A/n: I almost didn't want to post this, but… I will if only as a one-shot until further notice. Hopefully this makes up for me not updating anything in ages, but probably not. Not beta'd. AU qualities. Set in S1! Mostly Wally-centric. Trying to keep this as realistic as I could, reaction and emotion-wise.

OF SHELTERED IDENTITIES

001. Untraveled Road

Wally West stared at the piece of mail and the two tickets in his hands in bewilderment, wondering if this was a joke his best friend Robin was pulling on him.

However, when he really thought about it, he was pretty sure that he kept the fact that he had signed the two of them up for that contest for tickets for two (with a plus one, for each ticket) of A Robin's Cry concert a well-kept secret.

But he honestly was not expecting himself and Robin to win it, it was just an impulse when he saw the poster next to the stand where you sign up!

"How am I supposed to convince Batman to let Robin go out to a concert in Metropolis?" He mumbled to himself before a thought came to mind and he blanched, forcing himself fall back onto his bed. "How am I supposed to convince Uncle Barry to let me go!?"

| . . |

Believe or not, despite the Flash being the most laidback amongst the Justice League, he is the most protective when it comes to children – overly protective when it comes to his nephew, to the point he only really trusts Batman and his protégé alone with him. It is rather embarrassing (but touching) for Wally when his uncle demands with arms crossed and a foot rapidly moving up and down.

So, it came as a surprise when Barry Allen had agreed to let his nephew to go to the concert. Wally expressed this shock rather well.

"But Uncle Barr – wait, did you just agree to let me go?" He questioned, choked. "That's – awesome! Thank you, Uncle Barry! Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!" He repeated his thanks and tackled his uncle in a tight, snug hug, bustling with happiness. He couldn't believe it, he could go to his favourite band's concert…!

"You didn't let me finish, Wally," the blonde stated, but had a small smile on his face as he patted his nephew's right shoulder. His smile stretched into a grin when the redhead pulled away from his uncle to pout at him, not that he knew that. "You can go, but only if Batman agrees in letting Robin and you go together."

Wally's unintended pout only turned into one that resembled one of that of a baby's, "But Uncle Barry, you know that'll be like pulling teeth to get him to agree to!" Kind of like you, he thought, but he kept that to himself, not wanting to come over as ungrateful.

Chuckling, the older man turned around to go to the kitchen, "That's your problem to deal with, kiddo, not mine."

"Arrrrrrrgh! Uncle Baaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyy!"

| . . |

Bruce Wayne stared at the emergency cell he held in his left hand with the Gotham Times held in his right as an eyebrow slowly lifted up, wondering why Kid Flash could be calling. Then he remembered the contest that Wally had signed himself and Dick up for a month ago, and the warning Barry had left him when he had called almost two hours ago, meaning the speedster had finally found the courage to call him for permission to go to the concert with Dick and whoever they chose as their plus one.

He answered with a crisp, "You can go," before Wally could even get the first word in, amazingly enough considering.

The CEO listened to the Flash's partner sputter for a moment with a slight smirk, before he spoke once more, "However, you are to come to my home a night before the concert so you and Dick can take a private jet to Metropolis in the morning since it is happening on a Saturday. I don't trust the public travelling buses and they take far too long."

"R-Really, Mister Wayne? We can go?!" Wally inquired, ecstatic by the news yet wary that there will be a catch. This is the Batman, after all, there must be one. He can't simply Wally and Dick to have safe travelling to Superman's city for a concert.

"Yes, but you will have to bring Megan and Conner with you, as they need to… 'Get out more,' I believe Dinah had said to myself and the others," Bruce stated. Which he agrees with, not he'll say anything about it personally. Merely nudge it at their mentors and certain disagreeable people, so they'll think about it, maybe, but he won't say it so straightforward.

The man could practically hear the grin the young speedster had on his face and the rapid movement he was making in his excitement.

"Yeah, we can definitely do that, Mister Wayne! And thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Wally (squealed) gushed.

Bruce smiled briefly, "No problem, Wally. I shall inform Dick of this arrangement, as well. I am certain he will be most pleased."

| . . |

Wally grinned as he informed his Aunt and Uncle that Mister Wayne had agreed to let him and Dick to go to the concert, along with the conditions he applied.

Barry had tilted his head while he listened to them and nodded in agreement, stating that it will be a good experience for both the Martian and clone. That, and it'll probably get Dinah to back off a bit from their slight neglect of the clone. Yeah, you read right, their neglect.

The big members of the JL, with the exception of a certain Man of Steel, had all decided to look after the boy with the Batman being the main provider and part mentor while Red Tornado and Black Canary are the main caregivers and mentors. At least until said certain someone got rid of the kryptonite that is up their ass. Said three are the only ones really doing anything about helping Superboy.

However, Superboy's teammates are picking up the slack for them, at the very least, but he still needs to get out and interact more often instead of just at the school Batman set them up at.

"Well," Barry started, "If Bruce agreed, who am I to argue with that? But hey! At least it will be a good learning experience for M'gann and Superboy, yeah?" The blonde man grinned.

Iris smiled, "Yes, from what I have learned from Wally, the boy especially needs to learn a bit about interacting with others. This may even open up his outlook a bit, and may even find a passion other than being a superhero."

This made Wally blink a bit, his mind working overtime to process it fully, and when the implications truly sunk in, he collapsed onto the couch face-first. "Ugggggh! Why didn't I think of that? And SB's never really done much outside of what he has been told by Batman!"

His aunt and uncle had jumped when he had begun yelling his disapproval of never thinking beyond the box about Superboy made them look at each other in surprise before his uncle moved closer and placed a hand on the teenagers' back.

"Hey, don't worry too much, Wally, you just never thought about it because you've never dealt with having to help someone learn to be more… uh," Here the blonde man had to look towards his wife for guidance, causing her to huffing in fond exasperation. She moved closer to take over where her husband had left off, placing a hand in her nephew's hair and smoothed it out.

"Wally, what your uncle is trying to say is that you've never expected to help someone find a passion in their life – or, at least, not one that involved fighting crime and helping people," she whispered, a soft smile on her lips. "It's okay, he's not going to blame you nor anyone else for that, so you shouldn't either."

Despite her words not truly comforting to him, he felt touch that she had tried.

| . . |

A few days after Wally had that all settled, he and his teammates had been notified to go to their hideout to wait for their next mission, has it had been quite a while since their last one. Currently, he is complaining at Artemis that Batman had said that he and Robin are to bring Miss M and SB. The female archer isn't impressed, clearly believing he is lying and just doesn't want to bring her along anywhere. Robin isn't being at all helpful smirking as he watched the blonde snap at the speedster.

It's a great way for him to not get a big head, really!

"Will you just lay off, already!? You are TOTALLY downing my mood about the concert with your constant bitching!" Wally finally resorted after listening to her whine ever since she found out, which was when M'gann had blurted it out to her, clearly thinking she was going as well. Artemis had clearly burst her bubble of happiness by exclaiming otherwise rather loudly.

Robin raised an eyebrow. M'gann started, glancing before her two friends before frowning, biting her lip. Superboy merely cocked his head as he watched it go on. Kaldur… well, he wasn't here as he was busy in Atlantis on important errand for Aquaman, and will be for the next little bit as crazy shit is happening down there, otherwise the argument between Artemis and Kid Flash wouldn't have escalated as quickly.

Artemis startled, staring in slight surprise before she snarled, "You know what? I don't have to put up with this, you can tell Batman why I left early without giving him an oral report," she spat. Then she turned around and walked towards the zetatube, intent on going home (and fighting back tears as she did so, her back tense and head held high as to give the illusion that she wasn't at all hurt by Wally's dismissive manner towards her. She was just fine. She's not hurt, nope.)

(Wally was going to get one heck of a lecture from his Uncle once he learns of this.)

Robin stared deadpan at his best friend, "Dude… that was so not cool."

Wally scowled at him, "Yeah? Well, not my problem! Batman said to bring Megan and SB, not my fault I didn't think of signing you guys up for it. I'm just used to us."

"Us?" M'gann asked cautiously, wondering what Wally had meant by that.

"Yeah," Robin started before Wally could answer, "For the last two years, only Wally and I hung out when we could and planned surprise events. Much like this concert, yeah?"

"So, what you are saying is that we are a surprised burden," Superboy said hotly.

"What!?" Wally exclaimed, frankly shocked by that statement. "Of course not! I just… well… didn't think about it until I got those tickets, it was an impulse. Honest! Otherwise I really would have tried signing all over you up." The red head lifted his hands up in the air with an honest expression.

"Then why didn't you say so to Artemis, Walls?" Robin inquired, though Wally knew that the thirteen-year old already knew the answer to that. He pulled a face.

"She gets on my nerves… always… seeming to try and take control of the situation, despite not having enough actual experience in the field to do so," he mumbled. He saw Robin nod to himself at the corner of his eye. "She may believe she does, but she really doesn't have any idea of how we do things. It is a lot more complicated than just putting on an outfit one day and deciding to become a vigilante-hero.

"The way I see things? She was getting it close before B – Arrow came across her and decided to give her some lessons on restraint, otherwise she would have ended up..." Like her parents and sister, Kid Flash thought privately, a villain. "... not being a hero in the eyes of men and women of the law; an anti-hero, if not eventually a villain."

There was an awkward silence, with Robin narrowing his eyes at his best friend from behind the mask that he wears, sitting in a position that looks uncomfortable on the countertop of the kitchen with his head rested in his right hand.

Cutting it close, Wally, is what it seemed the raven-haired boy was saying with his body language.

The red head could only shrug hopelessly in respond.

(Needlessly to say, Batman wasn't overly impressed with Kid Flash that evening, but he left it to the Flash to reprimand him properly later on.)

| . . |

Word on the street was that there were new vigilantes running about, not that is any really news in of itself, as there are new ones popping up (and disappearing weeks' later; clearly not able to handle the hero life,) all around the world.

It is the fact that they do so as 'pack,' for the lack of a better word, and there are six of them altogether. Five males and one female, each one being given a tale that entrances audiences – much like the ones about Batman and the Boy Wonder – and that frightens lowly criminals, to which means it intrigues the more capable ones.

And one of them is a speedster; an experienced one, so much more so than even Barry and seemingly beyond what the potential that Wally shows he could one day be, as well, reports of him doing things even the Flash has shown to have trouble to do with an awe inspiring ease.

The rest, the woman included, are without meta-abilities from what the rumor-mill from low-time to high-time criminals have states, with outstanding training. A video of them, before it had been blocked from all countries while the uploader is incapable of making it work again, had been uploaded on YouTube and had been a viral hit quickly.

The iphone the uploader had had disappeared as well before it had shown up in the Lost & Found at the police department, a police officer having found it laying on his front lawn one morning when he was leaving for work and took it with him on whim, really.

The video being that there almost a coloured smudges, it being too dark to truly capture anything; though a blue bird had caught the eyes of many, as well as a red helmet, a golden 'X' as well as a strips of a cape, eggplant purple and horned cowl, and flashes of green mixed with red and yellow.

However, it had also showed how quickly and exceptional the five non-metas had taken care of an attempted bank break in, and how the firepower had done nothing against them. At the end of the video, though, a wisp of red zipped by and around the criminals before disappearing entirely. They had been tied up together in a complicated and strong knot that the police would need to cut the ropes.

It gained them much attention, especially after the video was incapable of being viewed by no one after the 34, 452th viewer. The people that have seen the video has their own way of explaining it, but in all, the people they have told have been told something different similar, or a lie from someone who hasn't seen it. It being viral for a short time, and then render incapable of seeing it for themselves, they have to either look through slums of lies through various forums to find the truth or simply ignore it and go with the first thing they have been told, which is generally only half-true.

It had also gained the attention of Batman, as the Bat Computer had viewed and downloaded the video hours before it had been rendered useless, to whom showed the Justice League the contents.

"This is… startling, but I have been taught there will always be someone out there better than you at something, no matter what it is," the Flash said after watching it himself. He was the first person to comment on it with a positive reaction.

Batman frowned, "It is more than startling, Flash. I have always kept on eye on new heroes, as well as martial artists, but never have I heard of these people. They are new," when the Dark Knight had expressed heavily on that one word, the six blurs had been slightly cleared out and appeared as silhouettes on the holoprojector. "They may have reports of them helping out the police in various states of the US, but I wary of them. They are too well-trained to have just popped out of nowhere as they have, I have no records of them in the file I have on high-leveled martial artist. The speedster is a high concern as well."

"The may be the case, Batman," Superman had started, "But they have been reported to help. Nothing about them has been told otherwise."

It being rather tense between already, this only spur the fire even more.

The meeting had ended with the six being watched, but otherwise, the Justice League would leave them alone until they have done something to warrant them a visit by them.

It truly is too bad that the Justice League hadn't thought of telling the 'Young Justice' team to do the same, as they have decided that they will investigate and confront them about their intentions and objective like the hot-headed (though with well-intentions) teens that they are.

It is going to be messy affair, filled with misunderstanding and heated words, what-with Superboy and Kid Flash odd temperament being at odds the past few months. The other three are going to have their hands filled with handling that delicate situation that's for sure.

| . . |

A red-haired male in his mid-twenties scratched the back of his neck as he stared at the newspaper that he held in his hands before going to grab the extra-large coffee that he had gotten from a Starbucks two states over to take a sip from the sugary mess. "Hey, big D, did you know that we are being called the Revered Six now by some daily newspaper?"

The response that he had gotten didn't come from his long-time friend, but from one of his brothers, coming down the stairs in grey sweats with a towel wrapped around his shoulders.

"Really? How… lame. They couldn't have come up with something better?" The eighteen-year old inquired thoughtfully, a frown on his lips. "Revered Six… seriously?"

"Apparently," the red-head turned black shrugged, taking a sip of his coffee before gesturing towards the other four cups of coffee with a bottle of some kind of juice was placed next to them on the kitchen table, "Take your pick! Got those, like, ten minutes ago. And guess what? It's your favourite!"

Delicate brow raised at the speedster's direction, before it was placed on the extra-large cardboard cup in suspicion, "Your favourite or our favourite?"

A sly grin was thrown at him, "A regular Canadian, eh."

The dark-haired boy nodded, finally taking a sip of the coffee, "A double-double," he smiled.

The red-head stared, flabbergasted. "You know the truth of the double-double?"

A snort caught their attention, and the male with a white-tuff in his hair received both a nod of acknowledgement and sputtering, "Of course he knows – who do you think he is; Dick?"

"Hey! I take offense to that!" A voice whined from behind and yet another male with dark hair popped into view, "I'll have you know that Walls was rather obvious with that hint, Jaybird, and Timbo would have gotten it immediately even if it was or not."

"Please, even a child that has been to Canada just once would have known," a voice of a young boy said condescendingly and a boy around the age of eleven or twelve appeared from the staircase while a giggle was heard behind him.

They both received a bright smile from the one called Dick, "Morning, Lil D, Steph!" He got back in response was a grunt from the boy and a good morning from the blonde girl.

"So, what are we being called now?" Steph had asked.

"Revered Six," 'Timbo' said, as though he can't believe it, and he probably can't since he's not used to being called anything by any newspaper but 'vigilante.'

Then again, beside the speedster, none of them had, not really. It is… nice… but it is rather disturbing at the same time, honestly.

However, all six of them continued on with their normal morning routine, though all of them had just one thought of what they thought of their new name, listening to the song that played on the radio; Untraveled Road.

Pfft, they tried to restrain their laughter, Revered Six… how tasteless.

Ｗｈｅｎ ｗｅ ｓｃｒｅａｍ，

Ｏｕｒ ｌｉｐｓ ｄｏｎ＇ｔ ｍａｋｅ ａ ｓｏｕｎｄ．

Ｗｅ ｍａｒｃｈ ｗｉｔｈ ｆｅｅｔ ｏｎ ｓｏｌｉｄ ｇｒｏｕｎｄ．

Ｗｅ ｗａｌｋ， ｗｈｅｒｅ ｎｏ ｏｎｅ ｗａｎｔｓ ｔｏ ｇｏ，
Ｏｎ ｔｈｉｓ ｕｎｔｒａｖｅｌｅｄ ｒｏａｄ．