EXPEDITE ▇▇▇▇ VOLUME ONE
━━ ❛ 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 ❜

chapter no. 001!

𝘊𝘈𝘙𝘜𝘛𝘏𝘌𝘙𝘚 𝘊𝘐𝘛𝘠
APRIL 7TH, 2003

     THE PITCH-BLACK CURTAINS DRAPED OVER THE NIGHT SKY AND THE TWISTED, WARPED SHAPES THAT THE STARS CREATED AGAINST THE BLACKNESS SPIRALED IN EVERY DIRECTION. The milky speckles twirled and danced along the dark ocean in various patterns, tugging at the corners of her lips in a way that made her smile. It was hard to shove aside the worries corrupting her mind, but eventually, she managed to stop the constant rhythm that was swimming in her mind.

     She was alone, and nothing could reach out from the pits of the great abyss and harm her—or so she thought.

     The worn-out soles of her bright red converse bounded up the wooden front porch steps as she approached the door. Digging through the pockets of her jean jacket for a split second, she pulled out the key that would give her access to the haven she would always call home. As her hand rose to unlock the door, she couldn't help but notice that it was already unlocked and cracked open. Furrowing her eyebrows in confusion, she pushed the smooth, burgundy matte door open and stepped inside hesitantly. "Mom? Dad?" she called.

     The house was draped in an eerie silence that sent a wave of chills down her spine. Glancing down at the floor, the young girl froze in shell-shock fear as a deep red substance was soaking through the fabric under her feet. A trail of the thick wine-red blood swam past the carpet-painted stairs and to the right, where the living room directly connected to the dining room.

     Dropping the key to the floor, her chocolate brown eyes widened as a rush of panic seeped through her veins. The air leaving her lips became ragged and harsh as she stepped forward. Her hands began trembling at her sides, and she jammed her fist into her mouth, trying to stifle the scream that was crawling its way up her throat.

     Then, she heard the sound of someone coming— the soft susurration of their footsteps, like a threatening whisper, echoing louder in the darkness as they approached. The noise didn't appear to come from any direction. It was just a sound encapsulating her, trapping her into a cocoon of despair and dread.

     Curiosity got the best of her as she trudged to the right, begrudgingly facing the living room with tears already prickling in the corners of her eyes.

     Family pictures that once lined the walls were shattered and stained with blood, littering the floor in every direction. Books that once rested in the bookcase to the left were strewn everywhere, along with the remains of the pillows from the couches.

     Hesitantly taking another step forward, she felt her legs twitch, fighting off the impulse to whirl around and sprint back down the front porch, leaving behind the scene before her.

     Turning, she faced the dining room where the Lita family had once eaten and enjoyed family dinners full of giggles and teasing. Now, all that remained was a broken dining table with a woman lying on top of the splinters of wood, her white blouse soaked in a red darker than any shade the girl had ever seen before. The chairs were fragmented and scattered while the record player in the right corner of the room spun a Patsy Cline vinyl around. The song that was once playing had ended long ago; now, all that could be heard was the faint sound of static.

     Roaming her gaze around the area, her throat closed in threat of screaming when she saw vibrating, yellow lightning that embodied the figure of a person standing before her. Where one's eyes would be, rested two glowing red orbs of hatred that narrowed at her.

     The sound of flesh squishing against splintered wood caused the girl to visibly flinch, backing away as the figure struck a broken chair leg into her already dead father's chest. Her mind was beginning to fail, like an engine that turned over and over, never fully kicking into action. She couldn't formulate a thought.

     All it took was four seconds for everything to click in her mind before her fist fell from her mouth, and she let out a blood-curdling cry.

     All it took was three seconds for the Briars next door to hear the scream and dial 911.

     It took two seconds for the yellow figure to shove her to the ground and race out of the front door.

     And all it took was one second for her entire world to change.

────

𝘊𝘈𝘙𝘜𝘛𝘏𝘌𝘙𝘚 𝘊𝘐𝘛𝘠
JANUARY 7TH, 2010

     "WHAT DO WE HAVE?"

     "She was struck by lightning an hour ago. She's been repeatedly convulsing and isn't responding."

     "Heart rate is low."

     "Start compressions now."

     "Edleman, get a trauma team in here. Stat."

     "One... two... three."

     "Try again."

     "One... two... three."

     "She's flat-lining."

     "Try again!"

     "One... two... three."

     "She's stable."

𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝑯𝑬𝑹𝑬 𝐓𝐎 𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 𝐅𝐈𝐋𝐄
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

▃▃▃▃▃ LITA, PIPER.
⠀⠀⠀𝘗𝘈𝘛𝘐𝘌𝘕𝘛 𝘍𝘐𝘓𝘌
SSN⠀███-██-████

○○○●●● 𝙡𝙤𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜. . .

     ──── 𝗣𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗡𝗢.⠀00822160582
     ──── 𝗡𝗔𝗠𝗘⠀PIPER MAEVE LITA
     ──── 𝗗𝗢𝗕⠀AUGUST 26, 1989
     ──── 𝗔𝗗𝗗𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗦⠀4956 ASHLEIGH AVE, CARUTHERS CITY, MISSOURI 63019
     ──── 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡⠀STABLE/COMA
     ──── 𝗔𝗗𝗠𝗜𝗧𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗘⠀JANUARY 7, 2010
     ──── 𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘⠀UNDETERMINED

────

𝘊𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘙𝘈𝘓 𝘊𝘐𝘛𝘠
DECEMBER 10TH, 2014

     OH, SHIT. Oh, how she had screwed up. Piper Lita had screwed up royally.

     If there was one thing the redhead had learned over the past five years, it was not to let the power react to a situation before the mind did. Piper was the fastest woman alive, but that didn't mean that her thoughts always generated just as quickly.

     All it took was four words for her to chase after the man in yellow. She loathed more than any being alive for her to go after one person. "Come and catch me." Come and catch me.

     Come and catch me.

     Those four words had sparked a fury that had been buried deep down, a fury that only appeared when her thoughts traveled to the past. Only this time, that ignited fury had caused her to travel to another world— another Earth.

     Piper Lita allowed her speed's fury and power to decide her fate, and here she was: alone. In the middle of the street. In the middle of God-knows-where.

     Sure, the girl had time-traveled before. Given her capabilities and incredible speed, how could she pass up the opportunity to go back in time and to the future? Only a fool would disregard that offer, according to her. This time was different, though. Piper hadn't traveled back or forward in time; she'd traveled to a whole other world where Expedite didn't exist. She wasn't even sure if Caruthers City existed. Hell, did she even exist on this planet?

     Glancing down at her purple suit, she noticed the fallen specks of snow that littered her leather sleeves, melting as they brushed against the outline of the large black lightning bolts that adorned her forearms. Raising her head, her chocolate-brown eyes narrowed, and the transparent screen that was framed by a sleek black eye mask zoomed in on two figures from over ten miles away.

     Immediately, Piper's eyes widened, and she felt her feet propel forward, darting down various roads and avenues before she even thought about what she was doing. Skidding to a stop, she darted behind a factory wall and pressed herself against the cold-stone brick as the two strangers remained silent. The back of one faced her; he had short brown hair and wore a navy blue button-down sweater over a blue shirt with grey jeans. Rolling her eyes at his choice of clothing in twenty-degree weather, Piper's focus shifted back to the latter— the man in yellow. The man she had run after so quickly and, as a result, was sent here. Wherever here was.

     "It was you. You were the one in my house that night." The shakiness in the boy's voice was evident as he spoke. "You killed my mother! Why?"

     Wait, a frickity frack—

     "If you want to know that, you're going to have to catch me," the man growled.

     Figuring out where she was and how she was supposed to get back home could wait. This encounter was far too intriguing and homogeneous to her past for her to simply ignore. The yellow speedster ran away, and Piper watched as the boy sped off after him without a second thought.

     Oh, my God, he's a speedster.

     Wasting no time, she chased after the two, slowing down her speed so she could loosely trail behind without either of them noticing her presence. The yellow lightning in front of her was fast, but not fast enough to catch up to the red, nor fast enough to catch up to her if she ran at full speed. Piper was faster than the man in yellow— no speedster was faster than her. She hadn't caught her man in yellow on her Earth because the man had an annoying habit of teleporting in the middle of their encounters.

     Coming to an abrupt halt, Piper ducked behind a grey seat as her wide eyes roamed the football stadium they'd entered. All the lights flashed on, nearly blinding her, and she quickly looked away. Her eyebrows raised as she narrowed her focus on the brown-haired boy who stood on one end of the field.

     Wait a minute... Back that ass up. Hello, cutie.

     Disregarding the enraged expression he wore, Piper couldn't help but swiftly check him out before glancing over to the opposite end of the field; the two speedsters were facing off.

     Zooming her way to the other side of the arena, the redhead crept closer. Then, all at once, in a blur of yellow and red, the two raced towards the other, and Piper couldn't help but wince as the man in yellow elbowed the latter the moment he crashed into him, sending the brown-haired boy flying. Rolling across the ground, he let out a grunt of pain and looked up to find the speedster standing over him.

     "Not fast enough, Flash."

     Flash? That's probably his superhero name. Every meta-human's got one, basically. Wait... do meta-humans exist on this Earth too? I take that back— no shit, Piper. They're both speedsters. Of course, there are meta-humans here.

     Piper crouched down lower, hiding from sight as the two engaged in a cat-and-mouse game throughout the stadium. Eventually, the speedsters made their way back to the field, and Piper cringed once more as the man in yellow threw the latter, nearly chuckling as he tumbled to the ground. He kicked him in the chest and ran to the other side of his body, remaining silent as the brown-haired boy glowered up at him, blood dribbling down from his nose. "Who are you?" he bellowed.

     "You know who I am, Barry."

     Barry? Hold up. Why does his name make him cuter?

     Piper mentally facepalmed herself as she tried to push aside her erratic thoughts.

     Barry attempted to swing at the man, speeding up from the ground but missed him by only a few inches. The man in yellow threw a blow to the chest and ran, kicking him in the back without hesitation. Piper subconsciously flinched for the millionth time as she heard something crack— most likely his spine. She continued watching as the man threw more punches at the brown-haired boy before flipping him onto the ground.

     "I don't know who you are," Barry protested, struggling to get up.

     The man in yellow shook his head, "But you do, Barry. We've been at this a long time, you and I, but I've always been one step ahead."

     The brown-haired boy stood up and threw a punch, but the latter managed to dodge it. He ran around the stadium in a circle before coming up from behind Barry and sending him tumbling to the ground. "It is your destiny to lose to me, Flash. Just as it was your mother's destiny to die that night." Right after, the yellow speedster sped off, and Piper glanced at the boy lying on the ground, breathing heavily.

     This fight was all too similar to the one she and her man in the yellow had two years ago.

     The fight that had started a war.

────

𝘊𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘙𝘈𝘓 𝘊𝘐𝘛𝘠
OCTOBER 6TH, 2015
　/　PRESENT DAY. . .

     CENTRAL CITY WAS ALWAYS MOVING. That was something Piper Lita had learned ten months ago when she stopped running and found herself on a darkly lit street. Piper could see cars, people, buses, and trains scavenging the city from the hilltop where the neighborhood sat. Piper sat in the window seat at her apartment, admiring the ever-rising sunset.

     In the amount of time she had been stuck on this Earth, she'd managed to get a job at the Streetwise Bay, a local restaurant, and get an apartment. In her free time, when she wasn't with her roommate and best friend— Erin Osborn, who she worked with— she watched over the awkwardly adorable Barry Allen and his team at S.T.A.R. Labs. Spent every second learning everything she could about them and the meta-humans inhabiting the city.

     Over the course of the past few months, Piper had only kept her eye on them in secret, never interacting with them. Sure, she'd spotted and occasionally followed them, more specifically Barry, but she never dared to engage directly with them. It was safer to keep her distance.

     The man in yellow, whom she learned was called the Reverse-Flash, was now dead. At least on this Earth. On hers, as far as she knew, he was still very much alive. She hadn't seen him since December of last year, but she knew he was still out there. She could feel it. Although this world's Reverse-Flash was dead and there was nothing, even then, stopping her from contacting Team Flash, she still refused to.

     Perhaps it was out of fear or anxiety, but she wouldn't. Not unless it was necessary. In this case, she didn't see how it would ever be crucial for her to talk to them. Little did she know, Piper Lita was going to help save Central City, and everybody would remember the name Expedite by the time she was long gone.