Chapter Text
A-Train makes a critical mistake.
He asks follow-up questions.
It happens in the Watchtower gym after training.
Most of the speedsters are scattered around the room:
-
eating enough calories to bankrupt small nations
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arguing about timelines
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vibrating occasionally for no apparent reason
A-Train points toward Flash, who is currently upside down on a couch somehow.
“Okay. No. I want an actual explanation.”
Wally looks up from his burrito.
“For what?”
“Why everybody pointed at YOU.”
The room immediately goes quiet.
Not tense quiet.
“Oh no, here we go again” quiet.
Barry Allen sighs into his coffee.
Jay Garrick suddenly looks tired in a spiritual sense.
Bart Allen stage-whispers:
“Ask him about the black hole.”
“DON’T ask me about the black hole,” Wally says immediately.
A-Train points aggressively.
“See?! THAT. What does that MEAN?!”
Barry rubs his face.
“Well… Wally’s technically the fastest because he keeps doing impossible things.”
“That’s not an explanation.”
Max Mercury mutters:
“It stops being an explanation after the fourth reality violation.”
“I HEARD THAT,” Wally yells.
—
A-Train folds his arms.
“No. Seriously. Explain it to me like I’m not insane.”
There’s a long pause.
Then Barry says carefully:
“Okay. So imagine speedsters are connected to an infinite extradimensional energy source.”
“…already hate that.”
“And most of us tap into it.”
“Okay.”
Barry points at Wally.
“He accidentally bonded with it so hard the universe basically started identifying him AS movement.”
Silence.
A-Train blinks once.
“…what.”
Wally points finger guns.
“Sup.”
“No no no. Explain NORMALER.”
“You asked the wrong people for that,” Bart says helpfully.
—
Barry tries again.
“Okay. Imagine the Speed Force is an ocean.”
“Fine.”
“Most speedsters swim in it.”
A-Train nods slowly.
Barry points at Wally again.
“He became the ocean’s favorite.”
“That sounds fake.”
“It FEELS fake,” Jay mutters.
Wally throws a chip at him.
—
A-Train pinches the bridge of his nose.
“What does that ACTUALLY mean in practice?”
The entire room immediately starts talking at once.
“He outran the Black Flash.”
“He evacuated a city faster than a nuclear detonation.”
“He beat instantaneous teleportation once.”
“He outran the concept of entropy for like six seconds.”
“He punched a guy so hard the future changed.”
“He came back from nonexistence through friendship.”
A-Train slowly lowers his hands from his face.
“…through WHAT.”
Wally points defensively.
“That one sounds worse out loud.”
“It SHOULD.”
—
Then the Black Flash gets mentioned.
Which is where things truly collapse.
A-Train frowns.
“…what’s the Black Flash?”
Every speedster reacts badly.
Even Wally.
Especially Wally.
Jay looks deeply uncomfortable.
“Think of it like… death for speedsters.”
A-Train nods slowly.
“Okay. That’s horrifying.”
“And Wally outran it.”
“…he outran death.”
Wally lifts a hand slightly.
“In fairness, it was chasing me.”
“DEATH WAS CHASING YOU.”
“Look, it was a weird week.”
A-Train stares at him in disbelief.
“No. No no no. Death is not something you RUN FROM.”
Bart snorts.
“You’d think!”
Barry looks exhausted.
“The Speed Force gets complicated.”
“That is NOT complicated. That is religious.”
—
The final blow comes from Batman.
Because of course he was silently standing in the doorway for who knows how long.
A-Train notices him and nearly jumps.
Batman speaks without inflection.
“Wally once generated enough kinetic energy to threaten the stability of spacetime.”
A-Train turns slowly toward Wally.
Wally gives a tiny awkward wave.
A-Train just stared, “…you’re kidding.”
Batman:
“No.”
“He’s joking,” Wally says weakly.
Batman turns and leaves immediately.
Which somehow confirms it MORE.
A-Train sits down heavily.
Nobody speaks for a moment.
Then he quietly says:
“…you people are terrifying.”
Wally grins.
“Aww. You say the sweetest things.”
And then—
THEN—
XS runs past at impossible speed yelling:
“WALLY REMEMBER THAT TIME YOU BECAME EVERYWHERE?”
A-Train’s soul visibly exits his body.
“HE BECAME WHAT.”