Spidey & Speedy - Central City Rush

Chapter 8 - Joker On Jack, Match On A Fire

***BARRY***

I still can't make sense of what's going on, even after we finally get a room to ourselves to sit and chat. The room used to be Peter's, and only Peter's. But because of all the evacuees coming in, the third floor, which was previously set aside exclusively for the kids of Midtown Science High School, had to open up a few rooms. Therefore, everyone now has a roommate. It seems like pure chance that Peter and Grayson are sharing a room now, but whatever the circumstances, it's actually a good thing. Two superheroes are better than one, am I right or am I right?

Luckily, Wells (who, unlike the two villains we've met since I closed the black hole, has yet to disappear randomly) has an idea about what may be happening. Once we're inside the boys' room (why I think of it like that, I'm not sure, since one of them isn't even a boy), he leans against the door and says, "I think...when I was taken from my proper time and space, I was sent through a wormhole-"

"You already said that," Peter says.

Wells nods. "True. But since there are more people whom you seem to know randomly appearing and disappearing, there must be more wormholes surfacing in Central City as we speak."

Everyone around me looks shocked. I'm sure that, like with me, it's from picturing the possibility of more and more villains, arriving from an infinite myriad of quantum-multiverse dimensions. Well, obviously they wouldn't be all villains. After all, there's this pre-Eobard Thawne version of Wells, who's most definitely not a bad guy. I hope. There's still a nugget of doubt holed up in a dark corner in the back of my mind as far as Wells is concerned. Even if this is the real deal we're talking to, I'll never be able to trust him one hundred percent. But at this point, I think I can settle for seventy-five.

"All right," Cisco says, clapping his hands. "Who wants to invent something to look for wormholes in the city first?" He points his thumbs at himself, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess that the next two words out of his mouth are going to be "this" and "guy." Which, yes, they are, sadly.

"Hmm..." The droning sound drifts from Grayson's mouth for a while as he strokes the stubble above his lip. Other than my coma months, I haven't gone a day without shaving since I was Peter's age. I made the mistake of trying to grow a mustache for No-Shave November that year. To this day, Iris and Joe insist that I ruined that year's Christmas card with my ill-advised experiment, and I'm inclined to agree with them. Maybe I could grow a more impressive 'stache now, but I'm almost afraid to try. Even if it does work, I'd never hear the end of it from Cisco and Caitlin. The former, in particular, would draw on an endless pool of "Who are you and what the hell have you done with Barry Allen?" jokes. At least I'd probably learn how to say that in Spanish too, because if I know Cisco, he'll have no problem breaking out the bilingual-humor card in the event of his game needing to step up.

"You say something?" Gwen asks, turning to Grayson as he starts tapping one of his hands against the edge of his bed. It looks rather like he's drumming with that one hand.

Grayson starts, then shakes his head. "No, no, no...well, I, uh, did have an idea. But it's a dumb one, and you guys aren't gonna like it."

"Try us," Caitlin says.

"Yeah," I say. "Any idea is better than none at all."

"And there are no wrong answers?" Grayson asks. When nobody responds to his joke - I think it's a joke, anyway - he moves on and presents his idea. "Okay. So, as most of you guys know by now, I've been known to work with Batman in Gotham. I used to be his protégé, the one they called Robin. Now there's a new Robin, who's basically my adopted little brother-"

"The point, please?" Olivia says.

"Do you know what I'm gonna suggest?" Grayson asks.

"I can guess," Olivia says, smirking. "And if I'm right, you're also right, 'cause the others are so totally not gonna like it."