally’s revelation, the two aged heroes stopped, and that was all that the robot needed. He surged forward in a blinding bolt of speed, crashing into Max Mercury and pounding him with both his good arm and his stump. Max cried out, unable to react in time to the surprise attack. He fell to the ground, beaten, even as Jay Garrick went into action. He picked up a thick branch on the edge of the forested area, and launched toward the robot, wielding the branch like a club. Wally followed suit, grabbing two smaller but thicker branches.

    Jay met the robot and slammed the branch against its head, but the wood simply snapped uselessly. Jay blinked in disbelief, expecting some effect. The robot brought him down in two quick blows. Wally came up beside him, wielding his two short logs like escrima sticks, mimicking the style of his old Titans comrade, Nightwing. The robot reached out, faster than the eye could follow, and crushed one club in his grabber claw, rendering it useless. Wally struck with the other, but as with Jay’s attack, the blow did nothing. Wally realized then that the robot’s paralysis field had been extended to work as a protective force shield, if it hadn’t the whole time. And it was likely to assume that it was getting stronger with the rest of the robot’s systems. Wally tried to dodge the oncoming attacks, but knew it would be pointless. The robot was faster than him and much stronger, and its power was increasing. A moment later, the Flash collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

    The powerful robot scanned the ground, detecting the conditions of the three heroes beneath it. They wouldn’t be getting up for a while, but for this automaton, the objective was far from complete. Turning its tracked wheels, it moved toward the city at a fast speed. Coming to a suburban community, it sped through a house, bringing the building down around it, and then came through the opposite wall. Not stopping to survey its destruction, the robot moved on to the next house, bringing it down as well, and slaughtering the two residents that were in it. As this strange machine continued to move through the suburb, the foundations of Keystone City seemed to shake with the ferocity of its devastation.

    Linda Park looked up from her notes at a loud noise coming from outside the house. It sounded like there was construction going on, but she wasn’t aware of any such work happening in this quiet. neighborhood. She looked back down at her notes. Linda knew when she was in the zone with a story, and now was one of those times. She knew very well how easily a journalist could get distracted and lose her whole train of thought. Then again, it wasn’t terribly likely that she would forget the notes she had set before her now. In the course of a routine investigation of the Flash’s practices of late, she had uncovered a story of much greater import. If only she could find Wally, but now that she needed him, his red fog-like trail covering the whole city was gone. Maybe he was in trouble.

    The ground rumbled beneath Linda’s feet.

    Linda grabbed the edge of the desk to steady herself. That wasn’t construction. That didn’t even feel like an earthquake; it was something more intimate than a simple act of God. Linda had been the girlfriend of a superhero long enough to know the sound of mayhem. She grabbed her notepad and raced to the window facing east, the direction from which the loud noises had been coming. She gasped in shock as, before her eyes, the adjacent home toppled in on itself as if something was ripping apart the supports from inside.

    “Carly!” Linda yelled, screaming for her friend, who owned this home. It was next in line for destruction, and Linda had no intention of being there when it happened. “Carly!” Linda yelled again, as she bounded down the stairs to the ground level. She had no idea how fast this destruction took place, whether it was a sentient being or something else that was causing it, but as the next house had come down, she had seen a long line of carnage, heading in this direction.

    And then, in the blink of an eye, the house seemed to erupt around Linda, as a silver dynamo blew through the east wall into the house. Linda screamed in panic as the stairs collapsed. She tucked into a roll and nearly avoided them falling on top of her. Instead, they came down between her and the robot that was causing all this. Linda didn’t know where Carly was now, but at this point, she could only hope her friend had made it outside already. She had no intentions of sticking around herself. She dashed for the front door as the robot rapidly brought down this house’s support beams, one by one.

    Power Girl wasn’t really retired, although her activity had been reduced significantly. Karen Starr, on the other hand, was quite active, especially with her new paramour, Wally West. Well, she had been for a while, but he had become quite distant of late. Actually, to be more precise, he was always right beside her, but he was also clear across the city…in both directions.

    Now, it wasn’t all bad; making out with a man in constant motion can be quite…electric, but it still seemed far too impersonal. Karen Starr was a woman that expected to not be treated like an object, despite her revealing choice of wardrobe. Maybe she did like guys noticing her assets, but only so that they could realize how much she had that others didn’t.

    Right now, however, Karen, the businesswoman and supportive girlfriend had to step aside in favor of Power Girl, the heroine. And while Power Girl wasn’t retired, there really hadn’t been much to do ever since Wally took over the full policing duties of the city. Karen wasn’t really sure what to think about his method, but she had to admit, it was working. Until now, that is. And that was another thing about being a superhero. There was always an “until now.” Things never stayed good for very long. Well, maybe that was how it was for everyone, even people who didn’t ever wear spandex.

    But right now, it was looking like Wally’s methods had failed in a big way. As Power Girl flew over the suburban community, she saw that about a quarter of the houses had been leveled, and another one was coming down. As she descended toward the house to see how she could help, or at least find out what was causing this, Power Girl saw someone running out the door even as the house collapsed behind her. Power Girl recognized who the woman was.

    It wasn’t her favorite person in the world; for a short time, Linda Park had been Karen’s rival for the affection of Wally West. While Karen had always known that Linda had nothing on her, there was little love lost between them. But right now, such petty things weren’t important; as Power Girl landed, Linda screamed and motioned inside the house.

    “Carly!” She yelled, tears running down her face. “She’s still in there!”

    Power Girl didn’t waste an instant, flying through the door and down a short, collapsed hallway to see a nondescript robot in the center of the house, which had just finished bringing down the whole structure of the building. Its head was now spinning slowly, as if it were scanning someone, and Power Girl was glad to see that it had already moved past the place where she was. She’d have the drop on it; maybe she could take it down in one punch. But as she was about to engage the robot, it suddenly went into action itself, moving out of the main room and into a bedroom.

    That sucker’s fast, Power Girl said as she hurried after it. She wasn’t exactly slow herself, especially when flying, but even she couldn’t keep up with this ‘bot. By the time Power Girl got to the bedroom, she saw that the robot held a woman in its one grabber arm, and was slamming her against the wall.

    “Stop!” Power Girl yelled, even as she flew at the robot, but it was too late. The robot raised the stump of its other arm, and with blinding speed, struck Linda’s friend, Carly Jones, killing her. The robot turned then and noticed Power Girl. Orienting its body toward her, the robot tossed the dead body it held at the heroine. Power Girl reacted with horror as she caught the unfortunate woman, dropping it quickly. Even as a superhero, she was rarely this close to death; she never got used to it.

    Power Girl pivoted, picking up a chunk of heavy debris from one of the load-bearing walls, and brought it down on the robot’s head. The panel crumbled, but the evil machine registered no damage, not even a superficial dent. Power Girl gritted her teeth as she realized that the robot wouldn’t be going down easily, and came at it with a fist. Apparently, this thing had some kind of force field surrounding it, and as Power Girl’s fist recoiled slowly away from this energy field, she noticed a dull, throbbing spark of electricity that had transferred to her hand. It seemed that the force shield also had some kind of paralyzing shock upon contact. Obviously this effect wasn’t made for someone with her superhuman physiology, and she had been able to counteract easily. But it had still slowed her down, and the robot was the one that landed the next punch. Power Girl flinched slightly, but the hit was little more than an annoyance.

    The next hit, however, was much more. Coming from the robot’s stumpy arm, the punch landed on Power Girl’s stomach, and sent her off her feet, landing in the rubble a few feet away. It didn’t take a genius for Power Girl to realize that the thing was adjusting to meet her strength level. She hoped the paralysis field wouldn’t similarly adjust as she launched herself forward, barreling into the ‘bot and striking it with a one-two punch. The force field surrounding the robot didn’t incapacitate her, but it did take most of the edge off of her blows.

    Power Girl brought her leg up, intending to thrust the robot away from her and maybe into a wall. By the time she drove it forward, however, the robot was no longer in front of her. She turned then, and saw that the ‘bot had somehow gotten behind her just that quickly. Even worse than that, its grabber arm had wrapped around her waist, holding her tightly. As Power Girl raised an arm to reach back and hit the robot, its stump came up and forcefully pounded her in the ear.

    The room vanished around the heroine as fireworks seemed to go off inside her head. Each of the bright lights was followed by a pounding sensation against her temples, and she lost all sense of equilibrium. A moment later, Power Girl collapsed in the rubble of a destroyed bedroom that belonged to a dead woman she had failed to save. She went unconscious as the robot moved on to continue its path of destruction.

    Wally West fought against the urge to keep his eyes closed. His mind was fuzzy as he came slowly back to consciousness, but he knew that there was something going on. There was something happening that desperately required his attention. He opened his eyes as stabbing blades of pain, spread throughout his body, reminded him of the fight against the robot. As he picked himself up off of the ground, the first thing he saw was the two older heroes, Max Mercury and Jay Garrick, in similar states of prostration. Max was awake, but he was slow in getting up.

    The second thing he saw was utter and total desolation.

    Miles away, but clearly visible over the flat terrain of Keystone City, lay piles of rubble and scattered debris that had been houses and homes. Through hazy eyes that had begun to fill with tears, Wally could see that whole neighborhoods had been destroyed. He opened his mouth, but all that came out was a choked whisper. Finding words to indicate the distinct waves of pain, guilt, fear and anger that were washing over his body was impossible. For a moment he stood frozen as is his feet were one with the ground. But soon, the moment passed, and the Flash was in action once again. He sped through the piles of brick and stucco and drywall; here tossing aside broken roofing to find bodies, there calling for word from any survivors. None responded.

    Wally moved on to the next area of the community, finding a stark replica of the destruction he had already seen. Only, this time, when he called for anyone who was still alive, he got a response. Linda Park had hidden in an unnoticed storm shelter, and had come to the surface to search for any survivors herself. When he heard her weak reply, Wally ran to her as only he could, holding on to her with the passion of a man grasping the mast of a storm-tossed ship.

    “Wally…” Linda said, wishing that she could let him stay there, just like he was, but she couldn’t. “Karen…she’s in there.” The look in Wally’s eyes, brightened for a moment by the sight of Linda, turned to a look of tortured devastation. The sight was burned into Linda’s own eyes as he disappeared a moment later, dashing into the house that Linda had pointed toward, searching for a spark of life in a lifeless world.

    Finally he found her, and was able to relax ever so slightly as he saw that his love, Karen Starr, was alive. Grabbing her, he cradled her in his arms and patted her cheek softly, easing her back to consciousness. Slowly her eyes fluttered open, and Wally kissed her passionately, not waiting for her to fully awake.

    “Are you okay?” He asked, after he had pulled away.

    “Yeah,” Karen said, smiling slightly. “Just a headache. That thing’s tough, but it’ll take more than that to take me out. I’m alright.”

    Wally stared into Karen’s eyes, for a moment forgetting the desolation that surrounded him. “Wally!” Wally looked up; it was Max, immediately bringing back all the anger and helplessness that he had almost banished. “That thing’s still going. We’d better do something. Jay’s trying to figure out a way to stop it.”

    “I’ll stop it!” Wally said, rising, his eyes burning with rage. No matter how much it took, he was going to bring that robot down. He surged forward, passing through the destroyed neighborhood in a blur, and found the robot, about to level another house. The ‘bot noticed him as well, and as Wally came in close, the robot threw its good arm at him, but he dodged it easily, zipping around the robot in a circle. The vortex, it seemed, wouldn’t be enough to stop the robot, but it would at least prevent it from getting to that next home. If there was anybody in there, Max and Jay would have plenty of time to get them out.

    That was not nearly the extent of Wally’s plan, though. As he continued to circle the robot, dodging attacks that seemed somewhat slower than the last time he tried that, he began to vibrate his right arm rapidly. He had already tried phasing through the robot to cause an explosion, but this time, he was going to have his arm well out of phase before he got to the force field and the paralysis field surrounding it. As soon as his arm was completely incorporeal, Wally surged forward, stabbing his arm at the robot’s middle like a knife. Even as he did, he felt the paralyzing shock climbing up his arm. Through pure adrenaline, he willed his body to keep moving, to not shut down; he closed his eyes, straining to get his intangible hand through the force field.

    For at least a minute, a very long time for the fastest man alive, Wally and the robot stood there in a nearly motionless battle of grit and determination. For a minute, Wally thought that he could make it through the force field and end this thing. But it was not to be. Finally, Wally lost control and fell back, screaming in a mixture of frustration and pain. The robot brought its arm down toward Wally, but before he could finish the blow, Max and Jay came in and carried Wally away.

    “No…” Wally said weakly, watching as the robot turned its head, almost as if it were taunting the heroes, and continued its path of destruction. “We’ve gotta…do something…”

    “I have an idea,” Max said, “Jay, do what you can to slow him down.”

    “Right,” Jay said, and they both went in to action. Max went out of sight, while Jay engaged the robot, circling him as Wally had and trying to distract him from further damage. Wally watched, mesmerized, as Jay danced and dodged around the robot’s flailing arms, one long and one short. He was just about to join him when Max came back, his arms filled with…something.

    “These are insulated gloves that don’t conduct electricity,” Max said, handing Wally a pair. If we wear these, we should be able to at least punch him without getting the paralyzing shock. But don’t try the vibrating trick; the gloves’ll be the first thing to go.”

    “Great,” Wally said, putting them on. “I’ll go relieve Jay.” Wally sped over to the robot, and grabbed its arm just as it was about to catch Jay, and hit the ‘bot hard in the face. He knew the blow didn’t even get past its force field, but it still felt good to be letting out some aggression on it. He spun around the robot and threw thirty more superspeed punches at it before the robot caught him and threw him to the ground. All of them bounced ineffectually off of the force field, but at least Wally felt like he was doing something. Pretty soon, however, the robot had thrown them all to the ground with powerful blows.

    “This thing’s just getting stronger,” Wally said, feeling the thick bruise forming around his cheek.

    “It may not be safe to engage it any longer,” Max told him. “If this thing’s punches get any harder, it could get lethal.”

    “I can’t just watch it destroy the whole city!” Wally said, as the robot moved on to another house. He pushed himself off the ground and ran toward the robot.

    “Wally, wait!” Jay Garrick yelled behind him, but Wally just ignored the sound. The robot was faster than before, though, and already was in the house by the time Wally got to him. Like an engine of destruction, the ‘bot brought down the house without even seeming to slow down, and Wally had to dodge falling debris as he emerged from the wreckage and finally caught up to it on the other side. Again, Wally slammed a non-conductive fist into the robot’s head, and again it had no effect. The robot spun around and swung an arm at Wally, which he just barely managed to dodge. As he came back in close, the robot’s other hand, the stump that Wally had damaged, came straight at his face. He wouldn’t have been able to dodge it, but before it hit, a green force-field came up in front of Wally, blocking the blow. Wally looked up and saw the Green Lantern floating above him.

    “What took you so freakin’ long?” Wally shouted, angry. Wally might’ve taken a swing at the hero if he hadn’t been out of his reach in the air.

    “I was on monitor duty, and I saw what was happening,” Green Lantern said, even as he tried to grab the quick robot in a large claw. “I alerted the others, but most of them are busy. I was gonna come myself, but my ring died and I had to recharge it. I’m sorry.”

    Wally was about to say something else to his fellow Justice Leaguer, but before he could, Max and Jay each took him by an arm and carried him bodily away from the robot.

    “What are you doing?” Wally asked, flailing to work his way out of their grip.

    “Wally, slow down,” Jay said.

    “If we can just put a little more pressure on the robot,” Wally insisted, “The Green Lantern can trap it!”

    “I think that’s exactly what it wants you to do,” Jay responded.

    “What do you mean?”

    “It’s feeding off of our speed,” Jay said quietly.

    “What!?” Wally asked, looking to Max for some reassurance that this wasn’t the case, but Max offered none.

    “Look,” Jay continued. “When I was fighting that thing earlier, when I first engaged it, it was slower than me. But by the time you got there, it was faster, and stronger. Now, think about how fast it was going before the three of us fought it the first time. Think about it. After it knocked us all out, if it had kept going that fast, the whole city would have been leveled by the time we woke up. But it didn’t, because it had to conserve its battery. It was conserving its battery because it didn’t have any new energy coming, because we weren’t there around it using our speed.”

    “That’s impossible!” Wally protested.

    “I don’t think it is,” Max answered. “Think about how it’s even stronger now than when we first fought it. All we’ve been doing is giving it more gas.”

    Wally huffed, trying to think of an argument. “We can’t just sit here and watch it.”

    Jay looked him hard in the eyes. “We have to. If we don’t use our speed, the robot will never run out of power. But if we stop, eventually, it will too. The Green Lantern is keeping it from the houses—” As if in response to that, the robot eluded the Lantern’s ring constructs long enough to send another house toppling. Green Lantern increased the protective aura that surrounded him and then swooped down into the collapsing building, emerging with two people. He set them on the ground even as he went back to work trying to catch the robot.

    “Somebody has to help him,” Wally said, his eyes blazing.

    “I can.”

    Wally looked up to see Karen Starr floating a few feet away.

    “Sorry to eavesdrop,” She said, smiling, “But I heard the whole thing, and if none of you can do anything, maybe I can help.”

    “Alright,” Wally said weakly, not knowing what else to do. He didn’t think the robot was strong enough to really harm her, but he certainly didn’t want to find out. As he was trying to decide whether or not he should say goodbye, Power Girl launched forward toward the robot. The ‘bot was moving erratically to avoid the Green Lantern’s constructs, and it was still very fast, but eventually Power Girl connected with it, slamming the full force of her body into the robot. Its head bounced backwards, the first real sign that anyone had done any damage to it, but Power Girl was also thrown violently back by the robot’s protective force field. She got up as the robot sped toward her, throwing its intact arm and its stump at her in a powerful one-two punch.

    Wally cringed as she saw her take the hit, but she didn’t seem to be hurt too badly from it. Still, her next swing at the robot came a little slower, and the robot caught her arm in its grabber claw, and slammed its stump into her stomach. It threw her into some wreckage, and then rolled to the side just as a green cage materialized around where the robot had been standing.

    Karen landed hard, kicking up a cloud of dust, but a few seconds later, she pulled herself up. She watched for a few seconds as the ‘bot continued to dodge the Green Lantern’s attempts to catch him, and then flew forward to engage it again. The robot saw her coming this time, however, and whipped an arm out to catch her full in the face. She fell again.

    Wally, watching from a distance, had to turn away. He couldn’t watch what was happening to the woman he loved any longer. Power Girl stumbled to her feet, and this time, she focused on avoiding the blows that the robot threw her way. She managed, for the most part, and she began to hope that the maniacal machine was actually slowing down. She got hit in the jaw again, but it wasn’t as hard as before, and a moment later, Green Lantern almost managed to catch the robot. The ‘bot wriggled free of the trap, but not before Karen lined him up and pounded a fist into its middle section. It was probably her imagination, but she thought she heard the clang of metal, as if the force field around it was dissipating.

    “Come on…” Wally said, now watching again with rapt attention. Karen took another hit, dodged one, gave one, and then, before either she or Wally knew it, Green Lantern had the robot on the ground in a transparent box. A green note tied to the ribbon around the box read “Do not open until Christmas.”

    Wally let out a heavy sigh as he realized that the ordeal was over. Green Lantern descended from his position in the air to stand beside Wally. The fastest man alive stood in frozen stillness, unable to take his eyes away from the source of so much destruction.

    “We’d better make sure it’s down for good,” Jay said.

    “Good call,” Kyle said, and a moment later, a shaft of energy bisected the robot’s green prison, slicing the ‘bot cleanly into two pieces. As the halves fell apart, Wally looked at it closely. On the right side, an engine was throbbing, like the still-beating heart of a fresh corpse.

    “That engine,” Wally said slowly, as realization dawned. “I recognize it! Some pencil-neck geek put it under some bush at the edge of the city. It was like a month ago, when I started the constant patrols. That means…the engine was collecting my speed…converting into power…that whole month.” Wally looked down, unable to accept the truth of what he saw. “If I hadn’t been doing what I did, this never would have happened.”

    “Wally,” someone said from behind him. Wally turned to see Linda Park, his ex-girlfriend, standing there. She was the last person he had expected to see.

    “Linda? What are you doing here?”

    “Wally, there’s something you need to know. I was writing a story about you.”

    “Yeah, ‘Speedster goes insane,’ wasn’t it something like that?” Wally asked, perturbed that Linda had chosen this moment to announce herself.

    “Look, I was going to do a story about your violation of civil rights. But I discovered something else.” Linda looked up, making eye contact with her old boyfriend. “Wally, the people of Keystone City are aging rapidly! Haven’t you noticed that some people are looking a bit more weathered than they used to?”

    “No…I…”

    “Well, maybe that’s because you’ve been here, but I left. And when I came back, people were older. I got a lab to do some testing, and they found that people were about five years older than they actually are!”

    “Are you saying that had something to do with me?” Wally asked incredulously.

    “That makes sense, I’m afraid,” Max answered. “I didn’t want to say anything before, but I was worried that something like this might be happening. When you use your speed, you’re giving off slight amounts of kinetic energy. But when you’re going as fast as you were, for such a concentrated amount of time, the kinetic energy builds, and over time, it could grow to an unhealthy level. Apparently, the collected energy caused the aging rate to increase.”

    “What? I…had no idea,” Wally said, at a total loss.

    “I did some figuring,” Linda said, “And I estimated that if you had kept up your constant patrol, everybody in Keystone, all the way down to newborn babies, would’ve died of old age by the end of next year.”

    Wally felt his head spinning. How could he have made such a mistake?

    “I…I’m sorry,” he muttered weakly, knowing that the apology wouldn’t help at all.

    Green Lantern placed a hand gently, but firmly, on his shoulder. “Look, Man, I’m gonna have to take you into JLA custody. I don’t think you’ll be going to jail or anything, but, we’re definitely gonna have to figure this out, and you’d better stay on the Watchtower until we do.”

    “Yeah,” Wally said, his head lowered. Max and Jay, Karen and Linda watched as the two heroes retreated into the distance. Surrounded by destruction, there was nothing they could do but watch, in bleak, stunned silence.

    “What do you think you’ve accomplished here, Spectre?”

    “I accomplish nothing,” the mysterious being, known as the Spectre, replied. “I am only an instrument of God’s will.”

     “Do you think that God’s will has been done here? In all that destruction? All that chaos?”

    “The city was saved, although its eventual destruction would have been much slower; much more subtle.”

    “Is that your idea of salvation, Spectre? I thought your God was through with human sacrifices.”

    “It was not God that killed those people,” the Spectre answered. “It was the foolish pride of man. But how much more would have died if this had not happened? How many can yet be saved?”

    “The fight is not over, Spectre,” the other responded, with quiet malevolence. “It is far from over.”

Next Issue: There will be a next issue, but it might be awhile. Tim has more ideas for the Flash, but then he is bursting with ideas for other parts of JLU as well. Fear not... He shall return soon...

Curt F
EIC
JLU: 2001