Loud stereos played heavy guitars and prominent batteries mixed with the soft pitter-patter of the rain that drizzled in the beach. The cave was silent except for the catchy song playing in the background. It was one of the band Breaking Benjamin "Blow me Away".
There was still warmth in the kitchen from Megan's recently baked cookies. Unfortunately the Martian was now with Zatanna, Artemis and Rocket at the mall leaving only male population in the place.
The sound of the music kept playing, echoing louder in the living room where all the guys were comfortably resting.
Wally was perched upside down munching on a small cookie. His eyes were half-lidded and he barely chewed on his treat.
Robin kept his eyes trained on the computer in his arm though he was just playing Pac-Man. Kaldur was staring at the new fish Artemis had brought in one day announcing it as the new team pet. The blonde male looked intently at the fish that swam in circles in a tiny glass bowl like if he wanted to read its mind.
Conner was petting wolf's head but his leg kept moving up and down impatiently.
"Guys... I'm bored" came the lazy yawn from the speedster who had his head hanging off the sofa as he tried to find his teammates. "Eat" Robin answered in a monotone voice still distracted with his game.
At that moment the computer announced the arrival of his friend the archer. Recognized Red Arrow...
"Great another kill joy." Complained Wally as he gave up hope on getting un - bored. "I miss the girls." Conner commented shortly and everyone nodded defeatedly.
"Come on! Like if girls had fun at the mall. Were guys we are active, we punch stuff, were not afraid, we can show them we can have an epic guy time who's with me?" Everyone was surprised to see the inspirational speech came from no other than Red Arrow.
"I'm in" "Same here" Might as well" "..." Everyone waited for Kaldur to agree but he was still staring at the fish. "I'll take that as a yes." Roy smirked mirroring his friends' own expressions.
"Actually I do not mind staying here with my new little friend" replied Kaldur after finally understanding what was going on around him. The four other heroes stared at the Atlantean and waited for him to get that they would not leave unless he came along and he had to come along. Kaldur looked up at them and sighed when he saw their expressions. "I guess I'm in too then" he said.
The five friends stood in a small circle in the center of the living room. An awkward silence had fallen upon them now. "So...now what?" asked Wally seeing that his friends had no idea what they could do to prove that they didn't need the girls in order to have fun. "Want to drive around until we figure something out?" asked Roy, who for the first time was dressed as a civilian and he had his car with him. The others nodded in agreement and started walking while Kaldur knelt down to say goodbye to the tiny goldfish.
Sitting in between Wally and Robin was torture for Conner. Kaldur had taken the passenger seat first and now he was stuck in the back seat being poked constantly. He has controlled his temper fairly well and Robin and Wally love to test him. Wally poked him with amazing speed while Robin poked him once and then poked him again when he didn't expected. Roy was driving them around and around, his eyes searching for a place they could stop by and do something. It seemed that it was during their day off that everything appeared boring and during their missions everything looks fun. The radio was blasting away to Radiohead which all of them liked. When the song ended and the next one started they recognized it not because they like it but because they've heard the girls listen to it when they hang out. "Sexyback" by Justin Timberlake started playing. In that moment Roy stopped in front of a local gym that seemed to have a sparring arena. "Anyone feeling like training for a bit?" asked Roy with a raised eyebrow.
Upon entering the gym it was clear to them that they were the youngest ones there. Men who appeared to be from 30 and up were scattered throughout the room during various types of exercise. There were two guys sparring at the moment, one of them seemed to be having the advantaged. They guys watched as one of the men raised his leg and kick his opponent on the side. The other one fell down and it was clear to them he had been receiving blows for a while now. Conner and Wally stood up eager for a turn but the man who had won the match looked up and down at them and walked over. "You kids won't last long in a fight with me." he said chuckling. Wally and Conner looked over at the others and to the man's surprise laughed. The man was angry now that five kids were laughing at him. "Listen, I get my friends and we take turns. One of you guys vs. one of my guys and so on. Let's see who laughs at the end." the man said confidently. Roy stood up and looked straight into the man's eyes. "It's on."
Five minutes later the gym had collapsed. How did it happen? Well between pride, stupidity and some individual factors each guy possessed added to the final result. The challenge they won until their egos got in the way. Wally, Conner and Roy didn't count on that every stiff exercising there were in reality thugs. They should have deduced they were driving to the most secluded alley to start. Then challenging the entire gym was a pretty dumb thing to say from Wally after proving he could beat up two of them. Kaldur was drinking water when he saw the commotion. Sighing exasperatedly he joined the fight. Roy showed his capacity in hand to hand combat beating five buff men at once, Wally was flexible and agile to avoid many punches and robin was quick using his smoke bombs to distract most of them. When they had finally managed to glide through the debris the rain was pounding on their sweaty, bloody and bruised bodies. They simply entered the car in silence but now Conner was driving. "Who voted for Roy to drive in the first place?" Came Wally's usual banter "What were we thinking?" Kaldur said voice full of regret. "You know we have a gym at the cave right?" Robin peeped on. Everyone glared and he mimicked to seal his lips.
Conner drove fast screeching the wheels in the wet pavement creating neon lights with the car as he advanced farther into the city getting away from the weird ally zone Roy had ended in.
"I'm hungry." Wally groaned in the back seat clutching his stomach in pain and hunger. Conner not wanting to hear him whine stopped making everyone startle. From the momentum Roy, who was in the front seat not wearing seat belt crashed in the window. "Son of a-..." Roy didn't finished cursing when Wally squealed "Free food!" followed by Robin who gave his signature cackle.
Not counting on that Conner didn't know the place since he normally he didn't go out of the cave they didn't realize the place where "Free food" was announced was.
"Where are we?" Kaldur interjected once out of the car looking at the weird fluorescent sign at the roof. "I don't know but it said food so we should just eat." Conner explained. Roy raised an eyebrow skeptically but before he could question something Wally had swallowed some of the free punch offered in the place. Inside neon lights and glitter sparkled everywhere. The younger redheaded was spinning in a high chair where there was a... bartender?...
The atmosphere was fogged and loud rhythmic beats cheered their recent mood. There was a DJ and several teenagers lost in a rush of ecstasy and beat. Some teens had glazy eyes and looked suspiciously happy.
If they had been less tired, less beaten, less hungry maybe they should have just left to go to a normal burger shack. But it was too late, Wally had drank too much punch, Kaldur, Robin and Conner had eaten some of the snacks in a table. Roy, being the mature one had predicted such eventuality so he had to keep sane.
On the dance floor, Wally had taken of his shirt with a whistle on his mouth started shuffling to "Sexy and I know it." Many girls had joined. Conner was in a competence with Kaldur to who drank more vodka. Robin was pretending to be a waitress to some girls who were sitting in one of the tables. Roy was facepalming so hard his forehead had a red spot. Did they just crashed into a disco?
The temptation to join in with his friends on the drinks was hard to ignore but Roy knew that sometime they would need to go home and right now he was the only one suitable to drive. He tried to keep up with all of them, trying to make sure that neither of them got in trouble. But it was hard keeping up with four intoxicated friends. Wally was leading a dance routine on the dance floor that even though it was ridiculous most people joined to dance with him. Robin was in deep conversation with a girl probably about his obsession with technology by what Roy had heard. Girls were surrounding Conner and Roy chuckled as he saw the uncomfortable look on his face, probably thinking Megan wouldn't approve of it. The girls could see Conner kept ignoring them but they followed him around. Kaldur was also being surrounded but for him it was different. The girls looked up at Kaldur with awe, clinging to his every word as he told them a story about his life.
Roy decided to let himself go a bit, maybe a drink or two. But he would make sure to be fine enough to drive. He walked over to the table were the drinks were and found himself face to face with a crying guy. The guy flung himself onto Roy and started crying on his shoulder. Roy's eyes widened and he shoved the guy a bit to pull him off him. The guy started rambling about how his girlfriend had dumped him because he wasn't sensitive enough. Truly, Roy didn't care for this guy's personal life but then he heard him saying that his girlfriend had realized that a guy should be more sensitive after listening to guy talk about how he saved a group of dolphins once and took care of them for a while.
This was the kind of situation where Roy had no idea whether to laugh or to just pat the guy in the back. He wanted to laugh so bad because he knew exactly who he was talking about and knowing Kaldur, he wouldn't be such a ladies man if he were conscious. From across the room the crowd started chanting Wally's name. Roy turned around to see Wally being carried by the crowd on the dance floor.
"I wanna drive!" Robin appeared next to Roy in a second ushering him to the door. "Wow wow wow boy blunder..." Roy said placing his big, strong hand on the smaller ebony haired's forehead stopping him though he kept walking.
"I guess it's time to abandon the magnificent castle." Kaldur said between hiccups and sobs. Robin had somehow stolen Roy's car keys and was stumbling to get to the car.
First guy hangout and they get drunk... Roy thought pinching his nose frustrated. This was a sign… He had to be more patient. Wally was now doing the conga and the entire club was following him. This required desperate actions. He managed to get in the conga line and finally disentangled the crazy 16 year old.
The only one left was Conner. Luckily he was merely staring at a wall. Roy touched his shoulder to help him in the car but Superman's clone grabbed his hand throwing him to the wall until he fell outside the club and in the car passing through the bricks.
Robin and Wally yelled in unison "Conner smash!" Then fist bumped for their synchronization. Kaldur was pretending to be swimming while Roy recovered.
His arms, hair and his pants were covered in dust, fresh blood dribbled from his mouth. Conner had an angry expression dancing in his features. He was panting and his cheeks were red.
"Bet Supey had his first beer" chuckled Wally.
Roy glared at him while trying to find a weak spot of the Kryptonian. Finding none he figured he could at least sedate him but how? He hadn't brought his bow or his quiver. Besides the super strong and unstable clone was somehow mad. Conner's hair was a mess, he had glitter over it and his eyes looked full of rage. Fortunately the little troll always came prepared and after shooting a sedating dart at him thinking he was a butterfly Roy could sigh in relief.
Roy wasn't carrying any of them out of the car once they arrived so they slept in the car. The other four passed out, Roy was simply exhausted.
At three am Robin woke up with the need to pee. He was fully conscious though residual effects kept him moody. Then he got an idea.
-O-
Artemis was looking for her motorcycle on the cave to go for a ride. She wasn't prepared for the scene. She backed away from the scene nearly falling into the bushes to yell at the other girls to see.
"The five boys are sleeping in the same car, together, covered in glitter!" Artemis whispered/yelled as she looked for her cell phone on her pocket's to get legal blackmail.
All the females gathered to survey the evidence.
"Do you think they're okay? Is Conner ok?" Megan said concerned "How? Why? What?" Zatanna couldn't form any coherent thought.
"Girl we missed big time" Rocket said sassily.
Artemis could only giggle, as she made sure everything was digitally proved.
-O-
Wally woke up with the smell of fresh baked cookies. That was weird since his mom didn't- oh- he was at the cave.
His muscles ached as he tried to stretch finding it impossible to do. He felt a cold hand resting on his stomach. "What the-" he said groggily as he inspected the gloved hand. He lifted now his entire body but bumped against a roof. He had a headache like the last time Megan had brain blasted them.
Robin laid on the steering wheel, snoozing as he slurred words incoherently. That meant the hand was from Roy. He glanced to his side to be met with a foot. Conner? The alien was bare chest, now that he looked well, Roy was bare chest ... And him?
Kaldur too! They were covered in glitter and dust, bruised, with a trail of dry blood. He felt as if he was trapped in a horror movie. There was a smell of mud and sweat and he was about to enter in panic mode when he was blinded by white light.
The speedster heard several giggles until he realized the situation. Roy was snuggling with a teddy. Kaldur had a white mustache badly drawn on his face. Conner had a tiara... He just didn't want to stay when Conner woke up.