Acceleration: A Moth Story (1/1)

In the 25th century, the Justice League's history- their origins, their identities, are all an open book, and they're all linked by one thing. Tragedy. It's inescapable. There is no life without loss. No progress without pain. Barry Allen lost his mother when he was a boy. Bruce Wayne lost his parents. J'onn Jonzz was the last son of Mars. And in my time, they are heroes. They are better because of it. They know what they have to sacrifice to win, to be greater.

...I know tragedy too. I lost *my* mother when I was eight, my father was gunned down by police. I lost my marriage, my mentor, my ability to walk, to tragedy. It's what brought me to the Reverse-Flash, and it's what finally gave me a new purpose.

My name is Hunter Zolomon, and for years I was best friends with Wally West. Ever since I met him, I wanted nothing more than to be his teacher, to show him that tragedy is not something to be avoided, it is *necessary.* Time and time again, he rejected my gift. He didn't understand that you can't save the world with a smile on your face. You can't save the world without dirtying your hands. Some consider him a lost cause, that he can't be helped, and that? That hurts me more than anything.

 

===Arkham Asylum===

 

Since the inmates were transferred to Arkham City the year before, the Asylum had been quiet. Peaceful, one might even say. No more desperate screaming through padded cells. No more deranged cackling from the basement.

As far as most people knew, it had been abandoned. The acting mayor even had plans to demolish it come spring.

 

But it wasn't abandoned.

 

The low trundle of a wheelchair squeaked against the wet ground. A greyish hand grasped the wheel, and propelled himself forward. The last of Arkham's patients. He'd been told he wouldn't survive the trip to Slabside. That his body was too broken. And so they sent him here, discarded him like a broken toy. He looked down to the grounds below- Maybe... Yes, from this height, the fall would kill him, he thought.

And yet, he'd thought the same thing last time, during the quake, and all that had left him with was a broken body. Jonathan Crane sat there, in silence, the faint outline of his city just visible through the trees- Wayne Enterprise's latest steel monstrosity towered above the rest, as though it were mocking him...

 

"Ooga Wooga Booga!"

 

 

Crane turned his head slowly, unimpressed. "I knew you'd come, sooner or later. Don't presume that your little... jaunts across the island have gone unnoticed."

 

Knelt beside him, dressed in a bright purple suit and grinning like a hyena, was The Joker. "It's true!" he giggled. "You can't be spooked!"

 

Crane's tone shifted as he whispered bitterly. "I don't want to talk about it."

 

"Sure, you do... That's all you ever did. Lecture on top of lecture, speech on top of speech. Sure, *occasionally* you'd unleash some horrible doomsday weapon, create a new virus, but if there's one thing you loved more than fear, it was the sound of your voice when you talked about it."

 

"Eno-" Crane begins, but Joker's already raising a finger to silence him.

 

"Heh... It's funny, Straw Man," he smiles, rising to his feet, his hands on the wheelchair. "One push and... game over. "

 

"Joker, enough! I won't play your game."

 

"But it's fu-un," he sings, as he trundles the chair closer to the edge.

 

"In case you've forgotten, *I* can't be scared, so these cheap theatrics of yours are meaningless"

 

"No, but you *can* be killed," Joker continues, rocking the chair back and forth. Back and forth.

 

"I would welcome it!" Scarecrow hisses back.

 

...

 

"Now isn't that interesting..." Joker chuckles, his hands sliding off the handlebars.

 

"Let me tell you a secret Jonathan," he whispers. "There's a reason why they dumped you out here. A reason why they'd rather drop you here, than roll you out to Slabside with the big boys. They're not scared anymore. Why would they be... most evil lairs don't have disabled access after all! But I have a solution, a nasty, vile, undoubtedly bloody solution, and for that... I need your latest plague."

 

Crane paused. "Then, I suggest you check the bottom of the Gotham river. *Kite-Man* destroyed my factory."

 

"Please, don't lie, not after all we've been through- The good times! Drury's trial, the Cloudburst, others, that ellude me..."

 

Crane's ear's pricked up. "What do you want with that... idiot?" he asked, a note of disgust in his voice.

 

"Play nice, and I'll tell you... Hell, maybe I'll keep you around. Heh. You might even enjoy yourself," Joker laughs, as he pats Crane on the back, and lifts his cane up off from the ground.

 

"Joker, wait," Crane called out. "There's a rumour, that the pup has her father back..."

 

Joker smiles.

 

"So it's true?" Crane sighed. "There used to be a saying, do you remember? "Only the good villains come back." Though, I suppose that once Ted Carson was resurrected, that all went out the window."

 

"Heh. Rumours... Nasty, those. I think I killed him, you know. Maybe. Bullet to the skull really ought to have done it, but, heh, this is Gotham."

 

Crane nods. "Rumours, yes. I *may* have heard that the snowman took two gallons of my toxin..."

 

...

 

"Johnny, I love you, but you have to be more specific. Do you mean Freeze, or the literal hairy, yeti Kelsey Grammar bloke?"

 

...

 

"Yes, I meant Freeze."

 

~

 

It's 1991. I come home to find my parents dead. My father, gunned down by police. My mother, his final victim.

 

2003. The Flash, Barry Allen, encounters his first villain: Leonard Snart- Captain Cold, a self titled rogue armed with a cold gun. My fascination with these... Rogues is piqued.

 

2004. During my first year of college, I fall in love with my classmate, Ashley. I strike up a friendship with her father, the criminology professor at our school.

 

It's 2008. My wedding day. Ashley's father is my best man.

 

2010. Her father- in many ways *our* father, lies dead in my arms, a victim of my error. Ashley files for divorce.

 

2012. I come to Keystone City for a fresh start. Becoming the "Rogues Profiler" for KCPD, I meet a young man called Wally West. The Flash.

 

2013. A riot at Iron Heights renders me paralysed. In desperation, I turn to Wally, urging him to travel back in time, and fix my life. He refuses. In an attempt to use the treadmill myself, it explodes, effectively knocking me out of the timestream. I become Zoom. My new mission, to help the Flash, no matter the cost.

 

"The Flashes, are not worth your time Hunter."

 

~

 

Now, it is 2018, Louisiana. "They're nothing but selfish, cruel, vain individuals, not worthy of your... kindness." Beside me, Thawne tinkers with a machine. In a few hours, Lex Luthor will give the order, and the Secret Society will activate our Fear Gas Bomb in the heart of Gotham. Of the thousands affected, one in two will emerge stronger, their demons conquered.

 

"Idisagreeeeeeeee. You've spentyour eeeeeeentire life making BarryAllenbetter, JokerandBatman, Sineeeeestro- Haaaaal Jordan, BlckMnta- Aquaman. You aaaaall makeheroes strong."

 

"That's where you're wrong, Hunter. I don't want to *help* Barry Allen, I want to destroy him. Take apart all that he has. All that he *is*. You've seen my files. Do you really think Manta fights Aquaman to make him better?! Heh. Black Manta is a sociopathic maniac with an inane case of daddy issues. However, he does make an excellent tuna sandwich. He doesn't know I steal them."

 

~

 

Two years earlier, I am visited by an older Thawne. He's dying. Having just escaped an alternate timeline, the energy it took has dampened his speed. His one hope is a "Get out of Hell Free card." In the year that follows, Thawne recruits Drury Walker to infiltrate the Suicide Squad and find him that card. I'm not sure why he chose *him.* Thawne said it was a cruel irony of sorts, brought about by his time in this other timeline. Mothpoint. He uses the opportunity to punish Walker for his failings, and to tie up loose ends, by murdering the Van Cleer boy. His son. Moments later, the Signal Man issues a city wide blackout, wanting the card for himself. In the ensuing chaos, Thawne succumbs to his wounds, killed by the boy's stepmother.

 

Walker's grief, and role in Cobb's defeat inspires him to become more than a simple criminal. He runs for Mayor. A year later, the boy is resurrected. The tragedy, was undone. The lessons Walker learned? Unlearned.

 

2018. While Bane works to reshape the Society, Thawne is set on the path that will lead to his death. A confrontation with the Ratcatcher and the KGBeast ends with him retreating into the speedforce, as time changes around him. He's dumped in December, 2018. A new world, and is forced to work with Walker's boy. His disobedience and compassion makes him an unreliable ally. He plans to murder him once the timeline is restored.

 

2019. Thawne visits Bane one final time. I, am sent to deal with a rival Society spearheaded by Lex Luthor. The key, is the Riddler's journal.

The Joker destroys it before I can learn what he might have planned. The Society is satisfied.

 

2020. During an assault on the League of Assassins, Bane, Calculator, Sinestro and Zod are all apprehended. Kuttler's testimony grants him freedom. Though Faust, Ocean Master and Black Adam remain, each go their separate ways. The Society is finished. Intent on confronting the Joker, I travel to Gotham City. Instead, he imparts on me a new mission.

 

=Drury's Apartment, Keystone=

 

"Drury- Drury!" Wally called out. "Axel's been spotted with the Rogues, and I just- Drury?"

 

"Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah" a voice answered back, mockingly. Sat in the living room, draped in a tartan blanket, and a glass of scotch in his hand, was Drury Walker. Opposite him, playing Cooking Mama on the TV, was The Suit.

 

Wally sighed. "C-C'mon, man, that's just childish."

 

"Mi-Mi-Mi-Mi-Mi-Muh."

 

Wally edged into the room, and knelt beside Drury. "You don't want your kid in Iron Heights. I get it... I don't either! But he keeps going out with the Rogues, that's what's going to happen."

 

Drury took another sip of scotch. "Let him have his fun. He hasn't had *his* hopes and dreams stabbed yet.

 

Wally bowed his head. "Look, I'm not thrilled with this arrangement either. But we could at least try to get along, right? How about a pizza? Would you like a pizza."

 

"Gotham's are better."

 

"I can go to Gotham. Fastest man alive and all that."

 

"Lucky!" Drury called back sarcastically.

 

"Right. It's been a pleasure. Suit," he nodded, the empty costume putting the controller on the table and waving goodbye. The door slamming behind him, Drury rushed to the window. "Thank god he's gone," he smiled, and ripped his dressing gown off to reveal the costume underneath. "Now, where were we?"

 

He flipped the tablecloth over, unveiling a map of the prison on the other side.

 

"We really need to re-evaluate your artistic merits..." Drury murmured, as Suit rolled in a large mirror, and handed Walker a silver blaster.

 

"McCulloch this mirror gun better fucking work," Drury mused, as he pointed it at the mirror, and fired a white beam of light. The mirror now a dazzling portal, Drury winks back, and enters through the looking glass.

Done