16 years later: 3rd May, 2016
Central City Airport
Dan’s PoV
“Dad!” I exclaimed, waving as Dad manoeuvred through the crowded airport with the ease of an experienced cop who had to deal with chasing down perps through crowded places.
“Dan!” He said as we met in the middle of the crowd, hugging briefly before moving quickly to the car park.
“How was your gap year?” Dad asked as I smiled a bit, recalling all the places I visited.
“It was…crazy, to say the least,” I said, observing that Barry was not in the car and that Iris and two strangers were taking up the vacant spots..
They were both my age, a dark skinned boy with low cut fade, and a brunette girl with brown eyes and short hair.
“Hey Iris,” I said, “Where's Barry?” hopping into the backseat.
“Who's this?” The boy asked.
“Dan, meet my brother Wally, and a…friend of ours, Jesse,” Iris said as she turned around to face us.
“Guys, meet Barry's brother, Dan,” Iris finished.
“Nice to meet you,” Jesse said with a smile as we took a different turn, heading towards the damaged S.T.A.R labs building, which was definitely not on the way home.
“Where we headed?” I asked.
“S.T.A.R Labs” Joe said as I raised an eyebrow.
“Why?”
“It's complicated. Remember the particle accelerator explosion 2 years ago? And the black hole a year back?”
“How could I not, when that's the reason Barry's been weirder than normal?” I asked sarcastically. To be fair, Central City has gone to shit everywhere since then, with the Flash barely holding it together. After the black hole last year, I decided to take a break from the weirdness.
“Well the black hole lead to a different Earth-”
“So the multiverse theory is real?” I asked in shock.
“Yeah, yeah,” Joe said as he waved his hand, “point is, some evil speedster came through, and he's rounding up all the metas and going on a rampage, so we need to get you three somewhere safe while the Flash handles it.”
“So you're just going to lock us up somewhere?” I asked as Joe shrugged.
“I'm not gonna win if we keep arguing, right?” I asked, already knowing how pointless it was to argue with Dad, especially when he's entered ‘Papa Bear’ mode.
“And I mean, we've had a giant shark attack the house already, so it's not exactly safe at home either,” Wally added as I blinked.
“Yeah, you've got a lot to catch up on…” Iris said with a sigh.
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S.T.A.R Labs
“What the fuck is he doing here?!” I yelled as Barry and Joe held me back, but all I could see was red as I struggled to break the hold and give the man who had taken so much from my family a taste of his own medicine.
“Calm down Dan” Iris said as she stood in front of me.
“What did I do to him?” He asked as another surge of anger gave me the strength to break Joe's hold on me.
“He's my brother, soo…” Barry said as Harrison Wells nodded in understanding.
“I don't understand, what's going on?” I heard Jesse ask as both Joe and Wally grabbed my newly freed hand.
“Well your dad's doppelganger, Evil Wells-”
“But that wasn't even his doppelganger, just someone that looked like his doppelganger”
“Whatever, point is, he killed Barry’s mom, then made the particle accelerator explode, which put Barry in a coma for around 9 months.”
“And Dan gets really mad and illogical until he sleeps over stuff,” I heard Barry say as I felt a needle stick into my neck, as I began to feel drowsy, struggling less and less until I fell asleep.
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Time Vault
“What just happened?” I asked, waking up with a splitting headache as I looked around.
“You went feral back there, Barry sedated you,” Wally said as I nodded, remembering what had happened and the conversation I was too busy raging to understand.
“That happen often?” Jesse asked as I shook my head.
“It’s as Barry said, but it takes a lot to get me to that level,” I explained looking around where we were.
We were currently in a completely white room that was covered in bumps that looked like Braille to me. Apart from the supplies and the weird stand in the middle of the room, I couldn’t see anything, including a way out.
“We’re locked in while Zoom terrorises the city, ‘cause he’s already captured us once before.” Jesse said as she noticed me looking around.
“What does the stand do?” I asked, walking up to it. It didn’t have anything on it other than a small hole in it. I put my hand on the circle just as a hologram appeared all over the front wall, forming into a featureless humanoid figure.
“Welcome Dan Allen,” a female voice came from the figure as Wally and Jesse appeared by my side.
“Who are you?” Wally asked.
“And how do you know me?” I added.
“My name is Gideon, and I know all of you.” the figure said as she turned to Wally.
“Wallace West a.k.a Nitro, protector of Keystone City, member of the Legends of Tomorrow.”
“What the hell?” Wally mumbled as Gideon turned to me.
“Daniel Allen, a.k.a Axel, Flash’s partner, member of the Titans and Meta-Human C.S.I for the Interpol.”
As I was processing that, Gideon turned to Jesse.
“Jessica Wells, a.k.a Jesse Quick, CEO of S.T.A.R Labs and the protector of Earth-2.”
“You’re talking about the future, right?” I said as Gideon nodded.
“What is going on?” Wally asked as I pushed past my confusion.
“Can you get us out of here, Gideon?” I asked.
“Yes, I can,” Gideon said as a section of the wall opened up, leading into the hallway.
“What are we gonna do if we leave?” Jesse asked as we began to run out.
“I dunno, but we can at least help, somehow…” Wally said.
“I mean, what if Zoom takes us again,” Jesse pushed as I shrugged.
“You’re Wells’ kid, right?” Wally asked as Jesse nodded, “With your probably genius level IQ, I’m sure they could find some use for you. We’ll just tag along, I guess.”
“Wait, Gideon somehow knows the future, right?” I asked as they nodded, “Couldn’t we ask what happened to Zoom, so we have an idea on how to defeat him?”
“That could work…” Jesse said as she turned back to Gideon, “Gideon, can you tell us how we defeat Zoom?”
“With pleasure.” Gideon said as the figure disappeared and different screens began to pop up, “Searching for references to Zoom in my database…”
“That might take a while,” I said, looking through one of the shelves for something to do as Jesse picked up the book she was reading at first, while Wally began to pace excitedly.
“We finally have a way to help!” he mumbled as I turned to him.
“Why are you so obsessed with helping the Flash anyways?” I asked curiously as Wally stopped pacing as he began to remember something. I began to feel bad, seeing the distress in his eyes about whatever he remembered.
“About a week before you came, I got kidnapped by Zoom because Dad was close to the Flash. Zoom wanted the Flash’s speed in return for my life. Before the day was up, Flash agreed. He gave up his powers to save me, so I'm gonna do my best to help the Flash in any way I can.”
We all fell into silence after what Wally said, until Gideon spoke again.
“48 references of Zoom found”
“Alright, let's get to work,” Wally said as I turned to one side of the wall, looking at the screens brought up.
“Found his real name,” Wally called out first, sending a hologram of what looked to be logs of a member of Flash's team, “Hunter Zolomon.”
“They already know that, keep looking,” Jesse said as I turned back, looking at a newspaper clipping from 2026.
The Central City Citizen
17th May, 2026
10 Year Memorial of The Metapocalypse.
By Iris West
Today we remember all the lives lost in Metapocalypse, where Zoom and his metas from Earth-2 rampaged through Central City ten years ago, before he was stopped by the Flash. Dr. Henry Allen was a man that lost so much-
“No, no, no, no, no……” I mumbled, my eyes losing focus as I grabbed my hair. No, Henry can’t be dead, no he can’t!
He has just gotten out of prison, and we have barely talked.
“What did you see -oh, crap…” Jesse said as she read the article.
“He just got out of prison. Why?” I mumbled.
“Dan, this is what we need!” Wally said as he continued to read it, “It says that Zoom escapes from a plan to take down all the Earth-2 metas at once, then comes back to massacre a bunch of people the next day. We could use this to avoid your dad’s death! We can save him.”
“We can save him, Dan, but you’ve got to snap out of this,” Jesse said as a spark of determination began to appear. They are right. Now that we have future knowledge, I can save my father this time.
“You’re right,” I said, “Let’s go to tell Dad and team Flash.”
“That’s the spirit!” Wally said as the three of us took off, Jesse leading the way.
We had barely made it out of the hallway of the White Room when a huge wave came out of nowhere and knocked us into the wall, and everything turned black for the second time today. Why’s my life like this…