DEF: Damn, the povs just jumped from one to the next. I swear, sometimes I just typed and then realized who the hell was talking. I like to call it DC character intervention.

Vita: And I like to call it insanity. Anyway, I proofread and had no fugeing idea who the hell was talking until Robs pointed it out so yeah. We don't own DC but we do own, um...this piece of half burnt spanish test paper!


The world exploded in hot fiery pain, the smoke was too thick, he tasted blood on his tongue and felt a stinging pain running from temple to jaw. His goggles were gone and he couldn't see more than two feet in front his face but he could see well enough to make out the eight year old in his arms.

"I-I'm scared," she whimpered clutching his costume tightly, she coughed and passed out, he hugged her tightly to his chest, Gods, he couldn't even see the wall.

The flames danced before him, dervishes given life and a voice, they hissed and laughed at him, reaching ever closer, licking at his legs. He shuddered violently, if he were alone he would definitely embrace them, end it all in one last fiery blow out but he had someone else to worry about this time.

He didn't care anymore, they had to get out, someway, he got up and ran blindly, he had no idea where the hall was or if it even existed anymore, all he knew was that he wasn't running into anything.


"Was that Kid Flash?" Commissioner Barran asked, his face was streaked with soot and he had a nasty cut running along his arm where a doorway had collapsed on him.

"I think so, Flash's still in there, he probably went to find him," the paramedic suggested but still, Robin could see the worry etched into their faces, if either one of the speedsters died in there, it would destroy these people. He wondered idly if Gotham would mourn either of its Bats, there would be the few who they'd saved personally and then the vast majority who saw them as nuisances, worse than the villains they worked to beat.

When he'd started all those years ago, he'd get mad whenever someone badtalked either Robin or Batman but as Bruce constantly reminded him. Their superhero selves and civilian selves were two completely different beings and what someone said about one should not affect the other. Sure it was hard separating himself into different parts but it damn well worked.

"Don't worry, they're both too stubborn to let a little fire get 'em," he joked biting his lip hard, that had been Wally, how in God's name had he heard about the fire? Maybe he hadn't been as far away as they'd thought, maybe West had been hiding out in Keystone for the last couple of hours.

"Most of the patients are on their way to Central Gen, the firefighters are getting ready to use the high power hoses," Roy reported, he looked like a survivor from a disaster movie. The little bird set his mouth grimly, they all did, a few people had suffered third degree burns but nothing too life threatening.

"There's KF and the last patient," he pointed out giddily, the firefighter took the child from the younger hero, then he pushed Wally back, what the? Okay maybe the hoses were about to hit and he was telling Walls to get down, the man threw the girl back in through the window and slid down the ladder.

Okay, he pulled out a bola and threw, just in time for the ground to disappear underneath his feet.

"Earthquake!" He crouched down, it didn't feel like an earthquake in fact it more resembled an.

"Explosion! Everyone get down!"


Oh Gods, fire everywhere, hungry red flames every which way he turned, there was no way out and the girl wasn't breathing anymore. He nearly lost his grip on her when he slammed into a wall, where did it go? Was it a way out or just a divider between rooms?

No way to know until he got on the other side…but he'd never been able to reach the speed necessary to shift through objects. If he screwed up, then they were dead, if he didn't even try then there was no doubt they'd both be dead, well only one thing to do. Getting as close to the wall as he could, he started to vibrate, he hissed in pain as the flames burnt his back, his legs, everywhere, he was pretty sure some of his costume had melted onto his skin by now.

Cut the shit Wallace, it's now or never, faster!

Faster than sound, no not good enough, more, the speed of light, almost there Wallace, just a little more, faster than light, he fell through the wall, bashing his knees hard but he was through. The smoke was choking, couldn't see much anymore and he was weak but he could see well enough that the smoke was filtering out of the room.


Wally oh God, where was he? The older speedster zipped through the halls, he needed to find Wally before the entire structure caved in on their heads. He'd been thrown against the wall when the place exploded and when he could finally see, Wally was gone, probably hadn't seen him and was looking for a way out of this death trap.

He coughed into his sleeve, C4 explosives, hard to come by in Keystone and Central, not so much in Gotham and Star, in fact Gotham U used the stuff for chem experiments all the time. Whoever'd done this was an out of towner not something they got all that often, someone had pissed someone off bad. Or maybe someone was trying to get at Dick through Walls, it was no secret Kid Flash and Robin hung around together, once on an undercover mission for the League, he'd heard of the nickname villains had created for Speedy, Robin and Kid Flash: Those Little Shits or just TLS for short.

Almost all the stories he'd heard about the three had begun, 'Those little shits…' and ended, '…would've gotten away too if it weren't for those little shits.' It was strangely endearing yet at the same time just plain creepy so it would make sense for someone, say Penguin to blow up something in Keystone to get at Dick.

He nearly fell through the floor when the floor dropped away, he backed up a good few feet and ran forward, the gap only spanned a few feet and the moment took him over it no sweat, well figuratively at least.

"Flash, you need to get out of there now." He scowled, dodging a falling beam, trust Dick to turn his words back on him, was this some sort of payback? He couldn't leave, not until he found Wally.

"Not yet, Kid's here somewhere, I need to get him first," he replied rounding another corner, damnit, most of the walls had collapsed where was Wally?

"We know, he's climbing out through a window right now." Dick added, the little bird would never know how much of a relief that simple sentence was to the elder speedster.

"Thank God, I'm on my way out," he reported ramping up his speed to one just above light and getting the hell out of Dodge.


"KF! Damn it, you nearly gave Flash a heart attack when you raced in there!" Red Arrow yelled dropping to his knees next to the half burnt kid, damn, damn, damn!

"She's not breathing," he whispered, he was shaking in shock, oh Gods, not again, please don't let it happen again!

"What the hell were you thinking? Flash was running around in there looking for you!" Roy yelled but he ignored the archer, the little blonde girl wasn't breathing, he lay her gently on the ground, maybe CPR, smoke inhalation…

"And on top of that, what the fuck's been going on with you for the past month?" Roy ranted grabbing his shoulders and shaking him hard.

"She's not breathing!" He finally managed to scream, that finally got Roy's attention, the archer released him and turned to the girl quickly.

"Medic! Someone get a medic right now!" he shrieked so hard his voice broke with the effort, his heart was pounding painfully hard in fear, oh please, please no.

'Ring around the rosie.'

The medic all but flew over to them, he recognized the woman, Suzanne or something, followed closely by Robin and Commissioner Barran.

'A pocket full of posies.'

He watched mutely as Suzanne blew into the girl's mouth, waited five seconds that felt like a like time before pumping the girl's chest. Another eternity and Suzanne was blowing more air into the girl's mouth, the hollow rise and fall of the girl's chest her only reward.

'Ashes to ashes.'

Their panicked voices slowly faded as the fire burned behind, the firefighters were working desperately to douse the flames but the wind was picking up.

The paramedic was saying something, talking to him with that desperate, sad look on her face, he glanced at the girl for second, no more rising and falling of her little chest. He blinked as time caught up with him again and he could hear what everyone else was saying.

"I'm sorry but the smoke was too much for her, maybe a few more seconds could've made a difference but... Her name was Angeline Dixon, she was eight years old and was admitted for a severe asthma attack," Suzanne explained. He found himself nodding dumbly, Angeline, asthma, dead.

'Your fault, you were so much of misfit that it killed this little girl. What do you have to say for yourself? Are you happy now, proud of yourself?'


The small brunet swallowed the bile that rose in his throat, the kid was dead, a kid was dead. Sure he'd faced this a lot of times before but each time, every life lost only it made it harder to carry on. The death made it harder to carry on but it also fueled his inner drive, it made him want to be a hero. Every time he doubted himself, all he had to do was remember the face of any one of the dead he'd dealt with over the last four years and he'd realize just how much he was needed.

"Hey Kid, what…" he didn't need to look up to see the widening of those blue orbs behind opaque white lens as Flash realized the girl was dead.

"My fault." His head snapped up faster than he thought possible, Wally was sitting away from them, holding his knees tightly, eyes shut muttering to himself.

"KF," he called loudly, the red head didn't even respond, he frowned, walked over to where the red head sat and crouched down in front of him.

"Kid Flash, Wally," he hissed shaking his friend hard, still nothing, it was almost as though Wally were lost in his own little imaginary world and wasn't coming out for anything. The orange tinted goggles the speedster always wore were gone so the bird had a clear look at those expressive emerald greens.

They weren't clouded over but more focused on something else, something no one else would be able to see but was real to the red head. A hallucination brought on by the smoke or…

"Come on KF talk to me," he murmured pulling a vial from his belt and breaking it under Wally's nose, he shouldn't be doing this, as in he really shouldn't be doing this. The compound in the vial was only supposed to be used on Scarecrow's fear gas victim's, anyone else would go into metabolic shock and possibly a coma but Wally was a Flash and this was serious.

The antidote would send the victim's metabolism into overdrive to help burn off the toxins, in a Flash, the most it would do was give them a high for a few seconds then they'd crash, like a normal caffeinated person. In a normal person, the metabolism would spike off the charts for exactly sixty seconds before dropping off the charts. Their metabolic rate would slow down until they needed a machine to keep them alive, no one ever really recovered from a fear antidote induced coma.

"Damn it leave me alone!" He winced when the red head yelled loudly right in his ear but at least he was back to the real world, well relatively. There was a haunted glint in those emerald greens now and a sickly sheen of sweat over a too pale face making freckles stand out like old blood.

"KF, calm down, it's just me," he assured the older boy taking that too pale face between his hands, the red head still didn't look good but anything was better than the blankness from before.

"Rob? Oh right, we got out, the girl Angeline is she okay?" Wally asked craning his neck as best as he was able while still in the little bird's grasp to find the girl.

"KF, I'm sorry, she's dead. She had asthma and the smoke only made it worse, the paramedic said more time and maybe they could've saved her but that doesn't make it you fault alright?" he added quickly knowing Wally would jump to that conclusion instantly.

"No Rob, if I hadn't run off like a spoiled brat, I would've been here when Flash got the call I could've helped more. We would've gotten out more people faster and Angeline wouldn't be dead," the red head rationalized calmly.


"O-okay," Robin said confused but said nothing more on the subject, Wally knew he was to blame and he knew how he could make up for his idiocy.

"I mean, yeah I'm sad she's gone but she wouldn't have wanted me to beat myself up over it, would she?" he asked, it was meant to be rhetorical; of course he wouldn't beat himself up over it. He had Rudy for that didn't he?

"Of course not Kid, you did everything you could to save her. Now let's all get to the hospital to get checked over," Barry instructed appearing next to his nephew. The bird and the archer nodded, while Suzanne and another paramedic, Jacobs, zipped Angeline's body into a body bag.

He planned out an elaborate story to get them all off his back, he couldn't very well have them stalking him now could he? He'd have to do something about those cameras in his room as well and change the passcodes, well after he got a new door that is.

'~And I fall down~And I fall down~And I fall down~And I fall down~'

He smiled to himself, at least this time the voice was right, soon he'd fall down into a place where no one would ever be able to get to him ever again.


DEF: Okay, one thing I'd like to get off my chest. I have been guilty of cutting once upon a time and planning in advance how to lie and hide and act so I'm writing from experience from now on.

Vita: Let it be known I myself was tricked by her acting, I dunno if I'm gullible or she's just one hell of actress. I plead the latter!