When I next wake up it's not to the ceiling of a hospital or to the bunker of the orphanage but to a complete blank space of white, suddenly I feel a great thump and a small but of the space around me is changed from its white colour into a combination of gold and red.
With another thump the space is again changed to be more full of the red and gold. After the fifth thump I realise why the thumps seem so familiar because I can feel the same thump every moment of my life as my heart beat.
Before long the entire space is only gold and red and I can see lightning randomly crackle before disappearing and then returning in a different location but never for long.
I watch this mesmerising display for a while when I get the feeling something is about to happen and I wasn't wrong as from all of the places that the lightning had been starts creating separate crackles of lightning before they all connected and became a single gargantuan tree of lightning with myself at the bottom intertwined with its roots.
I gasp as I wake in a much more recognisable hospital bed with all manner of devices making just the most annoying sounds possible without end.
I sit up much easier than I would be able to and look around to see that I am not in the public ward of the hospital and am instead in the rich people private ward.
I scratch my head as I try and think about why I would be in the rich people ward when I had less money than most lower class families when I am interrupted by a man in a clean (and very expensive looking) suit and tie enters the room quietly.
He looks up at me when he notices some movement and in a quiet voice that I am thankful for as the whisper he speaks in is enough for the headache I didn't notice yet to flare up.
"Ah I see that your awake let me introduce myself. My name is Bruce Wayne" he spoke and I finally realised why he looks so familiar.
"It's nice to meet you young man" I opened my mouth and tried to respond but all that came out was a strangled cough and a weeze.
"Ah the doctor advises you not to try and speak as your body has suffered large amounts of electrical damage mainly around your upper body and shoulders and there might be some damage to your throat" I nodded and when he handed me a notepad and pen from inside his suit I wrote a thank you to him.
"You welcome but I must insist that I own you my thanks" I look at him confused and he continues "the orphanage that you added was one my mother had personally built before her passing and it's one of the few places that hasn't been shut down after her passing" I nodded and wrote on the notepad that I was only doing what any person would but he shook his head.
"It really isn't young man" I looked at him weirdly and he continued "only a good person would sacrifice themselves for another, even the director of that very orphanage decided his life was more important than the children and had fled at the first explosion" I couldn't really blame him for not wanting to die even if at the cost of another.
"When the matrons contacted me with hopes that I could help the young man who had risked himself for the lives of children I was happy to have you moved to my personal doctors wing in Gotham general" I flipped the page back to the thank you I had previously written and tapped it with the pen again to convey my thanks.
He checks his watch and his face scrunched up in annoyance for a moment before it smoothed back to his original tired face. "I'd love to continue our talk but the attack of the aliens has done major damage and the board of directors has demanded I make a statement today so I must be off" I wrote that I'll see him later and he nodded before placing a Wayne tech phone on the bedside along with his card before leaving with a warms smile at me.
'i wonder how long he's been batman' I think as I try and remember how long ago was the first confirmed sighting of batman and in my still fuzzy mind (that was clearing much quicker than I think should be possible) the first was almost a decade ago so he should have just about all of his kids and Jason should have come back about 4 years ago with Damian joining the batfam 2 years ago.
Time skip
My stay in the hospital was both confusing and annoyingly simple, the first few days where about as normal as any stay in a hospital I've ever had with the exception of Bruce visits once a day but the 4th day when I was allowed to start walking was when things got weird.
With a bit of strain I stand with the help of the orderly and take my first step since I was admitted and the moment my foot hit the floor I felt a pool that I hadn't noticed in the pit of my stomach seemed to double in size.
Shaking my head at the weird feeling I continued my first walk while ignoring the continued increase in the feeling in my stomach until the next time I lay down on my bed I felt the pool drain and the pain I was in just vanished while the Lichtenberg scars that had stayed well past the normal amount of time glowed the same colour as the space from my dreams before I woke up.
After that I decided to stop ignoring the memory I had of calling the speed force equation aloud and when I focused on that memory I was welcomed into somthings imprace from how the foreign emotions seemed to come from all around me.
Taking a moment to enjoy the pure welcoming feeling of what I instinctively knew to be the speed force I remembered that in the comics the speed force was only semi-sentient and shouldn't be able to express emotions, especially to a new speedster like me.
So I pushed my confusion into the link I could feel with the speed force and surprisingly I got a response in the form of memories not my own. In the memories I could see that my calling out to the speed force had allowed the actual speed force from the main DC multiverse to briefly connect to this multiverse if only momentarily before something cut the link via external means.
But that infinitly small moment in time it was connected allowed it to create a speed force duplicate for this universe even if it was much much weaker than its main version and only linked to a single person.
The upsides of this weaker existence and it only linking to a single person means that it had time to form a consciousness before it would balloon into being a full primordial force of the universe when it acquired enough energy to retroactive make it so.
I shook my head and had to wonder why it would want to do something like pulling a retcon like that but I didn't really see the need to question it as it's new sentience ment it most likely wouldn't link to any evil people with my own negative view of people like that.