How to Survive Using the Power of SuperSpeed - Part 2

Well, I'm back. Looks like you've been waiting for a while kid!

  

...and in 2nd place...

It's a good thing you're patient too.     

Some speedsters (who will remain nameless here, but sufficed to say they're Marvelous) are infamously and admittedly impatient... ahem.

Anyway...

Recognizing the fine line between being slow and being patient,  is an often unrecognized virtue that speedsters either lack or disregard for the mistaken belief that it lacks importance.

Two young speedsters learned this early on.

Wally West as Kid Flash

The first to experience the trials of super speed at a young age was Barry Allen's own nephew-in-law; Wally West. A bright young, kid much like yourself, who idolized the Scarlet Speedster. Through a very similar set of circumstances to Barry's origin, Wally also became a speedster. However, unlike Barry, he unlocked his powers as a boy. Barry took Wally under his wing and mentored the boy teaching him all he knew about their mysterious power. With his uncle Barry's guidance, whom he viewed as a surrogate father, Wally eventually became the hero we know today as the 3rd man to wear the mantel of the Flash.

Bart Allen is Impulse

Another child-speedster is Impulse.

Bart Allen, grandson of Barry Allen, hails from the 30th century by way of an extensive and rather complicated chain of events in Barry's life.

Interestingly, suffering from a hyper-accelerated metabolism which caused him to age at super speed (making him appear to be twelve while chronologically he was only two years old,) he was raised isolated under scientific observation inside a virtual-reality tank. This tank provided a hyper-accelerated virtual world for his senses and it kept pace for his own scale of time, all in an effort to prevent mental health problems for the boy. 

In both cases the kid-speedsters were carefully instructed by their mentors (Impulse had Max Mercury) to observe disciplinary protocols for the use of super speed. It was explained to them that careful consideration of their actions and the consequences thereof, prior to execution, was a vital step in ensuring the success of any mission.

Super Speed in the brain!

There are also a few other distinct but not often discussed advantages to possessing super speed. 

             The first is the ability to analyze information at  astonishingly  accelerated velocities.  Moving at  super-speed would be a very dangerous task, were it not for incredibly advanced reflexes and painstaking calculations performed while running and under unbelievably stressful situations. Imagine running at super-soinc speeds (or beyond) while contemplating a complex battle strategy AND dodging any variety of obstacles from people to land formations as they rush toward you. Collisions at that rate of speed would result in virtual disintegration for the moving and stationary subjects! Even the world's fastest super-computer could not process the necessary calculations to guide a missile through such a maze of barriers, much less a human brain!

...unless the brain in question is empowered with the ability of super speed. 

Genetics at work

       The second of the aforementioned advantages, is a concept popularized via cartoons and film thanks to a certain cigar-smoking, clawed mutant.

I am referring to an accelerated healing factor which enables an wounded speedster to recuperate incredibly fast. However, unlike the idealized genetic ability that mutants possess, our speedsters derive their quick regenerative power from the mysterious Speed Force. Aside from lending our speedsters a wide array of powers and abilities, the Speed Force allows them to metabolize wounds and grown muscle mass. (As exhibited below by Jai West, son of Wally West.) 

Jai West, age 8 

Wow, it sure seem that the Speed Force allows one to do all sorts of thing huh?  Well, here's a short list of some other things it can do for you; 

Speed Force armor

• Constructs - the Speed Force can be used to create solid mass constructs. Wally West pioneered this ability when he willed an armor into being that allowed him to run despite having broken legs. Also, he later used it to repair rips in his costume, which by the way, is also made from the Speed Force. It is similar in this sense to Green Lantern's ring constructs.

• ESP - Max Mercury's communion with the Speed Force also permits him to detect any object in motion in the world, and also to perceive other speedsters, kinda like the Cerebro device  as depicted in X-Men.

Cerebro

Impulse and Speed Scout

• Speed Scouts - Impulse was able to produce phantom duplicates of himself that could time travel and inform him by maintaining a psychic link. However, when one of them was destroyed, it affected Impulse by causing him to fall into a temporary comatose state. No other speedster has attempted this ability since.

Space-time

• Intangibility & Multi-Dimensional Phasing / Time Travel - Barry Allen was the first to have exhibited these abilities early on. By vibrating his molecules at a certain frequencies, he could phase through solid objects, travel through time or to alternate universes. Although most speedsters possess the ability to travel through solid objects, or "ghost" through them, not all of them have perfected the act. Wally, for instance, causes the objects in question to explode having ghosted through them , whereas Bart (Impulse) causes them to melt or disintegrate. Essentially, the key to any one of these three powers is obtaining the appropriate modulation frequency, not unlike tuning a specific radio station. Also, the Flash must maintain his internal vibrations at that specific sync to remain in the selected dimension, or alternate universe. Returning to the point of origin simply requires casement of vibrations. 

Cosmic Treadmill

•  (Note: Early in his career, he required the help of a mechanical device he called the cosmic treadmill, which aided him to hop through different dimensions and through time, but has since perfected his abilities to the point where he does not need its assistance. However, any super-speedster may used the device, since it requires turning at incredible speeds to make it function.)

• Infinite Mass Punch  - Imagine the amount of energy required to travel at or near the speed of light. It is an immeasurable quantity, perhaps near the energy output of a star! Now imagine getting punched with the concentrated force of this infinite mass. The Flash, under the protection of the Speed Force aura, would probably feel nothing except the average recoil of such a blow, but not so for the unfortunate subject of his efforts. This type of strike could far surpass that of Superman's own legendary punches!

Clark and Barry

• Lending and Stealing Kinetic Energy - The Flash can also lend kinetic energy to living beings or objects as well as rob them of it. In lending speed, he could lend speed to inanimate objects or other beings, enabling them to travel or move as fast as he temporarily. Robbing kinetic energy allows him to stop bullets in mid-flight by stealing their inertia, or stoping an enemy by slowing his foe to a relatively stationary state. To illustrate this point, below is an example of how he punished the villain Inertia for his complicity in the murder of Bart Allen.

There kid, that's all I have to say on the subject for now. Hope you learned something new today. All right, I'll let you get along to do whatever it is you super-fast kids do... 




It gives me hope to know that should you ever become a heroic speedster, you will remember that there's more than simply "running fast" to becoming a world-class superhero!

The FLASH!

Thanks for visiting, please come again soon when we discuss....
The true nature of The SpeedForce!