#also if i ever mention wally's mom or dad that's barry and iris always

[junespriince]

Princely Whelmed au

Dick: But I am leaving soon for *insert Kori's kingdom i haven't named yet*

Wally, pissed: and that's not far enough!

Wally: do you think there is a corner of this earth, that you could travel to, far away enough to free me from this torment?

Wally: I am a gentleman. My mother (iris) raised me to act with honor, but that honor is hanging by a thread that grows more precarious with every moment I spend in your presence.

Wally: you are the bane of my existence, the man of all my desires. I love you.

Dick: Sir West... I-I,*thinking real hard about his father wanting him to marry Kori for kingdom biz, but then again he played dead to get out of royal biz sooooo* I love you too... let's run away, Tim wanted the kingdom anyways!

Wally: finally!

[flashfuture]

The lanterns deserve healthy and fulfilling relationships (if that is what they want) 2021

Please John should have a girlfriend whom doesn’t want him dead! Wtf wtf wtf????

Let Hal be in a happy throuple with Iris and Barry....

Give Guy a space partner who digs him as they should

And finally...bring back Conn and Kyle and let them kiss.

Yes 👏

John deserves so so much better than what the writers give him. His wife and his murderous ex are both from space which I like. Why be a space cop if you aren’t hooking up with hot aliens? It’s a wasted opportunity

Guy Gardner deserves so much better than what DC has been giving him. First step yeet the cop backstory. Bring back his old one. My boy would never have worked for Baltimore PD nuh Uh no way no how it’s bullshit. Then yes give him a loving partner who doesn’t treat him like a joke. Cause Tora while clearly a lesbian did respect Guy and he respected her and we love to see it.

Conn and Kyle should have kissed in the late 90s and I’m waiting for you to fix this DC.

Okay and Hal like I main Kyle cause he’s a disaster and I adore him but I’m in love with Hal.

He’s such a complex character that we should be allowed to see more of a side from big fights.

For example his Dad was Catholic but non practicing and his Mom was Jewish and that’s who raised him but she disowned him when he joined the Air Force. And wouldn’t speak to him even after he was discharged because he was still a pilot. His culture and religion should be explored more.

In the Spectre series Hal got to explore gender a lot and Hal determined that his gender was fluid in that sometimes he felt more female and sometimes more male. And Hal could swap between them cause Spectre powers.

Sometimes Hal just wanted to be a floating cape and I respect that. Hal said do not perceive me thanks.

He shouldn’t be boiled down to a relationship that is so shit for him and Carol. Like dating your boss is always dumb but not to mention literal decades of nonsense means those two crazy kiddos wouldn’t ever really be happy together. There is too much bad blood in the water.

Also yes Ollie once called Hal a polyamorous tomcat and I don’t care if that was a joke I’m take it as canon that Hal is poly lol.

So I think Hal would be best with Barry and Iris because he loves them both a lot.

Like Hal was there dancing and joking with Iris the night she ‘died’ and left before it happened. I’ve never seen the implications of that broken down. Cause knowing these heroes Hal would have probably felt as guilty as Barry did.

Hal was there for Barry like no one else afterwords. He took Barry to Coast City with him. Wanted him to move down there because he didn’t think Central was healthy for Barry anymore. He was desperately worried about Barry.

Also I wonder how everyone felt when Barry just disappeared into the future. I think it was for a few months but dude finishes a murder trial and dips. It’s weird behavior.

Hal also loved Wally like a son nephew and Wally loved him the same- called him Uncle Hal.

I always like to think Hal was with Iris and Barry and maybe only Wally knew but then Hal lost them both. Either way Hal lost two of his best friends and that was just never talked about cause it wasn’t a thing they did back then.

And then Hal gets them back? And Hal says to Barry “I died a Sinner. You died a Saint” like the implications there that maybe he doesn’t feel good enough for Barry and Iris anymore?

There is so much so unpack with these guys.  I love them your honor.

[raywritesthings]

What Have They Lost? 4/?

My Writing Fandom: Arrow, The Flash Characters: Laurel Lance, Oliver Queen, Thea Queen, Barbara Gordon, Barry Allen, Wally West, Bruce Wayne, Tommy Merlyn Pairings: Barry Allen/Iris West, Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen, Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel Summary: “I can definitely tell you that there’s a way we’re going to bring [Laurel] back and she’s going to be alive and well. And Flashpoint might have a little bit to do with that.“ -Wendy Mericle AKA: The AU where that wasn’t a blatant lie, and Flashpoint has bigger repercussions for Barry’s friends and allies than he first realized. *Can be read on my AO3, link is in my bio*

After the weird encounter with a man named Barry and seeing Dinah from Birds of Prey in one night, Mia’s life had gone back to depressingly normal. How was that fair?

She’d thought about sharing the discovery she’d made about Larry online, but then who would really believe her? And pop stars had to have lawyers and stuff looking out for their image. She really couldn’t afford getting sued.

A part of her still didn’t believe it anyway. How could someone so cool like Dinah have such a schlub for a father? But then again, nobody knew her past.

Mia has always kind of assumed — or maybe hoped — that her idol was a kid from the system, like her. No parents, no roots, free to do as they pleased for good or ill. More ill in her case, as it had turned out so far.

It was another long night of pouring shots and drying glasses. The nights all seemed to blur together after a while, unless something extraordinary happened.

And then something did. “I’m gonna take my fifteen,” she called out, not really waiting for a response. Mia tossed her apron aside and walked to the door, only vaguely noticing the guy who stood from one of the two-seater booths to do so as well.

She did notice when he followed her around the corner. “Hey, buddy, this is kind of the unofficial employee-only section, so if you could—” The rest of her words died in her throat once she’d turned towards him.

Because it was Oliver Queen.

“Yeah, sorry,” he was saying, his eyes jumping all over her appearance. “I just wanted to ask you when your shift ends.”

Mia raised both eyebrows. She’d heard he was some kind of player back in the day, but seriously? “Don’t you think I’m a little young for you?”

His jaw dropped. “No! No, that’s not what I — I promise, this is not a come-on. I just...we need to talk, about something important.”

This was so weird. That Barry guy had asked her what she knew about Oliver Queen, and less than a week out he turned up looking for her?

“I’m here for another four,” she said, breaking every rule of how to interact with male customers, but this one was famous so it wasn’t like he could get away with too much.

“Okay,” he said. There was a spark in his eye, like the prospect of getting to talk to her more was something to be happy about. He was about the only one who’d ever thought so.

“Yeah, so can you let me have the last of my break?”

“Right. Yeah, I can do that.” He retreated back inside.

Mia shook her head. What was even going on anymore?

Four hours later, he was still at his booth. She sighed, throwing herself down into the empty seat across from him.

“Okay, what’s this about?”

“Did you want to talk here? We could go somewhere else.”

“I’m not going somewhere with you. Stranger danger and all that.”

“Right,” he said with a wince. “That’s good. That’s smart.” He scrubbed at his goatee. “So that’s probably where we should start. Uh, recently I learned that you and I — we’re not exactly strangers.”

“Aren’t we?”

“Well, in a way. The thing is...I’m your half-brother,” he told her.

Now it was her turn for her jaw to drop.

“On my mother’s side,” he added, like he thought that was helpful.

Thea placed her head in her hands. “Okay, really, what’s the joke? Is it the last names thing? Cause that guy was in earlier—”

“What guy? Barry?”

“Wait, you know him?”

“He’s my friend. He’s the one who told me.”

Mia sat back. “What do you mean? Why would he know?”

“That’s kind of complicated. But we can talk about that, too. I...gosh, there’s so much to talk about.” He said gosh. Who even said gosh anymore?

Her shock was starting to give way, however, and Mia found herself narrowing her eyes. “Why?”

“What?”

“Why do we have anything to talk about? For over twenty years, you couldn’t be bothered to even notice my existence. Now because some guy says we’re related, you’re suddenly interested?”

He was stunned speechless for a few moments. “Mia, I- I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“Right, because our mom — your mom — didn’t tell you. Because she didn’t want me.”

“I’m not sure why she sent you to the orphanage. But she kept an eye on you, made payments—”

“Oh, because that makes everything better?” Mia said with a nasty laugh. A couple people glanced over their way, but she paid them little mind. “Trust a Queen to think that money solves all problems!”

“That’s not what I meant. I’m still trying to figure everything out, I just wanted—”

“Screw what you want, alright? I’ve survived my whole life without a family. I don’t need you swooping in to force me to be yours.” Mia stood and stormed out of the bar.

“Mia!” He called after her, but she didn’t stop and he didn’t follow.

What did he expect? That she’d move in with him and his bastard kid, they could forget everything that had come before and sing kumbaya? If what he said was true, she’d had parents, and they’d willingly given her away. Not out of some kind of necessity, not because they couldn’t afford it, but because they hadn’t wanted her. She’d long ago given up wondering what her family might have been like, but the reality was worse than anything she’d ever imagined.

Mia stopped and let herself lean against a wall, willing her eyes to just stop stinging already. She’d promised to stop feeling sorry for herself.

“Well, that wasn’t very nice of him.”

Mia stiffened at the unfamiliar voice and looked up. Standing across from her was a man with dark hair and a beard. He looked about the same age as Oliver Queen and even richer in his expensive suit. Mia sighed. She so did not want to deal with this.

“Sorry, I couldn’t help noticing what was going on back there. It was Mia, right?”

“What do you want?” She huffed. “You about to tell me you’re my secret brother, too?”

He smiled, but there was something off about it. It didn’t reach his eyes.

“Funny you should mention that.”

---

Dinah looked at the street down below and gulped. “Why’d I let you guys talk me into this?”

“Hey, you’ll be fine. Think of it like stage-diving.” She was used to earpieces on stage, but it usually wasn’t Babs’ voice in her ear. It hadn’t surprised her in the least Ted had a working pair of comm links, though.

“I am not jumping from this high. Not without a wire, at least. Just...getting a feel for things. Lay of the land.” It sounded unconvincing to her own ears. Dinah scowled at herself and reached to tug on the material resting around her eyes.

“Stop picking at the mask.”

“What makes you think I’m doing that?”

“Because I can see you through the security cam mounted on the high rise across from you.”

Dinah made a face in the high rise’s direction.

“Cute.”

“I try. Look, Babs—”

“No names on the comm. We use code.”

She rolled her eyes. “Alright, Bat-ling.”

“Please don’t call me that.”

“Well, what do you want to be called? Lady Bat? Batgirl?”

“I’m kind of thinking of making up my own thing. You know, since this is just us.”

Dinah felt herself smile. “Alright. Just let me know once you have something.”

“Sure thing. You start thinking about one, too.”

“Yeah,” Dinah sighed. It wasn’t like she wasn’t used to rebranding. From Laurel to Dinah, after all.

She’d been hearing the name she’d gone by in childhood a lot, recently. Visits to her dad tended to do that, but she could’ve sworn that one camera guy from the Central City publication had nearly called her it the other week. Maybe she’d imagined it, or maybe it had just been a herald of the strange turn her life was about to take.

Her eyes caught shapes moving down on the street below, and she quickly went to the fire escape and slid down the railing partway.

A few young men were giving chase to another of their group, yelling epithets as they went.

“You’re a dead man!”

“You think you can walk away? You think it’s that easy, huh?”

“Maybe not a damsel in distress situation, but one less murder’s always a good thing,” Dinah muttered to herself. She continued down to the ground level, doing her best to blend in with the shadows as she tracked the men to an alley.

“There’s nowhere to run!”

“Come on, guys, I don’t want a part of this anymore! I gave you my cut!”

“We said at the start, all in. That was the deal. And you gave us barely half!”

“I had bills, man! I can get you the rest later!”

Dinah cleared her throat. She’d heard plenty to get the gist. “Boys?”

The ones cornering their former friend turned, looking her up and down in clear confusion. Aside from the mask, she supposed she didn’t look much like a vigilante; Ted was working on getting something a little more durable made for her, but for now Dinah was in her jacket, a navy tank top and a set of her workout leggings. She was working on a limited wardrobe here since she didn’t exactly want anyone recognizing her outfit. Instagram was terrible for going unnoticed.

These guys were probably also expecting a big man in green, she reflected on a moment later.

“Who the hell are you?”

Damn, she hadn’t expected to need a name already. Was she supposed to tell people her codename? How did that even work?

“A concerned citizen?”

They scoffed at her. Dinah hadn’t had anyone scoff to her face in a long time, outside of the band anyway. It was kind of refreshing.

“We’re just settling a score here, lady. Nothing to get ‘concerned’ about.”

“Settling it physically?”

“What exactly is your plan here?” Babs asked in her ear. Dinah ignored her, mostly since she didn’t feel like looking crazy talking to the air.

One of the men looked about fed up. “Yeah, physically.”

“Okay, just wanted to confirm.” They’d admitted to trying to commit a crime, right? That gave her due cause or something. She stepped forward and grabbed the arm of the man closest to her, whirling him around and throwing him towards a dumpster behind her.

“What the fuck?”

“Get her!”

She ducked a fist that came careening at her and tripped the guy it was attached to. With her planted foot, she pivoted to send a kick to his rear end.

A third man grabbed her elbow, and Dinah pushed instead of pulled, jabbing him in the chest and sending him sprawling into his back.

They weren’t exactly hardened thugs, it turned out. Dinah glanced around at the three of them groaning on the ground. Her blood was pumping and she was fully in the zone, but here they were just...lying there. “Figures. No stamina,” she grumbled under her breath.

Dinah started to leave when the young man she’d been defending called out, “Um, thank you.”

“Some free advice? Turn yourself over to the cops. They can get you protection I’m not able to provide 24/7.” Dinah turned, marching over the fallen man in her path. “What did you think?”

“Couldn’t see much,” Barbara told her. “But not bad. Want to take on something a bit more challenging?”

“Why not? Night’s still young.” And she doubted this was the only crime or almost-crime happening in the whole city. Though that caused a thought. “So where do you think Green Arrow is?”

“Who knows? Why, you want to meet him?”

“I dunno. We’re in the same neighborhood and all, he might get nervous I’m on his turf.”

“And you’re worried about that?”

Dinah smirked. “Worried? No, that’s the fun part.”

Barbara’s laughter filled her ear, and Dinah picked up her step.

---

Bruce was a very busy man. Even if he didn’t have a secret night job, he would likely be considered a busy man. A ridiculous notion; CEOs tended to delegate more than anything. Nevertheless, running Wayne Enterprises was only one in a very long list of tasks he had to complete each day to ensure his city stayed afloat. 

Which was why he didn’t appreciate when others came asking for his help in their own cities unannounced. Particularly when said others bypassed all his security measures.

Alfred tsked whenever he wore the cowl in the cave, but it was necessary for times such as these when two speedsters zipped right into being.

“Woah,” the older of the two said, looking around the cavernous space.

Bruce hit a button on the console which locked the door to the upstairs from the inside to ensure Alfred didn’t accidentally arrive in the middle of whatever this was.

The younger one nudged his mentor, who gave a start. “Oh, right! Uh, Batman.”

“Yes?”

“We wanted to ask if you could run a background check for a case we’re working?” Allen probably didn’t realize how much his easy parlance with law enforcement terminology gave away about his identity, but Bruce wasn’t going to point it out to him.

Especially when he could tell the man was hiding something. “What’s this really about?”

“What do you mean?” Flash asked, as if a desperate attempt at casual was going to smooth everything over.

“You’re acting like you’ve never seen this place or me before.”

“That’s...because I haven’t.”

Bruce worked to keep any surprise off his face. If Flash was out of step with the rest of their reality, there was only one logical explanation. “Time travel.”

The speedster gaped. “How did you—”

His sidekick, West under the mask, raised both hands. “Don’t look at me. We’ve never told him about the time travel.”

Bruce rolled his eyes. “You both are capable of reaching speeds that break the sound barrier and beyond. It’s a logical assumption that should you achieve a velocity higher than the speed of light, it would allow you to transcend the normal barriers of linear time as well.” Not that he liked it, but that was a discussion for another day.

“Okay. Well, yes, there was time travel involved. It’s better for the universe if I don’t say much more.”

“Then why did you come here?”

Flash blinked. It seemed he was once again unused to Bruce’s gruffness. “Well, Kid Flash said you call yourself a detective?”

Bruce frowned. “Others do.”

“I need your help finding out information about a woman. She’s a meta, potentially dangerous or potentially not. I need to know more about her.”

“What do you already have? A name?”

“Dinah Laurel Lance, born um...1985!” Said Flash, as though he’d just recalled it.

Bruce turned to his computer and started to type. He could sense the speedsters shifting restlessly on their feet behind him as he did so but pushed that minor irritation to the back of his mind.

“Dinah Laurel Lance, as you say, born in 1985. Her father gained sole custody of her when she was about seven years old but lost it in another year due to his alcoholism making him an unfit parent. She was sent into the foster care system. No record of adoption.”

“Oh man,” West murmured. Sympathy, likely from his own history with a parent embroiled in addiction.

“Any, uh, criminal record?” Allen asked, his nerves plain even behind the mask.

Bruce narrowed his eyes but scanned through the documents.

“Some records indicate a tendency to get into fights, but nothing beyond juvenile censure. What was she doing when you came across her?”

“That’s the thing, I really don’t know. She might have been helping a woman, but then she might have been trying to hurt some guys just for the heck of it. It’s...she’s complicated. But she was definitely born here?”

“She was born in Starling City.”

Allen shook his head. “Right, never mind.”

Bruce grit his teeth. He wasn’t being told something still.

“Thanks for the help.” The speedsters were both gone in an eye blink, leaving him alone once more.

Bruce frowned as he looked over the information. He could see why Flash had needed help; her records for the most part seemed to stop several years ago. But then, if he was right…

Dinah, the singer. They were the same woman. And Barbara Gordon was involved with this woman, a member of her band after leaving Gotham. A metahuman with powers he still didn’t know what were capable of doing.

If this Dinah was dangerous like Flash was fearing, and Barbara thought this was her in to the sort of life he’d tried to shield her from for Jim’s sake…

He was going to have to keep his eyes on this one.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Fic: An Internal Affair - Chapter 13 (Ao3 link)

Fandom: The Flash Pairing: Leonard Snart/Barry Allen

Summary: Leonard Snart, the CCPD Captain of Internal Affairs, is known as Captain Cold for a very good reason: He hates corrupt cops with a merciless vengeance, and once you’re on his list, you’re in serious trouble.

His next target?

A CCPD lab tech named Barry Allen who’s developed a suspicious habit of disappearing at random intervals.

—————————————————————————————————

"You'll never believe what I found!" Iris declares, rolling into Len's office like she owns a part of it.

Danvers looks up from her chair next to Len's desk - he'd called her in for a chat they had yet to get to - with a smile. "What?"

"Well, not me exactly - I've been pursuing some other lines of inquiry - but a friend of mine -"

"Is this about the upcoming CSI report on how they believe some of the disappearances might be related to Family targets?" Len inquires before she can get to it, because he's an asshole.

Iris deflates. "You've already heard."

"One of the CSIs called and gave me the short version," Len says, a touch wryly. "Someone mentioned my background to them and they were concerned I wouldn't live too long with a possible super-speed assassin on the loose."

Iris' jaw goes stiff. "Did they mention the part about there being good reason to believe there are two speedsters?"

Based on convincing information provided by one Barry Allen, yes, they'd mentioned it, albeit without specifying exactly what that information was.

Len really wishes he could just talk to Barry - to Allen, damnit, he's still technically a suspect - about this whole Flash thing. It would make everything a lot less complicated.

Unfortunately...

"They did," he acknowledges. "The individual in question also passed along some very interesting facts about how some of the disappearances might be related to the creation of, and evading the ultimate consequences of, the Particle Accelerator at STAR Labs."

STAR Labs, which Barry Allen is currently very close with.

(All those old paranoias coming back up: why did Barry fake a coma for nine months? What was he doing during those nine months? The story about his mom dying checks out, at least, so the investigation motive is still possible - but what is happening at STAR Labs, and why? What's their motive? Why is Allen trying to do this on his own? What's going on?)

Iris blinks owlishly at Len. "So?"

"Two speedsters, both intimately tied to and protecting STAR Labs?" Len asks, arching his eyebrows at her. "Doesn't exactly sound like a rivalry to me. Sounds like -"

"A stable," Danvers says.

Len blinks at her.

"You know," Danvers says. "Like in wrestling? A group of allies working together towards the same goal, usually composed of heels - er, bad guys, that is - and...neither of you know what I'm talking about, right."

"Hockey was always more my sport," Len says a bit blankly. He had no idea that Danvers liked wrestling; that opens up a whole new vista of terrible jokes and even more terrible novelty gifts. "I was never much for acrobatic punch-outs; if people are going to be hitting each other, I'd prefer it be in favor of getting a puck into a net."

"Plus there's all the ice-related puns you can make," Iris adds.

She's gotten to know him well already, Len sees.

Danvers, the traitor, raises a hand for a high-five at that, which Iris gives her.

"The way I see it right now-" Len says, pointedly ignoring his childish and immature subordinates, and also his own hypocrisy. "- is this: STAR Labs is setting itself up as the go-to shop for weird things, either for scientific purposes or the more usual money-and-power motives, and it's deploying one, maybe two speedsters to protect itself. Now, if there even are two, which I ain't conceding without evidence, the speedsters might still be working together -"

"But there have to be two! The Flash wouldn't be involved in Family -"

"You don't actually know that, beyond one or two personal interactions with the guy," Len points out. "No matter how good you think you are at reading people, that’s not enough; serial killers can be quite pleasant, I’ll have you know. As for whether there are two speedsters or not, right now the only evidence I've gotten that there are two speedsters are unconfirmed assertions -"

By Barry - by Allen, who, to be fair, is probably a good source about STAR Labs business...assuming that he’s telling the truth about it.

"- and some stuff about one wearing red while the other wears yellow. And even if different colored clothing - which people can and usually do change pretty often, let me remind you - was a valid reason to differentiate between them, we can't actually prove any of this because they run too fast to be seen."

"Ouch," Iris says. "I hate your logic. Don't you ever have faith in people?"

"No," Len says. "As demonstrated by the fact that I'm still alive. Go on, ask me about the background check I did on you."

"You did a..?"

"Don't ask," Danvers says with a sigh. "Yes, he did one, yes, it was extensive, and also high school girls in Central City have a memory that goes on forever so you really, really don’t want to ask for details. Next subject?"

"Please," Iris says, looking pained.

"Getting back to the point," Len says, "we don't know if the speedsters are working together or if this is a right-hand-doesn't-know-what-the-left-is-doing sorta scenario, so there's a chance - a chance - that your buddy the Flash is still mostly in the clear -"

After all, it could have been this mysterious other speedster that killed Allen's mom. The Flash appeared pretty young the two times Len met him, and he did save all those people on that train...

Still: verify first, trust second. That's been Len's motto for a long time for very good reasons.

"But you don't think so?" Iris asks, crossing her arms.

"I don't know what to think," Len confesses. "Someone is clearly up to something here, something big, and I've got no clue what the fuck it is. The Accelerator gets built, the Accelerator blows, possibly on purpose - why? We don't know. Speedsters one or two are disappearing people for the Families at a rate not seen in years without any apparent discrimination between which Families' interest they're serving - why? We don't know. The Flash claims that he's trying to save the city - from what? Who? Why isn't he working with the police? We just don't know."

He shakes his head. He hate mysteries, he really does.

"I get it," Iris says. "Cui bono, right?"

"Who benefits?" Danvers agrees. "As far as I can tell - no one. Maybe the Families, from the hits, but from the Accelerator? No one."

"Not quite true," Len says. "STAR Labs benefits."

"Their reputation was ruined by the Accelerator blast," Iris protests.

"Reputation, yes," Len says. "But that's about it. No major lawsuits - a quickie settlement paid 'em off, with the most litigious hold-outs that wanted to go to trial disappearing - possibly literally, has anyone checked into that? - and no jail time for Wells, and now he has a deserted building in a prime location that suddenly has speedster assassins on offer?"

"That's a pretty elaborate sham, though," Iris objects.

"Maybe turning mercenary was plan B, who knows?" Len says. "We won't, not until we start arresting people and getting answers outta them. Now, here's the facts: I'm willing, tentatively, to believe in the possibility that the Flash is largely innocent of this Families business, maybe because he's getting manipulated or something, but no matter what, he's definitely involved with STAR Labs, and STAR Labs seems like it's the center of everything."

Iris nods. "We need to investigate Wells, and any possible connection he has with the Families," she says. "Eddie and I can do that."

"Good," Len says. "Be careful. We don't want you to get disappeared."

"I'm not on any Family hit list -"

"You don't need to be," Len says harshly. "You make sure you have company and protection at all time, you get me? Especially if these disappearances are happening at super-speed – we don’t have a way to stop them. The only way we can even try to slow something like that down is making sure there are people around you to see the disappearance happen, since thus far whoever is doing them seems to want to avoid that."

Iris frowns. "What's with the sudden concern?"

"We went back to check on Mardon," Danvers says quietly. "Since nothing happened at the dockyard and it was getting late in the week. He was gone."

"Gone?"

"His house was a mess," Len says. "Not like it was tossed for stuff; more like something went through it super-fast, sending all the lightweight objects fluttering into the air. A speedster, causing a disappearance – and if there are two, we don’t know which one did the job. Now, if someone figures out that we went and talked to the guy, and if the goal was to silence him for whatever reason, we’re next on the list. They'd have no reason to assume we didn't learn whatever it was they took him to hide."

"I'll be careful," Iris promises, looking disturbed. "I'll make sure Wally is, too - he's staying with Eddie and me for now, since he was sleeping out of his car while his mom was in the hospital."

“Have you told...?”

“No, not yet,” Iris says, with a wince. “I don’t even know what to say about it! It’s just – he just – argh! Do you know that we’re actually full siblings? Wally and me?”

“What?” Danvers asks, as blankly surprised as Len feels. “How is that possible? He said his mom is in the hospital, and I thought you said –”

“Yes, I said my mom died,” Iris says. “Because that’s what I was told.”

...ouch.

“I’ve thought she was dead since I was five!”

Double ouch.

And here Len’d assumed something simple and straightforward like some sort of affair or something.

“So on Eddie’s advice I’m just kinda not talking to Dad right now,” Iris says. “At least until I’ve figured out a way to, uh…”

“Not get arrested for patricide?” Len suggests. “Or, at minimum, assault, battery, and possibly grievous bodily harm when you kick his balls into his lungs?”

“...yeah. Basically.”

“Well, at least you have your investigation to devote your time and feelings to,” Danvers says brightly. “Work is good for getting out rage. Or punching things! That also works.”

“We should go to kickboxing class together sometime,” Iris tells her.

"Nah, I do it, uh, freestyle, but thanks for offering!"

Len doesn't want to know what Danvers has been punching. He really doesn't.

Okay, he does, but he's not going to ask or anything.

He's opening his mouth to ask, because he is weak, when his phone buzzes.

Len blinks.

Danvers blinks.

"...aren't you going to get that?" Iris asks.

"The boss doesn't get calls," Danvers says. "Texts, sometimes, but calls...? It’s mostly just me."

Len checks the number. "It's not the hospital."

Danvers' shoulders slump.

Len agrees entirely. For a moment, he'd hoped – maybe – but no.

Still no news.

"Probably just one of my contacts deciding they’re too good for texting," he says, and hobbles out the door - he's trying out the leg braces again - to answer it. And possibly rip whoever it is a new one, because Len hates getting calls.

"Snart," the voice on the other side of the line says.

Len frowns, recognizing the voice, however unexpected. "D'Angelo? What do you want? I thought you'd left town."

"I did, and I’m still not back," d'Angelo says. "But there's this job I thought you might be interested in hearing about."

"A job? You know I'm not in the biz anymore. I don't do jobs."

"This job's different - it involves the Flash. I figured since you took an interest last time..."

Len's eyebrows go up. "Okay," he says. "I'm listening."

A few minutes later, he walks back into his office. "Iris," he says. "Two questions: one, do you really believe the Flash is innocent? And -"

"Yes, of course!"

"Let me finish. Two: how do you feel about getting that hazard pay?"

Iris, not being an idiot, immediately looks highly suspicious. "Before I answer that one, exactly how are those two questions related?"

"I just got intel about a trap some guys are planning for the Flash," Len says. "They want to get him caught on camera to 'out' him as a real life superhero -"

"Why?" Danvers asks.

"Merchandising."

"Merchandising?"

Len shrugs. "He doesn't seem like the type that'd sue over trademark infringement. They've got plans for a line of action figures, shirts, mugs, the works."

"What," Danvers says dubiously, "is wrong with some people?"

"I know, right? That's Central City corporate shills for you - it's just dumb enough to be believable. Anyway, they've hired some thugs to do the dirty work and their original plan for getting the Flash's attention was to just go and bomb STAR Labs -"

"And this is a problem?" Iris asks.

"Given that we're investigating STAR Labs? Yeah, it is," Len says. "We don't want the whole operation to go underground and make us lose all our best leads. So I offered 'em a better deal."

"And the better deal is, what, using the fact that I’m the Flash's favorite journalist to lure him in?" Iris asks skeptically.

Len looks steadily at her.

"Wait, really?" Iris looks disturbingly flattered, whether it's because people agree the Flash is likely to come rescue her or because Len's agreeing to take her into the field. "Okay, that's awesome."

"You think that's awesome, just wait; you haven't heard the rest of the plan yet," Len says. "We're going to challenge the Flash to a public showdown, using Iris as the bait to appeal to his heroic nature -"

"Why are we agreeing to this at all?" Danvers asks. "Shouldn't we just continue investigating him? Even if the Flash shows up, we won't be able to catch him."

"The guy thinks I’m a supervillain, right? I'm going to be 'kidnapping' Iris," Len says. "Once she's 'rescued', she can grab him and hold him in place until I show up to ask him some questions and get to the bottom of his motivations once and for all. Moreover, it'll strengthen our hand considerably with the force for the Flash - the guy we're supposedly tracking - to be recognized as more than an urban legend; we've got plenty of circumstantial evidence, but nothing quite works as well as live footage."

"And you think it'll be fun," Danvers concludes.

"It's going to be so much fun," Len agrees.

"I'm in," Iris declares. "Eddie's going to flip his lid, but I'm in."

"He can man the police barricades for the section of Central we wall off for this showdown -"

"Why in the world would the police barricade off a part of Central to let people fight?" Danvers protests. "That makes no sense - if they thought there'd be collateral damage, wouldn't they just arrest the people involved?"

"A, as you pointed out, we can't actually arrest the Flash, we don't have the evidence for it yet," Len says. "B, it'll look good on camera, so the Commissioner will go for it."

Danvers groans. "Election year. Imminent primary. Right, I nearly forgot. Man, Central City, sometimes..."

"Are we going to arrest the corporate guys?" Iris asks.

Len shrugs. "We could get them on conspiracy to damage property, maybe, or for trying to start a fight, but for anything beyond that, our involvement would render it entrapment. I'll imply heavily that we're just taking pity on them this once and that they'd better never do anything that dumb again; it'll probably work."

"You really don't care about property damage, do you?" Iris asks, pressing her lips together to keep from laughing.

"Not my job. I'm Internal Affairs," Len sniffs.

"And a thief," Danvers teases, then grows serious. "Boss, this is Flash stuff. You promised -"

"Fine, fine, I'll wear the mask," Len says. It worked surprisingly well to be a simple mystery man; he hasn't been attacked while out and about in that mask yet. "Happy?"

"A mask, Iris, and an army of policemen barricading off the street available to protect you?" Danvers says, pretending to think about it. "I guess I'll have to accept it. Maybe a nice protective bubble while we’re at it?"

“Hah, hah.”

Danvers convinced, the rest of the set-up is easy enough: Len gets in contact with d'Angelo, who puts him in touch with the thugs' bosses, Len convinces them that a kidnapping of the Flash's favorite reporter would be a much more surefire way to draw out the Flash than a bombing - and Thawne's follow-up visit "investigating" a possible conspiracy to damage property with some hinting that the thugs were indiscrete seals the deal.

The thugs are fired, Len is hired, and Iris plays the damsel in distress in a short phone-filmed hostage video that took maybe fifteen takes to get done because Danvers wouldn't stop sniggering as she filmed it.

"I feel kind of bad setting the Flash up like this," Iris says as they head to the rendezvous point.

"Just imagine," Len says, "actually getting all of the answers we’ve been wanting, to your satisfaction and to mine, so we can identify whether he's a victim or a perpetrator -"

"Oh, shut up," she hisses, amused. "I'm not getting cold feet; I know it's for his own good that he finally gets a chance to prove himself to you -"

Iris is of the opinion that merely showing up to do the rescue would already be a good sign of the Flash's heroism; Len disagrees, since there's plenty of ways to be a hero with corrupt motives, but he must admit he's a bit hopeful.

"- and I know, being a journalist, that being 'exposed' as a hero trying to save a girl is only going to be good for his public reputation. So we're helping, not hurting, even if we are tricking him. Also, has anyone ever told you that your voice is almost unrecognizable under that mask?"

"It's never really come up," Len says dryly. "Everyone I encounter while wearing it either already knows who I am, or I don't want them to."

"Aren't you worried at all that this will make people think you're a bad guy?" she asks.

"Given that this mask is basically only useful when I'm at risk from criminals? No, not really. This will help solidify the masked man's rep - and distance it from me, since I ain't never gone in for kidnapping, not even when I was a thief."

"Fair," Iris acknowledges. "And I'll tell the Flash what's going on the second I'm 'rescued' so that he can stop worrying about your motives...oooh, there he is!"

The Flash comes to a stop a few dozen feet away from them, his face blurred with vibrations.

"Captain Cold," he says. He almost sounds - disappointed.

"Flash," Len says, then pauses, surprised.

Only cops call him ‘Captain Cold.’

The Flash is a cop?

Or, no – it’s possible, albeit just barely, that the Flash just heard the term being thrown around by some cops while snooping on police radio. Possible, but highly unlikely: even if the name got mentioned, putting it together with Len when he’s wearing a full-face mask without any assistance is doubtful.

More likely, there’s a cop on the STAR Labs payroll that gave them the term.

A cop, in other words, that is willingly working with an extremely illegal vigilante.

Damnit, Len hates corrupt cops.

That annoyance is probably why he snidely says, “You just can’t resist shoving your nose into everything, can you?” instead of, well, anything more diplomatic.

“I can’t – you literally put out a video challenging me to a fight!” the Flash protests.

Len fires a warning blast at the Flash’s feet. “You want to fight? We can fight.”

“Is this part of the plan?” Iris hisses in Len’s ear. “Or are you just being a bitch for some reason?”

“No one calls me Captain Cold but the cops,” Len murmurs.

“So what? So he used a stupid nickname; who cares about –”

Len can see the second the meaning of that hits her.

“Oh crap,” she says.

Len bares his teeth under his mask. “Yeah,” he says, a little savagely. “Looks like this whole thing just came back under my jurisdiction.”

He raises his voice. “Surrender now, Flash!”

“That’ll be a cold day in hell,” the Flash shoots back.

“It might happen faster than you think!” Len replies without even thinking about it.

It’s – it’s not even conscious at this point.

“Oh my god,” Iris groans. “Are you – are you two quipping?”

Punning! Not quipping!

Len's willing to consider compromising on 'bantering'.

“Against you? I don’t think so,” the Flash replies cockily. “I think you just need to chill out.”

“Slow your roll, Flash,” Len says. “Going up against me might not be your brightest idea.”

“Why? You gonna put me on ice? Chances of that are below zero.”

It would be very inappropriate for Len to fall in love with a second suspect, especially one that’s a law-breaking super-human vigilante. Very, very inappropriate, and also not fair to Barry.

But surprisingly tempting.

“You know what they say,” Len replies. “Live fast, die young...”

“Please stop,” Iris says, covering her face. “Both of you. Anytime now. I’m dying of second-hand embarrassment here.”

The Flash looks at her with a frown. “You don’t seem all that distressed about being kidnapped,” he says, sounding suspicious.

“She’s assisting in police inquiries,” Len says, because she is and he’s working on not being so much of a liar anymore now that he’s gone straight, and fire his cold gun again in another warning shot.

He slightly misjudges the shot and hits a fire hydrant, causing it to burst and then immediately freeze over.

The Flash, who had immediately dodged to the side in order to evade a shot he’d assumed was aimed at him, ends up slipping on the frozen over part and landing flat on his ass.

There’s a moment of silence.

“Did that just happen?” Len asks, marveling. “Please tell me that just happened. And maybe that someone caught it on camera.”

“Freeze – er, stop where you are!” one of the cops hollers from the sidelines. “Both of you! You’re under arrest!”

Len can’t even blame them.

“Right,” the Flash says, and Len swears he can see a blush underneath the rapid vibration that's blurring out the visible parts of his face. “That’s it.”

He moves forward in a burst of light, aiming right at Len.

Len automatically fires, because twenty years undercover does not make a man comfortable with being attacked, but the Flash persists despite the slight freezer burn, yanking Iris out of Len’s arms and disappearing.

The police are on them (well, just him, now) a second later, pulling the gun out of Len’s hands and slapping on handcuffs, which is really unnecessary. He’d told Thawne to make his ‘capture’ realistic to preserve the masked supervillain identity in case of future need, yes, but there’s realistic and then there’s being shoved into the back of a police car with –

No Thawne.

Worse, Len recognizes the guy already in the driver’s seat.

Walter Lloyd.

Cichowksi’s old partner, back when they were both rookie beat cops together.

Shit.

Len starts surreptitiously getting himself out of the handcuffs.

He’s about two-thirds of the way there when he hears the very distinct click of a gun being cocked in his direction.

He looks up.

Frank Peterson – aka, Cichowski’s current partner, at least before he went to prison – is aiming a gun at Len’s face.

“Don’t move a muscle,” he warns.

Len stops moving.

It’s a good idea to do what people with guns in your face tell you to do, however distasteful – it might not help, in the end, but it means there’s a chance you might survive long enough to do something to get that gun out of your face.

Keeping the gun aimed at such close range that even a barely functional alcoholic like Peterson wouldn’t be able to miss, Peterson reaches over and pulls Len’s hands forward, grunting when he sees that Len’s almost out of the cuffs.

“Goddamn thief,” he says, snapping the cuffs back on, and adding a few zip ties for good measure before pulling out some duct tape. “Once a thief, always a thief, huh, Snart?”

“Even for me, three zip ties and duct tape seem like a bit much,” Len says, holding his hands as wide as he can unobtrusively manage while they get wrapped up. Not that that’ll help him all that much. “I’m a thief, not fucking Houdini.”

“Yeah, well, we’re just making sure you’re not going to Houdini yourself out of this one,” Peterson sneers.

Hands well and truly fucked, Len opts to lean back in the seat, casually put a knee up on the back of the driver seat’s chair to achieve a proper lounging position, and say, “This one being – what, exactly? Going to drive me to the docks and put one between my eyes? Seems a bit...cold, even for you.”

“Jesus,” Lloyd says. “He knows he’s gonna die and he’s still fucking annoying.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve got the satisfaction of knowing that your faces were undoubtedly captured by cameras back in the fight,” Len says. “So when they find my corpse, you two are going to go down for so long your little buddy Cichowski’s going to be drinking champagne in thanks on your graves –”

“Don’t you fucking talk about him,” Peterson snarls. “Don’t you dare fucking talk about him. Not after what you did to him and Mary.”

“What I did was my job,” Len says. “And what he didn’t do was his. Oath to protect the laws of this city – something you two’ve clearly forgotten about.”

That makes them uncomfortable, at least – he can see Lloyd’s hands tightening on the steering wheel, his knuckles going white, and Petersen gnawing at his lip like it’ll make this easier on his conscience.

They’re not innately corrupt, these two, or at least they don’t think of themselves that way. But corruption is something you do, not something you are, and Len has no sympathy for them.

“So what’s the plan?” Len says, goading them. If he’s going to die, he’s going to go down fighting every last step of the way. “Well?”

“Shut up,” Lloyd snarls.

“You gonna take me down the docks where someone’ll see you and snitch? Or maybe cut the crap and just shoot me here in the car so the CSIs can find my blood?”

Sorry in advance, Barry. This wasn’t how Len wanted him to find out about who Len was.

“Or maybe –”

“Shut the fuck up!” Lloyd roars.

The car swerves.

“Better be careful there,” Len says sweetly. “Speeding is the leading cause of all traffic fatalities –”

“God, you’re a pest,” Petersen says in disgust. “I can’t wait for the Families to get rid of you.”

That shuts Len up.

For exactly three seconds, anyway.

“You’ve gone over to the Families?” he asks, sneer curling his lips. He should’ve known: corruption always tells, in the end, and these guys were real close to someone just convicted of getting too close and personal with the Families. Fuck, he hates corrupt cops. “Really? You two? Clearly I’m gonna have to have a much closer chat with Cichowski when I get outta here –”

If.

“– if he missed a chance to turn over some new Family sell-outs when doing a deal for sentencing…”

“We’re not sell-outs, Snart, no matter what you’d like to think,” Petersen says with a sneer. “We just hate you.”

“Like you said,” Lloyd says. “We’ve been seen leaving the site with you. But if you told us to drop you off in some location to go keep on investigating, well, what can we do? You’re the boss, right, Captain?”

“Some location where some Family thugs just happen to be waiting to take me off your hands,” Len says. “God, you’re so fucking stupid.”

That gets them both to tense up.

“Not sell-outs my ass,” Len continues, rolling his eyes. “If you weren’t before, you will be the second you give me up – or do you really think they won’t turn around and blackmail you the second they need something from you?”

That clearly hadn’t occurred to them.

“Walt –” Petersen starts.

“Ignore him,” Lloyd says. “He’s trying to get under our skin, that’s all – if they try anything like that, we’ll fuck them up.”

“Because the Families are so bad at blackmail that it’ll be that easy,” Len says.

“We’re committed,” Lloyd tells Petersen, ignoring Len. “If we turn back now, he’ll just have us run up on attempted murder charges.”

He’s not wrong, just a touch smarter than Len would like him to be.

“Sure I will,” he says, all friendly-like. “But you’d probably get out pretty quick, s’long as I wasn’t dead – momentarily deranged with grief, let’s say, over your good buddy going down, making you do things you’d later regret –”

“Oh, I’m not going to regret this for one fucking minute, Snart,” Lloyd says. “We all know you’ll go after us with every damn thing you’ve got for this if we don’t take you down first.”

Again: not wrong, just smarter than Len would prefer.

“You’re not going to be satisfied till you take the whole goddamn department down,” Petersen adds, nodding.

“If they’re all corrupt, then they all deserve to go down,” Len snaps, his temper flaring up. He’s usually pretty good at keeping his cool, but damn if he doesn’t hate corruption more than anything else on this goddamn planet. “Some things are more important than your fucking little code of blue, and if you had any goddamn sense of loyalty to this city, you’d realize that.”

“We’re the ones protecting this city –”

“No, you’re just on a fucking power trip that you’ve mistaken for protecting the city,” Len says. “Taking me out to get killed like this – you’re just like that Hood-Arrow asshole over in Starling, ‘cept you don’t have the balls to do the job yourself. Stop it with this ‘protecting the city’ bullshit! You’re the ones people need to be afraid of, you assholes that think you can take justice into your own hands, playing judge, jury, and executioner all at once. You’re not better than the rest of humanity just because you’ve got a badge!”

“Shut up!” Lloyd shouts. “Peterson, if he says one more fucking word, shoot him in the knee.”

“But the blood –”

“We’ll ditch the car if we have to. Just – keep him quiet.”

Len shuts up, seething.

If he lives – a big if – he’s going to come after these assholes so hard that their grandchildren are going to feel it.

It’s a tense but silent ten minutes – nine minutes, fourteen seconds, to be precise – before Lloyd pulls them in near a warehouse downtown, an old steel foundry.

Len knows this place.

Unfortunately, with his hands tied the way they are, all that means is that he has enough time to brace himself as they drag him out of the car and throw him down one of the old smelting vats.

Smooth sheer round sides – even if Len’s hands weren’t tied, he wouldn’t be able to get out, not without help.

“Enjoy your – heh – Family reunion,” Petersen says.

That was almost a good one.

Len settles down to wait, since there’s nothing else he can do about it.

He wishes he could at least remove the stupid mask, since it’s getting itchy, but he can’t get his taped-up fingers to pop the clasp.

It’s not too long – eighteen minutes, forty-three seconds – before he starts to hear voices.

Voices he knows.

Voices –

Hold up. Something’s wrong.

Something is very, very, very wrong.

Len stands up and presses himself as close as he can to the wall of the vat, straining to hear, but no. He’s not wrong. He does know those voices – Family lieutenants, people he’s worked for or with and sold out to the Feds and the CCPD with a smile on his face.

But if he’s right about those voices, then everything else he knows is wrong.

The world turned upside down –

Almost as if the thought acted as a summoning, Len suddenly finds himself in motion. Not motion of his own accord, but a sickening blurring sensation not unlike being on a runaway whirligig at the local carnival.

Next thing he knows, he’s not in the vat – he’s outside the warehouse, in an alleyway, and the Flash is looking at him.

Len coughs and clears his throat. “Rough ride,” he croaks, waiting for his stomach to settle down and his side and leg to stop acting like they just got shot all over again.

“Sorry about that,” the Flash says, sounding apologetic. “It doesn’t feel bad to me, but I know it can be hard on people – feel free to throw up if you need to.”

“Inside the mask?”

“…ick. Never mind.”

“Yeah, thought so.” Len straightens up with a force of will. He’s thankful for the leg braces, as much as he hates them; if he’d been using his crutches, Lloyd and Petersen would’ve taken them away from him and he’d be truly screwed. “Thanks for the rescue, kid. That was a bad situation – which seems like it ain’t all that uncommon when we’re meeting.”

“All things considered, I feel like the train crash was probably worse,” the Flash says dryly. “Between the two.”

Len snorts, not disagreeing. “Yeah, true, but I hate being trapped in confined spaces. Old phobia from prison –”

Only partially true; the real trauma came from having being trapped in a tiny room being tortured for three days. Prison, with its legal requirements about things like fresh air and contact with the outside world, was comparatively tame.

“– you know how it is. Anyway, how did you know where I was...?”

Yes, okay, he’s paranoid. But as tonight showed, he’s clearly not paranoid enough.

The Flash shrugs. “Iris made pretty clear that the whole thing was an act to make sure STAR Labs didn’t get bombed by some corporate thugs looking for merchandising rights,” he says, his shoulders going up around his ears in what seemed to be embarrassment. “And she said that you had some questions to ask me, questions that might convince you that I’m not actually evil, except – well, you never showed up.”

“So she started worrying?” Len asks, amused.

“She said one of her friends –” Danvers, no doubt. “– told her you were very good with timing, so she started freaking out a bit. And then Eddie showed up –”

Interesting – ‘Eddie’, not ‘Thawne’.

Could Thawne be…?

No, surely not. Len’s met the guy; he’s not that good a liar.

“– and he was freaking out, too, because he was getting pulled around the scene on a bunch of stupid stuff until he realized that the cops around him were intentionally delaying him, but he didn’t know why until he realized you were gone in a car that didn’t have him in it and realized it must have been Family cops –”

“Not Family cops,” Len says grimly. “Regular cops. Cichowski – that’s a guy I took down for corruption – well, turns out he has some old buddies out looking for a little revenge and hoping the Families would do the job for them.”

“...shit,” the Flash says.

“No kidding,” Len says. “But we’ve got bigger problems.”

“We do?”

“I’m going to do something very unlike me and take it on faith that you actually want what’s best for this city, no questions asked,” Len says grimly. He doesn’t want to do it, especially given that there’s a chance this Flash guy might be the killer Barry’s after, but he doesn’t think he has a choice. He has to take a chance. “Because in that warehouse right behind you is a bigger danger to this city than anything you might represent.”

The Flash turned to look at the building. “What do you mean?”

“I heard voices,” Len says. “Voices of Family lieutenants, ones I recognized. Rizzo Hovsepian, Darius Petrosyan –”

“Darbinyans,” the Flash says, proving that he recognized the names of some of the most fearsome enforcers in the city, or at least could identify it when they sounded Armenian.

“– as well as Simon Boccaccio and Giuseppe Condutti.”

The Flash’s head jerks back a bit in shock. “Santinis? Santinis and Darbinyans in the same place? Either they hate you more than they hate the Feds, which is unlikely no matter how good you are, or...”

“Or two different Families - the ones most famously and most viciously known for being constantly at war with each other - are for some unknown reason working together on some type of joint project,” Len finishes. “You see the problem.”

“Yeah, I do. That would be – bad. Really, really bad. What’s the plan?”

“Right now? The plan is for you to get my hands loose,” Len says, holding his hands out in front of him. “And then we go inside and try to learn everything we can about what they’re up to. In the event it’s something we can sabotage or delay, we do that, but our number one goal is to find out what’s gotten these guys teaming up and make sure the info gets back to headquarters. Family stuff’s never good, and the bigger it is, the worse it is. You in?”

The Flash nods, his jaw firming with determination.

Len really hopes that this guy’s just being misled and that the theoretical other speedster really is the one behind all those disappearances and possible murders; the kid really seems like he’s trying to do the right thing.

In a ridiculously wrong way, of course, but he’s trying; that counts for something in Len’s book.

“First things first, though,” Len says, nodding down to his hands.

“Right. I’ve got you.”

The Flash’s hands move as fast as his feet do, apparently, and it’s only a second before Len’s hands are free from duct tape, zip ties, and handcuffs all.

“Thanks,” Len says with a sigh, flexing his stiff fingers and wincing as proper blood flow returns. “Appreciate it. Now, let’s get down to business.”

And then he reaches up and takes off his mask.

[dawnlovesquotes]

I think I've finally decided to post my stories here. You could view this down below or in PDF. You could enjoy this in my website as well. Hope you enjoy!

Note: This is a work of fan-fiction, not based on the actual comics. I do not own DC Comics or the characters featured in the story. I apologize if there's any spelling or grammatical error as this is the first story I've ever written, so no hate please. I don't follow the actual DC timeline but I follow some of it. Some events are supposed to happen but I might change it into something (slightly) different. Some of the character(s) characteristic and personality might change a little as well.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

2014

Wednesday, 25ᵗʰ December

I'd like to start off by saying, thanks Mom and Dad for giving me this journal! It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. So, thanks, even if you can't read this LOL.

I don't even have a clue on how to write a journal. Hmm, let's start off by introducing myself.

My name’s Dawn Allen. I was born on the 2ⁿᵈ February 2005 with my twin brother, Donald Henry Allen, Don for short. My dad is Barry Allen, a CSI working for the Central City Police Department. My Mom, Iris West-Allen, is a reporter working for the Picture News.

Thing is, me and my family, we’re not like any other families in Central City. My Dad was struck by lightning while he was working late at night at his lab, and fell into a coma for 9 months! He woke up and began saving people around the city as the Flash. My dad founded the team 'Flash and Friends', it’s a secret group though. Oh yeah, did I mention he was a founding member of the Justice League as well? How cool is that!?

My Mom’s really cool too! She could make ‘perfect’ pancakes. But who cares? I’ve been trying to follow her to different places when she reports, but Mom wouldn’t let me. She said it might be dangerous, with all the metahumans on the loose. So during those spare times, I would be doing some sketches.

Don is pretty interested in science. Dad’s thinking that we should visit the Hall of Science in New York someday. That is, when he’s not busy with Justice League stuff. Don’s crazy about all things science. When we first set foot at S.T.A.R. Labs, he’s been running all around looking (and touching) stuff, despite Professors Wells and Stein’s warnings. I don't blame him. If I were in his shoes, I would do the exact same thing.

What do I like? Well, I enjoy books. I'm interested in mystery, science fiction, historical non fiction and fantasy. My family (mostly Dad, Wally and Max) doesn't really enjoy fantasy, because their minds are based on science. I'm not trying to insult them or anything, but they just can't accept the fact that magic exists. Even Zatanna and Doctor Fate use magic. But instead of thinking it as magic, they say that there's always a scientific explanation for it. I hope that I won't have the same idea when I grow older…

I also have an excellent taste in art. I'm still trying to improve my art skills though, it's horrible. Max said that my drawings are pretty good for a kid my age so… I guess it's good??

I love music as well. I know it sounds weird but I actually enjoy oldies.Yes, old music. I don't know why I like it! The kids at school think I'm so old fashioned, but I never really paid much of that in mind. Of course, I also enjoy a lot of modern Pop music.

Ok, moving on to my closest friends. I met Jon Kent about two years ago, and ever since that day, we've gotten pretty close. So to me, he's my best friend even though he may not consider me as his best friend. Jon talks about his ‘other’ best friend often, and they've gone on many missions together. They're actually pretty close. I mean, who thought that Jon’s best friend is the one and only Damian Wayne A.K.A Robin?! Maybe it's its nature, Superman has Bats, Bizarro has Red Hood, Superboy the first has Red Robin and Jon has Robin. So I'm not surprised they're super close.

Louise Stone has been Don’s best friend for years now. We may have our differences but we get along really well. So I guess I consider her as my close friend.

Sometimes Wally’s friend, Roy, brings his daughter Lian to have a ‘playdate' with us. Though Lian has anger issues, we eventually became close with her.

There's also another person, but he doesn't know I'm related to the Flash. His name is...Jeven Ognats.

Jeven is basically the only friend that has nothing to do with the superhero community. Don and I met him last year. He was a transfer from Keystone City.

Let's go back to my family. Sorry to break it to you, but all of my cousins are speedsters (whaaat??). Yep, it's the truth! Don could probably relate to my cousin, Wally West. They're both huge science geeks. They get along pretty well, maybe a bit too well.

As for me, I guess I'm closer to my other cousin, Max West. We have a lot of differences but I'm surprised that we get along.

AAHHH looks like I wasted my first few pages on myself. I should really know what important things to write in my journal. Maybe I could ask Mom to give me some advice.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 [Coming Soon]

Copywrite © 2021 by dawnlovesquotes & dawnlovesart

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Sorry if this story didn't meet your expectations :( But I promise the next chapter would be better!

[valeriemperez]

i'm guessing we're going to get an episode next season set entirely in Nora's time, and we'll get to see everyone in old age makeup, lol. or Barry will travel to the future to see what happened there

Oh, man, I would love that! We deserve another special episode like that. I don’t think S4 really had those, unless you count 4.15 and 4.16.

½ I’m trying to figure out why there are wa fans that think Nora doesn’t like Iris based on that last scene. I expected those theories from the antis, but I keep seeing wa fans upset because apparently the way she looked and talked to Iris made it clear she isn’t fond of her. I mean I guess it’s possible that there is some friction between them that will come up next season, but that scene alone didn’t give me the impression that there are problems between them. If anything I’d say she was2/2 nervous because of whatever she messed up in the timeline. I feel like people are really overanalyzing that scene.

Yeah, I think it’s mostly because she hid from Iris in 4.20. It’s very possible that Nora and Iris have a strained relationship at the moment if Barry died and Iris still told her not to go back to save her dad. But it’s also equally likely that Nora just didn’t want to be discovered, and then was more concerned about the mistake she made. We’ll find out in… 4 months lmao. Although I’m sure we’ll get a hint at comic con.

Do you think the writers forgot about the Barry disappearing in 2024? To me at least felt they heavily implied Nora changed the timeline by helping Barry bc I assume were supposed to think he died. Maybe that explains why she was so excited to meet him and avoided Iris up until she had to reveal herself.

They definitely haven’t forgotten, but you have to remember that time can change in an instant. Remember how the newspaper article disappeared in 1.07 just because Barry lost his powers for a day? That means every time Barry’s lost his powers, that article changed. Hell, it might have changed in S4 when Iris quit her job, and we just didn’t check on it. 

But I agree with you that the way they wrote and filmed the finale made it seem like Barry should’ve died in 4.23 in Nora’s timeline, which she changed into our timeline where he doesn’t die there.

From what i read of your tags, you tried to start WestWorld, right? If so, how far in did you get? Because i WANT SO BAD for you to catch up to where the show is, because certain themes that have developed are more along the lines of your tastes, i think.Just realized your tags might have meant you weren’t a fan of a certain character, not that you haven’t been watching or aren’t a fan of Westworld. Sorry! (If this is the case, i’m… with you there re: that characters popularity.)

You were right the first time, no worries. I watched the first season of Westworld, but I had a hard time really focusing on it or getting attached to the characters. Plus I could see the Man in Black twist coming and hated it, lol. But I’ve heard S2 is getting really good and that Shogun world was amazing, so I am definitely gonna catch up as soon as I can!

Was it ever confirmed that the Flash mentioned in the article was actually Barry rather than, say, Wally taking up the mantle? Thawne only thought it was Barry because he went back in time and met that Flash, and the only other future Barry we knew was the Savitar Barry that was happy to let time remnants sacrifice themselves…

The only hint that it’s Barry is the photo on the front being of Barry, but they could always make that a placeholder or have it change at different moments. But I’m positive that when 2024 rolls around, either in the storyline or in real time, they will return to Barry disappearing.

Sorry if my brain seems scrambled with this question and I’ve made a huge comic mistake, but Nora Dawn is the twin who marries a Thawne, right? Could that be cause for tension in the future between her and her mom?

It’s not a huge one, but Don is the one who marries Meloni Thawne. They have Bart while Dawn marries Jeven Ognats and has Jenni.

Do you think Ralph gets to stay because of Hartley’s Saturn Awards nomination or it was just the plan all along? With him back next season, if the ratings continue to go down, the racists will blame Iris.

Not because of his Saturn Award, no. I think the producers like Hartley a lot and tragically enjoyed writing for Ralph, and that’s that. As for the racists, they’ll blame Iris no matter what.

you know what else never came into play was Iris’s written vows. i could have sworn that close-up on them (which they inserted later on with somebody else’s hands, ffs) was significant. it felt like we were supposed to get a good look at that for some reason

Yeah, a lot of us thought they would be important. But maybe the higher ups just wanted a shot of her vows and forgot to get it when Candice was filming lol.

[shipcestuous]

More on DC incest ships

Thanks to all of you who chimed in to help give a more complete answer to the anon who asked about DC universe incestuous couples. It sounds like there’s really nothing that’s strictly canon and strictly incest but lots to ship.

@grandoljoe:

Hawk and Dove have some strong undertones. Hawk always protecting Dove, the pacifist. Dove reminding Hawk it’s okay to be tender. They’re one of my faves.

Tara and her brother had some undertones in the comics as well if I remember correctly.

Beast boy and Elasta-girl have a pretty Shippy adopted mother/son relationship. Especially when you see BB talk to Mento,his adopted dad.

Morgaine le Fay and Mordred have a lasting one with undertones.

None of these are canon per say, but they’re about as Shippy as the maximoffs in 616 continuity.

Anon #1:

DC? ROBINS. When 5 stepsibs have donned the same cape to work same highrisk job for their Daddy, it's ship-central ;) Damian (Wayne, bloodson of Bruce/Batman) is the current 'Robin' and pairs with Batman or with previous 'Robins'. Commonly fans ship Damian with his predecessor Tim Drake/Red Robin, who almost dated another 'Robin' Stephanie Brown/Batgirl in canon. The two oldest 'Robins', Dick Grayson/Nightwing & Jason Todd/Red Hood are the eminent ship in fanon, but any combo works tbh.

(DC-cest anon) I forgot to add: people often ship Blackfire & Starfire, the alien princess sisters in Teen Titans (retconpunchdotcom.files.wordpress.com/ 2012/08/sisterfire-love.png) but sadly because they look like Amazonian females that ship is often used as fetish fodder for creepy straight guys. I'd love more respectful fanon and more canon for them. Also for anyone into angsty sad father x son or daughter, look into Slade/Deathstroke & his son Jericho or Trigon & Rachel Roth/Raven.

Anon #2:

Re: DC couples, I don't know of any canon ones that are consentual, however Doctor Thirteen canonly had an erotic seeming dream about his daughter Traci, and Swamp Thing love interest Abby Arcane's evil uncle Anton had sex with her while he was inhabiting the body of someone else (that she was more disposed to having sex with). And of course Superman telling his cousin the only reason they can't be together is that cousin marriage isn't legal on Krypton even tho it totally is on Earth.

Anon #3:

Not big on comics either, but the relationship between Penguin and his mother on Gotham was lifted from a recent iteration of the comics. In the first half of S2 of Gotham (Rise of the Villains: Battle of the Incest Ships), I was rooting for the Cobblepots because unlike the Galavans, they seemed to love each other. A rare instance where I preferred parent/child over siblings.

I debated mentioning Penguin and his mother. Definite vibes there, which we saw at least as much in 4B with Sofia Falcone “wooing” Penguin using his memories of his mother - her recipes and stuff like that. 

Anon #4:

Re: DCTV incest, don't forget about canon (married!) stepcest between Barry/Iris in The Flash, and the non-canon but reasonably popular ships between Oliver/Thea (halfcest) and Kara/Alex (stepcest).

Anon #5

Also not canon but I kinda ship Len/Lisa Snart aka Captain Cold/Golden Glider... both in the show (which kinda dropped the ball on them since Legends) and comics they're kind of the one pure thing in each other's lives, the one each knows they can count on completely.

I’m so disappointed that we didn’t get much more Len/Lisa after how good it was on The Flash at first. 

Anon #6

For the DCList: It's unhealthy but James Gordon Jr. has an intense fixation on his sister Barbara Gordon. James is quite bluntly-a psychopath. In The Black Mirror he abducts Babs (there's weirdly intimate stabbing involved) and obsesses about how she's the only one to really 'see' him despite how different they are. Their interactions are everywhere in Gail Simone's run on the Nu52Batgirl- culminating in him shooting Bab's husband on their wedding day for taking away 'the only person he loves'.

Wow, I don’t remember ever hearing about this before. Sounds very suggestive. Ngl, I’m kinda into it in a messed up way. (Without knowing anything more than what’s right here.)

Anon #7

In terms of DC, some of my old submissions were DC. Like the Marvels/Shazam family. And the Captain Atom stuff. Iris and Wally in the comics are aunt and nephew and he loves her a lot(it turned out she was his adopted aunt but that was a retcon and I doubt he knew ect). The Impulse and XS stuff. The Impulse and his Mom stuff. The Max Mercury and his daughter stuff. I'm surprised someone mentioned Nightwing and not his relationship with both Bruce and Damian.

Anon #8:

are you into dc comics at all? fox’s gotham has recently given us a dysfunctional closer-than-they-should-be set of twin brothers that i’m all 😍 over

I am going to talk about these two more once I catch up on Gotham. I’m about two episodes behind. I know who you’re talking about but I’ve only seen the first episode when the other twin was introduced and not anything since then.

Anon #9:

Adding to the DC ist. There's a story from the silverage that you can find on cracked. It's easy to make fun of. Basically cat woman has a brother, at this point she'd gotten out of crime and he's trying to pull her in. Batman spends the whole time thinking he's her bf. That's a standard plot. But cracked spent the time pointing out how insane the bro comes off and into catwoman. "six insane batman villains you won't see in movies". The King of Cats.

OMG. The king of cats. That’s hilarious.