Author's Note: Hope y'all are enjoying the story. I've been trying to get up a chapter each day, in case you haven't noticed. So don't let my efforts go unnoticed. Tell me what you think.

Disclaimer: Faith and Jerry are mine. The rest aren't. Plain and simple.

Chapter 11- Distractions

As the bus came to a stop, Wally and Faith stepped out of the bus. The latter was clutching her stomach.

"Next time, I'm beaming here!" she said, "I hate motion sickness!" Wally laughed and motioned for her to follow him. Faith complied, tailing him through a series of turns until they came to teh burnt remains of a building structure.

"That's it alright!" she said. Wally looked around. "Let's check it out!" The two entered the remains of the building.

"Did you see anything suspicious when you were in here yesterday?" he asked, eyes darting around.

"No, none that I can think of."

"Check up there." he pointed to the upper levels of the building that were too shaky for him to walk on. She glided up and looked around carefully as Wally checked the lower levels.

"Who's in here?" a voice rang out. Faith quickly descended next to Wally on the bottom level, who had just stopped mid-stride. A man in a police uniform stepped out from around the corner.

"Jerry!" Wally smiled and laughed.
"Wally? What are you doing here." the man asked, puzzled.

"Just checking out the scene of the crime, man."

"Who's with you?" he said, turning to Faith and raising an eyebrow.

"My name's Aaralyn." she said.

"And what are you doing here?" he asked sternly. Faith didn't know what to say.

"She's my girlfriend." Wally said, thinking quickly, he looped his arm around hers. "Just thought I'd show her what I do best."

"Well, this area is restricted and the structure of the building is highly unstable. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Jerry informed them.

"That's okay, we were going anyway."

"That was interesting." Wally said as they approached another building. It read 'Central City Public Library'.

"What are we doing here?" Faith asked, looking around.

"This is where we experienced the dark flash." he said. "Let's head up to the roof. Maybe whoever attacked us left something up there that will help us figure this out." Faith shrugged. It was worth a try.

When the two reached the rather large roof, they split up. One looked through the north side and the other, the south. Hundreds of appliances, as well as the doorway they'd come through took up most of the room.

"Man, what I wouldn't do for GL's ring right now!" he mumbled to himself.

"You wanted to see me, J'onn?" a gruff voice asked behind the control deck chair J'onn was in.

"Yes, look at this. Apparently, when Volcana and Fiefly burned up the building they didn't take anything. And as soon as Faith and Flash were down, they ran off."

"They're not the type to run from a battle." Batman observed.

"Exactly. And what about the information we got about their boss wanting Faith alive?"

"The fire was just a distraction."

"Flash." a voice said over Wally's comm. link.

"Yeah, Bats, what's up?" he asked, still looking around for anything unusual.

"We have some information on the fire. It was just a distraction. Whoever is currently employing Firefly and Volcana only staged the whole thing to get you guys."

Uh-oh! Flash thought, That can't be good.

"Great!" he said exhasperated, "Why do you think he was after us?"

"Don't know. We're no closer to finding that out than we were before. It could just be a Justice League grudge, but it's still not safe for either of you until we figure this out." A scream came from the other side of the roof.

"What was that noise?" Batman questioned, "And where are you?"
"Faith and Metropolis." he said as he ducked behind a large air conditioning unit. He started dodging behind other large objects as he headed in the direction the scream had come from.

"Faith? What is she doing down there?" Batman barked.

"Can't talk right now." he answered as he turned off his comm. link. Finally, he caught sight of her. One arm was restrained by Atomic Skull aned the other by Firefly.

"What are you doing up here, girl?" Firefly asked not too kindly.

"Just getting some fresh air. You know how stuffy libraries can get." she laughed nervously. Atomic Skull twisted her arm back causing her to cry out. Wally clenched his fists and gritted his teeth as he watched, trying to think of a plan.

"I doubt it. Looking for something... that's what it looked like you were doing." Wally saw her dilemma. She couldn't get away without risking their figuring out who she really was. At a loss for words, she glanced around and made eye contact with him.

"What were you looking for?" Firefly said angrily, slapping her with the back of his hand. He had a firm grip on her wrist and Atomic Skull had one arm firmly around her upper arm and the other around her other wrist. Wally, now fully angry stood.
"Hey, what are you doing to my girlfriend!" He yelled, hoping to distract them from abusing her. Atomic Skull turned.

"Aww! How sweet. He wants to be a hero! Too bad I have to fry you." he said shooting a green flame from the fire around his skull. Wally sped out of the way.

"You blinked."

"It's the Flash!" he yelled at Firefly who had just notice a dark curl that had fallen from Faith's wig.

"And look who he brought with him." He said, yanking off the wig, much harder than necessary.

"The girl!" Skull exclaimed. A malicious grin spread across his bony face.

"Well, now that you know- I'm getting pretty tired of being the damsel in distress." With that a forcefield originated inside of her and pushed out with such force that it knocked both villians off their feet.

"Whoa! Didn't know you could do that!" Wally said.

"Niether did I!" she laughed. Atomic Skull jumped up and Faith flew into the air. He followed her lead and shot toward her. She blocked a few of his fiery punches and kicked him in the stomach. His green fire grew larger with anger. Faith put up a forcefield as he backed her into the brick wall of a taller building.

"You can't keep up that shield forever!" he yelled angrily, pounding at the shield and causing the back half to dig into the brick wall.

Meanwhile, Wally had grabbed a ring from his pocket and in the blink of the eye, he was in his well-known red and yellow uniform. He figured that even though they'd seen his secret identity, he didn't need to let them get familiar with his face.
Before he realized it, Firefly shot a stream of fire at Flash. It hit hard and he rolled onto the ground. Luckily, his clothes didn't catch and he shot back up. Firefly shot another round and Flash moved out of the way.

"Come on, Firefly. No cheap shots!" Wally sped over and grabbed his flame-thrower and knocked him out with it. "That was easy enough."

Faith was getting weak with the strain. Atomic Skull was right, she didn't know how much longer she could hold the sheild. Her eyes darted around and Skull noticed.

"Looks like you've got nowhere to go!"

"Oh really?" she asked. Suddenly, she dropped the forcefield and fell just in time for Atomic Skull to slam into the brick wall. She then flew to a level even with him and wrapped him in a forcefield instead, she spun around and threw him into one of the many AC units on top of the library. He struggled up and was about to charge her when he suddenly turned to ice and fell forward, reavealing a liquid nitrogen batarang lodged into the armor on his back. Batman and J'onn stood a few feet behind him.

Flash sped over with Firefly in his arms and dropped him onto Atomic Skull.

"Took you long enough to show." Wally said. The eyes of Batman's cowl narrowed, but J'onn answered.

"We had to find you first." Wally shrugged and Batman eyed Faith.

"Where's your uniform?" he questioned.

"About that," Flash cut in, facing J'onn and Batman. "They kinda saw mine and Faith's secret identities."

"What?" Batman said angrily. "Do you know what kind of danger you just put yourselves in?"

"Wait." J'onn said and the three looked at him. "I can erase their memories of this event." They all watched silently as he tapped into their minds. He stood looking troubled.

"What is it, J'onn?" Batman asked.
"Their minds. I could erase this memory, but the rest were shielded. The wall could not be penetrated." he paused. "Though I was able to find out one thing."

"What?" Wally asked. A dark look crossed J'onn's face.
"This whole thing is not just a 'League grudge'. Whoever it is wants Faith. And he'll do everything within his power to get her."