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Wally runs up the stairs out of the subway station, climbing two at a time because he’s in such a rush, and steps out onto the sidewalk in downtown Central City. He takes it all in: the sights, the sounds, the smell of somebody selling hotdogs from a stand on the street corner. The afternoon sunlight reflects off the statue in the park across the street. His hero glows golden, and Wally West feels like he’s home.
He takes a moment to appreciate his lot in life—there isn’t a single other kid on earth who can say their uncle-turned-father-figure is undoubtedly the greatest superhero of all time. He pulls on the straps of his trusty old Flash backpack (the one he’d gotten for Christmas from Aunt Iris ages ago), and jogs across the street, making sure not to go too fast as he weaves between the other people crossing.
Of course, he stops in front of the statue first. It’s odd, he thinks, how the sculptor was able to make it look so much like Uncle Barry without being able to actually see the features on his face. Then he skips up the steps to the museum, unable to hide his joy any longer. You’d think that with everything that’s changed over the last few months, he’d get bored of it, but no. There is nothing cooler than the Flash Museum, and there probably never will be.
The doors are propped open to the public like always, which might seem a little odd considering how often the museum gets trashed by rogues, but that’s why they’ve got a security guard posted outside. On today’s shift is a man named Michael Ross.
Barry has drilled this into Wally’s head over the last few months of superhero training: “Speedsters are heroes for the people, not for the glory.” So, just like his uncle, Kid Flash’s new mission is to meet all the citizens of Central, to get to know them, and to help them whenever and however they need it, no questions asked.
Learning everything he can about the people at the Flash Museum feels like a step in the right direction, even if he’s not wearing his super suit at the moment. Wally knows the following about Mr. Ross: He’s fifty-something years old and used to work in private security back in the day in Metropolis. He’s got a husband at home, two kids in college, and—most importantly—does not know Superman. What a bummer.
“All on your own today, Wally?” Mr. Ross asks. He’s got a little radio clipped to his belt, tuned into the local sports station. Mr. Ross is always listening to baseball games, and today it sounds like the Central City Stars are playing the Metropolis Meteors.
“Uncle Barry’s picking me up later,” Wally says, grinning. “Have you heard yet? There’s a new hero in town!”
Mr. Ross laughs and rolls his eyes, but he pulls out a newspaper and hands it to him.
“Bring this one inside. Maybe they’ll make an exhibit out of it!”
Wally takes it with a grin, salutes him, and skips through the doors into the entrance hall.
He heads right up to the members’ admission desk.
“Hello, Mrs. Jones,” he greets the older woman sitting there. She smiles right back at him.
“Hello, Wally. You came straight from school today?”
“Uh-huh. Uncle Barry’s going to pick me up after work. Hey, did you hear?”
But Wally doesn’t even give her a chance to answer him before smacking the newspaper Mr. Ross gave him down onto the desk. He’s grinning from ear to ear; he can’t help it. He’s never been more excited in his life. He’s right there on the front page, pictured with his hero, taking down Captain Cold like they’re Batman and Robin or something.
It is so totally awesome.
“Of course I heard, Wally,” Mrs. Jones says. She rolls her eyes at him, but in a friendly way. She’s always been kind to him. She works reception here as a way to spend her retirement years; she taught third grade for almost forty years. Barry actually had her as his third grade teacher, and even though that was a million years ago, she remembers him. Every time Barry comes in, she gently teases him over how he never outgrew being a fan of the Flash.
Well, that’s fine. Wally isn’t going to outgrow it either.
“Your hand, hon?”
Wally holds up his hand, and Mrs. Jones stamps it. It’s a red Flash logo—supposed to act as a sort of day pass, so those who enter the museum can go in and out as often as they please during the day and won’t have to pay admission again. Admission for kids has always been free here, but Wally always asks for a stamp anyway. He thanks her, tells her to keep the newspaper, and that he hopes to meet this “Kid Flash” one day.
As he runs off, he looks back and shouts, “Maybe they’ll give him his own wing of the museum!”
Maybe it’s selfish, but he really does hope so. The Flash is turning into a bit of a legacy hero these days, and Wally wonders if one day, when Barry’s old and retired like Jay Garrick is, if he’ll be the new Scarlet Speedster.
Or he’ll stick to his own (much cooler) role forever. Either way, he bets the tour guides here will have to bring him up. Speaking of which…
Flash Fact! The tour guides at the Flash Museum have a love-hate relationship with Wally West. His favorite pastime lately is hovering at the back of groups of kids on field trips or innocent tourists, and interjecting every five minutes to show off just how much he knows. As the Flash’s number one fan and the president of the Blue Valley Flash Fan Club (a group so exclusive he was the only member), it’s his job to make sure everyone knows he’s superior here.
Wally has made this abundantly clear multiple times to his favorite Flash Museum employee: Jamie Hartwick, who might be the most fascinating person Wally has ever met. Jamie and his husband, Drew, both grew up in some farm town north of Keystone City, so small it’s barely even on the map. Drew doesn’t get along with his parents, so he and Jamie ran off to Central and got married as soon as they could, before even starting their freshman year of college. Drew’s a firefighter now, and Jamie’s going to school and majoring in Zoology, and he’s been working at the Flash Museum for the last three years in order to pay his tuition.
Jamie is the only person Wally knows who really understands him when it comes to how he feels about the things he’s passionate about, and is maybe the only adult he’s met outside of Barry and Iris to ever really listen to him… even if Jamie does often have to shoo Wally away from his tour groups for interrupting too much. When Jamie’s on his break, though, he’ll walk the halls with Wally and talk nothing but Flash lore. He knows almost as much as Wally does; at least, as much as a regular civilian possibly could. But today, Wally has the upper hand.
As they start to head toward the Turtle Man display (one of Wally’s personal favorites), somebody turns to Jamie and asks him what he thinks of the Flash having a sidekick. People start muttering to themselves, confused; not everyone’s seen the paper yet. Wally grins and worms his way up to the front of the crowd so he can listen.
“Oh, you mean that new speedster kid? Right.” Jamie kind of stops, lets the group circle around again to listen. He glances briefly in Wally’s direction, shoots him a look that screams ‘please, for the love of god, let me finish before you explode,’ and clears his throat to speak.
“As many of you might know, there’s been a lot of stories coming out lately about certain members of the Justice League working with younger sidekicks—Batman and Robin in Gotham City are a prime example of this. Green Arrow and Speedy also come to mind, and recently, there’s been a few sightings of a young girl working side-by-side with Wonder Woman. As of yesterday afternoon, it seems like our own hometown hero has picked up a partner of his own. While we don’t know much—”
Wally bounces on his heels. He squeezes his hands into fists, relaxes them, squeezes again. It’s really, really happening. He cannot hide his smile, and Jamie’s looking at him strangely, but he does not care. Being introduced like this? By a tour guide at the Flash Museum? This is the best day of his life.
…Well, yesterday was the best. Or maybe it was that day when he found out Barry was the Flash, or actually it might’ve been the day it was decided he could live with Iris instead of being stuck in Blue Valley with his parents forever. Either way, this moment is up there.
“—this kid is clearly a speedster, and seems relatively capable of holding his own. He helped the Flash take down Captain Cold, primarily by making sure to get bystanders out of harm’s way. Obviously, there is a lot to be said about the ethics behind letting children fight crime, but that’s something you’re all welcome to decide your feelings about on your own time. As far as I’m concerned, our heroes caught the bad guy, and no one got hurt. That’s what I call a really good day.”
“Our heroes.”
Heroes! Plural!
People are muttering, and Wally’s hand shoots into the air. He doesn’t even wait to be acknowledged before he starts talking.
“Jamie, Jamie! It’s Kid Flash!”
The tour guide glances back over in his direction, and he looks affectionately exasperated, but gestures for Wally to come forward.
“Kid Flash?”
Wally nods, and presses on. This is important.
“Flash’s new sidekick is named Kid Flash,” he explains. “Not Flash Kid. Or—or Baby Flash, or Flash Boy, and especially not Speedy, ‘cause that’s taken. My aunt Iris—you know, the reporter who wrote the article in the paper about him? She met him last night. She told me all about him.”
“Did she?”
“Uh-huh.”
Jamie pushes his glasses up, rubs his face, and sighs. He knows very well that if he entertains this conversation, this tour is never going to end.
Somebody in the crowd jokes, “Sounds like he should be giving us this tour!”
Wally’s day just gets better and better. Jamie’s not impressed.
“Thanks for sharing that, Wally. I’ll make sure to spread the news. Meanwhile, why don’t you go check out the Kids’ Zone? Mirror Master’s Maze just reopened after the attack last month, and we had to rearrange things, so there’s a new path through, and—”
“Really?” Wally shouts, excited. “Okay, okay—but I’ll be back later! To talk about Kid Flash!”
As he runs off, he can hear a rumble of laughter, and someone asks Jamie what that was all about.
“Oh, don’t mind him. Wally’s a great kid, and the biggest Flash fan I’ve ever met. He’s always hanging around… he’s sort of our unofficial mascot.”
Oh, you bet he is. Wally’s got everyone here wrapped around his finger, including the curator, Mr. Myles. He’s barely eleven and he’s already been offered a job here for when he’s older—it would be his dream job if he didn’t already have that as of last night.
After conquering the maze in record time, Wally’s last stop in the museum is the gift shop. Lucy Jacobs, who goes to Central City High, has two dogs named Bennie and Indy, and used to do pageants as a kid. She works in the gift shop on Tuesday afternoons, but also is there all day on Saturday and Sunday every other weekend as a ploy to get out of spending time with her mom—her parents’ divorce ended in a particularly nasty custody battle (which Wally can unfortunately somewhat relate to) and Lucy prefers to keep her distance. She greets Wally when he comes in and he says hello back. He asks her if she’s heard about Kid Flash yet.
“I have, actually. Mila’s super excited that a kid her age is a superhero. Now she’s convinced she’ll be Green Lantern one day, or something. You think he goes to your school, Wal?”
Wally shrugs. He knows for a fact that Kid Flash goes to school with Lucy’s sister, because Mila Jacobs sits three desks down from his own, but it’s not like he can say that.
“It’d be cool if he did, but how would I know? He wears a mask!”
Lucy laughs and Wally excuses himself to wander around a bit. Iris gave him some cash to buy her a new Flash t-shirt for the Flash Day parade next month, so he really should get on that.
The problem is, there’s a lot of stuff in the gift shop that Wally wants, if he doesn’t already have it. Everything from Lightspeed energy bars to plushies to Beyblade toys that were made as a collaboration with The Top (that was a wild era of toy commercials), and man, is it tempting to waste all his money on something silly like that. There’s even superhero trading cards! Wally’s been trying to complete his collection of JSA-era cards forever.
Oh, but the real problem isn’t the Flash stuff. Again, he’s got an entire room full of Flash merchandise. Heck, he’s even got a growing collection of Green Lantern memorabilia—Uncle Hal’s made sure of that—but there’s so much more to think about. The gift shop also sells a bit of Justice League merchandise, and he’s actually considering getting a Robin-themed t-shirt (will Kid Flash have his own merch here soon? God, Wally hopes so) when he hears a voice calling his name.
Barry waves at him from the front of the gift shop. Lucy’s ringing up a shirt he’s picked out for Iris and he thanks her as Wally strolls up to him.
“I was supposed to buy that,” Wally says. “Iris gave me money for it.”
“I know, Kiddo, but I thought you should pick something out for yourself. It’s a special day, isn’t it?”
“Yeah… it is.”
Wally grabs the Robin t-shirt and a Flash-themed yo-yo, just for good measure. Barry waits while he pays—Wally makes sure to thank Lucy as he does—and they decide to backtrack through the museum, greeting everyone they come across on their way out.
They’re just passing the statue out front when it dawns on Wally that the parking lot is in the other direction.
“Barry,” he says slowly, twisting the golden ring on his finger, “are we driving home?”
This time, it isn’t the statue of the Scarlet Speedster that’s being illuminated by the setting sun. Barry is the one who is golden; he always has been. Wally has never felt luckier.
“Actually, Kid, I thought today we could take the long way home.”