Halbarry: the Origin

1: The Story

Barry hated being late. He'd thought that with his new super speed he'd start being early for once. He'd have given anything to just be on time. Alas, Barry Allen continued to be late. Late to work, late to dates, late to everything. Once, he was even late to a crime scene. Not a work crime scene you see, but a Flash crime scene. Don't worry, everything turned out fine. Except for the mugger's face, but Barry just considered that a hazard of the mugger profession.
There was one particular morning, however, when Barry's lateness actually proved helpful. Because Barry was late, he was able to walk into work just in time to see the words NEW SUPERHERO? plastered across the television screen in the bullpen. This caused him to not go up upstairs immediately as he normally did, but to join his coworkers.
Barry walked over to his friend Jim's desk and sat on it, following the lead of the policemen around him and watching the television.
"New reports of a glowing green man are coming in from citizens around and in Coast City. Our top journalist Pedro Sanchez has the story. Pedro?" The pretty Chinese woman on the TV turned away from the camera, and it cut to a young Hispanic man.
"Thank you, Lucy. You heard it here first, folks. There has been a sighting of yet another so-called superhero in one of the United States' biggest cities. First, sightings were reported in Starling, then Central City and Keystone, then Metropolis, and now Coast City has its own super.
"Though these sightings have yet to show much evidence of this mysterious green light in the sky being an actual human, it is many people's belief that this "Green Lantern" is in fact a man. I spoke to some locals who claimed to have spotted this mysterious UFO earlier this morning."
The camera cut to a rather disheveled looking elderly man speaking rather quickly in Spanish, but there were subtitles under him. They appeared too fast to read it easily, but Barry had no trouble. (AN: Aw yeah great superpower, buddy, you can read subtitles...)
"I was laying out on the lawn," the man explained, "looking up at the stars. All of a sudden, a green spot came up from the tree line and flew into the sky. I thought I'd gone crazy!"
Cut again to a frankly ditzy looking young woman with bleach blonde hair and some decidedly unflattering clothing. "I was just like, minding my own business driving away from Starbucks with my frap when this totally hot guy came out of nowhere. I hadn't noticed because this totally sweet 5SOS song came on, but I'd like almost crashed my BMW.
"The hot guy was glowing green, and there was this totally cray green beam coming out of this sweet ring he had on. Somehow, he was holding the car with the beam of light. He put my car on the side of the road and winked at me through his mask before flying away. I had to go back to Starbucks for a new frappuccino because the guy stole mine, and they're just so gucci! He was too fast to get a selfie with, though, sorry."
Barry felt a strange vibration on the desk. He picked up his cell phone. Oliver. He answered reluctantly, just because he wanted to see the rest of the news story, then decided he could google it later.
He left the room and went up to his lab. He usually did that when he got a "business call," as Sisco liked to call them.
Barry didn't even have time to say hello before Oliver cut him off.
"Did you see the story?"
"The green lantern story? Yeah I was watching it when you-"
"I have a proposition for you, Mr The Flash."
Barry rolled his eyes. "What is it, Mr Green Arrow?" Then he realised what his friend must be suggesting. "Oh God. No, Oliver. I can't just-"
"What? Jump off of work for a few days to do your other job? I do it all the time! Come on, please? I can't go alone, you know I always come off as an asshole when I'm alone!"
"Why don't you just take Canary?"
"She and I are currently not speaking."
"God, Ollie, again? You know you love her, just get over yourself!"
"When did the conversation become about me?"
"The Oliver I know would always want the conversation about him."
"True." There was silence for a few seconds as both men considered their predicaments. Then, Oliver broke it. "So, you coming?"
"Yes, but I can't carry you the whole way you'll have to take a car or something."
"Or a private jet."
"Or a private jet! Why not? Oh, one more thing. Who are we going as?"
Barry could hear his friend's smile from all the way over the phone. "I guess we'll leave that up to the new guy." Oliver hung up and Barry walked back down stairs. He needed to ask for some time off.

"What do you mean, time off?" Thankfully, the voice came not from Captain Singh at the station, but from Caitlyn Snow at S.T.A.R. Labs.
"Look, it wasn't my idea. Oliver wanted to check out that new guy out in California," Barry replied, following Caitlyn around the room as she angrily adjusted equipment.
"I understand that. I understood when you went to visit that Supergirl in Metropolis too. It's just that..."
"What?"
"You're a lot busier now! You can't just leave the Gem Cities whenever you please!" Oops. Barry had hoped she would say something else. Barry sighed. False hope never helped anyone.
"Maybe I can get Palmer to come down. Would that be better?"
Caitlyn looked happy, then covered it up with an eye roll. "I guess."
"Great, it's settled!" Barry ran home to pack. He'd have to time his run to bring him in at the same time as Oliver's jet so they could come in together. That was always tricky, but Barry was excited for that trip. He couldn't wait to meet another super with real powers. No offence to Oliver, Speedy, Ray and Dinah of course.