Chapter Text
So the thing is, Reverb hasn’t actually used his powers for inter-dimensional travel yet. Intra-dimensional travel? Yes. Loads of times, traveling within the bounds of his own universe is a piece of cake. And he can manipulate the existing inter-dimensional breaches that popped up at the start of the summer, at least enough to stabilize them for Zoom and let Zoom chuck other people through them.
Thankfully Reverb’s been too useful on their own Earth to be chucked through himself. Which had given Reverb the chance to consolidate his own power base within Zoom’s organizational structure while Zoom was off playing both cop and robber over on the other Earth. Zoom was dying – slowly, painfully, organ shut down was an awful way to go – and Reverb knew all he had to do was bide his time and… he could take over when Zoom died.
Ding dong the witch is dead. All hail the new witch.
Something like that, anyway.
Unfortunately, Reverb fucked up. The other Earth’s Flash showed up with his own version of Francisco Ramon in tow. And presented an opportunity to do away with Zoom early – if Cisco Ramon would let Reverb train him. It was a gamble. And it failed.
Reverb watched in horror as Zoom’s hand punched through Deathstorm’s chest – goodbye Ronnie, Reverb had actually liked the guy despite the whole ‘holding some guy trapped in his mind to fuel his fire’ thing. Everyone had their own lines in the sand and Ronnie hadn’t crossed any that Reverb couldn’t live with. Same with Frost who was no doubt next on the chopping block, unless Zoom’s flirtations with the other reality’s Caitlin Snow had been genuine.
For her sake, Reverb hoped the asshole was truly smitten with the bland girl from the other world.
But Reverb had no safety net. And he knew it. Zoom had been aware of Reverb’s growing power over Zoom’s other lieutenants and only allowed it because he was too busy elsewhere and Reverb hadn’t reached the point of being worth the risk of attracting Time Wraiths. Yet.
But now?
For a moment, Reverb saw it. The world coated in blue, the death he was apparently going to live twice over thanks to his stupid powers, the way it felt to have a hand reach into his chest and crush his heart…
And then the world was back to normal but there was still a white-blue glow everywhere… and Reverb was falling.
It was a breach but unlike any that Reverb had used before. It opened underneath his feet and closed before Zoom could follow, and for all that it was Reverb’s power fueling it… he had no idea where he was going. Maybe he was trapped in this beautiful, glowing world for eternity, seeing bits and pieces of reality dance before his eyes without context before fluttering away like startled butterflies.
Then Reverb’s feet jolted against a hardwood floor and reality reasserted itself. He was in a brightly lit office with the early morning sun peaking in through an eastern facing window. And Harrison Wells himself staring at Reverb with undisguised fascination.
Of all the places to land. In STAR Labs, the home of the enemy who’d granted Reverb his greatest gift. The man Reverb hated only slightly less than Zoom.
Reverb’s head swam and his vision threatened to tunnel into darkness and when he reached up to touch at the odd sensation under his nose, Reverb realized he was bleeding. He hadn’t had nosebleeds since the early days of his powers. But then whatever he’d just done was very, very new.
“Well hello there, gorgeous.”
Blinking at Harrison Wells in confusion (when had he moved from sitting behind his desk to standing in front of Reverb?), it took a few moments for Reverb realized that the man was addressing him. Calling him gorgeous.
What the hell?
Before Reverb could give voice to that question, however, his consciousness gave up and his vision tunneled in. He collapsed to the floor.
HR Wells is not a fool, despite what a number of people no doubt whole-heartedly believe. Sure, he’s genuinely perky and constantly needs to fidget with something or it feels like his brain will implode but… he’s not a fool.
After all, if he were a fool then he wouldn’t have been able to successfully pretend to be the brains behind STAR Labs for years starting with the day his shy partner screwed him over in the middle of a press conference. (Is he still bitter about that? Well… yes. Is he waiting for this house of cards to fall down and screw him over again while his partner, Randolf Morgan, comes out of it smelling of roses? Also yes.) Nor would he have been able to leverage that unfortunate bit of circumstances into bearing a lovely silver lining. Namely, HR had been able to use his capricious genius persona as a cover for being a stop on an underground transport from his home Earth to various other Earths in the multiverse.
So the thing was, vibers were the most common meta type on his Earth. It was unclear why this way, but they had a plethora. This had been a great help during the inter-dimensional war (that HR was still convinced his Earth had started) in the early 90s and the World War M – anti-meta (of the non-viber variety) propaganda working overtime that year – that had followed soon after in the late 90s. And by great help, HR meant help to the fascist government that ran his home world. Not helpful to the actual people being crushed under the government’s boot.
While HR might not be the super genius he used to be after an unfortunate war wound (head injury with lasting brain damage), he was still charming and quick on his feet when it came to assessing a situation in order to turn it in his favor. The government wasn’t the only organization that hired vibers; so did the world’s elite. The wealthy. The movers and shakers of the world’s technology development.
Vibers made excellent security guards and police officers. They also made wonderful spies and agents for industrial espionage. So technology that could protect an area from a viber’s ability to vibe the past and potential future had been developed and lobbied for so successfully that the government had allowed it’s use by various ‘important’ individuals and companies. If they could afford the cost. Which, as the CEO of STAR Labs – something that HR did in fact do for real, even if he wasn’t also the head of R&D as Randolf had insisted on making everyone believe – meant that HR was entitled to have one in his home and in various places around STAR Labs. Including his personal office.
It was useful for creating hidey-holes where people seeking to escape from their Earth for whatever reason – political dissidents usually who’d finally been hit with falsified crimes that would land them in undeserved jail time or, worse, executions – could be safe until the few vibers with a conscience or people in possession of inter-dimension breach tech could ferry those people to relative safety. There was always a chance that the government’s vibers – the Collectors – would catch up to them. But it was still safer for them out in the multiverse somewhere than trapped like rats in a cage on their home reality.
For a viber to show up out of nowhere in HR’s office was therefor a reason to be very, very cautious.
HR stood up from his desk quickly at the sight of the viber arriving – barging into his office unscheduled was pretty typical of the Collectors and the underground was too careful to pull something like this, but it was always possible this was a rival company’s employee – and smiled his blandest CEO smile.
“Well hello there, gorgeous,” HR greeted as he came around to stand in front of the invader. Who was, at least, very pretty eye-candy. “What brings a Collector here on this fine…” HR trailed off, drumsticks freezing in his hands even, as he noticed the blood running down from the man’s nose.
The viber reached up, eyes clearly hazy now that HR was actually paying attention, and touched the blood, drawing his hand back and muttering what sounded like ‘oh’ and maybe ‘shit’ before he crumpled like a puppet whose strings had been sliced.
Not a Collector than. Probably. Even less likely to be a rival company’s employee.
There were likely two scenarios about to play out in HR’s office. Either the Collectors were about to show up to rescue one of their own who’d just escaped some horrible situation. Or the Collectors were about to show up to arrest an unlicensed viber. There were other possibilities, but those two – and specifically the second of the two – felt most likely.
If the guy was a Collector, hiding him would be a mistake. If he wasn’t a Collector, then not hiding him would condemn him to a best case scenario of a life time of enforced service to the Collectors. (And a second best case scenario of life in prison with his powers stripped by a process that could, potentially, cause any number of mental illnesses to develop over the next several years.)
HR went with his gut feeling that this man was not a Collector. He triggered the bookcase behind his desk to slide open to reveal a small closet sized room behind it.
Well, calling it a room was being generous. It was barely three feet deep, though it ran the same width and height of HR’s office. There was a narrow cot wedged into the space that HR managed to pick up his visitor and shuffle the man onto. Then he carefully cleaned the small droplets of blood off the wood, putting the paper towels in a trash bin inside the hidden room along with the cleaning supplies he hid back there as well. Then he closed the room back up, settled at his desk, and waited.
Barely five minutes later another viber barged into HR’s office unannounced via breach.
She was wearing an official uniform for the Collector’s and smiled prettily, if hollowly, at HR.
“Dr. Wells,” she greeted as HR stood and moved around his desk to greet her in return with a polite handshake.
“Madam Viber,” he replied. “What brings you here on this fine morning?”
“Please, call me Gypsy. My father served with you in the war and I feel I know you a bit from his stories.” There’s a touch of insincerity in her voice. Clearly her father, Breacher (Josh Reynolds, which made this little Cynthia all grown up), had related to her the truth of his damaged brain and his genius persona at present being a front and fraud.
She saw a fool to manipulate. HR smiled because underestimating him was what made manipulating everyone else so easy.
“Gypsy,” HR echoed. He wondered if she knew that word’s origin as a slur against the Romani people, who were nearly wiped out in a genocide decades ago. The remaining Romani had all but vanished, for their own safety. Some of the first people HR had helped escape in the 90s while he pretended to aid the government during World War M… were Romani metas.
“I must admit, I’m a bit uncomfortable calling a beautiful young woman a word that began life as a hateful slur. Might I call you Cynthia instead? I do remember how Josh would go on about his daughter during the war and that is your name… right? If it’s too uncomfortable to be that informal, I can use Miss Reynolds instead.”
Cynthia muttered, under her breath but still just barely audible to HR, “slur?” She shook her head. “Of course, Gypsy is just my code name. I don’t mind if you call me Cynthia.”
“What brings you here, Miss Cynthia?” HR asked. “Oh, and please, call me HR. Dr. Wells and Harrison are both so stuffy.”
“The Collectors registered an unlicensed breach originating from outside our universe somewhere on the STAR Labs campus approximately ten minutes ago. My father dispatched me to investigate if a breacher from another world has infiltrated the building.” She smiled, “so of course I went straight to the man in charge.”
HR felt sorry for the girl – Josh had been a good man once upon a time but he’d traded his sense of ethics for political power. His daughter got fed the company line since she was old enough to manifest her powers. She’d never really had a choice.
That didn’t make her any less a dangerous enemy for HR to contend with, though. And he couldn’t let his sympathy for her make him let down his guard. It was one thing to take a shot at her code name like he had. It was another thing entirely to be anything less than cheerfully helpful.
“We actually have protocols in place specifically for this kind of scenario.” HR walked back to his desk, flipped open a little case built into the top left of the mahogany, and pressed the button underneath.
Outside his office, an alarm began to sound.
“The building and the car park are now going into lock down,” HR explained. “Everyone must be cleared with vibrational sequencers to verify that we aren’t vibrating to the wrong universal constant. It’ll be a long process so I suggest that we head to security and put you in charge. You can clear myself and my building’s security officers first and then direct them in clearing everyone else in the building. We have a few suggested building sweep plans or you can run the sweep in some other way that makes more sense to you. We have scanners that can be used to verify the current number of people in the building regardless of what our badge counters might say, so we can verify that, at least in the building, how many people are here.”
“Lock down prevents intra-dimensional breaching?” Cynthia asked.
HR nodded. “Unfortunately we can’t cover the actual car park or any external part of the STAR Labs campus with the anti-breach tech or prevent anyone from physically running away once they’re outside. But we also don’t have any anti-vibe tech out there either. So there’s no way from a breacher to hide from your vibes either.”
“So if they’ve left the building, they won’t get much of a head start,” Cynthia filled in. “To security, then, and I’ll do as you suggested in vetting the security team first.”
While building security and Cynthia were on their wild goose chase, HR returned to his office and checked on his visitor a few times. He couldn’t risk opening the secret hideaway yet but he had a camera on a closed system he could discretely glance at. The young viber unconscious in that closet of a room continued to sleep. Hopefully that wasn’t a sign anything was medically wrong with him. HR wasn’t sure he’d be able to get someone from the underground by to check the young man out until tomorrow and that was likely wishful thinking.
Whoever he was… the viber was a rather handsome fellow. But this was not exactly the safest reality for him to be running away to.
Sighing, he closed the display, returning it to a picture of himself, Randolf, and a few others from the day of STAR Labs founding. And he did so none too soon because there went Cynthia walking into his office again. “Lock down can be lifted. All employees have been verified and I’ve found no traces of anyone – or any thing – outside. The building scanners show no sign of extra-dimensional objects either so I don’t think anything actually came through the breach.”
HR didn’t have to feign relief. “Well I certainly feel better hearing that. Had enough breach-point bombs in the war to last a life time. The last thing I want is one taking out my life’s work here.” He went ahead and deactivated the lock down settings
Cynthia nodded. “Please keep everyone vigilant for the next few days, in case the sweep missed something. But as far as I can tell, the building is clear and there was no sign of a breacher outside.”
He stood up and shook her hand again. “Tell your father joyous felicitations for me, Miss Cynthia. And thank you for taking such good care of my people.”
“Of course.” Cynthia smiled and they made a few more socially and politically required niceties before Cynthia breached away.
Sighing heavily, HR sat on the edge of his desk for a long moment. It was lucky that he’d been able clean up the blood from the viber’s nosebleed so entirely. It might not have been enough to set off the building sensors. But the margin of error for the scanning equipment built into the building was extremely sensitive and it’s ability to sense multi-verse vibrations quite finely tuned. Even a single drop could have betrayed him.
Thankfully the hidden spaces throughout STAR Labs were well shielded, able to hide not just a few drops of blood scrubbed off the wood floor, but entire human beings.
HR took a few calming breaths and then opened the hidden room back up, staring at the young man sleeping there. Getting him out of STAR Labs safely was going to be a pain in the ass, but given the scrutiny that would be on STAR Labs for the next while… it’d be safer to harbor the young man in his own home instead. But getting him there unconscious wasn’t going to happen. Not unless HR stayed late in the evening.
Hopefully his visitor would wake up soon and HR could just… walk him out of the building, into the garage of the car park, and drive away with him. No one would guess the handsome young man was from another world – not when the building had just been swept and approved as clear by a member of the Collectors.
Sighing again, he shut the door again. Just in time to get a call on his desk phone from Randolf, no doubt to bitch him out for whatever the lock down had forced him to put on hold.
What a day this was turning out to be.
Reverb woke up in a tiny, cramped room with metal walls covered in circular bumps. He’d seen this kind of tech before at STAR Labs one time, when he’d broken in along with Zoom in the early days of Zoom’s crime spree. It prevented vibers and speedsters alike from just dropping in as they pleased.
He wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not to be waking in here. Though given the last thing Reverb remembered before passing out was Harrison Wells… he’s going to assume it’s bad.
And speak of the Devil… one of the walls in the tiny closet of a room slid open.
“I’m so glad you’re awake,” chirped Harrison Wells. “I’m HR Wells. Please, call me HR. You arrived in my office from another Earth a few hours ago and I had to hide you quickly to keep the Collectors from finding you. They’re an agency run primarily by vibers such as yourself and… they don’t take kindly to visitors from another reality, I’m afraid. Or people from our Earth seeking refuge elsewhere.”
“I’m on another Earth?” Reverb asked quietly as he got off the cot and shuffled out into the office. He’d never heard of the Collectors before and… well, Harrison Wells would never invite him to call him what was clearly some kind of nickname. Not the Wells from his reality, anyway.
“The Collectors registered your incoming breach from a parallel dimension. So, yes. This is Earth, but not as you know it.” HR waved him out of the cramped room. “It’s safe to come out now, but you’ll need to be very careful once you’re ready to leave this reality for somewhere safer. The Collectors will try to go after you thinking you’re a dissident from our Earth trying to flee.”
“I… I’ve never made any inter-dimension breaches before,” Reverb admitted. “I’ve manipulated a few, but…”
“You didn’t make this breach on purpose?” HR guessed.
Reverb shook his head. “I was about to be killed by a speedster and my powers reacted on instinct. I… fell.”
“Well, I’m glad you did,” HR declared, eyes flicking over Reverb in an assessing sort of way. For some reason it made Reverb’s cheeks heat with a blush. “A handsome man is always worth taking a few risks for.”
Reverb’s blush grew. “Here I thought my powers made me god-like. Untouchable. And instead I nearly died for my hubris.”
HR reached over and patted Reverb’s arm sympathetically. “You’re safe for now. And who knows. Given a chance to stretch your wings, metaphorically speaking, you might find those powers are god-like after all.” HR winked. Then he sobered a bit. “Do you think you’re good to walk to a car and be driven somewhere safer than STAR Labs? There’s going to be a lot of scrutiny on the building for the next few days and it’ll be easier to hide you in a house. More comfortable too.”
Reverb rolled his shoulders and took mental stock of himself. His head ached terribly, but not so much that a car ride would make it worse. He probably needed to wash the blood off his face and hands, but… “I should be good to travel.” He hesitated a second, then added, “thank you for keeping me safe.” It had been a long time since he’d felt he owed anyone that kind of courtesy. But HR Wells had gone out of his way to protect Reverb – assuming the man was telling the truth.
It didn’t hurt to be polite now. Just in case.
If HR turned out to be lying or a threat later, well… Reverb’s powers might not be god-like, yet, but they’d protected him this far. They’d protect him from HR’s treachery too.
Reverb cleaned up in a private bathroom attached to HR’s office – hidden but in an easily find-able way that would lend to the man’s air of eccentricity, unlike the hidden closet-room that had been meant to conceal true secrets – and then all the paper towels with Reverb’s blood on them were incinerated in a small device built into the secret room.
It was something of a relief to Reverb that HR wasn’t trying to steal his DNA for anything nefarious or otherwise.
“People from different universes vibrate at different natural frequencies. It can create dead zones in some of our broadcast frequencies which makes it easily traceable for locating people, or objects, of significant size from other realities. STAR Labs and other research institutes with government ties, have sensors that can often locate even insignificant objects. A strand of hair or drop of blood should still be too small but there’s no point in taking chances,” HR babbled as the towels burned to ash. “Those sensors drain too much power when in use, so they’re only active in lock down situations. Which makes STAR Labs in some ways also the ideal place to hide an otherworldly visitor…”
Reverb nodded in understanding. He’d been able to hide in a small, easily overlooked space that was well shielded. The scanners validating the building’s occupants and interior objects before shutting off had missed him in the shielded space, meaning if he exited the building now, so soon after the search completed… he’d be, at least temporarily, above reproach.
“You have similar safety measures where you’re taking me?” Reverb asked.
HR nodded. “And they’re more comfortable than that cramped little space by far.” He spun in his hands two drumsticks and had pretty much the entire time Reverb had been awake. Only setting them aside if he needed his hands for something else.
It was an odd habit, clearly a method of stimming to keep his mind focused. It had never occurred to Reverb that Harrison Wells of his Earth might be neurodivergent. And maybe he wasn’t, but HR Wells clearly was. It was a good way to mentally differentiate the doppelgangers and… there was something strangely soothing about it.
Reverb walks at HR’s side, discussing… he doesn’t really remember by the time he’s settled in the man’s fancy car while the near silent engine comes on. His head aches. He’s afraid his headache is going to be a migraine soon.
Hopefully he’ll be somewhere he can rest in the quiet and the dark by then.
HR’s home is ridiculously large for one person. That’s Reverb’s first impression anyway. A knee-jerk feeling of disdain for the rich flaunting wealth. But…
A large house makes hidden passages and secret rooms easier to disguise. If HR’s house is set up with the same sort of security as STAR Labs – but comfier – then he likely used his house for the same sort of purposes that STAR Labs was used for. Hiding people. Most likely people escaping this world, not ones like him who were unlucky enough to blunder in.
The house was a mask. STAR Labs was a mask. And HR wore both with ease. Which, in turn, made Reverb feel uneasy. Who was this man who was risking so much for Reverb’s sake?
And what would he want in repayment?
HR is on and off the phone for a few hours after getting home. First with STAR Labs PR head, who was concerned with what the press was picking up on the STAR Labs lock down incident. NDA’s wouldn’t stop a truly determined anonymous leak. So HR agreed he’d do a press conference but would get back to Avery on when after consulting with legal and the Collectors.
So second call was to the head of STAR Lab’s legal department. Which became a joint call with the Collector’s legal department to hash out what HR was and wasn’t allowed to say about the incident. What amount of the truth was allowed and what lies would be used to paper over the rest. Pretty straightforward government bullshit.
Third call was back to Avery to confirm that legal was emailing em the summary of the conference call with the Collectors and he’d have a statement ready to go first thing in the morning. Avery promised to have something set up for the front steps of STAR Labs at eight, so he needed to be there by six-thirty latest.
HR hated getting up that early but running a company meant he was, unfortunately, used to it. Retirement was looking more and more enticing with every morning he had to wake up before six AM.
Call number four is on a burner phone where he leaves a brief, coded message on the voicemail of another burner phone. He turns the phone back off when he’s done because they won’t call back. If his message is received and understood, he’ll get an in person response in five days, though usually they get back to him in two.
A visitor from another world might merit a 24-hour turn around though.
In between calls, HR checks on his guest. Reverb has some backlash from his first inter-dimensional breach that’s hitting him hard. HR isn’t too surprised, he knows vibers powers alter their brain structure and the first time interacting with any part of their powers has the potential to be extremely rough. Especially the more powerful the viber is.
He suspects Reverb and his ‘god-like’ abilities will prove to be up there in terms of sheer power. Honestly, face and body of an Adonis, it’s no wonder the guy felt like the super powers put him on a higher level.
But ultimately all the more reason to get him checked out by someone familiar with how viber powers worked. Just because he seemed okay to HR didn’t mean he wasn’t going to keel over in his sleep tonight and then HR was going to be party to the burning of yet another dead body. But this time he wouldn’t know who to notify and offer condolences to.
Still, Reverb’s headache – potentially a migraine to be fair – didn’t completely inhibit the young man’s appetite come dinner time and he managed a full bowl of bland chicken noodle soup.
Then while Reverb slept, HR spent his evening composing the sort of press conference that fit his CEO persona while sticking to all the facts and lies he’d been told to hold to.
His sleep is fitful that night and his 4:45 wake up call comes far too soon.
HR napped after the press conference.
The official statement was that the lock down the day before was a pre-approved drill arranged by the Collectors and arranged as a surprise inspection that only HR and select heads of staff at STAR Labs were aware of before hand. The Collectors would potentially be staging drills with other companies over the next fiscal year after having been met by success, and efficiency, in their drill at STAR Labs. There were no actual off-world incursions and there was no connection to the rumored Offworld Relocation movement.
He’d taken a few questions and answered those in his usual rambling way that left the asker uncertain if he’d answered the question at all or if he’d answered the question and three others they hadn’t asked yet. It was almost fun, but exhausting. So the nap afterwards was well warranted.
Unfortunately it was also interrupted by Randolf.
Once upon a time, HR had been desperately in love with Randolf Morgan. And to this day HR has no idea if Randolf deliberately took advantage of his feelings or if it was unintentional fumbling on the other man’s part. Either way, the outcome was the same and HR had been manipulated time and again into situations he didn’t want to be in all to make Randolf smile at him.
But time had eventually dulled those feelings from love into resentment and what had once been a strong friendship had been destroyed by the unacknowledged one-sided feelings and resulting power imbalance. HR never blamed Randolf for not loving him back. But for caging them both into an untenable position that neither were happy with?
HR could blame Randolf for that most readily.
HR slid his reclining office chair back into it’s upright position and watched Randolf whine first about his research being interrupted the day before and then HR gave that press conference without consulting him first…
“Why would I have consulted you?” HR asked, twirling a drumstick between the pointer and index finger on his right hand. “Did you want to spend hours on call with our PR lead and legal head and the Collectors representative and…”
“No,” Randolf said, pouting and looking away. “But this is my company too, Harrison. You should be keeping me in the loop.”
“That’s certainly a change in tune. Where was that attitude twenty years ago?” HR rolled his eyes. “You didn’t want the responsibility of running STAR Labs then and I suspect you don’t actually want it now. What is this really about?”
“Your dealings with the Underground are putting the company at risk,” Randolf said plainly.
“What happened yesterday, believe it or not, had nothing to do with the Underground or the Offworld Relocation Movement. That part of the press conference was, surprisingly, quite true.” It hadn’t stayed true, in that HR had reached out to his Underground contact. But technically speaking, the lock down and Collector’s visit had, genuinely, had nothing to do with either organization. Or single organization – HR wasn’t clear on that part. For plausible deniability reasons he’d avoided finding out for certain.
“I want to take a larger role in the company,” Randolf declared obstinately. “It’s time you started planning your retirement.”
What he meant was that he wanted HR out. It was something HR had seen coming lately and he was annoyed – but not surprised – that Randolf was finally saying something now.
“Unlike you, I have controlling shares in STAR Labs,” HR reminded him. He had fifty-seven percent of the publicly traded shares. It would take nothing short of a scandal to get him out of the CEO’s chair.
Unfortunately, Randolf knew the exact scandal it’d take to do it. He probably wouldn’t. Not when HR knew how to take Randolf down with him if it happened. Randolf wasn’t always known for his good sense, though.
“So,” HR continued, “I’ll retire when I’m ready. And not a second before.”
Randolf’s jaw set itself stubbornly. “We’ll see about that.” He turned on his heel and left the office in a huff. Door slamming shut behind him.
“And I used to have a crush on that,” HR muttered, folding his arms and letting his forehead thunk down on his wrists. Randolf hadn’t always been that way. But this was who he’d become and this was who HR had to deal with now.
Maybe he should retire and let Randolf make an utter mess of things. It wasn’t like HR couldn’t sell off his shares before STAR Labs imploded and live comfortably for the next however many years he had left. Hell, he could probably live comfortably to the ripe old age of 100, supplementing his retirement with what he made off book sales.
But HR had no one to spend his retirement with. He had flings aplenty over the years but falling in love was a rare thing for him. And being loved in return? Nonexistent.
Sighing, HR reclined his chair back and tried to nap again. He still had some time left before he needed to start doing his actual work of the day.
Whatever Randolf thought he was up to could wait to be another day’s problem for future HR to deal with.
Before leaving that morning, HR had spent some time talking to Reverb. While Reverb hadn’t appreciated the early wake up call, he had appreciated HR telling him that he’d contacted some kind of Underground – no doubt criminal – movement that he had ties to.
“They can look you over to make sure the accidental inter-dimensional breach didn’t permanently damage you and offer training, or at least a trip off world to somewhere safer either to another planet in this reality or an alternate Earth in another,” HR had said. “Until you’re ready to leave, please make yourself at home. Mi casa es tu casa. Oh, and there’s a computer in the guest room you’re staying in. Password is guest1243, lower case and numbers. It’s not secure by any means, but it’ll bet you onto the Global Net so you can get a better feel for what this Earth is like. Anything eccentric that catches a censor’s eye in your searches will be attributed to me being a prolific author of many genres. I could be researching anything for my next novel, be it a murder mystery or doomed romance for all they know.”
Reverb took him at his word and looked up the world’s recent history. And then a little less recent as the world being united in an inter-dimensional world only to slide almost immediately into fascism was both intriguing and horrifying.
No wonder HR kept gently nudging Reverb towards the ‘leave this universe quickly’ options. What a shit show. There were few worse options for global control – admittedly someone like Zoom was one of them, but Zoom didn’t have control of Reverb’s Earth. Yet.
But Reverb didn’t exactly have options beyond ‘stay here’ or ‘go home’. Or at least, he didn’t feel like he did. Other Earths were a complete mystery for him and certainly if he went to Cisco Ramon’s Earth, then he’d just wind up hunted down by the Flash with no allies to help him thwart the self-righteous speedster.
His best option was to go home where he did have allies… but they were allies only so long as doing so didn’t disadvantage them with Zoom. Since Zoom had tried to kill Reverb… he couldn’t count on any of them unless Zoom died first.
Which made his real best option staying here, taking advantage of HR’s hospitality and any training he could get from a fellow viber. All while keeping tabs on his home world so that he could return to gather power and take over Zoom’s network when the serial killer finally lost control and his desire to kill overrode his good sense for the last time.
Reverb spent the day learning enough of the world he’d landed in to be confident that HR was both exactly who he’d shown himself to be with Reverb and also multi-layered and confusing.
He watched the press conference HR did, though only later because he couldn’t find a tv channel that ran it live. He had to settle for online replays later. He also looked up the man’s official bio. His rise in the scientific world before the inter-dimensional war in the 90s, his founding of STAR Labs as CEO with various partners (silent or otherwise), involvement in something referred to as World War M that was not actually a war (from what Reverb could tell), his debut in the writing world as what would turn out to be a prolific author no single genre could pin down… he read like a model citizen and very clearly was not.
There was context missing. Of course there was.
Once again, Reverb couldn’t help but wonder what kind of repayment a rich, successful man would want for helping Reverb.
He’s still wondering that when HR returned home for the day, seeming weirdly cheerful over having a stranger in his house. Except…
Except there are the looks. Reverb’s attractive and he knows it. Even with his hair down in it’s natural waves around his shoulders instead of slicked back and no makeup accenting his eyes and borrowed gray sweats instead of his usual dark clothes and leather jacket… Reverb knows he’s attractive. And HR clearly likes Reverb’s attractiveness if those looks are any indication.
Then there was the flirting. Even if Reverb were oblivious to HR’s roving eyes and bitten lower lip, he’d notice all the ‘gorgeous’ and ‘handsome’s being sent his way. It was flattering but also…
It was an answer. What could a rich man want in return for help when he could buy whatever he wanted? Sex, of course.
So Reverb waited until after dinner, delivered from some nearby restaurant because HR didn’t want to cook and didn’t want to make his guest cook, and the dishes were put away. Then he backed a stammering HR against the nearest wall and kissed him.
Because if Reverb were bartering sex for safety, then he was going to be in control of the encounter.
HR kissed back at first, too startled and wanting not to, but then he surprised Reverb by pushing him away. Seemed there was strength in the older man’s lanky frame after all.
“No,” HR told him firmly, something oddly knowing in his eyes that made Reverb’s cheeks burn with unexpected shame.
“No,” HR repeated. “We’re not doing that.”
“You want me,” Reverb retorted, feeling oddly angry. “And I have no other way of repaying you. No one does something for nothing, HR. I don’t like being in another’s debt.”
HR nodded, “I get that. If it bothers you that much, we’ll find something else you can do to repay me. But I’m not helping you with the expectation of anything in return. Especially not sex. If we ever do have sex, then it should be because we both want it. Not because you feel obligated.”
Never had Reverb misread a situation this embarrassingly wrong before. He looked away, arms crossed, feeling a bit as though he was folding in on himself.
“No one does something for nothing,” he repeated.
“What about for the warm glow of doing the right thing and the admittedly self-righteous satisfaction of thwarting a corrupt government. And the amusement of pissing off my former best friend who has, unfortunately, become a rather insular and selfish brat in his old age.” HR shrugged, looking a bit wary. “I’m not saying I wouldn’t like to sleep with you, you absolutely read that right. I just… I would never feel comfortable bartering sex for safety.”
Reverb hadn’t exactly been thrilled by the idea either, for all that HR was an attractive enough man as well. But it had made sense to him. He’d been willing enough. Again, HR was attractive. Having sex with him didn’t exactly seem like it’d be a hardship. But…
Something in him relaxed at the realization that HR was, truly, something of a bleeding heart. Reverb could work with that.
“Alright, alright,” Reverb sighed. “I won’t try that again.”
“Unless you’re actually interested for your own sake,” HR said. “In that scenario you can try again all you like.”
Reverb actually snorted in amusement at that. “You’re lucky you’re cute. So. What can I do to repay you for sheltering me?”
HR hummed thoughtfully. “The Underground will likely want to barter with you over training or their help in relocating off this Earth. So that, at least, should work for you when you meet their representative. But for me…” HR retrieved his drumsticks off the ground – Reverb hadn’t even realized the man had dropped them until now – and began to spin one of them idly. “I don’t know. The only nice thing I really do for myself is make time for my writing. And cook, though tonight I was too tired. Honestly, if you’d do the dishes so I don’t have to while you’re here…”
Reverb rolled his eyes. “God-like power at my fingertips and you ask me to do the dishes?”
HR shrugged. “What would I do with god-like power? Not having to do the dishes would mean more time I can spend on my writing.”
There was a bit of an incredulous silence from Reverb before he finally said, “yeah. Sure. The dishes.”
The bright smile that lit up HR’s face was, quite possibly, the most luminous thing Reverb had seen in some time. It was ridiculous to be so happy over not having to do the dishes for the foreseeable future. And yet…
And yet there was something endearing about this ridiculous man.