Post by C_Miller on Apr 30, 2012 23:19:28 GMT -5
Ultimate Flash (v2) #5
Sleight of Hand
“I can’t believe you, Wally!”
Wally through his hands up defensively as Linda came towards him with her pointer finger outstretched towards him. “Linda, you can’t be serious… I haven’t even told my Aunt Iris yet. You worked with superheroes over the summer… You should understand secret identities.”
“Secret identities, I understand. Superheroes, I don’t.” Linda shot back at him with mirth and venom.
Wally shook his head at her. “Lin, my Uncle was The Flash and I was never smart enough to follow in his footsteps as a Detective. This gave me a chance.”
“Wally, take a step back and listen to yourself… if those are your reasons for going out and risking your life on a nightly basis, then I think you need to do some major life re-assessments.”
Linda took a seat on the couch and Wally quickly followed suit. “Linda, The Flash is the protector of Keystone City. Jessie failed… it’s my turn now.”
“Are you insane?” she shrieked. That was a relatively common theme in her arguments since she found out.
Wally just shook his head and brushed her off. “Says the woman who spent the entire summer in Siegelville, Texas working with Blue Beetle, Booster Gold and all of those other rejects.”
Linda chuckled cynically as she threw her arms out and stormed around the room. “And why do you think that I’m calling you insane? I worked with them down there, they all have their own dysfunctions… why they hell do you think they throw on silly costumes to beat up other people with silly costumes?”
In a fit of rage, he picked up a glass on the table and threw it hard towards the wall. Before, it collided with the television set; he jumped into the Speed Force and snatched it out of the air, preventing the shattering of the glass. “Are you saying that my Uncle was dysfunctional? Insane?”
Linda’s face fell. She hadn’t even thought of that, which was common for her. “Wally… I didn’t mean that… It’s just…. I don’t know. Dealing with this isn’t exactly a normal progression in a relationship.”
Wally flashed Linda a slight, sly smile. “It is for me.”
“Wally, this isn’t a joke…”
The Speedster inched closer to her and placed his arm around her torso, which she quickly shrugged off by standing up. “Lin…”
“I’m sorry, Wally. I just need some time.”
With that, she picked up her coat and left through the front door.
***
“SPIVOT! DESMOND! IN MY OFFICE NOW!” screamed Morillo from his desk as he threw down a sixty-page report on the mahogany surface. Before Morillo could call for them again, both of them stormed into his office and shut the door to spare a bit of public humiliation.
Doctor Albert Desmond and Patty Spivot stood in front of Morillo at some sort of faux attention. They were silent as not to rattle him and he was glaring at them, as if to size them up.
“Is there something wrong, sir?” Albert Desmond broke the silence.
Morillo quickly brought his fist down on the table, causing all of the contents of his desk to shake violently. “Where the hell did you learn to write reports? Back in Los Angeles first year cadets could outshine this skill level. The psychological analysis read like my eight year-old wrote it.”
Patty suppressed a slight smile with a cough. His tone was channeling Chyre and even the same vein in his forehead was pulsating. Before she laughed, she raised her hand to get Morillo’s attention. “Sir, with all due respect, none of us have psychology degrees. Mayor Mardon cut the last profiler several years ago.”
“That’s… unfortunate…” Morillo sighed deeply and placed his head on the desk. “Fine, as you were.”
The two Police Officers nodded as they exited the office and were almost cut off by The Flash as he ran by. The second he hit them; he quickly exited the Speed Force and turned to face them. “Sorry guys. Little tired. Long night. Is Morillo in?”
Spivot laughed. “Uh, yeah, you probably don’t want to talk to him today… he’s a bit testy.”
The Flash looked into Morillo’s office and saw the administrator of the Special Crimes Unit repeatedly bang his head against his desk. “Point taken. What about Chyre?”
“What about me?” asked the aging cop as he entered the Headquarters of the Special Crimes Unit, carrying a cup of coffee and a boomerang. “Morning, Flash. Found this stuck under the lights of my squad car… either we missed one or someone’s tryin’ to send us a message.”
Chyre handed the boomerang to The Flash who dutifully examined it. “This looks like, Digger’s…”
Suddenly the Boomerang exploded in a barrage of confetti in Wally’s hands and a cloud of smoke emitted from it and began to fill the room. Nearly, reflexively, Wally charged to the door and ran towards the Waid River where he deposited the boomerang and ran back. When he returned to the Police Station a split second later, he saw a man standing by the window, wearing a gaudy yellow and blue costume with an outdated denim jacket and a mask.
“Who the hell are you?” Lieutenant Chyre shouted as he reached for his gun, leading everyone else to follow suit.
The man only smiled. “It’s been a pleasure to make your acquaintance, but I really must be going now. I have an appointment.” He positioned himself towards the window and placed a small disc upon it that shattered the glass on contact. Hastily, he jumped out the window, but The Flash was on top of him before he could move, grabbing his arm.
The Flash pulled hard to bring him back into the building, but Wally felt a quick loss of weight and looked back down at his hand. All he had in his grasp was a fake, mannequin hand and when he looked out, he saw the man literally walking on air, waving towards the Police station. “You’ve just been tricked by The Trickster!”
“The Trickster? Who the hell is that?” The Flash looked back at the Police station that had already begun airing out from the smoke from the smoke bomb.
Patty Spivot ran to the file cabinet in the corner of the room and began to rapidly open the drawers and flip through manila folders. The Flash walked up behind her to look at them over her shoulder. “I think I remember reading about him… GOT IT!”
She handed the file to The Flash who began reading. “Giovanni Giuseppe, also known as James Jesse, also known as The Trickster. Based out of Hub City, Michigan and is a former Circus performer who has an affinity for gadgets that he invents… my God, he was brilliant. A real genius.”
Morillo walked over to where The Flash and Spivot were standing and grabbed the file from The Flash. “MIT, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Oxford… all with advance degrees in engineering and other technical disciplines. He’s bright… so why does he break into a police station and commit all these crimes?”
“He’s bored,” The Flash replied.
Morillo looked up with his brow furled. “Excuse me?”
“He’s bored. Didn’t you finish the file?”
Morillo flipped through the file angrily. “This is nearly thirty pages long?!”
“Sorry, I forgot how fast I can read sometimes. But, I think I have some idea of where he’ll be next… I’ll keep you posted…” With that The Flash sped out of the Police Station, leaving papers flying around the room in his wake.
The Flash ran through the streets of Keystone City at a break neck pace, doing his best to dodge people, cars, buildings and other potential obstacles. One of the things Wally discovered quickly into his time as Flash is that his reaction time didn’t perfectly match his speed, so he would have to consciously slow down in order to make sure he didn’t cause any needless destruction. He wasn’t even sure how fast he could actually go.
As he passed the corner of Morrison Avenue and Millar Boulevard, he tapped the earpiece on his left ear. “Babs… Babs, are you there? This is Wally. The Flash.”
After a few moments, he heard the familiar static sound. “What’s going on, Wally… it’s early for you isn’t it?”
“Yeah, long story. I gotta get to Central City fast. Can you hone in on my location and take care of traffic for me?” Wally asked as he quickly dodged a 65 Chevy Camero that pulled out into the street behind him.
As he came to a crosswalk, suddenly the light turned green on his way and he was able to take off. “That should take care of it. Good luck.”
“Affirmative.”
With that, he took off into Central City, a place that he normally didn’t have to patrol and a place where he didn’t go unless he had to. There were too many scars and painful memories there, mostly associated with his Uncle Barry. Central City is where he grew up and if he were to talk about it fully, he would say that he out grew it.
As he pulled around the corner and arrived at the Central City bank, he saw The Trickster on his way in. He quickly made a barrier between the two and jumped into the doorway of the bank. “Stop! I got you figured out, Trickster.”
Trickster just stood there and smiled. “How’d you know, Flash? What made you go to Central when I clearly attacked the Keystone City Police Department?”
Wally smiled smugly. “Your file said that you have to expect the unexpected when it comes to you. You seemed to have means to get across the river in a short amount of time and it would certainly be the most unexpected seeing as the Keystone Central Bank is a block from the Police Station.”
Just then The Trickster placed his finger to the side of his nose and blew out a snot rocket that landed on Wally’s costume, eating through that part of the fabric nearly instantaneously. With his glove he quickly brushed it away, but the Trickster had already done his next attack: throwing a piece of chewed bubble gum towards the Scarlet Speedster.
When the gum made contact with his foot, it expanded and encapsulated both of his legs. Upon, trying to run, he realized his feet were fused to the concrete, but he was able to quickly vibrate through it. “I’ve had enough of your games, Trickster.”
The Flash charged towards Trickster fists forward, but when he expected to connect with The Trickster’s face, his hand went straight through. He tried to hit him a few more times, but no luck.
The Scarlet Speedster took a step back and looked at the Trickster who simply smiled devilishly. “I guess you didn’t expect the unexpected. You’ve just been tricked by The Trickster.” And with that, he disappeared into thin air.
Wally slapped his forehead with his hand. “A hologram!”
***
James Jesse ran through the streets of Keystone City with a wide smile on his face, carrying a large brief case that contained cash, diamonds and gold from his heist at the Keystone Federal Credit Union. Looking around for witnesses, he ducked into a back alley where he opened the case to admire and count his spoils. “One for me, two for me, three for me.” He cackled as he spread his winnings around. “Why am I so awesome?”
Suddenly, a rat crossed his path and grabbed a piece of money its teeth as it scurried away into a crack in the wall. “Hey! That was mine!”
As he tried to put all of the earnings into the case, more rats came trying to steal more. He quickly got hastier and shoveled all of the money in the brief case and began to run away from the alley.
Suddenly, just after he took his second step, his feet were stopped dead in his tracks, causing him to face plant on the asphalt. He looked back at his feet and saw that they were encapsulated in large blocks of ice.
“Sorry, Trickster, you aren’t going anywhere.”
Jesse contorted his body to look up and find the voice that was addressing. From the top of a fire escape, he saw Captain Cold and Pied Piper with large smiles on their faces at the incapacitated man on the ground. “Who are you?”
“We represent the Rogues… we run this city. And to be frank, not many people can make fools of The Flash… we’d like to offer you membership. And let me just say… there’s no saying no.”
The End?
Sleight of Hand
“I can’t believe you, Wally!”
Wally through his hands up defensively as Linda came towards him with her pointer finger outstretched towards him. “Linda, you can’t be serious… I haven’t even told my Aunt Iris yet. You worked with superheroes over the summer… You should understand secret identities.”
“Secret identities, I understand. Superheroes, I don’t.” Linda shot back at him with mirth and venom.
Wally shook his head at her. “Lin, my Uncle was The Flash and I was never smart enough to follow in his footsteps as a Detective. This gave me a chance.”
“Wally, take a step back and listen to yourself… if those are your reasons for going out and risking your life on a nightly basis, then I think you need to do some major life re-assessments.”
Linda took a seat on the couch and Wally quickly followed suit. “Linda, The Flash is the protector of Keystone City. Jessie failed… it’s my turn now.”
“Are you insane?” she shrieked. That was a relatively common theme in her arguments since she found out.
Wally just shook his head and brushed her off. “Says the woman who spent the entire summer in Siegelville, Texas working with Blue Beetle, Booster Gold and all of those other rejects.”
Linda chuckled cynically as she threw her arms out and stormed around the room. “And why do you think that I’m calling you insane? I worked with them down there, they all have their own dysfunctions… why they hell do you think they throw on silly costumes to beat up other people with silly costumes?”
In a fit of rage, he picked up a glass on the table and threw it hard towards the wall. Before, it collided with the television set; he jumped into the Speed Force and snatched it out of the air, preventing the shattering of the glass. “Are you saying that my Uncle was dysfunctional? Insane?”
Linda’s face fell. She hadn’t even thought of that, which was common for her. “Wally… I didn’t mean that… It’s just…. I don’t know. Dealing with this isn’t exactly a normal progression in a relationship.”
Wally flashed Linda a slight, sly smile. “It is for me.”
“Wally, this isn’t a joke…”
The Speedster inched closer to her and placed his arm around her torso, which she quickly shrugged off by standing up. “Lin…”
“I’m sorry, Wally. I just need some time.”
With that, she picked up her coat and left through the front door.
***
“SPIVOT! DESMOND! IN MY OFFICE NOW!” screamed Morillo from his desk as he threw down a sixty-page report on the mahogany surface. Before Morillo could call for them again, both of them stormed into his office and shut the door to spare a bit of public humiliation.
Doctor Albert Desmond and Patty Spivot stood in front of Morillo at some sort of faux attention. They were silent as not to rattle him and he was glaring at them, as if to size them up.
“Is there something wrong, sir?” Albert Desmond broke the silence.
Morillo quickly brought his fist down on the table, causing all of the contents of his desk to shake violently. “Where the hell did you learn to write reports? Back in Los Angeles first year cadets could outshine this skill level. The psychological analysis read like my eight year-old wrote it.”
Patty suppressed a slight smile with a cough. His tone was channeling Chyre and even the same vein in his forehead was pulsating. Before she laughed, she raised her hand to get Morillo’s attention. “Sir, with all due respect, none of us have psychology degrees. Mayor Mardon cut the last profiler several years ago.”
“That’s… unfortunate…” Morillo sighed deeply and placed his head on the desk. “Fine, as you were.”
The two Police Officers nodded as they exited the office and were almost cut off by The Flash as he ran by. The second he hit them; he quickly exited the Speed Force and turned to face them. “Sorry guys. Little tired. Long night. Is Morillo in?”
Spivot laughed. “Uh, yeah, you probably don’t want to talk to him today… he’s a bit testy.”
The Flash looked into Morillo’s office and saw the administrator of the Special Crimes Unit repeatedly bang his head against his desk. “Point taken. What about Chyre?”
“What about me?” asked the aging cop as he entered the Headquarters of the Special Crimes Unit, carrying a cup of coffee and a boomerang. “Morning, Flash. Found this stuck under the lights of my squad car… either we missed one or someone’s tryin’ to send us a message.”
Chyre handed the boomerang to The Flash who dutifully examined it. “This looks like, Digger’s…”
Suddenly the Boomerang exploded in a barrage of confetti in Wally’s hands and a cloud of smoke emitted from it and began to fill the room. Nearly, reflexively, Wally charged to the door and ran towards the Waid River where he deposited the boomerang and ran back. When he returned to the Police Station a split second later, he saw a man standing by the window, wearing a gaudy yellow and blue costume with an outdated denim jacket and a mask.
“Who the hell are you?” Lieutenant Chyre shouted as he reached for his gun, leading everyone else to follow suit.
The man only smiled. “It’s been a pleasure to make your acquaintance, but I really must be going now. I have an appointment.” He positioned himself towards the window and placed a small disc upon it that shattered the glass on contact. Hastily, he jumped out the window, but The Flash was on top of him before he could move, grabbing his arm.
The Flash pulled hard to bring him back into the building, but Wally felt a quick loss of weight and looked back down at his hand. All he had in his grasp was a fake, mannequin hand and when he looked out, he saw the man literally walking on air, waving towards the Police station. “You’ve just been tricked by The Trickster!”
“The Trickster? Who the hell is that?” The Flash looked back at the Police station that had already begun airing out from the smoke from the smoke bomb.
Patty Spivot ran to the file cabinet in the corner of the room and began to rapidly open the drawers and flip through manila folders. The Flash walked up behind her to look at them over her shoulder. “I think I remember reading about him… GOT IT!”
She handed the file to The Flash who began reading. “Giovanni Giuseppe, also known as James Jesse, also known as The Trickster. Based out of Hub City, Michigan and is a former Circus performer who has an affinity for gadgets that he invents… my God, he was brilliant. A real genius.”
Morillo walked over to where The Flash and Spivot were standing and grabbed the file from The Flash. “MIT, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Oxford… all with advance degrees in engineering and other technical disciplines. He’s bright… so why does he break into a police station and commit all these crimes?”
“He’s bored,” The Flash replied.
Morillo looked up with his brow furled. “Excuse me?”
“He’s bored. Didn’t you finish the file?”
Morillo flipped through the file angrily. “This is nearly thirty pages long?!”
“Sorry, I forgot how fast I can read sometimes. But, I think I have some idea of where he’ll be next… I’ll keep you posted…” With that The Flash sped out of the Police Station, leaving papers flying around the room in his wake.
The Flash ran through the streets of Keystone City at a break neck pace, doing his best to dodge people, cars, buildings and other potential obstacles. One of the things Wally discovered quickly into his time as Flash is that his reaction time didn’t perfectly match his speed, so he would have to consciously slow down in order to make sure he didn’t cause any needless destruction. He wasn’t even sure how fast he could actually go.
As he passed the corner of Morrison Avenue and Millar Boulevard, he tapped the earpiece on his left ear. “Babs… Babs, are you there? This is Wally. The Flash.”
After a few moments, he heard the familiar static sound. “What’s going on, Wally… it’s early for you isn’t it?”
“Yeah, long story. I gotta get to Central City fast. Can you hone in on my location and take care of traffic for me?” Wally asked as he quickly dodged a 65 Chevy Camero that pulled out into the street behind him.
As he came to a crosswalk, suddenly the light turned green on his way and he was able to take off. “That should take care of it. Good luck.”
“Affirmative.”
With that, he took off into Central City, a place that he normally didn’t have to patrol and a place where he didn’t go unless he had to. There were too many scars and painful memories there, mostly associated with his Uncle Barry. Central City is where he grew up and if he were to talk about it fully, he would say that he out grew it.
As he pulled around the corner and arrived at the Central City bank, he saw The Trickster on his way in. He quickly made a barrier between the two and jumped into the doorway of the bank. “Stop! I got you figured out, Trickster.”
Trickster just stood there and smiled. “How’d you know, Flash? What made you go to Central when I clearly attacked the Keystone City Police Department?”
Wally smiled smugly. “Your file said that you have to expect the unexpected when it comes to you. You seemed to have means to get across the river in a short amount of time and it would certainly be the most unexpected seeing as the Keystone Central Bank is a block from the Police Station.”
Just then The Trickster placed his finger to the side of his nose and blew out a snot rocket that landed on Wally’s costume, eating through that part of the fabric nearly instantaneously. With his glove he quickly brushed it away, but the Trickster had already done his next attack: throwing a piece of chewed bubble gum towards the Scarlet Speedster.
When the gum made contact with his foot, it expanded and encapsulated both of his legs. Upon, trying to run, he realized his feet were fused to the concrete, but he was able to quickly vibrate through it. “I’ve had enough of your games, Trickster.”
The Flash charged towards Trickster fists forward, but when he expected to connect with The Trickster’s face, his hand went straight through. He tried to hit him a few more times, but no luck.
The Scarlet Speedster took a step back and looked at the Trickster who simply smiled devilishly. “I guess you didn’t expect the unexpected. You’ve just been tricked by The Trickster.” And with that, he disappeared into thin air.
Wally slapped his forehead with his hand. “A hologram!”
***
James Jesse ran through the streets of Keystone City with a wide smile on his face, carrying a large brief case that contained cash, diamonds and gold from his heist at the Keystone Federal Credit Union. Looking around for witnesses, he ducked into a back alley where he opened the case to admire and count his spoils. “One for me, two for me, three for me.” He cackled as he spread his winnings around. “Why am I so awesome?”
Suddenly, a rat crossed his path and grabbed a piece of money its teeth as it scurried away into a crack in the wall. “Hey! That was mine!”
As he tried to put all of the earnings into the case, more rats came trying to steal more. He quickly got hastier and shoveled all of the money in the brief case and began to run away from the alley.
Suddenly, just after he took his second step, his feet were stopped dead in his tracks, causing him to face plant on the asphalt. He looked back at his feet and saw that they were encapsulated in large blocks of ice.
“Sorry, Trickster, you aren’t going anywhere.”
Jesse contorted his body to look up and find the voice that was addressing. From the top of a fire escape, he saw Captain Cold and Pied Piper with large smiles on their faces at the incapacitated man on the ground. “Who are you?”
“We represent the Rogues… we run this city. And to be frank, not many people can make fools of The Flash… we’d like to offer you membership. And let me just say… there’s no saying no.”
The End?
