thejusticelounge | off with her head

Lying at the base of the statue honoring Barry Allen in Central City is 5 human hearts, each with a arrow shot through it. Attached to one of the arrows is a note reading: The Queen of Hearts is dead! If the REAL Queen won’t fall, his daughter will do! Long Live the Queen of Speed! - E.C. DNA analysis will reveal each heart was intended for transplant victims in Star City, Keystone City, Denver, Gotham City, and Metropolis. Each had been stolen during transport. All 5 drivers are missing too.

Anonymous

Wally had to really try to keep his lunch down at the sight. It was bad enough that 5 donor hearts were now laying on the ground wasted, but….But it was at the foot of Barry’s statue, in front of the Flash museum. This was an insult in the highest form, and he was NOT going to stand for this.

He waited around for the police, meanwhile looking for any clues he could find. These guys were good, and well organized at that. He rounded up the tapes from the museum’s surveillance, but they didn’t turn up anything helpful without analysis. Which would take time.

First things first, he needed to catch up with Bai again. Second he needed to message the league. Amid collecting his thoughts, he swept the police scanners a few times, catching reports of downed vehicles and the missing drivers. ARG this was getting aggravating. No time…no time no time no TIME. He could be anywhere in minutes, and yet when he had nothing to work with, his speed was useless.

Leaving the police to work on the missing persons, he swept the city himself, looking for anything that might help. After a stop for $10 worth of dollar menu cheese burgers, he was off again, back to the scene of the ‘crime’. 5 calls, 5 disappointed recipients…and a casualty. One of the patients had died from complications in surgery prep. They’d EXPECTED a new heart, but the one they had hadn’t held out.

This was personal now.

Gritting his teeth, he excused himself and went home, cramming some more calories while he readied a message for the League.

—————————

From Flash to the League: They’ve hit my city again. 5 donor organs were left by the museum and 5 drivers are missing. Here’s a transcript of the message they left. Bai and I thought the “queen of speed” might be Mia, so PLEASE someone look after her.

We need to find these guys fast. People are dying.

“I got the message too.”

Bai pulled up next to Wally, face grim as she surveyed the hearts spread out at the foot of her Grampa’s statue. Apart from being disgusting, this was a horrible waste; the way Wally’s lips pulled back from his teeth told Bai that he definitely felt the same way.

“I think I have an idea, Wally,” Bai said, pressing her cousin’s arm for his attention. “Of what we should do. I mean, it’s kind of good in a way that we’re here at the Museum, because —” she took a breath, “—I think that since GA is already on the hunt for whoever this is and might be on the right track considering those assassins all over the place being poisoned that we should use the Cosmic Treadmill to go back to before he went all commando and stick a tracer on him so when we come back to now we’ll be able to tell Manhunter and GL Jordan and whoever else where to find him so they can go help take the bad guys down faster!!”

Out of breath, Bai zipped away and came back eating a series of bananas. “Whaddyou think?”

Wally was glad for the moment to think when she ran off. The cosmic treadmill….It’d been a while since they’d toughed that old relic. But she had a sound idea. Only problem was they’d have to coordinate very carefully to make it happen. Once Mia returned, he’d made up his mind.

“It’s a good plan,” he said. “Maybe knowin where he is will help us to get an idea of where THEY are cuz you know GA’s just dumb enough to run off on his own and do something stupid like that.” Looking up at the statue, he set his jaw again. Defacing his uncle’s statue with something so grotesque…DAMN they were going to get it.

“Come on, time’s wasting.” He took off into the museum, certain Bai would be right behind him. He stopped off to tell the curator what they were doing before hurrying off again to get to the treadmill. “Man why do we have to be the ones who can do the time travel stuff.” He laughed and grinned at her. “And the only ones with good ideas…Alright, when was the last time we could have seen GA before he vanished?”

“hmmmmm.” Bai hopped and jogged thoughtfully as she considered Wally’s question; the treadmill needed very precise calibrations and well as very precise speed frequencies on their part, so warming up was a necessary step. For her, anyways. Wally was more of a natural at this kinda stuff.

“Maybe after Speedy got bitten and he brought her up to the medbay?” she suggested. “We swipe a tracer from one of the exhibits in the Museum, you implant it subcutaneously on him, we haul speedster ass back to the present and find out where GA is!!”

Wally hopped on the balls of his feet, nodding a bit as he considered the plan. It was good and solid, they just had to be fast.

No problem.

Zipping over, he tweaked the controls, pinpointing the date and time as best he could. He reached over and offered Bai a hand up, letting her get a feel for the thing before he got on it with her. Hopping the rail, he gave his legs a quick stretch, shaking out his arms before looking at her.

“We need to stay together on this,” he said. “Stay focused and keep our rhythm and speed as close as possible. Fluctuations can cause major problems…” He gave her a serious look. “You know all the dangers so I won’t preach. Just…be careful.”

“It’s okay if you preach at me.” Bai watched Wally shake himself out, excitement in her throat. Watching Wally run — really, *really* run — was like … okay, like how you could take two rolls of crepe paper, and fold them in on each other, and then when you pulled them apart you got a long, intricate, beautiful party streamer to decorate with? That was Wally, running full-tilt, folding time and speed in on each other until you were left with a brilliant twist of both, stretching out in a moebius strip through the liquid realm of Speed Force.

“I’ll keep up with you,” Bai promised, giving her headgear an extra tug for good measure, mouth set in a determined line. She tucked the tracer she’d gotten from one of the Museum exhibits into her suit. “Just you watch and see. The two of us together, Wally — there’s no way we can fail.” She started running lightly, hands flat and stiff as her elbows moved alongside her, matching Wally’s pace as the treadmill sped and sped and sped….

He knew she’d keep up. One day, maybe, she’d be as fast or faster than him. He kinda looked forward to that, cuz then SHE could be the Flash and he could take a rest. BUT for now, he had to focus. AS he started running, he let her pace him, matching stride for stride. His were longer, so he shortened them, and he could almost feel her extend her stride beside him. The treadmill whirred as they powered, sounding like a jet engine charging up on top of a lightning generator.

The electric hum steadily grew as they sped up, feet falling mostly in unison. Their rhythm had to match or they would end up causing dissonance in the treadmill and make it shake itself apart.

“Hold steady,” he told her. “We’re almost there. Just a little more.”

“Unh.” Bai thinned her eyes, listening feeling overlapping the rhythmic, rapid footfalls next to her; the sound of Wally’s stride and breathing louder than even the electric charge noise of the treadmill. She loved this the best, when she was accessing speed with another speedster at her side, when they could both let Speed Force run through them and into them and around them as only speedsters could.

And there —

— they broke past the maelstrom of silvery wailing whirling shards that made up the timestorm and into the ever-moving hyperdimensional gels of Speed Force, where nothing was too slow and everything was at their pace, and oh it was so soothing and restful and right and good and maybe they could just stay here for a minute and not have to be constantly compensating every picosecond of every damn day —

— but no, Wally was still running, eyes gone crackly gold and he looked over at her with his breathtaking face full of quickness and lightning, and Bai gathered herself and put her head down and *ran*, through the gorgeousness of Speed Heaven and right out —

— through to the Tower, with Wally at her side.

Jumping into the speedforce was dangerous. It wanted you, it loved you, caressed you and lured you to stay with in it forever. Wally had felt that before, and he’d almost been pulled in. He felt himself moving through it, like running through water but without resistance…He felt his body come alive, lightning in the form of a man. Stay, his body told him. You love this place, you nee-

No.

He forced his thoughts away from the splendor of the speedforce. Instead he thought about raven black hair and a happy little smile, of fire red and bright green. Dick, Roy…Roy, Dick. His tethers. His lightning rods. If he gave in and stayed here, what would happen to them? Who would make Roy smile? Who would reassure Dick he was awesome?

He looked over to Bai just as she looked at him, and knew neither of them would give in. Not this time. It wasn’t time for them to stop here yet.

He skidded quickly to a stop when they burst through into the tower, putting his hands on his knees and panting. Within a second, he was upright again and looking at her.

“Ok, not much time,” he said. “We find Oliver, plant the thing, and skedaddle.”

Bai took the tracer out of her construct pocket (ever since she’d learned to do that, use Speed Force to make construct thingies, she’d loved her sleek suit even more) and handed it over to Wally. “You implant it,” she said. “I don’t wanna accidentally vibrate it right through his arm or whatever.”

They could hear the clatter down the hallway of the medbay gurney making its way to the medical facilities, and Green Arrow hollering at the staff about snakes and venom and HIV. Everything was a bustle, but for two speedsters who knew could access subjective time, the movement was slow as syrup.

Bai moved ahead, gently pushing the medical team away from Green Arrow, clearing the field for Wally to get close.

In that moment, his perception of everything slowed down. It felt like moving at normal speed in a world on pause, a familiar feeling now that he’d gotten used to it. It brushed right against the top speeds that any speedster could hit, speeds that were as natural to him as breathing now. Tracer in hand, he moved up behind Oliver, closer, closer. now he had to be careful lest his sheer speed cause a disruption.

His hand was already vibrating as he raised it, eyes on a spot he was SURE someone would hit him for later. He knew how particular the archers were about their arms and shoulders and backs, as it took so much to use their bows, Ollie’s especially. The slightest twinge would call attention to something being amiss. So he’d worked out a way around that already.

Faster than lightning, he reached out and vibrated the tracer into Oliver’s left butt cheek.

Turning sharply, he ran back, giving Bai an “Okletsgo” on his way by. The tracer was set, now they just had to get back to their own time.

Both hands slapped over her mouth to prevent her laugh from alerting the non-speedsters as to their presence, Bai nodded and raced after Wally. “That was great!!” she gushed, running a few times around him. Being able to move at subjective time was always such a charge, not having to slow down and calculate whether or not her speed would splootch somebody into paste if she didn’t do it *just right*.

“He’ll never find it, Wally, you’re so awesome.” Bai finished circling and hopped up and down in front of her cousin. “So now what? Do we just relax and stop holding this frequency?” They were both still humming at the same tone and speed, the one they’d done in tandem on the treadmill; Bai didn’t want to drop hers first, not without Wally’s say-so.

“I think we can get back the way we got in,” he said, nodding. “We haven’t stopped, so we should be able to just cross back over…”

That was the tricky thing about time travel. He motioned her to fall back in line, and they synchronized their movements once again. He felt his body hum and buzz, almost trembling as the crossed the barrier into the nirvana of the speedforce again.

“It’s working!” he said. “Don’t stop, come on!”

This time he didn’t let himself think. Their job was done and they had to get home, it was as simple as that. He felt his body come alive with lightning, his lungs on fire from the energy and the exertion. Another sudden BOOM and the humming noise of the treadmill came back to him.
Almost…so close…

And with a flash, they were back in the museum, on the treadmill, side by side. Despite being worn out, he was grinning. They’d done it.

“Hot damn!” he said, once they slowed down enough. He let himself slide to the floor, sprawling out with a deliriously happy look on his face. “We did it!”

“We did it we did it we did it!!” Bai danced around him, hopping and skipping in exhileration — not just from a job well done, but also from having gone through Speed Force and made it out again, from having done this task with Wally, from having been *speedsters* doing super-cool speedster shit.

She was about to say something else when both their comms went off, bearing messages from Kate Spencer Manhunter about the current sitrep. “Whoa,” Bai said, looking at Wally. “Looks like we got someplace to be, Flash.”

Wally listened to the message, humming a little as he took it in. Nodding, he hopped up and stretched, looking to Bai.

“Ok, so we grab the tracer, head out and grab some food, then we head on to Warrior’s, cool?” In a blink, Bai was back with the tracer, stashing it away until they needed it later. With a grin, he charged out the door, Bai right beside him. They zipped through a burger joint, each getting a huge bag of burgers to eat on the way. With his meal finished, Wally decided to check in with Hal and Kate.

“Flash here…Hey GL what’s up. We’re on our way to Warrior’s right now….Oh…Oh geez, yeah ok, nevermind then. We’ll go there…Mmhm. Got it, Flash out.” Cursing under his breath, he altered his course.

“Change of plans,” he said. “Mia and GA Jr. are pinned down and need a hand. Speedster rescue time.”