Please don't be upset! I am working on my Ben 10 fan fic and the next chapter is almost ready, but I've been working on this forever and needed to publish. Sorry if the grammar is poorer than usual, my editor is on vacation. A brief explanation of what's happening: Bart Allen is Wally West's younger brother, Bart West. Bart is Kid Flash, and everything else will be explained. May contain slight OOCness.
"WallyWallyWallyWallyWallyWallyWally!" Wally felt like he was in an earthquake as his younger brother shook him back and forth.
"Mmmn...Bart? Dude, what time is it-"
"Three A.M." Bart spoke quickly as he bounced in place. He was already in is bright, mustard-yellow, kid flash outfit. "Today's the day!" he grinned at his still half asleep brother.
"Yeah, the fourth of july." Wally casually brushed his little brother off like an annoying pet, knowing full well that the national holiday was not what he'd been referring to. The teen began to pick out several running outfits as Bart talked on and on about how amazing today was going to be. Wally did his best to not be upset with Bart. His little brother had every right to be excited for today. He'd worked hard to be a great sidekick, and Wally was not jealous.
"So what d'ya say Wall-man?" Wally was snapped out of his thoughts by his brother's question.
"Uh… could you repeat that?"
"Would you want to hang out with us later? Ya'know after the whole thing with the Justice League?" Bart looked up at Wally shyly, but with poorly hidden enthusiasm. "We could set off fireworks, play games... Dick would be there for sure, and I can probably convince the others to come if there's food!" The younger brother finished it off with his most powerful puppy eyes. Wally gave his own attempt at a bat-glare in return. One second passed, then two… ffoouuurrrr…
"*sigh* Fine!" Wally threw his hands up in the air as Bart did a super speed victory dance. "But!" Wally put up a finger and waited for Bart's undivided attention. "I need to know where, when, and you can't be more than half an hour late" Wally held up another finger with each condition.
"Alright, how 'bout... look-out hill, seven O'clock, and I promise!" Wally smiled down at Bart before ruffling his brother's hair.
"Deal, little man." He then turned back to the running outfits laid out on his bed. "Now go get some breakfast or something, I'll be down in like- twenty minutes." Bart moaned dramatically, and complained how that was sooo loooong of a wait as he made his way downstairs. Wally smiled to himself once Bart was gone. Today might not be completely awful.
…
It was official. Today was completely awful. It was bad enough that Icicle Jr. had wasted his time earlier, but now that they were here the League was just dismissing them like nothing had changed.
"That's it?!" The league members turned back to face a seriously miffed Speedy.
"You promised us a real look inside. Not a glorified backstage pass."
"It's a first step," explained aquaman, "You've been granted access few others get."
"Oh, really?" Speedy gestured to the widow where paparazzi had plastered themselves for shots. "Who cares what side of the glass we're on?!"
"Roy," Green arrow stepped forward, "you just need to be patient-"
"What I need is respect." He turned back to the other sidekicks. "They're treating us like kids, worse, like sidekicks! We deserve better than this." Kid Flash, Robin, and Aqualad exchanged glances before looking back to Speedy. "You're kidding right? You're playing their game?! Why?! Today was supposed to be the day! Our first step to becoming full members of the Justice League."
"Well yeah…" Kid Flash spoke up, letting his natural shyness past his wall of usual enthusiasm and forwardness. "But I thought the first step was just a tour of the H.Q.?"
"That's just it! The hall isn't the league's real H.Q." All the senior members and sidekicks went slack jawed at hearing this. "I bet they never told you it's just a false front for tourists, and a pit stop for catching zeta-beam teleporter tubes to the real thing! An orbiting satellite called the watchtower." Now Batman was glaring at Green Arrow.
"I know, I know, but I thought maybe we could make an exception?" Batman glared at him harder, and Olie frowned. "Or not." Aquaman then took a few more steps towards Speedy.
"You're not helping your cause here son. Stand down or-"
"Or what?" Speedy snapped back defiantly, "You'll send me to my room? And I'm not your son," he turned to Green Arrow, "I'm not even his. I thought I was his partner. Not anymore." He threw his yellow hat to the ground before heading to the door. He glanced back at Robin, K.F., and Aqualad as he left. "Guess they're right about you three. You're not ready."
*Beep beep*
"Superman to justice league, there's been an explosion at project Cadmus."
…
"Mrrroooww!"
"Tch, you can say that again" The boy scowled as he walked through an unfamiliar forest. He'd desperately needed a change in scenery after the last fight he had with his associates. Sure, working together most certainly had its perks, but would it kill them to listen to him once and awhile? He might be the youngest, but he was also easily the most powerful.
"Mew roowwr ow. (your first big job, and it's already doomed to fail.)"
"I know! Like seriously, I've known Nabu way longer than any of them have, but they still don't trust my judgement about him."
"Rourour. (Shh, someone's there)" Klarion paused before grinning. It was the fourth of july, so he'd gone far enough into the woods to avoid the annoying boom of the fireworks. Meaning it was also far out enough that no one would hear this imbecile scream. Silently he crept out from between the trees. His grin twisted further into a demonic smile as he made his way unnoticed up the side of a hill in the clearing. He loved huge entrances, who doesn't, but sometimes a classic jump scare was just the way to go. He'd made it halfway up before he got a good look at his prey, and when he did the witch boy completely froze.
His prey sat in a squat with clear emerald eyes glued to the stars. A faint glow from the sparkler he was holding made his red hair shine like fire, and- shit those freckles are cute. Teekle gave her boy a poke of her claw to snap him out of it.
"Don't tell me you think he's dreamy" she complained flatly.
"No! I'm… just going to have a little fun first." Klarion cast a silent illusion spell before creeping the rest of the way up the hill. "Awfully nice spot you got here." Klarion felt a rush of excitement as his prey startled.
Wally relaxed when he saw that the person who'd snuck up on him was just a normal kid.
"Thanks, are you, um, lost or something?"
"Nope." The stranger just grinned at Wally without elaborating. Wally found himself locking eyes with the odd boy in an awkward two minutes of silence before his sparkler went out. The moonlight made his pale skin appear blue, and almost… otherworldly. Wally glanced over to the basket of uneaten food that had been repacked after eight, the fireworks he'd never set off sitting next to it.
"Why the hell not." Wally stood up and held out his hand to the stranger, flashing his signature smile. "The name's West, Wally West."
"... Ryan," Klarion smiled and shook the offered hand.
"It's a pretty good spot, yeah, but I'd be better if I had a friend to set off these fireworks with."
"Ah ha ha ha ha ha!" Wally was taken aback when Ryan started laughing at him. "Aw, what? Did you get ditched?"
"So what if I did?" Wally snapped back while trying to hide his pout. "Jeez man!" Wally threw his hands in the air with an exasperated sigh. "I was trying to ask if you wanted to hang out with me so all this junk I hauled out here wouldn't go to waste!" Now it was Ryan's turn to be caught off-guard.
"You want to hang out with me?"
"Nnnooooo, twas all an elaborate ruse so as to gain your trust and kill you in your sleep! Yes, I really do want to hang out with you man." Wally smiled more teasingly this time. "Besides, I've got junkfood and explosives, who in their right mind would say no?"
"Hmn…" Ryan held his chin in an overly dramatic way before cracking a joking grin then easily made Wally's expression seem serious. "You do make a compelling argument, but I should inform you that I'm not alone."
"Who'd follow a creep like you into the wo-"
*Purr Purr* Wally looked down to see the stripey cat rubbing herself against his legs.
"Wow…" he breathed before reaching down to let her sniff his hand. "What breed is she? She's gorgeous." Klarion let out a chuckle before picking up his familiar.
"I thought you didn't like him," he whispered to Tackle, "What changed?"
"Ryan, a total creep that wanders the woods at night and mumbles to his cat." Wally whistled at him. "You must get all the babes."
"Wallace, the loser who tries hard, probably falls hard, and definitely fails hard." Ryan stepped closer to Wally to emphasize his two inch height advantage on the ginger. "You must be pretty desperate to want to be friends with a creep."
"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself. I'm sure deep deep down you're a great guy." Both the boys broke into laughter. Klarion looked over Wally again. This kid wasn't an illusion, wasn't a super villain, and would probably be scared shitless like anyone else if he knew who he was talking to. If he just dropped his glamor everything would go back to normal, but maybe he could let Wally get tired of "Ryan" first before torturing him? What was the harm?
…
Kid Flash clung to the side of the express elevator at cadmus as Robin bypassed the security on his hologlove. After getting the all clear from robin Aqualad pried open the elevator doors to sub-level 25.
"Welcome to project cadmus," Robin stated as the three stared at the hall lined with… weird red… machine things. Wally would know what they are, or Robin would.
"No Bart leave the thinking to the smart guys." Kid Flash thought as he dashed into the room.
"Kid wait!" Bart was barely able to skid to a stop before nearly getting squashed by the fist of a giant freaking mutant creature! He rolled out of the way with a sigh of relief before rejoining the team.
"No, nothing odd going on here," Aqualad stated sarcastically as the creatures passed. "Let us look around." At that the team began exploring the winding hallways of Cadmus. Most of the facility was machinary, nothing but computers till Robin hacked open a room full of living generators. The blue insect like mutants appeared to be producing electricity from within glass containers that fed power to the entire lab.
"This is how they hide this massive underground facility from the world? The real Cadmus isn't even on the grid! It generates it's own power with these… things. Must be what they're bred for."
"Even the name is a clue," Aqualad took over for Kid, "the Cadmus of myth created a new race by sowing dragon's teeth into the earth."
"And this Cadmus creates new life too." Robin began hacking into the nearby computer. "Let's find out why… They call 'em genomorphs. Woah!" Robin began flicking through the genomorph files. "Look at the stats on these things!"
"Stat? This isn't a videogame."
"Shut up Kid, check it, super-strength, telepathy, razor claws?! THESE ARE LIVING WEAPONS!"
"They're engineering an army," Kid whispered, "but for who?"
"Wait," interrupted Robin, "There's something else… Project Kr. Agh! The file's triple encrypted! I-I-I can't-"
"Don't move!" The trio's heads turned to see someone running at them with a group of genomorph at his heels. "Wait? Robin, A-Aqualad, Kid Flash?"
"Least he got your name right," Robin jabbed at Kid.
"I know you," Aqualad returned, "Guardian, a hero."
"I do my best." Guardian replied.
"Then what are you doing here?" demanded Kid.
"I'm chief of security, you're trespassing, but we can call the justice league, figure this out."
"You think the league is gonna approve of you breeding weapons?!"
"Weapons? What are you- what have I" The genomorph on guardian's shoulder horns glowed. "Ugh...my head...Take 'em down hard! No mercy." Suddenly his genomorphs rushed the trio. Robin threw down a smoke bomb before firing his grappling hook, and escaping on his own. Kid wound up face to face with the things when he got cornered by three of them. They seemed ready to pounce just befor Aqualad chucked the two who'd come at him onto them.
"Focus ki-" Aqualad was cut off when Guardian slammed him in the side. The hit sent Aqualad tumbling across the floor, and into a metal panel. He quickly recovered just before Gaurdian made it back over to continue the match. Kid came past while running from two genomorphs he hadn't been able to defeat. He and Aqualad began scrambling down the hall till they spotted the missing boy wonder.
"Way to be a team player Rob."
"Weren't you right behind me?" The elevator Robin was hacking slid open just long enough for the team to get on without any genomorphs following. The genomorph's bodies made dull thunks against the door before the elevator began to move.
"We're going down?"
"Dude, out is up!"
"Excuse me, project Kr is down. On sub-level 52."
…
"How can you eat so much candy at once?" Wally marveled at what had to be Ryan's fifth bag of sugar-coated sugar.
"How'd you haul all this out here? And why?" He retorted.
"I take trips, it's called effort, and there's supposed to be enough for five people!" Klarion whipped his head around to glare at Wally.
"Why do you do it though?! It's clear your 'friends' have pulled this on you numerous times. You aren't stupid so why?"
"I… they aren't… *sigh*... it's complicated." Wally wilted as he tried to come up with a way to explain his situation without letting it slide that he was practically raised by and with super heros. Ryan saw Wally's smile fade to a frown, and with it grew a foreign pain in his gut.
"You're too good for them," Ryan decided out loud.
"Huh?"
"I've been sitting here with you since 8:53. It is currently 11:10, and I can easily see that you're intelligent, care far more than is healthy, and you aren't particularly ghastly in any way so, do to lack of negative trait and therefore reason to avoid, the only logical reason your friendships are dissatisfying is that you are too good for them." Wally couldn't contain his laughter once Ryan had finished. "What's so funny?"
"N-nothing, just the *pft* 'matter-of-fact' way you said that. Ha!" Wally let his face drop again. Not into a full frown as before, but more of a sad smile. "Besides, I'm not dissatisfied with my friendships."
"Liar."
"Ok, fine, so maybe I wish I could fit in with kids at my school, but it's also kind of my fault I can't hang with my current friends."
"Why?" Klarion followed Wally with his eyes as the ginger stood up and headed towards the fire works.
"That information is classified." Wally shuffled around through the wrappers and punks for another firework to set off. "All we have left are sparklers," he spoke over his shoulder while grabbing the last pack. As he trotted back to Ryan he noticed the other teen had set aside his bag of candy and was once again mumbling to his cat.
"This has gone far past play Klarion."
"..."
"You are getting into something you can't handle."
"So I'm hanging out with a cute boy. There's no… harm in that." Teekle growled at her witch boy's denial of the obvious. Their conversation was cut short when the cause of the problem plopped down next to them and pulled out a lighter.
…...
"It's simple: get on board or get out of the way." All four of the teens turned to the justice league.
"Four days," Batman said, breaking the silence.
"...For what?" Robin cocked an eyebrow at his mentor.
"Go home and report back in for days. The league-"
"Don't just push us aside!"
"I'm not Superboy, tonight cannot be disregarded, but at the same time we need to decide what to do about… this. Until then the four of you need to trust us."
"You should take these next four days off," Aquaman suggested, "the League aren't the only ones who need to take a step back and cool their heads." The teens shuffled a bit and looked between each other.
"What about superboy?" Robin asked, pointing his thumb at the clone in question. Batman would have looked to Superman, but the Kryptonian had already stormed off.
"I'll take him!" Flash offered.
"Flash, if you take him in-"
"He can hang with my nephews! It'll be perfect Bats. Come on, I know it means I have to share my secret identity, but if they trust him I trust him." The Flash grinned at Superboy. "What 'dya say kid?" Superboy smiled back.
"Yeah, thanks."
…
The boys squatted over a patch of dirt they'd been using to light off the fireworks as the last two sparklers burnt out. Wally glanced at Ryan who was holding his sparkler in one hand and petting his cat with the other.
"You know, I don't think you ever told me your cat's name."
"Oh, it's, um… Te-Ti-"
"HISSS (If you tell him my name is 'Tickle' I will make you regret it.)"
"Tea, her name is Tea. She's pretty close to me. We go everywhere together."
"That's cool man." Wally reached over to scratch her head. In return "Tea" stood up and moved between the boys so as to soak up all the attention she could. Purring loudly the whole time. "What're you doing tomorrow?"
"..." Ryan stared at Wally with a blank expression.
"Siriously? *Chuckle* You're that surprised about me wanting to spend more time with you?" Ryan looked back down at his sparkler. Wally felt a pang of worry that he might have hurt the boy's feelings in some way. "Ryan, I didn't-"
"Nothing."
"Wha?"
"I'm not doing anything tomorrow." He looked back at Wally. "When and where do you want to meet up?"
Warning- there will be much Miss Martian bashing in upcoming chapters. Also differing sexuality from cannon, but that's is probably suspected. Feel free to hate on my grammar. Thanks!