| DC/Marvel: Age of Infinite Heroes | ||||||||||
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There are lots of old memories in the Flash museum. And there are always tourists and even locals here, plenty of children as well. Dreams and hopes are built in here, even with the supervillain mementos. Perhaps that is why Jay Garrick come here? The memories. The good and the bad.
Right now, Louise is looking about. Her hair is pulled back behind her head and held in place by a red comb clip. She wears those thick black framed librarian glasses, and a dark red sundress with white polka dots. It's still chilly here, perhaps that is why she carries a long black coat over one arm, and over one shoulder is a dark red tote bag that appears to have a couple of things inside it. She is studying the older Flash items, the original Flash.
Jay Garrick was in the museum leisurely walking, having some time to himself to think and look through mementos of times gone by reliving old memories. Jay likes to come to the museum when it's slow and quiet to think and process his life and legacy.
Jay notices the beautiful blonde in the sundress looking over some of his old stuff and decides to go over and introduce himself. Make the day of someone appreciating his work. "Hello miss, Jay Garrick is there anything I can help you with?"
There is a whirl of motion as the woman spins about, and she gasps. "Oh, pardon me!" It seems a bit old-fashioned style of speaking for many of the younguns these days, but a speech Jay is more personally familiar with. "Did you say Jay Garrick?" Considering nearby it publicly announces your identity, wearing the red shirt with the gold lightning strike is not always required. Her blue eyes search your face from behind her glasses.
And as her smile soon grows wide, she lifts her finger tips up to her mouth and her eyes appear a little moist. "It really is you Flash, isn't it? During World War II, investigating the rumored HYDRA organization that was developing." Considering Blonde Phantom would have informed Flash it was a secret mission, it is not highly likely that information became public knowledge since then.
"Yes, Ma'am I am that Jay Garrick" Jay answers and as he takes a closer look something stirs in his memory. This woman looks somewhat familiar, like a someone he met long ago and refused to forget. But it can't be, it doesn't add up. Then he hears her mention HYDRA and world war 2. It starts to come rushing back to Jay that crazy dream he swears was real. "How do you mean Hydra in world war 2? that was before the crisis no way i could have been there? and you look certainly too young to have been" Jay says somewhat nervous and anxious. What's going on This can't be who he thinks it is maybe her daughter? Maybe someone is playing a bad joke, maybe he really is losing his mind to old age.
And Louise actually laughs. It's a joyful sound however. Her fingers lower from her lips and she goes to open her dark red tote. "Oh, oh my. I didn't think how my de-aging would affect you, I apologize." As the flap opens there is a silver item in there. Louise pulls it out, having cleaned it up after it was in storage so long. She holds it out to you, "I apologize for being so late with this," actually having the grace to blush a little bit. "Apparently, we were in different worlds, or dimension, or is it actually comic companies? No matter!" She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly before she grins again.
"I'm just glad to finally return this, and thank you. Because you were there for me, I got to live a very good, wonderful, fulfilling life."
Jay's eyes widen and tears begin to roll down his cheeks he doesn't say anything he just takes the old winged brodie hat in hand and looks it over. He checks the inside. Louise may notice that his left hand's ring finger has a gold band on it.
Jay inspects the inside of of the hat. He finds the inscription carved into it PFC JG, short fo private first class Joe Garrick. Jay starts to sob as the emotions overtake him. "my dad's helmet. I thought I lost it forever. So many years of regret over losing it. Thank you for bring it back" That's all Jay can get out right now so many thoughts and emotions are swirling with in him
"Your...dad?" Louise studies Jay a little more closely, "Oh, it was originally his helmet! Then I'm glad I was able to return it. I looked all for you when I came back to America after the war, but...no one had heard of Flash. So I did what a girl had to do, got a job, then started to beat up criminals, the usual." But there is a gentle smile to her lips. "I never thought I would see you again." And the ring is noticed. Hers is missing and the marks of it have begun to fade. "And congratulations on the lucky lady." Alright, she should have known, as she mentally kicks herself for dreaming up things that are so not possible. She lived her life and de-aged, so why wouldn't Flash have lived his? She should have researched more rather than flying off by the seat of her panties!
Louise then shyly offers her hand, "Louise Grant Mason, officially retired, but back from semi-retirement during the Heroes Crisis, I mean, Marriage of the Worlds. My daughter is carrying on my legacy herself, with a much shorter dress," she says with a playful smile about her lips. "I added a dress with that domino mask in later years."
Jay composes himself after a moment and takes a deep breath. "Blonde Phantom, I gave you this 70 years ago because I wanted to make you my lady. That's why I left it with you. I had hoped I would convince you to be with me when you came to returned this. I searched for you I went a little mad looking for you. I came to think it was all just a weird dream a reaction to the stress of the war."
Jay wipes his tears away "I came to think you were just what your name implies a phantom, something in my head. The only proof was this helmet. I came to think I lost it somehow. Eventually I found my courage to ask out Joan my college crush I made a life for myself, I started a company I married Joan I established a legacy I passed it on Barry, and Wally great kids great heroes."
Within the Flash Museum, Louise is busy making a complete fool of herself. You know, maybe she should shut up when she is nervous. This charge right ahead is sometimes a bad thing. But it's either this or hug the man. And she doesn't know how he would take that. Her stomach is in knots, and she really just wants to wipe those tears away. A man like that should never have to cry, but she's also really glad she brought his father's helm back to him, even if it is decades late. We won't talk about how many decades thank you very much. Just because Louise is de-aged, doesn't mean she likes reminded of exactly how old she really is.
Yep, perhaps she should kick herself into silence, and just look away, cause she's really about to start crying. Louise doesn't look away however, but her smile wobbles a bit, "Now, don't be saying that, I'm really going to start crying too." She raises the hand she was offering to wipe at her eyes beneath her glasses. "I'm glad you found that courage, you were always a courageous man to me. And I was supposed to be a 'ghost', secret ops and all." But she takes a deep breath once more. "Geez, look at us...we should be celebrating."
Lousie does reach out this time to place her hands over Jay's, which holds his dad's old helm from WWI. "Darling, you have a wonderful legacy, a beautiful one. You should be very proud," she breathes. "I was just looking about this Flash Museum at it, all the joys, all the pains, there is so much here. I'm proud that I had gotten to know you back then, no matter the brief time." Glad he wasn't dead because of the war.
And course, the two are acting like old people, though Louise appears in her prime still. It's quite a scene in the Jay Garrick section of the museum, a very strange scene.
"I am proud extremely proud of all the work I've done and even more proud of What my successors have done to Carry on and add to the name of The Flash. Joan and I were never able to conceive so I never got to have a son or daughter to pass on my knowledge to but I have found exceptional people to take under my wing and pass on my wisdom to."
Jay takes her hand in his "I have so much to tell you so much to say. I should thank you. You and your spirit and the way you made me feel that made me find the spine to approach Joan. I decided if I had the courage to go after you then I had the courage to go after her. dear lord, how are you still so beautiful? even more beautiful than I remember" Jay smiled a bit.
A shy laugh comes from Louise and she honestly blushes, my goodness, does she blush! "Well, it has to do with the fourth wall. Anyway, it was either de-age or deal with the pain of creaking bones while I tried to beat up supervillains and so-called aliens while about fifty pounds overweight. And for your information, I cared the weight well!" Here is a tilt of her chin. "I was buxom!" But she's display a lopsided grin then. "Anyway, I wasn't about to make my daughter duke it out all by her lonesome, SHIELD could only do so much when they had the entire world to tend to, so I had to look after her." She then shhhes cutely, "Don't tell her I said that, I will never hear the end of it!"
Though finally, Louise indulges, she moves to give Jay a hug. "It is really good to see you. Though it's sad you and Joan never had children, I know you would have been a wonderful Father at the very least, and any girl you chose has to be amazing," her words sounding sincere. "I'm still glad you had those that you could still have a legacy with in your life." She moves to pull away a bit. "Daughter and son myself, though I buried my husband a number of years back. He was a good man."
Yep, strange scene there! A some of the kids point and go, 'Flash!' as their mom drags them away and tries to distract them with some of the displays.
"I'm sorry for your loss, He was a lucky lucky man to have landed you" Jay says as he hugs back. "And Joan is a great woman, I feel bad she never got to have babies in the house but we would take in Wally and Barry's nephew Bart from time to time. and anyone with speed based powers basically comes to me to learn the ropes."
Jay detaches from the hug and tentatively puts his arm around Louise's shoulders "I know it's far too late, and I'm not gonna be able to ask you to go steady, but I promised you a date and I keep my promises Ma'am. Would you take that date in the form of me showing around the museum and maybe talking you for a nice dinner between friends?"
And Jay's words really bring forth the laughter from Louise about the 'date'. "Oh, really now? Well, I must say you are a man of your word, but for shame. I'll behave though, so you can look your darling lady in the eyes later tonight," she teases Jay. She gives his lower back a pat, easy to do with his arm about her shoulders. "Show me about this museum then to start out with, so I can see it through your eyes." And there is that flirtatiousness that Louise had, but it's toned in a manner that wouldn't cause too much mischief.
Jay laughs a bit and blushes at Louise's flirting. She is still just how he remembers her. "don't worry Ma'am I wont let you get me in trouble. but If I were a single man, oh the trouble there would be" Jay gives her a wink when he says it. Yes Jay is flirting back, nothing will come of it but Jay is willing to have some innocent flirty fun with his old flame.
Jay leads her to a near by display it hold his old costume. He leaves her side for a moment to open the display case and a replace the helmet that is there with the one in his hand. "This finally I can say is my original costume. I wore this for 10 years through the war till I developed more durable materials to make my costume out of"
Louise laughs softly at that, "Crush a girl's heart, will you?" But she's smiling widely. But she lets Jay go when he goes to open the display case. Her smile softens. "It was still a handsome costume. I've shortened mine over the years, legs got tangled up a few times, but I still wear the old one for fun once in a while." She did mention getting into a dress.
"I just wish I knew we were from different worlds to begin with. Perhaps...," but Louise then shrugs, "I wouldn't have been able to do anything. But boy, I remember that hat of yours had been through everything with me during the war. It was my good luck charm, kept me from losing hope even during rough times. I grew up a lot during that war," Louise ends quietly. The war was...horrible, and she saw horrible things even after that, such as with the Avengers 1959. But she has no regrets of what she did, or had to do. The world is a better place for it.
"That helmet has guided people through 2 world wars then It saw my father through the first war, till he fell in battle. I'm glad you had more luck with it." Jay looks at Louise, and can be seem to quiver a bit. That is Jay fighting himself the love struck young man that never forgot Louise wants nothing more than to plant a kiss on her and get it over with. But the man the man that has sworn an vow to the woman he has spent more than a half century with will not stand for even the thought of it.
"I wish I knew, I wish I knew how I got there. IF I had I would found a way to get back there. So many things would be different. So many"
And Louise reaches out to give Jay's hand a gentle squeeze. "No regrets though," she declares and advises. "You still have a good wife, and a legacy. And I had a good husband and two beautiful children. There is no replacing that, for either of us. But I confess, I'm glad I finally found you Jay Garrick," her smile soft and yes, a little wistful. "We had a miss opportunity, though new ones appeared, but I'm glad I got to find you again. It means a lot to me, so much. And still so good looking!" She laughs softly, lightening the mood up a bit. "How did you stay so damn good looking? Some secret speedster trick? Cause wow, just wow."
Jay chuckles "Well it's clearly not as effective as whatever you got into but I was given long life by 2 factors" Jay starts to lead her down the museum wing again as he talks
"Well the first is the speed force. Something Barry discovered it's this still seemingly mystical force that all speedsters are tapped into and gives us all our powers. it slows down our aging." They get to the part of the Museum dealing with the Justice Society of America.
"The second reason is a bit of a story. I was part of a superhero team that the president formed to help win the the war for the allies. The Justice Society of America, That why I was in Europe during the war, and why I met you. Well we tried to make a go of it as a team after the war but we didn't make it long as a team in peace time. But on our final mission together a final showdown with a team of villains that sprang up to challenge us. Then there was this one villain. A man made of shadow and magic. Dr Fate, the Green lantern and a bunch of us had him surrounded and were about to take him out once and for all. But something happened his powers exploded and everyone caught in it got a bit of his power in the form of unnatural life"
"I see," Louise states, interested in the story. "That, is actually way more exciting than my story." She says, "What you faced, was truly heroic. Me, it was just Moleman being stupid. He switched the physical attributes of me and She-Hulk. I became young and powerful, and she, well...became old and ornery, wait, she's already ornery," and Louise laughs softly at that.
"Anyway, when our physical attributes were swapped back, I realized, I could do it on my own, sorta. Control my age anyway, I'm not so sure about the other. But I was just a supporting character and didn't see much point in it. When most of the heroes disappeared though, and the supervillains rose to attack everyone, well...I had a reason to then. So I de-aged and fought with my daughter at my side to protect people, same as when the so-called aliens invaded. They were really nasty, let's just say, pawn shops were my friend when it came to obtaining ammo," illegally of course. "In either case, afterwards, I decided I would stay young because I got my own series. It's not a big series mind you, but it's something to be proud of." Louise smiles at that.
"Fourth wall power." She gives Jay's hand a gentle squeeze before releasing it finally. "I hear Deadpool has it, but he has it waaaay worse, like in a bad way." She just sounds crazy, but that's alright, it's cute crazy.
Jay just smiles and nods he doesn't judge the crazy jabbering and he doesn't pretend to understand the insanity of the world Louise comes from. "Well ok then" Jay Says politely as he leads her further do through the museum, they pass by a big centralize display featuring the Cosmic Treadmill.
"Ooooh, cool, what's that?!" Louise sounds excited about the treadmill, "The ultimate workout machine?" She winks over at Jay, waiting for an explanation. Her eyes don't seem to wander from Jay for very long however, and her smile seems just as bright as he remembers.
Jay sighs, "That is something that looking at you I wish I had all those years ago" Jay smiles at her smile. "That's is the Cosmic treadmill, the greatest invention my successor ever had. It's a special machine to harness the time and dimension warping effects of the speed Force to be able to control it. Funny story it's how I am starting to think I got to your world. I ran too hard and the speed force slipped me through a weak point between the Dimensions. If I had this old thing back then I could have been right back there. Anyone tapped into the speed force can run on this to harness it's power and go to any time or dimension they choose given they can run fast enough."
"Which is likely not very many people that can run fast enough," Louise says with a thoughtful expression. But she then blinks, "That device! That big one with lots of electricity being sent to!" She then quiets down when a few people glance her way to stare and she, "Oops," quietly. "Anyway," much more softly. "There was think spinning thing HYDRA was working on that exploded right before you arrived. That may have had something to do with it. Imagine if HYDRA had gotten to your world to? Or the Nazi's reinforcing each other?" Louise winces at that. "It was good it was destroyed." Though part of her was wishing for that knowledge earlier too. Still, they both lived good lives, right? She remembers to break her thoughtful expression with a smile. "That old information is likely so buried deep in the U.S. archives, they wouldn't care to unbury it enough to add to the file. Though sadly that organization is still around today. Pain in the ass, like a callous you use lotion, stones, and everything else to get rid of, but it keeps coming back to bite you in the rump."
"We didn't have HYDRA here I think it was just a freak accident, dear. no one knew quite how powerful the forces they were messing with were. I was the Flash for just over 5 years at the time I had not idea my limits, and I gather there as here technology was just starting to pick up speed and take a huge leap forward. I think it was just an accident I'm happy about, yet a very sad accident"
. Jay with out thinking puts an arm around Louise and pulls her in for a tender embrace.
"Oh, you do now Fla..Jay, you do. The organization developed and still survived to today. I remember seeing the residue of the group in 1959 actually during a co-ops mission I was on. Not really allowed to talk about it," and she rolls her eyes at that part. "From what I understand, they were founded by Red Skull, and currently being lead by Baron Strucker," she grumbles. "I'm a little limited on the information behind the scenes right now I'm afraid, since I declined membership to S.H.I.E.L.D. I served my time for my country, I don't want a second life of serving my country full-time again. Not that I didn't have my fun, just....it's time for the new generation to shine. I'm just here to have some fun."
Louise lingers for a moment in that embrace, sighing softly. But she then pulls back with a soft smile, "And to make new friends, or rather re-find old ones." She winks playfully. "What's next dear?" Oh great, Nazi fanatics still around and she's asking what's next in the museum? Go figure!
For a fraction a second a frown comes over Jay's face when she pulls away. But her smile makes him smile in return. "well the rest of the museum is dedicated to my successors that why it's here in central city and not in Keystone where I live. They are great heroes pure of heart and I swell up with pride and get a tear in my eye when i really think about the fact that they were some how inspired by me"
A chuckle comes from Louise, "Of course it does love," she says with easy humor. "They may not be of your blood, they those that follow your legacy are like your children I believe. Why wouldn't you be proud of them? I love my son, and I don't favor one over the other, but when I see my daughter carrying my name, I just cannot express it in words. I love my son, but my daughter though she chose a most difficult life, will shine all the brighter for it." Louise understands.
Jay smiles and nods and this is a pause when Louise mentions "a most difficult life". Jay hasn't mentioned it but Barry is no longer with us. Louise is right, those who take the name of the Flash are in his heart his children. And one his sons died. One of his boys is gone.
Jay forces a smile and takes Louise by the hand "Come let show you my sons" Jay's voice has a bit of a tremble in it as he says it.
Louise notices that. She hasn't learned much about the Flashs', a big reason she came to the museum. She only read a few articles online, and heard a few rumors. She's very much the type to go there and learn, rather than read about it on the internet. She walks with Jay, "Something happened," she says softly, leaving it open ended. Her tone is gentle.
Jay stops and softly answers "yes" That's all he is ready to say on the subject at the moment. He is soon leading her through the extensive collection of things from Barry's time as the flash costumes, news clips, inventions, and mementos of victory he had a habit of taken after every adventure. but at the end of this big hallway full of things this is a display with flowers all over it and some candles around it. Jay eyes it from the corner of his eye trying to not notice it as he leads Louise in it's direction.
Louise smiles and laughs at times as the trophies are shown, and looks a little sad at other times. Though at the end, the memorial that is displayed, her eyes tear up. She links her arm with Jay's. She knows what it felt like to lose her husband, imagining losing one of her children rips her up inside and leaves a gaping hole. "I'm so sorry darling, I'm so sorry." The worse parents' nightmare came true for Jay.
They walk up to the memorial arm in arm. Finally now Jay is ready to talk about. "Barry Allen, He stumbled upon the same accident that gave my my powers. He was such a good man so smart so kind. He inspired hope in this city. He died in the crisis he gave his life to try to save the universe." Jay tears up again. "I know he died a hero for all of us but I wish it were me. I'm the Flash too, Barry didn't have to be the one to do it. I could have done it. I lived a good long life, Barry was young he had so much left to do."
"Sometimes, it's the tragedy itself that is supposed to make the story, the living legend. It doesn't make it any easier, or any better to swallow. Barry died as he lived, doing what he loved, making a difference. But he will be missed, and I wish I could have known him. He sounds like he is a man I would have been proud to have known and have had as part of my life."
Jay nods and gives her arm a squeeze for comfort. "I know but It doesn't make it any easier." Jay takes a moment. Barry can you hear me barry? This is her the beautiful phantom I always talked bout I told you she was real. I wish you were here to meet her. Jay sighs and looks at Louise when he is ready to move on.
Louise gently squeezes Jay's arm as she notices he is ready to move on. She turns with him to go on to the current Flash's story, the one that re-obtained his secret identity after it was lost, along with losing the unborn twins and his marriage. That tragedy now unknown to the general public.