Hello. I haven't exactly written a lot of stories yet, but I'm willing to try. Just to warn you, I had no idea where I was going with this story when I started writing it, so don't be too disappointed if it's terrible. Anyway, reviews would be much appreciated. I need all the help I can get…
"Robin! Behind you!" The archer shouted to the Boy Wonder. He turned preparing to protect himself from the oncoming lasers being shot from Mad Mod's sculptured busts that were a perfect likeness of himself, save the laser-shooting mouths. He wasn't expecting, however, for it to be only a foot away from him. He braced himself for an impact that never came, for just that second, a yellow and red blur snatched him away from the machine and set him down next to Speedy, who was turned in the opposite direction, shooting arrows at on-coming duplicates of the machine that had almost decapitated Robin.
The Titans East had been in Jump City helping the Robin and his teammates with the villains that had recently escaped from the city's prison. Kid Flash, having trying to contact Speedy, but finding that he was with Robin, had felt "left out of all the fun" and had come to help as well.
With the eleven teens in one place, they split into four groups. Cyborg, Aqualad and Bumblebee had taken the south side of the city, where Control Freak had been robbing a comic book store, but had made the mistake of pausing long enough to argue with the clerk ("Who puts the 'Captain Super' comics in with the 'Golden Warriors' comics? He quit after his girlfriend died, and didn't make it through the third issue! What kind of an idiot runs this shop?") for him to set off the alarm. Beast Boy, Mas and Menos had travelled west to re-capture Doctor Light who was robbing a bank. Raven and Starfire, going east, had been pursuing Mumbo. This left the other three to head north to return Mad Mod to his cell.
"Geez, if I knew this guy was going to be this hard to take down, I would've offered to go after Control Freak instead." Kid Flash stated to the others, who weren't listening.
"Speedy! Watch it! You almost hit me with that last arrow!" Robin shouted angrily at the archer.
"Well maybe if you would stop doing flips 'n' shit, I'd get a better chance to aim away from you!" Speedy retaliated. "Seriously! How am I supposed to hit him if you keep getting in the way?"
"Don't aim for him! Help me and Kid take out the rest of these robots first!"
"They keep coming back! We need to hit them at their source!"
"Uh… guys?" Kid Flash tried to intervene.
"He's not controlling their reproduction! It's automatic! Even if we stop him, they'll keep coming!"
"Guys." The speedster tried again.
"Well you could have told me that earlier!"
"GUYS!" Kid Flash finally managed to get their attention.
"What is it, Fast Feet?" Speedy asked, projecting his irritation at the caped teen towards the other.
"He got away." 'Fast Feet' pointed towards where Mad Mod had previously been standing, and where there was currently only air. The robots had left as well, taking advantage of the bickering.
The acrobat and the archer stared at the spot for a few seconds, before returning to their previous state of mind.
Blaming each other.
"You should have let me get a better shot at him! I would've taken him down no problem if you hadn't been in the way!"
"And then we would've had to deal with the issue of the robots, by which time, he would've escaped again!"
"Kid could've ran him back to prison and been back here in two seconds!"
"Don't even think about bringing me into this!" Kid Flash interjected. His pleas were ignored, however, as the other two kept arguing.
"The robots are programmed to protect Mad Mod! They wouldn't of let Kid get anywhere near him!"
"Now you're just talking out of your ass!"
"Actually, I've fought these things before! I think I know what I'm talking about!"
"HEY!" Kid Flash, finally getting annoyed enough to intervene, silenced the two heroes with one word. They both stood, shocked at the outburst. "I understand you're both frustrated! I am too! But arguing with each other isn't the answer! We need to work together!"
"Yeah?" Speedy said. "You try working with this jackass more often! I swear, sometimes he's worse than Bat-"
"Don't even bother finishing that sentence, Harper!" Robin shouted. He still got angry every time he even heard the name. Being compared to the man who he had trusted to save his life, only to have his life ruined, was more than he could bear. Seeing that identities were starting to be used, Wally decided it was time to really intervene.
"ENOUGH!" The teenager yelled. Kid Flash was literally shaking from his anger at the two. "I'm not supposed to be the one keeping you two under control! I shouldn't have to be keeping you two under control! You're supposed to be the mature ones! Mad Mod went east. You're the one who knows this city," He pointed to Robin. "So you're going to have to tell us where you think he's going, but I swear on the speed force, if you two can't GET ALONG for TWO FREAKING MINUTES, I'm calling Raven, and I'm sure she'll gladly shut you two up FOR me!"
Needless to say, Robin and Speedy had no idea how to respond to his rant, so they did what anyone would do in this situation. They shut up.
"Good. Now can we kick this guy's ass already? Where would he have gone?" He turned to Robin.
"Probably towards the Oil Rig. That's where his base of operations was last time." The teens headed towards the oil rig with a tense silence which Kid Flash, having realized that his friends weren't going to exactly kiss and make up, decided to break.
"Can't you two go any faster?" He joked, sending them both an idiotic smile, only to have two domino masks being narrowed in him direction. Okay, then. Mocking their abilities to cheer them up equals bad idea…
The three continued on with the same previous silence, but with some awkwardness emanating from Kid Flash's failed attempt at conversation. Okay, as much as I hate this, I'm gonna have to be more serious here. "What happened?" He asked, the joking tone completely removed.
"What are you talking about, Kid Mouth?" Speedy shot at him, frustrated.
"Us. All three of us. What happened? We used to get along so great when we were still working with the League-"
"Working under the League, you mean." Robin interrupted. "They were just holding us back. Not letting us help. They never let us do shit. That's why we left. Remember?"
"Well at least we were happy." Kid Flash returned. "Now you two've just…" He shut his mouth. He did not plan on finishing that sentence. Me and my stupid mouth…
"We've what, Kid?" Speedy and Robin stopped and turned to him, waiting for him to finish. Wally couldn't figure out if they knew what he was about to say and were challenging him in a 'Go-on-finish-that-sentence-so-I-can-cut-you' way, or if they really weren't sure what he'd said.
After hesitating for what seemed like years, he continued. "Well… You two are exactly like the people you left." Fearing for his life, he didn't look them in the eyes and continued "Speedy, before you left GA, you were serious. Focused. You had to keep him under control. And Robin, you were FUN. You were always making jokes and keeping things upbeat and exciting. Now you're both completely different… Maybe it's because they aren't here for you to be the one to even things out. I don't know. But it's… you're both so different, I don't even feel like I know you two anymore. What happened to the three of us?"
After finishing this speech, he continued to look at his feet, bracing himself for the pain that was bound to come… yeah, it was inevitable… any second now…
"You're right…"
Wait, what?
His head shot up. "Um… I am?"
"He is?" Speedy asked, just as confused as Kid Flash.
"Yes." He looked at the two, and seeing the confusion on their faces, continued. "I left Gotham to get away from Batman. To prove to him I don't need him. To show him I can accomplish great things without him. And I thought I had. With the Titans, we've done so much. We saved the effing world. Granted, the League does that on a daily basis, but that just proves that we can be just as good as them. But then I realized: I'm not without him. Physically, he's not here, of course. But I got so caught up in proving that I can be as good as - better than him - that I became what he is. You're right." He finished with a somber tone in his voice, turning his attention to the newly interesting street paint.
"Well, maybe we've grown up." Speedy added after a long pause, trying to find a conclusion that would break the tension between the trio. He only created more.
"No. I can't accept this. We've changed, but that doesn't mean it's for the better." Kid Flash said, optimistically.
"Well how the hell are we supposed to fix it, Kid Idiot. It's not like we can just change the way we've been acting in front of the others. They know us as certain people. If we just start acting like we've switched personalities, they'll think we've gone crazy." Speedy said.
"Roy, Dick," He took off his mask, signaling to the others that 'I don't care if anyone sees us, we're having a god damn moment!' "The three of us have accomplished so much together. As heros, as sidekicks," Speedy cringed at the word. "and as titans. We've fought a giant gorilla. We've fought aliens, animals, alien-animal hybrids –"
"I'm still convinced that thing we fought that one time was a giant pineapple" Robin added.
"Overgrown fruit," Kid Flash continued "Talking furniture, meta-humans… Am I missing anything?"
"Ooh! Those flying t-shirts!" Robin added again, seeming more like his old self every second.
"And aerial clothing! If we haven't lost yet, we won't anytime soon. We can handle a few weirded-out friends." Kid Flash finished. Looking at Speedy, since Robin appeared completely sold on the idea. The archer looked back and forth between the grin that had planted itself in Kid Flash, and the smirk on Robin's face.
In the end, that's probably what sold him on the idea. Robin hadn't given one of those signature Boy-Wonder smirks in so long, that finally seeing one on him made Roy realize why he acted the way he did. Robin had his reasons, and he had his. He wanted to see his friend's smile again.
Smiling himself, Speedy asked the question that Wally had blatantly avoided with the pep talk. "Okay, so what now? We can't just become completely different people. They really will be creeped out."
"Who knows. Who cares?" Robin retorted, crossing his arms, smirk growing more mischievous. "Frankly, I just want to beat the crap out of Mad Mod right now, and we've been standing here getting all brotherly for a good ten minutes or so. If we want to stop this from becoming an issue, we'd better get moving."
"Touché… Alright, lead the way… Boy Wonderful." Kid Flash responded, only to have something dangerously close to a bat-glare being sent towards him. "Sorry, couldn't resist."
The fake anger Robin had at the speedster crumbled, and he laughed a genuine laugh. "It's okay. Let's just go already!" He ran ahead, catching the others by surprise. So, of course, they did what any mature person would do. They raced.
Wally won.
None of them knew how their friends were going to react to their new personalities. It wasn't going to be a big difference; they had still changed while being away from the League. But they definitely weren't going to be the same. But they didn't care. All they wanted to do was to look forward.