The Flash - Fastest Woman Alive!

Author’s Note: I’m trying to pick up the thread of this story after a long hiatus and write a sort of epilogue to it so it wasn’t just left hanging. Please do comment if you spot grammar or spelling mistakes or plot holes so I can fix them. I mention other heroes in this story. Although I do not have them doing much, if their authors wish I shall remove them.

Chapter 7
Eventually I made it too unprofitable for that drug ring to operate in Phoenix. Professor Zoom decided to retire before I got my hands on him a third time. Without him to create the stuff on site and with distribution stations and warehouses being destroyed all over the city they pulled out rather than lose more money. Green lantern coordinated us in helping to stamp them out everywhere. There were still criminals of course and organized crime sadly but the group that had been producing the enhancement drugs that killed millions were all either dead or in prison. I told Iris it was safe to come back and tried to get back into my old routine.

There were two flies in the ointment however. The first was that the Syndicate had hired other meta-human criminals, not just the Trickster, and they all seemed to have stayed even after their employers left. They were enough to keep me busy even if they were only thieves.

The second thing actually bothered me more. I found that I was only playing at being Barry. It was no longer who I was and that had finally sunk in. I could pretend to be him for short periods but any conversation longer than about a few minutes and people started looking at me funny and asking if everything was alright. I decided that if I kept trying it was all going to explode in my face so I talked to Iris and we decided to take Jade up on her offer of new Identities. With the help of Copycat we showed Barry and the Flash in two different and highly visible locations a few times just to be sure people didn’t connect the two. Then Giganta and her girlfriend transferred some of the money they’d electronically stolen from the bad guys we’d been fighting and made it appear that the Allens had received an inheritance.

We told everyone that we would be taking a cruise around the world as a sort of second honeymoon and that we would get a new house after we returned. This gave us a reason to pack everything we wanted to keep and ship it off. Once we had new identities it would be sent back to us.

Once we’d left the city they drove to a spot out in the desert where we were met by the new Doctor Fate. He used magic to give us new legal identities and changed Iris’ looks so she wouldn’t be recognized and looked a little closer to my apparent age. I don’t think he actually made her younger but I can’t say for sure.

We didn’t want to chance actually moving back to Phoenix but I wasn’t willing to move too far away. I wanted to be able to commute, so to speak, and deal with Trickster and the rest if they caused too much trouble. So we settled in a city within running distance for the Flash and we cultivated a reputation as eccentric recluses so that anything odd we did wouldn’t cause any extra notice. Neither of us had to work with the money Giganta and Lena had given us but Iris volunteered in a local program that helped kids learn to read. Once a teacher, always a teacher I guess.

I became the Flash full time. I made sure I left plenty of time for Iris and wasn’t always out catching bad guys and foiling nefarious plots but I never knew when I might be needed so I didn’t try to hold down even a part time volunteer job.

We got some flak for being an openly gay couple but the most part people accepted us. I noticed the face of the ring change from green lantern to Star Sapphire and worried about Jade but otherwise it had little impact on me. As long as it was able to produce a costume I was happy with it. A lot had changed but I still had Iris, a job that mattered, and I could still run.