Robin, Kid Flash, Superboy, and Roy all gathered at the café in Keystone city generally around the same time. Robin, of course, was first to arrive. Wally and Roy showed up at the same time after that.
"Hey, what are you guys doing here?" Wally asked his best bros.
"I could ask you the same question. Kaldur called me here. Said something about wanting to cash in on a favor I owe him," Roy said.
"Kaldur asked me here, too," Wally connected. He glanced at the Boy Wonder, and knew immediately that he was in the same situation. The glint in his sunglasses gave away the fact that he had already figured out what was going on and was going to keep it to himself until Kaldur arrived.
And then Connor came and sat down in one of the two remaining, empty seats beside them, the fact that the others were present not even fazing him. Then again, nothing seemed to faze Superboy.
"This blows; I didn't come here for a 'playdate.' I'm gonna bounce," Roy said, standing up and pushing his chair in. Wally made a face that looked like Roy had just kicked his puppy dog, while Robin rolled his eyes. Roy was going through a "too cool for school" phase, and he was sure to get through it eventually; might as well stay traught and let it fizzle out on its own.
"That won't be necessary," Aqualad appeared, glowered at Roy, and made him sit his butt back down onto the chair. "I am so glad to see that you have all made it here," Kaldur said, sitting down himself. "I'm sorry if there was any trouble for you to get here; I made Keystone City the meeting location because it seemed to be the most central location for everyone, except for Wally, that is."
Said speedster grinned. Keystone was his hometown, after all.
"What is this about?" Conner asked bluntly as a cute, young waitress with sleek black hair pulled into a pony tail hopped over to take their order.
"I don't know if we're going to eat anything," Robin spoke for the group. Wally pouted.
"Please go ahead and order food, my treat," the charming Atlantian smiled at his friends and the waitress. Wally perked up immediately. He wasted no time in ordering.
"I'll have 4 double, classic hamburgers with everything on them, 5 orders of fries, 3 sodas, a salad, 5 hotdogs, and your cellphone number," Wally flirted.
"Is that for the whole table?" She asked, ignoring the last request. Robin and Roy face palmed.
"Nah," Wally answered, leaning on his elbow, blocking the waitress's view of the others. "That order is just for me, sweetness. I'm a runner. I have to eat a lot of calories. Do you like track, babe?" Wally launched his best impression of a smolder that he could muster in her direction. Her expression changed quickly from annoyed to sultry.
"Gee, I really like athletes," she said seductively leaning down to a sitting Wally, giving him a good look down her blouse. Wally blushed violently and began fidgeting.
"Oh really? You do? That's cool. I'm an athlete. I run. I'm a runner. I do track and field. Sometimes I jog, too," he fumbled all his words and flushed, looking down at his lap. She straightened up and her expression returned to indifferent.
"Yeah, nice try, hot shot. You can talk the talk, can't walk the walk. What would the rest of you like?" She asked, pen poised above a small spiral notepad.
They all laughed hysterically as Wally blushed a dark shade of red and slid down in his seat. Robin and Connor just ordered the generic burger, fries, shake. Kaldur didn't want anything. Roy asked only for black coffee, trying to look like a cool, composed adult. She started walking away to the back of the cafe when he quickly changed his mind and ordered the macaroni and cheese.
When their food arrived, Wally scarfed his down and Kaldur finally began to speak.
"You may be wondering why I've summoned you here," he started. He didn't need a response to continue. "I'm calling in a favor, from all of you," he informed them.
"I don't owe you any favors," Roy told him curtly, scooping his mac and cheese into his mouth like a toddler.
"Yes you do; I just bought you all dinner," Kaldur said smugly. They all stopped mid chew and looked at their ocean friend. Kaldur could be devious when he wanted to be.
"I could yack this all up right now, if that will make us even," Wally said nonchalantly.
"I will pay you good money not to do that," Robin said, disgusted.
"There is no need for any of this my friends. I am not asking you for a large favor, and you can still refuse if you really want to. I'd much rather you eat dinner than regurgitate it," Kaldur said, glancing at Wally.
Wally shrugged and stuffed two hotdogs into his mouth simultaneously.
The rest of the group shivered at the sight of watching Wally eat until Kaldur set a large, blue and white, map onto the table.
"What's that?" Roy asked.
"Blueprints," Robin answered for Kaldur.
"Indeed," Kaldur agreed.
"What for?" Connor chimed in.
"A place of evil. A place that I am asking you to help infiltrate with me. A prison of the innocent," Kaldur answered.
"It looks like a PetSmart," Wally commented. Aqualad turned and looked right into his eyes.
"That's because it is."
"Why the hell are we breaking into a PetSmart for you?!" Roy snapped.
"You can't hear their cries like I can. My friends, my companions, they're being tortured inside," Kaldur said sadly.
"Aren't they sort of, you know, happy in their own fishy ways?" Wally asked.
"It is true that many of my friends are actually quite content living in the pet stores, aquariums, and as pets, as long as they are well-cared for, but not in this particular PetSmart," Kaldur shook his head in sorrow. "I walked by it on Main Street one day. I could hear their cries of torture and desperation screeching in my ears. They are being mistreated," Kaldur concluded. A pause held in the air.
"I'm in," Superboy committed suddenly. "I don't like any living things being tortured. It's wrong." Kaldur nodded in agreement.
"Ah, what the hell. Not like I have anything better to do with my time nowadays, right?" Roy joined. Robin looked at his friends nervously.
"I'm in, just don't tell Batman," he confided. Now the entire table looked at Wally, who was still stuffing his cheeks with food. He gulped it down at once.
"Dude, give me free food and I'll help you bury a dead hooker in the alley way. I'm totally in," he said. Kaldur ever so slightly regretted involving Wally.
"So why aren't the rest of the team involved?" Robin asked, always first to ask the good questions.
"I wanted to keep this small and on the down-low," Kaldur explained. "I need Robin's expert spying and hacking skills to plan this heist. I need Wally's speed to help get the fish out of the PetSmart and into the ocean as quickly as possible. I need Superboy's strength to help with the heavy lifting. And lastly, I picked Roy, because between him, M'gann, Artemis, and Zatanna, I'll feel the least guilty if he's the one who gets in trouble by participating in this mission," Kaldur concluded.
"Hey!"
1:00AM – PetSmart Rooftop – L.A., California
"Hey guys, that hot waitress chick finally gave me her number," Wally bragged as they all arrived at the rendezvous point, on the roof of their target.
"Oh yeah, hotshot? What's her number then?" Roy asked knowledgably.
"04 57734," Wally iterated proudly.
"That's not a full phone number, dumb ass," Roy chided.
"Aw man, you're right. She wrote it down on this napkin like that. What does it mean?" Wally asked no one in particular.
"In upside down calculator speak, it says 'hells no.' Focus on the mission guys!" Robin whispered.
"Why would she write in upside down calculator speak? Who does that?" Wally crossed his arms. The answer then became apparent as he stared at the Boy Wonder. "You paid her to do that, didn't you?!"
Rob let a faint grin slip.
"Focus on the mission!" Robin iterated as he rolled an augmented blueprint of the pet shop onto the flat surface of the PetSmart roof. "I'm going to enter in here," he pointed to an air duct. "Undetected, I'll hack into the mainframe security and loop all of the cameras. When I say the passcode, "fish-lips" into my comm., then you'll know that it's safe to come inside. You'll come in here," Robin pointed at a side window on the map.
"Wait, wait, wait, our code word is 'fish-lips?' Really? Who's bright idea was that?" Wally protested. Roy swatted the back of his head. "Ow!"
"Roy," Rob continued. "You and Aqualad will put all of the fish individually in small plastic bags, leaving the empty tanks behind. Aqualad will let the fish know that they are safe and going to a better place. Superboy, you'll then come in and break all the tanks, to ensure that the same bad people don't just buy more fish right away and put them in the same tanks. Try to make it quiet though, we don't need any witnesses. KF, you'll then take every single fish, to the beach. Once that's all finished, we'll use Roy's car as the getaway vehicle. Everything clear?" They all nodded except for Roy.
"No eating in my car," he said, glaring at Wally.
"Shall we begin?" Kaldur asked the group.
"We shall."
The Boy Wonder slipped in undetected into the pet store and disabled the alarms. Roy and Kaldur then entered the shop to bag all the fish.
"Don't worry, my companions. We are working towards your salvation. Your cooperation would be greatly valued," Kaldur told the Betta fish.
"Hooray!" All the fishes shouted in return. The two young men proceeded to reach into the tanks and relocate all the fish into plastic bags with plastic ties.
"This is gross," Roy said, as he was arm deep in algae and bacteria infested waters trying to cup a school of fish.
"Exactly. The owners haven't cleaned the tanks in over a month, but we're here to fix all of that now," Kaldur explained. "Alright, Superboy, Kid Flash. We have bagged all the fish. You can come in now and help us finish," Kaldur spoke into the comm. link.
Wally abruptly stopped his snacking and ran inside. He shortly rushed handfuls of bags of fish to the nearest beach.
"Ready?" Superboy asked.
"Yup," Robin confirmed via communicator link. He was still in the control room monitoring the entire scene to make sure no one caught them.
Without having to be told twice, Supey used all of his strength to punch and obliterate every last fish tank. Wally returned to the store fishless.
"I left the bags at the shore," he told the group.
"Okay, guys! File out! To the Roy-mobile!" Robin said, suddenly appearing in the room from within the shadows.
The boys all piled into Roy's old, beat-up hummer and drove to the beach, away from the crime scene. When they reached the coast, they all took turns emptying the bags of fish into the ocean. When Kaldur released the very last fish, the sun was just reaching up out of the horizon.
"We did a good thing here tonight," Roy said contentedly to his friends.
"We certainly did," Kaldur replied smiling. They all looked onto the rising sun over the ocean with satisfaction.
"Hey," Robin said.
"What?" Wally asked him, not peeling his eyes away from the sunrise.
"Those were freshwater fish."
"Yeah, so?" Roy spoke for Wally.
"I thought freshwater fish couldn't live in saltwater, like the water that's in the ocean," Robin concluded. The group of males all looked to Kaldur for an explanation.
The young Atlantian furrowed his eyebrows and shrugged.
"Oops."