Post by C_Miller on May 23, 2012 9:59:05 GMT -5
Ultimate Flash (Volume 2) #6
Hot and Cold Pt. 1
Keystone City, Kansas
Wally West tiptoed carefully passed Linda Park’s door as he made his way towards the elevator to head into work. He knew that he could use his speed and not have to worry about it, but he didn’t like to use his speed in areas where there were people that would know him. After a minute longer than it should have taken, he arrived at the elevator and pushed the down button.
After roughly twenty seconds, the doors swung open and to his shock and horror, Linda was standing in the elevator, carrying a large bag of groceries. “Uh… Wally… hey. How are you?”
“Umm… good, you know, Uh, you?” He stepped out of the way to let her get by.
She walked passed him and smiled sheepishly. “You know, hanging in there. How about you?”
Wally let out a small chuckle. “You already asked that…”
Linda bit her lower lip and turned a bright shade of red in embarrassment. “Oh… well, it was great seeing you… we should totally catch up sometime.”
“Oh yeah, completely, I’ll… um… I’ll call you.” He said as he entered the elevator and the doors closed on them. As the elevator began to go down to the ground floor, Wally beat his head against the wall of the lift and let out a long sigh. “Goddammit, Wally.”
Wally and Linda split up the night that she discovered that Wally was The Flash. Well, they didn’t officially call it quits. They just hadn’t spoken since they got in a fight that night. That was nearly two months ago.
Linda accused him of keeping secret and he accused her of snooping and they both argued about why they other one was wrong for being mad. Nothing got accomplished, but everything fell apart and when she slammed his door and went back to her apartment. That was the last time they had done anything but small talk since. Wally missed her, but he was still upset, but not upset about her breaking into his apartment and finding his costume. He was upset that she was angry.
Wally stepped out into the midwestern sum and moved his sunglasses from his forehead to over his eyes as he began to walk down the street towards the auto shop he worked at.
“Wally, is that you?” A woman’s voice called. He turned around quickly and saw Julie Jackam walking towards him. When she reached him, she gave him a tight embrace and a friendly kiss on the cheek. “It’s been so long.”
He laughed a little inside, but made sure not to show his amusement. She was a member of the Special Crimes Unit and since he became The Flash, he had seen her pretty much every day, but she didn’t know that. “Yeah, not since Uncle Barry’s funeral right?”
Her face fell from cheerful to sad. “Yeah, uh, sorry about that. Didn’t mean to bring it up.”
“Oh, it’s no problem. What are you up to today?”
She rolled her eyes. “The mayor’s coming into the office today to meet the team and we got a new Criminal Profiler coming in from Quantico. Hotchkiss wants us all there… and on my day off too.”
Wally smiled as he realized that he should probably be there as well. “So… is The Flash going to show up?”
Julie shrugged. “The new bastard’s certainly more illusive than your Uncle. We don’t know the first thing about getting in touch with him. I know Hotchkiss wants him there, but it’s unlikely. He really only tends to show up when trouble’s around.”
“He may show up. Alistair Mardon making an appearance anywhere seems to qualify as trouble, as far as I’m concerned.” Wally said with a big smile on his face. Alistair Mardon VI had been the Mayor of Keystone City since 1992, which was a surprise considering his unpopularity among the citizens. But being the descendent of one of the chief founders of Keystone City had its advantages.
Julie responded with a light chuckle, catching herself after she realized that Mardon was indirectly her boss. “Funny.”
“I thought so.”
She was about to walk away and head towards the Police station, but she stopped and looked up at him. “Hey, Wally. Do you have any plans tonight?”
Wally questioned her with his eyes, but then soon smiled. His smile fell as he looked up longingly at the window of Linda’s apartment. “I… uh… nothing, I can think of.” He suddenly snapped his fingers and slapped his forehead. “I was planning on robbing Keystone United Bank tonight, but… I, uh, probably shouldn’t have told you that. Why do you ask?”
“You’re a riot, West… I’ve been meaning to try this new Italian place that opened up down the street from my apartment… I was, um, hoping you’d join me.” She said with her voice getting softer and higher as she moved on. He hadn’t really seen much of her since High School, but he had never seen her this unsure of herself.
He smiled down at her. “I’d love to. Pick you up at 8?”
She smiled back. “I guess it’s a date.”
Wally knelt down and kissed her lightly on the cheek as they walked off and went on their separate ways.
***
The Docks. Keystone City, Kansas
Pied Piper slinked around the sides of the metal shipping containers that littered the docks by the Waid River, trying to remain out of sight. It wasn’t often that The Rogues were called upon in the middle of the day and he certainly was not one to risk it by running around in the open in broad daylight. He had enough trouble getting passed his ailing parents and his partner who was paying bills on the fire escape.
“Morning, Piper. Your green hood really pop in the sunlight…”
Pied Piper spun around with his flute out and ready to attack. He quickly brought his flute away from his lips when he saw the red goggles and familiar blue parka. “Dammit, Cold… you can’t do that to me! Not during the day.”
Captain Cold laughed and jumped down from the metal shipping container where he was perched and joined his fellow Rogue on the ground. “C’mon, Hartley, have a little fun in life… It’ll do you some good.”
Hartley shook his head and joined Cold as he began walking towards the familiar container that housed the entrance to the Rogue’s Underground. “So, what was so urgent that you had to call us in the middle of the day? Any word on a good heist?”
“I hate to tell you, but I didn’t…”
Pied Piper stopped dead in his tracks. “And you didn’t issue a warning. What if it’s a trap?”
Captain Cold shook his head. “No one in this City has the stones to call us Rogues together for a fight. Plus, they used an encoded message… no one has those codes but us.”
The hooded musician sighed as they opened up the storage unit and walked inside. Once in there, they stepped carefully into the dark until they arrived at the back wall where there was hidden door. Captain Cold slowly opened the door and they both stepped onto the lift that was behind it. The lift shook and screeched as it entered the main area of the Rogue’s Underground and as they came closer to the floor, they saw a large group of Rouges standing around a man in what looked like a hazard suit. “What’s going on here?”
“Ah, you must be Captain Cold. It’s a pleasure to meet you, my name is Heat Wave.” Heat Wave greeted as Captain Cold and Pied Piper stepped off the lift and Piper slithered cautiously into the crowd as not to raise suspicion.
Captain Cold stepped up to where Heat Wave was standing in the crowd of Rogues and assessed him visually. “Fire gimmick? We have one of those…”
The leader of The Rogues stepped away, but Heat Wave aggressively placed his hand on his shoulder, pulling him back. “You don’t got no one like me, Cold. I can offer you something that no one else here can?”
Captain Cold stood back and laughed. “If I had a nickel for every time I had heard that.”
Heat Wave smiled mischievously at Captain Cold, grinning through his teeth. “Aren’t you going to ask how I called this meeting?”
The second Heat Wave said those words; Captain Cold stopped dead in his tracks and turned around on a dime to face the new villain. “You called us? How?” Captain Cold instantly regretted the question as soon as he finished it.
“I can’t reveal my tricks… at least not so soon. But let’s just say I have friends in… very connected places.” Heat Wave sneered. Captain Cold was not used to dealing with people who were so sure of themselves. That was usually his job.
“I’m done with this…” Captain Cold reached for his cold gun and nearly as soon as he pulled it out of his holster, he fired an ice blast at Heat Wave in a display that would have made The Flash envious. But, unfortunately for Lenny Snart, Heat Wave was just as fast as him and he counter acted the shot, by intercepted it with a blast of firm from his flamethrower.
The two blasts met in the middle and stopped each other, defying all laws of physics. They stood there for several moments with their blasts intertwined before Captain Cold kicked up the power on his cold gun. The cold shot became more pronounced and finally shot back Heat Wave’s, freezing his hand.
“DAMMIT, COLD!”
Captain Cold walked over to him and knocked him down with a swift pistol whip. He got closer to him and placed his foot on his chest. “Get out of my bunker. If you’ll be so kind… And please never come back.”
“I need help.”
Captain Cold let out an aggressive cackle as he further put pressure on Heat Wave’s chest with his foot. “Now the truth comes out. And just to humor us, how may we be of service to such a powerful criminal?”
“The Mayor… I want to… I need to take out the Mayor…”
This time all of the Rogues laughed in unison at the sight of their leader taking out Heat Wave. “Well, boys, it looks like we have a new leader. I can’t believe no one’s thought about taking out the mayor before.”
Captain Cold stepped off Heat Wave. “Let me tell you something, kid. We vandalize, we assault, we steal. We don’t murder. Not unless it’s kill or be killed or revenge… and since I’m not feeling especially vengeful right now, I think it’s best you take off.”
Heat Wave got up and dusted himself off. Without saying a word, he stormed off towards the lift. Once he was gone, Captain Cold turned to the group of Rogues and smiled wildly. “Now that we’re all here, why don’t we talk about breaking out Captain Boomerang.”
***
Keystone City Police Station
A barrage of security guards and other members of his entourage surrounded Mayor Alistair Mardon VI as he strolled into the Police Station as the courthouse’s clock tower began to ring at the strike of eleven. He laughed at the irony of walking into a police station with armed escorts, but deep down he knew one couldn’t be too safe in this city. Especially if your name was Mardon.
“Mr. Mayor. Good morning.” Commissioner Vaughn Hotchkiss walked out of the Station Headquarters, with his hand out stretched.
Mayor Mardon slightly winced as he reluctantly took the Commissioner’s hand. “Good morning, yes, isn’t it? The weather is simply delightfully inclement… so what do you have to show me today?”
Commissioner Hotchkiss nodded. “Follow me, Mr. Mayor. I believe you’ll be impressed by the group we’ve put together. After we lost James Gordon and Jason Bard, we were worried about the future of the program, but I’ve been extremely impressed.”
“Very good, Commissioner. I’d hate to think that we were wasting money… especially seeing as the crime rate has increased in recent months…”
The Police chief winced at the implied accusation. He and everyone at the station had hoped that the return of The Flash would lead to a decrease in crime, but there was no such luck. If anything it appeared as if every costumed criminal was aching to get apiece of The Flash as some type of status symbol. “Mr. Mayor, with all due respect, it’s much more complicated than that.”
The Mayor nodded. “It always is…”
When the pair of civil servants and the Mayor’s entourage arrived at the Special Crimes Unit, the whole unit was hard at work and barely even acknowledged the Mayor. All except for Chyre and Morillo, who stared at him from the corner near the coffee maker.
“So, Chyre, you ever met him?”
Lieutenant Chyre responded with a resounding grunt that could either be construed as a growl or a chuckle. “When the Mardons and others moved to and founded Keystone, some of my family members were the Native people of these lands. My family elected to stay… let’s just say it was a mistake.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Yeah… it is what it is…”
The Mayor spent the better part of the next hour shaking hands and speaking to members of the police force in a way that sounded more like an interrogation rather than friendly conversation. He just had that way about him. “So… Miss Jackam is it? I knew your grandfather. We served together during Vietnam… I was so sorry to hear about his death.”
“That was three years ago, sir.”
Mayor Mardon sneered at her. “Yes… so it was. They all do tend to blend together from where I’m sitting. It feels like just yesterday…”
He stepped away from Julie and walked over to Forrest who was working through some DNA samples at his desk. As he left, Patty Spivot came over to her friend with a knowing smile on her face. “He gives me the creeps.”
Julie laughed as she took a sip of her coffee, nearly spitting it out back into the Styrofoam cup. “That’s putting it pleasantly…” She looked up longingly at the clock and hung on the wall. “Do you know when that profiler’s getting here? Hunter Zoloman, right? I gotta jet.”
Patty shrugged. “I don’t know. Apparently his train was supposed to be getting in fifteen or so minutes ago… but why are you in such a hurry?”
Officer Jackam uncharacteristically blushed a deep shade of red. “I… um, I have a date.”
Patty’s demeanor instantly brightened as she hugged Julie tightly. “Oh my God, Oh My God, With who!?!”
Julie shifted her feet out of pure nerves and bit her lower lip. “Wally… Wally West.”
Before Julie had the chance to react, The Flash ran into the office, right passed Morillo who spilled his coffee all over his shirt and tie as a result. “Oops, sorry Detective… I’ll get that dry cleaned for you!”
Instantly, Morillo appeared in a T-Shirt with the Flash’s logo on it and a split second later, The Flash appeared back in the room holding Morillo’s shirt and tie. They were cleaned and pressed and showed no evidence of coffee.
“So… what’d I miss?”
***
“Oh my God, you should have seen the look on Morillo’s face. I’ve never send the look of anger and the look of horror so divinely mixed.” Julie explained to Wally as she tried to contain her laughter, to great failure.
Wally began to laugh heartily. Not at the story as he was present when the events were going on, but that she was having so much fun telling it. He completely lost it when she let out a light snort and tears began to flow from her eyes. “You really don’t like Morillo, do you?”
Julie took a couple of gasps for breaths as she tried to calm down. “Yeah, it’s not that… he seems to really know how to do his job. He just takes himself far too seriously… and that’s coming from me. Before tonight, I really can’t remember the last time I really laughed.”
Wally reached out his hand across the table, grabbing hers and he began to lightly caress it. “Well, I’m glad I could help out. Why didn’t we ever do this more after High School? I don’t remember having a bad time at prom… in fact I seem to recall… erm… enjoying each other rather well afterwards.”
She smiled softly. “Her name was Jessica Garrick…”
The Speedster’s face turned a color that both matched his hair and his costume. It’s not that he didn’t recall that Jessie was a major factor in all of his decisions from the time he was twelve until just around five months ago, but at this point he didn’t understand how he used that to let someone like Julie go. “Yeah, I’m so…”
She threw her hands up. “Please, don’t apologize. I would have been deluded to think I could compete with a daughter of The Flash… especially one who looked like her.”
Wally squeezed Julie’s hand tightly. “Don’t say that. Jess was just a very important part of my life. We were bonded together by a connection through The Flash family. I wish I could justify it better, but that’s all I got.”
“You don’t need to… I was just a dumb little girl trying to act tough. If I actually thought it was okay to act like a girl, maybe things would have been different.” Julie looked down at the floor and lamented.
Wally got up and walked around to her side of the table, cupping her face in his hands. “Hey, don’t talk like that. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
They left the restaurant with his arm tightly around her and they walked down the block towards her apartment. She slightly shiver, which Wally quickly picked up on, responding by taking off his jacket and throwing it over her shoulders.
“Thanks, Wally. Shows how much I wear dresses… I forget how cold they are.”
Wally laughed. “Yeah, I can understand that. It’s not like your shoulders aren’t covered or something.”
She playfully leaned into him, pushing him towards a mailbox, which he crashed into as they arrived at her apartment building. Biting her lower lip, she looked up at him and caught him beaming at her. “So, want to walk me in?”
He answered with a chaste kiss. Her hands crept from his waste, up his stomach towards his tie, which she began to pull him with. As they walked up the stairs, they kept stopping to steal a kiss or two.
When they got to her room, he pushed her against the wall and began to kiss her neck as she fumbled with her keys. “So, here we are…” Wally said breathlessly.
Julie made a sound deep in her throat as Wally continued to kiss her neck. “I don’t think I’m ready for this to end.”
She opened the door and pulled him inside.
***
Mayor Alistair Mardon VI was dosing off in his chair that resembled a throne by his fireplace in the office of the Mayor’s Mansion that had been in his family since the founding of Keystone Falls in the middle 1800s. This was his nightly ritual; finish the night with a glass of scotch, a pipe and the three main newspapers of the Twin Cities. “Urgh. Time, for bed I suppose.”
With a stretch and a yawn, he stood up, setting the papers on the table next to his chair. Suddenly, he heard the sound of his door closing, causing him to quickly turn around to investigate. He saw nothing, but when he turned around, he saw a man in a big hazard suit with something that looked like a gas tank on his back. There were two hoses that came from the tank, came up his arms and ended at his hands.
“Who the fuck are you?” asked the Mayor as he lunged towards his desk, where he kept a revolver.
The man shot out a blast of fire from his flamethrower, setting the desk on fire. “Hello Mr. Mayor… it’s time to pay for your sins.”
TO BE CONTINUED
Hot and Cold Pt. 1
Keystone City, Kansas
Wally West tiptoed carefully passed Linda Park’s door as he made his way towards the elevator to head into work. He knew that he could use his speed and not have to worry about it, but he didn’t like to use his speed in areas where there were people that would know him. After a minute longer than it should have taken, he arrived at the elevator and pushed the down button.
After roughly twenty seconds, the doors swung open and to his shock and horror, Linda was standing in the elevator, carrying a large bag of groceries. “Uh… Wally… hey. How are you?”
“Umm… good, you know, Uh, you?” He stepped out of the way to let her get by.
She walked passed him and smiled sheepishly. “You know, hanging in there. How about you?”
Wally let out a small chuckle. “You already asked that…”
Linda bit her lower lip and turned a bright shade of red in embarrassment. “Oh… well, it was great seeing you… we should totally catch up sometime.”
“Oh yeah, completely, I’ll… um… I’ll call you.” He said as he entered the elevator and the doors closed on them. As the elevator began to go down to the ground floor, Wally beat his head against the wall of the lift and let out a long sigh. “Goddammit, Wally.”
Wally and Linda split up the night that she discovered that Wally was The Flash. Well, they didn’t officially call it quits. They just hadn’t spoken since they got in a fight that night. That was nearly two months ago.
Linda accused him of keeping secret and he accused her of snooping and they both argued about why they other one was wrong for being mad. Nothing got accomplished, but everything fell apart and when she slammed his door and went back to her apartment. That was the last time they had done anything but small talk since. Wally missed her, but he was still upset, but not upset about her breaking into his apartment and finding his costume. He was upset that she was angry.
Wally stepped out into the midwestern sum and moved his sunglasses from his forehead to over his eyes as he began to walk down the street towards the auto shop he worked at.
“Wally, is that you?” A woman’s voice called. He turned around quickly and saw Julie Jackam walking towards him. When she reached him, she gave him a tight embrace and a friendly kiss on the cheek. “It’s been so long.”
He laughed a little inside, but made sure not to show his amusement. She was a member of the Special Crimes Unit and since he became The Flash, he had seen her pretty much every day, but she didn’t know that. “Yeah, not since Uncle Barry’s funeral right?”
Her face fell from cheerful to sad. “Yeah, uh, sorry about that. Didn’t mean to bring it up.”
“Oh, it’s no problem. What are you up to today?”
She rolled her eyes. “The mayor’s coming into the office today to meet the team and we got a new Criminal Profiler coming in from Quantico. Hotchkiss wants us all there… and on my day off too.”
Wally smiled as he realized that he should probably be there as well. “So… is The Flash going to show up?”
Julie shrugged. “The new bastard’s certainly more illusive than your Uncle. We don’t know the first thing about getting in touch with him. I know Hotchkiss wants him there, but it’s unlikely. He really only tends to show up when trouble’s around.”
“He may show up. Alistair Mardon making an appearance anywhere seems to qualify as trouble, as far as I’m concerned.” Wally said with a big smile on his face. Alistair Mardon VI had been the Mayor of Keystone City since 1992, which was a surprise considering his unpopularity among the citizens. But being the descendent of one of the chief founders of Keystone City had its advantages.
Julie responded with a light chuckle, catching herself after she realized that Mardon was indirectly her boss. “Funny.”
“I thought so.”
She was about to walk away and head towards the Police station, but she stopped and looked up at him. “Hey, Wally. Do you have any plans tonight?”
Wally questioned her with his eyes, but then soon smiled. His smile fell as he looked up longingly at the window of Linda’s apartment. “I… uh… nothing, I can think of.” He suddenly snapped his fingers and slapped his forehead. “I was planning on robbing Keystone United Bank tonight, but… I, uh, probably shouldn’t have told you that. Why do you ask?”
“You’re a riot, West… I’ve been meaning to try this new Italian place that opened up down the street from my apartment… I was, um, hoping you’d join me.” She said with her voice getting softer and higher as she moved on. He hadn’t really seen much of her since High School, but he had never seen her this unsure of herself.
He smiled down at her. “I’d love to. Pick you up at 8?”
She smiled back. “I guess it’s a date.”
Wally knelt down and kissed her lightly on the cheek as they walked off and went on their separate ways.
***
The Docks. Keystone City, Kansas
Pied Piper slinked around the sides of the metal shipping containers that littered the docks by the Waid River, trying to remain out of sight. It wasn’t often that The Rogues were called upon in the middle of the day and he certainly was not one to risk it by running around in the open in broad daylight. He had enough trouble getting passed his ailing parents and his partner who was paying bills on the fire escape.
“Morning, Piper. Your green hood really pop in the sunlight…”
Pied Piper spun around with his flute out and ready to attack. He quickly brought his flute away from his lips when he saw the red goggles and familiar blue parka. “Dammit, Cold… you can’t do that to me! Not during the day.”
Captain Cold laughed and jumped down from the metal shipping container where he was perched and joined his fellow Rogue on the ground. “C’mon, Hartley, have a little fun in life… It’ll do you some good.”
Hartley shook his head and joined Cold as he began walking towards the familiar container that housed the entrance to the Rogue’s Underground. “So, what was so urgent that you had to call us in the middle of the day? Any word on a good heist?”
“I hate to tell you, but I didn’t…”
Pied Piper stopped dead in his tracks. “And you didn’t issue a warning. What if it’s a trap?”
Captain Cold shook his head. “No one in this City has the stones to call us Rogues together for a fight. Plus, they used an encoded message… no one has those codes but us.”
The hooded musician sighed as they opened up the storage unit and walked inside. Once in there, they stepped carefully into the dark until they arrived at the back wall where there was hidden door. Captain Cold slowly opened the door and they both stepped onto the lift that was behind it. The lift shook and screeched as it entered the main area of the Rogue’s Underground and as they came closer to the floor, they saw a large group of Rouges standing around a man in what looked like a hazard suit. “What’s going on here?”
“Ah, you must be Captain Cold. It’s a pleasure to meet you, my name is Heat Wave.” Heat Wave greeted as Captain Cold and Pied Piper stepped off the lift and Piper slithered cautiously into the crowd as not to raise suspicion.
Captain Cold stepped up to where Heat Wave was standing in the crowd of Rogues and assessed him visually. “Fire gimmick? We have one of those…”
The leader of The Rogues stepped away, but Heat Wave aggressively placed his hand on his shoulder, pulling him back. “You don’t got no one like me, Cold. I can offer you something that no one else here can?”
Captain Cold stood back and laughed. “If I had a nickel for every time I had heard that.”
Heat Wave smiled mischievously at Captain Cold, grinning through his teeth. “Aren’t you going to ask how I called this meeting?”
The second Heat Wave said those words; Captain Cold stopped dead in his tracks and turned around on a dime to face the new villain. “You called us? How?” Captain Cold instantly regretted the question as soon as he finished it.
“I can’t reveal my tricks… at least not so soon. But let’s just say I have friends in… very connected places.” Heat Wave sneered. Captain Cold was not used to dealing with people who were so sure of themselves. That was usually his job.
“I’m done with this…” Captain Cold reached for his cold gun and nearly as soon as he pulled it out of his holster, he fired an ice blast at Heat Wave in a display that would have made The Flash envious. But, unfortunately for Lenny Snart, Heat Wave was just as fast as him and he counter acted the shot, by intercepted it with a blast of firm from his flamethrower.
The two blasts met in the middle and stopped each other, defying all laws of physics. They stood there for several moments with their blasts intertwined before Captain Cold kicked up the power on his cold gun. The cold shot became more pronounced and finally shot back Heat Wave’s, freezing his hand.
“DAMMIT, COLD!”
Captain Cold walked over to him and knocked him down with a swift pistol whip. He got closer to him and placed his foot on his chest. “Get out of my bunker. If you’ll be so kind… And please never come back.”
“I need help.”
Captain Cold let out an aggressive cackle as he further put pressure on Heat Wave’s chest with his foot. “Now the truth comes out. And just to humor us, how may we be of service to such a powerful criminal?”
“The Mayor… I want to… I need to take out the Mayor…”
This time all of the Rogues laughed in unison at the sight of their leader taking out Heat Wave. “Well, boys, it looks like we have a new leader. I can’t believe no one’s thought about taking out the mayor before.”
Captain Cold stepped off Heat Wave. “Let me tell you something, kid. We vandalize, we assault, we steal. We don’t murder. Not unless it’s kill or be killed or revenge… and since I’m not feeling especially vengeful right now, I think it’s best you take off.”
Heat Wave got up and dusted himself off. Without saying a word, he stormed off towards the lift. Once he was gone, Captain Cold turned to the group of Rogues and smiled wildly. “Now that we’re all here, why don’t we talk about breaking out Captain Boomerang.”
***
Keystone City Police Station
A barrage of security guards and other members of his entourage surrounded Mayor Alistair Mardon VI as he strolled into the Police Station as the courthouse’s clock tower began to ring at the strike of eleven. He laughed at the irony of walking into a police station with armed escorts, but deep down he knew one couldn’t be too safe in this city. Especially if your name was Mardon.
“Mr. Mayor. Good morning.” Commissioner Vaughn Hotchkiss walked out of the Station Headquarters, with his hand out stretched.
Mayor Mardon slightly winced as he reluctantly took the Commissioner’s hand. “Good morning, yes, isn’t it? The weather is simply delightfully inclement… so what do you have to show me today?”
Commissioner Hotchkiss nodded. “Follow me, Mr. Mayor. I believe you’ll be impressed by the group we’ve put together. After we lost James Gordon and Jason Bard, we were worried about the future of the program, but I’ve been extremely impressed.”
“Very good, Commissioner. I’d hate to think that we were wasting money… especially seeing as the crime rate has increased in recent months…”
The Police chief winced at the implied accusation. He and everyone at the station had hoped that the return of The Flash would lead to a decrease in crime, but there was no such luck. If anything it appeared as if every costumed criminal was aching to get apiece of The Flash as some type of status symbol. “Mr. Mayor, with all due respect, it’s much more complicated than that.”
The Mayor nodded. “It always is…”
When the pair of civil servants and the Mayor’s entourage arrived at the Special Crimes Unit, the whole unit was hard at work and barely even acknowledged the Mayor. All except for Chyre and Morillo, who stared at him from the corner near the coffee maker.
“So, Chyre, you ever met him?”
Lieutenant Chyre responded with a resounding grunt that could either be construed as a growl or a chuckle. “When the Mardons and others moved to and founded Keystone, some of my family members were the Native people of these lands. My family elected to stay… let’s just say it was a mistake.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Yeah… it is what it is…”
The Mayor spent the better part of the next hour shaking hands and speaking to members of the police force in a way that sounded more like an interrogation rather than friendly conversation. He just had that way about him. “So… Miss Jackam is it? I knew your grandfather. We served together during Vietnam… I was so sorry to hear about his death.”
“That was three years ago, sir.”
Mayor Mardon sneered at her. “Yes… so it was. They all do tend to blend together from where I’m sitting. It feels like just yesterday…”
He stepped away from Julie and walked over to Forrest who was working through some DNA samples at his desk. As he left, Patty Spivot came over to her friend with a knowing smile on her face. “He gives me the creeps.”
Julie laughed as she took a sip of her coffee, nearly spitting it out back into the Styrofoam cup. “That’s putting it pleasantly…” She looked up longingly at the clock and hung on the wall. “Do you know when that profiler’s getting here? Hunter Zoloman, right? I gotta jet.”
Patty shrugged. “I don’t know. Apparently his train was supposed to be getting in fifteen or so minutes ago… but why are you in such a hurry?”
Officer Jackam uncharacteristically blushed a deep shade of red. “I… um, I have a date.”
Patty’s demeanor instantly brightened as she hugged Julie tightly. “Oh my God, Oh My God, With who!?!”
Julie shifted her feet out of pure nerves and bit her lower lip. “Wally… Wally West.”
Before Julie had the chance to react, The Flash ran into the office, right passed Morillo who spilled his coffee all over his shirt and tie as a result. “Oops, sorry Detective… I’ll get that dry cleaned for you!”
Instantly, Morillo appeared in a T-Shirt with the Flash’s logo on it and a split second later, The Flash appeared back in the room holding Morillo’s shirt and tie. They were cleaned and pressed and showed no evidence of coffee.
“So… what’d I miss?”
***
“Oh my God, you should have seen the look on Morillo’s face. I’ve never send the look of anger and the look of horror so divinely mixed.” Julie explained to Wally as she tried to contain her laughter, to great failure.
Wally began to laugh heartily. Not at the story as he was present when the events were going on, but that she was having so much fun telling it. He completely lost it when she let out a light snort and tears began to flow from her eyes. “You really don’t like Morillo, do you?”
Julie took a couple of gasps for breaths as she tried to calm down. “Yeah, it’s not that… he seems to really know how to do his job. He just takes himself far too seriously… and that’s coming from me. Before tonight, I really can’t remember the last time I really laughed.”
Wally reached out his hand across the table, grabbing hers and he began to lightly caress it. “Well, I’m glad I could help out. Why didn’t we ever do this more after High School? I don’t remember having a bad time at prom… in fact I seem to recall… erm… enjoying each other rather well afterwards.”
She smiled softly. “Her name was Jessica Garrick…”
The Speedster’s face turned a color that both matched his hair and his costume. It’s not that he didn’t recall that Jessie was a major factor in all of his decisions from the time he was twelve until just around five months ago, but at this point he didn’t understand how he used that to let someone like Julie go. “Yeah, I’m so…”
She threw her hands up. “Please, don’t apologize. I would have been deluded to think I could compete with a daughter of The Flash… especially one who looked like her.”
Wally squeezed Julie’s hand tightly. “Don’t say that. Jess was just a very important part of my life. We were bonded together by a connection through The Flash family. I wish I could justify it better, but that’s all I got.”
“You don’t need to… I was just a dumb little girl trying to act tough. If I actually thought it was okay to act like a girl, maybe things would have been different.” Julie looked down at the floor and lamented.
Wally got up and walked around to her side of the table, cupping her face in his hands. “Hey, don’t talk like that. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
They left the restaurant with his arm tightly around her and they walked down the block towards her apartment. She slightly shiver, which Wally quickly picked up on, responding by taking off his jacket and throwing it over her shoulders.
“Thanks, Wally. Shows how much I wear dresses… I forget how cold they are.”
Wally laughed. “Yeah, I can understand that. It’s not like your shoulders aren’t covered or something.”
She playfully leaned into him, pushing him towards a mailbox, which he crashed into as they arrived at her apartment building. Biting her lower lip, she looked up at him and caught him beaming at her. “So, want to walk me in?”
He answered with a chaste kiss. Her hands crept from his waste, up his stomach towards his tie, which she began to pull him with. As they walked up the stairs, they kept stopping to steal a kiss or two.
When they got to her room, he pushed her against the wall and began to kiss her neck as she fumbled with her keys. “So, here we are…” Wally said breathlessly.
Julie made a sound deep in her throat as Wally continued to kiss her neck. “I don’t think I’m ready for this to end.”
She opened the door and pulled him inside.
***
Mayor Alistair Mardon VI was dosing off in his chair that resembled a throne by his fireplace in the office of the Mayor’s Mansion that had been in his family since the founding of Keystone Falls in the middle 1800s. This was his nightly ritual; finish the night with a glass of scotch, a pipe and the three main newspapers of the Twin Cities. “Urgh. Time, for bed I suppose.”
With a stretch and a yawn, he stood up, setting the papers on the table next to his chair. Suddenly, he heard the sound of his door closing, causing him to quickly turn around to investigate. He saw nothing, but when he turned around, he saw a man in a big hazard suit with something that looked like a gas tank on his back. There were two hoses that came from the tank, came up his arms and ended at his hands.
“Who the fuck are you?” asked the Mayor as he lunged towards his desk, where he kept a revolver.
The man shot out a blast of fire from his flamethrower, setting the desk on fire. “Hello Mr. Mayor… it’s time to pay for your sins.”
TO BE CONTINUED
