Brave and the Bold #8 (2008)

On Challengers Mountain, the Challengers of the Unknown are taking turns perusing the Book of Souls in order to figure out how to fix it and what is that "Megistus" they keep hearing about. On Keystone City, Wally West and his wife Linda are arguing about Niles Caulder's offer to help their children out with their unstable powers. Wally doesn't trust him but Linda argues they should give it a try. Meanwhile, their children Iris and Jai West are using their powers to eavesdrop on them. Finally, Linda convinces him to at least listen Niles out. The whole family travels to Prague via a Justice League Teleporter. The Doom Patrol's HQ looks spooky but the foursome knock on the door and are greeted by Prof. Niles and Elasti-Girl. Due to Niles' cold and scowling demeanor, Wally wants to turn back right now, but his kids are already busy exploring the castle and dragging Rita around. Niles states they have a great deal to discuss about while the kids are away. Iris and Jay are peeking around but they get frightened when they bump into the weirdest members of the Patrol, get lost and fall through the floor. Sighing, Negative Man sets out to retrieve them. Meanwhile, Niles has taken Wally and Linda to his lab. Niles has guessed Iris' vibrational control and Jay's muscular overgrowth are side effects of their accelerated metabolisms that could cause them get old and die at any moment. In order to prevent that, Niles has begun working on a pair of machines that would stabilize them. Wally still thinks he's planning to make them his guinea pigs. Wisps of green smoke suddenly swirling in the chamber make Flash think it was a trap, but the smoke solidifies into Metamorpho. Flash is surprised and not particularly happy to see him, but Metamorpho explains the Professor hired him to help out. All of sudden, they hear Jay and Iris screaming for their parents, and Wally bolts out. Flash tracks down the scream and finds Iris and Jay fighting Negative Man and Robotman. Right then Elasti-Girl shows up, comes between both sides and announces dinner's ready. The Wests and the Doom Patrol have dinner. Attempting to assuage their fears, Niles reminds Wally and Linda he's worked with children before, including Wally's friend Beast Boy. Flash doesn't find that reassuring at all, and his kids can't help but getting afraid of the Patrol, so Wally decides to just do what they came for and get out. Iris and Jay are placed inside a capsule each. Both capsules are hooked up to both a strange contraption and Metamorpho. Niles explains his metabolic scanners will pull apart and reassemble their biostructures in a picosecond. Wally warns if anything goes wrong, he'll have his children in Australia one second later. Rita starts the machine up, but something goes wrong. Metamorpho starts vaporizing and Wally dashes forward to rescue him but he's knocked back when the machine explodes. Something took Metamorpho away, and Iris and Jay are breaking down into their component elements. Wally wants to get them out but Niles warns they'll disintegrate if her touches them. Robotman's body can safely contain one of them... and only one of them. But Wally can't make such a choice. As he puts Robotman's armor around Jay, he asks Negative Man to wrap himself around Iris. Iris managed to hit him earlier, so Wally counts on his daughter remembering what vibrational frequency she used to touch his intangible body so Negative Man can cocoon around her. Wally's idea works out and Robotman and Negative Man hold Jay and Iris' bodies together long enough for the stabilization process getting completed. Afterwards, Niles still wants to test both kids' further, but Wally and Linda unanimously refuse. They're going to leave when Rita draws their attention to a word etched on Metamorpho's capsule, apparently by Metamorpho himself: Megistus. The Wests leave. Later, Wally and Linda are turning in for the night. But Wally is still upset. When Niles said he had to choose what child to save, Linda didn't even have time to let the question sink in, but for Wally that moment was extremely long. He thought over and again and right before he came up with the idea to use Negative Man, he made a choice. On the Challengers' HQ, June Robbins stops Rocky from keeping reading. Rocky agrees he needs a long break, but he remarks the "Megistus" name keeps popping up. After both Challengers leave, one hand made of paper showing pictures of several heroes pops out of the Book, like clawing for something.