Young Justice: Revolution Ep5- Flashback Part 4

San Francisco, Resistance HQ

May 15 08:30 PDT

2063

    M’Gann stood at the door of Wally’s room, her hands clasped in front of her. She stared down at herself, finding a strange comfort in the familiarity of her paler skin. The usual green hue seemed to unnerve some of the humans around the base, so she’d taken to walking around this way instead. Though the color of her skin had changed, the scar marring one side of her face was still there. Her black and red uniform morphed into rather plain looking military fatigues, the same as the ones she’d given Wally the night before. With the thought at the forefront of her mind, M’Gann turned and looked at the door, only able to imagine what Wally’s night had been like.

    After everything he’d learned, she doubted he would have been able to sleep. Knowing the speedster like she did, it was far more likely his mind had kept him up most of the night, agonizing over how any of this could be possible, and more importantly how it had happened. The door swung open, revealing Wally dressed as he had been before. His fiery hair was sticking up in all directions like he’d run his fingers through it too many times.

    “Morning.” He said covering his mouth to stifle a yawn. M’Gann couldn’t help but smile at her friend.

    “Come on. We’re already late.” She motioned for him to follow her, down the same hallway, passing two new guards every so often. As they walked she felt herself gravitating closer to Wally. With each person they walked by, she felt more and more anxious, finally reaching out to grab his hand as if fearing anyone of them would tear him away again. Wally looked at her, surprise evident on his face, but he didn’t pull away. He seemed to need the contact as much as she did. She led him down the same set of stairs, through the giant doors, and into the command center. It was much louder now, just as full of people as it had been before, this time none of them checking their volume. Walking around the outer ring of desks and dodging people as they walked past, they approached one of the small side doors. M’Gann lifted one hand and rapped her knuckles against the metal.

    “Come in.” The voice was quiet, but even muffled through the door she could tell it was only Michael inside the room. Grasping the door handle she pulled in open, letting Wally walk in to the small office ahead of her. Michael’s office was surprisingly cluttered for a military man. Stacks upon stacks of paper covered his desk, only allowing one to guess at what the piece of furniture really looked like. Paint was chipping off the walls, the farthest one adorned with a large map of the world. Michael was standing behind the desk facing it; countless red pins were stuck to it. As the two of them entered the room, he turned to face them, his grim expression morphing into a smile.

    “Ah, you’re here. Have a seat.” Michael said pleasantly gesturing to the chairs in front of the desk. Wally hesitated, only sitting when M’Gann already had. Michael crossed his arms casually, looking away from M’Gann to address Wally. “How are you feeling, kid?”

    “Alright for the moment, I think.” Wally replied, one hand rubbing his ribs absentmindedly.

    Michael noticed the movement and nodded his head at Wally’s chest. “You shouldn’t have to worry about that now. We don’t think you’ll be having another of those attacks any time soon.”

    “Well that’s good since I wasn’t really looking forward to-” Wally paused and looked up at Michael. M’Gann recognized the mixed look of perplexity and suspicion on his face as he raised one eyebrow. “How do you figure that?

            “Well, we’ve got a lot of theories about you, Wally. Most of them are about how you got here, but we think that might be what’s causing them.” Michael sat in his chair and reached under the desk. There was a quiet click as if he’d pressed a button and the lighting the room began to dim. M’Gann couldn’t help but smile to herself as Wally looked around with wide eyes. She knew what was coming next, so the smile quickly fell from her face as Michael reached into one drawer of the desk, pulling out a shiny metallic disk and laying it on the desk in front of Wally. “This is just a little something we’ve managed to put together.”

            “What is-” Wally’s question was cut off as the disk lit up, a column of light building up from the disk. The light began to swirl, forming a tornado like whirlwind of energy; he watched it with rapt fascination. It looked so familiar, but his mind couldn’t quite place the sight.

            “This is all of the data we managed to collect and save. Everything salvageable from the Leagues computers, readings from the bioship, and most importantly, Blue Beetles scans of the vortex.”

            “You mean this is the-”

            “Yes.” Michael said nodding cutting Wally off again. “The Reach almost destroyed the planet with this thing nearly fifty years ago. And these,” He reached out one hand and tapped the disk. The image shifted to the base of the vortex where three red blurs were interlaced with it. “are you, Impulse, and The Flash.”

            Wally’s eyes widened as he leaned forward, watching the little blurs move. “I didn’t realize it was that big.” It sounded stupid, but it was all he could say.

            Michael waited a moment, sitting down and lacing his fingers together on top of the desk. “Now, can you remember what happened?”

            Wally’s eye flicked around the room, to the map, at M’Gann sitting next to him, then down at his hands, missing the small smile she offered him, then the concern becoming evident in her eyes. “I was running and… the vortex was…It kept zapping me, like it had its own lightning. I heard someone saying it was using me for some kind of energy release then…I said good-bye.” Wally lifted one hand and stared at it. It trembled a little as he remembered seeing himself beginning to disappear, the look on Uncle Barry’s face, and thinking he’d never get to see Artemis again. He clenched his hand into a fist to stop the thoughts and the shaking. “I woke up half naked in the North Pole apparently forty-seven years in the future.”

            “You spoke with Flash over your radio.” Michael said, making Wally raise an eyebrow in confusion.

            “No. Face to face in the vortex.” Wally replied, looking over at M’Gann for a moment. “Why is that important?”

            Michael just blinked at him. “The reports say the three of you had to run at your top speeds to dissipate the vortex.” He looked down at piece of paper, seeming to check his facts.

            “Yeah, so?” Wally exclaimed getting frustrated. “Just tell me what happened.”

            “Wally….how were you able to talk to someone face to face who should have been lapping you?” Michael asked slowly.

            “I don’t know. They were trying to slow down, to help me.” Wally said his face going blank.

            “The Flash’s top speed is nearly light speed correct?” Michael didn’t wait for a response before tapping the disk again. This time a blue stream of energy appeared, circling the base of the vortex. “That is the last thing any of the Leagues sensors picked up before they lost you. It’s an energy burst, much more powerful than anything The Flash or Impulse were generating.”

            Wally just shook his head. “What does that mean?”

            “It means, Wally, that you were running faster than the speed of light.” Michael leaned back in his chair crossing his arms over his chest. “That’s how you got here.”

            Wally’s mouth fell open and M’Gann leaned forward in her seat. “What? I don’t understand.” She said looking at Wally. Apparently he didn’t either, even with everything he knew about science. That or he was simply speechless.

            Looking at Wally for just a moment, Michael turned to M’Gann. “The vortex was using Wally as a conduit to release energy. Wally was being ‘zapped’ by the equivalent of the entire Earth’s magnetic field. The best we can figure, is all of that extra energy reacted with his meta genes, and amplified what was already there. It’s like a nitrous oxide boost on an already fast car, except…more. Wally was running faster than the speed of light, that’s why he disappeared. And, according to Wally’s statement, why he showed up unclothed. Basically they lagged behind and disintegrated.”

            Wally slumped in his chair, almost sliding to the floor. It makes perfect sense. M’Gann heard the thought, still connected to him.

            “But how did he end up here? I mean it’s been forty-seven years.”

            “It’s Light Speed Theory.” Wally said quietly, not moving except for his eyes flicking up to Michael.

            M’Gann looked between the two of them, still confused. “What does that mean?”

            Michael looked away from Wally and sighed. “It’s a scientific belief that anything that can travel above the speed of light, could potentially travel forward in time. No one could ever test it because the amount of energy required for that compared to the size of the object…” Michael stopped talking for a moment to calm himself. “Anyway, there have been developments like hyperdrive engines that can make things travel great distances in very little time, but they don’t reach light speed. If they did, they would experience a time differential. A few seconds to the traveler could be weeks, month, even years to the rest of us like it was for Wally. He stopped now, most likely because the energy keeping him going forward…essentially ran out.” Michael lifted a hand and gestured to Wally, his mouth curving into a frown. M’Gann blinked confused, then turned to look at Wally. He was leaning forward with his head in his hands, elbows propped up on his knees.

            “Wally.” She leaned over and put a hand on his shoulder. With a soft sigh, she looked up at Michael. “Can we send him back? Maybe we could change this time line!”

            Michael was already shaking is head. “I’m sorry. As far as we know, that kind of time travel is a one way street. If he got up to that speed again, he would just go farther forward.”

            Wally lifted his head from his hands suddenly. “So running backwards won’t help?” He let out a dismayed chuckled. “I’m stuck here.”

            “Wally…” M’Gann couldn’t think of what else to say so she just patted his shoulder.

            “Got any good news?” Wally asked through his hands.

            “Well, your abilities are most likely permanently amplified.” Michael replied tapping the disk twice. A glowing human form appeared, waves seeming to flow off of it every few seconds. “The energy left a mark on you. Every cell in your body is supercharged and doesn’t seem to be dissipating. That’s what was causing the pain. You’re just like a teenager having an extremely rapid growth spurt. They’re leveling out now, so it should stop.”

            Wally sighed and sat up straighter, sighing heavily. “Well that’s good then. But tell me something now. Who are we fighting?”