Electric Flame

1.7

I could destroy the entire Justice League and remove all humanity from the world. The one thing villains fail time and time again, I'd basically already succeeded.

I mentally slapped myself out of it, shaking such sinister thoughts from my head. It feels good to want to save someone, I've learned that during the past couple of hours. You want to be the good guy, right? Maybe. Maybe not. Mother turned out fine. I needed to set myself straight. This time, I did slap myself.

"Did you just front-hand yourself?" Kid Flash asked, unaware of the internal argument I just had with myself.

Most people have both the devil and the angel on each of their shoulders. I just have the devil.

"What? You saw that?" My cheeks turned redder than a tomato eating an apple, holding a strawberry, driving a fire truck. Yes, that red. "I was-- uh. Thinking about something."

"Hey, okay. Fine, don't tell me," he simpered, looking pleased with himself. "We're here. Are you ready?" I gulped. "Be right back, I hope," he wavered with a look of despair. He grabbed my shoulders and told me, "In the short time that we spent together-"

I cut him off, "You're not going to die, Kid." I felt awkward about the ending of that sentence. I've never had to tell someone that. I'm playing it by year.

"Yeah, I know, because I'm awesome! But the others would really like you." He gave me a small, sad smile and looked off into the distance toward his friends.

It would be a miracle if they let you live after this, the devil on my shoulder countered.

I concentrated on the task at hand. "If I messed up, the whole world could freeze over. If I succeeded, the whole Justice League would probably have me beheaded. Talk about a lose-lose situation. Thanks a lot, energy," I mumbled sarcastically, knowing that no one would respond. "Because of me, the Earth's core is radioactive. Isn't that wonderful? It can't possibly get any worse than that."

Kid Flash patted me on the back, snapping me out of my mental rant. "Just relax," he encouraged. "You'll be just fine." Then, he walked off and got into position, ready to do what he does best. Ready to run.

I shook my head thinking, How'd I manage to get into this situation again?

I remembered what Kid Flash said earlier and focused on movement. I let my shoulders fall, tilted my head back, and relaxed every muscle in my body, only directing my attention to unfreezing the city. I stood there, in the middle of the alley beside my bedroom, with the whole Justice League's lives and potentially the entire world resting on my shoulders. 

I imagined each of the strings of time, separated into years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds. I plucked them like harp strings, delicately flicking each one as I flipped through them like books in a library.

"How far back do you want to go?" My eyes were shut, but he knew I was talking to him. Who else is here?

"Maybe a year or so," he thought aloud. "No, I won't remember what I was doing then. Okay, how about last week. I had an extremely unfair exam last Monday. Think you can throw me back then?"

I nodded, preparing for the rush of thoughts. Once I inserted him into last week's timeline, I was attached to him. I was able to hear and feel everything he said and thought. 

I opened my eyes slowly and inhaled deeply, extending my hands like a Venus flytrap as I willed all the energy in my body to them. A hot sting burned the center of my palms and a vivid purple light burst into a spinning circle of swirled black, blue, and violet. A portal. With my eyes, I plucked the string of last Monday and sent it into the wormhole.