Author's Note: Okay, so, first off, pretty much everything before this chapter here was written long ago for the yj-anon meme, and I've only just recently started writing for this again. Combined with that I've been having some internet problems lately (hence why I haven't updated since before Christmas). So, anyway, more is definitely on the way, but it might take a bit longer than usual to get posted.
Speaking of which, I'm not one of those idiots who's going to withhold chapters or anything, and I do want to thank everyone who has been reviewing and following the story (I really appreciate the comments), but those of you who haven't reviewed yet should know that, well, fact is reviews (be they positive or negative or [better yet] constructive) make this whole thing so much more enjoyable for me. They inspire me to write more and tend to give me some really good ideas in that regard.
Anyway, enough boring stuff... on with the story!
Oh, also, credit to my new cover art goes to Reo9.
It had always struck Wally as some great cosmic irony that his birthday fell in the heart of the winter season. After all, with powers such as his, one would generally expect that he had been brought into the world on a day such as the Summer Solstice, as had his aunt. A day of warmth and life, rather than the cold heart of snow.
Here he was, celebrating his sixteenth birthday on the day of the biggest blizzard of the century. Even if 'celebrating' was a slightly exaggerated term. 'Wandering' might be a better fit.
For obvious reasons, Robin, Aqualad and Artemis didn't seem to be making the commute to the Cave today, leaving Wally with just Conner, Zatanna and Miss Martian to pass the time with.
It was only a week since the loss of Zatanna's father, so she was hardly in a celebratory mood and Miss M still liked to keep at least one body between them at all times. As for Conner, well, he didn't really seem to know what a birthday actually was so, even if anyone had known about his birthday, the odds of any actual celebrations were pretty slim. Particularly since Harley was still locked up in Arkham.
At least, that had been what Wally had thought until he had wandered into the hangar to check on the Super-Cycle, only to find four individuals he had most definitely not expected to run into on this morning.
Batman, as imposing and impassive as ever, making a stark comparison to the far more colourfully dressed Robin, who wore a familiarly smug expression and the Flash, who was also dressed much more colourfully than Bats in his scarlet red uniform, as well as a red haired woman who almost looked like she could be... wait, what?
"Aunt Iris?!" Wally blurted in shock, recognizing the woman who had occasionally babysat him after Aunt Isley turned into Aunt Ivy. "What are you doing here?"
Iris West-Allen looked away from the Caped Crusader to take in the sight of her wayward nephew, green skinned now and far taller than the cheerful little boy she had known.
"Wally!" She exclaimed, relieved, taking a step towards him before the Flash placed a hand on her shoulder to hold her in place and Batman interrupted her.
"She's here on the matter of your living arrangements," he revealed.
"What?" Wally looked from his Aunt to Batman and back again. Then he looked to the Flash, who smiled unexpectedly, before turning to Robin in the vain hope of some sort of sane explanation.
"What Bats here means," the Flash elaborated, gesturing towards the scourge of the Gotham underworld idly, "Is that the paperwork for your governmental pardon is ready to go. We just need to sort out a few details first. Namely, who's gonna be looking after you now that you aren't going to be crowding the juvenile detention centers."
"Your parents were previously approached," Batman added stonily, "However..."
"However," Iris took her turn to interrupt the Dark Knight. "Rudolph and Mary, well..."
Though his posture never shifted, everyone could see the twitch in Wally's expression as he finished the thought, "They didn't want me back."
"No!" Iris said passionately. "Wally, don't ever think that! Your parents love you! But, we thought that..."
"We thought that Iris and I might be able to handle to your situation a little better," the Flash finished, shifting his arm around Iris's shoulders in a manner that made Wally realize exactly how close the speedster was standing to his second favorite (though her competition in that area wasn't faring too well at the moment) aunt.
"What are you talking about?" Wally asked suspiciously.
"Well, Wally..." Flash began, suddenly very awkward.
"We wanted to tell you sooner," Iris added quickly.
"But, well, you were so young..." Flash continued.
"And we weren't sure if you could handle it..."
"And then, you know, the whole 'Thorn' thing..."
"But basically, what we're trying to say is..." Iris said slowly, as the Flash brought a hand to his cowl and began to tug at the scarlet material.
"Hi Wally," the awkwardly smiling face of Barry Allen waved at the green-skinned boy. "How'd you like to come live in Central City with your aunt and me?"
Standing with uncharacteristic silence off to the side, Robin was sure to catch every moment of the usually quick witted and bitingly sarcastic Wally's stunned silence and gaping jaw on the camera he kept tucked in his utility belt.
Unfortunately, it only lasted a few brief minutes before Superman called in a priority alpha alert.
Wally drove the Super-Cycle through the blizzard's biting chill in absolute silence, not even making idle conversation with his vehicle as he was often prone to do when bored.
So much had happened in the past half hour... Wally felt like his brain was about to melt.
UNCLE BARRY WAS THE FLASH!
Dear god, it seemed so amazingly, incredibly, astoundingly impossible. How was it that he was related to two super-beings? Didn't that, like, break all the laws of basic statistics? Not to mention common logic?
Speaking of breaking common logic... UNCLE BARRY WAS THE FLASH!
The same kinda dorky guy with a blatant obsession with puns and stupid jokes who'd taught Wally the basics of chemistry regularly ran around at the speed of sound in skintight spandex... all with his wife's (Aunt Iris) full approval and support.
And they were inviting him to live with them?
Him, a known (if semi-reformed) super-villain, living under the same roof as one of the most well respected superheroes in the world... would that mean he was getting a secret identity? Or did they expect him to go to school green and expect nobody to comment? Wait... did they expect him to go to school?
And, strangely enough, that wasn't even the weirdest part of his morning.
Turns out the blizzard covering the entire US wasn't entirely as natural as everyone had first assumed. Five floating fortresses scattered across the country were controlling the weather to plunge the world into some kind of Ice Age, only without the talking mammoths, sloths and sabertooth tigers.
With all the roads and airways closed due to the extreme weather conditions, and all members of the Justice League with any particularly useful abilities (like, say, flight or super-speed... or both) being just a touch preoccupied by the aforementioned floating fortresses, Batman had come to him (Thorn) and requested (really more like ordered) that he use the Super-Cycle to transport something from Boston to Seattle.
That something, you ask? A human heart. They were desperate enough to trust him with the life of some poor little girl.
And they were desperate. With the blizzard going strong, the entirety of the United States of America had pretty much come to a complete grinding halt. All hands were very much on deck until the fortresses were blown clear out of the sky and, well, of all the superhumans at Batman's disposal, Wally was the only one that sprang to mind who a) possessed abilities that would be of absolutely no use on a flying ice fortress and b) had access to a vehicle and/or other mode of transportation which could actually still function in this weather.
Wally was available and Wally was, supposedly, at least somewhat trustworthy. And Batman literally had no other options unless he were to allow that little girl to die.
Still, the missions, both Flash's assignment to help on the ice fortress assault and Wally's speedy deliver service, kind of cut into their time to actually talk about the Allens' offer before Wally Blue Screen of Death moment over the whole 'Uncle Barry is the Flash!' thing cleared itself up (hell, it still hadn't cleared itself up! He was going nuts here! Was he related to any other supers that he didn't know about?!).
Still, before speeding off to join the fray, Flash had spared his wife and nephew a mournful glance, offering a few parting words.
"Just... just think about it, okay Walls?" He had practically begged, even as he began to pull his cowl back down to cover his face. "We've really missed you these past few years and, well..."
"We've just missed you," Iris concluded, as Flash (Uncle Barry!) nodded, giving Wally a brief millisecond to process the request before the speedster had streaked away and Wally himself had turned away without a word to find the Super-Cycle.
Even now as he steered the Cycle down to the streets of Boston, careful of the sleet that pelted him and the gale force winds that would have threatened to send any earthly vehicle flying off course as he took them in carefully for a landing in front of the Boston General Hospital.
The Cycle skidded slightly as they touched down on icy tarmac, but, for the most part, the extraterrestrial craft and her pilot remained in control, bringing themselves to a stop in front of a trio of hospital staff that Wally was assuming were his contacts.
"Speedy Delivery Service, ready to roll," Wally spouted, almost on reflex as the trio hurried towards him, the woman leading the group carefully holding out a red and white case.
"Here's the heart," the lead woman stated strongly, holding it up in order to pass it to him. "The case is insulated against shocks, but it can only take so much, so keep the showboating to a minimum."
Wally nodded simply, accepting the case and placing it into a hold the Cycle had thoughtfully opened up at his side.
"Hey..." one of the other staff members, a thin man who looked quite a few years younger than his colleagues, said questioningly. "Which one are you? Are you new?"
"Huh?" Wally blinked confusedly, before he remembered that, bundled up against the cold in a white parka and gloves and with a pair of heavy goggles and a balaclava to keep the stinging wind from his face, not even a trace of his green skin was visible, leaving his identity a true mystery.
For a brief moment Wally realized that, to this guy at least... he could be absolutely anyone he wanted to be. He could be someone who wasn't weighed down by years of criminal behavior, whether that person was 'Thorn' or someone else entirely. If he so chose, he could simply be Wally West, nephew of Iris West and her husband, Barry Allen.
However, since Wally had developed a slight tendency for the eccentric after being partially raised by Harley Quinn, a slight grin formed beneath the balaclava as he remembered a few games he used to play as a child back in Central City. Back before the emergence of Poison Ivy and long before the appearance of 'Thorn'.
"I said 'Speedy Delivery Service', right?" Wally told the man with prideful arrogance. "I meant it. I'm Flash Boy, and the Flash-Cycle here is the fastest bike in the world!"
"Flash Boy?" The man looked ecstatic as Wally patted the Super-Cycle smugly, even as she made a few irritated beeps at the pseudonyms Wally had assigned them. "Seriously? I-"
"We don't have time for this," the lead woman interrupted irritably, turning to Thorn. "You have exactly four hours until the heart expires, so don't waste even a single second."
"Gotcha," Wally saluted with a touch of conceited pride, "We'll get the heart to Seattle, quick as a Flash!"
Wally revved the Cycle's engines without another word, blasting off from the road and into the air, chuckling as he went.
So he was turning over a new leaf... sort of. Who said that meant he couldn't still mess with people?
"Oh, come on Supey," Wally patted his beeping bike's chassis placatingly, "You know I was just fooling around. I mean, did you see that dude's face when he thought I was a Flash?"
The Cycle simply beeped again, conveying her thoughts rather effectively despite her very limited vocabulary.
"Well, it's not like I could tell them who I actually am," Wally reminded her. "I mean, who in their right minds would give a kid supervillain a human heart and trust them to actually deliver it? Flash Boy and the Flash-Cycle sounds way more trustworthy."
Beebop.
"Come on," Wally wheedled, gathering that the Cycle didn't seem to like being referred to as anything but her proper title, making only minor exceptions for 'Supey' and 'Sphere' when necessary. "You'll only be the Flash-Cycle for this one mission. It can be, like, your secret identity or something!"
Beep!
"Dude, I totally promise," Wally swore, arm raised solemnly. "Scout's Honor. I will never again refer to you as 'the Flash-Cycle'."
Beep.
"Just as well," Wally shrugged, concentration returning to the controls and the expanse of Boston below him as he began to steer them towards the west. They needed to get to Seattle ASAP. "'Flash Boy' does sound kind of stupid now that I think about it. Now that you mention it, so does 'Flash-Cycle'..."
Wally was quiet for a moment as he thought, with only the sound of the wind filling the silence as they raced towards Seattle.
He smirked at the cycle below him as his genius mind provided an idea...
"How about we be 'Kid Flash' and 'the Speedster'?" He suggested jokingly. "I can cover up the green and we can paint some little lightning bolts on your sides...?"
Had it not been for the exceedingly fragile human heart in her care, the Super-Cycle would gladly have bucked and sent her cargo overboard. As it was, she merely made her displeasure known to him in a more vocal manner.
