Kid Flash's Not so Easy Path 7

For the first time in a very long time, he didn't feel any appetite. The boy ate the food they had received. They sat in the small room where he had found the boy that served as a home. The young boy chatted happily in Hindi and English as he ate, often scolded by Kiran when he spoke with his mouth full. Bart already liked the kid.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Kiran said pushing the basket towards him, "there is enough."

"Believe me, not for me," he laughed as he took out a small pill container and popped one, "yummy," he said more to himself than them.

"Are those candies?" the little boy, Kumar, asked he got closer to him.

"Nope," Bart said to the little boy putting them away, "I am a little different. So, I have to eat them every once in a while so I don't eat everything in my path."

"But you are skinny!" the little boy said with wide eyes.

"Like I said, I am a little different," he said ruffling the kid's hair.

"Like Kiran?" he asked looking at the girl who was starting to look uncomfortable.

"Sort of," he said with a smile, "cool, right?"

"Right!" the boy said before standing and then running around the room playing believe that he could fly.

"Kiran, yaha kauna hai?" a woman said entering the room and stared worriedly at Bart and Kiran.

"Mām̐!" Kumar jumped to the woman's tired arms before he started speaking fast and pointing at Bart. The woman whom Bart guessed was Kumar's mother started to look even more worried.

"Chōṛanē kē li'ē usē batā dīji'ē," the woman told Kiran, who nodded.

"Let's go, we need to let her rest," Kiran said to him leaving behind the basket still full with food and then walking away from the home.

"Sorry if I got you into trouble," he guessed Kumar's mother also knew about Kiran's abilities. Though she allowed the girl in her home and near her child, she still wasn't comfortable meeting more of their kind.

"Aditi was just tired and didn't want to ask too many questions until she had a good rest. She will be a chatter box tomorrow when I go back," Kiran told him as they walked down the street now covered with the setting sun's light. He hadn't realized he had been there that long.

"And where will you stay then?" he asked a little worried but Kiran remained calm as she waved at the children who knew her from the school.

"I guess you won't leave me alone until I show you," she said as they continued walking. They had been well out of the slums and into the woods before she changed before his eyes. He wasn't sure if to look away because when she changed it looked like her clothing burned away. She looked exactly the same as when he first saw her fight in Texas. Her skin was black with the texture of stone, but there were cracks on it defining her face and body through which blue light escaped. Her dark hair turned into a dark cloud that floated about her.

"Aren't you going to change?" she asked him.

"Right," he said disappearing and reappearing in seconds in his uniform.

"Kid Flash?" she asked a little surprised.

"In the flesh," he said with his trade smile.

"I guess I won't be able to ditch you," she sighed before she flew.

"You were planning to ditch me!" he called after her.

It didn't take them long to arrive at the ruins of a temple covered by the roots of immense trees and foliage. Once she landed she entered one of the many passages, he followed her close behind until they reached a dead end. She took hold of the large boulder in their way and moved it to the side just a bit so they could fit through. He followed her and found they were in a chamber that served her as a home. There was a desk, chair, a mattress neatly set as her bed, a closet, a fridge, and even a bookshelf filled with many titles. There was the light sound of a generator as she turned on a light though the place wasn't entirely dark.

"You live here in your own?" he asked picking in the fridge, it was full.

"Is not a big deal," she said in her defense as he looked around.

"This is crash," he said now looking at the titles she had; some were in English, "I wished I had a place like this in the old days."

"Crash?" she asked.

"Cool," he said turning to face her but now his peculiar smile was gone. "Look, I see that you can take care of yourself though I wish you would tell me more of what is going on."

"Not a chance," she said though she didn't sound as weary as before.

"Okay, but please keep in touch with us and if you are in trouble don't doubt about getting in contact with us" he handed her a piece of paper with numbers and emails. Then he pointed at the number on the top "that's mine, the name is Bart by the way."

And just like he had appeared in her life, he was gone.

Kiran sat on her bed in silence for a while. She had expected more of a fight from him. There was a moment where she was tempted to get rid of the piece of paper but then she saw the information to contact Godiva and Red Star and hid the paper inside one of her books. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to stay in touch with them.

888

He collapsed in exhaustion. He lay on his back as he took deep breaths. He double checked everything, and now it was just the matter of what they would bring with them. Once he got his breath back, he was going to look for the necessary items. He closed his eyes, and before he knew it dawn had arrived. In a few days, they would try their machine. There was no time to lose. After a quick shower and breakfast, he took off to Texas.

He found Jaime sitting outside his backyard with his little sister.

"Go play inside Milagro," Jaime told his little sister.

"But I want to show him my trick," she said and before her brother could say otherwise she was bouncing in from of Bart. "Look!" and she made a coin appear on her hand.

"That's not how it works," Jaime sighed, "you have to pull it from behind his ear."

"But then he will not believe it's real magic," she said pouting before running inside home, "Mom! Jaime is being a meany!"

"I take your grandma is teaching her," Bart laughed.

"She will be leaving in a month and then will be sending another sorceress of trust to continue teaching her," Jaime said as he collapsed on the grass, "is almost time, right?"

"This weekend," Bart said with a smile, "I will tell Tim, and you can go ahead and tell Conner."

"I am still not so sure about hacking the League's Zeta-beams," Jaime said with a frown.

"The L doesn't mind. They haven'tsaid anything yet. And even if they did Tim would take care of it in no time," though he had no need for the Zeta beams he knew they were of great help to his friends.

"The L?" Jaime asked raising a curious eyebrow at him.

"The League, you know? So people don't know we are talking about," Bart said with a grin.

"I guess," but though he sounded unsure, Bart could also hear the humor in his tone.

888

Bart waited inside the Hall of Justice and waived at the few tourist watching from the glass above. When Tim arrived, they sat on the comfortable chairs. Bart could tell right away his friend was not in a good mood, which was very unusual for the usually serious teen.

"Cassie is still trying to make me go back to the League," Robin said when asked. He knew there was no point hiding this from his speedster friend.

"The L, we are calling it the L now," Bart said hoping it would make him relax a bit just like with Blue.

Tim raised an eyebrow at him but didn't question him, "please give me you got some good news."

"We are leaving this weekend," Bart told him with a more serious expression.

"Alright then, is there anything we need to prepare for the trip besides our gear?" Tim asked him ready to take note.

"I will take care of everything else we will need," Bart said before telling Tim the basics of it. At the end of their talk Bart realized that the situation felt much realer, "we are really doing this on our own, aren't we?"

"Yeah," but both kids were smiling.

888

"Ehm Bart, you got a visitor," he heard Mr. Garret call from the living room.

He left the kitchen where he had been organizing his pills before he spotted no other than John Constantine at his door smoking a cigar.

"Hey there brat," he said puffing a stream of smoke.

"How did you find me?" was the first thing he could find to say.

"Remember that little amulet I lent you?" the older man gave a devilish grin. Bart made a mental note to tell the rest of his friends to be careful of borrowing anything from the English man.

"Oh," he said before retrieving it from his room, "you need it back?"

"You can keep it, but I would like you to help me with something," he said leaning on the frame of the door towering over the kid and Jay Garret.

"It's sort of late to ask a child to leave his home," Jay said standing between the man and the kid.

"He is not ordinary kid gramps," Constantine said with a careless laugh.

"And I am not ordinary gramps," Jay said already holding Constantine's cigar before dropping it to the ground and stepping on it.

"Right, right," Constantine sighed, "there isn't anyone else I can ask to do this."

"Bart?" Jay asked the teen.

"It's okay," Bart said.

"Great, now don't change into that ridiculous costume and just follow me. If we hurry, we might just make it back in time for breakfast."

888

His head spun as he almost passed out and fell to his knees before spilling his stomach to the grass. He stumbled back to his feet before glancing at Constantine, who was already lighting a new cigar. Bart wiped his mouth before glaring at him.

"Transportation spells are a pain, right?" he laughed.

"Right, so what are we for?" he already had a bad feeling about this.

They were standing in front of an old stone church hidden in the woods. Bart could tell from one glance that the place was abandoned a while back. "You will see, follow me," and then started to walk around it. Constantine made sure to point out to him to stay out of a ring of stones that went around the whole church.

"Is this place haunted?" not that he couldn't outrun any ghost. As the hairs on the back of his head started to stand, he wondered if he should start running now.

"I wish," Constantine said as the emerged to the back.

"A cemetery, please tell me we aren't digging anyone out," suddenly all those scary movies he watched with Beast Boy.

"Once again: I wish," he said throwing the remaining of his cigar.

"Then?" Bart asked as he noticed the tombs had odd markings on them.

"Here" they stopped in front of an old well with a stone lid over it.

"A well?" the lid had the same kind of strange markings on it.

"Now just any well, The Wishing Well," Constantine said leaning against it before glaring at the abandoned church, "in the older days this church had a strong group of believers. The congregation was here just about every day praying for their beloved ones. Things, at that time erroneously called miracles started to happen. Soon people realized there was a connection to this well. They believed for a while that their prayers were being heard, but not by whom they wanted to. As the people drank more and more from this well, their wishes started to turn selfish and eventually outright cruel."

"They were misled," Bart said looking at the graves with a new understanding.

"For something to be corrupted the potential of corruption must already exist. The moment they learned what power they had they allowed their greed to take over," the sorcerer said, "though they called themselves a faithful flock they were all actually wolves."

"So mode," Bart said, "and harsh."

"Sorcerers and even some priests in a rare pact sealed the well. You can guess how the congregation reacted," and he was sure that even the old records he found did not make justice to the true bloodbath that occurred in that land so long ago.

"That doesn't explain what we are doing here," Bart said.

"We are here to banish the demon inside the well," he said pointing at the stone slab.

"I think you got the wrong person for the job," Bart said stepping back.

"On the contrary, the bloke down there like most of his friends has an affinity for games. This one, in particular, enjoys races," he allowed the silence that followed to talk for itself.

"You are kidding," Bart said ready to bolt and John could see that.

"Am not you cheeky brat. Look, this land was recently acquired by a big firm that plans to turn it into a public park that means this place will be at the access of civilians. Why else do you think I would even bother to do something like this? "

"Oh… Ohhh!" Bart said imagining for a horrifying second what would happen if people learned there was a real wish granting well.

"You costumes are not the only ones looking after people, remember?" Constantine said more tired than angry. He enjoyed being a sorcerer but where many others of his kind found easy at ignoring quells of their world, he just couldn't. Not because he was a good guy, like hell he was, but he just couldn't stand and watch as the world went to hell, literally.

"Of course, but wouldn't it be better if you bring someone like Zatanna or Dr. Fate or the magic coat guy?"

"Because the fewer people exposed to those waters the better," John said. "Besides, not everyone can resist its lure."

"If that's your way of saying you trust me-" he couldn't help to smirk.

"I trust that you will get what we need fast," Constantine said giving him a shove, "now give me your hand, I need the blood of a virgin to remove this thing."

"Hey!" he said pulling his hands behind his back.

"Don't be shy, I promise I will teach you all about the 'slap and tickle' and 'rumpy-pumpy' if we get out of this,"

"What does that even me-" but before could continue any further he got his hand snatched and cut his hand before slapping his hand on the stone, "you asshole… What if I wasn't a virgin?"

"You kid? Now that is rich," he said as Bart removed his hand.

"And I will say it again, you are an asshole," he said with a sneer as he watched his hand starting to heal.

"Never said otherwise," Constantine said a little curious at seeing his hands fully healed after a short moment.

They watched as the slab slid off the top of the well and fell with a loud thump to the side. Both leaned to look down at the dark vacuum.

"So what now?" Bart asked.

"You do what you do best," he said before giving Bart a push, "run!"

888 hours later 888

Bart crawled out of the well spitting grit and fire at the sorcerer swinging his legs over the well.

"You bastard," he said as he finally threw his body over the well and landed on the overgrown grass. He gasped for air. Having a race with an actual speed demon was not something he would ever do again if he could help it. He leaned against the wall of the well and swallowed one of his energy pills.

"Oh, bugger off kid, we banished the demon and got this," he said showing him a golden pocket watch.

"After it tried to gut me. You got that after drinking that water after you told me how it affected people," though he had to admit it looked really nice, With this being a watch that came from a demon he wouldn't put it past it doing something horrible.

"Which didn't affect me at all because you helped me banish the demon," Constantine said as he slid down to sit next to him.

"You were after that watch," Bart groaned in frustration. Zatanna had warned him about Constantine's shady behavior. Yet, he didn't feel as bothered as was trying to act.

"If it makes you feel better they are trying to turn this place into a park though this area is going to be off limits. The family who owns the lands knows how dangerous this place was, and that's why they also hired me," he said with a bigger smirk.

"So this was a paying job," Okay, now he was getting upset.

"You costumes know this type of life doesn't pay for its own," he said as he kept swinging the pocket watch from its chain.

"Okay now…" he thought for a moment, "I want half of that." He was going to make him pay.

"Twenty," Constantine said with a smirk as he lit a new cigar.

"Forty," Bart said.

"Twenty-five," the sorcerer, said after a long swift.

"Forty, I did all the running," no debating that.

"Thirty-five and that's my final offer," it was. He was ready to throw the kid in the well again and make a run for it.

"Fine," Bart said trying not to roll his eyes.

"But I will get your help with other jobs," Constantine said with a smirk.

"As long as I get a fair share I don't see why not," though he would drill for the full details next time.

"And I will tell you all about how to get a girl to the 'slap and tickle' and the-" he started.

"Stop right there," Bart laughed, "I know what that means, and I don't want to hear it from you."

"Yeah, you will be begging for my help when you meet a girl that gets you-" and he could still remember the first time he saw a girl under a different light.

"So what does that watch do?" he said not wanting to hear that.

"This old trinket?" he said as he stopped swinging the chain.

"Yeah, you drank that demonic water for it," he looked at him skeptically.

"It's yours," he said tossing it to him.

"Mine?" he held it by the chain worried it might do something.

"Good for one rainy day," the sorcerer said standing up.

"What does it do?" he stood up too.

"Just save it for a rainy day. Is not cursed or anything if that's what you think. Just good for a rainy day," he said with a smirk, "now let's get you home before your gramps comes searching for us." Constantine said before starting to cast the transportation spell.

"I think I will take my own-"

"Too late," John laughed as they appeared in the backyard of the Garret's house.

"I am starting to hate you," he said trying to get back on his feet.

"Join the club," Constantine said inviting himself in just in time for breakfast with the Garrets.

888

He stood before their machine with his friends. Dr. Perez and Victor Stone were standing to monitor the machine. They both gave their team trusting smiles as the machine buzzed into life.

"Remember kids to keep your limbs inside the ride," Victor said, "You don't want to end up like me."

"Oh Victor," Dr. Perez said shaking her head at Victor, "just remember to remove those belts if things get out of hand."

"Something you shouldn't actually do in a ride," Victor said as he had the belts activated, which blended into their uniforms. They wouldn't want the Reach to find the way to take them off the picture.

Bart brushed his fingers over his belt. It was the only thing that would keep him back in his timeline. After taking it off, if it lasted as long as it needed it, he would never be able to go back. There was no chance in the world he would leave willingly until he saw the Reach out of their planet.