Chapter Text
It was a slow day for him. Or rather, a less rushed day, considering no one would ever call the blazing pace at which he went through his schedule "slow". But there hadn't been as many petty crimes to stop and he'd already helped over two dozen people with their menial household chores (he'd even unclogged someone's slow shower drain) so the number of items on his To Do list was rapidly declining. The local supervillains hadn't even reared their heads today, which was nice, but it also made him worry that they were just lying low after their last few embarrassing defeats and were taking that time out to refine new nefarious plots.
Which he would of course stop heroically in the nick of time. Or before the nick of time actually, since time was a rather nebulous concept with him.
Oh well. In the meanwhile he had some space to relax.
And clean his apartment, he decided as he stepped on a stray bit of pizza crust on his way through the door. He set his groceries down on the counter first and unloaded them, speeding around the kitchen back and forth from the refrigerator to the pantry and back again. Then he zipped around gathering up the trash, which he put in a white plastic trash bag and ran down to the dumpsters in the back alley. When he returned he picked up all the random items on the floor and put them away, sliding CDs back into their shelves and tossing socks into the hamper. He decided he might as well vacuum too since there were probably still crumbs or something stuck in the carpet so he breezed to the closet and got the device out. The vacuuming slowed him down a little bit, if only because he was making sure to be thorough, but a few minutes later that task too was finished and he stashed the machine back in the closet where it belonged. He paid a quick trip down to his base of hero operations—a hidden room in the basement that could only be reached from his room, an arrangement made long ago between him and his very understanding landlady—and checked to see if anything was afoot. Seeing that all was calm, he popped back upstairs, folded up his recyclable grocery bags, and put them away.
Then he rearranged his CD collection alphabetically by genre, just for the heck of it.
Finally he plopped himself down on the couch, flicking through the channels idly. Nothing particularly caught his interest but he kept clicking, hoping something would grab his short attention span.
His stomach grumbled.
"What, already? Didn't I just feed you ten minutes ago?" Kid Flash complained.
Another rumble, louder this time.
"Must've been the vacuuming huh?"
A long groan.
"Okay okay, hold your horses," he relented, getting up and going to the door. Even though he'd just gotten fresh groceries, he had an insistent craving for the foot-long turkey and ham subway sandwiches sold down the street at Uncle Joe's Soup and Sandwich Shop, so he loaded up his coin purse and headed out into the breezy afternoon.
Down below, at his crime computer, a red light started blinking on and off.
-TT-
Robin tapped a foot impatiently.
He held his Titans communicator in one hand, and rested the other on the desk by his keyboard. His computer was hooked up to one of Cyborg's long-range transmitters and a couple portable security sensors. The setup served as his current temporary base of operations while the Titans were staying here, in a hotel somewhere in Alberta. At least… he was pretty sure it was Alberta. It had been a while since he'd actually checked a map.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, rubbing under his eye wearily. He hadn't been getting enough sleep; Starfire was starting to comment about the dark circles under his eyes. This whole business with the Brotherhood was tiring him out. And though he wouldn't admit it out loud (someone had to keep everyone focused on the mission of course) he felt really homesick.
His home, though, was far away and presently unprotected. Bumblebee had called him that morning and told him Titans East needed to leave and vacate the city pronto.
"Are you sure you can't stay on until I can find someone else to relieve you?" he'd asked. "I don't like leaving Jump unmonitored."
"'fraid not Robin. Trouble's stirring back in Steel City. The mayor called us back himself."
Robin had sighed but accepted her news without protest. "Okay. Go ahead and get back home. I'll think of something."
"Sorry," Bee apologized before the line cut out.
It had taken him a bit of digging (and some hacking, but he wasn't going to mention that part), but he'd finally unearthed the contact information of an old friend he was certain could help.
Assuming of course, he would pick up the blasted line.
-TT-
"Whoops," Kid Flash said, hearing his pager vibrate on the coffee table as he came in, indicating someone was calling him on his encrypted hero frequency. "Phone call."
He set his sandwich down and zipped down the stairs and into the basement.
-TT-
"Finally," Robin muttered under his breath as the line clicked. Before he could say anything a cheery voice on the other end spoke rapidly.
"Hi you're reached the super-secret hideout of Kid Flash, once-junior partner of The Flash, now lightning-fast charming and handsome solo hero, here to protect and serve you in any way you need, except for tonsil surgery because I suck at that. Oh, and I don't really sing all that well either so if you're looking for someone to do the national anthem at the next Dodgers game—"
Even though it sounded like an answering machine message Robin knew it wasn't, because that would be a completely absurd thing to have on a coded channel like this one. And because Kid Flash never needed one anyway since he always picked up the phone on time.
So he interrupted the rambling with a single concise sentence.
"Wally."
The voice on the other end fell silent. A long moment passed.
"…Robin?" Kid Flash piped up quizzically. "Dick, is that you?"
Robin grinned faintly in relief. "Yeah. Yeah it is," he replied.
"Ha! Long time no hear from you buddy! How are things in old Gotham eh? Joker still up to his usual mischief?"
"Actually I don't live in Gotham anymore. I live in—" Robin paused, with an aside glance over his shoulder at the hotel room. "That is, I've been living in Jump City with my team," he corrected himself.
Not missing a beat, Kid Flash replied, "Been living? Where are you now?"
Robin looked out the window at the snow-flecked trees. "Central Canada."
"Ah," the speedster acknowledged. A beat, and then, "Wait, why?"
"It's a long story," Robin dismissed, reaching forward to fiddle with the wires connecting the transmitter. He plugged a video jack into a port on his computer and futzed with it a few seconds. "But it's the reason why I contacted you," he continued.
"And here I was hoping you just wanted to play catch-up with an old friend," Kid Flash said in mock disappointment.
"Some other time," Robin said, concentrating hard on what he was doing. A bit of finagling and the computer screen flickered to life, an image of the junior speedster appearing on it, lounging in the swivel chair in front of his own work desk. "Much better," Robin muttered under his breath.
Kid Flash blinked and straightened on his chair. "What's with the hair? Are you going for a porcupine look or did you get on the stylist's bad side today?"
"It's a product of my teenage rebellion," Robin drolled flatly, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Be serious Wally."
The speedster grinned and held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, I was just teasing. It's a good look for you." He relaxed his arms behind his head and crossed one leg over the other, stretching out in his seat. "So! What hero business can I help you with today?"
Robin set his communicator down as he explained. "The Titans and I have been tracking various operatives of the Brotherhood of Evil around the world for the past few months, and unfortunately that means we're away from home a lot. I need someone to look after the city while we're gone. I had our sister team, the Titans East, watching over things but they got called back to their own town and I had to send them home."
Kid Flash saluted. "Say no more Boy Wonder. I'm your go-to guy for city-babysitting!" he declared.
"Can you handle it all by yourself?" Robin questioned, concern in his eyes. "I won't have anyone available for back-up for a few weeks."
The speedster shrugged nonchalantly. "Piece of cheesecake."
Robin gave a curt nod and then leaned forward and started typing on his keyboard. "I'm uploading the list of villains to watch out for now," he said, hitting the enter key. "Most of them have been traveling with the Brotherhood's operations but the HIVE Five, Control Freak, and some others are still in the area."
"I'll make sure to say hi. What's their shtick?" asked Kid Flash, tapping the dashboard with his fingers.
"Petty crimes for the most part. The HIVE kids have been involved in a couple more nefarious dealings but only under the authority of someone else. And Control Freak tries to be a big megalomaniac villain but kinda… fails at it."
Green text scrolled across the screen on Kid Flash's end and he sped-read through the list of names. "Gotcha. Anything else I should know?"
"All relevant information is being sent to you as we speak."
Kid Flash's eyes skimmed over the documents popping up in various windows on his computer screen. Background profiles, dossiers, and police reports all appeared for his viewing pleasure. He clicked out of them all and dragged them to a new folder, to look over more thoroughly later.
His stomach gurgled insistently.
"If you need to—"
"Hang on a second," he interrupted Robin, vanishing from the room in a blur.
Robin blinked, taken aback at the speedster's sudden absence. He didn't have long to wait though for a few seconds later Kid Flash returned to his seat, sandwich in hand.
"Sorry, you were saying?" he said around a mouthful of bread and tomato and lettuce.
"Um…" Robin shook his head, re-gathering his thoughts. "If you need to contact us you're welcome to use the communications hub in the Tower. It's the only consistent means we have right now. I'll see about getting you a Titans communicator, though."
Kid Flash swallowed his mouthful. "Cool." He put his sandwich down by the mouse pad and brought up a map of North America. "I can be in Canada in a couple hours to pick it up."
"Not necessary. I have your address."
The speedster balked. "What?" he exclaimed incredulously. "How did you get—"
The corner of Robin's mouth turned up in a wry smile. "I'm Batman's kid remember?"
"We need to talk boundaries sometime Robin."
Ignoring the remark, the Titan punched a few more keys and sent the access codes to the Tower over Cyborg's transmitter. "Take care of the place for me," he implored. To himself, he added softly, "I've gotten really attached to it."
Kid Flash was still a little indignant about Robin's uncanny knowledge of where he lived, but he set aside his protests for the moment, making a quick printout of the map and marking out the route he would take with a red marker. "Jump City's pretty far from Gotham," he noticed as he traced a line along his path. He looked up at Robin. "Get homesick much?" he asked.
"Not really."
The speedster set down his pen. "What, is Bats giving you the cold shoulder or something?" His eyes narrowed disapprovingly at the other boy. "You didn't stiff him on your Christmas cards did you?"
"We had a disagreement," Robin summarized tersely. "It's not important." Waving off any further line of questioning he said, "Anyway, let me know if something comes up, especially if the Brotherhood makes a move on the city. We'll be heading down to the Arizona region soon, so we'll be close by if things get too hard to handle."
"Robin, seriously, stop being such a worrywart. I got this." Kid Flash pointed a thumb at himself. "I'm the fastest boy alive. What could I possibly not handle?"
"You'd be surprised."
Brushing off the Boy Wonder's cautions, Kid Flash picked up his lunch again. "I'll pop over to Jump as soon as I'm able to."
"Good. And Wally?
"Hmm?"
Robin sent him an appreciative smile. "Thanks."
"No problem," Kid Flash told him, flashing the Titan a thumbs-up.
The Boy Wonder's image flickered out as he unplugged the video jack, and Kid Flash's OPS center was quiet once again, save for the sound of his munching.
He finished his lunch shortly, wiped his mouth, and then stood up.
"Well," he announced to the air, "now's as good a time as any."
With that, he quickly packed a small satchel full of clothes and toiletries, locked and secured his apartment behind him, and set off.
-TT-
He arrived in Jump City late evening, if only because he was taking a rather leisurely—for him anyway—pace to get to his destination. The first thing he did was book himself a hotel room. (While the offer of staying at the Tower was nice, he preferred a more unobtrusive method.) Since it was late, he did a quick night patrol to check things out and get a feel for the layout of the city, and then he turned in.
The first few days were… pretty quiet actually. He stopped a few burglaries here and there, rescued some kittens from a storm drain, helped an old woman cross the street, put away her groceries, and find her high school sweetheart Norbert again. In the mornings he had time to zip back over to his hometown and check the mail (and thwart a few crimes there too), and it was thus that he received his standard-issue Titans communicator from Robin.
About the fifth night the HIVE Five started making heists in the downtown districts. Kid Flash was out and about when the first alarms went off, and dashed over to see what was up. Several oddly-dressed youngsters were fleeing from the scene, including a pint-sized bald kid, a teen boy with a huge eyeball helmet thing, a big guy and a diminutive pink-haired girl that—Hel-loooo nurse!
The speedster smacked himself back to attention.
They burst out of various shop doors, evidence of their pillaging clutched in their arms. He didn't stop them right away, choosing to study them and watch their group dynamics for a bit. Pink-haired girl got agitated about something and started waving her arms at the others. Two more juvenile thieves finally emerged into the street, and then the group made off with their plunder.
He considered whether or not to go after them but decided he needed more information on their powers and abilities before he confronted them. Besides, something about the group, especially the girl, intrigued him.
So for now he let them go.
The next few nights were reconnaissance. He observed the group and their interactions from a safe distance, letting them have a little leniency and freedom to steal (though he did surreptitiously snatch a few things back when they weren't looking and returned them to their proper owners), and just got a feel for how they functioned.
Jinx, the pink-haired girl, he soon discovered, was the oft-flustered leader of the team, and frequently and repeatedly berated her teammates for their incompetence and dunder-headed actions. The rest of the group were pretty typical petty thieves and mischief-makers who didn't have a whole lot of ambition outside of Steal Shiny Stuff And Make Money, but Jinx? Dreamed of bigger and greater things. There was something in her, he could tell, that wanted more from life than what was currently allotted to her.
It fascinated him. He found himself watching her the most whenever he shadowed the HIVE Five's doings.
There was one moment, the second night he'd allocated for Enemy Info Gathering, when one of the others—the bald kid, Gizmo—was bragging about breaking into a tech lab and having stolen… an advance copy of a highly anticipated video game. Jinx, patience already wearing thin that evening, lost her cool completely and just exploded.
"You… idiot!" She snatched the game box out of Gizmo's hands and whapped him over the head with it. "I send you into one of the most high-security tech labs in the world, filled with dozens of advance prototype weapons and technology, and the only thing you can think of to steal is a video game?"
Gizmo looked appropriately shame-faced at her scolding but flailed his arms when Jinx started walking away from them resolutely, the game still in her hands.
"Hey! Where are you taking that?" he screeched.
"I'm putting it back. You can buy it when it comes out and when it's available on the shelves of the GamesWorld by our hideout. Like a normal person!" she shouted.
Kid Flash had known a lot of girls in his time and had never particularly taken a shine to the kind that yelled and berated her male companions all the time but he could've sworn in that moment that his heart went pitter-pat.
At any rate by the third Recon Night, once he had a good idea of where the HIVE kids liked to strike, how they operated and how Jinx led them, it was time to do his job as a hero and try his best to… "discourage" the rascals from their criminal pursuits.
Playtime's over kids, he thought as he headed to the museum where their latest heist was taking place. A still-lit flower shop caught his attention as he breezed past it; he watched it pass in the corner of his eye and resisted the temptation to go in. No flirting with the villainesses on the first run-in, he reminded himself.
A few minutes later he skidded to a halt, retraced his steps, and entered the flower shop.
Oh what the heck, he decided. She is pretty cute.
Buying a single elegant rose he dashed back out to the museum to make his dramatic entrance.
-TT-
So this was what Robin meant when he warned him about things that were too hard to handle. He really should have studied those dossiers a bit closer when he had the chance.
Kid Flash pumped his legs in a blur, pouring on the speed as he dodged Madame Rouge's slashing fists. He ran along the faces of buildings and she punched the concrete just behind him. He kept going. Glancing behind him and seeing no one, he almost relaxed. But then he looked forward again.
Gah!
He screeched to a halt, for there she was blocking his path. She decked him and he went flying. His graceful aerial arc ended in a not-so-graceful faceplant into the street. He groaned and peeled himself off the pavement. Jerking to his feet he zoomed off just in time to avoid the woman's heels as they descended to impale his head. He spun in a red and yellow whirlwind around her, trying to hold her immobile in a vortex of moving air. She just reached in with her hand and let his momentum wrap him up in her grasp. Kid Flash looked down to find several loops of the villainess's rubbery arm around him.
Well that was stupid.
Vibrating rapidly, he managed to create enough heat and friction to make her let go. She pulled her arm back and clutched it. Kid Flash put his hands on his waist smugly a moment but that confidence dropped as soon as she glared up at him and lifted her arm, and then he ran for it.
Her hand stretched after him and expanded into a giant claw that hemmed him in.
Oh crud, he thought, pulling up short and bolting another direction. And then another as her other hand came after him. No matter which way he dodged, her fiendish clutches were there waiting.
"You cannot vin," she asserted in her strange accent.
"I still have a few tricks left," he bantered, building up steam to vibrate himself through a few walls.
He realized the instant he crashed through the first wall that he was tiring out and losing power. That did not bode well for his attempts to elude the villainess.
Crud crud crud crud—
Figuring he'd at least put some good distance between them, Kid Flash stopped a moment to catch his breath. Only to have it hitch up and choke him when he looked up and found that horror movie monster physics apparently applied to Madame Rouge.
Cruuuuuud!
Well he had to admit one thing; this was the most excitement he'd had all week.
-TT-
Kid Flash rapped his fingers lightly on the armrest as he waited for the transmission to connect. He had the TV on and tuned to the History Channel, a sofa cushion behind his head, and his feet propped up on the coffee table. He was taking the rest of the night off. After the excitement of the previous couple hours he deserved it.
His shiny new communicator clicked and a picture of Robin popped onto the small screen. He was in a different room this time, one he was shuffling through agitatedly, moving papers around and lifting up furniture.
"Hi Robin!" the speedster greeted.
"What?" Robin glanced up, startled, his eyes focusing across the room. "Oh, it's you," he said, relaxing slightly. He went back to his rifling. Kid Flash could faintly hear things tipping about and falling to the floor through the speakers on his communicator, and as small and far away as the camera angle made Robin's face seem Kid Flash thought the Boy Wonder's expression looked a bit… distressed.
The speedster raised an eyebrow. "Lose something?" he asked.
Robin sat up on his knees, brows scrunching. "I'm not…" He trailed off and after a moment bent down again and resumed his rummaging.
Kid Flash watched him a while, waiting awkwardly on the line. When several moments had passed without Robin acknowledging him, he piped up, "Hey, so! You asked me to let you know if the Brotherhood of Evil made a move on Jump City."
"Huh? Oh… yeah," Robin said, distracted. Under his breath Kid Flash heard him say, "I could've sworn I put it right—"
"It was just one of them but she was pretty tough," Kid Flash informed him, deciding to ramble about the experience even though Robin wasn't paying attention. "She was only there to capture me, though. But then you'll never guess what happened. You know Jinx, the cute girl with the bubblegum hair who leads the HIVE Five?" Not waiting to see if Robin remembered the villainess he went on, "Well she and I kinda had a few nice chats and I think I got her thinking. And then when it looked like I was goner she actually helped me out. Like, she stood up to Miss Creepy Unstoppable Rubber Woman and everything! I really like her spunk, you know. You think maybe if I keep working at her she'll be taken in by my charms and good looks and give up villainy for a life of heroic deeds and service to manki—"
Robin finally stopped searching through the room and grabbed up his communicator. "Look, now isn't a good time," he told the speedster, aggravated. "Call me back later," he snapped and with that the screen went black.
Jeez, when'd he become such a tightwad?
Kid Flash held the dark communicator in his hand a moment and then flipped it closed with a sardonic, "Nice talking to you too."
Tossing the device aside for now, he picked up the remote and turned the volume up. The History Channel had a special about speedster heroes of the past on, and he was enjoying it quite immensely.
His schedule for the next week looked pretty clear too, so he'd have plenty of time to hang around Jinx. She hadn't tossed away the second rose he'd given her (to thank her for not turning him in to Madame Rouge) and she even maybe sort of smiled and was mildly flattered by the gesture. He hadn't stayed long enough to really see for sure, since his first priority was Get The Heck Away From The Creepy Lady.
But all in all, it had been a fairly productive day. He'd harassed the HIVE Five, gotten friendly with Jinx, possibly picked her up as a love interest, fought a crazy supervillainess, and managed to live to tell about it.
'Twas good to be a hero.