2014.01.16 - At the Speed of Thought

Wally a bit surprised to have an office was settling in waiting to have a meeting with the telepathic quintuplets known to students as the Cuckoos. Wally wishes to meet with them because he is uncomfortable with the fact that these telepaths could find him out and that either Emma forgot to tell them not to snoop in his head or they didn't care. But wally instead of being mad and wishing to reprimand them, is actually looking to guage their trustworthiness. Wally figures that perhaps if he can trust them he could simpley tell them his secret and eliminate the risk of being discovered.
Wally in his new "professor" get up. Black slacks, slightly blue-ish white shirt purple sweater and jacket. Sits back in his chair, feet up on the desk tosses a ball wait his waits.
The Stepford Cuckoos knocked briefly on Professor West's door and entered moments later. Classes had only just ended a bit ago so the girls were still in their Academy of Tomorrow uniforms, blue and grey plaid sweater with the academy's logo embroidered on the right breast, black kneeskirts and leggings to match the sweater. Each of them also wore ties that matched the plaid pattern of the sweater.
As they entered the office they all smiled and said in perfect melodious unison, "Good afternoon, Professor West. You wanted to see us?"
Wally still not used to the unison thing drops the ball as he get's startled. "Yes, yes I wanted to have a serious chat with you guys. please take a seat this could be a while." Wally points to the five chairs he made sure to get for the other side of desk.
"I want to talk about several serious topic, and those are telepathy, privacy, secrets and most importantly trust."
The girls sort of look at each other for a moment and then at the chairs. then back to Wally, "Of course, sir. Whatever you wish."
The girls moved in perfect unison as they split slightly, moved to a chair each and sat down. It was like a perfectly practiced choreographed set of movements. When they were all seated one of them spoke up, "Then we have an idea what this is about, Professor West. You believe that we some how violated your privacy,"
Another continued, "Or perhaps the sanctity of your thoughts when we were speaking at our birthday party."
Still another adds on to the first two, "We can promise you we did not."
The next spoke, "We are natural telepaths and have been since birth. For us, just wanting to say 'Hello' means pushing out with our minds a bit."
The last finished, "When we do so we do not probe deeper than what is on the immediate mind, and even then we are more looking at the complexity of thought. It's almost like a hand shake to us."
They all then said in perfect unison again, "The more complex the mind is equivalent to more firm of a handshake. It allows us to better understand the type of person one is."
Wally could sort of see where they were coming from but still, J'onn has the good manners to ask permission first so should these girls. "Yes but I would rather not have my thoughts known to others with out my permission. I feel like Ms Frost should have warned you about this in reference to myself. That was part of the deal for me coming to teach here. I value my privacy a bit more than the normal person. So i would please ask that you at the very least ask, and or warn me when you are to do somethign like that to me." Wally said with a firm voice not showing anger just trying to get his point across in a way that he feels says teacher.
"Now girls what can be done to ensure your compliance and confidence in this matter? I want to be able to trust you since we will have to be sharing this school and I am likely going to have to be your teacher at some point. And I want to be able to know I can trust you, with anything I tell you, and anything you fish out of my head with or with out my permission." Wally asks getting more to his point.
"We understand that there is surely some sort of things you wish to keep confidential, Professor West. All people do," the Stepford girls responded in perfect unison. They were not trying to read his mind now, and too bad too. If they knew Wally knew the Martian Manhunter they would be so giddy that they'd do anything he wanted to get a chance to meet him again.
The girls brows furrowed slightly as they tried to think about what exactly they wanted to say, "It's hard to explain what it is we actually do. When Sophie scanned your mind we wear not looking at your cogitative thoughts as much as we were looking at the patterns of your brain waves. It takes effort for us to... "
The girls hesitate and there is a pregnant pause before they decide that they will say what's next, "Forgive us for this as we mean no disrespect. It takes effort for us to think down to the level of a single individual mind. And, again with no disrespect, while the speed of your brain waves and thought processes were interesting. They were not interesting enough for us to push down to your level of thought."
Wally almost out of instinct gives them a batman-esque squint. "Sure ok." Wally was begining to reconsider this. But he reminds himself they are teenagers and they have to live with this 'gift' so patience is paramount.
"Well at anyrate. I want to know if I can trust you. I would ask Emma to make sure I had a guarantee of your confidence but she is in disposed. And I want to deal with you directly to show I have enough confidence in you. I am not asking if you would merely stay out of my head but if I can trust you with my secrets if you were to find them out?"
The girls smirked at Wally. They knew they through him off guard and that they had been since they arrived. It was a bit of a game they played once they realized how uncomfortable their unique nature made other people get about them. BUT! That doesn't mean that they were lying about anything they had already said. Just played it up a bit.
"Professor West," One of them said with a voice of respect and will that could probably sound perfectly correct coming out of Emma Frost's mouth.
"We are the Five-in-One. We are quite simply," One of the girls continued their statement from the first sister.
The next continued on from there, "One of the most powerful psychic entities on this planet. We have been proven to have a hidden mind from,"
And the next, "The likes of the Martian Manhunter and other powerful telepaths on this planet."
The final one continued from there, "Even Ms. Frost cannot read our minds if we don't allow it."
And then finally they spoke in unison again, "Quite simply, sir. We are experts at keeping secrets. We don't even like talking so it's not like we will accidently 'blab' something."
"ok but I'm still not sure yes you seem capable but are you willing to keep a secret? how do I know you won't just leverage what ever you can find out on me for your own gain hhmm? And Emma may not be able to over power you but she is still the head mistress and does have authority over you does she not? If you wont respect her authority how can i expect you to respect mine?" Wally said with half a notch more bass in his voice. The girls didn't have him off guard so much as unnerved and uncomfortable. What is the deal with them five beautiful young women that seemingly insist on being the this creepy hivemind. Wally half expect them to blurt out into a b or c movie horro monolouge 'we are a many we are leggy and wear border line fetishy uniforms, we are legion'. or something to that effect. But through all the unifyed talking and their behavior Wally was still keeping up and trying to stay on task.
"We seem to be having a problem explaining ourselves to you, Professor West and that is leading to this unnecessary conflict," the girls spoke together, adding, "We are not used to linguistic speech so we are sure the confusion is on our end."
The girls crossed their legs at the same time and rested their hands on the higher knee to hold their skirts down, "We keep secrets. We respect authority. We accept that people wish privacy. It is only when we first meet someone that we truly reach out and touch them. Sometimes our curiosity does get the better of us. But we are working on it."
Their foreheads furrowed again, "We wish we could explain this better, but linguistic communication is our second language, we have trouble with the concepts sometimes."
Wally sighs "Fine if it will help you have my permission to do the thing to explain yourselves better."
The Stepford Cuckoos smiled a smile that good be taken as either joy, or evil glee... depending on your opinion of them. Their eyes began to glow with white light as they all said in unison, "As you wish, just remember that you gave us permission."
And in that moment the office was gone, the girls were gone. Wally was there though. His body wasn't fully formed it was more like an avatar of white light, that was slowly turning red and gold.
The Cuckoos's melodious voice came from everywhere, but they seemed to have lost their British accent, |"We do recommend that you focus on the clothing you were wearing in your office. Your astral avatar will take the form of your inner self. If you do not wish to share such things with us, you should focus on your clothing in the office, before its too late."|
Around Wally was nothing but a white void with multi-color lights shooting in every direction as if he were inside a computer in a Tron movie or the like.
Wally begins to focus on his outfit. '11 with out the bowtie 11 without the bowtie 11 with out the bowtie' "Ok what is next? whoa this is interesting. is this my mind? your minds? or do we all need to organize a tron viewing party? because I didn't really peg you girls for the geeky type but if this is how you girls party I am down geek out with you girls some time."
|"For lack of better terms you are on the outside of our collective looking in. Those bits of light you see are our thoughts put in a frame of reference that none linked persons can understand. We think in concepts, faster than any single mind can fathom, because we are the Five-in-One"|
the lights grow brighter and move faster around Wally, |"Right now from your perspective only a matter of seconds have gone by. We have just finished discussing all our school lectures from today, completed our homework for later decimation into hard copy form. The reason we understand these lessons completely and our homework will be perfect is because from your concept of time, we've spent seven months discussing it and perfecting it"|
Wally looks around fascinated. "I think I'm beginning to under stand you are literally like 1 through 5 of 9. I wonder what ever happening to 6 8 and 9, of 9. " Wally cracks a joke.
"but seriously it's like when they rigged that network of ps3's into one super computer for scientific research. they were able to get a lot more done combining power than apart. That's an intersting trick. Do you all retain all the knowledge you share?"
|"We retain all because we are all the same. We are the Five-in-One"| The voice of the Cuckoos reverberates throughout the astral space near their collective |"And we are unique in that no other telepath has been able to operate at the same level, distance or speed as we do."|
The velocity and frequency of the lines of light increase momentarily |"Though this is not entirely why we are showing this to you. But We think that perhaps you understand some of our issues with communication now."|
"Ok that is cool, So you feel alienated outside of your hive mind because no one can keep up with you? I get that. That's totally understandable. Now show me a bit more about yourselves if you don't mind I want to know a little bit about you and who you all are and what you motivations are if I'm going to trust you. " Wally begins to explain. Wally is working towards something but it's obviously not quite clear to the cuckoos yet. He does however truly sympathizes with the sentiment of the world not being able to keep up with them.
|"We will show you more. But we must warn you. What you will experience will most likely be... unpleasant."| Said the loud voice of the Five-in-One |"There are pieces of information and concepts that we do not have proper context for and thus even we ourselves can not make sense of them."|
The strands of light then all change direction, they are no longer crisscrossing around Wally but instead they head right for him. As each one hits he is filled with concepts that are unfamiliar with him. Hearing voices in his head that are his but not. The idea of individuality being a determent to your continued survival. The idea of individuality being the best way forward. The pain and isolation of being the only person in your own head. The pain and discomfort of being this close to someone and having gone, even if you have four or five others. Joy! Love! Pain! Confusion! Anger! Hatred! Acceptance! Surrender! Fear!
The concepts just hit Wally's mind faster and faster, bearing the bits of the Cuckoo's souls that they can share in the only way they are really capable of.
Then it's over. The Cuckoos are sitting in front of Wally's desk again, and Wally is sitting there as well. The only difference... Each Cuckoo is no longer a creature of flesh, they are all made of Diamond, just as Emma Frost can do. They each hold a finger to their lips and say, "If you can keep our secret, we can keep yours... Professor West. Ms. Frost doesn't know we can do this yet, and we are afraid of what it may mean."
"Well then I accept. I take it you are showing me this to and you showed me all that as a bit of a quid pro quo. I keep your secrets you keep mine. Well my lovely young students I am not just professor Wally west I am the Flash." Wally pauses a moment to let that sink in. "That is why i was so very particular about you going into my head and about my mental privacy. I do not want my identity known by people I can not trust. Now I will keep your confidence and I have to ask nothing less than your absolute secrecy in regards to my identity. I am putting a lot of faith in you right now. and I am doing this as a favor to you. I figure if i trust with this out right I don't have to be so strict about how you choose to communicate with me and I don't have to snap at you for going inot my head. So please I need this to be clear between us. Unless I say otherwise under no circumstances are you to give or tell anything I tell you in secret or that you pick up from my thoughts. understood?" Wally says in a more pleading tone thant a firm one.
The cuckoos nod in unison as there diamond forms recede slowly off their flesh until they look perfectly normal again. Well as normal as five identical girls who were drop dead gorgeous could be considered normal.
"Wait? That was the secret you were worried about us keeping for you?" the girls suddenly said a bit shocked at the revelation. But not for the reasons Wally would think, "We figured that our on our own when you disappeared from our party and the Flash suddenly came to the rescue when the U-Men attacked. We've been keeping that secret for two weeks now. We had no intention of revealing it."
This draws another squint. "Well ok then but still. just because you are a half dozen smarty pants is no reason to downplay the importance of hwat I just did."
Wally sits back finally feeling more relaxed. "So anyway now that that is taken care off let's knock some other business out while we are here. like Help me with your names and knowing who is who? I'm know here you all dress the same act the same and talk the same as well as at the same time. so I have exactly 0 way of telling you apart."
The Stepford girls couldn't help but giggle a bit by how off putting they had just been to Wally's big reveal, "We do respect what you did and what you do, sir. That is why we keep your secret. That is also why we won't tell you who The Spider or Hawkman are either. Despite us knowing the answers to those questions as well."
However to the next part about which one was which they answered quickly. The one in the middle raised her hand, "Sophie"
Then the one to her left, "Phoebe"
The one to Sophie's right, "Irma"
The one to Phoebe's left, "Celseste."
And finally the one to Irma's right, "Esme."
"Oh me and Carter are friends don't worry about it." Wally says flippantly
"Oh such pretty names. Ok on to other stuff did you like the gifts I got you for your birthday? and on a more serious tone will I be seeing any of you in either of my classes?" Wally looked them over "I think you know I'll be teaching science with a focus on physics and chemistry, as well as a super hero type class that I'm still feeling my way through. I just don't know what to do. I want to pass on my wisdom to the kids but I am not sure exactly how to do that and what the kids need, whoops got a bit rambly there sorry i tend to do that brain is always going a million miles an hour" Wally tries to giggle and shrug it off. "Any way I would like to know if you are considering any of my classes and remind you 5 that science is a vital course. "
"Don't worry Professor West," The girls said in unison, "The sciences are something we very much are interested in. Though we admit that super-hero classes do not interest us as much. And we sure you will be a very good and compelling teacher."
The girls nod in agreement, "Super-heroics don't interest us. We will prefer to leave our mark on the world in... other ways."
The girls all stood, "If you will excuse us now Professor West. We have homework to commit to hardcopy and that usually takes us a majority of our night. We were hoping to spend time with our errant sister before hand."
Wally the said, "Okay then. Thanks for stopping by and meeting with me I'm glad we could work this out."
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