Patterson New York
December 11th 9:00 pm
"Come on dude, we need to move or else we're dead meat!" Blurted out a hyperactive speedster who was trying to physically drag his friend out the front door
"What's the rush? The party doesn't start for 2 hours." The confused kryptonian hybrid who was being pulled was befuddled by friend's haste, given the fact that said friend was able to break the sound barrier with startling regularity, and the fact that moving a reticent kryptonian was extremely hard to accomplish.
"Yeah but Gotham City is an hour away"
"Why would we go to Gotham city?"
"Because that's where Artemis lives dummy!"
"She does, then how did she become Green Arrow's sidekick?"
"I think Bat's and Arrow made some sort of arrangement, something about dual training, how do you think she got those self-defense moves"
"Oh"
"NOW CAN YOU PLEASE MOVE!"
"OH, right sorry" He said as he sheepishly began to walk out Wally's front door and followed his friend to the car
As Wally buckled up, he looked at Connor, "Aren't you going to buckle up" he said. At Superboy's raised eyebrow over the fact that he was nearly indestructable, Wally continued, "I know you don't need it, but if the cops see you without a seatbelt, we'll get pulled over" "Fine, but the belt is more likely to break than I am". As Wally began the car a followup thought occurred to Superboy "Wally, why are we taking this, couldn't you just run to Gotham or something"
The ex-Kid Flash, exasperated by his friend's constant questions, replied "NO, geez Supey, haven't you ever been to Gotham before?"
"Of course I have" he replied defensively "..." "On one of our first missions when we had to disable Amazo, remember!"
"No, I mean go to Gotham for fun, or for a non-team related reason" "Oh, no, I haven't" "Okay, listen, Batman has a few rules in Gotham, before the Team, he had a strict no-metas policy in Gotham city and for the most part everyone obeyed it" Connor interrupted, "Isn't Batman a founding member of the Justice League, for a guy in his position, that seems borderline racist" "I'm getting to that, mostly everyone was content to stay out of Gotham, and as Bat's interacted with the league, he began to lighten up a bit, letting in a few heroes he trusted, Superman, Wonder Woman, et cetera. But that all changed with Superman" "Superman? What'd he do?" "He was helping Batman patrol, when Poison Ivy attacked, she used spores to control him and send him on a rampage" Superboy unconsciously shivered at the thought, he knew what it was like being out of control, that happening to his (for lack of a better descriptor) father scared him in more ways than one. "What happened?" "Batman happened, he took down Poison Ivy and called in the League to restrain Superman, but not before he decimated a city block" "Was anyone hurt?" "No, Gotham evacuation protocols are very efficient, but Batman reinforced his No-Meta's policy again"
"But I've been in Gotham before on missions, and I've never heard of any of this" "It was before you were born, plus you were with the Team, the way Nightwing explained it, Bat's gives us a lot of leeway because as a covert team, we're better suited to help him in Gotham. Bat's needs Metahuman help in Gotham on occasion, but the Justice League is too flashy and too big of a target for the villains." "So as a members, or ex-members of the team, we're allowed to go to the city?" "No, as members of the team we are allowed to operate missions in the city, which is more than most of the League is allowed. But anyone is allowed to go to the city as long as they do it as civilians going into the city via normal means, so no flying, speeding, teleporting, or Zetaing into Gotham, hence the car. Besides, the Watchtower and the Cave are undergoing hard reboots, so intercontinental comms and zetas are off anyway." "That still doesn't explain why you want to get there an hour early"
Wally, who had stopped them at an intersection, gave an incredulous to the man riding shotgun and glibly shot out"Because she's my girlfriend! Those of us who have them generally try to love and support them as much as possible."
Superboy's expression immediately hardened, and Wally realized about three seconds too late what he just said. Connor had recently gone through a apocalyptic breakup with his longtime girlfriend and this was one of his first times out in a week. Wally had hoped to get him hooked up with new people at the party, but by the look on Connor's face his faux pas may have ruined it.
"Connor, I'm sorry dude, I forgot for a second..." "Just drop it."
The rest of the car ride to Gotham passed in silence.
