Bonus Chapter: The Adler Hypothesis pt.4

“No, no, no, no,” Leonard heard Sheldon say as he walked out of his bedroom into the living room.

What’s going on? Leonard thought, blinking at the sight of Sheldon hunched at his desk, glaring at his laptop and shaking his head furiously.

“Sheldon, what is it?” Leonard finally asked aloud.

Sheldon turned sharply in his chair. “Have you seen this?”

“See what?” Leonard asked, already regretting it.

“Come here,” Sheldon said, beckoning him over. Leonard walked to the desk and glanced at the screen. Sheldon was on FlashFanForum.net, a site dedicated to die-hard Flash enthusiasts. A thread was up with a glaring headline: “LEAKED: The Flash Plot Details.”

“I knew it,” Sheldon muttered. “I knew disaster was coming when I heard there was a new character.”

Leonard frowned. “What new character?”

“Harrison Wells,” Sheldon said gravely.

Leonard rolled his eyes. “Sheldon, come on. It’s obvious that’s Reverse-Flash.”

“Not according to this,” Sheldon shot back, jabbing the screen with his finger.

Leonard leaned in, reading the post. “What…Professor Zoom?”

“Yes!” Sheldon exploded. “Professor Zoom is a Wally West villain. He has no place in a Barry Allen narrative. It’s narrative heresy of the highest order!” He began to rant about timeline consistency, villain archetypes, and generational handoffs in comic-book lore.

Leonard cut him off. “Sheldon, it’s not even real. Come on…we’ve been over this. We literally met Daniel Adler. You got to hand him your… research.”

Sheldon’s mouth twisted. “Well, it looks like he just threw it away. That dang—”

“Sheldon,” Leonard interrupted, “he even invited you on set. Remember how that ended?”

Sheldon froze. His face colored with embarrassment.

Flashback

On the set of The Flash, Grant Gustin suited up stood in front of the green screen, ready to shoot. He stretched his legs, waiting for the call. Daniel stood off to the side, one hand pressed to his forehead, while Leonard hovered behind him.

“That’s not how a speedster runs.”

Grant blinked. “Excuse me?”

“You’re gliding,” Sheldon explained. “A true speedster would push with explosive heel-to-toe kinetics, minimizing vertical displacement. What you’re doing looks like like a figure skater hopped up on Red Bull.”

Edgar’s jaw tightened. “Daniel.”

Daniel sighed, rubbing his temples. “Sheldon, okay, that’s enough.”

Leonard muttered, “I told you not to do this.”

Grant shrugged awkwardly. “I mean, I’m just running?”

Sheldon jabbed a finger. “Incorrectly!”

“That’s enough,” Edgar finally cut in, walking over. He pointed at Sheldon. “Out. Now.”

“But—”

“Out.”

Sheldon’s protest echoed as security escorted him away.

Flashback End

Back in the present, Sheldon sat at his desk, arms crossed tightly.

“I was trying to help,” he said stiffly. “He looked like he was skating.”

Leonard just sighed, heading toward the fridge. “Yes, Sheldon, you know more than the filmmakers who have been doing this for most of their lives,” he said sarcastically.

“Of course I do,” Sheldon replied flatly, not even glancing away from the laptop. “On this subject, I am the leading authority… possibly in the hemisphere.”

Leonard, now annoyed, shut the fridge door a little too loudly. “Then why don’t you do something about it?”

Sheldon went quiet, his eyes narrowing as though Leonard had just triggered a new synapse in his brain. “I think I will,” he said at last.

Leonard groaned and shuffled back to his room, muttering under his breath about feeding the monster. Meanwhile, Sheldon pulled out his camera and neatly set up equipment in front of the couch. He adjusted the tripod to the perfect height, made sure the lighting didn’t cast unnecessary shadows, and sat down in his spot. Then, with great seriousness, he pressed record.

=====

Four Days Later

Leonard was behind the wheel, driving Penny across town.

“Thanks for coming with me,” Penny said, adjusting the bag in her lap.

“Of course,” Leonard replied warmly. “I wouldn’t miss this for anything. So… are you ready? Did you remember all your lines?”

Penny smiled. “Leonard, it’s voice acting. I can read them right off the sheet.”

Leonard chuckled. “Right, right. Still… it was really nice of Wil and Daniel to give you this opportunity.”

Penny shot him a look. “Hey, this isn’t charity. I worked hard, I auditioned—”

“—and it just so happened you already knew both of them,” Leonard finished, raising an eyebrow.

Penny hesitated, then smiled sheepishly. “Okay… maybe that helped. A little.”

Leonard laughed. “Uh-huh.”

She playfully smacked his arm with the script. “Don’t ruin this for me, Leonard.”

“I wouldn’t dare,” he said, still grinning. Then, after a pause: “So, uh… why didn’t you want me to tell Sheldon?”

“Because,” Penny said, already sounding exhausted at the thought, “Sheldon is a giant baby. And right now he’s obsessing over the new Flash movie especially after another trailer came out yesterday.”

Penny groaned. “I thought he was past all that nonsense.”

Leonard gave her a look. “It’s Sheldon, Penny.”

“Oh. Yeah. Fair point.”

They pulled up and parked in front of the studio. Penny smoothed her hair and took a deep breath while Leonard held the door for her. Together, they stepped inside and were greeted by a familiar face.

“Penny!” Wil Wheaton said with a wide grin. “Big day!”

“Yeah, it is,” Penny beamed, practically bouncing. “I can’t wait. I’m so excited.”

Wil’s eyes flicked to Leonard. “And you two…back together again?”

Leonard and Penny exchanged an awkward look. “We’re… kinda, yeah,” Leonard mumbled.

“Yeah, yeah,” Penny added quickly, nodding.

Wil smiled knowingly. “All right. Well, let’s go in. Oh, and Daniel’s here, by the way.”

Leonard blinked. “Really?”

“Yep,” Wil said as he led them inside. “Busy guy, but he said he wanted to see how Penny does for the show. He’s the producer.”

Penny’s eyes went wide. “Great. That just doubled my nerves.”

Leonard quickly leaned in, reassuring her. “It’s fine, Penny. It’s not like he’s going to fire you or something.”

“Okay, now I’m thinking he will,” Penny said nervously.

They walked into the main recording booth. The room was sleek and professional, glass walls separating the sound engineers from the voice actors. Microphones hung from articulated arms, each one surrounded by padded panels. A director’s chair faced the booth, script packets neatly stacked on a stand.

Leonard’s eyes lit up. “I can’t believe this. A brand-new Star Trek project—even if it’s animated.”

Wil raised an eyebrow. “Leonard, we literally had a movie two years ago.”

Leonard wrinkled his nose. “I don’t consider that related to Star Trek.”

Wil chuckled and moved ahead as an engineer guided Penny.

“All right, Penny,” the woman said kindly, handing her a marked-up script. “You’ll stand here, headphones on. Just relax, take your time, and when you hear the cue, deliver the lines. If you flub, just pause and start from the top of the line. Easy.”

Penny nodded, taking a deep breath as she slipped the headphones over her ears. She glanced nervously at Leonard through the glass, and he gave her a thumbs-up.

Just then, the door opened again, and a small ripple of recognition moved through the room.

“Daniel!” someone called.

Heads turned, and the producers and crew greeted him warmly. He smiled as he entered, shaking hands and patting shoulders before his eyes landed on Leonard and Penny.

“Leonard,” Daniel said warmly, extending his hand. “Good to see you again.”

“You too,” Leonard replied, shaking it.

Then Daniel turned to Penny. “And Penny I just know you’re going to do great today.”

“Thanks,” Penny said, grinning nervously as she tightened her grip on the script.

“All right, let’s get started,” the director called.

As Penny stepped up to the microphone, Daniel leaned closer to Leonard. “You and I need to talk about something.”

Leonard frowned slightly. “What about?”

“I’ll show you.”

Leonard swallowed, suddenly both curious and nervous. Whatever it was, it clearly wasn’t small talk.

The headphones were a little too big for Penny’s head, but she squared her shoulders and leaned into the microphone.

“Okay, Penny,” the sound engineer’s voice crackled through the headset. “You’re Ensign Talla in the engine room. You’ve just been attacked by an interdimensional creature in the form of an orb.”

Penny nodded. She took a deep breath, held up the script, and read.

“It’s an interdimensional creature… are we allowed to—uh—stuff him in something? It could be…”

Her delivery trailed off, clumsy. She winced and shot a guilty glance through the glass, where Leonard gave her an exaggerated pair of thumbs-up. Wil Wheaton stifled a laugh so hard his shoulders shook. Daniel tapped him on the shoulder to stop him from laughing, so as not to make Penny more nervous.

The director tapped the talk button, his voice filling her headphones. “Good, good. You’ve got the rhythm. Let’s try it again, but this time think more panicked.”

Penny straightened her back, determined. She spoke faster, overacting with hand gestures.

“It’s an interdimensional creature! Are we allowed to—stuff him in something? It could be… dangerous… well… depending on which dimension it’s from—five or six…!”

“Great,” Daniel said.

Penny smiled, starting to feel more comfortable.

While Penny kept at it, Daniel leaned closer to Leonard, lowering his voice. “Sooo… someone posted a video on YouTube a few days ago critiquing the Flash movie.”

Leonard’s stomach dropped. “Oh no.”

Daniel arched an eyebrow. “Yeah. And it went viral. Almost a million views so far.”

He pulled out his phone and tapped. “Here watch this.”

The video opened.

The camera flicked on to reveal Sheldon sitting stiffly on the couch. He wore a Flash T-shirt, arms crossed, face grave.

“Greetings, people of the internet. I’m Dr. Sheldon Cooper, Ph.D. And today, this episode of Fun with Flags is temporarily rebranded as Fun with Flash, in which I will detail why the upcoming DC Cinematic Universe film titled The Flash is canonically speaking already a travesty.”

Leonard groaned, burying his face in his hands. “Oh no, no, no…”

On-screen, Sheldon leaned forward, eyes intense.

“First of all, Harrison Wells. A fabricated character. Non-canonical. An egregious affront to continuity. And don’t get me started he’s going to be revealed as Professor Zoom, who is a Wally West antagonist. You cannot simply transplant him into Barry Allen’s narrative…”

The video cut to a hand-drawn diagram Sheldon had clearly made himself, as he explained the many inconsistencies he claimed to find in the leaks and in the trailer.

Daniel paused the video. He gave Leonard a look.

“Well?”

Leonard muttered miserably, “Come on, Sheldon…”

Daniel shook his head. “I thought we were cool, Leonard.”

Leonard threw up his hands. “I’m sorry, okay? Sheldon’s been reading about the movie too much online. He gets obsessive.”

Daniel sighed. “Usually these rant videos get, what, ten thousand views on average? But this one? He’s made it sound like the movie is fundamentally broken. And we’re barely a month and a half from release.”

Leonard had no idea what to say. Behind the glass, Penny’s voice blared through the headset as she nailed a funny line.

Wil Wheaton snorted so hard he nearly fell out of his chair.

Leonard rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry, Daniel. This… this might be my fault. I might’ve made an offhand remark and well you’ve seen the result.”

Daniel studied him for a beat, then shook his head.

Leonard groaned. “Look, I know you must be pissed. I’ll talk to him, I promise.”

But Daniel’s voice softened. “I’m not angry. I know why Sheldon feels this way about The Flash.”

Leonard blinked. “You do?”

Daniel nodded. “We had a talk after that day he came to set.”

Leonard cringed. “Oh, yeah.”

Flashback

Daniel walked with Sheldon away from the soundstage.

Daniel sighed. “Sheldon, I asked you here to observe, not to tell them how to do their jobs.”

Sheldon bristled. “But they were doing it wrong. His gait was more reminiscent of a figure skater than a man tapping into the Speed Force!”

Daniel exhaled, slowing his pace. “It really means that much to you?”

Sheldon stopped walking. For a moment, he didn’t answer.

“When I was a boy I didn’t have many friends. Actually, any friends. I was… different. Too smart, too strange for many kids my age. They called me names, pushed me into lockers. My sanctuary in all that was comic books.”

Daniel glanced at him, seeing the sincerity.

Sheldon continued, “The Flash was my favorite. Here was someone who was like me. He had intellect, he used science, and of course he ran faster than the speed of light. A man who could always escape, who could always outthink and outrun the bad guys, who no matter how much the world mocked or misunderstood him always saved the day. He was order, justice, clarity in a world that felt chaotic and cruel.”

He paused, and for once, his voice was small. “When I read those comics, I wasn’t just Sheldon, the oddball no one invited to birthday parties. I was fast. I was strong. I belonged somewhere.”

Daniel’s expression softened.

Sheldon straightened slightly, regaining some of his usual stiffness. “So, yes, it matters. When they get him wrong, it feels like they’re getting me wrong.”

Daniel nodded. “I get it. And I promise you, Sheldon this movie will live up to your standards. I told you before, didn’t I? I’m not here to mock what you love. I’m here to make it matter.”

“You… you mean that?”

Daniel smiled. “Yes. I mean that.”

Flashback End

Leonard looked stunned. “Wow. He actually told you that?”

Daniel pocketed his phone. “Yeah. Underneath all the pedantry and the ego, Sheldon’s just a kid who used comics as an escape. I guess I have, too.”

“Yeah, me too,” Leonard said.

Leonard adjusted his glasses. “I’ll talk to Sheldon, get him to take the video down.”

But Daniel shook his head. “No, no. Don’t worry about that. I have an idea.”

“I’ve come to enjoy getting one over on that guy.”

Before Leonard could ask, Daniel crossed back over to the booth, where Penny was finishing up another line.

The director gave her notes, and Penny let out a bright little laugh. “Yeah, sorry. I’ll try again.”

Soon they took a short break.

“You were great, Penny,” Daniel said, smiling. “Honestly, why didn’t you think of doing this before?”

Penny grinned. “I don’t know… I feel like I really missed my calling.”

Daniel chuckled. “Well, a lot of people don’t realize they have the knack until they try. And if you keep improving like this, I might just have something big for you in the future.”

Penny’s eyes widened. “Really? Thank you!”

“Okay, I have to go.”

Daniel turned to Leonard. “Oh tell Raj he really impressed Nolan. He’s been a great help on the project.”

Leonard beamed. “Thanks again. I can’t believe I got to meet Kip Thorne.”

Daniel smirked. “Well, you guys did do it for free.”

“Oh, we could have gotten paid?” Leonard blinked.

Daniel laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. “Expect a call from me soon,” he said as he made his way out.

Leonard watched him go, then turned back toward Penny, who was still giddy from the compliment. He gave her a small, proud smile. “See? I told you you’d be good at this.”

The session continued Penny back at the mic with renewed confidence, Leonard watching from behind the glass with a little more ease.