Owen looked at the card, and confirmed the address was correct. Place sure didn't look like much, but he figured he didn't have much to lose. He walked up the steps and knocked at Madame Xanadu's door.
Barry Allen was shaking hands with an elderly black woman on the steps of her house. He'd insisted on reopening some of the cold cases at the precinct, and new forensic evidence had lead to the release of her grandson from jail for a crime he didn't commit.
"It's alright m'am, I just wish he hadn't spent as long as he had in jail. But we got him back, and I hope restored some of your faith in the system. I'll go now, so you can spend some time with your grandson."
He waved at her as he put his hands in the pockets of his jacket and walked down the steps of her front stoop. It would be a short run back to Central City, and then he could meet Iris for lunch. He was looking forward to bring on time for once, at least until he heard what to Barry Allen was a chilling sound...
The unmistakable THWIP-THWIP-TWHIP of boomarangs! And they were nearby!
Barry looked around, closing the white picket gate on Mrs. Washington's front yard and there, on the hill in the nearby park, he saw them, the deadly missiles of an expert boomerang thrower.
It could be nothing... a coincidence, but I should check it out anyway.
Still in plain clothes, Barry approached a treeline toward the bottom of the hill. He was just another person strolling near a park for now, but he squinted up the hill from behind a tree to see if that were anyone he knew...
Re: Baitfast_throwerSeptember 1 2011, 19:44:02 UTC
Owen's hands never lost the steady and precise rhythm they'd fallen into, even as he felt himself being watched. He eyed the man carefully for a few more skillful repetitions, before catching both returning boomerangs and stowing them in a bag. He reached into his jacket and withdrew a black boomerang that looked like it carried a bit more heft to it. One side seemed, if one was close enough to it or had a particularly keen eye, to be severely sharpened; a flat finish of paint mostly concealed the differences.
Gears in Owen's head turned, until he finally went out of his way to make eye contact with the man. Silently, he smirked, and using only the inscrutable code of male body language, said, 'Check this shit out.'
He drew back, holding the sides of the boomerang with extended fingers, rather than gripping it. Then, not so much something in his stance, so much as in his presence, shifted. His arm snapped forward a moment later with inhuman speed, and he let the boomerang fly. It swung low across the grass at first, then swung up into another tree, some yards off from the other man.
The razor boomerang, scattering twigs and leaves on its nearly supersonic wake, sliced a tree limb in half and shot up through the tree, reaching the zenith of its trajectory before swinging back to Owen. His arm shot out with a casual nature that clashed with its speed, catching the boomerang easily.
He looked at the man again as the limb only just then hit the ground.
Barry started at the blatant display of challenge. There was no mistaking it, those were the razor sharp boomarangs of Captain Boomarang! Barry Allen wasn't about to take that lying down Digger Harkness was a cold-hearted criminal, a member of the imfamous Rogues!
In an instant, faster than the eye could see, Barry was a crackling blur, his flash ring opening, allowing oxygen to expand his special suit, and Barry Allen became The Flash! He rushed completely around the park to flank the criminal, and skidded to a halt behind him, but was shocked to find the man far younger than he had expected. This wasn't Digger at all, but his son and protégé Owen!
So much has changed since I've been away.
"Not bad," said the Flash from behind the young man, "Owen Harkness I presume, or do you prefer Mercer?"
Re: Baitfast_throwerSeptember 1 2011, 23:48:15 UTC
Owen meets Flash's gaze without flinching, holstering the razor boomerang.
"Actually, I'm working on a third option right now." He nods his head to the other man. "Figured if I made a show of myself I'd flush one of you out. Can we talk?"
THe attitude, the bluster, and Captain Boomarang the Second's blatant disregard for public shrubbery rubbed Barry the wrong way. He'd let him have his say, but he wasn't here to coddle so well known a troublemaker. If he started anything...
Re: Baitfast_throwerSeptember 3 2011, 19:55:59 UTC
"Well... it started when I found out who my dad really was. The general buzz had been that Golden Glider was my mom, so I just went with it. Not like she was around to say different, and I hadn't met 'Uncle Len' yet.
Dad was teaching me how to sling, when a throw got away from me too fast and he wasn't gonna be out of the way in time. I just... I just moved, and when I stopped, we were fifty yards across the park. I got him to admit that Glider wasn't my mom, but he wouldn't say who.
I've had other stuff to deal with, but the only clue I had to go on was a garbled audio recording from when those government freaks reanimated Dad's corpse for questioning. '--don't tell them who his mother is-- they'd kill him'. I talked to Madame Xanadu, this all kindsa hot spooky chick, who told me that my answer is connected to you all that're connected to the Speed Force.
I just want answers. I'm not looking for trouble."
Barry had seen the faster than normally possible way that Owen had caught the boomarang he'd thrown earier, but he wasn't convinced this young man had the Speed Force in him, still the story had an awful ring of truth too it that somehow made him nervous to know the answer himself.
That sort of thing wasn't about to stop Barry Allen, however.
"Ok, lets say that what you say is true. You could in fact have access to the Speed Force, if... certain conditions were met."
He looked at the boy more closely now, his features, the chin, the hair, it's color, and the color of his eyes.
"Do you have anything of your mothers? Something with her genetic material on it? A hairbrush or something? Clothing maybe?"
Re: Baitfast_throwerSeptember 3 2011, 22:06:25 UTC
Owen shook his head, but then seemed thoughtful.
"Nothing on me, but there's a couple of Dad's old caches I haven't gotten to yet. I've been cleaning them out so we don't get off-brand Captains running around. Not like those posers that toted around Cold's gear. There might be something in one of them, but I wouldn't count on it, and it'll take me time to get them checked.
"I'm willing to help. Nobody should be without their family, or at least knowledge of them. Understanding who where you came from is an important step in deciding who you are..."
"I just want to make sure that the information we gather isn't going to be used to hurt anyone," Barry said. "There's an edge to you Owen, like that Boomarang you threw earlier. Information can be a weapon too. Whatever we find, I want your word you'll be reasonable about the outcome."
He folded his arms, an almost fatherly gesture on the speedster.
The defiant tone didn't exactly fill him with confidence. The attitude, the anger, Barry had seen it before, but he couldn't place it. Then he realized with a start who Owen reminded him of.
He reminds me of Jason Todd
Batman's old protégé. Barry felt an involuntary shiver pass over him. The speed force crackled over him briefly, and his body blurred for a moment at the gesture, and there was a sound like the faint buzzing of bees.
Barry searched the angry young man's eyes for a moment like a tarot reader searching for meaning in the cards.
"Take me to these caches, and if we find anything that you think might have belonged to your mother I'll see what I can find out. I can do the tests myself, and then if you like you can have them independently verified."
Re: Baitfast_throwerSeptember 4 2011, 18:45:58 UTC
"No." Owen says simply, before relaxing his stance and explaining.
"I ran with the Rogues before, and that's my cross to bear. I cut some deals, but I walked a fine line between saving myself from Belle Reeve and the Squad and selling them out. If I work with you, that's one thing, Piper got on fine with that for years, but I'm not going to have you showing up at safe drop points, least of all with me.
I'll meet you back here in..." Owen thinks some things over. "Three days. That fair?"
Barry scowled at Owen's insistance that he needed to protect Rogue assets. Even the idea that the Rogues were still a force to be reckoned with filled him with a sense that he'd left too much unfinished when he had gone.
"You know that line you're walking has an edge just as sharp as those boomarangs too." Captain was the word left unsaid at the end of that sentance, but it hung soundlessly in the air nonetheless.
Barry breathed out slowly, slowed his metabolic processes down below the supersonic.
I got a second chance. This is yours. Don't waste it with me kid.
"It's alright m'am, I just wish he hadn't spent as long as he had in jail. But we got him back, and I hope restored some of your faith in the system. I'll go now, so you can spend some time with your grandson."
He waved at her as he put his hands in the pockets of his jacket and walked down the steps of her front stoop. It would be a short run back to Central City, and then he could meet Iris for lunch. He was looking forward to bring on time for once, at least until he heard what to Barry Allen was a chilling sound...
The unmistakable THWIP-THWIP-TWHIP of boomarangs! And they were nearby!
Barry looked around, closing the white picket gate on Mrs. Washington's front yard and there, on the hill in the nearby park, he saw them, the deadly missiles of an expert boomerang thrower.
It could be nothing... a coincidence, but I should check it out anyway.
Still in plain clothes, Barry approached a treeline toward the bottom of the hill. He was just another person strolling near a park for now, but he squinted up the hill from behind a tree to see if that were anyone he knew...
Reply
Gears in Owen's head turned, until he finally went out of his way to make eye contact with the man. Silently, he smirked, and using only the inscrutable code of male body language, said, 'Check this shit out.'
He drew back, holding the sides of the boomerang with extended fingers, rather than gripping it. Then, not so much something in his stance, so much as in his presence, shifted. His arm snapped forward a moment later with inhuman speed, and he let the boomerang fly. It swung low across the grass at first, then swung up into another tree, some yards off from the other man.
The razor boomerang, scattering twigs and leaves on its nearly supersonic wake, sliced a tree limb in half and shot up through the tree, reaching the zenith of its trajectory before swinging back to Owen. His arm shot out with a casual nature that clashed with its speed, catching the boomerang easily.
He looked at the man again as the limb only just then hit the ground.
Reply
In an instant, faster than the eye could see, Barry was a crackling blur, his flash ring opening, allowing oxygen to expand his special suit, and Barry Allen became The Flash! He rushed completely around the park to flank the criminal, and skidded to a halt behind him, but was shocked to find the man far younger than he had expected. This wasn't Digger at all, but his son and protégé Owen!
So much has changed since I've been away.
"Not bad," said the Flash from behind the young man, "Owen Harkness I presume, or do you prefer Mercer?"
Reply
"Actually, I'm working on a third option right now." He nods his head to the other man. "Figured if I made a show of myself I'd flush one of you out. Can we talk?"
Reply
THe attitude, the bluster, and Captain Boomarang the Second's blatant disregard for public shrubbery rubbed Barry the wrong way. He'd let him have his say, but he wasn't here to coddle so well known a troublemaker. If he started anything...
Reply
"She told me I'd find the answer to who my mom is through all of you Speed Force folks."
Reply
Dad was teaching me how to sling, when a throw got away from me too fast and he wasn't gonna be out of the way in time. I just... I just moved, and when I stopped, we were fifty yards across the park. I got him to admit that Glider wasn't my mom, but he wouldn't say who.
I've had other stuff to deal with, but the only clue I had to go on was a garbled audio recording from when those government freaks reanimated Dad's corpse for questioning. '--don't tell them who his mother is-- they'd kill him'. I talked to Madame Xanadu, this all kindsa hot spooky chick, who told me that my answer is connected to you all that're connected to the Speed Force.
I just want answers. I'm not looking for trouble."
Reply
That sort of thing wasn't about to stop Barry Allen, however.
"Ok, lets say that what you say is true. You could in fact have access to the Speed Force, if... certain conditions were met."
He looked at the boy more closely now, his features, the chin, the hair, it's color, and the color of his eyes.
"Do you have anything of your mothers? Something with her genetic material on it? A hairbrush or something? Clothing maybe?"
Reply
"Nothing on me, but there's a couple of Dad's old caches I haven't gotten to yet. I've been cleaning them out so we don't get off-brand Captains running around. Not like those posers that toted around Cold's gear. There might be something in one of them, but I wouldn't count on it, and it'll take me time to get them checked.
Reply
It sounded like there was a 'but' coming.
Reply
Reply
He folded his arms, an almost fatherly gesture on the speedster.
"Deal?"
Reply
"I just want to know who my mother is. I'm not really the 'insidious plot' type."
Reply
He reminds me of Jason Todd
Batman's old protégé. Barry felt an involuntary shiver pass over him. The speed force crackled over him briefly, and his body blurred for a moment at the gesture, and there was a sound like the faint buzzing of bees.
Barry searched the angry young man's eyes for a moment like a tarot reader searching for meaning in the cards.
"Take me to these caches, and if we find anything that you think might have belonged to your mother I'll see what I can find out. I can do the tests myself, and then if you like you can have them independently verified."
Reply
"I ran with the Rogues before, and that's my cross to bear. I cut some deals, but I walked a fine line between saving myself from Belle Reeve and the Squad and selling them out. If I work with you, that's one thing, Piper got on fine with that for years, but I'm not going to have you showing up at safe drop points, least of all with me.
I'll meet you back here in..." Owen thinks some things over. "Three days. That fair?"
Reply
"You know that line you're walking has an edge just as sharp as those boomarangs too." Captain was the word left unsaid at the end of that sentance, but it hung soundlessly in the air nonetheless.
Barry breathed out slowly, slowed his metabolic processes down below the supersonic.
I got a second chance. This is yours. Don't waste it with me kid.
"Three days."
Reply
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