Beyond human understanding exists an elemental essence known as the Speed Force, it the source of power that lets those superhumans with the ability to superspeed to move at velocities that far exceeds anything the human body can or should be able to do. To join with the Speed Force is to go beyond the limits of physically known speed and to enter a realm that is more a metaphysical afterlife rather than a normal dimension.
To those that have attained the ability of superspeed the Speed Force is literally the Creator, and at times it can seem to be an intelligence that guides the fates and destinies of any that are fortunate enough to be part of it. Those that do for what ever reason become connected with the Speed Force are destined to became heroes or in the rarer case villains. One name that has become synonymous with the ability is the name of the Flash and the three generations of heroes who have carried the mantel.
The first Flash was Jay Garrick whom first gained his superpowers while a student at Midwestern university. He would go onto become one of the stars of the Golden Age and a founding member of the Justice Society of America. Jay retired when the JSA disbanded. To an extend the memory of Jay Garrick and his home of Keystone City would fade because of a plot by a number of his foes to isolate Keystone City from the rest of the world by a memory clouding spell.
Meanwhile police scientist Barry Allen was transformed into a second Flash when his laboratory was struck by a bolt of lightning knocking over a cabinet of unknown chemicals onto him. Like his predecessor before him Barry Allen became one of the core members of the superhero community and a founding member of the Justice League of America.
Wally West grew up with a strained family life, but for all intents and purposes he was a normal child. Except for three events in his childhood. One was being the head of the Flash Fan club at school, the second was the words of a stranger to never let go of his dreams (that stranger was later to be revealed to be Wally himself on a roller coaster ride through his own life via the Speed Force), the third was the fact that Wally was the nephew of Barry Allen (a.k.a. the second Flash).
Barry actually arranged for Wally to met the Flash and while at the lab where the original accident had transformed Barry into the Flash, Wally asked if the same thing could happen to him. As if fate needed to no more promoting a second lightning bolt hit the building and this time transformed Wally West into the Kid Flash, junior side kick of the Flash.
Wally played the part of the Kid Flash along side Barry and eventually became a founding member of the Teen Titans. At that time Wally was as fast as Barry but some have conjectured that perhaps Barry was actually subconsciously transferring speed to Wally in the same way that Wally can now do to others. However things have always been for more complex for Wally, his collage work began to suffer and he discovered that he had gained a condition where if he overused his superspeed then he might very well die.
Retiring from the adventuring life Wally was to eventually return to active status during the Crisis when a blast from the Anti-Monitor sent the disease into remission yet at the same time dramatically reduced his top speed. After the death of Barry while saving the planet, Wally took up the name of the Flash and tried to follow in the foot steps of Barry Allen, Flash II.
At almost every stage Wally was somehow reminded of Barry and he grew tired of the comparisons, particularly from people such as Ralph Dibny (a.k.a. The Elongated Man). However as time went by Wally began to increase in speed again and to move from under the shadow of Barry Allen. Along the way he has had as always a roller coaster private life including winning the state lottery, loosing the money, finding out that his dad was actually a Manhunter agent and slowly falling in love with the television reported Linda Park. All this was to be turned on its head when as part of the Zero-hour Wally had to push his speed to the limit in an effort to close an Entropy rift, in the process he was catapulted into the timestream and was plunged into the Speed Force as Barry once had in his final moments.
Wally was different, the Speed Force transformed Wally to the point that he now has a "direct line" to the heart of the force that grants all the speedsters their speed. It has transformed his abilities and he may now well be the fasted man that has ever lived. It has also galvanised Wally as never before and forced him to examine his humanity. Wally West can now run faster than any of the other Flashes before him, if he hits light speed he is catapulted into the Speed Force with an effect that often means that he enters the timestream allowing him to time travel under the control of the Speed Force.
A new contender to the title of "fastest man alive" made himself known--Savitar, the self-titled "lord of speed". With the assistance of Lady Savitar, Savitar had found a way to siphon energy from the Speed Force, cutting off its access to several speedsters, including Jay Garrick, Jesse Quick, Johnny Quick and Bart Allen; this power drain also resulted in the death of Kapitalist Kouriers speedster/deliveryman Cassiopeia.
A small group of superspeed-powered acolytes assaulted Wally and Linda at an outdoor cafe in Keystone City; the only way Wally could protect the citizens was to shift into hyperspeed and fight them, as this was the only way they were visible. After Wally defeated the acolytes, Jay and Jesse showed up, Jesse accusing Wally of somehow siphoning off all available Speed Force energy, rendering them "normal". Wally then grabbed the one remaining speed-acolyte and interrogated him on top of a skyscraper, the ninja telling him that it was Savitar who had "stripped the unworthy of their swiftness", transferring it to Savitar's group of acolytes to hunt down "all true students of the lightning". Upon him saying that, the acolyte's body (presumably due to Savitar) supermetabolized, aging years in seconds, causing his death.
Jay and Jesse, with assistance from Wally's speed-lending ability, headed for Manchester, Alabama to check up on Bart; however, by the time they arrived, Bart and a mysterious girl were surrounded by more of Savitar's superspeed acolytes. Wally, who was the only speedster fully powered, took them on, achieving a solid victory. Bart told him that Max had been missing for days; while Bart (finally having a reason to search through Max's things) rifled through Max's personal files and papers, Wally came upon a journal written in Korean by Max, which Linda took a few minutes to translate. Meanwhile, the mysterious girl revealed herself to be Jenni Ognats, cousin to both Bart & Wally and granddaughter of Iris West-Allen. Jenni revealed that she was from the 30th Century like Bart is, that her mother, Dawn Allen, was Barry's daughter (and that Bart's dad was Barry's son) and that she was a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes who was stranded in the 20th century after a mission through time. Wally, upon learning that Barry and Iris had managed to have kids, felt a little jealous, feeling that he was the closest thing Barry had to a son.
After fully translating the diary, Linda revealed to everyone present Savitar's history: 'he was a Cold War pilot in a Third World nation who was chosen to pilot an experimental supersonic aircraft; doing so, he cracked the light barrier, becoming at that moment, the fastest man alive. Thousands of miles from home, his plane crashed; luckily, he was completely unharmed. Foreign soldiers appeared at his location, believing that this unknown man's arrival meant they were under attack. Reacting with lightning-charged reflexes, the pilot cut the soldiers down like grain; after he killed them, the pilot had a epiphany. To him, it felt like the gods had twice spared him death... speed became his newfound religion. To that end, he traveled the world, ransacking library after library, poring through tomes both known & forgotten, attempting to discover more about the force that drove him. Armed with knowledge, he started thinking of himself not as a disciple of speed, but as its high priest; he then renamed himself Savitar, after the Hindu God of Motion (upon whom all moving things were dependent). Savitar kept pushing himself constantly, gaining even greater speed, hoping that if he moved swiftly enough, he would enter the Speed Force and learn its secrets. Try as he might, however, he could not attain the peace he sought and slowly turned to madness, becoming more dangerous than before.
'With nowhere else to turn, Savitar then sought out the only person he thought could understand him and their shared abilities: Johnny Quick (Jay Garrick had retired for the first time and Barry Allen hadn't yet attained his powers). However, Johnny never believed in the Speed Force, instead relying on a spoken mathematical formula [3X2(9YZ)4A] to give him his powers; Savitar took this as an insult and attacked Johnny. Luckily, Max Mercury appeared and saved him, Max once again chiding Johnny over his non-belief in the Speed Force. Max and Johnny raced after Savitar, finding him several states over; the two heroic speedsters battled Savitar's minions, Max later goading Savitar to chase after him through the Speed Force. Savitar sensed where he was... he knew that with a final burst, he would push his way in beyond the field, where he always wanted to be. What Savitar didn't know and Max was all too aware of, was that if anything altered a speedster's path, they'd bounce off the field and wind up in the timestream. Max regretted his actions... by allowing Savitar to brush up against the Speed Force, it gave him more knowledge and made him more powerful.'
Wally then realized the reason why Max insinuated himself within their lives: to gather an army to combat Savitar and his forces. At that moment, a bloody and beaten Max showed up on his doorstep, a tattoo of a map to Savitar's castle drawn on his chest; Max then revealed that while Wally moves speed around, he can store it in his body, keeping him alive. He also warned Wally to be wary of Savitar, urging Wally to defeat him before Savitar kills him; being that Wally was tied too close to their shared energy source, Savitar irrationally believed that he had to own it all. Jay then mentioned that Wally couldn't go in alone, but Wally countered this with the fact that, at that moment, everybody but him was powerless. Jenni then stepped up, offering her help and her Legion Flight Ring; however, as Wally had never worked with her before, he couldn't take the risk of her being hurt. Wally then passed on Jenni's ring to Jesse, as with her powers, she had experience with flying as a combat skill. Telling the others to get Max to the hospital, Wally and Jesse set off for Savitar's fortress.
Arriving in the Balkans, Wally and Jesse landed in Savitar's castle, where he saw a chamber filled with speed-ninjas strapped to the wall, plugged into an alchemical battery/transformer being controlled by Lady Savitar. Savitar then appeared and summoned Lady Savitar to his side; in order to test her loyalty to him, Savitar commanded her to kill the Flash. Wally then realized that Savitar had locked onto his energy signature, the same way he located Max and Impulse; since Jesse's connection to the Speed Force was severed, Wally instructed her to hide while he took down Christina. After vibrationally atomizing a wall to knock Lady Savitar out, Wally went after the big man himself. However, Savitar was ready for Wally and, with one swift move, grabbed Wally's wrist and slammed him into a wall, dizzying him.
Savitar then presented Wally with two chances to disable him via weapons; Wally grabbed a sword and threw it directly at Savitar's chest--the blade penetrated Savitar's skin, but he rapidly metabolized the wound, healing himself in seconds. Savitar then handed him three shurikens, which Wally launched at Savitar with superspeed; with a flash of lightning in his eyes, Savitar redirected the shurikens' momentum, causing them to cut the Flash instead. Savitar then personally attacked the Flash himself, screaming that he considered Wally unworthy of "God's" gifts, that he had the audacity to drain speed that was "rightfully his... power he'll need to follow God's calling to the barrier and beyond." Meanwhile, Jesse tried to find a way to destroy the transformer when she intercepted by Lady Savitar, who tried to goad Jesse into losing focus by threatening the people she cared about, including her father; with that, Jesse snapped, dove straight for the alchemical transformer, destroying it and releasing the gathered Speed Force energy, restoring her powers and also temporarily affecting Wally (in the form of a small seizure and loss of consciousness). With their powers returned, Jay, Max, Johnny Quick and Impulse caught up with Wally and Jesse and proceeded to battle Savitar's army. Savitar, fearing defeat, ran from his castle and proceeded to threaten Wally and his allies, stating that since they've stolen everything from him, he can do no less for Wally; Flash knew that Linda was in danger and took off after Savitar, Max knowing that Savitar would keep striking over and over unless the Flash killed him!
Making it back to the U.S., Wally pursued Savitar across several states, barely keeping up with him; Wally cursed the time he lost, also having to save innocent bystanders from Savitar's wrath. Jay and the others, taking a straighter line from the castle, arrived and tried to intercept Savitar; they were knocked out of the way by the sinister speedster. In Colonial Williamsburg, Impulse attempted to build up enough speed to knock Savitar away, but Flash intercepted Bart and threw him to safety. Wally came to a grim conclusion when he saw a sign (Manchester - 22 miles). He knew that he had to make himself the more tempting target; by insulting Savitar and his "god", the plan worked. However, Flash's plan then hit a slight snag--Jenni sped onto the scene. Having to draw her into his "speed aura", Flash put them both at risk for being slaughtered. Jenni then revealed that Iris sent her with a message: that Wally couldn't beat Savitar directly--that Wally had to give Savitar want he wanted. With a smirk on his face, Wally finally realized what his aunt meant: lure Savitar directly into the Speed Force itself! Traversing the Speed Force once again, Savitar knew that he reached absolute nirvana; he tried once again to kill the Flash, but Wally was ready for him. He grabbed Savitar's wrist and flung him further into the energy field, where the spirits of deceased speedsters claimed him once and for all. In the aftermath, not wanting the Speed Force to absorb him.
Wally concentrated on finding his way home by using Linda as a beacon to his proper time, but in his last jump, Wally was mysteriously unable to make it home right away and ended up bouncing through time. The first place Wally wound up on his journey through time was the 64th Century (for the second time), where the citizens of that era worshiped the Flash and wanted to be just like him. After leaving that place, he next appeared in the mid-30th Century, where he met his twin first cousins, Don & Dawn Allen (Barry & Iris' kids) and encountered Earthgov's rampant xenophobia. After helping them reclaim their legacy and partially siphoning their energies (due to feeling somewhat weakened every time he entered the Speed Force), Wally time-jumped once again, this time landing in the 27th Century, where he met the Flash of that era, John Fox. Looking haggard, Wally still realized that he wasn't home yet; John revealed that, for a while, he protected Central City as their sole hero, until he was made the curator of the Time Institute and replaced by supersonic robotic humanoids called Speed Metal. John also told Wally that time travel was illegal. Reiterating to John about knowing that he had an anchor to his time, a love like a lightning rod to find his way home, Wally lashed out, screaming that he couldn't remember Linda's name. The time-traveling villain Chronos appeared in the museum to ransack it, prompting both Flashes to take him down--however, Speed Metal then showed up, pushed John & Wally out of the way and proceeded to try and capture Chronos. Noticing Wally fading fast, John grabbed an exhibit (Paradox's "Sands of Time") and threw it at Speed Metal, causing them to rapidly accelerate and fill the museum, which prevented Chronos' escape. After Chronos was sent back to where he came from, John informed Wally of his lost love's name: Linda. Armed with that knowledge, Wally attempted one last time-jump back to the 20th Century; John, based on what he knew in his own time and believing that Wally wouldn't make it back in time to prevent a great disaster, volunteered to jump back to the 20th Century himself to fill Wally's boots if needed. John arrived first, meeting Linda and Piper, facing off against Chillblaine and falling in love with Linda; Linda's love had been distracted by John, who told Linda that Wally was dead, and she was doing her best to move on.
However, after realizing that John lied about his reason for coming to the 20th Century and that he couldn't stand up to the superheroic pressures that Wally normally faced, Linda told him that she would always love Wally, no matter what. Somehow sensing this, Wally emerged from the Speed Force--only to realize he was too late; Linda had been flash-frozen in an attempted second Ice Age by Polaris and Abra Kadabra. Chastising John for his numerous mistakes, among which were causing Linda to doubt his return, Wally realized that Linda was somehow still alive (her love for him guided him home). After racing off to Piper to procure tech to keep Linda safe, Wally and John dropped her off at S.T.A.R. Labs in the hopes of having Dr. Tina McGee reverse her condition. After grabbing a device that tracks magnetic energy, the two speedsters headed off in search of Polaris and Abra Kadabra; upon finding the location, Wally discovered his Aunt Iris, who was being held captive by Kadabra for her knowledge of future events. Kadabra revealed that he had found "The Life Story of The Flash" (which was previously owned by Eobard Thawne a.k.a. Professor Zoom and which Wally thought he destroyed); looking through it, he read of the ice storm and, with Polaris' assistance, decided to advance it with him as the new ruler of Earth. Wally then dropped to his knees, feigning defeat... until John zoomed in and knocked Kadabra out! Polaris, realizing his plans were over, charged up his magnetic powers; Wally then grabbed him and headed for the cryo engine, where Polaris unleashed his magnetic blast, unwittingly destroying his own machine. Wally thought everything was complete, until John alerted him about the (now cracking) glacier in the middle of the city; in a matter of seconds, Keystone City would be wiped out by a massive tidal wave! Wally then "persuaded" Polaris to use his powers and redirect the water to the waterfront. With Polaris taken care of, Wally and John sped back to S.T.A.R., only to discover that Linda was still frozen solid. At that moment, appearing from a time portal was Speed Metal, on the search for the "fugitive", John Fox. Wally, still massively angry at John for everything that he caused, wanted to give up John when Speed Metal arrived for him (instead of taking him back to the 27th Century for a fair trial, they were going to kill him now); however, after Piper goaded him, Wally sped off to rescue John. After leading Speed Metal to a desert in Colorado Springs, Co., Wally instructed John to distract one of the robots and have it vibrate through a butte; after it partially vibrated through, Wally vibrated his hand through it, causing it to explode. After destroying the last two Speed Metal bots (with direct assistance from Wally's speed-lending ability), John got an idea that could help solve Linda's problem. Racing back to S.T.A.R, Wally, channeling the Speed Force, sped up Linda's molecules, successfully thawing her out.
While Wally had taken Linda to India for her birthday, a new foe called The Suit had shown up in Keystone, looking to kill the Flash. Max Mercury and Jay Garrick, watching over the city during Wally's absence, had come upon a familiar-looking dead body with a note attached to it in an alleyway. After locating Wally in his hotel room, the three set off for the Keystone City Morgue, where the dead body was revealed to be Wally's, 30 minutes from now. Wally, Jay and Max then raced off towards downtown Keystone, where they found The Suit; The Suit, using its stolen time-controlling powers, froze Wally in place. Back in the morgue, future-Wally awoke on the table. While Max explained to Jay and the coroner that Wally put his body into molecular shock to save himself, Wally raced off to intercept his past self to perform the same trick; however, an explosion caused by The Suit sent debris flying everywhere, some of which hit Wally, causing him to lose his footing and hit the ground hard, which sprained both of his wrists, cracked three ribs, fractured his hip... and broke both of his legs.
Confined to a wheelchair, Wally knew that The Suit thought he was dead. He came up with the idea of having Max, Jay and Impulse pretend to be Wally and confuse The Suit. While the plan was being carried out, Wally remembered one of his missions with the JLA, one in which The Key had trapped the team in alternate dream realities; in Wally's dream, he had a suit made out of pure Speed Force. Concentrating on that, for three days, Wally repeated Johnny Quick's speed mantra in his head and vibrated in place; Linda, who noticed the kitchen clock's hands had sped up, rushed into the den to witness a golden energy flowing over Wally's left arm.
Clad in a new, golden Speed Force suit, Wally confronted The Suit (who, in the meantime, had managed to assimilate Max Mercury) while Jay and Impulse took on Keystone Penitentiary's freed inmates. Gifting Jay with a Speed Force-energy boost (which, part of it, he passed on to Impulse), Wally then spread some speed particles on the Max Mercury-infused Suit, causing it to accelerate out of control. The Suit, catching up to Wally, whipped up a wavefront that hit Wally's legs, causing him to tumble. Waiting for his speedsuit to reform, Wally plucked up a grain of sand and, trying to reach through to Max inside The Suit, tossed it at him, puncturing its substance; grabbing a thread, like a tailor in reverse, Wally unraveled The Suit, freeing Max. Max then revealed that The Suit was actually an electrical field-based alien creature that was pulled to Earth by a huge electrical current.
Catching up with Jay and Impulse at the prison, Wally and Max thought everything was wrapped up... until The Suit returned and tried to assimilate Jay. Thinking fast, Wally coaxed The Suit to let Jay go and assimilate him instead. The Suit then assimilated Wally, growing more powerful; thinking that it finally won, The Suit then sensed something was wrong... it started vibrating. Wally, struggling to remember that anything solid he vibrates through atomizes, destroyed The Suit, its remnants being absorbed into the Speed Force.
Returning home, Wally noticed something was wrong with Linda: she was both talking and walking backwards. That's when the Mirror Master showed up, seeking revenge on the Flash. Trying to locate the real Mirror Master (the one at his and Linda's place was just a hologram), Wally ran through a prism that Mirror Master had set up, causing Wally to split into seven different images, each a color of the rainbow and possessing separate personalities; after realizing that they would eventually discorporate and fade away, all seven Flashes ran back through the prism at light speed, reuniting them into one single Flash in a familiar red & gold speedsuit. Racing back into town, Wally was momentarily fooled into thinking that he had enlarged in size; however, it was only an illusion. Getting his bearings straight, Wally headed for Keystone National Bank, where he found another Flash and a tied-up Mirror Master. That's when Wally noticed his lightning bolt emblem facing the wrong way. Chasing after his "double", Wally noticed the "Keystone City Limits" sign written in reverse--he was still stuck in the mirror world. Returning to the bank, Wally disabled Mirror Master's laser gun. After heading to Singapore to retrieve a chip for Mirror Master's gun, Wally confronted Mirror Master, asking McCulloch why with his technology, he chooses to commit crimes; McCulloch answered with the fact that he needs money to commit crimes and commits crimes to get money. Heading back home to make sure Linda was okay, Wally caught Mirror Master within his speed-stream and hauled him off to prison.
During a brush with the Black Flash, who had apparently claimed the life of Linda, Wally saved her from the Speed Force. He proposed to her and they were almost married shortly thereafter, but she then disappeared off the face of the earth, and no one, not even Wally, remembered her.
Wally then got caught up in an adventure spanning through different eras. Malcolm Thawne, Barry Allen's twin brother, reappeared, beginning the Allen-Thawne feud. Barry's death during the Crisis appeared to have cheated Malcolm out of his dreams of revenge on his brother. Instead, Malcolm focused on Allen's descendants traveling through time in a bid to exterminate them, starting with Wally West. Under the identity of Cobalt Blue, Malcolm ignited a family feud that endured for a millennium.
The feud came to a head in the late 30th Century, where Barry Allen was living with his wife Iris. Wally West arrived to try and protect his uncle. Flashes of all eras between the 20th and 30th centuries arrived soon after, all under the control of Thawne's spirit due to them all carrying a shard of the original Cobalt Blue gem. In the end, Wally West ended the menace of Cobalt Blue by running so fast that he skirted the edge of the Speed Force. Its power poured into the gem, and Thawne's spirit (and the gem itself) overloaded from the excess energy. Wally then vanished into the Speed Force. At that same moment, a new, mysterious Flash appeared in Keystone City.
Linda's disappearance was caused by a mysterious man who had a deep hatred for the Flash; he abducted her and kept her imprisoned within Limbo. This was also the reason behind why everyone on Earth had forgotten about her--Linda was taken from a time prior to her originally meeting Wally. Linda escaped from his prison and landed in an alternate Keystone City, where she encountered who she thought was Wally, until she noticed three distinct things: (1) Keystone City's police were after Wally and called him "Walter"; (2) Wally seemed to be mentally unbalanced; and (3) this Wally's eyes were blue, not green. Linda next encountered this world's Pied Piper, who told her to run from "Wally," as he was dangerous.
Linda ran toward a now-abandoned Flash Museum, where she found a memorial statue dedicated to her dimensional counterpart (named Linda Kiyo Park), 'who sacrificed her life to save Keystone City from the villain Kobra.' After again encountering Walter at a cemetery, Wally, following his link to Linda, emerged from the Speed Force. A battle ensued between Wally and Walter, where they were evenly matched. However, Walter came back with a vengeance, pinning Wally to a wall with a vibrationally-charged rebar. Wally tried to explain to Walter that he and Linda were from a parallel world; he also explained that although they share the same memories, Wally could never turn into the man Walter has become. That statement set off Walter's anger once again, starting another fight with Wally.
Walter then let loose with the fact that after his Linda's death, he sought out the "dark lord of speed, Savitar", and after tricking him into teaching Walter every trick and skill he knew, killed him. After Walter's revelation, Abra Kadabra appeared, trapping both Wally and Walter. Kadabra explained that he tried to break the bond that draws Wally back to this dimension by casting a spell to make everyone forget that Linda existed and hold her outside of time, but she escaped, landing in that alternate Keystone and drew Wally to her once again. To defeat Kadabra, Wally temporarily merged his physical essence with Walter's, gaining greater speed and learning a few new skills; from this merging, Walter also finally came to terms with not being able to save his Linda from death.
Kadabra, however, faked his defeat at their hands and seemingly discorporated Wally and Linda's essences; in actuality, they ended up traversing through countless alternate dimensions, nearly losing their minds until they found their home dimension, thanks to Bart (he was actually born outside of time, rendering him immune to chronal alterations). Wally and Linda finally made it back to their Keystone City; however, Linda was still forgotten from everyone's minds. Wally then sought out Jay Garrick, told him of his plans to rescue Linda, and set off for the Flash Museum, where he donned a Reverse-Flash costume and "allied" himself with Abra Kadabra and Replicant. Wally then "kidnapped" Jay Garrick, Bart Allen and Jesse Quick and took them to Kadabra's abandoned theater hideout, where as Professor Zoom, he taunted Kadabra into reversing the spell he cast on Linda, bringing her back in full, to everyone's memory; "Professor Zoom" then pulled back his cowl, revealing himself as none other than Wally West. The final battle between Wally, Walter and Abra Kadabra ensued, Kadabra preparing a spell to wipe the memories of the Flash legacy from the world's minds forever. Wally, Walter, Jay, Max & Bart, on Linda's suggestion, used mirrors to block and reflect Kadabra's spell back at him, rendering Kadabra himself with amnesia.
Wally and Linda, with their friends' help, finally set about planning their upcoming nuptials. During this, Wally discovered that (due to him temporarily merging with Walter while fighting Kadabra) he could "steal" speed from moving objects; while "helping" the staff prepare for the wedding, he unintentionally knocked over the wedding cake--trying to catch it, a black aura enveloped the separated cake pieces, causing them to fall with drastically reduced speed, making them easy to catch. Later, during the ceremony, Linda noticed Wally seeming more agitated than before; she temporarily stopped the proceedings and asked Wally what was wrong. Feeling slightly overwhelmed, Wally revealed that after seeing how Walter acted after losing 'his' Linda, he was worried about becoming like that himself... to which Linda thought she and Wally were just getting married so he could be different from Walter. Wally explained the truth: that he couldn't wait to be married to Linda; that he doesn't want to spend life without her again; that they've taught/learned things were vital to them both; and that he can't wait to spend the rest of his life with her. Upon hearing that, Linda told the priest to restart the ceremony. Gathered together among all their friends (with Nightwing serving as his best man), Wally and Linda became Mr. & Mrs. West.
