stonecrandall Chapter 5 The Flash? No, it's a train!
Chapter 5 The Flash? No, it's a train!
What does a speedster sound like when it runs?
If Barry Allen or Wally West were to answer this question for you, they would tell you: there hasn't been much of a stir.
Once the Speed Force is activated and the user starts running, the Speedster will not make any sound. This faster-than-light energy field of the Speed Force protects the user while allowing them to defy almost all physical laws. The slight electric current sound and the sound of tearing air are just illusions caused by the Speed Force invading the world.
But the locomotive of this world obviously doesn't know this knowledge, because he's just someone who runs relatively fast, barely exceeding the speed of sound.
Every time he ran, the sound of his body rubbing against the air would follow him closely at the finish line. The sound was like the sound of a high-speed train whistle with its wavelength compressed by the speed, hence his nickname "Locomotive".
A-Train, a member of the Seven, the most powerful superhero team in the world.
Early this morning, I was jolted awake by a phone call from Vought International, who told me to go to a rural place in Kansas called Somerville. The Criminal Investigation Department said that the worst incident involving superpowered individuals in history had occurred there.
"Fuck Homelanders."
Kansas is thousands of kilometers away from New York City, and the only people who can get there quickly are myself and Homelanders. Since Homelanders never care about these trivial details and are unwilling to go to places without cameras and flashes, I always have to do these dirty and tiring jobs myself.
All I had to do was control the scene, keep the local police in line if they came, and wait for the Vought Company's cleanup team to arrive so that I could use confidentiality agreements and other legal means to shut everyone up.
Ultimately, Walter is a hero to all Americans. We can't just leave him alone and let public opinion seize on these numerous individual cases and amplify them, damaging the overall image of all American heroes, can we?
"A generous gift of crabs!" After arriving at the destination, the train engine ran around to make sure that the local police hadn't come over yet. He had seen scenes of superpowered individuals going out of control before, but this was indeed the most serious incident, much more serious than the one he had experienced a couple of days ago, just as the Criminal Investigation Department had said.
Visually, it looked like a 400-acre farm had been plowed through by an entire bomber squadron, at least a quarter of it destroyed. The air still reeked of a burnt, acrid smell. "Which unlucky bastard blew himself up this time?"
The timing of when a superpowered individual awakens their superpowers is influenced by various factors, but it usually happens before adulthood. As a member of the Seven and Homelander's confidant, A-Train has seen countless bloody examples, both on the ground and in the files, but this is something that can't be helped.
Suddenly gaining highly destructive superpowers is tantamount to handing over an AR-15 or a hand grenade—the locomotive glanced at the scene again, and thought, "Hmm, a C4 bomb is being thrown into the hands of impulsive, ignorant teenagers. Who knows when they might impulsively press the button, Boom! And then their whole family will be wiped out!"
"Are you the Flash of this world?" A hand silently landed on the locomotive's shoulder.
"No, I'm Locomotive! What the hell is Lightning?" Locomotive was a little annoyed. He was, after all, a member of the Super Seven, a proper star, and these people from the countryside could even mistake him?
Wait a minute, the train engine suddenly remembered that it had just glanced around and there was no one there. Then it turned around and saw a person with a blood-covered face standing next to it.
"F**k! Where did you come from?!" Without the slightest hesitation, the locomotive shook off the other person's hand and fled the scene at full speed. Seriously, this guy razed his own house to the ground, how come he didn't blow himself up?
"Of course it came out from underground."
Joey had just gone to the farm to look for the Kryptonian spaceship that his father had buried in the ground when he was a child, but found that it had been affected by the impact of last night's battle and had been completely turned into scrap metal, so he simply spent some time burying it deep in the mantle.
He darted forward and grabbed the locomotive's shoulder again. "I just want to ask a few questions, like how fast can you run right now?"
"You son of a bitch..."
The locomotive tried its best to break free from the other's grip, but the other's right hand, which was wrapped around its shoulder, remained motionless, and the hair on its head stood on end.
Imagine having someone with the immense strength to render hundreds of acres barren right next to you, face to face. If that person were to go berserk again, even if you didn't know the specifics of his superpowers, it would be enough to give you a hard time.
If things go wrong, Vought International might have to prepare its own bronze statue to stand in the office park downstairs. Maybe, for the promotion of "The Seven: A New Era," they'll even have Queen Maeve or some other popular female hero sing "See You Again," making a huge splash on themselves.
They were absolutely capable of such a thing—thinking this, he slowly raised his hand in a French military salute:
"Hello, sir, I know you're confused and angry, but everything will be alright, and, well, and..."
The locomotive stalled because this sentence wasn't something he came up with in a moment of inspiration. He was a Black kid from a slum with extremely limited education, and it was a sentence from the Vought International's worthless "Hero's Handbook" training materials about calming the emotions of the hostage-taker.
Now, the train engine just wants to slap his past self twice, because he only listened to the beginning and then his mind was full of thoughts about how to get that beautiful lecturer to give him a good lesson that night. He didn't listen to a single thing after that.
"Don't be nervous, I'm not angry at all."
Joey gave a genuine smile, though the blood on his face made it somewhat grotesque, causing the "Flash" in his arms to tremble like a leaf. But he didn't care, because he believed he had found a way to avert the tragedy, which just required the "Flash's" slight cooperation:
"How fast can you run now? Do you know how to use the Speed Force?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, Speed Force plus singing and dancing plus Burmese cardamom plus Mexican rock candy, it's so awesome~ Can you let me go first?"
The train engine had no idea what the "Speed Force" was, treating it as the ravings of a madman. Looking at the other party's blood-covered smiling face, his legs were about to give way. He figured that before the armed forces of the Vought cleanup team arrived, the other party would probably have a breakdown and kill him too.
I can only make up some nonsense based on my own life experience to fool him, and then escape from this place at full speed when he is not on guard.
"Of course, no problem."
Joey was always a reasonable person, especially since this was the Flash. He could easily revive his entire family with just a few steps, right? He needed to build a good relationship with him. Thinking about the possibility of his parents being resurrected, Joey's attitude towards this "Aero Engine" softened considerably, and he gradually loosened his grip on him.
"Let me finish—if you dare run again, I'll interrupt you..."
With a whoosh, the locomotive, not paying any attention to the nonsense behind it, kicked up a cloud of ashes and had already traveled more than a kilometer away in the blink of an eye. Then it felt a dizzying sensation, rolled several times on the ground, and then screamed while clutching its blood-soaked calf. There was a large hole running through its shinbone.
"I think you still need to practice more. If you can only do that much when you run at full speed, you won't be able to enter the Speed Force and travel through time."
Joey floated over slowly. He hadn't even chased after it himself; he'd just casually tossed a pebble, and that's how he caught up with the locomotive. Now, the locomotive's heart-wrenching screams were making him even more agitated.
"You have the Speed Force, this kind of wound will heal in a minute, stop crying like a girl, okay?"
"You're insane! What the Speed Force is? Is it some kind of ice?"
The locomotive was now furious. He had been worried that this guy would suddenly go crazy, but now it seemed that he was just a seemingly normal person who had been acting crazy from the start. If the cleanup team from Walter didn't arrive soon, he was really going to die here.
Seeing the other person getting closer and closer, Locomotive didn't bother with any soothing words anymore. What was the point of calming a lunatic's emotions? He might as well unleash his fury before he died: "[A type of alpaca]! Fuck you! You better stay far away from me, or when the Vought Cleanup Team and the Super Seven arrive, they'll hunt you down to the ends of the earth!"
"Grass."
Joey covered his forehead. His emotions were like the weights on the barbell plates when he was lifting weights. On one side, an indescribable sadness pierced his heart, making it hard for him to breathe; while on the other side, there was nothing, no anger, no rage, no hatred, no emotion to support his mental balance.
Reason told him that no Flash from any universe would reverse time for such a request when they had never met, but there was no harm in trying.
Joey felt he might really have to accept reality. This universe might just be in its infancy, and the "Flash" here was appalling in every way. His running speed was barely above the speed of sound, he didn't have the Speed Force, and he had no manners. It was probably unrealistic to expect anything from him.
He tried to kneel down to help the still-bleeding locomotive up and sincerely apologized to it:
"Shh... I mean, Locomotive, don't be too angry. I'm definitely not crazy. There's just a little misunderstanding between us."
"You! Get away from the locomotive!" Before Joey could get a reply from the locomotive, he heard a loud shout from behind, along with the sound of a sword cutting through the air.