The scene wrapped up quickly as the police dispersed. The agents tasked with taking Yorkin into custody gave Wally a brief nod, which he returned.
Joanie and Cecile remained at the scene. Joanie seemed unbothered by the recent chaos; instead, she was thrilled to have witnessed The Phantom in action. She had even captured the entire event on her phone and couldn't stop grinning as she replayed the footage.
"Finally, I have evidence that The Phantom is better than The Flash," Joanie muttered under her breath. Barry overheard the comment, prompting him to roll his eyes in exasperation.
He glanced at Wally, who was already exiting Jitters, before turning back to Joanie. "Glad you enjoyed the show. Stay safe out there." Without waiting for a reply, he turned and joined Wally, who was heading toward the alley.
Before Barry could speak, Wally broke the silence. "I can see the jealousy written all over your face," he said, smirking as he glanced sideways at Barry.
Barry furrowed his brow, his expression questioning. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm really good at reading people," Wally continued, taking a casual bite of his ice cream cone. "Maybe you're worried I'll become more popular than you."
Barry let out a short laugh, shaking his head. "Wally, crime-fighting isn't a competition. We do this for the safety of the city and its people. Besides, I've been doing this a lot longer than you. It'd take more than a few headlines to overtake me." He flashed a cheesy grin, clearly amused.
The two strolled through the city streets, taking in the sights at a leisurely pace. This rare moment of calm felt refreshing, but it also doubled as a casual patrol. However, their patience quickly wore thin, and with a shared glance, they sped off toward S.T.A.R. Labs.
Upon arriving at the lab, the atmosphere immediately felt heavier. Julian stood leaning against a console, his posture stiff and his gaze fixed on the floor. His clenched jaw and restless fingers tapping on the edge of the desk betrayed the storm of guilt swirling inside him.
Wally noticed but chose to ignore it, dismissing it as Julian blaming himself for the victims' deaths. He quickly moved on, uninterested in the impending conversation.
Barry, however, couldn't leave it alone. "Julian," he greeted cautiously, "everything okay?"
Julian glanced up, his expression conflicted. "I was the one who gave Yorkin his powers, which he used..."
Wally didn't stick around to hear the rest of the self-doubt and reassurance exchange he knew was coming. Instead, he headed to the speed lab, drawn by the faint presence of Pietro.
"Pietro, any luck?" Wally asked, though the frustration etched on Pietro's face already gave him the answer.
Pietro was packing up, his movements hurried and resigned. "None," he admitted with a heavy sigh. "I'm starting to think I might not figure this out anytime soon."
Wally offered a small shrug. "I'm not great at motivational speeches, but I'd say give it time. Things tend to work out eventually."
He paused, observing Pietro's body language—the subtle glances at the clock, the restless shifting of his feet. "Looks like you're excited to be somewhere else," Wally noted with a smirk.
Pietro glanced up, his expression softening slightly. "Yeah, it's my sister. We're eating out tonight."
"Pass along my greetings, will you?" Wally said with a nod before heading toward the exit.
As he left S.T.A.R. Labs, Wally's thoughts shifted. It was time to take the next steps toward the future—his future. With a click of his Wrist watch he vanished in pale blue light.
His figure materialized within his pocket dimension. The atmosphere was as busy as ever, the constant hum of activity filling the air. Large quantities of minerals and resources of all kinds were being imported and processed at this very moment.
Everything was in full gear. Wally's eyes drifted to the large breach a few kilometers away, and a small smile tugged at his lips. It was one of the very first pieces of tech he had built on his own—well, mostly on his own.
After a few more minutes of scanning the ongoing operations, he entered his private quarters.
"Alright Alfred, bring up all the blood samples you've acquired over the past few days. I need to take a look to see if any of them are useful."
"Certainly."
The blood samples were quickly laid out before him. With speed only a speedster could muster, Wally examined them, his hands a blur of motion. In just a few minutes, he had segregated the usable samples from the rest. Out of 50, only 10 proved to be of any practical value. The remaining 40 were returned to the cooler without hesitation.
With the sorting done, Wally turned his attention to a far more personal task: analyzing the results of his own Speed Force mutation. He retrieved a small vial of his blood and began testing it, his mind focused and unrelenting.
As he carefully studied the energy his cells produced, a smile tugged at his lips. The patterns and behavior were becoming clearer to him. Yet, the deeper he delved, the more he realized the complexity of the task ahead. It would take time—time to decode the intricate interactions within his cells.
Piece by piece, the puzzle began to form. Then, suddenly, it all clicked, leading him to an unexpected and profound conclusion.
It was kinetic energy manipulation. The revelation brought clarity to Wally's curiosity, but he decided to set the research aside for now. Testing it could wait—there were more pressing matters at hand.
His focus shifted to the safeguard of the pocket dimension. Reinforcing its defenses was paramount, and his current research revolved around cosmic energy. If the pocket dimension could be fortified with this energy, the number of potential intruders would dwindle to an almost negligible number.
But cosmic energy was only one layer of his plan. Another was the implementation of a multilayered space-time barrier, bolstered by a frequency shifter. This device would constantly alter the dimension's frequency, much like how different Earths exist on distinct vibrational frequencies. By making the pocket dimension's frequency perpetually shift, he aimed to create an impenetrable defense—one that would render intrusion nearly impossible.
Wally was even considering the addition of temporal safeguards to the pocket dimension's defenses. However, such measures would require extensive research into the Speed Force—a venture he was hesitant to pursue. The last thing he wanted was to inadvertently offend the very entity that granted him his powers.
In conjunction with this, he had devised energy-draining mechanisms and spatial misdirection systems. These, however, were designed only to deter low-level intrusions. For higher threats, such as cosmic beings or entities, these measures would be insufficient.
That was why cosmic energy remained his ultimate solution. To achieve this, he planned to use the unique energy generated by the metahuman Siphon—more precisely, Charna. Wally had to admit her potential was staggering. The properties of her blood, in the right hands, were nearly limitless in their application. He had already classified it as one of the most potentially valuable and dangerous materials in the multiverse. It was the perfect cornerstone for his absolute safeguard.
The only genes and cells Wally could think of with greater potential than Charna's belonged to Kryptonians—or perhaps the old and new gods, if they even existed. However, even the Kryptonian gene on its own paled in comparison to her potential. The true contender was a mutated version: the Doomsday gene.
A genetic abomination, the Doomsday gene was a masterpiece of evolution gone awry. It thrived by conquering any challenge in its path, adapting to any and all phenomena over time. This ability to continuously evolve in response to threats was what made it so dangerous—potential taken to an extreme, an unstoppable force of nature.
This was why, on rare occasions, when a Kryptonian displayed sudden, unbound strength or pushed far beyond their known limits, it could often be attributed to this suppressed genetic anomaly. A hidden fragment of Doomsday's adaptive potential lay dormant, only slightly surfacing under extraordinary circumstances.
Wally had already unraveled the secret behind how Siphon's cells worked. He had observed that as long as her cells were supplied with energy, they could continue to live indefinitely. Not only that, but they also kept generating the unique energy he had branded as cosmic energy—a force so potent it could rival those derived from universal phenomena.
While Speed Force energy was technically a form of cosmic energy, it was already defined in structure and couldn't be manipulated to the same extent. Charna's energy, on the other hand, was like a blank slate, a raw and malleable force that could be shaped into anything he envisioned.
With this in mind, Wally devised a plan: he would feed her cells vast amounts of energy, prompting them to produce even greater quantities of cosmic energy in return. This resource would serve as the foundation for his projects. Cosmic energy opened countless paths of possibility, and he couldn't ignore its potential. Perhaps, with enough of it, he could even realize some of his most ambitious future designs.
"Not now," Wally thought, shaking off the extravagant ideas. Those ambitions were far beyond his current capabilities, unreachable for the moment.
He turned his attention back to the vial of blood in his hand. Setting it aside, he focused on a more immediate task: constructing the cosmic energy harvester. Fortunately, the Dominators' energy harvester technology was already at his disposal, serving as the foundation for his work.
A hologram materialized before him, projecting a detailed blueprint of the original design. The image depicted a sphere with intricate components. Wally quickly began modifying the blueprint, incorporating his own enhancements to better harness cosmic energy.
With Alfred's assistance and his own superhuman speed, the construction process was rapid and efficient. Within a short time, the device was complete. Standing before him now was a large, gleaming sphere—the Cosmic Harvester. It was a machine capable of converting and storing the vast potential of cosmic energy.