Wally's head throbbed with a dull, repetitive thud. His muscles ached, but as he regained consciousness he discovered his wrists, ankles, and torso were pinned down. He opened his eyes. He really was pinned to a wall. Again. If Artemis or the Team were here, he would quip that he was always getting chained up in dungeons. At another place at another time, this wouldn't be that bad. Even in the enemy's grasp, Wally West would always find himself hilarious.

He almost chuckled when he heard Kid Flash groaning. Unlike Wally, Kid Flash was laying on the floor contained by a flickering force field. Of course that would be the only way to contain Kid Flash—he could vibrate his molecules out of any prison cell. It made Wally, who was just telling himself a pretty darn good joke, feel even more bitter towards his twin. Kid Flash's superiority was so well-known, that even Klarion knew to stick him in the ultra-complex force field and Wally in the chains.

Wait a second. Why would Klarion use a force field instead of his mag—uh usual tricks?

Think of the devil and he will appear. Klarion the Witch Boy entered the room, his hair-horns as sharp as ever. He came with no guards or weapons—just his cat, a testament to how confident Klarion was that he could take the both of them if need be. Still, there was something off about him. Usually Klarion let Teekl roam while he did his evil business, but since the encounter in San Francisco Wally hadn't seen Teekl's paws touch the ground. The creepy kid turned to Wally.

"I've wanted to get back you," Klarion said. "Ever since you pulled that stunt with Dr. Fate."

"Is that what this is all about?" Wally asked. "Extremely belated revenge?"

"Of course not. It's just an unexpected perk." He turned his back to Wally and stood before Kid Flash.

"I'll start with you since we don't have much time," Klarion said. Kid Flash remained restrained by the containment field, but he maintained defiant eye contact with the witch boy. "But you know that right?"

Teekl the cat meowed.

"People can't just switch dimensions," he said. He slowly pet the cat, methodically stoking from the top of the head to the tip of the tail with his sharp, black fingernails. "To stick around this long, you need an anchor. Now, my anchor is Teekl. Dr. Fate's anchor is a helmet. But what's anchoring you?"

Maybe he was feeding off his twin's emotions, or maybe it was just the general hostility permeating the room, but Wally started gritting his teeth and clenching his fists. Kid Flash remained prostrate on the ground in rebellious silence.

"Is it her?" Klarion wondered aloud. He brought a pale hand to his chin. "But that can't be true. I temporarily anchored her to Teekl, so if you were anchored to her I would sense it. Poor kitty gets so pooped supporting two people." Teekl purred. The sound was sickening, but at least it explained why Teekl was being carted around like a prize poodle.

"What do you even want with us?" Kid Flash asked. His voice was low and dangerous. "What is Jinx to you?"

"Hey I'm asking the questions here!" Klarion shrieked. His eyes, creepy enough on a good day, became red and beady. "How are you doing it? How are you here? Tell me tell me tell me!" KIarion jumped up and down with every intonation, threatening to stomp on his captive. When Kid Flash didn't speak, Klarion raised his hand and release red lighting from his hands. Whatever type of attack it was, Kid Flash gasped and writhed in pain. Klarion's torture ceased after Teekl impatient MROW.

"You're right, you're right." Klarion said to his cat. "I can get answers later. We have more important things to accomplish tonight."

Klarion strode out of the room and slammed the heavy metal door. Apart from the light buzzing of the containment field, there was absolute silence.

This was something Wally could not endure.

"Dude!" Wally whispered. "Dude!" Kid Flash slowly rolled on his side and looked in Wally's direction.

"What?"

"Let's do a little less moping and a little more escaping."

"I wasn't moping," Kid Flash whispered fiercely. He waited a beat before continuing. "I was doing the thing were you act like you've lost so that the villain tells you everything you need to know."

This strategy rang a bell. When Wally delivered a heart to Queen Perdita, he used that exact tactic to get Count Vertigo to lose his diplomatic immunity. Thanks to a little acting, Vertigo got a first-class ticket to Belle Reve.

"Dude, you didn't do it right," Wally said. "You got to ask leading questions, not interrogate them. What is this, amateur hour?"

"Hey, if I were the amateur, I would be up there with you instead of stuck in this containment field," Kid Flash said. That stung. Wally grumbled and looked away from his twin. Well, as far away as he could while being chained to a wall.

"Anyways," Kid Flash said. "We do know a couple things. One, he doesn't plan on keeping Jinx around very long. And two, he is planning something tonight. That's enough for me. Does anyone know you are here?"

"Robin does. The bioship is here, so I'm pretty easily trackable," Wally said. "But I'm not sure how they will get, like, here here. Inside this place."

"Yeah." No backup was on its way.

They devolved into uncomfortable silence for a while longer. Wally was stuck figuring out Klarion. If only Robin was around. Wally liked being the repository of scientific knowledge and pop culture trivia, not the detective. But even so, Wally couldn't stop turning over the conversation with Klarion in his head, the behavior of his cat, his choice to minimize his magic use through technology. If Klarion wasn't lying, his cat was anchoring him and Jinx to this mortal plane. This must have set him off his game, made him more weak and vulnerable. Kid Flash was right—if anchoring an extra person was putting that much stress on the cat, then Klarion really didn't plan on keeping Jinx around. Escape was becoming more and more urgent.

"Hey," Wally whispered. Kid Flash had turned away from his again, and lay there despondently. "Are you fake-moping or real-moping?" Kid Flash didn't answer. Wally's patience thinned.

"What is wrong with you? I can't believe you are me in another universe. How can you fight crime or save lives if you just act on every impulse?" Wally was yelling now. "How can you waltz into my life, act like the big hero, Wally 2.0, and then give up! Seriously, am I the only one who sees what is wrong here?"

"You're right!' Kid Flash said. His voice, normally suave and composed, was ragged. "You're right. I'm not really a great hero. I mean, I thought I was, but ever since I got to this universe, all I've done is piggyback off you." He lay on his back now, and spoke directly at the ceiling. "Running around like a headless chicken really is my only strategy. I don't track things, I don't interrogate villains, I don't sneak around. I don't even have cool gear. Running is all I do and all I have."

They had already endured many silences in this room, but this one was the most devastating. It made sense. When Wally ran into Jinx in San Francisco, Kid Flash was all the way in Phoenix, Arizona—the actual opposite end of the West coast. Kid Flash may not have even gotten this close to Jinx had he not followed Wally and stolen one of Wally's suits. The pit of Wally's stomach churned. Was that hunger? Guilt? A little bit of both?

"Bro," Wally said. "I had no idea. This whole time I was being all jealous of you, I didn't think you were also jealous of me."

"It's a two way street, I guess," Kid Flash said. It was liberating to get this all out in the open, but they had to get out of this cell and get into action soon. For all they knew, Jinx was running out of time.

"You, uh, care about Jinx right?" Wally asked. Kid Flash rolled towards him again. "You traveled across the dimensions of time and space to get here, right?"

"Yea."

"Well that's pretty heroic. And pretty damn smooth," Wally said. "You got to admit that." Kid Flash cracked a grin.

"I guess it is."

"But no one is going to see it that way if Jinx doesn't make it out of here alive," Wally said. He took a deep breath.

"Teach me how to vibrate my molecules," Wally said quickly. Kid Flash's eyes widened. "You can't move and we have no backup, so it's our only shot." Kid Flash nodded and wriggled on the ground in an attempt to get closer to Wally.

"I think what's holding you back is that you don't understand our powers," Kid Flash said. "When we use our powers, we tap into the Speed Force. It's uhh…"

"The extra-dimensional energy that powers superspeed," Wally finished. "I know all about that."

"But it's not just energy," Kid Flash said. "It's space. It's around us and within us. By internalizing and externalizing Speed Force, we manipulate our dimensions." Wally lost feeling in his arms, but he still snapped his numb fingers.

"That's it!" Wally exclaimed. "That's how you are in this dimension without an anchor! You are anchored to the Speed Force! Ha, Klarion would never even guess—"

"Stay focused Wally," Kid Flash said.

Wally shut his eyes. He began breathing deeply, and visualized an atom. No, a wall of atoms. The wall he had to break through. "You have to internalize the Speed Force," Kid Flash said. His voice seemed farther away, indistinct and whispery as if from a dream. See the space between your atoms. Now he thought of his own atoms, bouncing and gyrating against each other. Though the movements were erratic and unpredictable, for brief moments Wally could see that gaps between the atoms. Oh man, those gaps seemed to expand large enough to house an entire football field. The Speed Force was flooding his body, his consciousness. Build the kinetic energy. The atoms' movement became more rapid, frantic, but the space between continued to increase in size. They were spinning, bouncing, twisting, and Wally limbs shook as if he may lose momentum at any moment.

MOVE!

All Wally could remember was the sound of metal clamoring to the ground and his own face hitting the floor. He jumped up ecstatically.

"I did it!" Wally exclaimed. A small trail of blood dribbled down his nose and onto his upper lip."I vibrated through something! I finally did it!"

"Uh," Kid Flash said. "Not really, but you did make your restraints explode. But hey, you're halfway there!"

The fragments of the chains that once restrained Wally were scattered on the ground. So he didn't completely vibrate through them, big deal. The important thing was that the mission wasn't over. Wally wiped the blood away from his nose and disabled the containment field by smashing a nearby generator. Kid Flash groaned and Wally helped him to his feet. Kid Flash shook his limbs out.

"My feet fell asleep," Kid Flash said. He jogged in place for a moment. "Better." Kid Flash vibrated through the metal door and opened it from the other side. "After you my brother."

"Thank ye kindly," Wally replied with a salute. "What do you say we tear this place down?"

"Sounds like a plan I can get behind."

CHAPTER 6 PREVIEW:

Wave of pink lightning struck Kid Flash on chest, sending him backwards. He impacted the wall, but quickly got up to make another attack. Jinx somersaulted away from his punches and spun as she sent more energy his way.

Really, what kind of damsel in distress tried to kill her prince?