THREE MONTHS AGO
"Okay, I know I probably deserve this... but come on, Linda. I said I was sorry."
Wallace 'Wally' West had faced numerous trials in his life. Proving himself a capable, responsible young man. Making a commitment to becoming a husband, long ago when he said the two words that made Linda Park his bride. Stepping up to the plate whenever he was told the news that he was going to be a father. Not to mention, of course, having to fight a diseased maniac bent on total destruction of the human race, just earlier that morning. But there was one task in his life, no matter how responsible he had become, no matter committed, no matter brave, that Wally just couldn't bare to face, even with his rather stellar resume of proving himself capable time and time again.
Shopping for baby food.
Wally's eyes darted up and down the aisle of the Keystone local Mini-Mart, as he held the cellphone firmly to his ear, awaiting his wife's response to his vague plea of forgiveness.
"No 'buts' about it, Mister.", Linda Park-West responded on the other end, so sternly that Wally had to wince, a bit, surprised by her tone.
"We made a promise to eachother. Thursdays are your day to watch the kids, Fridays are your aunt Iris'. Not the other way around, as you apparentally thought, last night. And god knows, she's had to deal with them enough in the last month..."
"I know that. And I apologized to her, too, when we moved out of Jay's. But really, honey, can I help it if The Top, Mirror Master, Captain Cold, and Heatwave all popped up around town within the same week?", Wally asked.
"Which, by the way, I've made little to no progress in rounding any of the beforementioned back up..."
"You used that excuse the last time, too. Except it was The Rainbow Raider robbing a felt store in Central."
Wally's eyebrow raised, before a smirk graced his lips.
"Wait. Don't tell me you've gotten used to this..."
"Don't try the for playful voice, Wally.", She replied back.
"You're still on thin ice."
"Good thing I can run over water, then...", Wally quipped back, before grabbing a can of Gerber's formula, looking it over, and without a second thought, tossing it into his cart.
"Okay, fine. You win... again. I'll try to be home before five."
"It's only eleven."
"Maybe you're not used to this after all.", Wally replied, with a bit of a chuckle.
"Funny, but considering you can drop off the groceries less than a minute after you step out of line, I'd wager that you're the one who isn't-"
It was in that moment, as if fate had intervened, that Wally noticed the lights flickering on and off above him. Looking up, Wally then looked at his phone, as the menu turned to static. Sighing to himself, he looked forward, and peered out of the front windows of the store. Noticing something odd out of it, within the city, Wally's eyes widened instantly.
"Oh, crud..."
With a blur of scarlet, Wally was gone in an instant. His cart... and the items around it, for the matter, were scattered across the aisle in his wake. A passing store clerk, who had stepped from his post to return a box of beer batter, turned the corner of the aisle moments later, only to pause, and stare at the mess before him in disbelief.
"Uh... c-clean up on aisle 12..."
Seconds passed, before The Flash raced down the streets of Keystone City, never stopping for an instant as the city became nothing more than a passing whirlwind of motion around him. A determined look on his face, even evident under the mask, he teared across the bridge aligning Keystone and Central, and dashed pass the cars within a blink of an eye. Yet somehow, even at the rate he was going, he heard the buzzing of the communication link embedded within his right cowl-wing. Tapping it once, He listened intently as he dodged a sudden flying shard of glass that had appeared in thin air.
"Wally?", Linda's voice asked, concerned.
"Yeah.", He answered back, dodging even more glass.
"You were cut off, back at the store. You're doing the hero thing, again, aren't you?"
"Yeah.", He repeated, in the same tone, before racing to the side of the street, up the wall, and across a building, simultaneously breaking the windows under his foot with every rapid step.
A loud sigh was heard, on the other end of the line.
"Just try to be home by five."
"'Kay.", He answered, bluntly, before tapping the wing again, and tearing off down the street even faster, pinballing his way past several citizens still on the sidewalks, who could simply stare in awe as the gust of wind passed them.
Now, the explosion I saw came from this corner. But with no fire, no apparent disenigration, or so much as a scorch on the streets, then I don't think what I saw was an explosion of the normal variety, which means...
"BOW TO ME, INFERNAL HUMANS!"
The Flash sighed, loudly, a dreadful look suddenly upon his face.
"Oh, great..."
Racing down the buildings ahead, The Flash leaped off of them, before taking back into the streets, letting the glass hit his skin as he accelerated, shattering it upon impact. His eyes glowing with energy, The Flash's speed triplicated within an instant, as he turned from a scarlet blur, to barely an orange wind, finally reaching Central City Square. His body was burning, from the way he was pushing himself. But after all that had happened in the past month, or so, he had to. Considering all that he had strived to prove to not only his wife, but his kids, Jay, and the rest of The Justice League, Wally wasn't about to let himself be outdone again. Especially not by King Kong's mentally adept yet inept third cousin.
"Haven't we been over this, Grodd? Is does the whole theory about 'monkey see, monkey do' fit into this equation, somewhere?"
The behemoth known as Gorilla Grodd turned, angrily snarling, as his enemy's voice echoed throughout the town's square.
"Unbelieveable,", Grodd cursed under his breath.
"You would be wise not to even start, you costumed imbecile! I have a mind to smash your skull beneath two of your Earthly 'automobiles' for even thinking you could tread near me!"
With a pause, Grodd then smiled, viciously.
"Infact, that is a rather marvelous idea."
"Maybe so. Except there's one problem..."
Grodd turned completely around, stunned, as The Flash grinned in his face.
"You're gonna have to catch me, first."
Disappearing into a cloud of crimson wind, Wally went to work immediately, sending a barrage of jabs towards Grodd's thick hide at blinding speeds. Hundreds per second turned to thousands per mili-second, as The Flash didn't even consider stopping until the ape was down. Unfortunately, all that Grodd did was wince in pain, for a bit, before looking out in anger.
"Enough of this.", The ape breathed, before mentally commanding the concrete road infront of him to lift.
With a crack, the road split it two, ahead of him, before The Flash was finally knocked out of his cloak of speed, and onto the pavement, head first. Grunting in pain, Wally pushed himself up, and shook his head, before realizing that Grodd was already upon him. Grabbing the Scarlet Speedster by the throat, Grodd lifted the hero over his head, before tossing him into the air, waiting for his land, and punching him with a mighty hit, sending The Flash into a nearby mailbox. All things considered Wally had to admit that while the trip was painful... what Grodd had just perform was substantially worse, as he shook his head, weakly pushing himself back to his feet.
"How many of your primitive bones do I have to grind into dust before it becomes clear that you are, quite simply, inferior to me in every way?", Grodd asked, standing before him.
"Depends. How many do you think I got left?", Wally asked, before jolting forward at an impeccable speed, and sending a fearsome uppercut to the simian.
Grodd turned, a smirk on his own lips, as he licked away the small trinket of blood that had coursed from them.
"No, I believe the proper query is... How many you will lose on this day, Flash.", Grodd answered.
The Flash became serious, all of the sudden, staring up at Grodd, trying to hide his fear in the fact that his attacks were doing little to no good against the villain. Suddenly, as grim as it were, Wally realized that shopping for baby food was probably a much more appealing alternative to his morning, after all.
If not a much less painful one.
