The song is Speed it Up by the Ready Set, a song in which a set of lyrics (if reversed) would perfectly fit the Birdflash boys without hesitation, the set originally being what the lyrics this fic is based on below. I didn't want to ruin the original song though, so I decided to go on a head canon that you should figure out by the end of this fic.
Disclaimer: I don't own this song or the characters in this wonderful show.
Blue eyes meet green lies…
"Could you be any slower, Robbie?" the seventeen year old teased, poking his tongue out immaturely at his best friend, taking cover behind the overturned semi beside him.
The ebony didn't look up from his keyboard, the tongue parting his lips from mere habit as he often did when thinking hard, navy eyes darting quickly behind the one-sided glass coating his eyes from the rest of the world's viewing pleasure. The gloves binding his hands helped to aid his flying fingers become a blur, just as Kid Flash did as he had ran over, a sight his peripheral had happily picked up on, but he couldn't look up yet. If he didn't take the door out, when the tumblers of the back room broke, the flooding water would kill them all. No pressure of course.
"I'm not a Flash; I'm a Wonder. Now sit back and let me live out the name [1]," he managed a brief second of a smirk merely for assurance before he cocked his head to the side and let his fingers to continue furiously bashing the keyboard, obviously not getting what he wanted out of it.
The auburn chuckled warmly, rolling his eyes as he stepped up behind the fifteen year old, his muscular frame fitting to the caped back, having the decency to only put his arms around his friend for a few seconds before pulling back and giving him the space he needed, knowing that the hug was needed despite the little scoff he got for it. He could see the fear in the sidekick's frame, the trembles so discrete and little that only knowing and specifically looking eyes could tell them apart from just regular twitches and shakes.
He wasn't too stable himself to be honest, goggles already closed down over his emerald eyes to keep his eyes clear in case the water outraced the protégé's fingers, eyes mentally darting from around them to the pocket he knew the oxygen pieces were held in, ready to save the two of them if he had to save anyone at all. The team was all important, that was true, but if he was going to leave, he'd rather it be with the one who'd known him longer than anyone else.
Even the victims who had been kidnapped, the whole reason they had initially came here, could drown in the floods if it meant getting out with at least one familiar heart next to his in mourning. Speaking of the victims… Wally furrowed his eyebrows, clicking the side of his giggles and letting his infrared mode search through what of the walls it could, extremely suspicious at the lack of team members they had and the little amount of enemies firing down at them. It gave him a bad feeling. That was for sure; he needed some serious turbing [2].
"Did you see where the team went off to?" he rubbed his neck anxiously, running out from beside the ebony and anxiously super-pacing about the room as he tended to do in cases like this, not managing to faze the fifteen year old.
Robin shook his head lightly, eyes narrowing as he seemed to find the particular string of commands he needed, lips drawing over in the left corner of his face in frustration as he typed harder, his anger beating out in each finger press, a small smirk starting to spread over his lips as he found what he wanted.
"Something about…" he murmured quietly, leaning in close and moving a lot faster, "Quiet… and… bushes… dunno, hacking…"
Kid Flash froze mid-step, hovering on one foot, looking through the pillar his best friend was leaning up against as his fingers flew, finally understanding where everyone had gone. How many bodies were in there? When did the pillar get that big? There had to be… at least six in there, two more than had been sic'd here in the first place. What were the extensions in their hands? They were a lot hotter than the rest of them. At least 130 on the inside, that was pretty considerably higher placed in the temperature range… It was like they were holding dimly lit torches… or… freshly fired guns.
"No… ROBIN!" the scream jumped an octave, but the auburn had no time to blush over it, running faster than he ever had, trying desperately to get the acrobat to move. "YOUHAVETOUNPLUGIT! Please, Robin, please! You don't understand! Please! Please! They're in the pillar! Get out! Move!"
He was screaming at the top of his throat, voice trembling but going a lot faster than usual, actually gaining him the pane-covered gaze.
"In the… what?" he lowered his wrist, turning his head slowly with a raise of his eyebrow, looking at the wall that had supported him, tracking it up.
On this side, it was just a flat wall. A concrete mar-less flat space which had been perfect for him to finish the task at hand didn't bear any quality to a hiding facility. It was so perfect, so ingenious, so clever and so late.
"Robin—," Kid Flash couldn't wait for the ebony to agree, watching the colors on the infrared brighten sharply in panic.
He dove, buckling the muscular knees with a sharp hit with his forearm, swiftly catching his best friend in a cradle position in his arms, ducking his head and running as fast as he could. He was never fast enough though. He could never recall a time he had been. It was always his uncle lapping, his foot missing the ledge, his fingers barely a hair from catching, a thin cartridge tearing the yellow of his side, making him tumble head over heels in the literal fashion, landing with a scream of agony.
His goggles smashed hard to the concrete and blasted off, his forehead pressed hard into the floor as his arm clamped around his side, clutching at the puncture would quickly expelling blood as the cries for pain grew more and more with meaning. His real concern was with the bird he had sent flying on accident though.
"Robin!" he repeated himself from only seconds ago, his tone having changed from fear to pure excruciating pain, back arched up and small vibrations running the length of the body as the pain began to pulsate through him in time with his fast-beating heart.
The ebony weakly got to his feet, rubbing his bicep in pain when he saw the blood pooling beneath the auburn, heart shattering as he knew that it wasn't the teen's soul leaking out. Gingers didn't have souls. [3] Then his eyes went to the gun barrel he saw beginning to split the pillar, seconds ago where his chest had been, letting out a cry as he grabbed Wally's forearm with both arms and backpedaled because his life depended on it. Wally's too.
"A-Ah!" Kid Flash screamed in pain as the flesh over his chest was pulled by the stretching of his arm, making the little bird whimper in apology, scrambling back until the next bullet followed that first, sliding to his knees and returning the action his friend had inflicted to him earlier in picking him up bridal style and bolting with a bite to the side of his frown.
"J-just hold on a sec, Walls," he breathed, so quiet that he wasn't even sure the ginger could hear it, shoes designed for silence slapping noisily against the concrete as he defied it all, following the hallways back to the tumbler locked doors. "I've got an idea so stupid that you're going to be proud of me…"
The wounded seventeen year old in his arms groaned in pain, desperately clinging to the bullet wound in his side, the blood seeping out from his fingers, but he nodded.
"I'm going to be okay.. R-Robby," he gasped out despite it, practically sensing the tears burning in his friends eyes, almost seeing one in his mind at least as he heard another shot of bullets ring out after them.
The ebony didn't want to hear his lies though, clutching him tighter and moving just that much faster, if it was possible. His teeth grit tight enough that a seam seemed to be bound between them in the press, eyes defiantly staring forward on the target Wally wasn't yet aware of until a thin metal tube was pressed to his lips. He jumped at it, groaning in pain at the effect that jump had on him, until he realized what it was. A whole conversation, a vicious and protesting argument raced through his eyes and Robin saw this, but he wasn't going to hear it.
"Yeah, my only one. KF, you're m… you're my best friend… you actually have a family waiting for you at home! You have people who'll… someone who'll miss you… When I'm gone, pretty sure only you and Alfred'll miss me… Bats'll replace me by the end of the week. Just try and not miss me too much… and make sure the new guy stays whelmed? As a favor from one bro to another?"
Tears burnt in those emerald eyes and a red glove tightened dangerously around a part of the Keflar costume, but the acrobat refused to look down, chin trembling gently.
"M-Make sure Miss M… doesn't burn the cave down… a-and try to inspire her and Supey to keep it safe? We don't exactly need… little super-strength alien babies…" he laughed watery, evident of his own building tears now, "Help Kaldur… keep the team in line… a-and… try… try and be safe with Arty too, I guess… just never forget your best bro loved you more, right?"
Kid Flash pulled the breather from his lips and tugged on his best friend's costume again, harder this time.
"I'm the one shot! Even if I do get out of here, how long do you think I'm going to last?!" he growled angrily, vibrating violently in the bruised arms that held him.
"Y-You're a speedster… fast healing time… probably until your late eighties, maybe early nineties if the hero biz doesn't do you in first?" Robin choked out, still statistical in what he considered his last moments, the gunshots sounding even closer now than from before when they were actually in the same room.
"I meant without you!"
The words were like a punch to the face, but the figured jaw set carefully, resting the auburn to the concrete as he hooked himself into the door that just barely held back the dam, the one that would knock out the baddies and get his best friend out of here alive.
"Dick!" he managed to get those terrified eyes on his own, one word lightly pulling the mask away so the teary navy rested on the same qualitative emerald gaze, "I promise you… you're going to get out of this alive. We both are… and we're going to be friends forever. You don't have to do this!"
Dick Grayson gave his trademark giggle through the tears smiling down at Kid Flash before fitting the mask back over his features and pressing the small tube between the chapped lips.
"Then here's to forever," he solemnly whispered, looking like the best of heroes as his finger clicked the last time, the dim light of the fixture above hitting him like a spotlight until the door slammed open and his glory was cut away by the terrified screech of a scream and a near forty foot wall of untamed water's fury.
[1] From Miccy and I's roleplay! The original context… definitely… wasn't… this rating, that's for sure… heh…
[2] In saying he's perturbed. I did a paper on Dick recently and I used a bunch of his quotes so I figured I needed to use that word.
[3] I AM SO KIDDING. I'm sure you all have wonderful souls. And if you don't, at least Slenderman won't come to get you. Heh. But seriously come save me.
I know, great ending, right guys? Haha, yeah. I was in such a great mood when I wrote this. So. Great. I mean, we all know Dick lives. It's not rocket science. I'm sure Wally managed to get up in the water once it settled and speed kick his way through it before giving Dick the air tube and getting them to fresh air before getting them out in general to where they run away and be happy forever. I just didn't want to write in a happy ending. Here's to January 5th!
-F.J. III
