Flash Juice?

February 08, 2018:

Owen visits Tony at Stark Towers to talk about the poorly named Speed Force and ask for help in figuring out more about his powers.

Stark Towers

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions: Professor Zoom, Impulse, Red Robin, Batman, Flash, Harley Quinn

Plot:

Mood Music: [*\# None.]


Fade In…

How many days has it been? Days since what? Owen Mercer can't even remember now what he's keeping track of days from. Days since he lost his speed? Since Luke's blew up? Since he relapsed? There has been a lot of things to avoid. But slowly he's gotten himself back together. His speed is back in full force now. He has officially given up his place in NY and is looking for job in Gotham. He has managed two whole days without taking anything. Well, okay, he's had a few drinks but that hardly counts. His mind feels clearer than it has in a while, and his body feels fully recovered so now it begs the question of what actually happened to him?

His little jaunt to STAR labs has confirmed a few things for Owen. First, he does access the Speedforce for his powers. Second, his power loss was temporary. Third, he doesn't trust scientists for the most part, way too eager to poke prod and experiment on him. But there is at least one scientist he feels like he could talk to about this. And that is what brings Owen to Stark towers.

Riding up the elevator with two aromatic brown bags in his hand, Owen is dressed casually. He has on an old Gotham Knights shirt over a waffle knit long sleeve shirt. A beat up leather jacket is still worn, as is a blue and white scarf. The bags he carries are from the halal food cart on fifth. Full of middle eastern delights. And fries.

*

The elevators open to one of the lower labs. Still likely not a place anyone would a right might would let a former criminal come to, but Tony Stark isn't most people. And Owen has proved himself to be not that bad a sort.

And he has the /best/ ideas.

Also drinks totally don't count.

The inventor himself though seems to be in one of the side rooms. Working on a coffee table sized scanner that he seems to be dialing information into. And occasionally kicking it for good measure. They need a good kick sometimes.

His head comes up at the ding though and he blinks at who it is. "Owen!" Comes the call. "And you come bearing gifts it looks like."

*

Most people might feel sheepish or hesitant walking into the lab and home of one of the world's highest profile inventors, but not Owen. Nope. He casually strolls into the lab as if he totally belongs there. Granted it helps that Tony also drinks with him in the labs occasionally.

"Tony!" Owen replies in kind and lifts the two bags in a greasy greeting of sorts. "Food."

Looking around for a place to set it down, Owen finds a surface least likely to contain anything important or like hidden holo controls or something. No letting the food take control of the lab. There's been enough of that sort of thing going around.

"So. Question for ya. I chatted with some folks at STAR labs.." Technically he also broke in there under false pretense as well, but that seems to work out just fine for Owen so really, why stop now. ".. And apparently I'm connected to whatever the hell the speed force is. Which by the way, needs a better name. One that doesn't make me want to punch myself for saying."

*

"Oh my god thank you. Someone finally agrees with me. Speed force is a dumb name." Stark replies with a smirk as he comes out from behind his device. "…huh though. You /do/ use it. Lemme guess you talked to some guy named Eobard that droned on about zippy power or whatever makes some speedsters speed?"

Wondering over to the bags, he simply shoves over some of the things he was working on to make room for more food. "Find anything out beyond the name's stupid?" He asks as he starts to peer into the bag itself to see what wonder it holds.

*

"Eobard! Speaking of names that make me want to punch someone. Yea, I spoke with the dude. He had footage of the attack here. I'm assuming.. " Here Owen makes a fingers back and forth motion indicating that he assumes Stark gave him the footage "… you okayed that?" Because it kind of freaked out Owen, who was trying not to get clocked as well… himself.

The bags each hold an order of Chicken Biryani, a falafel stuffed pita and a big order of fries. Owen pulls out one of the falafel sandwich things and takes a big bite.

"And yea, super dry science crap. But. His test? Yea, there was no MRI. No like leads or pads. No, I ran on a treadmill. Like a super huge ass treadmill. He was able to get a reading on my speed when I thought it was gone for good after dick Flash .. " Here Owen gets distracted by the thought of Professor Zoom being an actual flasher and he laughs.

"Uhm, Banana Flash stole my speed with the stupid red lightning crap. So he's got some crazy ass speed force-" literal eye roll "-mojo."

And finally, he gets around to the question that he started asking a few minutes ago but never quite got to. "Can you rig up something to measure or sense whatever my connection is?" Because it makes no sense why he's a speedster. His dad is doofy Captain Boomerang. His mom is … well that's kind of the question behind the question.

*

"I know right, its so wierd. That name I mean." The inventor replies as he pulls out one of the pitas. Yeees. Sustanince. This is good since Pepper is always after him to eat. As he munches though he nods at the question. "Yeah, he came by. Was all 'oh you don't know that there was a speed force?' and told me he had a sensor for detecting it. Little wand thing. And he waved it round and told me he sensed a speedster here, going to guess it was you."

There is a quirked eyebrow though as he shakes his head. "A treadmill? Thats…I don't even want to know how that works. Anyway…yeah. In fact I just finished working on a speed force sensor." He kicks at the coffee table sized thing in the middle of the room. "I mean its not my best work, but I was gonna give it to the JLA for a bit to get some more data on it. Impulse helped me with this one."

He pauses a moment to look at the sensor. "I mean this just basicly tells me its /there/. So I can't do precision stuff on it yet."

*

Pulling out fries while Tony talks, Owen makes agreeing noises through mouthfuls of food. He squints his eyes trying to imagine a wand that detects the speed force.

"Yea, me or Banana Flash. He might be some power-ass user of it, able to take it away. Maybe give it? That's more than Flash ever could do."

Because Owen knows the Flash, in a tried to kill him and or been foiled by him way. He shakes his head and says "And I don't get where Eobard is even getting test subjects from? Like did Impulse know him? How many speed force users are there that you have a treadmill built and ready to go?"

Owen tries not to react when Tony mentions Impulse helping out. It's got to be a Titans thing, he said Impulse, not Bart. Hopefully he's getting better at the secret identity thing.

"Yea, I gotta catch up with Mini Flash. Good kid. Wonder how much he can fill me in on the Speed… Dimension?" He tries to come up with something else but can't. Grr, stupid name.

Looking around for a drink, Owen doesn't even ask before walking over to an appropriate desk and opening the bottom drawer. He pulls out a bottle of whiskey and pours two.

*

"I have no idea," Stark replies with a shake of his head. "Apparently the guy is a new researcher there, but they have had a speed force team…oh my god that makes me gag…for awhile or something? You think they would have published something on it. Would have been helpful to know, right?"

There is a frown though at the thought. "Impulse? I said the name Eobard and he got real quiet but he didn't say anything. But from what I understand real quiet and Impulse don't go well together. So he might know something, but its something special 'Titan's Only' secret. Who knows. If its important I'm sure Cardinal or Red Budgie or whatever his name is will tell people."

He is totally doing that on purpose because he likes to make fun of secret names.

"But yeah, he seemed like a good kid. He knows more than he told me, but you should talk to him about it. Maybe you both know the speedster handshake or something."

A glance at the sensor. "I know it comes from a different dimension though, so Speed Dimension works I guess. SD for short? Still sounds kinda bad."

He strolls over to claim one of the glasses with a smirk. Of course Owen has figured out where the booze is stored. If he didn't store it there in the first place.

"I wonder where Flash is anyway. This all seems like right up his alley."

*

Taking his glass down in one gulp before pouring another to sip Owen closes his eyes momentarily. His vitals are screwy if the lab is scanning him, obviously in signs of withdrawal to the sensors. But he is managing to act mostly normal, well normal for Owen anyway.

"I mean I guess it makes sense that someone is studying it. Maybe Flash is involved." He shrugs and says "He's usually everywhere."

Owen sets down his drink to laugh at the crack about Red Budgie. He has a lot of history with Red Robin and it mostly surfaces in Owen being especially obnoxious about him. "Oh God, Bat's Pink Pidgeon? Loves him some super top secret whatevers." And for good reason, as Owen well knows.

"Flash juice?" Owen tries in the middle of a thought, as an alternate name. He frowns a bit and takes a drink, moving back to the food. "Don't know. He's been quiet." Owen has done his best to avoid anything in his old life, but he has at least been reading the papers and sure enough seems his old gang is doing just fine about now, with very little resistance. Good for them? Maybe?

*

"He sure does. Of course I mean look who taught him. Mister 'STAY OUT OF MY CITY' himself. You know I bet Bats and Judge Dredd would get along pretty well. They could both growl at each other. 'I am the law.' 'Get out of my city'. Its like a match made in heaven." Stark comments as he tosses back a portion of his drink.

"Flash juice totally sounds like some energy drink. But I'd go with it." Stark replies with a smirk before he glances back to his sensor. "So what did you want me to try to figure out anyway? Like where the power comes from? Or try to trace your specific type? Might take longer and I'd need a bigger sample size than you and Impulse…but…I could do it."

*

"Ha. Yea, Bats is .. " He trails off. He was going to insult him and play it off but well, Batman kind of has every right to be a giant dick to Owen. So he follows that up with "Intense."

He nods at the questions, "Yea. I was hoping to know if there is a reason why I'm not a full on speedster. Or if there is a different connection? And ideally I'd like to try and use that to get a lock on Banana Flash. I got a feeling he's got some answers."

Or at least Owen has questions. Like why does he think he's from the future? How did he take away his powers? Is Professor Zoom really the best name you could come up with?

*

"I can think of other words, but yeah we'll go with intense." The inventor replies with a smirk before he nods once towards the reformish-criminal. A glance towards him, a smirk.

"Well lemme work on it, I'll have to do some adjusting but you can. I don't know. Sit there. Drink. Tell me about what the heck you've been doing while I've been causing international incidents. Don't even go to Genosha is a horrible place."

He starts fiddling with the systems on his device. "Might need you to I don't know…speed jump around a bit or whatever you want to call it. But I can get it working. Then once I get this thing back from the JLA I'll know more."

*

Sit and drink? Yes he can. Owen pulls up a stool and pops open one of the chicken biryani boxes.

"Oh fuck! That reminds me! The pie-zooka?" He pauses for emphasis here to make sure Tony is on the same page, but of course he is. "Worked. Awesome! She looooves it. It was …" He laughs a bit, "-perfect." The stupid smile on Owen's face is a pretty clear indicator that the function of the weapon isn't the only thing that worked out well.

"So thanks for that. And if you need to wire me up or whatever, I'm game. I don't trust STAR labs. Just too … " Sober? Boring? Eager to try to amplify his powers actually, but all those other things too. "Something."

"Genosha. Yea, no. Not on my travel list. We have enough crazy in Gotham, I don't need to go lookin' for it abroad. And thanks for looking into this. I mean, I figure it'll help know more for next time Banana Flash shows up too … but some of it is, I'm curious now."

*

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