Work Text:
It’s an open secret that Barry Allen is from one of those families- one of the old, Old ones who’ve dwelt in the land that would later become Central City and Granite Peak National Park since before the first white men set anchor on the coast of the New World, and most likely before the first proto-hominid banged two rocks together to create a sharper rock.
His birth certificate was issued on April 1st 1975, five days after the last full moon and five days after he was actually born. Yes, his birth certificate says it was issued in a timely fashion a day after his actual birth, but everyone knows that’s just for the auspicious date of birth, and not because he was actually born on that day.
After all, the howling of wolves could be heard echoing throughout the city on March 27 for three hours after midnight, and everyone knows there’s no wolves in Granite Peak National Park, just Chasers.
No one knows where Barry spent his first five full moons, only that he wasn’t with his parents or with anyone else willing to report it. Barry himself was too young to remember, even on the rare occasions he’s willing to speak about it.
On his sixth full moon, Barry accompanied his parents on their hunt, and Ranger Joe was allowed to hold, weigh and write a description of him, in both two-legged and four-legged shifts- something which continued for several years. Photographs and verification of human identity, of course, were forbidden, but it really couldn’t have been anyone else given the timeframe and location.
Ranger Joe’s notes on “wolf pup 2034M” were the first verifiable evidence that Chasers aren’t born possessing leg and back spines, full-size horns or full-length tails in their shifts, on top of being the most comprehensive documentation of immature Chasers(or really, any Chasers at all) known to exist.
During his thirteenth full moon, Barry made his first kill. If the prey was anything other than a sparrow, the general public would likely not have noticed, but unfortunately, it was a sparrow, and as everyone knows, the Sparrow on the Housetop is summoned by killing a sparrow with your bare hands on the night of the full moon, and letting its blood spill onto ground that has seen twelve days of rain and moonlight.
The Sparrow on the Housetop was thankfully banished from the material realm with only sixty-six known casualties and minimal lasting disruption to the timeline.
Still, the accidental summoning highlighted how unprepared the Central City Police Department was for an incursion by the Sparrow on the Housetop, despite the Sparrow on the Housetop’s summoning ritual, nature and bane having been extensively and safely documented for decades, and it being obvious that the ritual could be easily conducted by accident, possibly even performed by non-sapient wildlife.
Barry, Henry and Nora Allen are the only known witnesses to the 1975 Sparrow on the Housetop Incursion, and according to all three of them, there is a chance that more than thirty-one households were infected by the Sparrow on the Housetop, but they only saw thirty-one sparrows land.
Given the nature of the Sparrow on the Housetop resulting in the complete erasure of its victims’ existence, legal records and paper trail, it’s likely that any casualties who weren’t personally known to the Allens were never recorded as casualties.
Elaine Thorne’s later attempt to estimate from the corresponding Keystone City census data and the approximate sizes of the no-places left behind estimates that the total fatality count of the 1975 Sparrow on the Housetop Incursion could be as high as 63,345, though the error margin is extremely high and this number could possibly include fatalities from prior or future incursions.
The rest of Barry’s youth produced fewer disasters(at least not that were publicly recorded and he sees fit to mention), though there were still several incidents.
When he was three years old, a man named Albert Shelley who had formerly been married and housed before the 1975 Sparrow on the Housetop Incursion broke into the Allens’ house while Henry Allen was at work and the Allens were human, and successfully managed to shoot the toddler in the chest with a .45 pistol.
As anyone who knows anything about Chasers could tell you would be the case, the only tangible results of what would be a fatal injury to a human were forcing Barry into his shift during a waning crescent moon, and into a fear-frenzy.
It’s unknown what happened to Albert Shelley, since no one was brave enough to ask at the time and neither Barry or Nora have ever willingly discussed the incident after Nora made the initial police report, his remains were never located, and the Allens’ house was appropriately spotless by the time that the police arrived to investigate the screaming.
When Barry was eight years old, Nora Allen disappeared the day before the September full moon. No one knows why, except Barry Allen, who was present for her disappearance and traumatized by what he saw.
Neighbors reported alien singing and screaming coming from the house at midnight, as well as bright lights flashing from inside the windows, as if a lightning storm was raging inside, but none were brave enough to go closer. That is the most the general public knows.
Barry consulted the Librarian, bag of dried mango in hand, and was told the story without needing to pay, at least the parts that had already been written and unfolded.
Sir, his mother’s disappearance, while a story worth telling, is not one you can bribe me into telling, even if you bought the entire Dole company and told them to ship all of the mangoes they farm to me.
Yes, I know I told you all about Clyde Mardon’s death, and yes, I did tell that Gothamite journalist about the Chasers- I tried to warn him what would happen, honestly - but that was different.
No, I won’t tell you why it’s different, just that your blood is mighty young to be poking at secrets like these. Why don’t we go back to what you can pay for, hmm?
Barry Allen’s teenage years were surprisingly free of major incidents. There were the many incidents that plague all teenagers, that seem so important to the teen at the time, but that are truly not worth mentioning except maybe as the center of a soap opera series or the cherry on top of a bad day worth telling on its own.
But there were no accidental summonings of Class-Five Old Things, his father remained un-disappeared, uninjured, uncursed and out of jail-
What? You do know the story is currently being told in the 1990s and the public wouldn’t know about that since it hadn’t happened, right? Sheesh, it’s like you forgot who I am and how I’m telling you this. I can’t have inconsistencies in my stories- and no, I will not risk divorcing Fabula and Sujet for you. Not without vastly more payment.
Anyway, for the moment, his father remained un-disappeared, uninjured, uncursed and out of jail, and the most notable incident in his teenage years was the time three girls invited him to senior prom and he turned down all of them, including the popular girl of the year, who would not hold the crown for more than a year and who has no stories of her own worth telling, or even filing under her name.
There were, of course, also a few rather more unusual incidents for the average teenager, but as Barry was a Chaser pup and all of them were rather ordinary and run-of-the-mill for a Chaser pup, they’re not really worth telling. One murder would be a story worth telling for the average teenager, only eighteen human kills over eight years is below-average for a Chaser.
Barry attended Central City College immediately after turning eighteen and pursued a Bachelor of Science in Forensic Chemistry, minoring in Old Laws Studies.
During his graduation ceremony, a Class-Six Old Thing attended as a parent of one of the graduating students(names and Names omitted for safety reasons) and forgot to appropriately contain their excitement. Fifteen people were trapped within an endless, fleeting Instant of Summer and Winter, among them Henry Allen- the first but nowhere near last supernatural incident to similarly afflict Henry Allen over the years.
Barry, assisted by Journalism major Iris West, proceeded to sternly lecture the Class-Six Old Thing in his full shift(aided by the fact that the ceremony was two days before the full moon) and after lecturing the Old Thing to places unknown, the pair freed fourteen of the trapped attendees.
Sheila Winey could not be freed for unknown reasons, though as she truly lived up to her family name, that could have had something to do with it. She can be occasionally glimpsed by the otherworld-sensitive in the assembly hall on nights when the veil between worlds is thin, but has been trapped in that Instant for uncountably countless years.
Degree acquired after four years of thankless and unpaid(if debt-free, thanks to his Mayoral scholarship and family Name) toil, Barry proceeded to take a job with the Central City Police Department as a CSI, as he had been originally planning to do from the moment his mother disappeared.
This is where he still works to this day, diligently unearthing clues, banes and motives for the Central City police during his work hours, and frequently being called or Called to perform a little side work of various types, almost always to further the cause of Justice.
According to his coworkers, he is a sweet guy, the sweetest guy you'll ever meet, and even if his teeth are a little too sharp, he can't work on the full moon, his unimpressed glare cuts like lightning to the soul, and his eyes and smile just seem to glint a little too bright, you get used to it.
I’ll take my payment now. One bag of dried mango, please. And no, I am not accepting meat at this moment, though I will accept untold stories if they’re equal or greater in measure.