17 - Much Healthier

Chapter 17 - Much Healthier

Written By Dr Armstrong

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->Flash POV<-< p>

A crumpled-up piece of plastic was thrown straight into the bin as Flash enjoyed the protein bar in his mouth, the chocolatey taste flowing down his tongue as if it were a wet playground slide fresh from a downpour of rain.

He hummed a particular tune, Mariah Carly's You're All I Want for Christmas, as he moseyed on inside the school's populated halls, his strut perfectly timed with the tunes of Mother Winter.

Flash's current fashion choice was immaculate, Midtown High's varsity jacket with the letters 'FT' embellished inside of a poker 'ACE' symbol on the back, a pompous display of his excellent athletic stature.

Were it not for the late Mickey Jackson's recent death, Flash was sure that he would be NYC's Fashion Flashforward, but alas, game knows game.

Flash ran his hand through his strawberry blond hair, recently dyed from its natural honey blond shade, as he pulled out his other hand from his pocket.

"Hey, Flash!" Jason called out before the pair quickly dapped each other up in the hallway.

Jason Lonello, one of Flash's associates, not necessarily close friends of any kind, but they were two boys of somewhat equivalent social standing here in Midtown, so it didn't hurt to have positive relations.

"Looking good, man! It's that a new haircut I see?" Flash complimented with a genuine tone, he wasn't really the type to make sham flattery, but he wouldn't hesitate if he saw an actually admirable thing, such as a great hairstyle.

"Is it good? I thought it was pretty bad though..." The two had some meagre small talk before Flash continued on his joyful stride, not particularly happy because of any special reason, just his overall baseline emotion when not confronted back to back by confounding problems.

Flash continued his stroll as he pulled out his phone from his side pocket, the blue light from the device shining on his face as he scrolled.

He was looking out for any strange sewer sightings, the damn Rhino was very conspicuous, after all. So if that guy was still running around down there, then it wouldn't take long before someone saw him.

Of course, he probably already escaped, no one wanted to live in such a place unless they were forced to.

Flash wondered if the Rogue was just hiding among the civilians or something, but that was a rather silly sight once he remembered that Rhino was a 7-foot-tall beefcake even without the suit.

Apparently, there were some strange sightings down in the sewers recently. But none of them really sounded Rhino-ish, just the regular demonic shadowy phantoms and whatnot.

Most likely just the weird imaginations of the local crackhead, at worst, maybe another Rogue on the loose, which was far more likely now considering the recent Raft breakout...

Speaking of that prison break, the Rogues that escaped out of there were certainly not to be made fun of—Rhino and a lot of Spiderman's other enemies, terroristic Mutants from the Brotherhood, some superpowered serial killers, a sick scientist who experimented with apes and monkeys, and even a couple of the Fantastic Four's baddies!

Real shit...

It was probably just him, but Flash felt that there was a concerningly increasing amount of superpowered shit happening everywhere all at once. Perhaps it's a warning sign, like the flash of lightning before the rumble of thunder, or maybe this is the storm itself...

The world had always revolved around those with superpowers, Flash knew this and therefore never bore any sort of discriminatory animosity against the Mutants, but now even formerly regular teenagers like him could just one day randomly wake up as the new Spidey.

New York was lucky that it was he who had acquired the Superspeed, Flash could easily kill this entire school even before anyone got a chance to run out if he disregarded some factors, like his personal health.

But even then, he had already made a huge blunder on his first day, imagine the kind of shit that would happen if, let's say Peter Parker got all of Spiderman's powers and abilities...

It would be a disaster!

*THUD*

"Um..." He stepped back before turning off his phone and looking up, looks like he had been paying too much attention...

"Oh, sorry!" She said, even though it was Flash who had bumped into her. 

"It's fine..." He said, even though it should have been her who said that. Flash looked at the pair of girls before him, one blonde and one redheaded.

He briefly glanced at the frowning Gwen whose sour expression was like she had just swallowed a ripe lemon.

"Watch where you're going..." She practically hissed with a hand on her hip.

"Yeah..." Flash didn't really want to argue, he had much better things to do, so he quickly tried to leave the scene without a ruckus.

"Wait a second...!" Mary Jane called out before grabbing onto the back of his varsity.

"Have we met before?" She asked, her emerald green eyes gleaming in odd familiarity.

"Um..." He awkwardly backed off a bit from her sudden touch, before shaking his head.

"No, I don't think so..." Flash answered truthfully as he sent subtle glances at the Stacy, pleading for her to help him end the conversation.

"We've definitely met before! but I—" She stopped her words as Gwen elbowed her lightly, a particular look on her face.

"MJ, this is Flash..." Gwen said as Mary Jane raised one of her eyebrows and widened her mouth a little as she took in the revelation.

"Flash? As in Flash Thompson...? Ah..." Mary Jane glanced at our protagonist briefly before chuckling.

Why the hell is she even laughing? Flash really didn't like that look in those green eyes of hers.

"You've heard of me...?" Gwen probably split the beans on who he was in Peter's miserable life. Flash himself was also a bit high on the social hierarchy, so she could have known about him somewhere else.

"Oh yeah..." Mary Jane raised her hand to answer with a sleazy smile on her face as Gwen shot her a weird look.

"You're just not what I...expected, is all." She said as she looked him up and down.

Gwen elbowed her friend at the remark as she glanced at Flash's frankly offended face.

"Ignore her, Mary Jane here is a bit...special sometimes."

"Hey! I'm not—eh?" She said before stopping as Flash took Gwen's advice to heart and immediately left the room with an almost full-on sprint.

Trouble, Flash sensed trouble brewing just by breathing the same air as Mary Jane. With such a woman, the only option left was rather obvious; a tactical fucking retreat!!!

He ran to the end of the corridor before turning right, out of view and out of sight. Flash then did what he did best, vanishing in superspeed when no one could see him, security cameras and whatnot.

Flash heaved a sigh of relief as the cold yet serene air of the evening winds brushed against his skin, he clutched his chest as the rapid beating of his heart gradually settled back to normal speed.

"Hmm...?" He looked up as he reached out an open hand where shortly then after, tear-shaped water droplets fell on.

It was raining.

'Rain in winter is damn cold...' Flash complained internally as the December downpour enveloped the whole sky.

Flash was not some kind of modern-day Viking that could withstand this kind of freezing water without special clothes, so he quickly moved on away from the rain, without superspeed as this was very much out in the open.

Within seconds, Flash was already a far distance from the school's premises. The protective aura that enveloped his body also seemed to work against non-speed-related stimuli, so besides friction, he could also withstand extreme temperature fluctuations.

Theoretically, this meant that Flash could sprint right into a star and pass through the whole thing like he was merely walking through a warm shower, if he ignored the incredibly intense cosmic radiation and ran fast enough, of course.

The fantastic thing about superspeed is that Flash could simply run out of the rain's radius and into a completely different section of the city in just a few minutes, leaving the only hint of where he had originally been; the suspiciously wet clothes he had worn.

Flash dragged the warm slice of Meat Lover's Pizza to his mouth as he took a large bite, the palatable snack stolen from some guy's open Pizza box.

It was just one slice, the guy surely wouldn't mind. He'd probably be over the moon if he realized that his Pizza slice had been used for the betterment of justice, being a superhero's favourite food and all...

Maybe not if knew it was Flash who took it.

Flash sat on a nearby bench as he enjoyed his Pizza whilst observing the surrounding passersby, the storming clouds near his school were far off in the horizon, slowly yet gradually heading into another direction, not his.

He pulled out his phone for some quick entertainment, but before he could even do so, Flash heard a soft whimper coming from under him.

'What...? What was that...' He stopped chewing as he looked around, there wasn't anything close by...

He got up before getting down on his knees, and sure it was, there was something under the bench.

"Grr..." It growled as its eyes darted around, sizing Flash up and measuring his potential threat level.

It was a dog, some kind of Greyhound. Not exactly a pup nor a full-grown bitch/sire, more like a teenage doggy, the equivalent of Flash's age in dog years perhaps.

"Calm down, Little bro. I can snap your neck in a quarter of a second." Flash softly joked with a smirk as he held out the slice of Pizza, the dog's eyes travelling left and right, following the half-eaten snack.

"You want it...?" He asked with a curious glance as the dog whimpered weakly before looking down.

Flash backed off a few feet as the dog waddled out from beneath the bench, one of his hind legs limping.

"Oh, that's bad...!" Flash could somewhat relate, after gaining superspeed, breaking his legs became one of his greatest fears, besides slipping on a banana peel.

The dog barked loudly as Flash's hands hovered over his broken leg, he stopped as he realized touching a scared stray dog's potentially days-old wound would be a terrible idea.

"Sorry, bud. Couldn't help myself..." Flash muttered before looking down at his Pizza slice and back at the weak and injured dog.

Without hesitation, Flash quickly ate the rest of the Pizza slice right in front of the Greyhound, the glimmer of hope in its eyes leaving like a wet fart as disappointment replaced it.

"Grr...BAR...Er?" The dog, which had fire in its furious eyes was just about to shout angrily at the human menace, but before it could do so, Flash had vanished in a blur.

The dog stared with a profoundly confused expression, looking left and right as his head swung from one side to the next.

And in another dozen seconds of confused waiting...

*CLINK*

"!!!" Stars appeared in the hound's eyes as saliva dribbled down from its chin, the clanking of a plate being placed on the ground could be heard as the aroma of shoplifted lean ground beef freshly roasted with the heat generated from superspeed friction painted the air in a mosaic of smell.

"Here you go, little bro. Much healthier than a Pizza, right?" For a dog, eating a Pizza wasn't necessarily tasty or healthy, the meal Flash had quickly prepared was much much better.

The Greyhound didn't wait any further to dig in, wolfing it down as if it hadn't eaten in days, which it probably did.

"And for me..." Of course, he hadn't gone to get food just for the dog, he was also ravenous, his stomach always hungry!

Flash sat back down as he enjoyed a warm Burrito as he watched the dog have the finest meal it had in probably months or something.

It felt great, maybe he should give out more stolen food? Eh, the stolen part probably wouldn't be sustainable for his Vigilante career, but it was worth the thought.

Rogues have it easy, they could donate 69 kidneys to the hospitals and no one would question them. Imagine if Spiderman did something like that, would put him in super jail instantly.

He continued observing the dog as it ate the beef like a savage tiger tearing an antelope apart, it really was having a feast...

"...Feast, huh?" Maybe.

Maybe not.

--->Author's Note:

Thoughts?

Sorry for the delay and all, was busy with the whole New Year's and shit.

Anyway, the Prologue Arc is pretty much finished. The next chapter will begin the Stray Beasts Arc.

Next time, On Flashtime.