Stepping past the girl, Barry stumbled into the pet shop in a daze.
The shop owner was at the counter, blow-drying a little dog's fur. Spotting Barry as he came in, she called out loudly while continuing her work.
"Looking for a pet that clicks with you? Trust me, you'll always find a little companion here, one who'll stay by your side for a long, long time. They might not understand you the way people do, but they'll absolutely be the kind of good friends you can understand!"
With that, the owner patted the dog's head and sent it off to play, its fur nearly dry.
Then she walked over to Barry and asked again.
"So, want to take a look?"
"Uh? Yeah! Definitely! Wait, no no no, that's not right. I do love them, but I'm here about the job!!!"
His words tumbled out, and his fingers twisted together nervously. This was his first real job interview. Especially for something he had zero expertise in—animal care!
He was a mystery novel enthusiast, a trace evidence expert, and after gaining the Speed Force, he'd taught himself a range of advanced sciences thanks to his lightning-fast brain. But because he didn't want his research into speed to be linked to the Flash, who'd been popping up all over Central City lately, he simply didn't dare use that knowledge to apply for a position at any research institute. If he didn't want his identity exposed, the only way was to leave no thread for anyone to pull.
Who would ever suspect a pet care worker of being the Flash?
Wait!
At that thought, Barry suddenly realized he wasn't a pet care worker yet! So what he should be doing right now was pulling out his résumé and handing it to the owner!
And so Barry flashed an awkward smile and said, "I prepared a résumé specially for this. Honestly, résumés are just the hardest thing. Not the format—it's that I have to introduce myself! I really don't know how to introduce me. After all, the me in my head and the me in everyone else's head are totally different, right?"
As he spoke, he fished out his résumé, and immediately his face filled with panic. The résumé he'd pulled out was crumpled into a wrinkled mess!
Seeing the state of it, Barry understood in a flash. When he'd glanced at that girl earlier, his hand, shoved in his pocket, had clenched into a fist without him realizing it!!!
Which meant... that girl was seriously pretty!
No, no, no—why am I thinking about that? Right now, I need to explain why my résumé looks like this. But no matter how wrecked the résumé is, that girl is still so pretty...
And so the shop owner stared in bafflement at the young man clutching a crumpled résumé. A moment later, she simply reached out and plucked it straight from Barry's hand.
Noticing the résumé vanish from his grasp, Barry mumbled awkwardly, "Guess this is exactly the kind of problem you get from shoving paper in your pocket. Clothes are like monsters that chew up white paper—the tiniest bit of movement, and..."
"Okay, Mister... Bartholomew Henry Barry Allen, let me just look at your résumé first!"
The owner cut him off directly. At the same time, she unfolded the crumpled, folded résumé. The moment it was open, the shop owner couldn't even be bothered to read it. She simply held the paper out for the nervous Barry to see. Right there in her hand, the already wrinkled and crumpled résumé was also missing a huge corner, making Barry want to sink straight into the floor.
Whoosh!
Barry snatched the résumé back. Holding it, he struggled to explain to the shop owner. "Why is this résumé missing a corner, you ask? Why? Obviously, there's a paper-eating pet living in my pocket. As soon as I put the résumé in, the little guy just goes nom nom nom and chews the paper right off. But I don't mind. I love little animals—that's why I'm applying here. Even if it ate my résumé, haha..."
Having said his piece, Barry waited with excruciating difficulty for the owner's response, as a perfectly timed wind of awkwardness blew through the air.
Looking at the nervous young man in front of her, the owner frowned and gently shook her head.
"I'm sorry, I can't allow my shop..."
BOOM!!!
Before the owner could finish, a violent crashing sound erupted in Barry's ears! He turned and looked outside the shop. At the very center of the intersection, a truck had run a red light and plowed straight into a hapless compact car!
Barry immediately moved to save them, but in that split second, he suddenly saw clearly who was being thrown from the car.
"It's that girl!!!"
In an instant, Barry Allen's eyes went red. With a sudden surge of power, his clothes and pants pressed themselves tightly against his skin, and his worn-out sneakers were crushed to pieces beneath his feet! At the same time, in his world, it was as if time had come to a complete stop!
He lunged forward with massive strides, reaching out to tap the pet shop's glass door with a single finger. The moment Barry's fingertip touched the glass, the smooth surface bulged outward like a soap bubble being blown. And then, stretched to its absolute limit, the glass shattered, just like a bursting bubble!
Barefoot now, Barry charged straight toward the compact car still floating in midair. Arriving beside it, he peeled the window open as if parting a stream of water and gently lifted out the girl suspended in the air alongside the vehicle. While his left arm held the girl, his right hand didn't stay idle—it grabbed again and again, snatching the shopping bags floating around the car out of the sky.
He even had time to glance inside the bags. All pet food. Especially little sausages for dogs.
Seeing this, Barry smiled softly. This girl clearly had a cute little dog.
Grinning, he set the girl down on the ground and placed the shopping bags beside her. He even gently smoothed the hair that had been thrown into disarray when she and the car were hit. Tucking that soft hair behind her ear, Barry blushed and reached for one of the pet sausages. He picked out the smallest one and slipped it quietly into his pocket.
"I'll just take this as thanks," he said with a chuckle, slowly standing up. Now he had to deal with the traces of his rescue and build himself an alibi.
But the moment he straightened up, a voice that utterly shocked him suddenly sounded right by his ear.
"I thought you were just saving someone, but messing with a woman's hair and stealing a hot dog—isn't that a bit much?"
Hearing this, Barry's eyes went wide. He stared dumbly toward the street corner not far away.
There stood Heisenberg, dressed in a crisp suit with an overcoat draped over his shoulders.
Looking at Heisenberg, Barry was simultaneously bewildered and mortified. He raised the little sausage. "It's a pet sausage, not a hot dog!!!"
"So you're saying you're proud of fighting a pet for its sausage?"
"Of course not, I just, just... wait, I wasn't doing her makeup, I was just concerned!!!"
After blurting that out, Barry lowered his head in embarrassment and couldn't help but glance at the girl, frozen motionless on the ground. That single glance made Barry suddenly realize—right now, he was moving within his own world! It was his world, the world of the Speed Force, where even the laws of physics bent before his velocity. Even the car in the sky and the shattered debris hung suspended in his world!
He was a speedster, the Flash. If he wanted to, he could make the entire universe pause before him!
But he had already paused it...
Across from him, Heisenberg watched as Barry froze, dazedly raising a hand. Barry first pointed at the car still hanging in the sky, then pointed at Heisenberg.
"You...?!"
"That's right. You've already shown me your speed. Genuinely fast. But only fast," Heisenberg said with a smile, walking toward the dumbstruck Barry Allen.
As Heisenberg approached, Barry stumbled backward in panic. He had never met anyone who could match his speed like Heisenberg! Retreating, Barry asked nervously, "Who are you? How are you as fast as me? You..."
CRASH!!!
Distracted, Barry's bare right heel slammed hard into a fire hydrant on the curb. The hydrant was instantly blasted away, and the water about to erupt formed a stunning, frozen water-tree in the nearly still world.
As for our Barry... he continued stumbling backward until his body smashed heavily into the pet shop's wall.
"Gahhh!!!"
With a miserable yell, Barry Allen shut off the Speed Force in an instant, wailing in agony where he lay. Out on the street, Heisenberg rolled his eyes helplessly. Looking at Barry embedded in the wall, Heisenberg had about ten thousand snarky remarks he was dying to let out. But in the end, he refrained from mocking the young man further and simply extended his right hand.
BOOM!!!
The flying car hurtling toward a bystander was brought under control and pinned steadily to the ground by Heisenberg's force field. The girl jolted awake from the suspended time and stared in shock at Barry Allen, still embedded in the pet shop's wall.
"Pfft, haha!"
The girl laughed outright, and her smile drew a pained, sheepish grin from the suffering Barry.
Unfortunately, Heisenberg stepped directly into Barry's line of sight, blocking his view of the girl. He stood in front of Barry, reached out, and hauled him out of the wall.
"Careful, careful, careful, aaahhh! It hurts like crazy! My ribs, my ribs are broken!!! Don't take me to the hospital, I'll heal on my own, seriously, don't send me to the hospital, I can't afford the medical bills! Wait, you still haven't told me who you are? Are you someone like me? Can you run as fast as lightning too? I'm the fastest man alive—at least I was, until a second ago. But now, it seems like I'm not anymore..."
"Ahem!"
Hearing the endless muttering beside his ear, Heisenberg coughed twice, cutting off the Flash's spiraling train of thought. "You seem to be about as much of a chatterbox as Spider-Man, but this isn't the time for a chat. Let's find somewhere to talk properly. How about it?"
"Sure. I mean, even if I said no, I probably couldn't shake you off. But before we go, I've got one last thing to do!"
As he spoke, Barry pulled out the little sausage from his pocket. Barefoot, he stumbled past the terrified shop owner and made his way over to the pups inside. He opened the sausage and tossed it into the dogs' pen. Watching them scramble for the treat, a satisfied smile spread across Barry's face. Then, doing his best to act like he had no idea what had just happened, he shuffled back to Heisenberg and whispered, "You're a superhero too, right? If I hadn't stepped in, would you have saved them? But what you did to me was way out of line. I mean, I wasn't scared, but you tripped me up—that was really awkward. And about Spider-Man being a chatterbox, I absolutely disagree. He's my favorite superhero. A Spider-Man who's always saving people can't be a chatterbox—it's the fault of the editors who draw the comics. Right, I still haven't asked your name. I'm Barry Allen. I never thought I'd meet someone as fast as me. How did you get your powers, man? You got struck by lightning too?"
/-\
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