Wally would be lying if he said that he wasn't scared. Why was he scared, you ask?
Because Batman wanted a talk with him.
Alone, along with Batgirl.
He was so screwed.
"Bats, if this is about that night a couple days ago, he said he was sorry. And nothing happened, really! You even checked the cameras just to be sure!" Batgirl said.
Wally didn't know which was worse — the fact that Batman still wanted to talk with him after knowing nothing was up, or that he had cameras in his room. Like, what in the blazes?! So him being him, he immediately called that out.
"Whoah whoah whoah, say what? What on earth do you mean there's cameras in my room?! Isn't that, like, technically stalking or whatever?!" He said frantically. He was a bit frazzled from the amount of stress he was going through at the moment.
"It's not that that I'm worried about," Batman said gruffly, ignoring Wally's outburst. "I want to talk about the research you were doing beforehand."
"Oh. That's it?"
"Yes, Batgirl. What, is there something else I should be made aware of?" he said patiently, but there was something lighter in his tone — one that only Wally and Batgirl could hear after years of practice — which probably indicated humor.
"Eh, yeah, no, nothing at all," she said, stuttering. This is a problem when you have a parent in the police force — you get really good at lying, but boy do you have trouble telling the truth while being nonchalant.
Did Wally know her civilian identity? No. No, he did not.
Did Batgirl do something stupid and accidentally reveal her father's occupation in front of Wally? Yes. Yes, she did.
"Now, I'd rather not waste any more time. Kid Flash, come along. Batgirl, you too," the bat said.
The two redheads shared a look, and Wally sighed as he placed his half-eaten cookie back on its plate. He stood up and followed the much taller man, dragging his feet along, Batgirl close behind. "So uh," he started, breaking the awkward silence. He coughed into his hand. "You said that you wanted something?"
"Yes," he replied simply, but only once the trio were out of earshot of the few members of the Team that were in the living room at the time. They finally reached an empty room, where he decided to bring up several holograms. Wally immediately recognized the articles on them.
"The bird epidemic?" Batgirl read off the paper, disgust evident in her voice. "Look," she quickly added, "not that this is something that we should be ignoring, but I don't get the sudden interest in this whole ordeal. Is there something else going on?"
Batman's frown deepened ever so slightly, but other than that, he remained the same. "Depends. I've called you in order to help with your input. The League has taken this "epidemic" with a grain of salt, and any theories are welcomed. We have discussed about whether or not this phenomenon is a personalized threat gone too far."
At this, Batgirl scowled. "We thought that you guys were the ones behind this. And now you're telling us that that's not the case? If it makes you feel any better, I couldn't figure anything out. I didn't even see the possibility of it being a threat before."
The whites of Batman's cowl narrowed. "Perhaps not you, but there is another person in this room."
The two bats looked over to the speedster.
Wally paled considerably. "Wait, you want me of all people to help with this case?! But I'm terrible when it comes to detective work! And plus, if Batgirl didn't find anything, there's no way I would be able to solve it!"
"Not necessarily. While Batgirl is great with detective work, it won't help in this case. I need a fresh set of eyes to look on this puzzle," the Leaguer said.
"But how-" Wally started, only to get interrupted by the female redhead.
"I get it now. Wally, as much as I appreciate the support, the problem is the way Batman and I think. In order to solve our cases, we approach it a certain way — a way that I was taught when I was being trained under him. Because of that, we think too similarly. Even if I were to point something out that Batman might've missed, I wouldn't be able to make any headway. But you were raised differently with how to solve cases, and you might be able to shed new light," she explained, sighing lightly at her own words.
Wally looked troubled, raising his hands in front of him, the gesture declaring him being alarmed. "Even so, I'm not really a smart person. I can barely keep my grades above Cs, and you expect me to solve something not even the World's Greatest Detective can solve? Like, I appreciate the faith and all you guys are putting in me, but still... that's a lot of pressure that you'll just end up wasting."
Batgirl scoffed. "At least try."
Wally glanced at the holographs with a constipated expression. "Err... Well, I guess we should start with the people getting attacked part, right?"
The other two occupants in the room shared a look, almost as if it was saying "he has no idea what he's doing, does he?" that went straight over Wally's head.
Wally seemed to be talking to himself. "Let's see. So far there has been twenty three victims that have been attacked and revealed to have some kind of criminal background..." His eyebrows were furrowed, and he crossed his arms, deep in thought.
Batman and Batgirl stared at him for a second, and before long, a whole minute had passed. The two were wondering what was going on in his head, because his legs were vibrating, a sign that he was excited — and that the gears were turning a mile a minute in his head.
They were just about ready to call him out when a metaphorical lightbulb appeared above his head. "That's it!"
'Oh god,' Batgirl thought, 'please don't make a stupid declaration.'
"There are two different influences that are affecting the birds!" he exclaimed, and his eyes glimmered.
The other redhead sighed mentally and rose an eyebrow. "Care to explain what on earth you're talking about?"
"Think about it!" he exclaimed, appearing by her side in an instant. He waved up a hologram of the globe, the earth slowly spinning, showing off twenty three red dots that were scattered among the different lands that belonged to the victims. He froze the hologram once it came into a certain position, and he zoomed in. Two dots, the first and second victim, were given their full attention.
"What exactly am I supposed to be looking at?"
"No no, just think about it!" He pointed to the dot of the first victim of the bird attacks. "Look here. Andrew Ressun was the first victim, yada yada yada. He was located in Beijing of China. Now, look at the second victim." The speedster pointed to the second dot, located not too far away from the first. "His name was Parker Lane, and he was a couple hundred miles away from the first guy. In order to get from Beijing to the second guy's location by the fastest use of transportation, you'd have to use the train, which would-"
"Take two and a half hours," Batman finished, making Wally flinch. He had almost forgotten that he was there.
"Exactly!" Wally exclaimed, happy that he understood.
"I'm sorry, I think I'm missing something... Why does the transportation between their two locations matter? We're talking about these people being attacked by birds, I'm not sure I'm following why trains matter in this case," Batgirl said, raising an eyebrow as she put her hands on her hips.
"Between the first attack and the second attack, there was a three hour time period," Batman said.
"So...?"
Wally interrupted before Batman could further confuse his protege. "Think about it, Batgirl. Three hours after Russen was attacked, Lane was too. It takes two and a half hours to get from Beijing, where Russen was attacked, to Lane's general location. Those extra thirty minutes was probably spent trying to find Lane."
It suddenly occurred to the female. "So what you're saying is, these attacks aren't random, and someone went out of their way to attack the specific twenty three people by using the fastest transportation means to get to each one..."
"The pattern continues. It wasn't just Russen to Lane. After Lane was attacked, the third victim, who was half an hour away, was attacked thirty eight minutes later! That means that there's someone who is controlling the birds to attack their targets, and that they have to be at the attack in order to control them!" Wally said.
Batgirl nodded at this, but her frown still remained. "So one person or thing has controlled some birds to attack these people... But why would they attack those twenty three people exactly? The victims, so far anyways, don't have any connection or anything similar, other than the fact that they were all criminals..."
"Let's not go too deep to the point where I can't think. Just the basics, because otherwise my brain will hurt." Wally grumbled out. "So, we have a person who has attacked these twenty three criminals, or victims, if you wanna put it that way.
"They travel the quickest way possible to get to these victims, so they obviously have to be there in order to control the birds to attack their targets, in which the control is temporary, since the birds that are attacking these victims are different every attack. These targets are all criminals. So we've got a little bit figured out..." He sounded perplexed.
"By the way, what was it that you meant about there being two different influences affecting the birds?" Batgirl asked.
"Oh. Well, I thought it was kinda obvious now, but if you think about it, we've already established that the attacker guy can only control the birds while he's (assuming their gender) there, and even then, it's temporary. But the entire population of birds is now acting strange. And, they aren't acting hostile, they're acting... mild."
By then, the redhead figured out what he meant. "That's right! Since our mystery attacker has a limit to his controlling abilities, there's no way he's commanding all the birds at once."
"Which means," Wally continued her train of thought, "that either a), there's something else that's causing the birds to act like this."
"B), our mystery attacker is affecting the birds this way, but he can't control them entirely, (and/or it's more of a side effect than anything) or c), the birds are acting this way as a self-defense mechanism against our bird attacker," Batgirl finished.
Wally nodded. "Exactly."
"I see. What now?" the redheaded female asked.
Wally's face turned desperate. "Um... I'm not sure what you mean...?"
Batgirl gave him a look. "What, don't tell me that you gave us a theory that was only based on a single tidbit of the case?"
Wally's triumphant smile became lopsided. "Maybe?..."
Batgirl's face morphed into one of frustration. "Really?! Really, Wally!?" There wasn't any venom in her words, but he could still hear the boiling anger threatening to strangle him. Wally tensed ever so slightly, and he could see from his peripheral vision Batman's eyes narrowing, the whites of his cowl growing slimmer as the Leaguer noticed his sudden apprehension.
Batgirl was going on her rant, but she was more-or-less talking to herself. "I mean really, if the entire thing isn't solved, then that means that one little detail that is revealed in the future could change all our theories! It makes the entire thing useless! Like-" She was suddenly cut off when the holograms flickered, flashing as a new article was brought up.
Wally's eyes flew to the obstruct diversion, his face contorted in surprise. Batgirl's eyes went wide, and she immediately fell silent, her face somewhat flushed. The three all stared at the headline, a sinking feeling growing in Wally's stomach.
"Are Birds Returning to Normal After the Attack on Four Criminals in Gotham?"
0o0o0o0
So, fun fact: the whole bird thing?
Yeah, that was literally just supposed to be mentioned once or twice, not be a full-blown investigation. Whatever. It works, I guess. (Future note: Yeah, it really does work out, now that I've figured out the rest of the plot.) Thanks for all your support, though I have no idea why the crap you guys are reading this. :D