Author's note: Well hello. I don't usually write for this fandom, this is actually my first try here, but I fell in love with the series and was starving for some YJ related stuff so I went ahead and gave it a shot… I'm planning on a short two-shot. This first chapter is to get a feel of the characters and set up the field. The second one is where the plot (hopefully) kicks in.

Oh, and if you happen to know me as the author of Answer Key who seemed dead as a rock for months on end now…yeah, I don't know what the heck I'm doing either… I'm kind of using this to give myself a test and see if I can still write with acceptable characterizations. Gilbert's chapter has been sitting in my hard drive for some time now. I know where I want it to go but I still have to make its turns smoother.

Warnings: None for this chapter, other than my innate ability of mediocre writing skills… Some spelling and grammar errors too, (most) probably.

Disclaimer: Nope, not mine, the series and characters belong to big-shot American entertainment gurus, and this story earns me no monetary profit either. I appreciate the non-sue-ers :)

Strawberry Punch

By Synxailla

Part One: Welcome Back to Happy Harbor

The phrase 'Thank God It's Friday' earned its right to be placed on a higher pedestal in Wally's books.

Yeah sure, every average fifteen-year-old holds the last day of school for the week in a special place in his heart. But Wally' wasn't a typical fifteen-year-old, so the fondness he held for Fridays was also not of the typical kind.

There were a number of things Wally was thankful of for Fridays. The day marks the transition from Wally West's normal (mundane, and oh so very slow) life into something else; something much, much more awesome. The world turns into a blur and he leaves his normal boring life behind to don the identity of the amazing Kid Flash.

And ever since the Team was formed, Kid Flash came to see Fridays in a whole new light.

Every Friday after school, Wally would race to the Mountain in high spirits and uncontainable excitement. Much like how he's doing right at the moment. With his civilian clothes stuffed into his backpack, Kid Flash zoomed by the streets, heading for the city limits of Central with a big grin on his face. And who could've blamed him? What's not to like about being part of Young Justice?

Their not-so-secret hideout was awesome; complete with state of the art training equipments, spacious workout rooms and the all important, oh-so-superb, fully stocked fridge. Most missions got dished out on them during weekends and school holidays, but they make up for their low frequency by leveling up in adventure levels.

A real-life android as a den-mother was in the same page of being freakin' cool. Wally was in the middle of a challenge to figure out if the red metal-man was capable of simulating laughter. So far, it was proven that Red Tornado didn't appreciate hilarious jokes and wasn't ticklish, (the next stages of the experiment were put on hold until a working way of bypassing the electrocution response-mechanism of the specimen could be discovered.)

Having Black Canary as a regular trainer was nothing short of wicked. Things always got hot when she took off her jacket to train them in hand-to-hand. Speaking of which, he really needed to protest that, since he was pretty sure part of the reason he kept "failing" sooner than the others was due to her drool-worthy distraction. (Yeah right, like he'd ever willingly stop her from displaying her figure in front of him)

But of course, working in real missions alongside his friends was the real highlight of being in the Team. It's why the Team was formed in the first place. And what a team they were.

There weren't any other guys Kid Flash would rather kick evil butt with. Including Speed-er Red Arrow of course, but the archer's like an unofficial member of the Team anyway; he can be dragged over for movie nights when he's not so moody and they work on missions together occasionally…

While running, Kid Flash saw a girl on a bicycle rushing towards a tree. From the panic in her face, her breaks seemed to be not working. He zipped over and stopped the bike, the abruptness caused the female rider to fall off; he caught her by the waist, gave the startled girl a wink, whispered "Take care of yourself babe", and set her back on her feet before running off again.

One good deed done and it wasn't even three thirty.

Mount Justice was soon in sight, and a split second later Kid Flash was standing by their hidden front door and readying to punch in his code to enter the giant hollowed rock. A telltale splash by the sea behind him was all the announcement he needed to know someone's coming. And who else took the wet route to get to headquarters but Aqualad?

Their responsible leader was always there to pick up the slack of others (and to do paperwork reports that no one else really wanted to fill in). Someone had to be the voice of calm reason in a group full of adrenaline and hormone fueled superheroes. And Kaldur'Ahm had a way with making sentences sound way too formal and important to be ignored.

"You're early today." Kid Flash said, turning to greet the other teen hero walking up behind him with a grin. "Undersea magic school finished early?" There's a science behind everything, and Atlantean spells weren't magic. They just operated on another plane.

"Good afternoon Kid Flash." The taller boy greeted, ever the minder of proper manners. "My queen decided to finish up our spells tutorial ahead of time in favor of assisting the little ones in their studies… Do you always arrive on Fridays this early?" Kaldur asked, giving him a little skeptic look.

"Hey, don't look at me like that! I'll have you know I'm only late whenever I have to wait up for the Flash. I'm generally punctual by myself you know." The speedster huffed, crossing his arms over the lightning insignia on his chest.

"Forgive me, I didn't mean to insinuate anything." But the sort of smirk on the Atlantean's face marred the supposed apology. Then silver eyes trained on the object hanging on the speedster's shoulder. "Do you usually run with that on your person?"

Kid Flash blinked before looking at his bag. "Oh you mean my backpack? Nah, just during Fridays. It has my civvies and stuff."

Kaldur's brow drew into a thoughtful frown as he took the liberty and punched both of their codes in the security pad. Kid Flash stepped up beside him.

"Are you sure that is wise?" Aqualad continued as the light flashed on and then off. The two then found themselves inside the cave. "Robin said that speedsters don't wear capes because it disturbs their balance when they run in high velocities, I can only imagine your bag poses the same hazard. You should perhaps just leave your bag in your home. You use your room here, am I right? You can keep some clothing there."

Sometimes Wally felt as if Aqualad was channeling his school counselor and that there was an underlying threat of cafeteria clean-up duty in store for him if he didn't follow the calm advice he was given. Well, the advices given are normally for his best interests anyway. And what kid in their right mind want to do dishes?

"Sure thing. Starting next week I'll ditch the bag." Kid Flash agreed swiftly with an easy shrug as the two boys walked further inside.

A second later, a floating red and green blur flew over them and dropped a towel which Kaldur'Ahm caught. Miss Martian's soft giggle sounded as she touched down lightly in front of the newcomers.

"Hey guys, had a nice week?" Megan's clothes were already morphed out of her pink civilian dress to her blue cape and skirt, the big red X across her white shirt marked her as obviously ready for a weekend of superhero activities.

Her unearthly beauty never failed to gain Wally's attention enough to drop her a line or two. (Nevermind she never bothered to pick those lines up. She's just playing coy, Wally was sure of it.)

"You know my week is always nice if you're part of it, Beautiful." Wally sped over and took her hand in his. He winked. She laughed and subtly slid her hand away.

"Thank you for the towel Miss Martian." Aqualad said, giving a grateful smile to the alien as he patted himself dry. "My week has been good. How was yours?"

"My week has been fantastic!" M'gann gushed and flew up a few centimeters from the floor. "I learned a new cookie recipe from one of my classmates; I'm trying it out now. You should try some! If you'd like to, of course." She finished with a shy smile.

Megan was always there with her happy smiles and peppy personality… and her tireless passion of baking conspicuous amounts of goodies definitely adds to her beautiful charm as well. Wally tried to answer her questions about 80's TV shows to the best of his ability. So far his research on "gnarly" was 60% complete.

"I'd love some!" Wally was about to rush to the kitchen when the zeta tube lit up and the arrival of his least tolerated teammate was announced.

Artemis wasn't so much of a prima donna on some days which enabled Wally to overlook her innate irritating personality sometimes. But she was one hot piece of work even though she can never manage the same soft smiles Miss Martian had. (She's more of a smirker) And it was proven on that amnesia-ridden day at Bialya that even she was worth Wally's `waggling eyebrows if he didn't know her to be an annoying missy.

"Artemis!" Miss Martian gasped. "What happened to your hair?" she flew over the other girl who was sporting some kind of blue gunk in her blonde locks.

"Urrgh. Some douche bag hostage-taker I stopped on the way over here dumped paint on it. Long story, I don't really want to talk about it." The girl looked more annoyed than hurt, so Kid Flash didn't really worry. He knew from sparring experiences that Artemis can more than take care of herself against petty thugs… but…

"What kind of scumbag doesn't wait 'til dark before taking someone hostage? It's still the freaking middle of the afternoon." Kid Flash asked, confused. "What kind of criminals does your town have?"

"Ones who're afraid of what comes after dark?" Artemis shot back. "I just stop crime Kid Flap, I don't go about digging into the why and how. Do I look like a Bat or his sidekick to you?" Clearly she was more irritated about her hair's situation than she initially let on, if her snarky attitude was anything to go by… Then again, Artemis was always snarky when it came to Wally.

"We should get it off you quickly before it dries!" Megan said, distressed and looking more than ready to drag the archer off to the nearest water-filled bucket and dunk the other girl's blemished head in it repeatedly until all traces of blue is washed away, or until Artemis drowns. Whichever came first.

Aqualad came to the human girl's rescue. "May I help?" He interrupted the girls with an encouraging smile. "I have an idea that might just work. If you'd allow me, Artemis?"

The girl in question blinked twice before slowly nodding, "Yeah, sure, knock yourself out. But no scissors!" then she let her hair out down.

Aqualad didn't bring out scissors. But he did unsheathe the weapons from his back and took a fighting stance… Wally would've taken scissors over that any day.

"Woah, hey!" Wally exclaimed as Aqualad raised the water bearers high over his head. "I know Artemis is annoying and downright unbearable, but you don't have to resort to H2O violence!"

The young Atlantean paid Kid Flash's words no mind as he summoned water from the emergency sprinklers on the cave's ceiling and guided it with amazing control to the mess of blue and blond hair on Artemis's head. He flicked his wrists and the water produced tiny bubbles that foamed and seemed to eat away the paint from the archer's hair. After a moment, he guided the stained liquid away to the nearest drain and brought his weapons back to their upright and sheathed position.

Artemis stood there with wet but paint-free hair and Megan still attached to her arm. Sure enough, it was the Martian who had enough sense first to speak about the hair treatment.

"That. Was. Cool!" Miss Martian exclaimed, letting go of Artemis and floating over to congratulate Aqualad.

"I'm just glad to be of help." Kaldur said with a smile. He walked over and handed Artemis his still mostly dry towel.

The archer blinked some more before reaching out to take the offered wooly cloth. "T-thanks." And the smile she gave back to the Atlantean looked weird. But Wally supposed that's because he never really saw her smile like that for anyone often… or at all.

"We should celebrate with cookies!" Kid Flash exclaimed, to get everyone back on track.

"It's always food with you, isn't it Kid Dork?" Artemis said as she toweled her ponytail dry. "There are more important things in life you know."

The redhead pointed at the girl to single her out. "No cookies for you then!"

M'gann laughed. "Don't be silly, there's enough for everyone. Superboy even helped me with the last eight batches. Come on, let's go see him." She then flew ahead to the direction of the kitchen and living area.

Kid Flash turned a triumphant look at Artemis before speeding after the Martian. Kaldur'Ahm smiled and shrugged and gestured for Artemis to walk ahead of him. The archer sighed with a dust of color on her cheeks and walked on.

Wally rounded a corner and entered the metal doors to the kitchen. There he found Megan happily sorting the cookies into plates and Superboy sitting by the counter, staring intently at an oven timer like he was trying to get his heat vision to develop and melt it.

Supey could've used a little less brooding (and some anger management therapy sessions), but Wally always thought the guy was fun to be around with, especially since Superboy's super-speed hadn't manifested yet so Wally could poke fun at him and he'd have the few moments of silence the clone observes to process the joke to run away before any bodily harm made contact.

Besides, Wally knew that deep down Conner was still a naive kid trying to make sense of the world and liked sleeping inside closets from time to time.

"Glaring at it won't make it turn faster Supey." Kid Flash said, coming to sit on the stool beside the one the clone was occupying.

"I'm not glaring at it." Conner grunted in reply without letting up on his murderous stare at the kitchen appliance.

"That's your non-glaring look? Huh… So your face finally got stuck in a perpetual scowl?" Wally laughed to himself and flinched when a ding sounded and Conner abruptly got up and made a mad dash for the oven… For a moment there he thought he was finally going to get smacked.

Without using oven mitts, the young meta-human took the baking tray out of the oven and delivered them over to where Megan was plating the previous batches. So this was the system the two worked out to keep the cookies from burning.

"Thanks Conner." Miss Martian smiled sweetly as she used her telekinesis with the steaming baked dough. Superboy looked like a pretty pleased puppy that just got told good boy.

Wally supposed he should've been annoyed he got shown off by an alien clone but Supey looked really pleased, like a child on Christmas morning, and Miss Martian distracted him with the next few words that came out of her mouth.

"Cookies are ready!" Megan announced to the room cheerfully… And really, what other thing would Kid Flash need from her right at the moment?

Needless to say, the speedster was the first one over to answer the alien girl's call, more than ready to stuff his face with the baked treats. The others followed his example, some less happy about it than others *coughArtemiscough* but soon all the teenaged heroes were assembled around the kitchen island with numerous plates full of cookies in front of them.

With a big grin plastered on his face, Kid Flash grabbed a cookie and was about to pop it inside his mouth whole when a nagging feeling made him stop.

Something didn't feel right. He didn't quite know what, but Wally was sure something was off. Like he was forgetting an important chemical bonding formula for the most basic of basic molecular structures… and that just wasn't acceptable. Nope not at all. So he proceeded to rack his brain of the reason why he was feeling like something's missing which was keeping him from finally enjoying his sugary snack.

The answer abruptly spoke a few feet away from the little gathering of the team around the counter.

"I can't believe you guys are having cookies without me!"

The teens flinched like they've been sneaked up on and shouted boo at. Which wasn't all that far from the truth…

"Robin!" Wally was faster to recover from his startled state than the others. He sped over to the younger boy who appeared out of nowhere inside the kitchen and tackled him into a brief hug. "I hate it when you appear out of thin air like that!" he chastised the younger boy with a mock frown.

The boy in question snickered before replying. "You hate it when I vanish into thin air, you hate it when I appear out of thin air — there's just no pleasing you is there?"

"I'd be very happy if you start coming and going like a normal person." Kid Flash informed him. Robin's mouth twisted down in a well formed exaggerated disgust.

"You mean like the boring way? No thanks, I'm good. That would be disappointing, heavy on the dis." The Boy Wonder's smile returned and Wally found it suited him more than a grimace ever will. "Besides, I like watching all of you guys get mini-heart attacks whenever you're spooked."

"Dude! That is so evil." Clever yes, but evil as well.

Robin always had something fun up his sleeve (and after knowing the kid could literally stuff his utility belt up his civilian jacket's sleeve, the thought oddly fits). And what more fun could Wally ask for than being able to hang out with his best buddy and do the awesomest things? It's actually one of the best highlights Kid Flash looked forward to, because no one else like Robin could quite operate in the same energy level as him.

"No more evil than you cracking a joke while someone's drinking up, hoping to make liquid squirt out their noses." The Boy Wonder countered evenly.

The two of them were sometimes so in synch, Kid Flash could've sworn Robin reads his mind better than any Martian… Actually, Robin could read anyone with smooth, almost slippery, ease. It must come with being under the tutelage of the world's greatest detective.

"Hi Robin." Miss Martian said from her place at the counter with the others. Robin and Kid Flash looked over to her. "Sorry, we kind of forgot to wait for you before starting on the cookies." She looked genuinely apologetic.

"Nah, don't sweat it Miss M." Robin brushed the apology off with a grin. "Like I said, I was just messing with you guys."

"You aren't normally this late." Superboy stated. "I guess we were so used to you already being here and just didn't notice you weren't."

"Yeah, why are you late Robin?" Artemis asked, towel still hanging around her slim shoulders. "I'd expect this kind of tardiness from Baywatch over there, but your record doesn't predict this kind of behavior."

"How many times do I have to say it's only my uncle's fault I'm late sometimes!" Kid Flash blurted, but his outburst pretty much went ignored.

"I had to help Batman out with something." Robin said with an easy shrug, walking over to the team, Wally still huffing not far behind him.

"I assume you did alright in that mission?" Aqualad said, which was just his roundabout way of asking if Robin didn't get hurt too bad.

Missions with Batman were always a bit on the extreme side. And if it were anyone else but Robin trotting alongside the big Bat, Wally would've worried a lot.

"Yeah, it was fine." Robin shrugged, taking a cookie for himself and absently examining it. "You know the usual; beat up a couple of drug-dealers, foiled some psychopath's kidnapping attempt, looked for a wayward tape measure, the works." He took a bite from the cookie "Nice new recipe Megan! The walnuts are a nice touch."

Wally was waiting for a punch line of some sort. But when all his best friend did for the next minute and a half was continue munching on cookies, he reluctantly believed there would be no catch to the tape measure escapade story they've just been privy to. So he decided to follow Robin's good example and took a couple of cookies from the plates to munch on.

He was very glad to find he could now swallow the sweet crumbs without any heavy feeling lingering on the back of his mind.

"Why would the Dark Knight and Boy Wonder be hunting around for a tape measure?" Artemis said giving the eating boy a suspicious look.

"Because they want to measure something?" Conner halfheartedly volunteered. And then the clone's super metabolism (second only to speedster metabolism) convinced him to join the other boys and started reaching for cookies.

"Thinking too hard about it won't be beneficial. Batman and Robin work in mysterious ways." Kaldur said reverently. "Why don't we all just have M'gann's cookies before Kid Flash consumes them all? Then we can wait for Batman to return from the watch tower to receive our mission parameters."

The two girls silently agreed and the team eventually had their ritual of eating cookies together before facing their stoic commander-in-chief. Who can blame teenagers for wanting to stock up on sweetness before conversing with an extremely deadly serious superhero?

"Wow Megan, these really are good. My mom would like trying out these. How much vanilla did you use?" Artemis asked the alien beside her. It was one of those rare moments Wally heard the archer talk like a normal girl.

"Glad you like it. I can give you a copy of the recipe my classmate gave me." Miss Martian, the ever nice girl, replied

"Oh, can I have a copy as well?" Robin suddenly piped. The others (except Kid Flash who kept munching away) stopped and gave him weird looks. "What? Can't a guy spontaneously start a hobby without getting judged? Jeez."

"I'd shupport shyou." Wally said through a mouthful of baked dough.

"You'd support anything that has the slightest chance of giving you more food to gobble up." Artemis rolled her eyes.

"And he'd support anything Robin says. Remember that time of the great food fight?" Conner reminded them, before going back to work on eating.

Miss Martian perked up. "I remember it like it was just last week. There was tomato sauce everywhere."

"That's probably because it was last week. There are still stains marring the living area." Aqualad said. "All the red even caused alarm to some of our mentors when they arrived in the middle of that little event."

And then Kid Flash was reminded of the horror stricken look on most of the adults' faces and he burst out laughing. Robin cracked up a split second later.

"Man, that idea was awesome!" Robin announced, wheezing through laughter.

"Totally freakin'tastic! I never got to use super speed at any of the food fights back at school before. It was pretty cool to finally use my powers on the battlefield!"

"Your school has food fights often?" Conner asked, bemused, and then revolted. "That's not a normal thing for every school is it? Because I can drop out anytime. I don't even understand why I go to school."

Wally understood where Conner was coming from. The big guy had a mountain-full of worldly knowledge pre-programmed inside his head before he was even let out of his pod. High school textbooks must seem like children's storybooks to him.

"Don't be silly Conner, school is fun! And highly educational," Megan argued with a cheery smile. "Where else could we have learned that a high five is a sign of agreement and not the beginning of a five-part duel?"

And then Wally was reminded aliens and alien-clones aren't that all equipped with earthly common knowledge, so yeah, school was probably a good test run for them.

"You guys are lucky to have a normal school. Some schools are full of high society brats." Artemis complained, as if speaking from experience. "They let their parents' position and money rank them in a ladder."

"Yeah, but that's real life for most people. Politics, assets, connections… It's like a collection of trophies to line your living room with." Robin said sounding apathetic with an underline of disgust that most probably only Wally could hear.

"My King rules with a fair hand… But there are indeed others who take advantage of their wealth and power even back in Atlantis." Kaldur sounded resigned "The courts are in a constant state of precarious debate over important, to whimsical things."

"Must be tough for those old enough to be members of the governing body." Supey commented, brows drawn over in thought.

"Adult life is a walk in the park compared to high school." Kid Flash stated with a wave of a hand. "It's full of judgmental jerks, there are labels everywhere, and people not strong enough to stand for themselves get chewed up and spit out… Not to mention kids that age are impressionable and vulnerable."

"I'm impressed KF, I always thought you only viewed high school as a place where young, inexperienced girls exist to practice your suave pick-up lines and smooth moves on." Robin cracked up chuckling.

And the first hour of the Friday afternoon proceeded on as normal. The teens huddled together, enjoying some snacks and talking about anything from food-fights to modern philosophy and classical politics, with a healthy dose of joking around in Robin and Kid Flash's case. All thoughts of tape measures and what's the catch faded away into crumbs.

Soon the plates were empty of cookies and loaded into the dishwashers. Batman arrived some minutes later, the team assembled in the briefing room and they stood to attention.

"So, Batman sir, what assignment do you have for us this week?" Kid Flash asked, mentally listing possibilities. "Please not another recon mission. As cool as the get in-get info-get out routine is, it's missing some elements in the crime fighting department." And how were they supposed to get better without practice?

Robin snorted. "Preventing crime from happening is just as important as stopping it in motion." He smirked. "You just lack the stealth skills to have fun in our recon missions."

Kid Flash fought hard not to stick his tongue out at his best friend. And then the Dark Knight spoke, commanding attention and ignoring any prior (or subsequent) interference.

"This is Princess Juhainah, a young noble, fourth in line for her country's throne." A hollow screen appeared, floating some feet above the floor and Batman waved his hand to enlarge the girl's headshot photo. Her exotic yet refined looks spoke of her being a royalty from the Middle East.

And man did she look hot. Kid Flash wouldn't mind sweeping that princess off on an enchanted camel ride.

"Despite her bloodline, she has explicitly denied any intention of being crowned future queen. Some people admire her for her humility, others think she's just pulling a hoax to get people to warm up to her, so despite her said disinterest on the throne, her political enemies have more than once tried to have her assassinated." Batman informed.

"So? Are you going to send us to stop another assassination attempt?" Superboy asked, scowl once again on his face. He looked eager to start punching hired murderers.

"No." Batman answered flatly, and Wally guessed the rest of the team looked as startled as he did. "She's an active member of numerous world-wide helping projects and organizations, so many authorities are already on the lookout for her safety. And her personal guards are no pushovers either. In fact, she's never needed any external help in keeping herself safe."

"Uhm. So what seems to be the problem?" Miss Martian spoke up, sounding hesitant but confused.

"She'll be celebrating her eighteenth birthday tomorrow, where she's invited other young dignitaries such as herself, and children of political and royal families from all over the world to attend. It'll be held here in America, since it's accessible to most people for visitation and our country is supportive of activities promoting positive connections across the globe." Batman continued on with the briefing. He gestured with his hands again, and this time different angle shots of a modern building appeared. Kid Flash realized it was the venue.

"As per the Princess's arrangements and request; security personnel of guests, personal or otherwise, can only be stationed outside the venue. Only the young dignitaries themselves will be allowed inside the building. Princess Juhainah says this is to ensure that no potential dangerous outsiders can pose threats on her guests' safety. The only guards inside the place would be provided by her, guards that she approved and knows personally." The Dark Knight said.

"It sounds like a pretty good idea to me. With all of the little big-shots probably invited, many people would most likely take the opportunity to slip in and off some of them." Artemis voiced out, crossing her arms under her ample chests. "Filtering out outsiders seems smart." She shrugged.

Wally's mind raced as he thought about it. Artemis had a pretty valid point of agreeing with the hot princess's security measures.

"Yeah, I hate agreeing with her in general, but still don't see the problem." Kid Flash said, brows drawn together.

"The problem is," Robin began, "the strategy little Miss Princess wants to use may keep outside danger from getting in, but that doesn't mean there aren't any dangers already planted inside." Robin stated, sounding very sure of himself and a little cocky about getting his mentor's long-winded backwards way of stating a problem when others couldn't.

"Things such as traps?" Aqualad asked, sounding like the problem was dawning upon him as well. "I suppose you're right. If the place has been meddled with prior to the event, there are no true guarantees of the dignitaries' safety."

"That." Robin agreed, "And what basis do we really have for trusting a foreign princess with a blooming career on the dirty field of royal politics, and have successfully thwarted numerous assassination attempts on her person with no help from official authorities whatsoever?" The raven-haired smirked again and directed his masked gaze over to the big bat, almost as if cueing the older man that it was his turn to talk.

"Robin's right." Batman said. "There's no telling for sure what Princess Juhainah's true intentions are for setting up the celebration as she did. And we can't exactly risk the lives of many potential world political future players and leaders on nonexistent trust… So this is the part where the team comes in." There was suddenly a tape measure in the tall man's hand.

Wally remembered there's no such thing as getting away scot-free when it came to Gotham's resident vigilante. So this was the reason why the Dynamic Duo was hunting around for a wayward tape measure. Kid Flash should've known there's always a catch. Always.

"Your measurements will be taken and you'll be fitted with formal clothing. You'll attend the ball tomorrow night, undercover as noble-children of various micro-nations and keep an eye out for emergencies, and not act out otherwise. Of course you'll all be expected to behave accordingly to avoid detection."

"Behave like royalty?" Wally asked, aghast. He looked at his teammates, a Martian, a clone, an Atlantean soldier, a violent prissy girl, and himself; an awkward country-boy at heart. "How do you expect us to pull that off overnight?"

"Think like pompous rich kids! Remember the three S's: spoiled, snobbish, and self-assured." Robin cackled softly.

Wally glared at Robin… The shorter boy looked like he was having a field day. Of course the Boy Wonder would know how to act like royalty. When off superhero duty, Robin turned into Richard "Dick" Grayson, and Dick was the adopted son of Gotham's goddamned reigning Prince; Bruce Wayne, which made Dick a freakin' crowned Prince. They had a butler for Pete's sake!

There were times when Wally wished he could call out his best friend on his identity. But then that would blow the secret Dick entrusted him with… And Wally liked having secrets only Dick and him knew. So he shut up and fumed to himself.

This mission would be a disaster for non-insanely-rich guys like him, (and to quote Robin) heavy on the 'dis', Wally was sure of it… To Kid Flash's utter dismay, he was the only one who seemed totally against the idea of joining a royal juvenile social call and pretending to be one of them.

Miss Martian was sold after she heard they'd be attending a ball since she hadn't been on one before, and she somehow managed to make Artemis not completely repel the idea of wearing a long gown and doing each other's hair. Conner was easy to appease, and he was curious about a lot of things. The young clone was in the 'try anything once' stage of life. And Aqualad always followed the decision of the League without much question or complaint.

Robin was grinning at Kid Flash's sour expression. Wally huffed and crossed his arms, accepting defeat with a bitter stance. It was him against the world. The least he could've gotten was his best friend's support, but it seemed he going to be denied even that. That stung the most.

"I hate wearing tux." The redhead grumbled.

"Don't worry Kid Flash, you won't be wearing a tuxedo." Batman said, producing a notepad and pen like how he did the tape measure; out of nowhere. "You'll have a tailcoat." And Wally was sure he received an evil smirk.

And then Kid Flash was sure he was doomed, because going solo against the world was one thing, but going solo against a smirking Batman? It felt like his defeat was handed to him in a box tied up with a pretty ribbon, and there's just no way of resisting a pretty ribbon.

"Cheer up KF, it's not that bad." Robin slung an arm around his shoulders, subtly tugged him aside and then lowered his voice considerably "At least you get pants."

Xai's Corner: Well now, that was shorter than what I'm normally used to… So yeah, nothing exciting huh? Sorry about that, this being my first YJ story and all, I'm still getting the feel of things. But since I'm a brat, I would still very much like to ask for reviews… Pretty please? Humor me, drop a comment, even if just to tell me I fail and how I can avoid doing that.

Think I should continue? The next chapter's supposed to be flashier than this—heh, flashy. I amuse myself so easily. And since I'm me, I should warn you guys I'm a fan of slash, so if you plan on braving my next installment, be prepared, I guess?

Again, please review. C: