"What exactly are you studying, since somehow I doubt it's your textbooks for school, since you've never really cared about that, despite the fact that you have excellent grades." Joe asked his 15 year old son Wally as he entered his room.

"I thought you were checking in on Iris after the whole Girder situation." Wally said as he tried to cover up.

"Wally, spill it. What's going on with you? Ever since we found out about Barry's speed, you've been acting withdrawn and honestly, it makes me a little nervous. What is going on with you?" Joe asked his son.

"Nothing's going on dad." Wally said.

"Wally, talk to me. What are you doing and why are you trying to keep it hidden from me." Joe said as he saw some kind of formulas and equations written in one of his notebooks.

"Dad, it's nothing." Wally said.

"Wally, spill it or I'll get answers another way that I don't think either one of us wants to go through. So save us both some time." Joe said and Wally sighed.

"Fine. You know how I've always been a bit of a speed junkie?" Wally asked.

"A bit? There's a reason your mother and I have been so hesitant to start teaching you how to drive, even though you have your permit and that reason is that we don't trust you to follow speed limits." Joe said and Wally rolled his eyes.

"Well, ever since I found out about Barry." Wally said.

"Wait, are you jealous of Barry's speed, because you know he didn't ask for that right?" Joe asked.

"I know, but that's not it. Barry can move at speeds faster than any machine can and I want to be able to do that too. I'm trying to see if I can replicate the accident that gave him his powers." Wally said, much to his father's shock and displeasure.

"Wally, you can't be serious. You want to put yourself in the same kind of danger Barry does just for an adrenaline rush?" Joe asked.

"Dad, Barry's doing so much good for this city, why can't I?" Wally asked.

"Wally, Barry's an adult. You're a fifteen year old child. You should be focusing on school, football season and girls. Not trying to give yourself superpowers." Joe said.

"Dad." Wally said.

"No Wally, let it go. I know you're all about the speed, but no amount of speed is worth risking your life for. The accident that gave Barry his speed nearly killed him and I don't want to see that happen to you. Especially so soon after what happened to your sister. I can't go through that again." Joe said and Wally could see how much it meant to his father.

"Fine. I'll let it go. At least until I turn 18." Wally said and Joe nodded.

"I can live with that. For now." Joe said, right as Wally's phone rang and he saw who it was.

"Hey Vic." Wally said to his best friend and teammate on the Central City High School Falcons football team, Victor Stone, when he called.

"Hey Wally, the team's planning on hanging out tonight and I was hoping that you'd be able to join us." Vic said.

"Hang on a sec, let me ask my dad." Wally said.

"Ask your dad what?" Joe asked.

"The team's getting together to hang out tonight. Can I go?" Wally asked.

"Yeah and tell Vic he's expected to be here this Sunday to watch the game with us like usual." Joe said.

"Wouldn't miss it Joe." Victor said over speaker phone, since Vic was on a first name basis with Joe and was welcome at the West Household anytime, since Vic was Wally's best friend and his mother Elinore was one of Cecille's best friends. They'd grown up together, pretty similar to Barry and Iris and Wally knew that due to how bad Vic's relationship was with his own father, he'd come to see Joe as a surrogate father, especially since Victor's parents were divorced and his father lived in Detroit and rarely came to visit.

"Great, I'll see you then. Have fun tonight and do not let Wally behind the wheel." Joe said.

"Will do." Vic said as he hung up

"It's cool how great you are with Vic. I know he appreciates having a father figure around considering what the deal is with his own dad." Wally said.

"Yeah, Silas Stone better hope I never meet him, because I've got some choice words for that man putting his career before his family." Joe said.

"I'm gonna get ready for tonight." Wally said.

"And I'm going to give these notes to Barry and Henry to make sure you don't get any ideas." Joe said as he took his son's notebooks.

"Fine." Wally said, knowing better than to argue about that.

The next day, Barry was working in his lab at CCPD when Joe entered it.

"Barry, we need to talk." Joe said.

"What's going on?" Barry asked.

"Yesterday I caught Wally working on these." Joe said as he handed the notebooks to Barry.

"Chemical formulas?" Barry asked.

"He was trying to figure out how to replicate the accident that gave you your powers." Joe said.

"What? Why would he want to do that?" Barry asked.

"Because that kid has been a speed junkie for as long as I can remember and honestly, I'm worried after seeing these formulas." Joe said.

"Do you want me to talk to him?" Barry asked.

"No, that might seem like hypocrisy. I need to know if there's a chance that he could eventually succeed?" Joe asked.

"Even if he figured out the chemicals I fell into that night, there are still two factors that need to be taken into account." Barry said.

"And those are?" Joe asked.

"He'd need to recreate the other circumstances." Barry said.

"The lightning that struck you." Joe said and Barry nodded.

"Wally would have to guarantee that he'd be in the right place at the right time to be struck by lightning and even then, there's no guarantee that it would work." Barry said.

"What do you mean?" Joe asked.

"The reason I have powers is because of my metagene. That's the gene that allows certain people to develop metahuman abilities. No gene, no powers and right now there's no way to test to see if Wally even has the metagene." Barry said.

"Do you think that Caitlin can come up with some kind of test to figure it out?" Joe asked.

"Probably." Barry said.

"Then please ask her too, since I need to know if there's even a chance that he could develop powers, since I can't see him honoring the promise he made me to wait until he turns 18 to resume his research, so I need to know if he'd even be able to develop powers at all." Joe said.

"We'll get on that." Barry promised.

"Thank you." Joe said.

"But if Wally does have the metagene, that also means that we should test the rest of your family too and it also means that his powers could be activated by anything." Barry said.

"I know. I just need to know if Wally even has a chance of developing powers or if he'll end up getting himself killed trying to give himself powers." Joe said.

"And we'll find a way to get you those answers." Barry promised and Joe nodded.

"Thank you." Joe said as he left Barry to get back to work.