“People love to say that the Flash fought with his mind, not physical force. There’s some truth to that, but don’t forget that the Flash could also punch at near light-speed and had a team of scientists who could individually tear a hole in the fabric of space and time.” - Excerpt from The True History of The Flash

Looking down at Central City, swinging my feet, I marveled at the vibrancy of it all. I had never been a city dweller on my Earth either, and I only saw Gotham twice, but Central City was the first city I could just observe. And granted my position on the top of a building, I could observe almost the whole city.

The thing that was the most notable was the number of lights. Every building was aglow, but unlike normal cities the color of the lights was varied, from yellow to blues, predominately red for the Flash, all the lights blended together. Mixing that variance with my position on a rooftop, I couldn't see the lights individually, but they mixed together beautifully. There was also an incredible amount of people out and about, despite the fact that it was just barely past dusk, and the temperature was starting to cool off.

I glance over at my partner in crime prevention, noting that his now-standard black and blue outfit had been slightly modified. Instead of a winding pattern like his usual garb, the pants were completely black, and only the arms and some parts of the chest region had the blue coloring. Popping a piece of gum in his mouth, Dick was also sitting on the edge of the building, but instead of taking in the sights, was leaning against the railing, eyes only half-open.

"You know, being half asleep right beside a rooftop could end really badly for you," I say, nudging his foot gently. While I didn't think the "patrol" we were currently doing would be that dangerous, having my teammate fall off a building before we prevented any crimes would be embarrassing. I should have time to catch him even if he did fall, considering XLR8 could run up, and likely down walls.

"I won't fall off stupid," he murmured, foot lightly kicking me, "I was an acrobat for my whole childhood, I have more agility asleep than you do awake." He glanced at me, only one eye open, "Just listen to the scanner, and if you see anything let me know and we'll be fine." With that he yawned, and closed both of his eyes, leaning back against a wall.

Stifling a yawn, I looked out over the city focusing on where "Team Flash" had said the transaction would happen. While I didn't understand why Dick and I had to intercept a cocaine deal, a relatively low profile engagement would help give us a good example of how we performed in a real-world situation. Even when I pressed Dick about why the actual police couldn't bust the cocaine deal, the only hint I got was "to keep moles undercover."

Looking around the numerous streets, time slowly went by until a white van pulled up right beside where the "drop zone" was supposed to be. After crossing the blank white van as too stereotypical for drug dealers, when another identical van stopped right beside it, I couldn't tell whether they were using them on purpose, or honestly didn't recognize the fact that generic white vans were the stereotypical criminal car.

I lightly nudged Dick's foot, nudging harder and harder until he groaned, and started to sit up. "I think that's them," I hiss, starting to stand up. I start searching for the last piece of the zipline but stop when I realize Dick already had started to connect it to the wire between our building and the one right next to the drop zone.

"You know we're like two hundred feet from where they are, right?" he says, in a louder than normal voice, "Even if you TALK LOUD like I am they won't notice. Besides, no one has even gotten out of the car yet." He finished connecting the handle with a soft click. He starts preparing the next handle, still popping his bubble gum. "After I go, wait a couple of seconds for you to go so you don't land directly on top of me, and remember to start running when you're above the ground because if you just start to stop completely you'll break your knees.” he explains, finally finishing up with my handle, shaking it until another click sounds.

With that short explanation, he grips the handles tight, and jumps off, swinging through the night. Nervously, I start counting watching him speed across the taut line, and started wishing that I wouldn't fall off of it. Usually, ziplines have an incredible amount of safety features, but for some reason, those features were not included, which meant my only hope was my upper arm strength and my fear of dying.

After ten seconds pass, I wipe my hands on my own uniform, still primarily black with the green Omnitrix logo, and grip my handle as tight as possible. Before I can talk myself out of it I half jump, half step, off the building. My stomach drops for a painful half-second, and then all I can think about is the experience. Tearing through the city, light blending together in an imprecise oil painting, I can only feel the wind in my hair and the excitement growing in my chest. even though I've gone faster with XLR8, and felt stronger with Heatblast, this is the first time I'm doing something crazy in my own human body. I let out a wild scream I can barely hear over the sound of the rushing wind filling my ears, focusing on the rooftop where Dick landed. As the zipline levels off and starts to slow down, I start trying to run as fast I can, even though I'm still a good two to three feet in the air. Suddenly enough I feel a jolt in my legs as my feet collide with the rooftop, and I have to ride the fine line between running fast enough to not injure myself, and slowing down so I don't either fall down, or run off the rooftop.

Somehow managing to slow my movement in time to avoid those options, I slowly walk towards the ledge, sanding beside Dick, looking down on the two vans whose doors are still closed.

"They still haven't come out yet?" I hiss under my breath, "It's been past the drop time by now."

"Well maybe they heard your high pitch squealing and decided to not show up," he replies, and I can feel my face burn. "Besides, these guys are selling cocaine, I'm not sure they're worrying about anyone's bed time."

"Stop acting like I'm half your age, I know for a fact we are not that far apart," I shoot back, trying to peer into the tinted windows with no success.

"I'm at least three years older than you," I can hear Dick saying, turning to face me. "I've seen you try to lift weights, I've heard what you think constitutes a joke, there is no way you are close to me in age."

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"How old are you," I ask, hoping with all my heart he's at least the same age as me.

"I'm eighteen, and I know you are maybe pushing thirteen years old."

"I am eighteen too, you dumbass, I would show you my birth certificate but it's stuck on another Eartz" I realize my voice has gotten louder, and drop my voice to a quieter level.

"You always bring up the Alternate Earth card, I never bring up the orphan card, and that's arguably a much worse thing to happen to someone," he says rolling his eyes. "You know what we're pausing this, you go attack the left van, I'll attack the right." He starts to get ready to jump off the roof and I grab his arm stopping him.

"But we were supposed to wait until they got out of the cars," I plead, even though I get slowly dragged forward just by Dick walking closer to the edge. "The Flash said we have to wait until we have evidence that they're moving drugs."

My pleas go unheard as Dick keeps walking, getting closer and closer to the edge. Letting go of his arm, I watch in horror as he silently jumps down the ten-foot drop, rolling on the ground, then creeping up to the rightmost van, twin Kali sticks in hand. Quickly I run to the edge but have to turn around and grip the edge with my hands, dangling for a second until I finally can drop down enough. I quickly run over to the left van, twisting the dial of the Omnitrix as I walk. I glance at Dick, and I see him mouth a count down to three, moving his hand to the trunk as he gets closer to zero.

Before I can open the door, the trunk opens suddenly, colliding with my body causing me to tumble to the ground. I can feel my back bump into someone, and tense up before realizing it's Dick. I look to see whose coming out of the van closest to me and frown when I realize it's just one person, however, when the gun in their hand starts to produce ribbons of fire, I start understanding I'm not facing a normal henchman, I'm facing a villain.

Glancing behind me, I see that instead of unorganized drug dealers, a group of soldiers all hop out of the van, all wearing clunky black clothes, all carrying some type of baton.

I hear Dick's frantic whisper but can only hear some of the words, the sounds of soldiers hopping out of the van overlapping the hushed voice. "Heatwave... Heatblast," leaning my ear closer, I catch the next sentence clearer. "I'll take care of these goons, good luck." My hand starts to creep toward the Omnitrix when the person in front of me laughed then starts to talk.

"Ha, ha, I thought we would engage with the Flash or the police, not wannabee heroes," he says, voice raspy but gleeful. "As I am a cultured man, I'll give you five seconds to give up totally, before burning you both alive." His eyes light up at the prospect, and I immediately start moving for the Omnitrix, leaping to the side, hearing a collection of dull hits behind me. Twisting the dial, I immediately press it down when I see Heatblast's logo, causing a green light to burst out.

Shrinking down instead of growing slightly, I feel my hands elongate, but my feet shrink. As protrusions grow out of my head, shoulders, and stomach, I grimace semi-surprised that the Omnitrix didn't allow me to shift into who I wanted to become, for the second time. As the light died down, I looked up in dismay as I was now almost half as short as Heatwave, and totally defenseless against a guy with a super-powered flamethrower.

Looking down at my hands and body, I almost allow myself to let out a string of curses, instead of saying the name of the alien I turned into.

"DITTO," and of course, the voice was nowhere near as cool as Heatblast or XLR8, sounded more like the voice of a child. Looking up at the grinning face of Heatwave, I frantically run away towards Dick, hoping going near his goons makes him hesitant to burn me alive. I falter when I realize that there are only two soldiers left, all of the rest of them laying on the ground in various stages of consciousness.

I watched in amazement as I saw Dick, jump from one of the prone goons, land on one of the only ones still standing, hitting them with a flurry of blows then somehow grapple him to the ground, all while deflecting the last goon's blows. Not for the first time, I am reminded that I am very lucky to have met Dick on a cooperative side of a battle and not opposing each other. Glancing back at Heatwave, I start to run faster when I realize his gun is starting to produce mini bursts of flames.

"ROOOOBIIIIN," I frantically yell, "I failed my assignment!!!!" I almost stumble and fall, using the ground to propel myself forward, pushing off with my giant useless hands.

I watch as Dick easily incapacitates the last member of the people he was assigned to fight, looking back at my failed task, and I see him trying to contain a smile. "I knew you were thirteen, now your size matches your age," he grins.

"Fuck you, Robin, Now's not the time! Just tear me in half" I shout, jumping into his arms. "Trust me just grab each of my arms and pull." Humiliating as it is to need to be ripped in half to clone myself, I've already tried several times to no avail. To Dick's credit, he barely hesitates before pulling each arm, and for one painful second, I feel being pulled in two directions before it stops.

Hanging from Dick's arm, I look across to his other arm, whose holding another version of me. Strangely, even though I'm only being lifted by one hand, I can feel my other arm being gripped as well, before remembering Ditto's abilities. Gently being lowered to the ground I stare at the clone of myself, not knowing what to think. While I can't know what my clone is thinking if the clone is a copy of myself then we should be thinking of generally the same concept.

Thinking about a quick test, I instinctively raise my left arm, frowning when the opposing Ditto raises the opposite arm. Both of myself had the same general idea, but both were different enough that it could cause problems. I quickly shout out "You stay here and clone more copies, I'll engage with Robin!" I see myself nod, then start to split into two.

I look at Robin, whose looking only a little grossed out, then wave for him to follow me. I start running at Heatwave as fast as I can, surprising myself when I go much faster than expected. I jump to the side, trying to dodge a torrent of fire, the flames just barely missing me, and I wince at the sudden pain. Regardless, soon I'm right next to Heatwave and I jump up, trying to grab his gun by the handle. However, pain explodes throughout my body as I get bashed in the head with the butt of the gun, sending me flying backward. I pick myself up onto my feet, looking back and seeing that three more of Dittos are racing towards Heatwave, however all clutching where I got hit in the head.

I race on, watching Dick keep hitting the gun in Heatwave's hand, not knocking it fully out of his hand, but enough that he won't get roasted alive. Running up, I slide past Heatwave, grabbing his ankle and trying to pull him off balance, struggling to no avail. I keep on struggling until I hear Dick yell "Scatter!" and quickly run away from Heatwave. I can feel more and more clones get created, as the subtle senses I share with each clone, I feel get duplicated more and more.

I'm about to ask Dick why we backed off, until I see wisps of fire, not being created by Heatwave’s gun. More and more wisps are created until there is almost a complete coat of fire surrounding Heatwave. After every wisp combined into a circle in front of his chest, my heart starts to sink. As the disk of fire starts to melt away his shirt, revealing a harness producing more and more flame, my heart sinks even more. But when I hear a familiar flashing sound and start to get pulled closer to the other Dittos, I think my heart stops.

Fuck.