The Fastest Man Alive: "A New Beginning"
Flash #9- September, Year One	by Robert Rock

Wally was patrolling his city. Between the blinks of everyone’s eyes Wally was saving untold people from death, dismemberment, and other forms of bodily harm.

Increasingly, this was the only time that Wally felt comfortable.

As he cut through the warm pleasant night of Keystone, vague smells of various backyard barbeques, the sound waves of laughing children playing hung in the air kept him company and served as a reminder why he was doing this job. For them, to keep them all safe and sound.

Faster and faster each time he cycled through his patrol of the city. His mind working at boggling speeds, processing threat assessments and prioritizing his efforts.

Wally robbed some momentum and saved a woman driving her car while putting on makeup and talking on her cell phone before she killed herself and several pedestrians.

The woman jumped as she felt her car slow and screamed at the wide eyes of the pedestrians who had faced death at her hands. After the moment of surprise faded, the woman set off quickly from the scene to avoid the pending confrontation with her almost victims.

Lent some momentum to three kids jumping gaps between buildings to ensure that they make it across the top of the buildings and not fall to their death.

On his next round Wally moved the kids off the rooftops after their jump. The kids were shocked as to how they appeared on the ground in the blink of an eye. One kid claimed he did it and that it was his mutant power. Another kid said to him mutant powers were hogwash and called out thanks to his hero the Flash

Wally moved a dog out of the way, before a car hit it. The dog barked in either confusion or thanks.

There was never an end to the threats to all the citizens of Keystone. Wally had to keep moving and keep them safe.

“Wally,” the deep resonant voice called to him. “Wally, why do you ignore me? I have presented to you the mysteries of this world. I have explained your divinity to you. I have given you leave to stop moving and embrace your true calling and still you move. Still you reject, that which you know, deep within you to be true. The power that was, is the power you command. Talk to me Wally, I am your father.”

The voice called to Wally through his patrol. Often soothing, sometimes challenging, but always imploring him to talk. Wally never answered. He feared what he would say. So he simply ran on.

Linda Park sat in a lushly decorated office. She was dressed in her finest cream blouse and her navy blue skirt fit her tight, trim frame in all the right ways. The rich leather of the chair was warm and comfortable. Her legs were crossed as she sat back and listened to the man speaking to her. He looked like almost every other man she had ever met in his position, an older, overweight man stuffed into a bad suit that he bought fifteen years and twenty pounds ago. He spoke on and on, but in actuality was repeating himself. As he spoke his eyes roamed over Linda’s firm legs and pert chest, she felt slightly creeped out by him, but knew the game.

“I have to tell you, Linda, we all think that your talent has been wasting in such a small market for this long. We are overjoyed that you are seriously considering moving up to the big leagues,” the man said.

“Well thank you, Mr. Meyer. I’m happy to hear that. As you might know my personal situation has recently changed and I think that a move of this magnitude is just what I need.”

“Absolutely dear, absolutely,” he said his eyes passing over her again with more hunger this time.

As he finished speaking Linda felt the slightest breeze caress her skin. A few papers on the desk fluttered and she noticed the leaves of the plant in the corner swaying. That shouldn’t be possible, seeing as though no window was open and the door was shut.

Wally, she thought to herself, checking up on me again. That was at least the seventh time today that she had noticed.

Looking up she noticed that the hairpiece the man was wearing now sat slightly off center. Linda smiled in spite of herself at Wally’s prank. You big goof, she thought, and there was a slight tightening in her chest at the thought of not going home to be with him.

Temple of Triumphant Velocity

Fiona looked around the converted warehouse. The Faithful had done such a fantastic job with first the repairs and more recently the renovations. They had started with the interior, essentially gutting it. The floors had been replaced, new drywall had been put up, and energy efficient light fixtures had replaced old florescent lights. On the walls murals of the Flash had been lovingly painted by a few of the faithful that possessed artistic talent. They depicted the Flash in various battles with his Rogues Gallery and other depicting him in various versions of divinity, one as a Flash/Christ, another as Flash/Hermes, still others as Flash riding a lightning bolt.

At present, the Temple was quiet as the now over three hundred worshippers lay perfectly still conserving their speed around the steel sculpture of the Flash lightning bolt. A murmur of low chanting filled the air, “Zoom, Zoom, Zooooooommmmm”

A strong wind blew through the Temple and a barely visible red blur came to a stop under the steel sculpture.

“It’s him! It’s the Flash!” A worshipper cried out.

All of the worshippers sprang up to their feet and bowed before the Flash and chanted, “Sacred be His name, fleet be His feet, let my soul be carried in His wake”

Fiona rushed forward through the crowd to speak with Wally. As she approached she could see how taken aback he was by the display of worship.

Wally pushed back his mask and looked around the room. “Whoa,” passed his lips before he could stop himself from saying it. He looked around the room and couldn’t really believe this was happening. Why were all these people here and why were they all worshipping him?

“Fiona, what’s going on here?”

“As I mentioned to you at your house the other day, I and the others are here to help you realize your place in the universe. The Italian Futurists starting with Marinetti at the beginning of the twentieth century, that I had started telling you about, loved speed, noise, machines, pollution, and cities; they embraced the exciting new world that was then upon them rather than hypocritically enjoying the modern world’s comforts while loudly denouncing the forces that made them possible. We believe that you embody the ideal of speed and change in that equation.”

“But how do I fill that role?”

The worshippers looked around at each other. A murmur ran through the crowd, did their god not understand who he was? It was as Fiona had said, they must pray for his understanding and ascension.

“You will understand in time Wally. Opening your mind to the possibility is all you need to start with. I’ll give you an example, do you know how to speak French?”

“No, I’ve never bothered to learn any other languages.”

“Are you willing to test my belief in your divinity?”

“I guess,”

“In the bookshelf over there are twelve books on French conversation. If you wanted to you could answer me in French before I’ve completed this sent-”

“C’est vrai. Je parle Francises maintenant. C’est incroyable.”

The crowd burst into “Sacred be His name, fleet be His feet, let my soul be carried in His wake.”

“See Wally, there isn’t anything that you can’t do if you really want to. With your abilities you can be omniscient and omnipresent. Isn’t that the claims of the Roman Catholic God?”

“This is crazy Fiona, I’m just really fast. It wasn’t magic or anything with the French. I just read all the books you had here and a few others at the Library before you could finish speaking. I have powers, that doesn’t make me a god.”

“You’ll see Wally. You’ll believe.”

Eddie Traynor the safe cracking loser was gone. He burned up in the blue flames of hate, rage and vengeance. What was left in his place was Eclipso, Spirit of Vengeance!

Eclipso, cackled, he looked down at the black diamond gleaming in his hand. He closed his hand lovingly around it and raised it to his eye. A destructive blast tore out of the diamond and blew a hole through the wall of Keystone Jewellers.

“Free at last, free at last. Thank me almighty, free at last.” Eclipso laughed out loud and began to walk through the streets of Keystone.

When he had reached a large park he looked up at the almost full moon. He raised his hand and partly covered the moon in a partial eclipse. He sat down in the cool grass and continued to stare up at the moon. Crickets sang their songs while he thought.

“What to do? The last two times I’ve made a bid for this miserable rock haven’t turned out too well. First I had the bright idea to use the heroes against one another and absorb their powers, didn’t work. Then I teamed up with that loser Obsidian to take over the world and turn normal humans against the heroes. Failed again, and that miserable little ape Alex thought he had taken control of my power. Him, I’ll see again. My powers work off the basis of vengeance, hate and rage, why not use people who already have that in spades. Villains, that’s what’ll make the difference this time. I’m in Keystone and that means the Flash is zooming around somewhere, but that also means there should be some of the Rogues Gallery about plotting their inane schemes. They shouldn’t be too hard to flush out.” As Eclipso continued to lay in the grass thinking, he played with the black diamond sub-consciously. Occasionally he would bring it up to his eye and fire off a blast, killing birds, squirrels, and other small creatures in the park for no other reason than he could.

Wally finally forced himself to stop his patrol. He sat on his couch finishing off his third pizza. He was exhausted; his muscles ached from his continual overuse through the last couple of days. As he finished up the last crust, he replayed what he had seen and heard at the Temple. It didn’t make sense, why all of a sudden where their worshippers to him and the voice that seemed to be almost constantly in his head lately.

The doorbell rang and the Wally opened the door before the end of the first bell ring. There, framed by the door, was Karen Starr, a.k.a. Power Girl. She wasn’t in her uniform now though and truth be told, she wasn’t in much of anything. She had on a very tight white crop top that clung to her like skin and the lowest cut jeans that Wally thought were legal to still walk around in.

“You going to invite me in?” Karen asked.

“Absolutely, come in.” Wally stammered still staring at her.

“I’m up here champ,” Karen said try to get Wally’s eyes off her chest.

Wally stepped back and looked Karen in the eyes. He regained his composure and beckoned for her to come in.

“Wally, I’ve been going over and over our… situation in my head and there are some things that I think we need to sort out.”

“You’re right, there are some things that we need to discuss. I heard a lot of what you were saying to me the other night while
I patrolled. I don’t know what I think about us to be honest. I’ve been with Linda for so long that it seems to be automatic. When I split in two and half of me was with you, it was exciting to hear my other self tell me he was ‘with’ you. The way he spoke of you it somehow also felt- I don’t know- right. When I merged and came back to you as my anchor and not Linda, I knew this was something I would have to sort out on a much deeper level. I was still fooling myself that ‘I’ wasn’t really with you it was my other me, if that makes any sense. Well after I ‘lingered’ so long after my return to this time, I meant to talk to Linda, I really did, but well you know how hectic things get. I procrastinated, you forced the issue and now Linda’s gone. But on a real level, even with Linda out of the picture, I don’t know what that means to me- or us.”

“Wally that was the most mature I think I’ve ever heard you sound. I’m not asking you if we’re getting married, I just want to know if we have something here that you want to explore or if you’re going to try to patch things up with Linda.”

“I know what you mean, and I think Linda’s taken herself out of the picture permanently. She’s left town and has taken a job with a major network. I know she wants to move on with her life and be with someone who is with her and not saving the world between her words. I want to see where things can go with us if you’re interested in finding out.”

“I am Wally. I really am.”

With that Karen rolled over on the couch they were sitting on and began to kiss Wally very passionately.

Next Issue: The Voice and Fiona continue to tag team Wally on his divinity. Wally pushes his powers and Karen worries about Wally. Eclipso starts his new gang.
 

Authors Notes:
Hi all, I’m Robert Rock. If you’re not familiar with my work, I write for Barry Reese’s Pendragon site and I’ve have some original fiction at Foundation. I’ve always been a big D.C. fan, but for whatever various reason, never written any D.C. fanfic.

A big thank you to Curt both as an inspiration to get off my butt to write some D.C. fanfic, but also for letting me write it here.

In this issue I’ve tried to tie into the issues that have come before and gently start to guide it in my own direction. I have some big plans for the Flash so let me know what you think of the first issue either through the yahoo group or via email at rarock2002@yahoo.ca.

Cheers,
Robert