BINARY BABE

Because of his Speed Force powers, Wally’s metabolism was completely messed up. He had to eat more often than a regular human did, and in large quantities. And he wasn’t picky. Fast food, fruit, candy, he didn’t care, as long as it made him not feel hungry anymore. He was currently at a little restaurant near his apartment building getting his first lunch of the day. He had just exited the building, a wrapped sandwich in one hand and a bag of more food in the other. He had just taken a big bite and was chewing the food when someone bumped into him.

Under normal circumstances he would have reacted so quickly that no one would even notice him moving out of the way, but he was preoccupied. First, by the weird things going on in his apartment, second was the food he was currently trying to shovel in his mouth while also walking. Glancing aside he briefly wondered if he should just use his super speed to catch the sandwich that was just knocked out of his hand, the world around him suddenly going very slowly and almost stopping entirely…  but then he realized he shouldn’t show his powers off now that he was dressed in civilian clothing. He allowed the sandwich to go flying out of his hand and land on the ground, grimacing as he internally mourned. Lettuce and cheese flew out as it tumbled around and then finally came to a stop a few feet away. He savored the bite in his mouth before swallowing, his grip on the bag he held tightening so that he wouldn’t lose the rest of the food as well. 

His perception of time evened out and he turned to look at the girl who had bumped into him, his one free hand moving to gently touch her shoulder to make sure she wouldn’t fall over. “Whoa, you ok?” He glanced around to make sure she wasn’t shoved or something, always ready to fight or protect someone even when not in his Flash costume. Not seeing anything odd, he turned his attention back to the girl, clearly not angry at losing his sandwich, just confused.

After seeing it was a young and attractive young lady, he smiled a little to try and play off that he was disappointed, not wanting her to feel bad. “No, it’s cool. I was done with it anyway.” Which clearly wasn’t true since it only had one bite taken from it, but he didn’t want her to worry about it and definitely didn’t expect her to buy him a new one since it seemed to be an accident. 

Frankie looked from the redhead to the fallen sandwich comrade and back to the redhead. She lifted a brow. “Dude, are you sure? That thing’s practically a newborn, straight outta the shop. You’re cool with just abandoning it like that? You sure you don’t want another one?” She insisted, though if he said ‘no’ again she’d drop it. She was the idiot who ran into him, costing him his lunch - it was only right for her to offer the help.

People always claimed that practice made perfect — but most people didn’t have to deal with superpowers. They didn’t have to go through the shock of waking up in a different decade, or the utter surprise that came with teleporting halfway across a city after sneezing, but Frankie gave it a good effort.

The first thing was to figure out how to get her shimmering under control. While it was cool as hell and made her look like some sort of weird, iridescent fish, people stared way too much for her liking. The positives were nice — especially from the little kids who were mostly in awe of the colors that came from each pixel — but people tended to be gross or more scared than anything. So, she worked hard enough to keep her appearance smooth enough to pass by relatively unnoticed.

The next was her movement. She could disappear in the blink of an eye and move far faster than she ever could before the accident, but she was clumsy at best. The worst of it was when she phased through the lockers at the university and nearly gotten herself stuck. She gave the kids quite the show that day, but that only fueled her to try to get better.

Unfortunately, today was not that day. All Frankie wanted to do was to transfer her date from point A to point B. There was about twenty feet in between, so should be easy, right?

Apparently she’d gone from point A to point M — point M being a rather busy little food shop with quite the line out the door and it only got worse from there: she had to run into someone. Now, she didn’t just run like a normal person would. Her pixels reassembled themselves, the jump having been far over than intended, but they reassembled in motion. She could see each piece pick up the light and flutter around her and the sidewalk and really anyone nearby, including the poor guy who looked to be too preoccupied with his snack to take notice. 

She looked up at him from her spot on the sidewalk with an apologetic expression as her body pulled itself back together again. She looked like she wanted to disappear. “Oh, dude! I’m so sor—” her incomplete hand caught her attention and a momentary bout of panic ensnared her as she quickly started to shake it. “Please, please! Don’t do this,” Frankie worried in quick succession. A visible bout of excitement and relief washed over her once her hand was whole again. She turned back to the redhead — and then to the fallen goodies on the cement by her feet. Frankie winced. 

“Uhhhhhhhh... can I get you a new one?”

she knew what the other was gong through, memories that led to nightmares every night that led to her not sleeping. to go and work ; so she ended up here just to remind herself that the past was behind her. “ it really is. not even the mircowave can save it. ” a smile, motioning her closer with her head. “ i ain’t gonna bite. promise – i’m cat & i get that. i only moved a few months back. i still got some stuff in boxes. ” a shrug, moving her legs to cross before smiling. “ cali huh ? i’m from new york. manhattan, lived there my whole life until .. somethings happened – but yeah, it makes sense. i’m used to the weird. ”

Frankie grimaced. “Heat it up on the stove top, my dude. Microwaves are a real bummer.” At least there was someone in this weird ass city who didn’t look at her like she was insane; that was a relief.

Given the vast number of strange things he’d seen and the near limitless ways that the X-Gene granted powers, the sudden change that came over her and seemed to nearly take her out of existence got a raised brow, but not much else. Even that expression was mostly lost beneath his helmet. Still, just because it didn’t shock him didn’t mean he understood what he was looking at. Her shock at the year added a genuine layer of confusion, though.

“This is District X. Where are you meant to be?” He remained in the air for a moment longer before finally letting his feet touch the ground when she asked that question. “Electromagnetism. I am Magneto.” As if that should be explanation enough. For a great any people in the world, it would have been. 

Dude, she was losing it. At least, internally, anyway. She could feel a tickle at the back of her head, like an itch but when Frankie made to move her hand it was gone until it was back a moment later. It crept down her spine and into her fingertips. Her visage jittered in its wake. A voice? She could have sworn.

The chattering of his mischief grew. Lips hovered over the embouchure hole, sucking short breaths in between to stream air as he played. The composition was soft, executed in an initial B-minor. The aforementioned mischief, who are trained to follow his command, trailed behind the man when they finally reached a nearby building.

Within his sightlines, he caught only a short sight of another in the vicinity. Seemingly harmless, perhaps. Leonard’s rules were firm and he was not one to break their sacred word: women and children shall not be harmed. He removed the flute from his lips before she heard her address him. 

“Can you help me?” he scoffed. “Not really but if you’re thinking I’m gonna do anything, I’m not. That’s not my style. Just here on personal business.”  

Frankie looked up at the abandoned warehouse; she took note of the broken glass and unlocked door and busted lights. Her gaze swept back over to her company and she parroted the words with a lifted brow. “Personal business?”

What kind of personal business could he has here? Especially alone, unless he wasn’t alone and she really should get the hell out of there. Except she found herself facing him with squinted eyes.

“Oh, dude - are you, like, a drug dealer or something?”