(no subject)
[Fanfic]
Title: One (Is the Loneliest Number)
Characters: Roy, Wally
Necessary Warnings: N/A
I did this cause um I could. Anyhow this is important information you need to know before you read;
In this AU Wally is the first ever speedster, that was born form the speed force via his mother's vagina. So there's like no Flash, sorry to any avid Flash Fans. But other than the whole eliminating Flash form the DCAU continuity everything else stays the same. I don't really plan on putting Roy and Wally together at the moment but that could change at any time so...yeah.
Enjoy!
How long was a second?
It was one of the most basic units for measuring time. Sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour. But how long was a second? There were one thousand milliseconds in one second. But that didn't seem right. A second felt so much shorter than one thousand of anything.
How fast does a bullet travel?
Seconds depending on the length of the target the size of the bullet and the force behind it all. Roy hears the gun go off before the bullet will hit him. He knows that whoever pulled the trigger is somewhere close and estimates less than three point five seconds before impact. Only he can't see where the shot came from, so there's no way to know where to move to avoid being hit. He doesn't regret leaving; he doesn't regret making a name for himself. But he does let himself entertain the thought, in the half second he does have left, that this might not have happened if Oliver was there. The two of them worked seamlessly and effortlessly together they moved like one living thing, everything was in sync all the way down to they're breath.
It was difficult to fight solo after working with a partner for so long, Roy over looked things he shouldn't have. Things Oliver would have figured out. Like the man holding the gun, hidden somewhere in the shadows of the grimy alleyway, that Roy can't see. He knows it's a kill shot his gut tells him that much and he thinks to himself that at least he doesn't really have any regrets.
And in the half a second before the bullet will hit Roy in his temple, in the five hundred milliseconds before impact; Roy is all the way on the other side of the dark alleyway, on the opposite side of the bullet. He has less than a second to react and no time to ask what happens because he can see the guy who shot at him already trying to make a break for it. Roy takes the guy out swiftly with a well aimed arrow to the shoulder nothing that will kill him but it'll keep him incapacitated and alive long enough for the cops to show up. Then Roy turns toward the kid that still has a tight grip on the inside of his shirt. Whoever the kid was he had a pair of the greenest eyes Roy had ever seen and bright red hair with the freckles to match. His clothes, if you could call them that, hung loosely off his too skinny form.
He was shaking slightly, Roy hated that he couldn't tell if it was from adrenaline or malnourishment, and his eyes although vibrant, didn't look much scared or surprised that he witnessed an almost shooting. And Roy didn't really want to think about what this might have meant, didn't want to think of how much more the boy had already been exposed to.
"Thanks," Roy says still looking the kid over. He jumped slightly, letting go of the tight grip he'd had on Roy's shirt, looking shocked as though he'd forgotten Roy was ever really there in the first place. He nods in recognition but his legs kept twitching like he was going to take off at any second. "What's your name?" Roy asks, softer this time, and that at least manages to calm him down some.
"um...Wally We-" he stops for a second looking like a little kid caught in a lie, he looks around for a second as though he expects his mom to come out of nowhere to scold him."Wally my name is Wally." he says fast in an effort to cover up his stumble but Roy's not an idiot he only chooses to ignore it because he doesn't want to scare the kid away.
"How did you do that?" Roy asks and that seems to be the wrong thing to ask because his leg is doing that weird twitching thing again. Wally's shoulder gives a spastic jerk that Roy thinks might be an attempt at nonchalance that fails miserably.
"I-I was just born like this." Wally says softly eyes switching from Roy to the busy street at the end of the alley and back again so fast his eyes actually blur. "Does it really matter anyway?" Wally snaps almost violently, but the angry sneer that mars his face is more defiance than rage. And Roy notes that the twitching of his leg is getting a little more violent.
Roy suppresses a sigh as he watches Wally small frame twitching in to big clothes, he looked nervous scared angry and offended all at the same time. He's obviously not going to get anywhere with Wally now. Silently Roy reaches into his pocket and pulls out the small bundle of cash there, its thirty bucks worth of late rent money, he figures Wally could use it more than he does.
"What, are you-are you serious?" Wally whispers like it's some kind of big secret between just the two of them. And Roy just nods extending his hand out that much more for Wally to take the money. And he does, Wally snatches it out of Roy's hand fast and it's a little weird how it could be there one second and then not the next. "Thanks." Wally breathes quietly and he at least does sound grateful. He's gone again in the time it takes Roy to blink.
And with that Roy walks out of the grimy alleyway, back ramrod straight in his effort not to limp, headed home to tend to the wounds that weren't serious but ran the risk of infection and to run training exercises. He needed to be faster, more aware. He needed to get used to being alone. He could deal with that Wally kid later, when he had the time.
Chapter 2