Wally West // Kid Flash

[Wally West]

WALLACE RUDOLPH WEST

I'm burnin' through the sky, yeah
200 degrees, that's why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit
I'm travelin' at the speed of light
I wanna make a super-sonic woman of you

"Life doesn't always have to be in the fast lane,
but you'd better hope you don't get stuck in traffic."

THE BASICS;;
NAME: Wallace Rudolph West
AGE: 16 (Going on 17)
SEX: Male
CODENAME: Kid Flash
ALIASES: Wally
AFFILIATION: Honorary Titan
STATUS: Currently winding down from a brief 'vacation' he took at his Aunt and Uncle's house, on his way back to Jump.
CANON: Yes
PLAYBY: "Well obviously it's that sharp-looking gentleman in the mirror."



THE GOOD STUFF;;

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:
Wally's not particularly tall - he resides somewhere around 5'7" - and while he doesn't keep track of his weight, his general body image isn't a very intimidating one. He's very obviously not a bodybuilder of any sort, and it's clear that he's skirted through most social situations based entirely off of his boyish good looks and natural charisma. His hair is a striking fiery-red moptop that is unruly whether or not a brush is taken to it, and the area below his blue eyes is framed by a small smattering of freckles.

Wally based his costume off of that of the original Flash, his uncle, Barry Allen. While originally it was much more similar to his mentor's, Wally decided that it needed to be changed in order to become more distinctive. Now, he wears a costume that's almost an inverted color scheme of the first; yellow being the majority, comprising his mask, upper torso, and boots, while he kept his gloves and leggings red, substituting a red lightning bolt on his chest for the old one and with red wingtips on his mask instead of the Flash's yellow. While his costume seems to be made out of spandex, it's really an extremely friction-resistant polymer weave, specifically designed so that his pants don't burst into flames when he's zipping about.

Other than his flashy costume, Wally isn't exactly fashion-centric; when not in uniform he's liable to be found in a worn pair of blue jeans and a simple t-shirt. Simple, efficient, and comfortable enough. Jackets are nice and all, but if he wears one it generally has to be either form-fitting or thin; running in a baggy jacket is cumbersome and annoying, so those are just right out.

PERSONALITY:
Truth be told, Wally's a pretty jovial guy. While he's not as excitable as say, Beast Boy, he enjoys having a good time. And he does do somewhat mischievous things to people often, although his 'pranks' aren't nearly as convoluted or inane as those of the aforementioned green-skinned Titan. He forms strong bonds with his friends, and is always there when they need a (proverbial, sometimes literal) shoulder to cry on. Contrary to that, though, it doesn't feel right to him to burden someone else with his problems; he's the kind of person who believes that his doubts should be kept to himself. And despite zipping around everywhere, most people are surprised to find out just how chill and laid-back Wally is; for some reason, this amuses him.

Perhaps because of his speed, Wally is a habitual improvisationalist. He thinks fast (admittedly, not always to the best of his abilities), acts just as fast, and tends to go with the flow of things as they turn out. If he has a personal stake in some kind of situation, however, you can be sure that he'll see it through to the end, sometimes with a focused perseverance that is in stark contrast to the person he tries to be.

POWERS AND/OR ABILITIES: Super speed, and a lot of what that entails. Wally himself is resistant to the high level of friction generated when he's in motion, as is anything he's carrying while moving thanks to the Speed Force. Wally has even pulled off a trick that his uncle and mentor hasn't yet been able to duplicate - vibrating his molecules at a frequency so high that he's able to phase though solid matter. Wally can choose to do so safely, or he can decide to destabilize the molecular structure of the solid matter, which would do little more than cause a small, localized explosion. Other than that, he has a few other tangent abilities; he heals at a slightly faster rate than normal people due to his increased metabolism, possesses superhuman reflexes due to the speed at which he can move, and his mind can process things at a much faster rate thanks to super-charged brain activity.

WEAKNESSES:

• Although not the aggressive type about it, Wally has a huge ego. While he comes out on top most of the time, he has a bad habit of underestimating his opponent's abilities.
  
• Wally doesn't have a very long attention span, and he's pretty easily distracted.
  
• A tendency to act before he even has time to think.
  
• While his reflexes are top notch, this doesn't stop him from barreling right into traps before he realizes what he's done.
  
• Due to his trusting nature, it's not far-fetched that someone would take advantage of this.

GOALS: To put it bluntly, Wally's just focused on living life to it's fullest and being the best person he can be. The meaning of the latter can change sometimes, but Wally fully believes that if he's not inspiring people, he's doing something wrong. To a lesser extent, being the young Casanova that he is, he's also looking for true love - though if you'd ask him about it he'd phrase it in a slightly less hokey way.

HISTORY:
Wally was a plucky kid, born to a Rudolph and Mary West in Blue Valley, Nebraska. Wally's early childhood was pretty depressing; not being a very physical or confidant person, he was both abused (physically and emotionall) by his father at home and bullied by his classmates at school. As hard as he tried, he couldn't do well enough in sports to please his father, and the other kids saw him as little more than a dork. The boy's grades began to slip, along with his mood, not being able to deal with all the pressure to succeed.

Wally was a huge fan of the superhero Flash, and his Aunt Iris came to him with an offer that was nearly too good to be true; her boyfriend Barry Allen knew the Flash, and the hero himself wanted to meet him! HIM, of all people! Ecstatic at the prospect, the meeting contained barely a moment of silence between the two as Wally innocently pestered Flash with a seemingly unending string of questions and the hero tried his best to answer each question. When Wally decided to ask Flash how he'd gotten his powers, the scarlet speedster decided to answer truthfully; he'd been in the forensics lab of the local police department; working on some equipment with a particular set of chemicals when a lightning bolt from a freak storm struck him and the chemicals through the window, electrocuting him. After waking up he eventually began to notice that something was different about him, and the rest is history.

The meeting with his hero didn't just cheer him up, it inspired him - and if the Flash had known what Wally planned to do, he probably would've been more guarded about his origins. Having been told the bulk of the chemicals involved in the accident and puzzling out the others by sheer luck and perseverance, Wally set up his own little lab area in his backyard: lightning rod included. It was stupid and a huge risk, but after utilizing a passing thunderstorm, Wally awoke feeling...different. Better. Like a different person. After revealing this to his hero, the Flash revealed his secret identity as Barry Allen before (begrudgingly) taking on Wally as his sidekick in Central City.

By the time Wally had finally decided to check out Jump City, the Titans were stretched out across the globe in an effort to recruit other heroes to combat The Brotherhood of Evil. With it's protectors gone, Jump City's criminals enjoyed a brief respite from the law. Wally arrived just in time to catch the Hive Five (now up to six members, which thoroughly confused him) ransacking shops and taking what they wanted. With his speed, he made short work of the six of them, flirting with Jinx all the while and questioning her motivation for being evil.

Madame Rouge, on a mission to collect Wally, entrusted Jinx to capture him for her. For some reason Jinx respected Rouge, and unfortunately, Wally couldn't keep away; due mainly to Jinx's help, he was captured by the Hive Five. Trapped in a cage, he watched the team argue amongst themselves (with a bit of prodding from him), before simply...escaping. Jinx was embarassed before Rouge, and promised that she'd re-capture Kid Flash.

Once again, Wally couldn't keep himself away from Jinx. He appealed to her again to change her ways, to not fall in line with someone like Madame Rouge just because she felt that she had to. Jinx decided against it, however, and tried to capture him again - which probably wouldn't have succeeded, had Rouge not intervened. Despite his super speed, Rouge eventually restrained him, fully intent on taking him back to The Brain. It was then that Jinx found herself fed up with Rouge's attitude towards her, and she used her powers to set Kid Flash free and trounce Madame Rouge.

Later, when Beast Boy led a rag-tag team of heroes into the Brotherhood's hideout with the aim to set the other Titans free, Kid Flash showed up with - surprise, surprise - Jinx, who had evidently decided to switch sides. The two of them quickly set about helping the Titans take the criminals out of commission.

Nowadays Wally mainly hangs around Titans Tower when he's got nothing to do; although really, it wouldn't be uncommon to find him virtually everywhere in Jump City.



THE NITTY-GRITTY;;
SCREENNAME: PTAV
Time spent roleplaying: Around 10 years.
Other Characters: None

RP Sample:
Ah, Jump City, Wally thought to himself while taking a leisurely stroll through the mall. His hands, interlaced behind his back, bobbed up and down every second-or-so step he took. This place is so much better without the crime. Hey, who knew? He was, like many heroes and villains currently residing in Jump City, walking around in costume; thankfully, not many people had been incredibly interested in him. Sure, he could handle some excitable kid or obsessed person who wanted an autograph, but he wasn't looking forward to running into anyone who wanted a piece of him. He'd been putting criminals behind bars all morning long, and to tell the truth, he was a tiny bit burnt out on it.

His thoughts were temporarily halted when, out of the corner of his eye, he spied the food court. A glorious pantheon of fried, dipped, blended, genetically-engineered-for-you-to-love-it foodstuffs. They referred to it as "fast food", but Wally found that to be a rather humorous half-truth; it was prepared faster than other types of food, but none of these people had ever eaten fast food, the kind he made when he didn't feel like eating out. Now that was fast food. Nevertheless, he stopped at a place that served hotdogs and got everything on it - he wasn't particularly fond of relish, but today just felt like a "go all out" kind of day, so he obliged.

Walking away with a hotdog nearly half the length of his arm, Wally was perfectly content with walking around the mall, window-shopping and people-watching. As soon as he took his first bite, however, he heard a commotion over at the other end of the food court. Quizzically he turned his head to look over his shoulder, absentmindedly chewing as he scoped out the situation. A rather large and rotund man, dressed up to look like a t-bone steak, was brandishing a huge piece of ham at the people cowering from him. Behind him, a couple of the workers were lying around in a daze, apparently having been brained by...ham?

Wally narrowed his eyes, exhaling long through his nose before swallowing and muttering to himself under his breath. "Man, I just started on this. You couldn't wait to hold up a fast food place until after lunch?" He looked down beside him at a young boy who was torn between watching the weird dude in the meat costume, and staring up at Wally. He flashed the kid a smile, handing him his hotdog. "Hey kid, wanna hold this for me while I go take care of that? It'll take just a sec, I promise." The boy nodded and in a...well, in a flash, Wally was beside the man with the meat-costume, leaning on the counter of the fast food place behind him. "Hey, meat boy. As brilliant as it is to hold up a mall food court for cash, how's about I just take you directly to jail? Without passing go and collecting your $200, of course."

The man glared daggers at Wally, swinging his ham up in the air as he shrilly yelled, "It's Meat MAN, Meat MAN! M-A-N! And I don't want your petty cash! I'm liberating the meat from this despicable establishment!" With a hefty grunt, he brought the ham down towards Wally's head - but in the blink of an eye, Wally was behind 'Meat Man', tapping him on the shoulder. "I really hate to break it to you, but the meat isn't alive anymore. It's like liberating shoes from a Nike factory, it makes no darn sense." He paused, rubbing his chin as he thought to himself. "Plus, why this meat? I mean, it looks like you've already 'liberated' all the food from your fridge."

With a roar, the man spun around, intending to catch Wally in the face with his porky weapon. He swung into the air as Wally sat on his shoulders, dangling his legs over the man's chest. "Plus, we already have a token heavy-set villain. That's Control Freak. Doesn't really seem wise to have two." Screaming something along the lines of "I'M NOT FAT", Meat Man foolishly swung up at Wally - and a second later he was on the ground, stars in his eyes, with Kid Flash bending over him. "Alright, I think I've had my fun. Any longer and it's going to get pretty pathetic." With a blur of red and yellow he was gone and back again, finishing up a knot on the rope wrapped around the pudgy would-be-villain. And in his right hand was his hotdog, retrieved from the kid he'd left it with.

Wally grabbed a chair and scooted it over beside the half-conscious Meat Man, taking a seat and scratching the back of his head as he took another bite of his hotdog. After a few seconds and another swallow, he gestured at the man with his food. "You're going to lay there and watch me finish this, and after that, you're going to jail. I'm sure they won't mind you setting meat free down there."