Chapter Seven: A Different Perspective
Early October 26th, 2010
"This is Amethyst Thomas." A picture of a teenage girl flashed up on the center screen above the teens. Wally tensed, his eyes widened, and all the color drained from his face.
"Amy" He muttered under his breath. They had been called in early this morning for a briefing. Something urgent. He never thought that it would've been this.
"You okay?" Robin whispered from his position at Wally's side. What was her picture doing on the screen during a briefing? The picture didn't even seem like her. Amy and this pixelated photo of her were so disjointed in Wally's mind that he could barely form the connections. It didn't feel real. Wally shook the fear from his mind.
"What?" He glanced down at Robin.
"What's wrong?" Robin hissed over his shoulder.
"Nothing" Wally brushed him off and turned back to the screen ahead.
"She was last seen yesterday leaving Central City High School. After not returning home, her parents reported her missing." Batman paused. Last seen leaving school. With that statement all of Wally's emotions returned ten fold. He didn't walk her home yesterday.
"I know that it really sucks that she is missing and all, but why are we spending our time looking for some girl? Isn't this a job for the police?" Artemis questioned from behind; her hand rested on her jutted out hip. She wasn't just some girl. She was some girl that he was supposed to walk home yesterday.
"Because, she isn't just some girl" Robin corrected matter-of-factly. "She went missing immediately after saving mylife." Artemis became quiet once again.
"She isn't missing. She's been kidnapped." Batman regained the team's attention. If it wasn't already, Wally's mind began racing.
"By who?" It was Aqualad who spoke now.
"Chimera. An underground organization that kidnaps and sells metas on the black market." What could they possibly want with Amy?
"And with her powers there's going to be plenty who are interested." Robin's voice traveled past Wally's ears. Their words just grazed his turbulent mind. It was moving so fast that those around him seemed to be in slow motion.
"And what are her powers exactly?" Artemis questioned again sounding tiresome of the conversation.
"From what we have observed she can accelerate and possibly generate stem cell activity in the body after trauma" Batman answered.
"In English?" Superboy asked.
"She can heal people" Robin said. Wally heard him, and the past two days immediately came into to focus. Amy healed Rob and Wally yelled at her for it. For hiding it from him, when he knew damn well that he was doing the exact same thing. Guilt washed over him more intensely than he could remember.
No. He was not going to fail her again.
"Where is she?" Wally's eyes remained glued to the floor his voice was cold. The team grew silent. They traced Wally's features with their eyes and shuffled to look at him trying to find an explanation for his demeanor.
"Central City. A warehouse by the docks" Batman replied sounding as monotonous as before. In a flash of light, Wally was racing from the mountain to Central City on foot. He didn't even think of using the Zeta-Tubes. All he could think now was to run.
Run. Run until you find her. Don't stop running until she is safe.
The team chased behind him in the bioship. They both arrived to Central City docks at the same time. The rest of the team got off the ship and surrounded a now panting Wally. His hands were on his knees and he was bent over trying to catch his breath.
"Wally are you okay?" M'gann asked him gently. Wally felt more calm. Seemingly he had run off his panic.
"Yeah. Yeah I'm good sugar. No need to worry about me." He stood up trying to return to his regular demeanor. He opened his food compartment and started slamming a protein bar. "Let's just find Am- that girl" his words came out jumbled as he swallowed the last bite. He hoped that would cover up his slip up with the name. He couldn't place why, but he didn't want the team to know that he knew Amy. At least not yet.
"Uh. Okay" Robin was not buying into Wally's sudden change in behavior like everyone else, even though he seemed to be back to normal now.
"Superboy can you see any movement." There were six different warehouses lining the docks.
"Got something. There" He pointed to one of the Warehouses and the team sprung into action. Soon they were all crouched under a window on the back of the building. The window was crusted with grime, but Wally could still see a figure in a chair in the center of the room. His breath hitched in his throat.
Amy.
"Artemis, M'gann you will create a diversion to draw the men outside. Then, Super Boy and I will join you out here." Aqualad gestures to the empty parking lot adjacent to them.
"Kid Flash, Robin, you will go inside and get Amethyst. Destroy any and all intel they have on meta-humans" The team nodded in acknowledgment of their assignments and sprung into action.
Wally and Robin snuck through the side door that led into some sort of makeshift office. White wash wall lined with computers and metal tables covered in papers. Robin got to work hacking into the computers. But through the wall of windows facing into the warehouse, Wally spotted Amy.
He darted out of the room and towards the chair where she was bound. She was unconscious with multiple tubes running through her IV and different empty fluid bags hanging next to her.
"There is no way we can remove all this intel!" Robin huffed over comms. "They have almost 100 meta identities." Wally sped into the room.
"I can wipe their hard drives but we will have to destroy this facility. They have too many paper documents and who knows what else hiding in the rest of the building." Robin told the rest of the team through the comms.
"Our orders are to shut the operation down by any means necessary" Aqualad relayed.
"Get the hostage ill plant the detonators" Robin told Wally and he sped back to where Amy was as tied up. She was littered with cuts and bruises. As upset as Wally was he could tell she put up a good fight and that made him feel strangely proud. He started ripping needles out of her. Her eyes fluttered open.
"Hey. We are gonna get you out of here okay?" Wally reached to undo her bindings but she threw herself back in the chair. It screeched across the floor away from Wally. Wally jumped backwards at her sudden movement knocking over a video camera behind him. Amy's eyes darted madly around the room and she breathed widely.
"Where am I? Who are you? What do you want from me?" She asked panickedly. Wally slowly approached her again hands raised.
"Get the hell away from me!" She screamed and started thrashing widely in her chair.
"Whatever they gave her is bad guys she is freaking out." Wally said through the mind link.
"Just grab her and get out. The detonators are set. They will go off in one minute." Robin replied as he ran outside to join the team in the fight. Wally returned to trying to calm his deranged friend.
"It's okay. I'm kid flash. I'm a good guy." He said. She glared at him with so much intensity that she might have attacked him if she wasn't tied up. Still he approached her.
"AHHH!" she screamed and kicked Wally away, "HELP HELP PLEASE HELP ME!" Tears were streaming down her face and she thrashed and cried in a manic state. Wally didn't know what to do. She obviously didn't trust Kid Flash. But maybe she trusts Wally West.
Wally knew he shouldn't reveal his identity, but he couldn't leave her like this.
"30 second KF. Get out of there!" Robin's voice blared through Wally's comma. Wally took out his earpiece and shoved it in his pocket.
Wally slowly took off his mask and looked at Amy. She froze staring at him with her glasses over eyes wide.
"Wally?" She whimpered. Relief flooded through Wally. Thank god.
"Yeah. It's me. It's going to be okay. I'm going to get you out of here." He finally got close to her and hurriedly untied the ropes.
"You came." She muttered. All of her anger and tension had deflated. Now she just looked sad. Beat up, vunerable and sad.
"Of course I did." He said smiling despite everything.
Beep. Beep.
The detonators started to beep slowly at first. The rate increased as their impending explosion drew closer. Wally shot forward and scooped Amy up in his arms bolting out of the building just as they went off. He looked back to see the building up in flames.
When he looked back down, Amy had gone limp in his arms. Wally went to find the rest of the team. Still clutching her bridal style closely to his chest, he frantically brought her to Robin.
"What's wrong? She just passed out. Is she okay?" He blurted out skidding to a stop in front of the team. Robin pulled a scanner out of his belt and ran the unconscious girl.
"She is just unconscious." Wally breathed a sigh of relief. "I don't know what they gave her, but it is probably a reaction to that along with the trauma. She'll probably be out for a while."
"We will take her back to the cave for further monitoring. But for now our job here is done." Aqualad stated calmly. Wally carried Amy back onto the bio ship and set her on a cot in the back. They team flew back to the cave. All the while, Wally kept glancing back at his sleeping friend wondering how he was going to explain himself when she woke up.
