Time in the theater seemed to stop in the wake of the strange teen vigilante's departure as expressions of shock mixed with other emotions were exchanged among the five heroes sent to stop the robbery.
"Um, did that guy just call Me, Canary, and Wildcat, 'Dad,' 'Mom,' and 'Grandpa?' Cause if he did, I think I'm gonna freak out!" Flash exclaimed looking like he was freaking out already.
"I think he did, Flash," Green Arrow answered. He not only seemed confused, but also a little offended. That kid, whoever he had been, had not only almost forgotten to say 'bye' to him, but had also had the nerve to call his girlfriend and his best friend "mom and dad." Admittedly it wasn't so much what he said as the implication. That the kid was proof Dinah had cheated on him. It had made him feel like chopped liver. He didn't even like liver!
"That little punk did call me 'Grandpa', didn't he?" Wildcat growled. He really didn't like being reminded of his age, especially in that manner. He wasn't that old yet.
"Shut up, Wildcat. We got more important things to discuss right now," Dinah told him. She was trying to keep a level head.
"Yeah, I agree with Black Canary," Zatanna said. "I think we should question Captain Cold."
Captain Cold was trying to crawl away, while they were talking. His nose was still bleeding a little bit.
"Where do you think you're going?" asked Wildcat, who was still mad and thought it'd be fun to take it out on this joker.
"I was going to check on my… teammates," said Cold after a brief moment. He didn't know what else to call Trickster and Mirror Master. They weren't friends, but they weren't enemies. Teammates seemed to work at the moment.
"No, really. Where were you going?" Wildcat questioned gruffly, clearly not believing him.
"I just told you! Do you need a hearing aid or something? Despite what you so-called 'heroes' think, some of us villains do have a sense of loyalties!" Cold retorted fiercely, still trying to stop the bleeding.
"What did you say, you little-?" Wildcat began.
"You hear me you 'Golden Age' piece of trash!" Captain Cold said fearlessly.
The whole time this is going on, the rest of the group had been watching with bewildered looks on their faces. It wasn't often that anybody ever talked trash to Wildcat like that. Not to mention someone who had already had the stuffings knocked outta them no more than five minutes ago.
"You trying to pick a fight with me, Cold?" Wildcat demanded.
"Ha! What would be the point? If I fought you right now, I'd have murder charges on top of the ones for armed robbery. Why would I want more charges? Besides, Grandpa, you'd be too easy to beat up. Now, your pretty 'daughter' on the other hand, she could put up a fight." Captain Cold mocked with a sneering laugh.
"THAT DOES IT!" Wildcat roared, making a move to beat Captain Cold within an inch of his life.
Surprising to him, Cold got up and got into a fighting stance, bloody nose and all. Normally the guy insulting him would either back away, or start cowering in fear when he started walking towards them like this. He was about to throw his first punch when Black Canary got in between them.
"That enough from both of you!" she said. "Cold! You have two choices to make. One, you can tell us what we want to know, or two, I can beat it outta you." She said it with piercing eyes. Much to her surprise, Captain Cold didn't flinch like others usually did. He just stood his ground, and sneered.
"Well my dear, what is it you'd like to know?" he asked her in a mock politeness.
"Uh…?" Black Canary was caught by surprise by him taking option one, and that was all she could say.
"I said, what would you like to know?" he repeated.
"What Black Canary was trying to say, Cold, is why were you and the other Rogues trying to steal tickets to one of my shows?" Zatanna asked in a stern tone.
After staring for a few moments, Cold answered her question. "My wife, for whatever reason, likes your shows. We didn't have the money to buy the tickets, since you charge SO much for them, so I did what other villains do when we can't afford something: I stole them. I don't know why she likes you so much. As far as I'm concerned your father was much better. Ah! Good old Giovanni Zatara. I miss him," he finished folding his arms.
At first it looked like Cold's remark about her father being a better magician stunned the Mistress of magic. Then her eyes began to water and before anyone could react, she covered her face with her hands and began crying.
No one had really expected her to react that way, and Green Arrow went right to her side and put his arms around her.
"Look what you did Cold!" he scolded.
Dinah looked slightly jealous at this motion.
"Well, how was I supposed to know she'd cry? I thought all the girls on that Watchtower of yours were 'big girls' and that insults didn't work on them," he argued in his defense. "Not my fault that she couldn't handle the truth!" he finished.
Green Arrow was about to say something, but then-
"I…it's okay, Arrow. He's right. We're supposed to be able to handle these things. With that, she removed herself from his arms and went right up to Cold. Nobody knew what she was going to do, least of all the frosty villain. It was a real mind-blower when she hugged him tightly.
"Hey, hey! What do you think you're doing?" Cold exploded in shock.
"I thought I was the only one who knew my father was better than me!" she bawled out into his parka.
"That's nice, now let go!" he told her, obliviously not enjoying the situation.
Her only response was to hug him tighter.
"In that case-" he said, right before he lowered his cold gloved hands to her butt and gave it a nice big squeeze.
Zatanna yelped in surprise and backed away her face redder than Flash's costume. "Why did you do that?" she whined.
"To get you offa me! You may have liked it, and maybe I did too, but my wife wouldn't have liked it. Which reminds me, I must kill Heat Wave next time I see him," he declared in a determined tone.
"Why do you want to kill Heat Wave for, Cold? I thought you guys were buddies?" asked Flash, who had been silent the whole time. He'd been thinking about the mysterious speedster they had encountered.
"He introduced us." Cold answered in a tired, nonchalant tone.
"Oh. Hey, that reminds me. Where is Heat Wave, anyways? I haven't seen him since Darkseid tried to take over the Earth a few months back," Flash wondered aloud when he suddenly realized he hadn't seen his fiery foe for quite some time.
"I think he's still with those Secret Society guys. He knows I still haven't forgiven him for what he did," Cold answered.
"What did he do?" Flash asked with wide eyes.
"He married my sister," he replied angrily.
"I didn't know you had a sister!" Flash exclaimed with surprise.
"Flash! Everybody! We are getting off topic, here!" Black Canary, who had been watching the whole thing had had enough of all the nonsense and was fed up with it. It was very much like a soap opera.
"Cold, if you tell us what you know about that weird guy that called me 'mom' we promise to let you and the others go," she told him sweetly. She knew should wouldn't, but at this point she was too tired and angry to care.
"We do?" Flash muttered, elbowing her in the side. "Supes and Bats would totally kill us, Dinah," he added nervously.
"I know," she muttered back from the side of her mouth. "That's just what I'm telling him to make him talk."
"Ah."
"I trained her, you know," Wildcat announced proudly.
"Just don't let the Boy Scout know that you lied," Arrow declared merrily.
"And I'll get you all free tickets, too!" Zatanna added cheerfully.
"Whatever! Shut up, all of you! Talk, Cold!" Dinah ordered all of them angrily, her last nerve snapping. "OW!" This last was said in reaction to the backhanded slap Cold had given her.
"Calm down!" he said in a commending voice after hitting her.
"Okay. Okay, I'm good. Thanks. Now will you please tell us what you know about him?" Black Canary asked after she calmed down, secretly thankful he had slapped her.
"There's not much to tell, really. He just came in, stole our weapons, tossed them across the room, and proceeded to beat us up like we were punching bags. When Trickster and Mirror Master went after their weapons he used his…Canary Cry, I guess. He sent them right through the wall. After that he started punching the crap outta me. Flash can tell you the rest." He explained the best he could, refolding his arms as he finished.
The heroes were hoping to find out more about the strange person who had taken out the rogues and used both Flash's and Dinah's powers, but no luck.
"Can I go now?" Cold asked in a tone that was both tired and bored.
"Sure, just hurry," Canary said smoothly, smirking.
As Cold turned to leave, looking mystified by the heroes' strange behavior, Zatanna came up behind him and tapped his shoulder. She handed him four tickets to her next show, which he took with a smile and thanks. Then Wildcat punched him in the face, as the sound of police sirens filled the air outside.
"Well that got us nowhere," Oliver said with a sigh.
"Maybe J'onn will have an answer?" Flash put in his two cents. "He's a telepath, after all."
"I hope so, Flash. I hope so." Black Canary put her face against her right hand as she messaged her temples with her hand.
"This is Wildcat. Beam us up, Scotty. Heh, heh, I've always wanted to say that," Wildcat said, laughing at his own joke.
They then felt the same familiar tingle as teleported back to the Watch Tower where they hoped they would find some answers.