The question running (haha) through my head during Young Justice: Invasion (other than: What the hell is going on?) is where is WALLY? So after the episode I imagined Bart running around, messing up Wally's apartment, and Wally chasing him around. And thus the fic was born!
I know nothing about Bart Allen apart from the fact that he's Barry's grandson from the future, he's got insane brown hair and yellow eyes, and he's impulsive (hey, look, a pun!) and energetic. So forgive me for portraying him wrong.
Disclaimer: Me no own Young Justice or Young Justice: Invasion.
Edited: 8/27/12
Excerpt from the Comprehensive Official/Unofficial Bat Training Guide by: R. Grayson, B. Gordon, J. Todd, T. Drake, A. Pennyworth
Chapter 18, Paragraph 32, Lines 1-7: In the event of time travel (in the case of someone from the future coming to the past) the following measures should be taken:
1) Assess threat level on a scale of one (not likely to be an enemy, i.e. Legion of Superheroes [note: ask for Legion ring to confirm]) to ten (hostile, i.e. Eobard Thwane a.k.a Zoom [see page 164]
2) Notify the Flash (or any speedster capable of faster than light travel whom you trust) as s/he is the only ones capable of time travel at present time.
3) Based on a) threat level, b) reason for visit, c) other variables, go on from there
...
There was a time Wally couldn't sneeze without Dick knowing, they were that close (and chances were Dick was there at the time anyway.)
And now he's had to ask (ask!) someone where he was living since he moved out of his last apartment after his landlord kicked him out.
(for being too happy apparently. Wally could've sued but he hated that place anyway. He was gone within the hour but not without having some final words to Mr. Fitzpatrick "You picked the wrong place to live if you're not a fan of happy! If you hate it here so much, why don't you move to Gotham City?" he took the advice and is now making Dick's life a living hell but that's not the point right now)
The point is that Wally was the Flash and a college student studying every science known to man and few known only to dolphin and Dick's Nightwing who has his own city to protect and is also a high school Senior and they haven't seen each other in months and he's starting to miss his best friend.
(No! He did not try to buy a Flash plushie! Tim is a liar! A dirty filthy liar! And he's bed wetter! Don't believe the bed wetter!)
So here he is, standing in front of his best friend's apartment, which was considerably nicer than his old one and his landlady was a kindly old woman who gave Dick a chocolate chip cookie when he came in rather than a crotchety old man who seems to believe he still lives in the 50s and the only thing preventing him from going inside is that the door didn't open when he knocked.
He knocks again.
No one answers.
Wally could just not be home but he doesn't have any classes now nor is he patrolling, it's 10:30 so it's too early to be on a date. He could be out with friends but according to their schedules, Linda Park, Hunter Zolomon, and Hartley Rathaway all had classes and James Jesse was currently a patient at Keystone City Mental Hospital, though Wally did occasionally visit to play darts and –
When did Dick become Bruce? Or Tim?
He knocks one more time. "Wally? It's Dick. You in there?"
He hears something, probably made of glass, shatter but before he could start asking questions. The door finally opens.
"Fastest Man Alive my butt." He snorts and takes in Wally's appearance (bags under his eyes, breath smells like energy drinks, obviously haven't slept in a while, that shirt he's wearing is covered in streaks of non-toxic paint and...chocolate and mustard. Oh hey, he got a new cellphone)
"Oh, it's just you." Wally sighs, leaning on the door frame. "Max," he says into the phone. "He's fine, he's here, I gotta go." And he ends the call to 'Max'. (People associated with the Wally West and/or The Flash named 'Max'…Max Mercury.)
"Nice to see you too, buddy." Dick says with a quirked eyebrow and half a smile on his face.
"I didn't mean it like that." Wally apologizes and runs a hand through obnoxiously red hair. "I've been busy lately." Wally moves out of the doorway and gestures Dick to go in. What he steps into cannot be described as an apartment and more of a warzone. Papers are scattered all around the apartment, on the floors, on the toppled sofa, he even sees some sticking to the wall somehow. Brightly colored paints were splattered and smeared on the walls, spelling out the words 'HI WALLY' and a little stick figure doodle of two figures running. Dick bends down to pick out a thick textbook out of a puddle of a bright red liquid (Gatorade).
"Geeze, Walls." Nightwing mutters and tries to decipher the words on the page despite the running ink. (Chemical Principles: The Quest for Insight) "What happened? Did the Trickster find out where you live?" He is interrupted by a loud thumping noise coming from the inside closet. Wally's over there in a nanosecond and Dick is there in a second, a batarang out just in case (but Wally doesn't look worried, just tired in an annoyed way). The Scarlet Speedster (III) opens the closet door.
Dick blinks.
He blinks and lowers his weapon because inside that closet is a teenage boy with wild brown hair and golden eyes tied to a chair with rope made of some kind of material the former Robin has never seen before.
(Which is strange because, again, Dick is a former Robin who was trained by someone who has contingency plans for his contingency plans and made sure Dick was able to escape everything from a high security prison using only his wits and a clump of hair to a giant hamster wheel.)
"I'm pretty sure that thisisabuse!" The boy thrashes around in the chair his body vibrates but the ropes don't come undone.
"This." Wally waves his hands at the ropes frantically and got that look on his face that only appeared when Wally was genuinely freaking out (last seen: March 12, 2013- Barry Allen's funeral). "Was necessary, Bart. You were wrecking my apartment." He points to the toppled couch and the tipped over potted plant and the crooked picture frames and the crude mural painted on the wall. "Because of a sugar rush."
"I was bored! Being stuck here is soboooooring!" he whines. "Why won't youletmeout? Why can't Ibeyour sidekick! It looks soooo cool beingasuperhero!"
"You're not ready." Wally states bluntly, keeping one hand on the closet door and seemingly restraining himself from slamming it shut.
"I am so!" The boy in the chair, Bart, protests. "I can keep upwithyounoproblem! Why won't you let me be, like, Flash Kid or whatever it was that youwerecalled!"
"Kid Flash" Wally corrects automatically. Dick smiles slightly, some things never change. "I don't doubt you can keep up, Bart." Wally says in a tone that reminded Dick so much of Barry. "You just need some time to adjust. I need at least another month to make sure you're molecularly stable and you need training and you need to adjust to the 21st century-"
"I'm adjusting fine!" The golden eyed boy objects.
"You nearly blew up my toilet 'cause you didn't know how to flush!" Wally yells, throwing his left arm towards what Dick assumed was the bathroom for emphasis.
"21st centurytoilets are confusing!" the boy interrupts And Dick would laugh if he wasn't so confused.
"And you need to work on your impulse control! You nearly killed yourself the other day when you tried to jump of that building!"
"Imisjudgedthedistance between those two buildings. It'll never happen again! "
"Not after you get trained, you won't."
"Thentrainme!"
"I don't have time!" Wally bursts, and Dick gets the feeling this argument has been building up for a while. "Do you think balancing college and crime fighting is easy? I barely have enough time to eat! Ask Max to do it! Or Jay!"
"Max wasn't a Flash! Iwantyoutotrain me!"
"Why?"
"Because," he pauses and bites his lower lip, internally debating whether to tell him his answer. Luckily, since he was a speedster, it only took him a few seconds. "Because Gramps trained you. And it seems like he did a good job."
Wally's anger immediately drains away and he unclenches his right hand from the door. They're quiet for a minute until Wally speaks up.
"I should probably get you out of that closet." Wally says quietly. Bart looks down at the ropes like he forgot it was there in the first place.
"That would be nice." Bart responds.
Once Wally gets Bart out of the chair, he is suddenly reminded that Dick is there and invites him for lunch.
"I hope you like mac and cheese 'cause that's what you're getting." Wally says a bit sheepishly on his way to his kitchen. "It's the only thing I know how to cook."
"Are you kidding? I've been living off of TV dinners and Cup O' Noodles since I left." Wally snorts and leaves Dick alone with the boy.
"Who're you?" he asks rapidly and he walks around him as if he were scrutinizing every inch of him. "What's your name? Do you know about Wally? Are you a superhero too? Or are you not a superhero? Are you a civilian? Wait forgetIsaidanythingohboyWall yisgoingtogetsomad!" his walking turns into running which turns into blurring around him and his words are sounding less like words and more like the high-pitched ringing sound that made school assemblies all the more unbearable.
"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Dick yells and holds his arms out in a calming way. "It's fine. I'm in on the secret. I'm a superhero too." The boy stops blurring, not on a dime unfortunately enough, and tumbles into an end table.
"Bart!" Wally scolds from the kitchen. And when did he turn into his Aunt Iris?
"Sorry Wally!" Bart says and quickly rights the table. He surveys the rest of the destroyed living room and everything is suddenly cleaned up in a red and white blur.
"Thank you!" Wally says.
"So, I'm Dick." The protector of Bludhaven holds his hand out for a handshake. Bart takes it and shakes it enthusiastically. "Also known as Nightwing."
"Never heard of you!" Bart says brightly and Dick wonders if this is how Red Arrow felt. "I'm Bart Allen! Bart is short for Bartholomew but I don't really like that name 'cause it's so long and stuffy sounding."
Bartholomew Allen.
For a second he entertains the notion of Barry coming back to life and being de-aged (but the hair and eyes are all wrong.)
Stranger things have happened.
"Any relation to Barry Allen?" Dick asks casually and picks up a science magazine off of the coffee table. Hey, did that article say written by Wallace West?
"Yeah, he's my grandpa!"
Unexpected, yeah, Dick muses, that's the right word. Finally, the English language did something right.
I would like a review with a side of fries and a vanilla milkshake, please.
Also, in my head, in the future all toilets flush automatically (not just the ones at malls and stuff) so that's why Bart doesn't know how to flush a toilet.
(They also self-sanitize and clean somehow)
Okay, enough of toilet talk, now I'd just like the review, hold the fries and shake.