Title: Emerald City Knights
Pt1 Quick Impressions
Author: Brendan Storm
Rating: PG-13 for Roy language.
Disclaimer: Standard I don't own the famous characters. Please don't try to get blood from a stone
Archiving:
FanFiction.Net, Bludhaven List, any others, please contact the author
Feedback Welcome
Warnings: Yes I am writing about my hometown. Why not?
Synopsis: A la
Nightwing +, Wally tells the story about how he and Roy conned Dick into coming
out to Wichita for a drug bust and a rave.
Of course it's never really that simple now is it?
Author's Notes: I've been itching to write Wally fic for a
few months and this one is crowding in on me while I was fleshing out other
stuff.
Part One: Quick
Impressions
My name is
Wally West, you might have heard of me.
I'm the fastest man alive. The
Guy in the goofy blond wig sitting next to me on this slow-as-mud flight is
Dick Grayson. You may know him as the
son of multi-billionaire Bruce Wayne, heir to the Wayne Empire, all around
great cop and possessor of the BPD "Best buns of the month" in the female
officers' locker room pool for three months running. That's why he's wearing the wig, because his secret identity
needs a secret identity. Yeah, he has a
secret identity. Most folks would know
him as Nightwing, fearless leader of the Titans from way back. He's taken ladies, by a woman who's almost
as smart, beautiful and perfect as my Linda.
Of course I'm biased a little.
Linda's my
wife. It's sort of a tradition for
speedsters to get married, have kids, and pass on the legacy of the speed. Jay Garrick, the original Flash, has even
mentioned meeting my daughter once when we went into the future. Now if my Linda and his Barbara ever get
together, well I don't know what would happen.
Linda and I
have a bond that is so strong it's kept us from losing each other through time,
death, absorption by the speed force that powers all of the speedsters, even
hell and the demon Neron couldn't stop our love. I was a cranky, impulsive jackass until I met her, and she knows
it. Now Dick, he's my best friend but
he's got a lousy track record with women.
He even got married once for a case.
That's not dedication, that's living with Batman too long.
First and foremost on his list is
his on again off again with his babysitter from when he was nine. Dick's got a thing for strong, willful
redheads who can kick his ass. Kory was
great and he almost married her. Donna
was always a substitute sister, but Raven and Jesse Quick have had crushes on
him. I think if Toni were over 18 she
might have tried something. He's
rumored to have had the Huntress and Catwoman, not at once no matter what Roy
says. But I think the Catwoman one was
started by her to get Batman jealous.
Problem with that idea is that Batman doesn't get jealous, he's grim and
creepy, where's the room for jealous?
The only one he's ever truly cried bloody tears for has to be his "Babs"
though.
Did you know that when Dick gets
drunk, which he never does unless Roy and I can trick him into it, he gets loud
and poetic? The most gawdawful poems
about her red hair, the emeralds of her eyes, the shape of her thighs, you get
the picture. But, we tape it and use it
to get him to do things for us, standard best friend blackmail stuff. Barry and Hal would do it all the time to
J'onn too. One time they got him so
wired on Double-stuff that, oh well, I promised Uncle Barry I wouldn't tell how
the '81 Coast City Blackout happened. So
anyway, it's one of these sonnets about the wonderful and erotic mind of "Babs"
that's led Roy, Dick (in the dippy blond wig pretending to be some cat named
Alfred Draper) and I to this metropolis of the plains, Wichita, Kansas.
Metropolis is the city in the
clouds (especially with the B13 technology), Gotham's the dark opposite, Bludhaven's
worse and New York is just crowded.
Wichita is the laid back cousin of the four out in the middle of the
plains. There are possibly ten blocks
of skyscrapers downtown, none more than fifty stories, only about two even
close to that mark. Boeing, Raytheon,
Koch, Wayne Aerospace, LexCorp and various other airplane manufacturers are why
they call this place the Air Capital.
PizzaShack and Red Castle burgers were invented here, both moved. It only takes a look out the plane's window
to see that Nightwing and Arsenal will have to look into other means of travel,
there's no rooftop to express.
Arsenal's the third of our trio,
the reason we're on this mind numbingly slow plane. Roy Harper is a testament to the power of inner strength and
second chances. Tragedy, abandonment,
tragedy addiction and even more tragedy and this guy is not only one of the
world's greatest archers, but an incredible friend, great to have at parties
and I can only hope to be as wonderful a father when Linda and I get around to
conceiving that daughter Jay mentioned.
Sure he's crude, rude a partier and a serious wise ass, but then again I
used to charge hospitals to deliver organs and Dick's never once told us about
sex with Kory in the T-Jet. We're jerks
in our own way, but we're family.
"Did you know there are only four
hundred thousand people in twenty square miles of city. Mid continent airport has the largest runway
in the country and is the fifth in line for an emergency shuttle landing, " I was
saying as we exited the plane finally.
The line was going so slowly, I could feel my molecules getting
older.
"You know that much about this
place?" Dick asked, impressed.
"Yep, read it in the brochure about
five thousand times during the flight."
"Hated that didn't you," he sounded
so smug.
"Nope, not really, I read the
entire Grisham library, designed my own tomb and wrote a best selling romance
novel in about ten minutes," I deadpanned.
"Oh yeah, that's going to be great,
I got to beta read that one," Roy said keeping up the joke. "What's that the second Titans romance novel
now?"
"Ok, so I was bored," said Dick
under his breath. "It sold eight
thousand copies on line." Roy and I
can't tease him often enough; we have to get them where we can. "I can't believe Robin told you about that."
"How did he find out about that?"
Roy asked as we passed the terminal security.
"Oracle," Dick and I said
together.
"How'd it know?" Roy kept
digging. Roy and I have this nagging
feeling that Oracle and Dick are connected somehow. Vic said Oracle sounded jealous last time we told "it" we were
going to help Starfire's planet again.
Running bet is that Oracle's either an A.I. or a girl and has a crush on
him too.
"Drop it." Dick almost has the voice down, but not
quite, the two of us flanked our fearless leader and chick magnet and laughed
all the way to baggage claim. We picked
up our luggage and headed past the Big Dog Motorcycle display. I had to get outside and stretch my legs
before I screamed. I have no idea why
they like motorcycles; I've never needed one.
Obviously.
I'm about to take about twenty laps
around the city and kiss my wife just to get the kinks out of my back from that
stupid airplane seat when I spot a huge guy holding a sign that says
Harper. You seen pictures of Superman
and Batman standing together? This
guy'd make them look short. The only
other person I'd ever seen wear a fedora and trench coat and make it look good
was J'onn in his human persona. This
guy made Dick Tracy look bad. I'd be
willing to bet he had a crew cut if he ever took the fedora off.
"Mr. Harper, Mr. West, Mr. ah
Draper, how was your trip?" The voice
was like a radio announcer, deep and real Earl Jonsey.
"They wouldn't give me another bag
of salted nuts, but I did read your dossier, Mr. Garrison," replied Roy. Roy's an open book sometimes. You could almost see his need to ask for Mr.
Hat. He'd be sweating to not make that crack in about three more mentions of
this guy's name.
"Thank you, Mr. Harper. KBI* has been very excited to have you and
your team here to back us up on this bust.
The warehouses are being staked out as we speak."
"Refresh the quickest attention
span alive again and explain why you needed us, Roy," I asked.
"Well you know my favorite kind of
bad guy," Roy began.
"Sexy and a bad shot?" Two points
for Dick, I coughed loudly to stop a laugh.
"And they say I'm a wise ass. No
you nitwits, drug running, the twist here is that there are a lot of them on
the streets here, and the stuff's bad.
Real bad." He paused. "They're dropping like flies, which happens
when the stuff gets cut to make it last longer, but it's not the normal 'use
Cheer to make it last, and the poor junkies die' kind of thing. They're dying of fright. This one has Scarecrow written all over it."
"Oh great Robbie, one of yours."
End Part One.
