UnStoppable Flash

Disclaimer: Kim Possible trademark and all characters belong to Disney.

DC Comics and all characters belong to Warner Bros.

Previously on 'UnStoppable Flash'

"I really need an errand boy around here to slave for part time wage. " Gregory Home declared in an even voice.

Home just twirled the cane as he spoke. "I'll see you in a month or so."

"My home address in Keystone. When you are ready, I can show you a few tricks. And Joan always loves guests at dinner." Jay Garrick smiled at the teenager.

"I'm sorry, did he say Underworld?! " Ron's voice rose in pitch.

"Did we seriously defeat the very King of Hell with the freaking power of Love?"

"I am Oliver Queen." Kim supplied info from near Ron's bed. ""He is the Arrow."

"Bruce Wayne, at your service." The tall, dark and handsome man threw a smile their way.

Wayne looked outside the window on the jet. "I think I need to keep a close eye on those two."

"You!... You're... Batman!" Ron tried to stand up to get a better look.

"And you are Ronald Stoppable, long way from his home."

"Freshly imported from Starling, a very nice and affordable dose of Vertigo. "

Dementor tried to crawl away frantically as Ron advanced on him. "Nein! NEIN! Stay avay! Der Dämon der Hölle!"

Chapter 12: A League of Their Own

Summer Fever Part II

The jaws of a monster out of a top-notch horror movie closed in on Ron. No matter how fast he ran, he couldn't outrun the army of monsters that chased him. They were everywhere. He lost track of where he was and fell into the black mass of River Styx.

The teenage speedster woke up with a gasp for breath, as if he was being drowned. It took the better part of a minute for him to realize that he was in his bed in Possible residence. His sleeping t-shirt was all wet from cold sweat and he couldn't regulate his breathing.

The panic that gripped his heart slowly let up. He got up and glanced at the digital clock near his bed. It was five thirty in the morning, and he could see the first light of dawn painting the night sky into a cold blue color.

Kim was gone for three days now. Ron was settling into his new routine with working part time at the crime lab. It was not an entirely new experience to him, as his one week mentor-student experience had shown him the basics previously. But that new gig was not the reason for his sudden awakening from a dark nightmare.

Every single night since their trip into the Underworld four days ago, he had awakened with a similar nightmare. Monsters and all sorts of horrors closing in, the feeling of helplessness, Ron had a hard time dealing with the nightmare even after waking up.

'Did you think a trip to Hell would be a simple mission Ron-Man?' That was the tiny little voice in his head chiming in.

Worst part was the feelings that stemmed from his brief contact with River Styx. Eros had somehow pushed the actual essence of that damned river out of him, but the mere memory of the pure, ancient hatred that touched his soul was incredibly disturbing. He hoped it would get better with time.

He was not going to get any more sleep, and he did not have to check in with Home until the night shift that day. That made him remember another idea he had earlier.

The scarlet speedster had to run to clear his head, and he could just as well have a destination to reach instead of pointlessly running. He put on his friction proof hoodie and pants before leaving a note for the Possibles. Seconds later, a red streak was scorching the highway bathed in the first morning light. He stopped a few kilometers outside Middleton and breathed deeply.

The roads were as empty as they could be. Not even birds were chirping, and only sound that he could detect was the cool, early morning breeze rustling. The quiet was good. He closed his eyes and enjoyed that for a few minutes, just standing in the middle of the highway, facing eastward. Then he felt the first rays from the sun hitting his face.

Finally feeling a little bit warmer after the nightmare, he opened his eyes and blasted forwards. He felt breaking the sound barrier once, then let loose and surged forwards even faster, breaking the Mach limits a few times in a second. They were not as violent as before, when he was slower. He wasn't sure how fast he had gotten this time, but it felt faster than the last time he was testing in the airfield.

Then he slowed. He was not in a big hurry, and he only had about seven hundred miles to travel. He travelled the rest of the way in a leisurely pace, possibly with no more speed than 300 mph.


As Ron stepped on the porch of a suburban house, the clock on his left wrist was signifying the hour as eight in the morning. The house had a slightly rustic look, looking as if it was designed back in the sixties. He wasn't wrong at all, as this particular section of Keystone City had not seen any renovation since then.

He rung the doorbell and patiently waited. He heard the door being opened a full minute later.

An old lady was standing behind the opened door, curiously peering at the nervous teenager standing on her porch. She had a soft gaze that emanated from her blue eyes. Ron was surprised a bit, as she didn't look any older than sixty.

"Yes dear? How can this old lady help you?" She was soft spoken as well.

"I.. uh.. I am looking for Mr. Jay Garrick. He..." Ron showed the paper he had in his hand. "He gave me this address."

The old lady's gaze turned to the paper for a second, before nodding softly. "He is out for his morning walk dear, he should be back soon." She gave Ron a once-over. "What did you say your name was?"

Ron gulped. "I actually didn't.. Sorry about that… I'm Ron Stoppable. I met Mr. Garrick back in Florida."

The old lady's eyes widened impossibly as she heard the name. "Stoppable… Your family name is Stoppable?"

Ron didn't understand what was the big deal. "Yes ma'am."

"And your first name is 'Ron'?"

"That's what they call me." He threw one of his Ron-shining smiles. "Ronald Stoppable, the most badical teenager alive." He rephrased that after a second of thought. "Well, maybe the second most badical."

The old lady suddenly broke into a huge smile herself. "Ronald, please come inside." She moved away from the door and showed the teenager to her kitchen inside. "I am Joan, Jay's wife."

"Pleasure to meet you, ma'am."

Joan Garrick guided him to a chair near the kitchen table. "Please dear, call me Joan. Jay told me all about you. You must be hungry."

Ron was a little lost. "As a matter of fact… I am hungry." He scratched his head as he tried to figure out what was going on. "Wait, he told you all about me? Like, uh..."

Joan Garrick moved with the deftness of a woman that had memorized her kitchen fully and took out utensils from kitchen drawers. She threw a sly smile at the teenager for a moment. "I know that you must be famished after a little morning exercise yourself. After all, running from Colorado to here is no easy task."

"Actually it was pretty eas- Oh my God, you know." Ron caught on in the middle of his reply.

"Young man, stop worrying and start eating." She served him a quickly prepared sandwich, much to his delight. He didn't hurry up with the eating though, out of respect for the kind old lady.

The front door to the house opened and Jay Garrick walked back in. He was holding a grocery bag as he walked into the kitchen. "There was a terrible line at the store, and the tomatoes were-" He saw Ron sitting and eating. "Well well, kid, you look much better." He set the bag on the kitchen counter and shook Ron's hand, who had stood up immediately and tried to greet Jay, albeit with a full mouth.

After swallowing his bite, Ron sat back down with Jay doing the same. "Thanks Mr. G." He stopped for a second. "I feel better." Scratching his neck, "Well, at least better than we first met."

Jay threw a smile at his wife, sharing some look with her that Ron couldn't decipher. "I must say, I have been wondering if you would show up." He slapped his knees and stood up. "But here you are. And I did promise you to show some tricks."

Ron nodded, though he had one question to ask. "Last time, you said you owed Stoppable family a debt. What was that about?"

Jay looked mildly amused and threw the teenager a sly grin. "Oh, that is a good story. We wouldn't want it told over an empty table at early morning." He pointed to the kitchen counter. "How about we have a nice breakfast first?"

Ron nodded again, then his eyes lighted up as an idea popped in his head. He turned to Joan Garrick. "Mrs. G., how about I prepare the breakfast? As a way to repay your hospitality?"

"Oh my goodness, he is so well mannered as well." Joan turned to Jay. "You are lucky he is not seventy years older, dear."

Ron stood up and walked along the kitchen, inspecting the supplies.

Joan sat down near her husband and gazed at the teenager. "Are you sure you know what to do?"

Ron just threw a sideways grin. "Oh believe me, I know a few things about cooking and kitchen maintenance." He stretched his hands and dramatically sighed. "Just watch the show."

As the old couple watched, he turned into a red streak. Ingredients were being prepared at super speed and utensils were appearing on the table as they blinked. Half a minute later, Ron stopped and they could see him near the stove, presiding over a pan. He grinned. "Cooking process itself can't be rushed."

Joan threw an approving smile, as Jay sighed. "I have avoided any kitchen work for more than sixty years, and you do it without provocation."

"Yes, you might want to take notes, husband. Not all speedsters are lazy, it seems." Joan poked fun at Jay's annoyance.

Ten minutes later, they were having the extensive breakfast Ron had prepared. He had cooked omelette and pancakes

"So Jay told me you were a high school sophomore?"

Ron swallowed the food he was chewing before answering, having learned his lesson. "Junior, now that the term is done with."

The old woman sighed softly. "And yet you put on a suit and go running, looking for trouble?" She pointed to her husband. "He was twenty two when he was doing that, and yet..." She sighed again and cut herself off. "You are too young to be burdened so much."

Ron was chewing slowly, looking far into distance from the window nearby. He softly replied. "Someone has to do it… And there is no one else in my city."

Jay slightly laughed. "No one? I'd daresay you are mistaken kid. You are certainly not alone with that fiery redhead backing you up."

Ron shrugged. "All the more reason for sticking with the gig." He threw a discreet look at Joan Garrick, and struggled with himself to ask a question.

"What is it young man?" She waved her fork at his direction. "You look as if you have something to say."

"Well, it's..." Ron gulped slightly and blushed. "You don't… look a day over sixty. But… you gotta be at least ninety…"

Joan smiled as Jay chuckled at Ron's discomfort. "I am the same age as Jay here. Ninety-five as of last March."

Ron's mouth slightly went ajar. He pointed to Jay. "Him, I get with the…. You know… But, uh..."

Jay sighed. "Well, it's difficult to explain Ronald. Joan has aged slower than normal, like I did."

"It has been an unexpected blessing." Joan held her husband's hand.

Jay squeezed her hand gently as he continued. "It ties into with what I wanted to help you with. It's something that I have not been able to fully understand."

Ron nodded and finished up eating. A minute later, the table was cleared out and cleaned, dishes placed in dishwasher.

"We need to get to a slightly more isolated location."

"Shall I prepare dinner for three, then?" Joan asked before the two speedsters left the house.

Ron shook his head. "I have to be at my part time job by evening, maybe another time Mrs. G."

Then, after Jay's nodding confirmation, both were gone in a breeze. Joan chuckled wistfully as she sat down on her living room couch. "Seventy years waiting to serve that sandwich, and he doesn't even know..." She sighed softly and recalled the very first time she met Ron Stoppable.


Some distance away from Keystone city, two speedsters stopped at a natural reserve. It was devoid of any signs of civilization as it was a densely forested area. Jay had brought him to a small stream cutting through the forest, having created a small clearing.

"First things first kid." The old man smiled. "Let's see your form."

Ron opened his hands to the sides, clearly having no idea what to do.

"Run like you normally do."

"No superspeed?"

"Exactly."

Ron, feeling extremely stupid, did as he was told. He took a lap in the clearing, then took a faster one, still within natural human limits.

"You play football, I assume?"

"How did you-"

Jay Garrick chuckled. "I used to play as a runningback myself." He exhaled, having seen enough. "Your form is good, very efficient."

"I had tons of practice as a teen sidekick." Ron grinned.

Jay smiled. "Now, run."

Ron's eyes slightly widened. "Run? To where?"

"Away." Jay caught the teenager flat footed as he surged forwards. Ron barely avoided the half hearted grab of the old man. Then he exploded forwards himself and started zig-zagging in between the trees.

Ron was sure of one thing. There was no way in hell that this old man could match his speed, hence, he couldn't catch the young speedster. He had proved himself vastly superior in speed department last time they had went mano-a-mano.

Then why the hell he couldn't shake him off? Ron had no idea. Jay Garrick, inexplicably, was keeping up with him, somehow cutting Ron off and coming very close to catch the teenager. Ron failed to notice a rather large rock formation coming up as he was checking his back and looking at Jay. He turned at the last moment, barely avoiding running straight into the rock.

However, Garrick had caught up. Ron felt something pulling his hoodie back, and he found himself knocked on his back a second later.

"Having a little nap, are we?" Jay's smiling face blocked his view of the trees as he peered from below. Ron got up slowly, not having a clue as to what happened.

"How the hell… I mean I beat you last time!"

Jay found a suitable rock and sat down, rubbing his knees. "I was being controlled kid. That means I was not using my best weapon." He narrowed his gaze on Ron. "You know what that is, right?"

Ron felt like he did know. Besides, the answer was obvious enough to anyone who watched enough action movies. "Your head?"

"Very good." Jay leaned forward as Ron took a sitting position on the ground near him. "You see, many people think that we speedsters just run fast. But you and I know better."

Ron nodded slowly. "We can think faster. That's what you are saying."

Jay nodded. "How did I catch you?"

Ron was not sure. He didn't exactly think slow himself. "You, uh… I dunno, ran faster?"

Jay laughed slightly. "Kid, even in my prime, I wasn't able to run as fast as you can right now." He pointed to Ron. "There are two facets of being fast. You should know this as a runningback yourself. First part is, of course, running fast." Then he pointed at Ron's head. "Second part is thinking fast." He finished with an obviousness to his statement. "You can only be as fast as you think. And as long as your head can't keep up with your legs… Well, you have seen that ends."

Ron understood what he was saying, but not the why of it. "Time slows down for me as I run, sometimes even without running. It gets so bad that I need to concentrate just to go back to a normal thinking speed."

Jay nodded. "And that's where you are going wrong." He stood up. "Tell me, what do you do to increase your speed?"

"I… train… Try to run faster, break my limits?" Ron shrugged. "This is pretty much a no brainer."

"And why didn't you do the same with your mind?" Jay stopped and let that sink in Ron's head.

Whose perception was now blown to bits. Ron's mouth slightly went ajar as he realized his huge mistake. He had actively tried to stop thinking fast, and never the opposite. And then he remembered why.

The days he spent affected by Phoebus Project. That had given him super intelligence, but also activated some sort of super mind speed as well. After that instance, he had never thought that fast. Just fast enough to do his homework and study faster, or react well enough in fights.

"I see that you now understand." Jay sighed. "Look kid, there is something about this power… Something I couldn't.. explain, all these years." He put his hand on Ron's shoulder, who was now standing up as well. "Whenever I ran and pushed my limits, I felt this oddness. It's as if I was tapping into a well, drawing-"

"Energy from something within?" Ron completed, having felt the same.

Jay nodded. "Exactly.. It's faint, and I can only ever feel it slightly… But it still provides so much. That's why your brain goes haywire. You don't know how to channel it yet. But if you can find the 'On' switch for it..."

Ron understood fully now. "I can find the 'Off' switch as well." He sighed. "To actively draw from this energy to empower my mind… Here goes nothing."

He inhaled and exhaled a few times as he relaxed. Then he reached into that pool of energy he kept feeling as of late. Instead of using it to empower his entire body as before, he directed it straight to his brain.

And then the entire world exploded into color. Ron perceived everything around him. Everything. The flapping of the wings of a bird nearby. One leaf of an holly tree frozen in mid-fall. He spotted a squirrel on a nearby tree, another on the ground a few meters away. Jay's face had frozen in an expression.

And he perceived all of it at the same time. Every single detail, engraved in his mind as he felt his brain running overdrive. This was not like before. The time had just not slowed down, but almost completely stopped. He was just not thinking fast as before, he was thinking everything very fast at the same time. He remembered this was somewhat similar to what he felt when he was under the effects of Project Phoebus.

He let go of it a second later. Jay pulled his hand back suddenly as if he was shocked. The old man was looking at his hand with wild eyes. "Never.. Not in all these years..." He shakily sat back down on the nearby rock.

Ron was worried and he tried to check on Jay. "Man, Mr. G., are you okay?! What happened?"

Jay weakly raised his head, something unreadable in his eyes. "You happened. Kid, you just..." He forced himself to inhale and calm down. "All the years I've been the Flash, all I could ever feel was a faint source feeding my powers. That was all I ever felt." He looked at his right hand. "Right now, when you drew from it, I just got touched by a wisp of it."

Jay's eyes steeled. "Ronald, that wisp of a touch was times and times more than anything I ever felt. I felt as if I was holding a conduit of electricity!"

Ron gulped. "What.. what do you… What does that mean?"

Jay laughed. "You have so much power that merely drawing from that source generates more than I did all my life. Kid, you have no limits." His eyes were shining with something akin to both fear and joy at the same time.

"Oh boy." Ron felt as if his chest was being constricted in light of the revelation. He weakly leaned on a nearby tree as he stumbled backwards. Having no limits certainly didn't sound too good. It could mean a number of things, and very little of it good.

Jay seperated his gaze from his hand and looked at the teenager. "What exactly happened when you tried to use your brain to its full capacity?"

Ron breathed in and out as he calmed down slowly. "I.." He looked all around himself. "The world…. Just stopped. I could see everything…. Mr. G., I mean everything. Down to the last detail. And my brain felt as if it was connected to live wires."

They remained like that for a few minutes, soaking it all in. Jay finally commented. "I gained these powers by accidentally inhaling heavy water vapors… But you gained them after being struck by a lightning bolt, correct?"

Ron snorted as he tried to shake the shock off. "Pretty much, if you don't count the dark energy wave that preceded it. The particle accelerator explosion, and all that..."

Jay stood up again. "The details aside, it looks like you were gifted with just that Ronald."

"What's that, ability to annoy people at super speed?"

Jay nodded as he chuckled. "Well, there is that, but… I think you turned into, well… A bolt of lightning."

Ron grinned slightly as he snorted. "You'd think a bolt of lightning would eat a lot less."


"Done aaand…." Ron dropped off the final casefile he had in his hand into the file cabinet and then closed it. "Done." He dusted his shirt off dramatically. "And you said it'd take me an entire hour."

Gregory Home, in a very nonchalant fashion, waved him off. "I apparently underestimated you. Instead of being brain dead, you are just slightly slow." The old forensic analyst spun his cane in his hand and threw him a pointed look. "You still won't get to review evidence of cold cases."

Ron puffed in annoyance. He had been pushing to get a peek at the cold case files from day one, but apparently, he needed to log a certain amount of work hours before he would get even the entry level clearance within police databases.

Home had made a point. The forensics expert could easily get the files and let Ron peruse them. He was just having too much fun with a superspeeding office boy handling all the menial tasks with an endless zeal. And Ron was dead set on building a proper case against the unknown speedster who was involved with his parents' murder.

There were upsides to working at the crime lab, as the first week as a proper part-timer slash intern had showed him. He was assigned only to work when Home was working as well, and since the sarcastic analyst knew about his alter ego, he could come and go as needed whenever an alert on police radio went off. And since the crime scene units were only called after the events were over with, their sojourn to scenes coincided perfectly with his post-Flash-ing actions.

If he were to be perfectly honest with himself, he was well aware that this was probably the best occupation for a superhero. The only problem was…

Well, the job itself presented problems. Ron had a healthy run as a teenage sidekick in which he avoided any gruesome scenes. His time as a superhero had him witness fairly disturbing events and even extremely traumatic deaths. But seeing that happen in the heat of the moment and arriving well after the event ended to lend an objective eye to detail and catalogue evidence were two seperate things entirely.

So far, he had been only to one murder scene, in which he had only served as the evidence bag holder for Home. But the clinical nature of the job was something he wasn't ready for. The victim was a mother of two, dead because of a hit and run incident. Cops and Home had acted entirely too professional about the dead woman lying on the side of the road for his liking.

But he knew he had to get used to it. So he kept doing the less disturbing parts of the job with gusto.

Home had another five hours in his shift, but there was no need for Ron to stick around, as that was their unwritten agreement. As long as the teen speedster finished the office work of that day, he was free to leave early. He would get a notice if an emergency happened which required the immediate presence of the crime scene unit, and getting to point A from point B as fast as possible was his forté after all.

Home pulled out a rather large book from the pile sitting on his table and threw it at Ron as hard as he could. Ron lazily caught the rather heavy book. That was some sort of game Home seemed to enjoy, flinging all sorts of stuff at Ron in hopes of catching him unaware.

Ron took a look at the book and then threw a look at Home with one of his eyebrows raised. The grizzled analyst threw back an annoying grin. "Some reading material for you to go over while eating. The ambience that would make, just imagine it."

Ron slowly shook his head and placed the book at his backpack. "Only you would think basics of bloodstain spatter analysis would make a good mealtime reading."

"Don't frown kid, I could have assigned basics of toxicology and effects on human physiology. Now that is some quality reading." Home shooed him away out of the office as he retrieved a pill bottle from his desk. "Now get out and do whatever an unqualified superhero does in his downtime. You are ruining my buzz." He popped a few pills from the bottle into his mouth.

Ron sighed. "That much Vicodin cannot be good for you." As the old analyst threw a very angry glare at his way, he raised his hands. "Yeah yeah, I'm going." Rufus jumped into his shirt pocket from the spot he occupied on Home's desk. He walked out of the office and the crime lab a few minutes later.

Since he had finished the shift a lot earlier than he would normally, it was only seven in the evening. He called the Possible residence on his phone.

"Ronald? You are out early?" James Possible's voice sounded from the other end.

"Slow night Mr. P. You guys still going out to the Middleton Fair?"

"Yes, as soon as we finish eating. If you hurry, you can get some of the brainloaf before we leave!"

Ron chuckled. "Can't Mr. P. I have a…. court order not to go to Fair on a full stomach." Ron shuddered as he remembered the dry-cleaning bill of a certain clown's costume. "How about I meet you guys there?"

"It's a sound plan Ronald." James added something in a slightly hesitant tone. "Hit up the rides you want before we arrive… I don't think we will be able to with the twins on-site."

Ron chuckled again and terminated the call after saying goodbye to James. The very thought of Jim and Tim on the fairgrounds were the sole reason why Flash was going to be at the fair.

He checked around himself and walked into an alley, only to disappear a moment later. He stopped at a secluded point near the fairgrounds. The first day of the Middleton Summer Fair was packed. He walked around, smiling wistfully as he walked by a few activities as Rufus peeked out his pocket.

A few of the rides held memories for him, as his father used to bring him here before high school days. John Stoppable and James Possible had more than a few stressful days of trying to control their offspring on the fairgrounds.

Ron spotted one activity he excelled at before. Cap-a-Rat was a simple whack-a-mole type of game where the moles were replaced by rats. Rufus squeaked as he saw that one. Ron rolled his eyes and went to take a seat. He sat down near a brown haired guy and paid the fee for one round.

Rufus jumped on his shoulder as Ron's eyes gleamed. He had always a good streak with his this game, but he was going to smash it. Superspeed was on his side!

His round started at the same time as the guy near him started as well. Ron started whacking the plastic rats in quick succession, doing as many as he could without doing anything superhuman on the outside. Slowing down time to see the ones that were coming out was paying off really well.

He knew the highscore of this game and he was already above that. A small gathering of fair goers had accumulated around him and watching him rack up the points. He ended his round with a triumphant cry. "Oh yea! The giant toy baseball bat is mine!" His score showed a record high '700' on the digital board.

Then the game runner handed the toy baseball bat to the guy near him. Ron's eyes widened as he turned and took a look at that guy's score. It was a true record high score of '750.' Now Ron understood why they had a small gathering around, as the sight of two teens going at the smashing game must have been some sight.

The guy with the bat turned to him as people around them dispersed. He had brown hair with a light-colored patch of hair running in the middle, blue eyes and a fairly handsome face. He had a yellow t-shirt with red stripes on him. He smiled at Ron. "Sorry. I am a champ rat-smasher."

Ron kept gaping at his score. "How in the hell you beat me? That was a primo-record-breaking badical smashing run!"

"Practice my man, practice." The brown-haired guy extended his hand. "Felix Renton." He looked the same age as Ron.

Ron took the hand and shook it. "Ron-"

Felix Renton cut him off. "Stoppable. I know." He grinned at Ron.

"Okay, what? How do you know my name?!" Ron had bad memories of people knowing his name beforehand.

Felix snorted. "C'mon, you are only the number one sidekick in the world! Hard not to know the name of great Ron Stoppable if you are a true Kim Possible fan."

Ron snickered. "Well, you just discredited ninety-five percent of Kim's fandom then. My name is not widely known. That and..." Ron's smile faded. "The whole 'teen sidekick' gig is kinda over. We don't do that stuff anymore."

Felix's smile also faded. "Yea, I...uh.. heard."

A few seconds of silence followed, one which were immediately broken by Ron. "So, you wanna hit some rides with me and Rufus?" Said mole-rat waved at Felix from Ron's shoulder.

Felix smiled and leaned back as he controlled a small stick on his chair. He was revealed to be on a motorized wheel-chair a second after, as the chair rolled backwards. "Ready to roll."

Ron noticed that but didn't let that phase him. He wasn't the kind to act differently because of people's disabilities. "Roll, good pun." He pointed to a nearby ride. "So, the Disorienter first?"

Felix seemed excited at the prospect. "Woah, I've heard that is the bashenest ride ever! Right on!" He seemed to notice a banner. "Hey, there is a Bueno Nacho sponsored eating contest! We gotta hit that one!" Felix's blue eyes seemed to glimmer as he uttered the name of the sacred company of cheese products.

And Ron approved of that attitude. "Oh, dude, believe me, I am so going to hit that one up." He scratched his neck nervously. "I just can't do that before the Disorienter." He gulped. "Legal reasons."

Felix chuckled. "Ah. Sued by an event coordinator?" The brown-haired teen seemed reminiscent of his past as he said that.

Ron rolled his eyes. "A clown. I also had to pay the dry cleaning."

Felix faked being hurt at that. "Oooh. That must've stung."

"Baggy pants?" Ron sighed as he walked with Felix rolling near him. "Double charge." Ron threw a look at Felix. "Say, I've never heard of someone puking on an event coordinator around here."

Felix seemed just the tiny bit sad, for only a second. "Oh… Well… Mine happened at Central City, last year."

Ron snapped his fingers. "That explains why I never met you. You'd think there would a legal precedent to puking from a spinny ride, but noooo, I became that for Tri-City."

"Don't beat yourself up, they call it the 'Renton Rule' to not eat before embarking a high speed ride back in Gem Cities."

They arrived in front of the Disorienter as they talked. "You ready for this? I won't hold it against you if you can't roll with it." Ron grinned as he pointed at the spinning ride.

"Oh, I would not worry about me rolling, I'd worry about that clown." The clown nearby had seen Ron and was now opening an umbrella in front of himself. The teen speedster could feel the burning gaze of the said clown.

"Bring. It. On." Ron was looking partly at the clown as he said that.


Felix was looking at Ron with something akin to holy reverence. "How in the name of all that is cheese and guacamole you ate so frigging much?!"

Ron burped loudly as Rufus handed him his smartphone, on which the mole rat had recorded the event. The blonde speedster had won the event by a landslide, with Felix as a distant second. "Trade secret, young Padawan. I have long since mastered the art of eating, and in time, you might do that too."

"Fifty-seven servings… Fifty-seven…." Felix was chanting Ron's total count as a mantra. "Fifty-seven full servings of Bueno Nacho's grande sized orders. You are a monster. An improbability in space-time. A frigging black hole."

Ron bowed with mock extravagance. "Ron Stoppable, the Unstoppable Force of Nature, at your service." He turned to Felix and extended his hand. "Had a lot of fun, but I gotta meet up with people."

Felix shook Ron's hand. "Same. Mom is probably going to be looking for me." He smiled. "Call you later for the Monster Trucks tomorrow?"

"You bet. As long as you sit and not spin, Wheels."

"Don't worry, I've got the sitting thing down…. Blondie." Felix seemed unsatisfied. "Nah, I can come up with a better nickname." He high-fived Ron and rolled away. "I'll meet you at the gate."

Ron went back into the fairgrounds to meet with Possibles. Doctors Possible would probably need his help with Twin Terrors of Tri-City.


Ron was having a blast with Felix Renton. The dude was just the right amount of cool, nerdy and funny as Ron was. He had met up with the boy on the advanced wheelchair after finishing his shift in crime lab. He thanked God that Middleton and Tri-City in general had such a low crime rate, which allowed him to finish a lot earlier than he would otherwise.

The main spectacle at Monster Trucks event Mud-Lovers 4 Wheel Action was just about to start. They were chatting as they watched the warm-up events of extreme-biking tricks.

"Favorite video game?" Felix asked as Ron and Rufus stuffed their mouths with popcorn.

"No contest! Zombie Mayhem Two." Ron answered, sure of himself.

"Pause." Felix shook his head. "I hope you meant to say Zombie Mayhem Three?"

"Unpause. I was actually referring to the superior second installment of the series."

Felix scoffed. "For real?! Mayhem Two doesn't even have flamethrowers."

Ron stopped and let that sink in. "Three has flamethrowers?!"

"Yup." Felix nodded sagely.

"Man! Can't believe I missed that!"

"How did you miss it? It was literally handed to you in the middle of the main campaign story mode."

Ron puffed. "I really didn't have time to play it… I was busy and… stuff." Stuff meant personal tragedy and internal turmoil, but Ron chose to gloss over that part.

"Well, that's it. As soon as the trucks are done, we are going to hit it up in co-op mode at my place!" Felix declared with a finality.

They heard the revving of engines from behind the stands. As Ron tried to understand what was going on, motorcycles ripped through the banners above them in high speed, sailed through the air and landed near the monster trucks in the arena. A very loud cry of excitement was heard from the stands. "AWWW YEAH!"

Ron felt the need to ask. "This isn't part of the show, is it?"

Felix, his gaze fixed on the arena, answered. "Not likely."

The leader of the motorcycle driving band took his helmet off and revealed his face… And hair. The guy was a very buff blonde biker-type dude… With an outdated mullet showing from behind his head. It was all very nineties looking to Ron. The guy bellowed as if he was a nineties rock singer as well. "These trucks are property of Motor Ed now!" He added as a seemingly reflex action afterwards. "Seriously, they are."

His gang was climbing up on the monster trucks and throwing the drivers out.

Ron dropped Rufus on Felix's wheelchair. "I'm gonna get some more popcorn quick!"

"Popcorn?! Dude!" Felix looked at Ron as if he was crazy.

"Here in this town, you will get a serious show and we need the popcorn for that!" Ron ran out of the stands and disappeared from sight. Felix had not realized that Ron had also taken his backpack with himself.

Approximately five seconds later, a red streak crashed into the arena and stopped in front of the leader of the gang. The guy who named himself Motor Ed gave the newcomer a once-over. "Dude, full body leather is last decade. Seriously."

Flash's figure was apparent to all who was watching from the stands. They all heard his reverbrating and distorted voice. "Says the guy who is rocking the mullet." He pointed with his finger. "Okay, how about we make this real simple and you guys just lay on the ground. I am feeling a bit peckish and don't wanna work a lot."

Motor Ed jumped into a nearby monster truck and revved the engine. "Red, just do yourself a favor and get the hell outta my way. Seriously." The monster truck started moving and sped towards the Flash.

The scarlet speedster turned to the stands and cried out dramatically. "Does no criminal in Tri-City area watch the goddamn TV?!"

The truck reached him but failed to hurt the Flash as he sped out of its way. He sighed. "Hard way it is… As usual." He again turned to the stands. "Can someone get me a hotdog guys?" Next moment, he exploded into his familiar form of red streak with yellow lightning trails.

The monster trucks were already speeding out of the arena as he went into action. The first truck to head out of the gates out back soon had the red streak crashing through. The monster truck slowed and stopped as its driver was thrown back onto the sands on the arena.

Same thing happened to all other seven drivers and their trucks. Motor Ed was the last one to be pulled out and thrown on the sand. He got up with anger, looking at Flash who seemed to be bowing to the audience on the stands. The speedster in red turned to him and grinned. "Come on man, smile, the spectators paid for a good show! And we need to give it to them!"

The remaining members of Motor Ed's gang on their bikes rushed towards Flash. He sighed dramatically. "Come on guys, at least make this a challenge." He sidestepped them all, five bikes in total, and clotheslined their drivers. "Wrestling and extreme sports, all in one package! Pay per View option available."

Laughter rose up from the stands as Flash put a spectacle. Motor Ed didn't seem all too pleased. He reached at his back and pulled a gun. Pointing it at the Flash, he spouted a one-liner. "You snooze, you lose Red. Seriously."

Then, without any warning, he emptied the whole clip in the gun towards Flash. The audience gasped as Flash just stood there, seemingly doing nothing.

When the clip emptied and the gun clicked empty, Flash grinned and rose his right hand. "I dunno, I can snooze very fast." He opened his right hand and showed all the bullets fired from Motor Ed's gun. Then he stopped for a second. "Wait, that doesn't even make sense…. Dammit, wasted a perfectly good setup!"

Laughter again rose as people breathed in relief, seeing that Flash was in complete control. Motor Ed was just staring wildly at the Flash.

The speedster shrugged. "Well, this was fun. But I got places to go, things to do, crooks to bring in." He again exploded into a lightning ball and encircled the gang members. A few seconds later, they were all bound up with the ropes of the ripped banners in the arena. A few cop cars rolled into the arena as he did that. Flash turned and saluted the audience. "Have a lovely night, Monster Truck Lovers!"

One of the fans from the stand jumped down and ran near him. It was a punk-looking girl with purple dyed hair. She handed a hotdog to Flash and squealed as he kissed her hand as thanks. Flash ate the hotdog in a second, gave one final bow and sped away into the night. One particular set of blue eyes managed to keep up with his trailing form until the streak turned and disappeared behind the stands.

Felix was gripping the sides of his wheelchair as hard as he could. His hands were trembling at the sight of the Flash. Ron appeared from the stands and walked at their seats. He sat down and saw the scene down on the arena. "Man, did I miss the show?!"

Felix looked at him. "Yea… That was…. Yea..." The brown-haired teenager was shocked to the core. Flash was not at all what he had imagined. He shook himself slightly. He looked at Ron. "Where is the popcorn?"

"There was a big line. I gave up to not be too late. Yet still missed the action." Ron was now congratulaging himself on his acting. That some Oscar deserving performance…. Well, in the teenage speedster's own opinion. "So, how do you like the city so far?"

"Oh, it's something. Definitely a fun place." Felix threw a look at Ron. "Is this a usual night around here?"

Ron shrugged. "Actually… Yea. Crazy guys, superheroes…. Murder bots..."

"Murder bots?!" Felix looked at Ron with obvious disbelief. "Seriously?"

Ron imitated Motor Ed in a mocking fashion. "Seriously."

"You gotta tell me how that happened."

"Sure… I just gotta find something to eat first." Ron's stomach grumbled slightly. Felix laughed at him, not knowing that his new friend had just devoured a whole hotdog as an entrée.

A friendship was born out of the collective nerdiness and chemistry of the two teenagers.


Ron was dozing off. He was currently sitting down at Bueno Nacho, waiting for his to-go order to be prepared by Ned. Rufus was laying on his head, pretty much doing the same thing as his owner. His sleep was not as peaceful as he'd like it to be, but he was coping. The awkward schedule of working five shifts a week at the crime lab, all at different hours, were not helping either.

Still, he couldn't complain. Aside from the incident with Motor Ed, the last week had been uneventful. He and Felix were getting along famously, as brief as it was. Ron didn't have much free time in the summer with dropping by at Keystone City at select morning, working at crime lab and superhero work constantly.

He could coordinate much better with a mission command, but he couldn't find Wade. Not that he could do much searching, as all he could do was to check on the genius' aunt's house and his old address. The burned-down suburban house was decaying like a black mark on an otherwise beautiful neighbourhood. The storm cellar was locked far as Ron could detect, it had an electronic lock on that he couldn't bypass.

He missed Wade. Not just for the logistical reasons, but they were friends after all. The genius kid had always been a stellar friend to both Kim and Ron, but the last year had brought them closer as Wade had been the voice in the speedster's ear and his eye in the sky. They had been through much, together, and not being able to find him was weighing on Ron's conscience.

All in all, Ron was not in the best of places as far as his life was concerned, with all the issues looming overhead, but it was a sort of normalcy he could come to appreciate. Life in Possible household was nice, even without Kim. He missed her, of course, but she was doing what she wanted and needed. Plus, it was only for a little while. So he settled into the rhythm of summer life.

Someone slammed a tray on the table he was dozing off on. He jumped up in his seat, half-scared. Rufus fell on the table as he did so, and the mole rat squeaked loudly against the offending newcomer.

"Not getting enough sleep lately?" Bonnie sat down on the opposite side of Ron. The blonde rubbed his eyes and observed the brunette for a second or two. She only had a black sports bra and sports shorts on her, with some sort of music player attached to a band on her right arm. She looked very athletically inclined.

"You know... Too much work and not enough marinating." Ron sat up and let Rufus climb into his pocket. The mole rat glared at Bonnie and then disappeared into Ron's pants pocket to continue sleeping. "He's not gonna forget that B." He called her with the nickname Tara used to use for her. Far as he could tell, he was the only one that could get away with calling Bonnie like that.

"I am shaking in my boots." She moved her tray and moved to eat her order. Ron noticed it was different than her usual style. Instead of a salad, she had high-calorie serving of nachos. With extra dipping sauce.

"Didn't know you ate like that B."

"Like what?"

"Like... well, not a girl." Ron became flustered as he struggled to come up with a politically correct way of saying what he thought. And he failed.

"I'm burning enough calories these days, it's fine." She ate at a steady and respectably fast pace.

Ron took a discrete look at her arm. It was blemish free. He sighed as relaxed, seeing that Bonnie was doing fine. "You look much better."

"Than when I was shaking and sweating? Yea." She was casual about her past problem.

"Sorry about not calling lately... I was-"

"Shut it Ron. You don't need to apologize." She popped three more nachos in her mouth in between her speech. "I watch TV, I can see how busy you were." She slurped down her diet soda. "Besides, I can take care of myself. You don't need to check up on me everyday."

"What have you been doing? I don't think I spotted you at the mall recently."

"What are you doing, staking the place out?" Bonnie raised her hand and stopped Ron's answer. "Don't tell me, it's flashy stuff." She finished her serving after that remark and gracefully cleaned her hands. "Well, I've been busy myself."

Ron gave her another once-over, this time focusing on more than her arm. And hell, Bonnie looked good. The brunette always had a killer figure, sure, but she looked even more fit. He could faintly see some individual muscles rippling on her arm as she moved it. Her stomach was straight and tight in appearance.

"You've been working out. Like, really working out."

"Like what you see, don't you?" Bonnie was being coy.

"Well, yes. But that's not why I-" Ron stopped to rephrase himself. "You look good." And he stopped there to save face.

Bonnie, knowing what he originally meant, let it go. "I was taking Krav Maga and kickboxing lessons. It... helps." She absently rubbed her right arm.

"Man, does every girl I know have to become a badass?" Ron faked disappointment, and then grinned. "If it's any consolation to spending time in a gym, you will have suitors lined up for the dances when school kicks off."

"Don't patronize me, I already have them lined up. Besides," she leaned her to the side, "who says 'suitors' anymore? This is not the fifties." The brunette pulled her backpack to herself and pulled out a lip gloss to go over her lips. Satisfied, she put it back. "What were you doing yourself? You've been running around, but not that much."

"I'm working part time at the crime lab."

"What crime lab?" Bonnie didn't have much knowledge on the issue beyond network crime drama shows.

"Tri-City Crime Lab. Downtown? Near the Middleton PD headquarters?" Seeing the brunette shaking her head, Ron puffed. "C'mon, it has a huge sign and everything."

"Never seen it." She leaned her head to the side again. "Weird choice of summer job. Even for you."

"Having an ear to the ground helps with the extracurricular activity. Besides, lab work!"

Bonnie snorted. "I knew you were always secretly a dork, nice to see you embracing that openly."

Ron wasn't offended by Bonnie's playful comment. Instead, he sighed. "Harder for people to be suspicious of the kid actually working for the police if I happen to be around crime scenes."

The brunette was impressed. Ron was different, almost like an entirely different person from who he was a year ago, at least in some ways. Given all that has happened, it made sense. "You are really going for it, huh?"

"What? What am I going for?"

"The whole 'quiet dork with a secret' thing." She smiled. "You should be careful with that."

"Oh really? And why's that?"

"Chicks dig that Stoppable. We pick up on that vibe and pounce." She grinned as Ron's face distorted into a horrified look. "Oh it's okay. As long as you also keep that attitude of smartmouthing people and being a nice guy, you'll be safe.. Mostly."

Ron gulped. ".. Mostly?"

"There are girls who also go for that sort." Bonnie's face slightly dropped. "Far and few in between, but still..."

The friendly atmosphere deflated slightly as both teenagers remembred exactly one girl who was like that. Silence settled on the table.

Ned called out for Ron as his order was prepared. The blonde got up and collected the paper bag for it. He walked back to the table and picked up his own backpack.

"I... I gotta go. I got a shift at crime lab." He smiled slowly as Bonnie looked at him and smiled as well. "Look me up there if you want."

"I'll be at Florida for a few weeks if you call."

"Oh, going to visit your grandmother with your folks?"

Bonnie narrowed her teal eyes on Ron. "How do you know that?"

Ron gulped. "Uh... You'll see why when you go there."

Bonnie didn't stop glaring at Ron, but answered. "Actually, I'm going by myself. I need to get away from the house before I murder Connie and Lonnie at their sleep."

"What's it this time?" Ron asked in a knowing tone. A few times he spoke with Bonnie after her incident, and she had ranted about them each and every single instant.

"Apparently, me working out is a waste of time. I'd 'never be as beautiful as Lonnie.'" She mocked her sister's annoying voice as she imitated her words.

"You do know they are just being jealous?" Ron stated as if it was obvious.

"Jealous, what?" Bonnie had apparently missed that obviousness.

"You got brains, you got the looks and now you are getting brawns to go along. The whole package. I guess being upstaged by their little sister scares them." He seemed to think for a second. "That, or the risk of getting pummeled by you." He grinned.

Bonnie seemed contemplative. Then threw a look at Ron. "You know, I'm going to buy into that 'Ronshine' nonsense of Kim's if you keep doing this."

With fake bravado, "The Ron-man just calls it like he sees it. Gotta go!" He rushed out the place and took off running. Bonnie knew he'd disappear instantly as soon as he took a corner, and he did.

She squeezed her fists. "He is right. Screw Connie and Lonnie." Then she picked up on one word Ron had dropped. "Brawns... Hmm."

She also stood up, collected her backpack and left Bueno Nacho. She was actually excited to go to Florida now.

Maybe that 'Ronshine' myth was actually real.


"Have ze arrangementz been made?" Someone with a German accent asked on the phone.

Another person with a Spanish accent answered from the other end. "All facilities have been prepared."

"Vat about ze archer?"

"He is ill equipped to handle us all. Pendejo will not know what hit him if he gets in our way."

"Vat about ze Bat?"

"He won't be an issue either. I'll see to that personally."

" In zat caze, I vill schtart ze procezz. Prepare for my arrival in ze next veek."

"As you say Professor." The call ended.

The person who was listening to it all sighed. The tapped phone call required for him to accelerate his timetable. He stood up from his chair and walked out of the room.

"Aunt Cass!" Wade Load called for his aunt.


James Possible took a sip from his morning coffee as he read The Examiner. Twins were arguing about using a propulsion engine and completing each other's sentences from time to time. His wife was putting extra pancakes on the kitchen table.

It was a standard day at Possible household.

The front door was opened, and Ron walked inside, looking tired as he walked. He dropped on a chair near the table as he yawned. "Good morning Doctors P."

Jim and Tim suddenly turned to him. "Have you seen a dead body?" Jim asked.

"Blood?" That was Tim. And then it escalated.

"Brain parts?"

"Blown body parts?"

"Freshly cut limbs?"

Their father cut them off. "Boys, I don't think Ronald appreciates you two crowding him."

Ron uttered a silent 'thank you' with his lips, to which James just smiled and nodded. The tired teen then turned to the twins. "Guys, I work at a crime lab, not a slaughterhouse." Seeing their dejected faces, he added. "I saw a bootprint on mud, if that helps."

Boys just sighed in annoyance. "Boring." They chorused and ran off to their room. Ron shrugged and started devouring the pancakes Anne had just placed on his plate.

James laid his paper down and took a long look at the teenager. "Are you.. okay, Ronald?"

"Tip top shape Mr. P." Ron was going at the pancakes pretty hard.

James shared a silent look with Anne as the teenager finished his extremely fast eating session. The silence was filled by the newscaster announcing morning news on the TV in the kitchen.

"Another significant piece of news today concerns the ever growing scientific community of our fair Middleton. Today, S.T.A.R. Labs will unveil its Middleton branch with the attendance of our mayor and many influential scientists from all across the community. S.T.A.R. Labs have been battling negative backlash following the explosion of the particle accelerator its Central City division had constructed. S.T.A.R. Labs founder Prof. Meersman assured the citizen of Tri-City, stating that past mistakes will not be repeated. According to Meersman, S.T.A.R. Labs have terminated their affiliation to Harrison Wells, the physicist and former director of Central City branch. We now turn to the reactions from the scientific community to these news..."

Ron watched that particular segment of news with renewed interest. Turning to James, he asked. "Will you be there Mr. P.? That ceremony?"

James finished his coffee. "Readily so. Space Center Director wants all section heads to be present." He seemed a bit sullen towards the end. "Such a shame that Dr. Renton has to attend as well."

Ron picked up on the surname immediately. "Renton?"

James didn't notice the teenager's reaction. "Yes. She just started over at Space Center as the new Robotics section head. Poor woman used to work at S.T.A.R. Central City branch."

"Why did she leave the company though, S.T.A.R. has a lot of labs all over the country." Ron was inadvertedly gaining information on his new friend.

"Her husband perished at that explosion. Dreadful thing to happen. She has a boy you and Kimmie's age as well. What was his name, hmm.."

"Felix." Ron dropped his fork on the table. "Yea, I met him. Nice guy."

James brightened up. "Wonderful! He sure can use friends after what happened to his fa-... Oh." Anne had just discreetly struck her husband at the back of his head. It wasn't hard to determine why either.

Ron sighed and stood up. "Well, we all can use friends." His mood picked back up immediately. "And he is a very badical dude." He put his plate and utensils in the dishwasher. "I'm gonna catch some z's. Got another night shift coming up. Have fun at the ceremony Mr. P." The teen speedster added as an afterthought just before he left the kitchen. "And please tell them to keep their explosions smaller this time. I barely survived the first one." He grinned and disappeared into the former guest room.

James sighed as he heard Ron's door closing. Turning to his wife, "Ronald working at the crime lab... I still don't think it's a good idea."

"He is doing much better honey. In spite of your best efforts." Anne threw a sharp look at her husband.

"I allowed myself to forget just for a second... " The rocket scientist sighed as he remembered the Stoppables. "Anne, he has already started to obsess over John and Andrea's murder. You have seen that board in his room?"

Anne nodded. "He needs to cope with this somehow. That's something we can't help with. We can only support him. Besides, Ron seems to enjoy that job."

"He has been waking up screaming and shivering as he sleeps. I just don't think he can cope with that sort of life."

Anne rued the fact that they kept Ron and Kim's new alter egos a secret from her husband. Of course Ron had issues and problems relating to his parents' murder, but she had not missed the fact that his nightmares were renewed after the foray into Underworld.

And James could not be allowed to learn any of it. At least for the foreseeable future. There were so many secrets, so many things to air out when the time comes. So she carried on, trying to hold everyone's peace of mind and secrets. Anne knew she had to be the anchor for the family.

"It will get better James."

James absently stared into distance. "I promised his father. I promised I'd look after him if anything happened. Just like he promised me the same for Kim and the twins." He looked at his wife. "I can't fail John. Ronald is our son now, and I can't think that John would be okay with his son getting into that kind of life."

Anne held his hand softly. "I made the same promise to Andrea. Don't think you are the only one hurting at seeing his new son hurting." She rubbed his hand slowly. "It will be okay James. It will get better."

"I hope so honey..."


"You are serious." Ron was sporting an unbelieving grin aimed towards Jay Garrick.

"I certainly am."

"One punch? One?" The teenager pointed at the tree nearby. It had a very thick trunk. "You cannot be serious."

Jay just smiled mysteriously and pointed Ron to stand a bit further away from the tree. "Watch closely." The old man turned and disappeared into the treeline as a visible blur. He was far too slow for Ron to lose sight of, as long as the teenager used his newfound ability to overcharge his brain.

A few seconds later, he heard a sonic disturbance, then Jay came in charging with his fist extending forwards as he watched.

The trunk of the tree exploded into splinters. The old tree came down groaning as both speedsters avoided it. Jay kneeled near it after it settled on the forest floor. "Sorry about that old fella. I will plant ten of your kind today." He looked at the teen he was mentoring.

Ron had a disbelieving look on his face. "How.. One pu- Seriously!" He was having a hard time comprehending. "It takes me at least fifty punches to do the same!"

"I have seen how you do it kid. Not a bad idea to overwhelm an opponent with an unending rain of punches. But tell me.." The old man smiled. "What do you do when that doesn't work?"

Ron recalled the fight with Atrocitus. That one had required for him to be a little creative, and at the end, even that had limited effect on the alien. "I... just do the same while also running fast?"

Jay nodded as he pointed at Ron's head. "You had the starting idea correct. Kid, do you know how physical force is generated? As in laws of physics?"

Ron actually knew. He was going to take AP Physics classes and had done extensive reading as of late to prepare for that. His powers required for him to have a very advanced understanding of physics. Wade had made sure to drill that fact in his mind. "Force equals mass times acceleration. Faster we are, harder we hit. I know."

"Exactly! Acceleration. That is the key. And that's probably where you missed one obvious fact." He showed at the trunk of the tree. "If you keep doing this, and something tells me you will, you will meet some very troublesome types. Types with nigh invulnerable skins, extremely durable forcefields and magical auras. That type of enemy is the second worst type for a speedster to deal with. Can you tell me why?"

Ron had to admit, the classroom attitude of Jay Garrick was far preferable to his own high school teachers. "Because we can't hurt and disable them the same way we do to everyone else?"

"Yes. We lack basic strength to bypass or overcome their defenses with a simple speed punch." He pointed to the tree again. "That's why I decided to come up with an even faster punch."

"How is that different from what I do?"

"You run and punch, over and over again. The acceleration of each individual punch is cut off as the energy from the punch is transferring. You basically cut the power of your own attack in the middle, to divide it to a lot of individual punches. But it makes you lose an incredible amount of force generated by your overall speed at the time of the punch landing."

"So?"

"So, imagine this. We transfer force onto our opponent as long as the punch itself is speeding up. Extending your fist while standing is an acceleration in itself. Doing it while running is even stronger in terms of final force generated. Now imagine that at your own maximum speed. You extend that fist only once, as fast as you can, as you reach your target with a hypersonic speed. Your target cannot hear you because you travel faster than sound, and he can't see you if you are fast enough."

Jay made his right hand into a fist and struck his left hand. "One single punch. All the acceleration, no feedback or no cut-off from energy due to repeated punches. One single punch with the combined strength of a thousand more, all focused on a single spot and a single time." He pointed to the tree laying on the ground nearby. "Ron, that was me hitting the tree at a speed of two hundred miles per hour. What was your maximum recently, imagine that speed and momentum translating into force."

Ron slowly understood as Jay kept explaining. What the old speedster insinuated, it was a heavy hitter. It was a heavy hitter potentially to hurt the likes of Superman.

Not that he intended to punch the Big Blue anytime soon.

Jay's voice brought him back to reality. "There are risks. You need to have a straight shot at your target from miles away. You need to land the punch with your body perfectly aligned behind your fist and wrist so there won't be any sideways motion that can shatter your own bones. And of course, you need to break or blow away your target, so it cannot generate a feedback force."

Ron was looking at his fist. He knew how to punch properly. He also knew how to land palm strikes that negated any danger of self-injury, courtesy of Monkey Kung Fu.

This could work.

He smiled at the old man. "Sooo... How do we do this?"

Jay stated as if it was obvious. "By punching. Over and over."

Ron groaned. "Of course." He shook his head. "Let's start, I gotta be at the crime lab when the day shift ends."

His right hand kept hurting all throughout the day, even long after the training session was over.


Ron was enjoying his Sunday. It was Home's off day, and by proxy, it was also Ron's. He had slept in late, enjoyed a monster brunch and was now marinating on the porch of Possible house. Doctors Possibles and the twins were on a camping trip, and he was all by himself for a full day.

It was glorious. He couldn't recall the last time he had the chance to properly partake in the act of manly marinating. Rufus was lying down on his belly as the mole rat too, marinated.

The earphone connected to his smartphone came to life as if it heard Ron's thoughts. "10-51 in Middleton Mall. Repeat, 10-51 reported in Middleton Mall. Drunk caucasian male, possibly armed. Advise caution. Nearby patrol units, report to mall security."

He sighed. 'Oh well, at least it's a quick one. In and out.'

"Be back in a flash! Hold down the fort for a minute Rufus." Mole rat squeaked an affirmative. The teen speedster exploded away into a red streak as he rushed at the mall, after changing into the red suit in superspeed.

It took him a total of five seconds to observe and detain the mentioned caucasian male. The guy was yelling some girl's name while waving his gun about, no doubt involved in some relationship drama. Ron didn't bother to make small talk, he just took the gun and tied up the guy with a rope he took from a nearby store.

He had not realized where he was exactly until he turned around and saw people coming out of a particular fashion store. One woman ran out of Club Banana and slapped the drunk guy in the face. Then she turned to the Flash.

"Oh thank you so much!" She glared at guy lying on the ground. "Some guys just don't know what 'it's over' means."

Flash shrugged. With his distorted voice, "Sister, I'm with you on that one and all that, but could you 'girl-folk' stop going out with total a-holes like, all the damn time?"

The woman seemed flustered and embarrassed at his remark.

"Words to live by Mr. Flash." A familiar voice called out. Ron turned to see Monique walking closer by. She handed the woman a bag with Club Banana logo on it. "You forgot to take your purchase after rushing to hit him." The woman took her bag and walked away. The mall cops picked the drunk guy up.

Ron came to realize one big, huge lapse of memory he had as of late.

He had completely forgotten to check up, drop by or even call the ebony-skinned fashionista. Since Kim was usually the one to facilitate their contact with Monique, and she was away on her training camp, Ron had totally forgotten about her. Between hanging out with Felix, running back and forth between Keystone and Middleton, the part-timing at crime lab and finally being the Flash overall, Monique had not become even an afterthought for him.

Boy, did he feel bad about that particular one right now.

Ron, making sure he was both distorting his voice and vibrating his face, turned to Monique. "Well, Miss, I hear you have been writing about me."

Monique's eyes opened wide and gleamed with excitement. "Oh my god, you read my blog?!"

"Yea well, from the visitor numbers on that blog, half of Middleton does."

"What did you think about it, please tell me!" She was slightly hyperventilating now. "I'm your biggest fan, I have all the t-shirts! Even have a few designs myself if you want for yourself!" She was trailing away and bumbling.

Ron put a stop to that. "I gotta go, but, let's have this conversation somewhere else in a few weeks."

He was gone before Monique could ask what he meant.

Ron knew he needed Kim to be there with him as Titan to make an impact on the willful friend of theirs.

He returned home, changed and went back to mall. In all honesty, he owed at least a courtesy visit to Monique after forgetting about her for three weeks straight.

Monique finished straightening out some displays as the excitement from the episode earlier died down. Customers had cleared out after that, so she immediately spotted the familiar red hockey jersey walking inside the store.

The fashionista didn't miss her chance to bust Ron's balls. "Look at that. This day brings all sorts of men from AWOL-land."

Ron smiled ruefully and slightly cringed at her tone. "Hello Mon."

"He remembers my name. I am shocked." She walked upto the absent blonde and clocked a solid punch on his right arm. "That's for acting like we are TFS."

"Uh..." Ron raised his right hand with an obviously quizzical look on his face.

"It means Total Fu-" Monique barely contained her anger and course-corrected herself. "Freaking Strangers." She let that one sink in. "Total. Freaking. Strangers."

"It was just three weeks Mon. Tis' all cool, all cool!" Rufus, whom Ron had picked up earlier, showed his face from his pants pocket and nodded fervently.

"One phone call from Kim saying she's gonna be away for a month and a half, and none from you saying you'd be God knows where!" She made her point with jabbing Ron's chest with her index finger. "I was worried!" She suddenly became aware of something while doing the jabbing.

Underneath the hockey jersey and all other layers of clothing obscuring Ron's true physique, she could feel the lean muscles rippling as Ron breathed. Her motion immediately stopped and she retrieved her hand back to herself as if it was scalded. The blonde didn't notice that and tried to placate her justified anger.

"I...I.. was busy with stuff. Been working part time myself, you know, crime lab?"

Monique threw him a disbelieving look. "Really, you were being serious about that?" After Ron nodded, she rolled her eyes. "You still could've called. We missed the Bueno Nacho eating contest!"

Ron gulped. Unlike Kim who didn't want to even watch that, Monique was going to be pissed off as soon as she saw the video. "Actually..." He didn't have the courage to finish that sentence.

Monique's black eyes narrowed on his own light brown. "You didn't... Tell me you didn't."

Meeting with Felix that day and participating at the contest with him... Ron had done the unforgiveable and forgot to call Monique to join it together.

He was truly, undeniably fudged. "Sorry...?" His voice had risen three full octaves and dropped thirty desibels in fear.

"YOU. BASTARD." Monique's manager looked at her pointedly from the other side of the store. Seeing that, she went near the manager and obtained permission for a small break. Then she stormed back to Ron, who was now scared and contemplating disappearing with superspeed.

She pulled him outside the store and to a corner. "I can't believe you went to that without me!"

"I... really..." Ron sighed, deciding to give the truth. "I met this dude, recently arrived to Middleton. He happened to be a fan of Bueno Nacho as well and..." He trailed off mumbling and ranting.

Monique's glare intensified. "Oh, so that's how it is. You meet a new friend and lil' old Monique goes the way of dodo." She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Did you at least win?"

Ron's face brightened up. "Oh, totally! I destroyed the whole competition."

Monique threw him a sly grin. "Well, isn't that convenient."

"Convenient?"

"If you won, you got gift coupons for ten grande sized meals at the local Bueno Nacho."

"Yeees?" Ron didn't like where this was heading.

"Then you are in perfect position to take out your DOF Monique."

"...DOF?"

Monique sighed, as if that was an obvious abbreviation. "Dear old friend." She gave him a very dangerous look. "You will do that, won't you boy?"

Ron had no choice but to go along with it. "I... uh... Yea, of course!" He had superspeed for escape purposes, but only a fool would say no to Monique at that moment.

"Oh well, then my week won't be a total loss."

"Total loss?"

Monique sighed. "I was supposed to go on a date yesterday... He blew me off. SOB."

Ron giggled lightly at Monique's shortened cursing. "Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously. What, you think that's funny Freckle-boy?"

Ron raised his hands in front of himself. "No, that's just.. I mean... You know..."

"I don't know, that's the point of me asking!" The dark-skinned girl's expression was enough to scare Ron enough into blurting out his thoughts.

"I just think it's sorta telling... You being friends with me and Kim..."

Monique was intrigued. She motioned on for Ron to continue. "Go on."

Ron shrugged. "Kim has problems speaking to someone she likes with more than three words at a time. Even when she finally goes out with that person, it tends to go wrong." He pointed to himself with his thumb. "And you know how my story with matters of love ended." He had a very neutral voice while he stated that, but Monique could hear the faintest mark of melancholy in there.

"Honestly, we are train wrecks when it comes to that particular aspect of social life. And since you are our friend..." He opened his hands to the side.

Monique was now looking at the blonde with slightly sullen looks. "You are being very... dark." She shook her head. "I don't like it."

Ron shrugged again. "It pays off to be realistic about this stuff." He turned around slightly and looked at the mall's atrium. "I learnt that the hard way."

Monique failed to say anything. Ron had certainly exposed a part of his damaged psyche and she was extremely distraught at seeing it so suddenly. "I gotta go back to work... CML?"

Ron actually knew that one. "Call you later? Yea.." Monique nodded, patted him on his arm and then left.

The teen speedster stood there for a few more minutes, staring into the lower levels of the mall and all the people walking around. The short conversation with Monique was an eye opener.

Ron Stoppable was not one of those people walking around in the mall anymore. He had changed. And probably not all towards good things.

He was not even sure there was only Ron Stoppable anymore. Could he call himself with that name when he felt more at ease when he was wearing a dark red suit rather than a bright red hockey jersey?

He didn't know.

People walking around that railing failed to notice the teenager standing there disappearing a moment after that.


"Master Bruce, I implore you to at least make contact with this 'archer.' For all we know about him, he won't take kindly to your intrusion to his city." Alfred Pennyworth was holding out a glass of soda water and a mild painkiller pill on a tray. He threw his charge a rather tired look. "There is also the matter with your ribs not completely healed."

Bruce Wayne removed the midnight black cape off his suit and started to take off pieces of his Kevlar-ladened suit off. "This man I faced today... He was different." His voice was grave and uncertain. "He was nothing like the usual muscle the Cartels use."

"I fail to see how that relates to my concern, sir."

"He moved his entire gang out of Gotham. All signs indicate him going to Starling. Not permanently, but there is something going on. Especially with the mysterious new distributor of Vertigo still being in the business." Wayne finished hanging his suit at the display nearby and moved to take both soda water and the painkiller off the tray. "I can't afford to wait for my ribs to fully heal." He added after drinking the water and swallowing the painkiller. "Nor to bring Oliver Queen upto speed. He is notoriously thick headed when it comes to his territory."

"He sounds so very different from you, Master Bruce."

"Can we skip the sarcasm today Alfred?"

"As you wish sir." The old butler couldn't help himself to worry for Wayne. "What about the boy and the girl from Middleton? They could help you. They are known to do that for no reason and no compensation."

Bruce sighed and shook his head. "They are children Alfred. Having powers doesn't change who they are. They can't handle the job, especially not one like this particular case. I thought that maybe the girl could but even she was..." He stopped for a second. "Disappointing."

"I find your rush to meet with the brute who almost got the best of you just one night ago, alone and without backup... Very off putting."

Wayne didn't answer as he walked with Alfred and got on the elevator that would carry them into the Wayne Manor itself. "Just get Bruce Wayne a suitable alibi to be missing for a few days. Let me worry about the job."

Alfred didn't break his poise as he answered. "You are about ten years late in telling me not to worry sir."


"Then Rufus takes a dive at my hand to stop me." Ron was animatedly telling a story, complete with grandiose hand gestures.

"Why did he do that?" Monique was listening to his story as they walked slowly.

"Well... Funny thing there. I was going for the sugar to put in my coffee?" Ron's head leaned to the side. "Instead, I apparently grabbed the silver nitrate container." Monique looked at his face with a blank expression. "It's a white powder that looks exactly like sugar."

"Oh." She chuckled. "I'm guessing some silver nitrate in your coffee would be bad."

"It'd be ferociously bad, as Kim would say." Ron patted his mole rat in the head as Rufus showed his head out of his pocket. "Luckily, I can count on my buddy to watch my coffee."

They had finished dining extensively at Bueno Nacho, with Monique putting away three Grande-sized meals. Ron had no idea how the slim girl managed that. Of course, he had cleaned out a healthy total of five Grande-sized servings, so he couldn't really complain. Rufus had claimed the last two servings that was awarded to Ron's win at the fair. They were now on their way back home.

"I still can't wrap my head around the fact that, you, the same guy who managed to explode half our chem lab last semester, works at a crime lab."

Ron leaned towards Monique conspiratorially. "Let me tell you a little secret."

"Hmm?"

"I was asleep during that entire lab."

"Whaaat?!"

Ron nodded. "Yea."

"But you redid that whole experiment in five minutes after that!" Monique was slightly outraged.

Ron sighed dramatically. "That's 'cause I'm that good, baby."

'Not to mention aided by short term super-memorizing skills.' He added internally.

"Try not to die being 'that good' Stoppable, you are growing on me."

"Yea, I'm counting on Rufus for that. Thank God feeding him cheese keeps him loyal." Rufus blew a raspberry at his joke and disappeared into his pocket. "Yea, go to sleep immediately after eating. Classic."

Monique slowed down slightly and her voice took a slightly somber quality. "Seriously though. You seem okay but..."

Ron's left eyebrow rose. "That part after the 'but' is never good."

The fashion guru slash superhero blogger sighed again. "You working at a crime lab? Ron, I admit that we haven't been besties like you and Kim are, but even I know that is so out of character for you." She got slightly more serious. "You know my dad is a detective with Middleton PD. I've seen what that life does to someone. You are not cut out for it." Her voice was filled with concern.

Ron turned slightly away from her. "Believe it or not Miss Jenkins, there is more to the Ron-Man than meets the eye."

Monique rolled her eyes slightly. "And I'm sure two unsolved murder cases have nothing to do with that new hobby." She immediately realized that she had said that out loud, and it could be incredibly offensive to say it like that. Her hand shot up to his arm and held him for a second. "I'm...Sorry Ron…that came out wrong."

Ron was not looking at her, so she couldn't really tell if he was angry at her or not. His voice came out from a lower tone, with no small amount of steel in it. "You are not wrong."

They stood still for a few seconds like that. Ron wasn't exactly angry or anything, it was just that particular topic was not his favorite conversation material. He heard some sort of truck's engine closing by.

Both Ron and Monique took a look at the road leading up to the suburbs from downtown that they were walking near. In the dimming light, Ron saw that it was some sort of an armored truck, probably a bank's money transport. He switched his brain into its super-speed mode on instinct, as an armored truck on this road made little sense.

As Ron stood there, going over the possibilities and implications, Monique heard the roar of a motorcycle following the truck. It caught up to the truck and the guy driving it raised his left hand.

Ron, deeply lost in his supercharged brain's stance, barely caught on to what was going on. The motorcycle driver's fur coat in summer tipped him off. A blast of white came out of the man's hand at the truck's tires, as the truck passed by the two teens.

The white blast was slightly off and it grazed the truck, continuing on towards Ron and Monique. Ron shook himself off from his trance and reacted at the last second, pulling Monique towards himself and out of the blast's path.

They collapsed on the ground in a heap. Ron felt the incredible cold emanating from somewhere close by and looked from under Monique to see that a large patch of pedestrian walk near them was frozen solid.

Then Monique cried out in pain, freezing the blood in his veins with fear. He rolled her gently off of himself and laid her down for a quick look. She was screaming very loud, so Ron assumed it must be an extremely painful injury she sustained.

His fears were realized when he saw her right foot. There was substantial freezing on the comfortable sneakers she was wearing, with some frost even visible on and above her ankle, disappearing into the upper part of her leg covered by her green Club Banana jeans.

Ron didn't have many options. He took the shoe off as fast as he can without hurting the girl, but screaming got worse as he did. He immediately removed the low cut sock and started rubbing her foot in superspeed. Monique was too busy being in pain to realize what he was doing.

As he did that, he took a quick look at their attacker. Captain Cold, and Ron was sure that this was the man that had frozen him solid on Valentine's Day, had cornered the truck under the overpass some distance away. He could see him unloading bags out of the truck.

The speedster turned his attention back to his friend. Monique's scream cut off abruptly as her hand on Ron's arm slumped. Ron looked at her realizing what was going on.

"No no no no no no! Don't go into shock, dontgointoshockdontgointoshock!" His speech quickened as his panic rose. He delivered a quick stinging slap on her left cheek, one that he hoped was not too harsh, but that didn't have an effect.

He had done as much heating as he could do on the spot with his superspeeding hands. He had no choice. He grabbed her bridal style and blasted off. Unable to contain his panic, he went supersonic within downtown, causing havoc all around his path.

A lightning storm kicked into the ER section of Middleton General, scaring nurses, doctors and patients all the same. One moment later, the storm left as fast as he arrived, leaving behind the dark-skinned girl on an empty bed with a hastily written post-it on her chest.

One doctor and a few nurses rushed in and read the note. They went into action immediately to treat the frostbite on Monique's foot.

Meanwhile, Ron was just getting angrier as he ran. His friend had gotten needlessly injured by a man he already had a beef with. He reached Possible residence, got in through the window of the guest room, dropped Rufus of on the bed. Not wasting a second, he retrieved the bag containing his suit and left again.

Merely ten seconds later, he stopped to a skidding halt near the overpass on the suburban access road. The man with the fur coat had loaded four large bags onto the sidecar, and was attaching it to his motorcycle. Ron assumed that he must've hidden the sidecar here a lot earlier. He didn't see what was in the bags, but he assumed it was large amounts of cash.

"Drop the bags Cold, you are done!" Anger was seeping into his voice.

The man turned and took a good look at him under the last light of the day. Ron barely picked up his cold smile under the furry hood of the coat. "If it isn't the Scarlet Speedster." He sat on the motorcycle. "It was too much to hope for that you would have the good sense to not mess with me."

"Mess with you?! You messed with me on Valentine's! Now I find you robbing an armored truck!" His voice rising with anger, "You hurt that girl near the road to add to it!"

"Someone got hit by that missed blast? Shame." The man seemed mildly disappointed. "It's never a good day when the job gets messy."

"'Job gets messy' ?! Is this all to you, a job?!"

Cold just shrugged. "What did you think it was? That I was a maniac with cold powers? I told you that night, I respect your 'heroics', but you made my life very hard since you got active."

"I've never met you before Valentine's!"

"No?" The man shrugged again. "Well, that's not entirely true. For now, I gotta thank you. You changed the way how I think about the job. You forced me to up my game. It was educational. Maybe we'll talk more, later." He revved up the motorcycle. "For now, why don't you go back to your house kid? It must be way past your bedtime."

Ron grimaced under the mask and clenched his fists. "You are not going anywhere. Last time, you had me trapped in a small lab. Now, you can't slow me down."

"Ah, that's where you are wrong." Cold turned around and pointed his hand at the overpass above himself. Ron could see that he had some sort of teched out glove on, confusing him momentarily. Then a concentrated blast shot out and started freezing the entire overpass slowly.

A few cars swerved as the freezing started, and Ron realized what Captain Cold had in mind. This overpass was a connection to the highway out of Tri-City and a major shortcut to Lowerton. It always had fairly loaded traffic this time of the day.

"I know your weakness Flash, I know why you disappeared after all those people died." With a final overloading blast of white cold flame, he lowered his hand. "While you're busy saving everybody, I'll be saving myself."

The cars started skidding on the overpass and started to crash on the railings above. Cold shouted out. "Good luck with that!" He revved his motorcycle and sped away towards downtown as Ron watched the overpass. A few cars was now crashing into the previously crashed ones, driving them out of the overpass and towards the lower road.

Not having any time to think, Ron blasted off and started circling the area, pulling people out of their cars as the cars fell on the road below. He was doing his best to reach everyone before something really bad could happen. Finally, the influx of the cars and the chain accidents stopped. About twenty cars had spilled off the overpass and on to the road below. About that many had bad accidents on the overpass, and some people were still in those cars.

Ron went into action again. He pulled out people and deposited them safely away from the frozen section of the road. He went to get the last person and found out that the car door was jammed from the accidents. The woman inside was trying to open the door to no avail.

Then ground rumbled beneath his feet. With trepidation, he looked at the frozen section. A few cracks were visible.

Worst part came when a few fallen cars on the road below exploded. The cracks suddenly grew and rumblings increased exponentially.

"Get back! Run away from the overpass!" Teenage speedster did his best to warn people and forced the stuck car door even harder. It was no use.

Then he got an idea. The vibrational quality of his speed powers had more applications than he had originally thought. His brief training sessions with Jay were showing him that. Coincidentally, intense vibrations he created could also work to unlock locking mechanisms, as long as it didn't have a deadbolt.

He put his hands on the door, near the lock, and vibrated them with increasing frequency. At a certain point, the lock clicked and the door just opened. Meanwhile, the overpass was now collapsing on itself as the frozen section crumbled downwards. Ron grabbed the woman and sped away as the ground under his feet started to disappear.

The entire overpass collapsed on the road below as the chain reaction from the crumbling road spread. Ron dropped the woman he was carrying near the other fleeing people. He stopped and breathed heavily as he surveyed the area.

It was a complete catastrophe. Sure, he had saved everyone from the overpass, but that was initially his fault for not realizing what Cold was doing in time.

Frankly, he should've found and shut down this man as soon as he came back from Japan. Again, operating without Wade was proving to be very frustrating.

He looked back and gave the civilians regarding the scene from a safe distance. All in all, it seemed to be mostly okay. He had to get back to Monique now.

With no notice, Flash sped away towards downtown.


Twenty minutes after he arrived at the hospital, as Ron Stoppable, Monique's parents rushed in. Anne Possible had arrived a few minutes earlier, and was in the room they were keeping Monique in.

Ron had met them with Kim, months prior. From what he knew, Monique's father Joe was a police detective, and the family used to live in Denver before they moved to Middleton. Beyond that, he didn't know much, since Kim was the one that hung out at Monique's place.

Just as he was about to greet them and apologize, Anne walked out of the room. She stopped both concerned parents before they walked in to their daughter's hospital room.

"She is stable and awake now. No permanent damage has been done, I checked her reactions and nerves myself." The neurosurgeon demigod turned to Ron. "Thanks to your immediate reaction onsite by removing her shoe and warming her foot, she'll make a full recovery in three days."

Ron was then almost got smothered by Ira, Monique's mother hugging him. She crushed the teen for ten seconds with that hug, all the while thanking him. Ron muttered incoherently, not feeling very good since it was his failure that led to Monique's injury in the first place.

Anne then led the relieved mother inside. Joe Jenkins shook his hand, but didn't let it go. "Exactly what happened out there?" He had a deep but reassuring voice. "I've gotta go to the scene later, I'd like to ask you to give a statement on the scene."

Ron sighed and sat down on one of the chairs in the waiting room. "You remember the guy who froze Flash back on Valentine's Day?"

"Some whackjob shooting ice out of his hand." The detective nodded. "He was the least of our worries that night." He put his hand on Ron's shoulder in sympathy.

Ron appreciated the sentiment, but it was unnecessary at that moment. "Basically, Monique and I were coming back from Bueno Nacho. He was chasing an armored truck. One of his cold blasts missed the bus and grazed Mo." He shuffled slightly as he had to lie the next part, albeit slightly. "While I was warming her foot, Flash appeared and took her here. Didn't see much after, we were some distance away from that overpass."

"Thanks kid." Ron nodded and turned his head away as he was ruminating. They got up and walked inside the room.

Her father hugged Monique as she lay in the hospital bed, while Ron was standing at the doorway, out of sight as he could manage. Monique reassured her parents, then noticed him standing there.

"Ron, come here." Ron obeyed and walked near the bed. Monique held his hand and pulled him into a weak hug. "Thanks."

Ron, composing himself after that, asked. "For what? Mo, if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't even be there."

"If it wasn't for you, I'd have been a human popsicle and KIA." Her parents and Anne collectively rose their eyebrows. "I remember seeing that white blast coming at me head on. I don't know how you pulled me away like that, but you saved me for sure Speedy."

"It...I..." Ron tried to debate that point, but he couldn't reveal how he was frozen in that overcharged-brain-trance without revealing his secret. A moment later, Monique's mother had, yet again, got him in a crushing hug.

"I'll...leave you guys...Gotta go.." He got out of the room nervously. He also had something nagging him, something he was thinking about while waiting for Monique's parents to arrive.

Joe Jenkins walked out after a minute, preparing to go to the crime scene. "Again, thanks kid. From the way she tells the story, you saved her life, not the Flash." Ron had given up on arguing that, so he just nodded slightly and stood silent. As the man was about to leave, Ron stopped him.

"There is one thing." After Joe nodded for him to continue, he supplied. "The armored truck. The direction it was going, there is not a single bank. It's the Middleton Science Center, a few smaller lab complexes, then the suburbs start. The only other way leading out there connects to Upperton's mansions and such, and even then, you'd need to drive another fifteen minutes to get to Grand Upperton Bank." Ron listed with his fingers. "There was no reason for that truck to be on that road, especially after working hours."

Joe thought on what he said and slowly nodded. "I'll look into it." He regarded Ron for a few seconds before speaking again. "Monique tells me that you are working part time with the Crime Lab?"

"Yea, I work as an intern to one of the analysts."

"Good. You've got a sense for this sort of thing. Keep up with it." Then he left.

Ron also left. It might not have been a day where he worked with Home, but he still had to see what was going on.


The crime lab was fairly crowded. Ron spotted one other senior analyst getting together some equipment, with the help of Patty Mankey. He approached them.

Patty, seeing him, pulled him to the side. "What are you doing here Stoppable? You aren't working today. Neither does Home."

"I was near the overpass. A friend got hurt."

"Dear God, where you on the overpass itself?!"

Ron shook his head. "No…We were nearby...That guy, Cold or whatever, one of his blasts grazed her. First degree frostbite." Ron didn't notice the mild anger laced with his own voice.

But Patty did. "Don't make it personal. It doesn't help with the job or your anger."

"I...am not making it personal." He looked at the equipment. "Crime scene kits? You guys are going to the overpass?"

Patty sighed. "Yes. Seems like there are two dead on the scene."

Ron panicked. "But...but...Flash saved them all on the overpass!" He thought he missed someone, another failure.

"He saved those on the overpass. The driver and the security guard of that armored truck were found a few minutes ago..." Seeing Ron's downtrodden face, she patted his shoulder. "Neither Flash nor you could help with it."

Ron gulped that down and asked. "Do you know how they died?"

"The detective on the scene said they were...in pieces. We are going to see what happened."

'Probably frozen...At least they didn't die with the overpass collapsing on them.'

Patty and the senior crime scene specialist finished packing and got out of the lab. "See you later. You got a shift tomorrow with Home, don't forget."

"Yea, gotcha. Good luck with the crime scene." He also walked out of the lab.

'Two dead, a few injured including Monique...'

His hands unconsciously clenched into fists.

'I need to find out who this bastard is and take him down!'

He blurred into the darkness of the night.


Somewhere in Lowerton, Leonard Snart finished perusing the contents of the briefcase that he was handed. He shut the briefcase and nodded to the woman who handed it to him.

"It's all here. I trust you have what you wanted?" He pointed to the bags he handed to her.

"Indeed. It was a pleasure working with a professional." She held out her hand.

Snart left that hand in the air. "We better not shake hands right now." He showed her the gloves he had on.

"If you are interested Mister Snart, my employer could use someone with your talents and...frosty attitude."

Snart shook his head. "Thanks, but no thanks. I like working for myself. Someone else's jobs, which I didn't plan myself, tends to get messy, like today."

"Your ability to hold Flash at bay is exactly why you were hired for today. I'd say you've performed very well."

"Two men died Miss Graves."

"You don't sound too broken up about it."

"It's not conscience that troubles me. With two dead, cops will be all over the case. I don't like the heat." He grabbed the briefcase and walked away. "Now, if we are done?"

"We are done. Good evening."

After Snart disappeared into one of Lowerton's most dingy bars, the woman made a phone call.

"Sir, we acquired the shipment."

"Is it viable?"

"The radiation readings show that it is."

"Get it to me as soon as possible. Leave Tri-City but don't return immediately. We can't have Waller's merry little band getting the wind of this."

"Yes sir."


Ron walked into the crime lab next day, for the daytime shift with Home. The old analyst was at his office, laughing at something. He saw Ron walking in and called for him. Rufus scampered from Ron's pocket to his shoulder.

"Here, I just found this amazing video, it's really funny." He restarted the video.

"Earlier this evening, this rubble was the scene for the stand-off between Flash and the man that calls himself Captain Cold. We don't yet have the details as why it happened, but we have an amateur phone recording of the event."

The video cut into a shaky recording of Flash facing the man with the fur-coat. Ron didn't need to see how it ended, but the bystander had caught how he had flashed around to save people. Then the video's punchline came as his own form was breathing hard with his form slouched and looking at the collapsed overpass. Someone had photoshopped a sad face on top of his mask.

Home broke down into laughter again. "Man, I can watch this over and over."

"This is not funny."

"I beg to differ. It's very funny how you just watched as he froze the overpass."

Ron groaned. "I had just arrived there."

"Well, why didn't you just ambush him, punch his lights out before he realized you were there?"

"I..." Ron didn't have a definite answer. He had stopped to trade verbal jabs with the criminal because he was angry about what had happened to Monique.

"You wanted to talk him down since your date got hurt? Yes, I know about that. Her father was here earlier, singing your praises." Home twirled his cane and rocked back and forth in his chair. "Man, you have a way with women. Those that you don't get killed instead get hurt just by being around you. Truly, a gifted man you are."

Ron was losing his temper. "It was not a date- Grrrr!" He growled as he tried to control himself. "I fucking hate you Home."

"I hate you too kid." His cane pointed outside. "C'mon, we gotta go to the morgue."

"Morgue?"

"To see the remains of those two from the truck."

"I thought Mr. Mendez and Patty handled that yesterday?"

"Pfft, Mendez, that idiot can't analyze his own shit."

Ron sighed. "That's not an image I needed, thanks."

"Here to serve." He pointed to a packed bag. "Grab that kit, and some specimen bags."

They got out of the lab and got in Home's car. The old man made a comment that ignited Ron's anger again.

"And please, don't date Monkey-Girl. She has spunk, I'd hate to see her die."

"FOR GOD'S SAKE-"

"She's so funny when I anger her, just like you are right now. Hope you don't have a thing for older women."

The old analyst snickered as Ron punched his own hand in superspeed.


The morgue that they were headed to was the cold sub-basement of Middleton General Hospital. Ron was used to dropping by this hospital with Kim, since Anne Possible worked there, but he had never any reason to go two floors down under the ground level before he started working for Home.

And if he could say what part was the least favorite of the forensic sciences, he could easily say this was it. Thankfully, most of the actual diagnostic work on corpses were done by medical examiners and licensed pathologists.

That was not the case this time.

"Look, we know why they died, don't we?" Ron had to hold the contents of his stomach down as Home opened one of the bags and removed a limb.

A freaking limb. At this point, Rufus was hiding deep in his pocket.

"Extreme crystallization by flash freezing, then getting shattered. Why are we here?"

Home, all decked out in gloves and a medical mask, carefully posed the limb on the examination slab, which was revealed to be a human leg. Then he spoke as he took a close look at it.

"Tell me Stoppable. What does an armored cash transfer vehicle has to have, as in specified requirements?"

Ron shrugged while trying not to look at the de-frosted limb. "Armor panels all around and on its chassis under the vehicle. Bulletproof glasses, that sort of stuff." Ron had read a book that outlined various vehicles used by security services as part of Home's suggested reading.

"There is one more thing that is needed."

"Yea... Lead lining. So crooks can't scan it with an X-ray or something."

Home pulled out a handheld device from the pre-arranged crime scene kit. "As it so happens, lead lining is needed for another type of material-transport vehicle. Can you guess what that is?"

"I dunno...Uh...Radioactive waste disposal?" He took a shot in the dark with that guess.

It happened to be a good shot. "Or actual radioactive materials and their transportation." The handheld device started giving out a telltale clicking noise as it was held over the defrosted limb.

"That was a Geiger Counter?" Things started falling in place within Ron's head. "Wait, if that counter is correct, one of the guys in the truck was exposed to mild radiation recently."

"Keep going kid." The cynical and sarcastic analyst didn't show it, but he was actually very satisfied with the level of intelligence Ron was inclined to show when he wasn't goofing around.

Ron started pacing in the morgue. "If it was not money they were transferring, and actually a radioactive material..." He stopped and looked into Home's eyes. "But they'd need protective suits for a really radioactive thing. So this was something else."

"That is true. This reading is too low to be for any high-yield radioactive material."

Ron resumed pacing. "If this was a legit transfer, they'd need to use a marked truck, it'd need to have radioactivity warnings. Since they used a bank vehicle instead, this was probably not on the level." He stopped again and then sighed loudly. "Frigging Science Center. Someone was going to receive a shipment of...something."

Home pulled out a camera and started attaching a multi-colored lens. "Took you long enough, but you caught up. Now we gotta find out what was stolen."

Ron moved to help him, still trying not to look at the limb on the slab. "So, what are we doing with the camera?"

"Turn the lights off. This camera will take a spectrum reading."

"For radioactive emissions? I didn't know we had that kinda gear in the Crime Lab."

"Normally, no investigation really requires it. It's mostly used to measure heat readings off of the recently dead."

It took them a good ten minutes to take multiple readings in near-total dark. As they got done and were packing up, the door suddenly slammed open.

As Ron watched in total shock, soldiers filed inside and started grabbing their stuff. Home was nonchalant to the end, almost as if he expected something along that line. Ron barely registered the analyst's whisper to him. "Get the memory card."

Ron knew what he was talking about. As a soldier went to grab the camera, he went into action, retrieved the memory card and returned to his previous spot. The room experienced a strong breeze, but other than that, no one realized any shenanigans on the blond teen's part.

Another soldier walked in after everybody else, this one with an obvious air of superiority around him. "Get all the body parts involved." He turned to the old crime lab scientist and his assistant. "Gentlemen, your involvement in this case is terminated. All of this is now classified as a military matter."

Ron was about to make a snarky comment when Home cut in before him. "Sure, no problem. Didn't want to deal with this anyway. Thanks General Eiling."

The commanding officer, now revealed to be one General Eiling, raised his eyebrow. "How did you know my name?"

Home laughed as he pointed Ron towards the exit. "Come now General, you have a nametag on your uniform." He added as they exited. "I expect full compensation for the seized equipment."

"Certainly. Your country thanks you for your service gentlemen." The general's eyes rested on Ron's face for a second longer than the teen was comfortable with, but then he looked away again.

After they got out of the morgue and the hospital, Home held his arm. "Did you?"

Ron showed the small memory card he was holding. "Have some faith." Home grabbed it.

"I'll get started working on this at my own laptop. Don't mention this at work, got it?"

"Got it." He looked back at the hospital. "Any chance I get a bonus for being so badical?"

"Please. Any speedster could do that."

"I'm the only one around!"

"My point exactly."

Ron sighed as he refocused on the matter. "Wasn't them showing up just half an hour after we showed up at morgue a bit...uh...weird?"

Home snorted. "Not really. They were watching the place."

"Why didn't they grab the bodies immediately?"

"Simple. To grab whatever we might've brought with us. To kill off the investigation at the source."

Ron cursed silently. "Freaking black ops teams and military shit."

Home got into his car. "Go sleep this off. The analysis will probably take some time, so again, no mention of this back at the crime lab."

Ron scratched his neck. "Any chance we get a lead on Cold anytime soon?"

"If you ask me, he was simply the hired help for this thing. I don't expect to find anything related with him." Home threw him a somewhat disinterested look. "If I were you, I would watch my back."

"Why?"

"In case you didn't realize, that man seems to be intent on doing what he wants, and you running around is probably something he doesn't like." He put his cane to his side and drove the car away.

Ron puffed and shook his head. "One month without anything fucked up going on, is that too much to ask?"

Rufus had chosen that moment to finally peek out of Ron's pocket. The mole rat chittered an agreement with the same tired attitude Ron was sporting.


Next day, Ron appeared at Monique's house. He had gotten off work early, as the very limited office work was handled by him in a very small amount of time.

He found Monique reclining on a couch in the living room. Her previously at-risk foot was elevated on a stack of pillows, and looked mostly fine from what he could see. He approached from her back, hoping for a little jump scare.

"Having fun lying around all day and watching-" Ron looked at the TV Monique was staring at. "Wrestling?"

Monique did indeed experience a tiny bit of jump scare as Ron spoke. She turned around to glare at him. "Jesus Christ, were you trained as a ninja in a past life?! Make some damn noise boy!"

Ron giggled at her first comment, since the irony wasn't lost on him. "I'm sure I wasn't a ninja…in a past life." He walked around the couch and sat down on a chair nearby. "I was kinda expecting to find you in an Agony County marathon or something."

"My brother sent some links to new fights that happened recently." She threw him a perplexed look. "I'm surprised you don't know about those already."

"I thought they were still dealing with legal fallout of GWA disbanding. Besides, I've been busy."

Monique paused the video via remote. "They rebranded the association and organized a few events already." She paused for a few seconds, then added hastily. "We can catch up with all of them if you want."

"That'd be badical-" Ron started to answer.

Then his watch beeped. Twice.

His supposedly disconnected watch. The device Wade used to relay info to him. He immediately looked at it and was extremely surprised to see a message blinking.

Hideout. Bring the suit. Urgent.

"—but it looks like I'm late for something again." He threw an apologetic smile.

"You gotta learn how to do some time management if you want to keep working." Monique's tone was mildly chastising and mostly playful.

"I know." Ron's watch beeped again.

NOW! The message was very clear.

"Gotta jet, see you later, bye!" Ron got up and jumped over her with a flip in the air, then exited the Jenkins household.

That last bit only served to worry Monique about whatever he was doing.


Ron scorched the side of the road to reach the burned down house of the Load family. In the light of setting sun, it was creating quite the ominous backdrop against the otherwise quaint suburban street.

He came to a stop in the backyard, and checked the entrance to the storm cellar. It was open, unlike the last time he was here. He quickly descended down underground.

The young genius he had been worrying about was tying a wire around something he couldn't see.

"Wade! Dude, where the hell have you-" Ron excitedly move to hug him, but stopped when the kid genius looked at him with eyes alight with panic and worry.

"Not now! Get here and wrap the copper wire around the coil!" Ron obeyed, but looked at him.

"Why do we need such a big electromagnet?"

Wade was pulling Ron's suit out of his bag. "No time to explain! Just do it!"

Ron completed the wiring in superspeed. Wade pulled out Ron's audio receiver from the mask's earpiece and placed in the middle of the big electromagnet. Then, without any explanation as to why, he ran a high current through the magnet.

"Put the suit on!" Ron was flabbergasted at this point, and obeyed without a word. A second later, he was standing there with the suit on, minus the mask. As he watched, Wade put the newly magnetized earpiece back into the mask's ear section.

"What the hell's going on?!" Ron put the mask on as soon as Wade handed it to him.

Wade, sitting in front of the activated computers, spoke with extreme urgency.

"Batman and Arrow are walking into a trap designed to kill them. The magnetized earpiece will let me talk to you while you are in superspeed."

"Wait what?! What was that first bit?!"

Wade looked at him. "We will talk later. You gotta go save them!"

Ron jumped on the balls of his feet. "Where to?"

"Starling City." Wade looked at him for a second. "Go man, go!"

Ron, still shocked and confused, didn't question him. The red blur of his departure marked the streets of Middleton, then a very loud sonic boom enveloped the city as if a supersonic plane had just flown in at a very low altitude.

Lightning shooting up both in his eyes and all around him, Ron threw caution to the wind and ran as fast as he could towards West Coast, and San Francisco Bay, where Starling was located.


As the cover of darkness lay over Starling City, two hooded figures closed in on their target. An abandoned warehouse in the Glades area of the city, devastated by an artificial earthquake more than a year ago.

Such complexes and warehouses had been home to the numerous criminals of the city, but Arrow and his partner Arsenal were in the process of cleaning them out.

Today was different. For the first time in months, the Vertigo drug had resurfaced back on the market. Oliver Queen was troubled under his dark green hood. He had shot the chemist who cooked the artificial drug dead almost eleven months ago, and thought that was the end of the drug.

He should've known better, he told himself. A drug as easy to make and addictive such as Vertigo, many people would seek to recreate and distribute it. A similar compound had popped in various places, such as Tri-City or Gotham, but before he had a chance to check those leads out, they had all gone dark.

He didn't doubt that the infamous Batman had a hand in that, but Oliver had to chase rumors in his own city as they had failed to find lead so far.

Until that night. His team had finally caught a break and got a lead about the supposed new chemist.

He was resolved to end Vertigo there and then.

"Arsenal, take the south exit. Infiltrate and wait for my signal." His slightly distorted voice intoned an order to his young partner and protégé, Roy Harper.

The younger archer wordlessly nodded and peeled off to scale nearby rooftops to reach the opposite side of the warehouse.

"You really think someone is messing with Vertigo? You killed Count after the last time, who'd be crazy enough to do that again?" Oliver's mission command and resident team cyber-expert Felicity Smoak's voice intruded on his concentration.

The vigilante didn't honor that chitchat with an answer. Then he heard some static from the earpiece. "Felicity, what's going on?"

"Someone is trying to hack into our comms! Wait a sec, I'll block whoever this is."

Oliver was getting more and more uncomfortable about the operation, but he kept going. On instinct, he turned and looked at the dark night sky when he heard a low sound of an engine rumbling overhead.

Some sort of small aircraft passed over his position, but he didn't see anything else.

If he were to take a closer look on the opposite side of the aircraft's approach, he could've spotted someone gliding with a dark cape open at their side.

The archer extraordinaire refocused on his task. He spied an easy entrance into the rafters of the warehouse.

As soon as he entered the warehouse, he sensed something being amiss. The warehouse was dark except a table in the middle, with a very short man sitting nearby. He stealthily descended from the rafters, his bow and arrow drawn and at the ready.

The static from the earpiece flared again. He heard Felicity's panicked voice. "Whoever this is, they are good! I can't block this, my workstation is flooding!"

Then, with a spike of static, someone's voice cut into their comms. The voice sounded as if it belonged to a very young boy. "Get the hell out of there! It's a trap!"

"Who is this?" Oliver, with a mild shock, registered a second voice, this one very deep and gravelly.

"Batman, Arrow, Arsenal, get the hell out of there!"

Before Oliver could even register the panic in the cyber-intruder's voice, or the fact that he had alluded to Batman being nearby, he heard bursts of gunfire from outside the warehouse.

His commlink flared up again. "Oliver, I'm pinned down, under fire!" Roy's voice could be barely heard against the backdrop of sporadic gunfire.

As if on cue, the short man sitting near the table stood up, and the lights in the warehouse all turned on at the same time.

Oliver turned around to see various people walking from their hiding places in the dark, behind crates and under storage containers.

"Two for 'ze price of one." The short man turned towards him and revealed a disfigured face. He had a German accent in his voice. "I vas expecting 'zis trap to not vork zo vell."

Oliver took cover behind a crate and heard a scuffle from somewhere close by. A few of the people creeping from above the crates were thrown around by someone. A gun was fired afterwards, then Oliver Queen, the Arrow, finally saw the Dark Knight himself back flipping towards a lower position to avoid gunfire.

Batman did the same as Arrow and took cover behind a crate. There was a good twenty meters between the two vigilantes, but they shared a brief glance at each other's eyes.

They were caught like rats in this trap.

"Do not doubt my ability again Professor." Someone with a Spanish accent spoke, and Batman visibly tensed.

Then the crate Batman was taking cover behind was shoved and thrown. The aggressor showed himself under the light after forcing Batman from his cover. From what Oliver could see, he was an exceptionally tall and bulky man. He had a skull-themed cloth mask covering his face, reminiscent of pit fighters.

Batman's gravel tone could be heard clearly, even if he didn't exactly speak loudly. "Bane."

"I was hoping you'd follow me here Batman. How is that rib healing?"

"Better than your face will." The caped crusader was in a fight-ready stance, checking all around himself as best as he could. "I did not peg you for someone that seeks help."

"Don't worry, they'll only watch as I break you." The large man, now pegged as Bane, charged towards Batman.

Oliver was too busy to watch that however. Everyone else in the warehouse were creeping up on his position. The short man with the German accent spoke again. "Don't vorry, Mizter Arrov. You shall deal vit 'ze rest of 'zis merry band!" The man was excessively loud and annoying.

Oliver switched positions after knocking one henchmen who reached position. He turned around to see twenty men in grey jumpsuits, smiling at him like predators. Then they all held the rings on their hands and turned them.

That's when Oliver knew things had just went from bad to worse to total shit. All those men suddenly bulked up and became really strong. He shot the arrow he had drawn into the leg of one of them. The man flinched, but then reached into his upper leg and pulled the arrow out.

A war cry was heard, then a black mass came towards him flying. Batman, having been thrown by Bane, landed on his feet and hands, but Oliver heard a wheezing in the cowled man's breath, indicative of a ribcage injury. He rose to his feet and went back to back with Arrow.

"Nice meeting you." Oliver declared in his slightly modulated voice, after pulling back another arrow.

"Likewise." Batman reached into his belt and retrieved something metallic.

Bane, his crew, the ring-enhanced musclemen and a few others who looked like part of some mob encircled them. The man with the German accent yelled. "Kill 'zem!"

Chaos ensued. Batman threw gas pellets on the side he was facing. Oliver's next arrow exploded at the feet of the attackers on his side, dazing them with the explosion of intense sound. Batman whirled around with his cape flowing behind him, throwing other metallic objects all the same. Oliver kept a steady pace of sinking tranq arrows into the guts of the ring-enhanced men.

The first wave of melee attackers reached them, but the two fighters somehow held their ground. Bane was calmly walking forwards, as his men and others wore the two vigilantes down.

One of the overly muscular henchmen caught Oliver from his side, throwing him a few meters away. Batman, avoiding another knife swiped at him by one of Bane's mercenaries, failed to notice that in time and caught a kick from behind. As he rolled on the ground, two pellets rolled on the ground from where he was thrown.

The pellets exploded into bright light and loud sound. A zipline tugged on the rafters above and pulled the vigilante upwards. However, now that no one was in the line of fire, some of Bane's mercenaries and the mob people opened fire. Another set of metallic objects were thrown by the caped crusader, blowing out a few lights to blot out the light.

Meanwhile, Oliver had regained his composure and used some of his little throwing darts to incapacitate a few people who made near him. As more lights went out, a zipline was thrown near him. Oliver, realizing that this was the other vigilante, held the zipline and felt the immediate tug upwards.

However, another spray of semi-automatic gunfire rained on the general area Batman was in, forcing him to drop the line.

"Ah, ah, ah, we are just getting started gentlemen." Oliver heard someone speaking from close by, and experienced a sting on his back. He immediately pulled what was thrown there, and saw it was a dart with some sort of empty container. His vision swam a little and he felt nauseated.

Bane's band of South American mercenaries emptied entire magazines upward towards the rafters, destroying supports where Batman was trying to hide in. The vigilante fell below with his arms to his side, using his cape to break the speed of his fall.

As soon as he landed, a dart pinged on his Kevlar armor. "Ah, padded armor. Time to get personal." The owner of that third voice spoke as Bane charged Batman again. The caped crusader didn't realize someone creeping up from behind as he blocked Bane's blows.

Next second, he felt a sting on his neck, one spot his armor didn't cover. He started having the same nausea and swimming vision as Arrow.

The owner of the third voice revealed himself as a middle aged man with white hair and black beard. "In the wake of our late Count, I appointed myself his replacement. And to celebrate that appointment-" He walked near Arrow and kicked him in the chest. "- I tinkered with his formula, and introduced an additive produced by certain mushrooms."

His voice distorted in the minds of both vigilantes, trying to hold their grip on reality. "My Vertigo reveals the face of your greatest fear. And thanks to Professor Demenz, this certain brand bottled for combat will disorient you to the point of collapse."

Oliver stood up and tried to fight, just as Batman did, but they both failed. Oliver was seeing a version of himself in a business suit everywhere, attacking him from all sides. While Batman was trying to swat something out of the air.

"Roy, you need to help them both in the warehouse!" Felicity's panicked voice filtered into the commlink.

"I'm still pinned down! And- Aarrgh!" Roy's voice cut out suddenly.

"That's it, I'm going in!" John Diggle, the Arrow's helper's voice cut in as well.

Then the mysterious hacker spoke. "Stay with that van! The help has arrived!"

Then, Diggle in the escape van, Arsenal pinned down by gunfire, all the henchmen both inside and outside, and the masterminds of the trap all heard the rapidly increasing crescendo of loud thunder.

"Save Arsenal from gunfire first!" The young hacker's voice cried out.

Then true chaos erupted. All of the henchmen attacking Roy Harper were suddenly attacked by a red blur, thrown all around and impacted on various surfaces, knocking them out. One second later, the archer in red found himself in the back of the van.

The people inside tensed up as they heard the gunfire stopping. Next second, the warehouse door exploded inward as a lightning bolt rushed inside and started taking out the henchmen with guns. Then it stopped near the struggling vigilantes. It was revealed to be a very heavily breathing young man in a dark red suit.

The surprised henchmen and their bosses watched in shock as an echoing and distorting voice made a comment. "Colorado to San Francisco in seven minutes, booyah!" He looked to the side and saw everyone staring. "Right, no one cares about me being awesome." He grabbed the hands of Batman and Arrow, then pulled them behind a container, dragging them on the ground.

Ron was slightly winded, as he had run faster than he ever had before, and he suspected that he might have inflicted some environmental damage to the roads in Starling City, but he still had some gas in the tank. His hand went to his ear and pressed on the earpiece. "Watchtower, Arrow and Bats seem to be dosed with something and I can't carry them both!"

"Hold on and get ready to carry them to the door you just blasted through!" Wade's voice overrode other people speaking in the hacked channels. "Mr. Diggle, get the van over-"

"Way ahead of you, whoever you are!" Oliver's bodyguard and friend, Diggle's voice came through and Ron heard the minivan he had deposited Arsenal in getting close.

He also heard people getting closer, gunfire peppered at the container they were hiding behind, and for a great amount of enjoyment to him, Dementor's screeching madly in anger.

What could he say, he was vindictive when it came to the bomb-making professor.

The first wave that reached the container was met with one-hit knockdowns all around. As Ron cleared out their immediate attackers, he heard Wade's voice shouting an update. "The van's in position, get them out now!"

Without any more input, Ron just grabbed Arrow first and sped over near the van, throwing the archer in dark green inside, near his partner in red. Then he went back to get Batman. As he lifted the Dark Knight, the full weight of the six foot three inch-tall man, along with his God-knows-how-heavy full body armor came down on his shoulders.

"You seriously gotta lose some weight Bats." The teen grunted. With some effort, he sped over again and threw Batman inside the van as well. He shut the backdoor of the van and strongly tapped it with his fist, indicating an all-clear.

John Diggle just floored the gas pedal as the van started getting away.

The remnants of the trap inside the warehouse had not given up. All those standing spilled outside and started raining bullets down on a shouting Bane's orders.

Ron's brain went into overdrive again as he tried to track the position of every bullet fired towards the van. Unfortunately, the sheer amount of information influx shut down his physical reactions, exactly like when he was with Monique and watching the armored truck get closer.

The thing that snapped him out of it was a bullet coming into contact with the exposed part of his cheek. Before the bullet could break through skin and into the skull, an immediate hyper-reactive auto-response was generated and Ron found himself doing a backflip... About fifteen meters to his rear.

He saw the van getting hit, and this time, careful not to slip into a trance, he sped over and started slapping bullets out of their paths. However, there were about almost thirty men emptying multitudes of magazines of semi-automatic gunfire, and that meant an awful lot of bullets.

Even though he was tired and winded, Ron pushed himself to go faster. To the shooters, it seemed as if the red blur turned into a lightning storm that blocked all their bullets. After a few more seconds, Ron had to stop and breathe as the mooks ran out of bullets.

Then he heard Wade's voice shouting at his ear again. Though, this time it was short, to the point and very very panicked. "RPG!"

Ron was about to snark back, saying what the hell a role-playing game had to do with this grand escape. Then he saw Bane lifting a rocket launcher that one of his mercenaries handed to him, and Ron's timely snark turned into an internal curse.

'Drama, so the frigging drama!'

The rocket was fired, and Ron struggled to see its destination. When the rocket sailed by him, he knew. Pushing himself again, he surged towards the airborne rocket closing in on the van. At the last second, careful not to touch the blasting cap in the front, he grabbed the damn thing.

His hands burned with the heat of the rocket, but he didn't let go as he swung it out of the way. The rocket swerved and hit the ground about ten yards away from the teen. The van kept going on, turning a corner and disappearing into the Glades, but the speedster took the brunt of the blast wave from the rocket and was thrown back a few meters with great force.

He impacted the asphalt on his back and felt pain shooting up from his spine.

The earpiece in his ear filled with static. "...Fla... You... Okay?..." Wade's voice could be barely heard amongst the static.

Ron groaned as he arched his back in pain on the ground. He was vaguely aware of the imminent arrival of all those crooks at his position, so he tried to shake the pain off and stand. Wobbling, he barely got on his knees and blasted off in superspeed, without any specific location in mind.

A few seconds later, he collapsed on an alley behind some kind of night club, which seemed to be deserted.


What woke the teen speedster was the excessive rumbling emanating from his own stomach. He took a few deep breaths at first, not exactly recalling the events prior to this little nap. Then, with a snap, it all came back. He sprung up to his feet, but the very, very fast getting up disoriented him, along with his hunger.

He wobbled, and someone caught his arm. "Easy kid." Ron knew the voice of John Diggle from their meeting back at Middleton months ago. He calmed down as he realized that he and his identity was safe.

"Thanks." With the former soldier's help, Ron sat down on a chair. That also made him realize that he was down to his boxers and the black t-shirt he had under his suit. "Uh, where is my suit?"

Diggle pointed to a nearby table where the dark red suit lay. "It has a few minor bruises on the leather. We'll clean it up."

"What, you have a dry cleaning unit down-" Ron looked around. He seemed to be in an underground bunker of some sort. "Forget that, what is this place?"

"Our base of opera-" Diggle's answer was cut short by a blonde woman wearing glasses and sitting near a multitude of screens.

"We call it the Arrow-Cave." She turned around and smiled. "Hi. I'm Felicity Smoak."

Ron nodded. "Ah. The computer lady."

"Yes, about that. Who the hell obliterated my cyber security suite?" The voice of the woman came across as if she was keeping some burning rage just below the surface.

"Ahahaha...That's my friend." Ron scratched his neck and looked around to change the subject. "Uh, where are the rest of the guys?" Then he stopped to think. "For that matter, how did you find me? Last I remember, I was collapsing in a deserted alley behind some nightclub."

"That'd be this building." Diggle nodded as Ron's eyes grew. "Yes, you collapsed literally ten feet away from our secret entrance. When that 'friend' of yours gave us a call and asked us to collect you, all I had to do was take a step outside and just drag you back in. You've been out for about eight hours."

He turned and pointed to a dark area behind some equipment crates. "As for Oliver and the Bat-guy, we laid them back there. Whatever that thing they got hit with, it must be strong. They are still out of it."

Ron's stomach grumbled again. "You got any food around here by any chance? I'm kinda running low on gas."

The ex-soldier sighed and took his jacket from a chair. "I'll get us something to eat." He left the huge underground room via a metal staircase leading above. That's when Ron heard some club music.

"What's above us?...Is that music coming from above?"

The computer lady answered, still sour from her defeat. "Oliver's nightclub is above."

"You have your Arrow-Cave undera nightclub?!" Ron whistled. "Badical."

"I'm glad you approve." A voice came from behind Ron. It was Oliver Queen, grunting and walking while wobbling. The jacket of his suit was already removed, allowing Ron to observe an ungodly amount of scars the man had on his upper body.

The teen watched as the man took a seat with some effort. The Emerald Archer, as he was known online, threw an unreadable look at Ron and sighed. "Thank you."

Ron shrugged. "You would have done the same."

"Yes, well, I could not run through half the country in…What was it you said, seven minutes?" Oliver let out a single chuckle. "I definitely couldn't do that." The older blonde pointed behind himself. "You saved me, Roy and...Whoever Batman is."

Ron peeked behind Oliver. He could see Batman lying down on a cot. He looked at the computer lady. "Why does he still have that armor on?"

Felicity shook her head without looking. "His armor shocked Diggle when he tried to remove it. I gotta give it to the guy, he is thorough with protection."

Ron had to agree, having seen that armor up close. He turned to Oliver, after a brief silence. "What the hell happened?"

"Don't you know already?"

"My friend sent me here on a moment's notice. We couldn't exactly compare notes. All I knew was that I had to come help."

Oliver sighed and leaned back. "I have been looking a lead on that new Vertigo for two months now. We find our first lead...Turns out to be a trap."

Ron got up and paced. "Dude...Kim found their operation in Tri-City about six weeks ago. And Batman helped her with the shutdown...We probably could give you a lead to follow."

"You were dealing with your own problems." Oliver nodded as Ron threw him a look. "Yes, we have been keeping up with the news."

They heard a slight alarm coming from one of Felicity's computer. She cried out in frustration. "Oh for God's sake...My system is getting hacked again!"

Then they heard a door opening from above. After a tense ten seconds, Ron relaxed and grinned. "Heh, lady, I don't think your system has faced anything like him."

Wade descended from the stairs and grinned back. He had a single tablet in his hand, presumably the only device he used to hack through. Strange enough, he had someone following him.

Ron observed the newcomer. He was an older man slightly above middle age. Ron guessed he might be around the same age as his boss, Home. He also had an impeccable buttoned suit with a white dress shirt underneath. He also had a bowtie.

"My goodness, this humble abode is very reminiscent of home." The man had a deep, cultured tone with a distinct and clear British accent.

Ron shook hands and then hugged with Wade. "We gotta talk in length...Later. I think."

Wade nodded. "Yea. We will." He turned to the rest of the people. "Okay, hi. I'm Wade Load." He turned and threw a cheeky smile at the blonde woman. "You might know me as Watchtower."

"You?! A kid broke through my entire security?!"

"I'm eleven." Wade shrugged. "So yeah."

Felicity Smoak suspended her disbelief for a second and recalled something. "Wait...You are the Wade Load?"

Ron was confused. "What's with the extra special 'the' in that sentence?"

The woman answered without looking at him. "There's one Wade Load in FBI's watchlist of most dangerous hackers. He popped up in the top twenty about two years ago without any prior notice...Which is impossible. You just can't pop in there, you need to climb the ladder, so to speak."

Wade snorted. "That list you are talking about is obsolete."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Felicity retorted. Ron had a good idea where that was going.

Wade threw her a childish smile. "Let's just say that I know you hold the twenty-fifth spot in that list, and I pretty much didn't break a sweat going through your system."

Oliver stopped Felicity's angry comeback. "I'm sorry, but who are you?" He directed the question towards the older British gentleman.

Wade answered that. "He works with Batman. He picked me up on the way."

"Picked you up?" Ron was looking at the genius, then the impeccably dressed old man. "Wait a minute..." He looked back at Wade. "You know who Batman is!"

Wade sighed. "Well, I only found out after I hacked three of his satellites yesterday."

That bit of information floored everyone. Felicity voiced the collective shock. "Batman has...three satellites?!"

Ron chuckled lightly. "Puts the whole 'caught in a trap' thing in perspective. How did those crooks even catch him off guard?"

One distinct deep and gravelly voice answered from behind him. "Because Bane knew I was coming and took precautions to hide his allies from me."

They turned to see the vigilante wobbling, much like Oliver did earlier. However, when he leant on a table, he hissed with pain and barely held on. The old man with the bowtie moved to help him immediately. "Master, maybe you should consider a vacation after yesterday's excitement?"

"Very funny Alfred."

"Well, at least consider comparing notes with these young lady and gentlemen. Your rib and you are in no shape to scuttle off into the night anymore."

Batman raised his hand. "I...actually agree." The cowl turned to Wade. "Besides, he already knows."

With the help of his assistant, Ron thought butler would be a more apt title for this Alfred person, Batman removed his cape. Then he deactivated his suit's security, finally removing his pointy-eared cowl.

That's when Ron decided world was definitely filled with two types of billionaires. Those with a sane hobby, and those who pummeled criminals in their spare time.

After a shocked silence, he was the first to comment. "I'm just gonna ask...When we met back like months ago, couldn't you drop like a hint or something?" He waved his hand around. "Like, 'by the way, I also do some hero work after dark, here's my real business card' or something?" Then he finished while smiling. "Or I don't know, a simple 'I'm Batman!' in that scary voice of yours."

Oliver just shook his head. "Bruce Wayne..." He sighed.

Bruce Wayne, removing pieces of his armor with the help of Alfred, just nodded his head towards Oliver. "Oliver Queen. Been a while."

Ron was still looking at Wayne's face, however, now it was with a piercing gaze. Everyone in the room could see his brown eyes narrowing on Wayne's cold blue ones. "You have been observing me and Kim." Then he got up. "Hell, you probably have been keeping an eye on me since Flash first showed up!"

"Perceptive." The billionaire, now revealed to be a vigilante just like Oliver, looked back with equal steel in his eyes. "But you are wrong. I have been keeping an eye on you and your friend way before that."

Ignoring Ron's shocked face, he turned to the rest and kept on the line of topic he first commented on. "Bane has set up the trap for me, but as it so appears, it was also a trap for you and your partner as well, Queen."

"That new chemist. He must be the source of this new Vertigo. But why would he team up with this 'Bane' character?"

Wade cut in. "Dementor."

"What's a Dementor?" Felicity asked.

"Professor Dietrich Demenz, PhD's in Chemistry, Physics and Mechanical Engineering. Diagnosed with a mild form of antisocial personality disorder when he was twenty-four. Had been working for German KSK for fifteen years when he first intruded on American soil with criminal intent. Labeled himself 'Dementor' and started pursuing devices and technologies to further his goal of world domination." That was Ron, much to everyone's surprise. "Though, with his tendency to be super annoying and downright campy comic book villain stupidness gets in the way of that goal."

He sighed and turned to Wade. "Dude, Dementor's gigantic ego wouldn't let him team up with anyone. You've seen how he was with Drakken."

Wade's eyebrows rose and then he chuckled darkly. "Dementor's ego?" He leaned forward on the chair he was sitting on. "Ron, Dementor's ego is shattered. His entire psyche is shattered." He commandeered one screen from Felicity's workstation and pulled up a footage.

Ron saw what appeared to be a man with no nose. He looked a bit like Michael Jackson in his final days. In addition, his skin was deformed. He looked hideous. "Holy shit. Is that..,Dementor?" Wade nodded. "What the hell happened to him?"

"You." This time, it was Bruce Wayne commenting. "You happened. You charged in, decimated his forces, thrashed his compound, subjected him to blows so powerful that a metahuman would break, then left him there, lying and bleeding." Then he turned to Wade. "And you, locked the door on him and his men."

Wade's face had fallen, and he was looking forlorn. "Yea...I didn't..." The genius kid sighed and looked way way older than he really was. "By the time the German Special Forces checked up on them, Dementor's face muscles were beyond repair and the cartilage in his nose was gone. They removed it, and tried to repair the skin with horsehide...Which failed."

He turned to the screen he commandeered. "He disappeared in Germany. Popped back up two months ago in Zurich. I've been tracking him since. He came into contact with some people I couldn't digitally locate. From what I understand, his 'mild' Antisocial Disorder has blown full out into 'deranged psycho' territory." He threw a grim smile at Ron. "We created a psychopath."

Ron shook his head slowly. "No…Oh no...He was a psychopath before. He bombed a hospital. He killed your parents." That had Felicity gasping and Oliver looking aghast. "No Wade. If anything, we exposed his fucked up shit to the outside world, for all to see." He stopped Wade's rebuttal with his hand. "I admit, I was way out of control that day, but I refuse to feel bad for a man that directly killed seventeen people, including your parents."

Ron got up and started pacing. "The new Vertigo chemist would want his help, Dementor being a world renowned chemist and all, but what about that guy with the weird mask, Bane?"

Bruce had finished removing his armor, and was allowing Alfred bandage his upper body tight as he spoke. "Bane uses an experimental, and highly volatile chemical called Venom to augment his body and his strength. It is a steroid cocktail that outright kills with a ninety-five percent mortality rate. With a chemist like Demenz..." He left that thread open ended.

"They knew you two would come. You guys didn't know about the extra additions to your bad guys."

"That is…true." Oliver relented.

"If it wasn't for Load tracking and listening in to Demenz, we would be dead." Bruce Wayne seemed too calm about that fact. "They planned for us... But they had no way of knowing you two would interfere."

"And now…They do know." Oliver and Bruce shared a knowing look.

"What?...What?" Ron looked to both of them in quick succession.

"They are going to look for someone to take you out. 'Call in a specialist', if you will." Oliver said that and then fell into silence.

After a few seconds of looking back and forth between the two vigilantes, Ron shook his head. "Okay, why the long faces?" He opened his hands to the side and grinned. "We are all here now, aren't we?"

"They will be piling up even more firepower this time." Oliver turned his back and lowered his head. Bruce kept silent as he peered at Ron's face, an unreadable expression on his face.

"So what?!" Ron stood in the middle of everyone in the room. "You are telling me that all this-" He waved his around the room,"-won't be enough?" He snorted. "You are the frigging Arrow. I've been reading all the crazy stuff you pulled off for the last two years!" He turned to Wayne. "And you are the Batman! You have been waging a one man war against the entire mob and criminal elite in Gotham...And winning!"

Then he grinned. "Well, then there is me. I've dealt with stuff like this since I was thirteen!"

Wade interjected. "Technically, Kim did. You mostly ran around, messing stuff up for the bad guys."

Ron turned to him. "That is totally..." He deflated. "True, but my point still stands." He exclaimed his point by as if it was as plain as day. "We are badical and we got this! The obligatory superhero team-up issue of comic books is upon us!" Ron finished with a genre savvy comment. Following a very brief silence, he added with hesitation. "We…We are teaming up... Right?... Right?!"

"Coming to help to save another is one thing. But we can't become a team out of nothing, like that." Oliver shook his head. "That takes training. Besides..." He pointed to the monitors in the room. "Now that their trap was broken by you, they'll hide from us even better. We would need to find them first."

Ron laughed and pointed to both Wade and Felicity. "There sit the Albus Dumbledore and the Hermione Granger of cyber-wizards, I think they got that part down."

Wade shrugged. "Nothing I haven't done before. What about you lady?" The kid genius grinned at the other computer expert in the room. "You are not that old yet."

"I've been coding and hacking since before you were born. Yea, I got this." She added after that. "That is, if you three are down with the idea." She pointed to the actual superheroes in the room. Then something clicked in her mind. "Wait, did you just call me Dumbledore? I'm just twenty six!"

Ron rolled her eyes. "You are the…Hermione in that analogy." He pointed to Wade. "You are good but...Wade is the best." He shook his head. "Never mind that. Okay, guys?" He looked at Bruce. "You've been very quiet."

Bruce Wayne finally started speaking. "Last time I saw you, you were on a global rampage. I thought I would have to stop you permanently if it came to the worst. Now, just a few months after that, you stand, a vastly different person, but still a sixteen year old."

"I can handle this. I've handled way worse recently." He recalled just a flash of a memory of their invasion into Hell. "Way, way worse."

Wayne noticed Ron's hand shaking for just a second, but he chose not to comment. "It's not just about your capability. Are you sure you want to risk your reputation?"

"Reputa- what? What's that gotta do with anything?"

Bruce pointed to Oliver without diverting his gaze. "He has killed more than fifty people in cases dating back two years. He is a murderer. That is not speculation. It's a fact." Bruce spared a glance at Oliver. "No offense."

"No, no, you are right." Oliver seemed troubled with that, but took the facts head on.

"Starling City might be on his page for now, but for a lot of people, he is the worst kind of criminal. And I..." The billionaire sighed. "I do what I have to do, and it's not clean. It's not pretty or honorable. I use fear as a weapon, because that's what Gotham needed from me."

"If you are seen with us...It's not gonna be easy for you." Oliver added. "Public can turn on you faster than even you can blink."

Ron slowly nodded then shrugged. "Well, looks like you two haven't heard my motto." He made a fist with his right hand and pumped while exclaiming loudly. "Never be normal!" He calmed down after that. "Seriously guys, we'll be committing a capital offense if we don't team up. This much badicalness cannot be let go."

Oliver sighed slowly. "I'll regret this." He looked at Bruce Wayne.

The other billionaire took one last moment to look at Ron's smiling and determined face, then slowly nodded. "Alright."

"Alright!" Ron put his right hand forward in the middle. "Team huddle!"

Oliver looked at him for a second, then walked away to grab his clothes. "Yea, I'm not doing that."

Ron turned to Bruce, but he too had turned around. "Not going to happen."

"Oh c'mon!" His hand fell to his side. "You guys are no fun." Then he sniffed something as the door above the stairs opened. "Food!"

John Diggle took two steps on the stairs. Then a blur took all the food he had in his hands. He descended some more to see the newcomers and the speedster eating at an inhuman speed. He turned to Felicity.

"Did I miss something?"


Leonard Snart's phone rang. The man picked it up with a certain disinterest.

The voice at the other end of the line was known to him. And not entirely welcome. "Herr Snart. I have a propozition for you." The unmistakable German accent and the loud voice belonged to the man Snart knew as Dementor.

"Not interested. Valentine's deal was a one-time thing. And lose this number. I don't want to deal with whatever hare-brained thing your kind is cooking."

"I 'zink you vill be fery interested. It concernz a problem you are familiar wis. A problem in a red suit."

Snart sighed and shook his head slowly. After a short deliberation, he answered. "Go on."


Obtaining permission from Home for getting off shifts earlier had been easy. The sarcastic analyst would be fine as long as Ron got rid of all the paperwork the older man loathed to deal with. And he could do that at the end of a day, by some ten minutes of work.

Pleading his case to Mrs. Possible was a completely another matter.

"Ron, dear, no."

"Mrs. P., this is just temporary! Up until we bag the bad guys and wrap this whole 'Vertigo' business once and for all."

Anne's head turned slightly at the usage of the plural pronoun. "'We'? Who's this we?"

Ron knew he had just tripped on a landmine. He had just explained about Wade's return and the connection to the Vertigo problem they had in Tri-City area, but nothing further. "You-you know...Wade and I..."

Being the extremely observant and intelligent person she is, Anne could see through both her daughter and his best friend with ease. She knew Ron was holding something back. Using her best impression of late Andrea, she spoke. "Ronald..."

Ron knew he was busted. He was also very short on time. "Okay.. Mrs. P., I kinda linked up with the Arrow...aaaand...the Batman...Sorta."

Anne lost her voice for a second. Then it came back in full force. "Ron! Those two?! I thought you were being careful after...after..." Anne's voice lost steam at the end.

"I have recently been to Hell, Mrs. P." Ron's voice took on a somber quality. "I am being careful. That's why Wade and I are working with people, instead of going at it alone."

Anne sighed. "You two shouldn't be doing this. It's one thing to work in Middleton, but going to other places to deal with their problems?" She put her hand on the teen's shoulder. "Ron, this is not like you and Kim calling in a favor to deal with Drakken."

"It actually is." Ron's voice darkened slightly as he spoke again. "Dementor is helping this Vertigo dealer. And we gotta help."

Anne knew she had lost this round. As she looked at the honest and determined face of one Ronald Stoppable, she suddenly understood why she seemed to be losing more than a few with both Kim and Ron lately.

They were growing up. Through pain and loss, they were growing up. Way too fast.

"I'll come up with something for James..." She added for her own benefit. "That seems to be all I'm good for these days, lying for you and Kimmie."

Ron grinned, relieved that this was resolved. "Really shouldn't take long to do this Mrs. P. I'll get it done in a Flash." He scratched his neck. "Yea, I know it's a lame pun...But I like it! Anyways...You're the best Mrs.P.! I'll call!"

He sped away towards his room, only to reappear before Anne a moment later. "I…Uh...I'd go check twins' room. I think I saw a Grade 5 Laser lying on the floor yesterday, when you wanted me to go fetch them for dinner."

"Grade 5 Laser?! Dear God."

"Yea…Good luck...Bye!" He was gone the next moment.

A mere fifteen minutes later, he had arrived at the coordinates Wade wanted him to come to. It was some sort of deserted plot of land on the outskirts of Starling City. He had his sole remaining friction-proof hoodie and pants on. Wade had said he was gonna get him some new sets as soon as possible, but they were far too busy for that.

He stopped near some sort of picnic table on which Wade was working with a laptop. Near him, the elderly British gentleman, now known to him as Alfred Pennyworth, was sipping some tea. Bruce Wayne was also sitting, bandages slightly showing out of the black buttoned shirt he had on.

Oliver's footsteps sounded from behind, walking out of the nearby shack. He had his compound bow in hand, with a small quiver fastened on his back.

Wade just afforded him a little wave in between his typing, and Alfred smiled as a greeting. Bruce and Oliver looked downright annoyed with him, though.

"Hey." Ron tentatively greeted everyone.

"You're late." Oliver's annoyance was evident in his voice. "Ron, how can you have superspeed and still not be on time?"

"Sorry...I guess the super-tardiness kinda neutralizes it...Plus I had a situation back home and..." He saw both vigilantes glaring. "Not relevant, got it." He desperately tried to change the subject. "So how do we catch Team Vertigo here?"

"Oh no. We don't, not here. We are here to train."

Ron didn't get it, so he looked at first Bruce, then Wade, then back to Oliver. "W-what?" Seeing no hint of a joke on anyone's face, he commented. "Like..." He grinned. "Rocky? Luke in Dagobah? Dumbledore's Army style?" He shook his head in a dramatic fashion after no one reacted to those. "C'mon, no one's feeling these jokes?"

Bruce spoke, as if he had not heard the joke. "We read your friend Monique's blog, The Examiner news articles and went over your casefiles from Mr. Load's database."

Ron was a little creeped out. "Don't you two sleep or something?"

The billionaire playboy, well, the one that usually dressed up in a batsuit, continued on. "Queen had previously investigated you months ago, now we went over your more recent...escapades."

Oliver picked up from there. "Ten months ago, you fought someone using a magic amulet. You barely walked away from that."

"In my defense, that was an Egyptian god..." He added meekly. "Well, a fractionof an Egyptian god."

Oliver sighed with annoyance and carried on. "Then, you fought alongside Hal Jordan against an alien."

Ron interjected. "Wait, how do you know who Hal is?!"

"We worked a case together last month. Anyway." Oliver went on listing. "That alien kicked both of you around. You fought a hyper-intelligent gorilla and got skewered. You fought a genetically enhanced psychopath and almost died in the process. You got shot while I was watching and fainted. You got yourself zapped with a then-unidentified government project."

"You know what the recurring theme is in this narrative?" Bruce added.

Ron huffed. "Electrifyingly exciting action sequences?" Ron allowed himself one moment of celebration as the fact that he had just snarked back to Batman and Arrow became apparent.

Those two were not impressed. Not one bit. "You recklessly come close to death, over and over again." Bruce supplied with a dark tone.

Oliver, as if on some practiced cue, picked back up. "Ron, when you approach a new environment, do you case every inch of it?"

Ron opened his mouth to answer, then failed to say anything.

"You could. You have the time and the speed." Oliver was dead serious. "But you don't. You just run in blind, recklessly, without any semblance of strategy. No wonder you and Hal Jordan get along so well."

He turned around and walked towards the open field in front of the abandoned shack. "There is a difference between having powers, and having precision."

"I...survived this far guys."

"Thanks to Mr. Load. And thanks to Possible. Your solo track, however, is prone to you having a very premature end." Bruce again shut Ron up.

Oliver retrieved an arrow and pulled the bowstring back with it. Ron became nervous at seeing that. "Wh- What is that for?"

Oliver answered with a straight face. "You're gonna run over there. You're gonna come back at me with superspeed. And you are gonna get hit with an arrow."

Ron found that very funny. Looking at Oliver first, then Bruce, he laughed. "You two know I catch bullets right? That's so not gonna happen."

Oliver fake-laughed for a second and then answered with his dead serious tone again. "Yes it's gonna happen."

Ron shook his head and looked at Wade, who seemed to stop his work on the laptop and shot Ron a mysterious smile. Then he looked back at Oliver. "Okay. Fine. I will humor you." He ran towards a small hill Oliver had pointed at. He shouted from afar. "Ready?"

Oliver aimed the bow. "Ready." He let the arrow loose.

For Ron, who had just sped back towards Oliver and the rest of the group, it was an easy matter to catch one lone arrow. He grinned at Oliver. "Nice try."

Then he paid for that cockiness. Two preset crossbows on the ground nearby let two arrows loose, which impacted on his back with a sickening noise. Ron cried out in extreme pain as he doubled over. Recovering slightly after a second, he looked behind to see two arrows sticking out. "You shot me?!"

Oliver walked behind him and grabbed the arrows. "Wade told us that you heal fast." Then he pulled the arrows out. That moment saw Ron learning why some people wouldn't remove arrows right away, because it hurt. As all hell.

After he was done shouting out in pain, he turned to Wade and threw the genius very dark looks. "Thanks Wade, you are the best friend a man can ask for. Really. Thanks a lot!"

Wade snickered as he answered. "Anytime."

Oliver pointed to the wider field nearby, filled with tall grass and weed clusters. "There are fifty of those crossbows hidden. I'll shoot at you, and you'll try not to get skewered again."

"Oh Fuji..." Ron's comment before he set off for the field said all that they needed to know about his current mood.

As Ron's cries of pain started ringing out from the field, Alfred served some tea in a cup from a thermos he had brought with him and offered it to Bruce. That's when he noticed something odd. "Master Bruce...Heaven forfend, are you actually smiling?"


Ron came to a halt in front of Wade's makeshift worktable near the abandoned shack. "Hey. Sorry I'm -" He looked around but failed to see either Bruce Wayne or Oliver Queen. "Not late?" He looked at Wade, who was presently working on his suit. "Where is everyone?"

"Wayne had to check in with his shareholders, so he went to his hotel. Oliver Queen is taking a call I think."

Ron shrugged. The situation worked for him. Rufus jumped over from near Wade and climbed on his shoulder. "Hi buddy." He had left Rufus with Wade, as he had been going back and forth between Starling and Middleton, and Rufus hated too much superspeed travel. Rufus seemed happy with the arrangement.

Ron turned to Wade after dropping his backpack near the genius. "So, how's the suit looking?"

Wade sighed. "Bad. This middle grade material I used won't hold anymore. Too much punching, too much kicking and..." He trailed off.

Ron finished that track for Wade. "Too much speed?"

"Exactly." Wade leaned back and exhaled loudly. "Man, I never thought you'd go this fast. I mean...According to the watch, you ran at Mach Ten when you were rushing to save the guys."

Ron had many musings on the matter ever since Jay Garrick had hinted at the true source of his speed. He and Wade had had no chances to speak on it, but they would have to when this particular adventure in Starling ended. He chose to leave it for later.

"Just make sure it can survive this trip. You and I...We got so much to talk about."

"I agree. For example, you could tell me how in the hell Kim has super strength, where she found that set of clothing, and how she is changing her appearance."

Ron had forgotten about that as well. That three person conversation Team Possible had to hold when they returned to Middleton was going to be all around mind blowing. "Dude, I couldn't even explain if I knew it all. Best we leave that for later."

"Do you know what she is doing in London?"

"Wa-wait. London?"

Wade nodded. "Yes. She's been hanging out with this tall woman for the last three hours, early morning over there."

Ron had literally no idea. He suspected there was a good story behind it though. "That woman is probably Wonder Woman."

"Huh." Wade shrugged as if that was normal. Then he commented again. "Just when you think our stuff couldn't get more weird." He turned back to the laptop he had set up on the worktable. "There are some weird robberies happening lately. Maybe she's looking into that. Latest one was in London."

Ron shrugged. Oliver walked in. He looked very miffed. He pointed to his phone. "You know who this was?" He continued immediately, not allowing any answers. "Police Captain Lance. He was asking the Arrow if he knew how three perps appeared on downtown precinct's entrance, all tied up. In the middle of the day. As if they appeared out of thin air. "

Ron nervously chuckled. "Huh. Weird." He added in a whisper. "Awkweird…"

Oliver closed his eyes and exhaled to calm himself. "You are not here in this city to take care of small fish."

"I just saw them while I was on my way. I mean...I figured..." Ron trailed off mumbling.

Oliver shook his head. "Anyway. Let's pick up from where we left off yesterday."

"Still with the training?" Ron's head fell forward.

"Yes. Still. You are still not utilizing your potential at multi-tasking and surveying the environment."

Someone on a motorcycle closed in on the shack and stopped nearby. Bruce Wayne removed the helmet he had on, with a somber look on his face. Though, to Ron, who had a chance to observe the real Bruce Wayne, that look appeared as the normal look he sported. The teenager felt obligated to ask still. "You okay man?"

"Don't try to run a multibillion dollar company from across the country." Wayne commented darkly and then grabbed the utility belt that was sitting on Wade's worktable. "Is it done?"

Wade nodded without looking. "Upgraded the automatic grapple pulley. It can now retract the high-tensile cable at quadruple the speed. Also added that part you wanted." He threw a look at Wayne's direction. "Though why you wanted a lead lined special compartment is...beyond me."

"Don't worry about it." Wayne fastened the belt around his waist and walked towards the field. "Come on, we are losing time."

Ron looked at Oliver, puzzled. The archer-billionaire smiled slightly. "He insisted on joining today." He retrieved his bow and arrows and walked out onto the field as well. "Good luck."

The teenage speedster just looked at Wade. "That's fair. Totally, completely, badical." Sarcasm was dripping from his voice.

Rufus chittered to encourage him. "Thanks buddy." Ron petted Rufus on the head and went over to join the other two on the field.


An hour or so into the 'training', Ron's phone rang loudly from his backpack. At that time he was in the middle of avoiding all manner of objects thrown or launched at him, but he heard that and rushed to his pack. The two vigilantes didn't look happy about it.

He didn't care, as soon as he saw the number. In between his ragged breathing, he exclaimed with joy. "Hey, look! Its KP calling!" He immediately answered the call.

"Oh, hi KP! What have you been doing? Mr. and Mrs. P. were getting antsy." And that wasn't a lie. Kim had not called them yet.

"I was at a remote place. Training and all…Now listen, could you run a check for me?" Kim's voice sounded preoccupied.

Meanwhile, Bruce and Oliver had decided to test their skill for a bit, and they were having a little sparring match in the background. The sounds of that apparently made it across to Kim. "Ron, what is going on? Are you okay?"

"Oh, don't worry, I'm badical! It's just that-" At that moment, a wayward arrow, probably one evaded by Wayne, made its way towards Ron and struck the wooden beam right next to him. He let an instinctual scream out. He turned towards the two vigilantes and shouted. "Can we frigging watch where we shoot our arrows?!" Of course, he didn't get an answer, but Oliver seemed to shift his position towards the other side of the field. Ron sarcastically shot back, "Thank you."

"Ron, what are you doing? Arrows? What's going on?" Kim's voice came across as worried, understandably, after what she just heard.

"Uh, nothing! Just hanging out with some…friends." Ron answered quickly. He was trying to formulate a concise answer without lying to her about what he was doing, but details could wait until they met face to face.

"Like… Monique?" Kim asked, not knowing the mention of their friend made Ron very uncomfortable and somewhat angry. He sighed and buried those feelings, so not to worry Kim.

"Oh…Well. Not exactly. You see, one of them is very partial to his bow and arrow and the other…Well, let's just say that he really likes nocturnal creatures." Ron steered away from the subject of Monique and gave some details to his own. He could see Bruce Wayne's glare in particular directed towards himself. He turned and looked at him with defiance. "What? You do dress up as one!"

"Ron! Watch what you say on the phone!" Kim's voice took on that chiding tone Ron knew all too well. She needn't have worried though.

"Oh no worries, it's a secure line." Ron assured Kim, as Wade's first act after arriving Starling had been to surveillance-proof Ron's new smartphone.

"How do you know?"

"Wade secured it, no problemo."

"Wait, Wade's back?!" Shock in his best friend's voice travelled across the airwaves.

"Oh right, we didn't have a chance to tell you yet. It's a new development." Ron scratched his chin. "You know, he could handle whatever check you need done right away. I'm gonna pass the phone."

"He's with you, physically?!" Kim's voice got progressively higher from the sound of it.

"It's a brave new world Kimbo." Ron stated with confidence and just a little bit of melancholy in his voice. "Talk to you later." He passed the phone to Wade.

Returning to the field, he found both vigilantes recovering after a short spar. Bruce Wayne looked at him and threw him a dark look. Ron shrugged. "What, are you angry about that nocturnal creature's reference?"

Bruce sighed and spoke. "I don't dress up as bats because I like them." He didn't comment further.

Oliver, guessing the root cause, and after seeing Ron's dumbfounded look. "He uses the bats as a symbol of fear. To keep the criminals in constant terror." He shook his head after that. "Though why a bat in particular, I don't know."

Bruce didn't say anything at all.

Ron, slightly perturbed by the notion, looked at him with some hesitation. "Dude...You know..." He exhaled, trying to say what he thought without offending his fellow crime fighter. "That's kinda...fucked up."

Diplomacy was so not his strong suit.

The training session, or 'joint torture exercise' as Ron called it, ended an hour or so later. They checked back with Wade, who seemed hard at work on his laptop.

"Any progress on the new location of our perps?" Bruce inquired, without dealing with any pleasantries.

Wade sighed. "These are not simple street criminals. And Dementor got wise to a lot of cyber-surveillance after I crushed his systems at his compound. They are staying off smartphones which we can turn into surveillance devices and sticking with landlines, from the looks of it. I've been using FBI's face-recognition software for the past two days, but none of the identified suspects have come up in it."

He turned the laptop screen towards them. "You can see the city-wide scans of Starling done via those cell towers. Felicity Smoak is good, she came up with the signal-scanning on burner phones, though that failed too. We ruled out parts of the city, and I can tell you for sure, they didn't leave the city. Beyond that..." He opened his hands to the side and looked a bit lost.

Bruce seemed contemplative for half a minute, then spoke up. "Have you tried using the water and electrical mains?"

"With what? Starling City is in so much disrepair, it can technically rival Gotham in terms of having the worst infrastructure in America. None of those systems are really digitalized. And electrical power draws or such can only be traced on the source."

"You could plant signal-trackers and a simple monitor in the breaker boxes."

Wade seemed to perk up at that after his eyes grew. "Wait a minute, is that how you have been responding to every alarm in Gotham even faster than the cops?!"

Bruce Wayne just nodded.

Wade sighed. "Well, good for you then, because even if we somehow were able to plant all those devices in a short period of time, you'd still need a very, very powerful computer to synchronize all the incoming data and signals. Nothing I have is enough for that. We are talking military grade, million-dollar worth equipment."

"What if you had access to such a computer?"

Wade shrugged. "If we had the devices in place, a strong enough computer for me to use and Felicity Smoak providing the surveillance feeds to track along, technically, I could map out the power draws and find irregularities hiding a drug-lab."

"I have a computer strong enough for that." Bruce provided. "At my base."

Ron puffed. "Man, it must be nice to have billions of dollars to pour into crime fighting."

Wade threw a grin Ron's way, then turned to the vigilante. "I need a direct uplink installed. Physically."

"Gotham's at the other side of the country. You'll need a flight." Oliver looked at Bruce.

"Hey!" They all turned to Ron, who seemed offended. "Hellooooo? Fastest man alive, like, standing right here!"

Oliver shrugged. "He...has a point. Besides, we'll need to start working on those devices too, if we want this done fast."

Bruce asked the kid genius. "Can he handle the install?"

"If I guide him step by step, sure."

Bruce reluctantly nodded. "Okay. Write up what you need for the devices and draw up the area. Give Ron something with both audio and video transmission. I and Oliver will get the components while he runs to Gotham."

"I got something just for that." Wade opened a big backpack he had brought with him, and pulled out a palm-sized device. He handed that, and a cable to go along with it to Ron. "This is the satellite uplink device." He pulled a pair of sunglasses, with a heavy plastic frame. "This has a built-in camera and audio transmitter. You'll have to use that when you get to Gotham."

Ron looked at his suit lying on the table. "Can I?"

"No.. I'll finish it tomorrow. For now, use that new friction-proofed hoodie and pants I gave you. Just...don't go full speed."

Ron nodded, pulled up his new hoodie on and fastened an across the shoulder bag at his pack, which Wade placed the uplink device into. He turned to Bruce. "So where is this base of yours?"

"Under my house."

Everyone else present shot him weird looks, including Oliver, whose base was under a nightclub.

"Seriously? Under your own house?" Ron voiced everyone's thoughts.

"It's way down under." Bruce clarified after the weird looks kept coming. "It's an underground cave filled with bats."

"So it's a literal Bat…Cave." Ron shrugged. "Sure, why the hell not. Not like my life can get any weirder." As soon as he said it, he seemed horrified. Turning around suddenly, he shouted. "That WASN'T a challenge, anyone listening up there!"

Chalking that up to his essential Ron-ness, Wade let that go. "You can contact us when you get there via the glasses."

Ron turned to the other two. "Have fun running around in the sewers guys!"

Then he was gone.


The Wayne Manor up close was, to describe in a single word, spooky. Ron really didn't like the incredibly dark design it had.

Then again, the entirety of Gotham gave him the creeps.

He put on the glasses and activated them. "I'm here. What now?"

"There will be a side entrance at the grounds, behind the manor."

Before Bruce could say anything else, Ron had already ran around and found the entrance. "Found it. There's a keypad."

"Put in 9-1-9-3-9."

Ron did as told. The side entrance opened with a hiss. "Did that code had some significance somehow?"

Bruce Wayne ignored that question and directed him further. "Go to the master bedroom. Top floor, big doors." Ron was there in a second. "Pull a lever on the side of the big grandfather clock."

As soon as the blond did so, the clock pulled to the side, revealing a dark and narrow passage leading below. "Secret entrance in the bedroom. I mean, really? Could you be more cliché?"

It didn't take long for Ron to find the so called Bat-Cave. He looked around to see a huge underground cavern all around him. He could hear the bats on the cave ceiling above. "How do you get rid of all the bat droppings man, this place is super clean."

Wade's voice filtered in through. "He's refusing to comment. Anyway, let's get to work."

"Alrighty." Ron got the satellite uplink from his bag, and installed it exactly as Wade described, who guided him via the video-transmitting glasses.

"Now boot the system up."

"Voice identification required." A robotic, slightly feminine voice declared as Ron did so.

"Uh...Yea, this might be a problem."

"Take the glasses off and hold it towards the supercomputer." Wade commanded.

A second later, an amplified voice came from the glasses. "User access code: B1939, Omega." That was Bruce's voice.

"Batman, 001. Recognized."

"Grant restricted user access to guest, user profile number 005."

"Stoppable, Ronald. The Flash, 005. Restricted access granted." The computer declared.

"You had an existing profile on me?" Ron hit his own temple slightly after that comment. "Of course you did."

Wade's voice came back to the glasses a moment later, and guided Ron through the process of uplinking. That didn't take long either.

As they were done, Ron noticed something. A warning had popped on the side of the screen. "Uh...Guys."

Wade's voice filtered in. "Batman and Arrow have departed to install the devices. It's me here."

"Well...Shit." He turned his head so Wade could see what he was looking at. "See that warning?"

Wade used his newly set uplink and connected after seeing that. "Break in at WayneTech Labs at downtown Gotham."

"Been three hours, according to the computer." Ron thought for a second. "Wade, can you pull up the initial police reports?"

"You are not in Gotham to solve crimes man."

"Don't you find it suspicious that Batman is out of town for a few days and someone hits WayneTech all of a sudden?"

"That forensics lab is making you paranoid."

"I'd like to call it 'cautious,' thank you very much."

"Call it what you- Okay. You win." Wade's voice took on a surprised tone in the middle of his sentence.

"What happened?"

"I just pulled the initial report. Get this, someone broke into the cryogenics lab and kidnapped Dr. Victor Fries." Wade paused for dramatic effect. "And the report says the metal doors had shattered like glass."

"Oh Fuji." Ron had a sudden hunch.

"Ron?"

"I gotta check the scene quick. Call you later." He turned the glasses off without listening to what Wade was going to say next. He didn't have time for it.


Most of the cops had cleared out the scene at WayneTech, so Ron could easily slip past the remaining ones and find the specific lab that had been broken into.

He could see the forensics team of GCPD had already been there, not leaving much evidence, but he didn't need much either. He approached the door and checked it close. A shard from the door was lying nearby. He grabbed it and compared with the door.

It was as he had feared. The metal had completely shattered like glass, without bending a millimeter.

And that could only happen if the door were to be frozen to extremely low temperatures. The door had shattered towards inside the lab, so that meant someone breaking in, not out, of the cryo lab. The equipment containing liquid nitrogen nearby was intact as well.

He had seen this happen to the overpass at Middleton a few days ago. This was Cold.

As Home kept pounding in his head, it wouldn't do well to jump to conclusions, but the findings were fairly consistent with Cold's modus operandi.

"Leave the evidence on the ground and put your hands behind your head." A calm voice demanded from behind Ron.

Making sure his hood was as down as possible, Ron kept his face turned downwards and away from the light as he obeyed the order. He didn't put his hands behind his head though.

"No need to get awkward here Officer." The distorted, reverberating voice took the man holding a gun by surprise. From what Ron could see, the man was a middle-aged detective with a beige trench coat and old school glasses.

"I was expecting the Batman to show up. You are clearly not him." The detective commented while keeping the gun trained on Ron.

"What gave that away, the height or the lack of extreme broodiness?"

The detective cracked a smile against his own will as this guy with red hoodie had just nailed it. He composed himself quickly. "It doesn't matter. You can't come into a crime scene like that. I won't have vigilantism in my town."

"Have you tried telling Bats that? He doesn't seem to care."

The detective pulled out handcuffs and started advancing on him. "That's enough lip from you. You're coming down to the station with me."

The hooded teen's hands fell to his sides all of a sudden. "Okay, think we played enough." He blurred, and a second later, the detective found out that his gun was gone and he was handcuffed to a chair nearby. "Sorry about that Mr.-" The hooded teen stopped. "Damn, don't even know your name. Awkward."

"You...You…" The cop was flabbergasted as he couldn't understand what was going on.

"Let me help. I'm the Flash, you just had someone from my town break into this place and he is not someone that the police can handle." Ron stated with the nonchalance of someone who was reciting their grocery list. He turned to exit. Then turned back again for a second as if he had remembered something. "By the way...I mean, cut Bats some slack man. He's just trying to help. I know he's like, super warm and fuzzy personality wise, but really, he's helping."

"All of you vigilantes and 'heroes'!" He spouted that last word as if it was poisonous. "You are not helping! Things only get worse as you 'help'!" Lieutenant James Gordon, for that was the cop's name, shouted towards Flash's hooded face with anger. "People only get hurt more around you all!"

Ron couldn't say anything in return. He found himself almost agreeing with the man. So he just left.


Ron walked inside the Team Arrow's base two hours later. He had searched around WayneTech building, but he couldn't find any signs about the kidnapping. Dejected, he had sped back to Starling.

"Where have you been? I was just about to activate your watch to find you." Wade's voice had a chiding tone, which was slightly funny considering his childish voice.

Bruce Wayne was sitting nearby. His face had a dark look. "You shouldn't have gone to WayneTech. I can handle my city when I get back."

Ron ignored both of them. Wade noticed that his friend had a slightly dark look on his face. He sat down in front of one of the computers. Felicity, who was working on a nearby console, went near him to check.

"What are you-Who's Victor Fries?"

"The scientist who was kidnapped." Wade got up and walked near Ron as well. "Why do you-"

Ron cut him off after showing an article. "Fries' research. It centers around freezing and reanimating organic tissue, but he also developed more than a few effective delivery systems for supercooling applications."

Bruce Wayne commented darkly. "You found something related to that?"

"The guy from Middleton, Captain Cold, was the one who took your guy Bats. I checked the metal, it had shattered just like the overpass supports in Middleton. It was exposed to an absolute zero blast."

Bruce Wayne seemed unsure. "Are you certain?"

"I'm not interning at the crime lab just for shits and giggles okay?!" Ron got a little angry as he was getting a little sick of being treated like a child. "I can read the evidence and the facts. It was Cold."

Bruce nodded, and then turned to Wade. "Pull up the cell tower logs near WayneTech please. Search for all phones with a Tri-City registration. Last six hours."

Wade did that. Half a minute later, results were listed. "Fifteen phones registered to Tri-City origins."

"Cross reference with the National Criminal Database." Everyone in the room, meaning Oliver, Felicity, Bruce, Wade and Alfred turned to Ron, who had said that. The speedster could swear a pin could drop and they'd hear it. "What, I learn stuff at that crime lab!"

Wade shook his head slightly and did as Ron suggested. "No hits." Ron looked dejected. Wade noticed something odd about one of them. "Wait a minute." He pulled up the records. "This is weird." He transferred it to the big LCD screen nearby so everyone could read.

"Leonard Snart. No convictions...Fifteen different suspected involvements?!" Oliver read the first part.

Bruce completed his thoughts. "Son of a corrupt cop from Middleton PD. High school dropout. Highly intelligent according to the profiler's report. Lack of evidence prevented convicting him of any crimes. According to this, he pulls off one big heist every few months, gets away clean and repeats."

Ron looked over the casefile numbers. He was getting familiar with the numbering system of police records, so he noticed something very odd. "That last suspected case. Wade, can you?"

"On it." The casefile came up a second after. "Huh." Both Ron and Wade looked at each other.

"What's going on?" Oliver asked both of them.

"That is the very first robbery I broke up as Flash. I bagged three guys, but according to the police, Snart was suspected as the mastermind behind it." Ron sighed. "Freaking hell. I was kinda suspecting something, but..."

"But what?" Bruce inquired.

"So a few days ago, when he brought down the overpass, I saw his hands under light. He had a very teched-out looking glove on both his hands. This dude's not a metahuman."

"And he kidnapped Fries so the cryogenics expert could build him a stronger cold device." Wade caught on that as well. He and Ron exchanged some very concerned looks. "You don't think...?"

Ron nodded. "Oh I so think that. You better pull up his phone record and search."

"Search for what?" Oliver was a bit lost.

"Snart worked with Gemini and his merry little band of maniacs at Valentine's Day attacks. Which included Dementor."

Wade confirmed their mutual suspicion half a minute later. "Damn it." He showed the record to everyone. "Three hours after Ron pulled you two out," He pointed to Bruce and Oliver, "Snart was called by a sat-phone registered to a German company."

"So all those bad guys will have someone with an absolute zero blast on top as cherry?" Felicity looked slightly scared. "Is there anyone else we can call for help? Because I don't think you three can handle this."

Oliver sighed. "Roy's leg won't heal for another week. We can't involve ARGUS with this either."

Wade added. "I already checked for Hal. He is off-planet, I think. We could call Kim? She bagged a case earlier today in fact."

"Hell no." Ron didn't allow for any pondering on the issue. "Kim has her own baggage to deal with."

"But-"

"Wade, no. You'll know why when she gets back." Ron turned to everyone else, whom were watching the mini exchange between the two friends. "We will be enough. Stop worrying people."

Oliver nodded. "He's right." He turned to the screens. "How are we doing with the search?"

Felicity pointed to an ongoing render of Starling City's map. "We started the process of producing a power heat map. It'll take twelve hours at least, maybe more. You guys should get some sleep."

Ron's stomach grumbled out. "Can we eat first?"

Oliver took his civilian jacket from nearby. "C'mon, I know a place."

Wade waved Ron off. "I'll finish up the repairs on the suit. It'll be ready for tomorrow."

Alfred slightly nudged Bruce Wayne. "Master Bruce, you should eat as well."

"I don't need to-"

"Master Bruce." Alfred just threw one look.

"Okay." Wayne trailed after Oliver and Ron.

Twenty minutes or so later, the two billionaires were watching the teenager with them devouring hamburger after hamburger at the Big Belly Burger.

"Do you...breathe?" Oliver asked with amazement.

Ron swallowed his bite. "Occasionally." His hand shot to Bruce's french fries. "Were you eating those? No? Okay." He didn't even wait for an answer as he took those and kept devouring. Then he commented in between bites. "It ain't no Bueno Nacho, but it'll do."

"Whatever you say." Oliver turned away from him with significant effort and shuddered slightly. He shared one look with Bruce. "Will this stop being so awkward anytime soon?"

"Not likely." Bruce turned to his burger and started eating slowly.


Ron finished up his day shift a few hours earlier than normal. Home had somehow deduced the reason of his hasty exits for the past couple of days. He had demanded pizza from Coast City, 'when he was done with whatever shenanigans he was up to in Starling', Home's words.

The speedster had one more stop before he went back to Starling City, before the sun set. With all the stuff he had to deal with in the last three days, he couldn't check on Monique. He rang the doorbell to her house, and to his pleasant surprise, it was she whom answered the door.

"Ron! Boy, you haven't been around since that flippy exit."

"Flippy exit?" Ron thought for a moment. "Oh you mean me jumping over you...Yea, I was in a hurry." He smiled guiltily. "Sorry about that by the way."

"That was cool. Now, you not dropping by in three days, that's downright TMB."

Ron barely had to raise his eyebrow to prod Monique into opening that up.

"Typical Male Behaviour. What were you doing?"

Ron struggled for a second. The truth was so out there, he couldn't even avoid telling lies by giving out ambigious lines like he usually did. "I...I was chasing a lead." That wasn't a lie.

"A lead? With the crime lab?"

"Sorta. I think I'm close to bagging that Cold guy."

That had the adverse reaction from Monique than Ron hoped for. Her smiling and beautiful face darkened immediately. "Are you out of your mind?!"

"Wh-wha?" Ron took one step back involuntarily.

Monique wore some sandals and pulled him out towards the front porch of her house after closing the door. Ron noticed her foot looking mostly okay. The fashionista squeezed his arm with her hand to get his attention focused. "That man had the freaking Flash on the ropes! You shouldn't even be thinking of going after him!"

"The police have to go after him. Your father would need to, if he was assigned to that case! What makes me any different?" Ron couldn't keep some slight anger out of his voice.

"You are a high school kid! Being a part-time intern at the crime lab doesn't make you a cop!"

"I'm not a kid Mo. I can take care of myself."

"Really? So the night terrors, the screaming, you acting like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders whenever we meet, that's all a-okay?!" When she saw Ron's puzzled face, she kept on. "Yes, I spoke to Kim's mom. You are not fooling anyone with that 'I'm just fine' act!"

Ron had problems, he knew that well. But he couldn't allow other people in his life too, in the middle of this, not again. His worries and anger bubbled out of him. "What do you want me to say Mo? That I'm all broken, weeping, need round-the-clock care? 'Coz I don't!"

He didn't realize taking a step towards her in his current mindset. That had Monique backing down slightly as well, giving her back to the front wall of her house.

"I'm dealing with stuff, and I don't need people asking if I'm doing good or bad all the time!" He had taken one more step forwards, trapping the girl between himself and the wall.

Ron had grown slightly taller recently, and even if he wasn't that much taller, their close proximity meant that he was towering over Monique. In the dimming evening light, Monique couldn't help but notice how strikingly handsome he looked.

The ensuing silence allowed Ron to cool off immediately. He also realized the awkward closeness he had created, and took a few steps backwards immediately. Monique had a weird look on her face. He took it as some sort of fear, so tried to placate her. "Look...I'm sorry. Didn't mean to..."

He exhaled. "I'm just trying to find out who Cold is. Once I can confirm with some evidence who he is, Middleton PD should be just fine with taking him in. I'm not going to act like a stupid monkey. Okay?"

His soothing tone had a favorable response from Monique. "Okay." She reached out and touched his arm. "I just...You already saved my life, you don't need to be the one to go after that Cold guy."

Ron shook his head. "I watched you scream with pain and go into shock Mo...It's not something I can forget."

Monique smiled a little. Ron was just reacting to his instincts. This boy hated seeing people getting hurt. "Ron, I know you can't help but try to be a hero, and in my opinion, you are one. But you are not someone like the Flash. Let the police or guys like him go after these maniacs. You and Kim have done more than enough. You don't need to prove anything to anyone." She added with a lower voice after that. "Least of all, to me."

Ron had to bite back an ironic laugh that threatened to escape his mouth. The Flash would need to go after Cold.

And he was none other than the Flash. Monique spoke a little further. "I've been doing lots of research while I was resting at home. The world is getting more and more dangerous with all these metahumans popping up. You and Kim have gotten out of this at a good time, you should stay out of it."

Ron's watch beeped twice. He was late. And he couldn't be any more late. Not today.

"Look Mo, we will pick up this later, okay? I promise I will only do my job, nothing more."

He wasn't lying. Ron Stoppable's job was to work at the crime lab and find evidence.

Flash's job was to catch bad guys. He intended nothing less for both roles.

"I gotta go. Late for dinner."

Monique just nodded and watched him leave running. She got inside the house and sat down for dinner her mother was preparing. She thought she heard a thunder in the distance as she did so, but thought nothing of it.


Ron sped into the Arrow-Cave, dispersing a lot of papers into the air.

Felicity cried out in frustration as she tried to hold on to the flying papers. "I need to get some paperweights in here!"

Wade, who was working on another computer nearby, added with some mirth. "Sorry, should've warned you about that I guess."

Oliver, who was already decked out in his full Arrow gear, threw dark looks at Ron. "You're late."

Ron waved him off. He was not in the mood after his chat with Monique. "Yea, yea." He turned to Wade. "How are we doing? Any leads?"

"Four, actually. We detected both power anomalies and street traffic cameras being down in four different locations." Wade pointed to a render of Starling City on the big screen. "All of them in the Glades, all of them in abandoned places where the artificial earthquake from three years ago had hit hard."

Ron looked around. "Where is Bats?"

"Picking up dry cleaning, according to his butler." Diggle added from where he sat.

Wade stood up and retrieved Ron's dark red suit from a container. "I repaired it as best as I can. Should hold for now."

Ron exploded into a swirling mass, and a second later, emerged as dressed in his Flash getup, minus the mask. Wade handed that to him directly. "I installed a new communication piece. Permanently magnetized, allows for you to talk at superspeed. Increased sound pickup range on them as well, it'll allow for better hearing of your environment."

The genius handed one to Oliver as well. "Less teched-out, but these are connected to same frequency. Synchronized with WayneTech satellite network, short and long range comms combined." He handed one extra to Oliver as well. "Batman is going to meet you halfway, pass him that one."

Ron picked up the mask and fastened it on and around his face. He turned to Wade. "So, what's the plan?"

Oliver answered that. "You will go in, at a subsonic speed, and check out all four possible locations. Wayne said he'd provide a faster mode of transport for me and himself. As soon as you locate an eligible target, we move in on as a unit."

Wade finished. "Miss Felicity will provide traffic cams coverage and clue you all in on anything related to the operation. I will handle actual cybernetic infiltration, as soon as you guys locate the real location."

Oliver looked at Felicity. "You are letting him do the hacking?"

Felicity Smoak seemed as if she wanted to kill someone for a second and talked through gritted teeth. "He is...better at this than me."

Wade just faintly smiled and bumped fists with Ron. "Time to go to work."

"Don't I know it. Next round of supersized soda is on me when we get back to Middleton." Ron saluted everyone else in the room, and disappeared into the secret passage leading to the Arrow-Cave.

Oliver just sighed and picked up his bow and quiver, then left to meet Batman.

Felicity nervously tapped on her keyboard. Wade took immediate notice. "Lady, you really gotta relax. They'll be okay."

"Just because there are three of them doesn't mean they'll be okay. They barely got away last time."

"They were disorganized and were flying solo. This time, they are in sync."

"You are way too calm about all this for an eleven year old."

"I just know what I've seen. Those three are in a completely different level, power and skill wise. A league of their own." Wade's eyebrows rose slightly. "Hmm. League." He filed it away for later.


"This is your 'faster mode of transportation'? A small-class, modified jet?" Arrow was uncomfortably sitting in the backseat of Batman's aerial vehicle.

"Batwing. It's not modified. Completely new design, prototype phase equipment, chassis and software." Batman calmly explained as he calibrated the systems, as they waited for word from Flash.

"I guess having WayneTech and a lot of money has its perks."

"You could utilize Queen Incorporated resources yourself if you wanted to."

"I have a lot of anxious shareholders and many more accountants looking for any inconsistencies."

Batman didn't comment and instead, connected Wade's new encrypted comm frequency to Batwing. Instantly, chatter filtered through.

"What happened at the first location? Flash, report!" Felicity's voice filtered in.

"Oh, nothing. Just some low level gun dealer using it as a safehouse." Ron's nonchalant voice made both men roll their eyes ever so slightly.

Batman activated his comm and spoke. "Do not interfere with unrelated local crime. We can't afford for someone to get a word out."

"Oh relax Bats, it's not like any of those guys are waking up anytime soon."

"I said, do not interfere. Understood?"

"...Fine." Ron's voice came across as sullen, then perked back up. "I reserve the right to double back and clean up these after we bag the Team Evil-Vertigo."

"Focus, Flash." Batman was unrelenting.

While they listened in, Ron found two more unrelated criminal gatherings, but didn't interfere per Batman's orders. He fell silent after Felicity provided the last location.

"Flash? Report the situation."

"Shhh! I think I got it at the last place." Ron was clearly whispering. "Lots of bad guys, lots of guns, and some of them look like dudes from Bane's gang."

"Any sign of the bosses?"

"Nah. I think they are not on-site." Ron's voice dropped even lower after a few seconds. "Yup, I can see big industrial vats. Someone's been cooking here."

"Hold on for our arrival. No solo action, am I understood?"

"Roger that...For the record, you really are no fun."


The secondary operation was running smoothly. Esteban was pleased, as the all-new Venom was safely being mass-produced, along with the designer drug his boss' partners wanted. He didn't like working with the Germans and the Starling locals, but it was what Bane wanted.

Suddenly, the wall to his left exploded. The residents of the room all took temporary cover or dove on the ground.

As the smoke cleared, they all heard the sound of a string being pulled.

Smoke fully cleared to give way to the image of a tall man in a hood and dark green leather pulling a compound bow. Under the hood, all they could see was a jawline set in absolute fury.

To his left, an even taller and bigger man that was clothed in a midnight black cape that was covering anything else he had on, except the head. This man had a cowl with two pointed extensions. All the residents could see was the emotionless expression from nose down. His head was tilted slightly downwards, making him look like a monster of nightmares.

And to the very right, stood a contradiction to both men. One shorter and much slimmer man in a dark red leather costume with a lightning bolt on the front. There was a hoodmask covering most of his face. That didn't deter him from being who he was.

The entire room heard the distorted voice coming from the man in red. He pointed to the guy with bow and arrow.

"He is gonna say all you guys failed this city." "And I will say, you guys are in big trouble." He waved his hand around slightly. "Like, huge. The size of Nevada huge." Then he pointed to the cowled man on the left. "He won't say anything, he is just going to get to cracking bones."

Everyone could see the grin on his face. "And they say this job is not fun."

Batman ordered only once. "Take them all down."

Flash just exploded into a ball of lightning and started going through all the crooks. A few seconds later, nearly all of them were knocked down, and their guns was discarded in one corner of the big room.

Esteban had no time to react as he tried to get up and run, but was caught by the man in dark red. Flash just slammed his back on a nearby wall. "Hi. My friends want to have a nice little chat with you."

Oliver's modulated 'Arrow-voice' sounded out. "Where are the chemists? You have five seconds to answer."

"Go to hell, hijo de puta." The man squirmed in Ron's grasp as he cursed.

Arrow was not impressed. He pulled back an arrow and shot it into the crook's right shoulder. Ron let him go and took a few steps backward, shocked from the display. Arrow advanced on the man and grabbed the arrow. "Only thing that hurts more than arrow going in, is an arrow going out! Where are they?!"

"I don't know!" The man screamed in anguish.

Ron felt the need to intrude. "Dude, he said he doesn't know, don't think he is lying. What with that arrow jammed in and all."

Batman had stayed behind Arrow on purpose. He emerged and spoke with his most intimidating tone. "He is lying. These men are very loyal to Bane." He grabbed the arrow and pulled it off, making the screams worse. "But not to death." Then in one quick move, same arrow had been stabbed in the crook's left leg.

"Dammit!" Ron took more steps backward as Batman went full-on Guantanamo on the crook. He sped out of the exploded wall.

A few minutes later, the other two walked out. Arrow declared with urgency. "We have a location. Move out."

Ron was just glaring from under his mask. "I get interrogation, but that was flat out torture! I thought we were supposed to be better than them!"

Oliver, angered at Ron's naiveté, turned with his voice rising. "Ron. You live in Middleton. Where it's sunny all the time in that fresh Colorado air. And your enemies get cute nicknames like DNAmy and a cheerleader fights crime." His voice rose sharply. "You are not in Middleton." He took a few steps forward. "I live in a city where my best friend was murdered. Where a woman that I loved was shot full of arrows. Where my mother was murdered!"

Ron got angry as well. "My parents were murdered too. The girl I loved was murdered too! And the last time I went off on that anger, I created that hideous midget full of hate, ten times worse than he was before! I know now that acting like a psychopath doesn't help us!"

"Oh, I'm sorry Ron. I'm not as emotionally healthy as you are." Oliver dictated with sarcasm.

Batman cut Ron and Oliver off. "We don't have time for this. We need to get to the bosses now, or we lose the opportunity." He used a small device to call out Batwing on autopilot. The silent aircraft made its way towards them in the night sky. "Besides, he'll live. Police are already en-route for arrests."

Ron mumbled some indistinct grumbling, but didn't answer. "Give me the address, I'll meet you guys there."

He exploded away as the vigilantes were embarking on Batwing.


"I just hijacked an ARGUS spy satellite. Thermal imaging shows eighteen people inside." Felicity gave them intel as Batwing circled above and Flash was on a nearby rooftop, overseeing their target.

"Any way to block their exit?" Arrow asked over the comm.

"I'm on it. Trust me, they won't get to escape easily." Wade's reassuring tone made Ron smile.

Their target was an old depot building. Ideal for a hideout. Minimal chance of getting close undetected, many avenues of escape. Of course, no one could see Flash coming, and the other two vigilantes were watching from above.

Suddenly, four simultaneous explosions rocked all around the depot. Ron could see manhole covers flying up to the air. His hand touched his comm in the mask. "Watchtower, did you just blow up the sewers?!"

"So many old gas mains, decaying infrastructure, no maintenance in the poor part of town...You know how these accidents happen." Wade was having fun.

"Time to move in." Batman declared as the Batwing flew closer and dropped two men as it flew by.

Batman landed with his cape open, while Arrow landed in a roll. Ron grinned. "Let's roll!" He exploded into a speed flurry and came into the depot via the front door.

He could see people were shaken by the explosions, and the exploded glass was all around them.

Bane, the extremely dangerous Cartel muscle, got up first and saw Flash standing there. "You shouldn't have come alone, chico persona rápida."

"Yea, maybe I shouldn't have."

Everyone else got up as well. Dementor's men, about eight of them, all turned on their rings and bulked up. Dementor himself turned around and Ron saw his disfigured, rage-filled face. "Dude, you are hard to look at. That teenager messed you up real good. Still, better than your original face."

Dementor's face distorted even more as he grabbed a ring from his pocket. "You vill pay for 'zat insult!"

"I doubt it. See, I really didn't come alone."

At that exact moment, two windows behind Ron exploded inwards to reveal both Batman and Arrow arriving inside.

"May I introduce, the Dark Knight and the Emerald Archer." Everyone could see Flash grinning. "In other words, your worst nightmare."

XXXXXXXXXX

The Flash vs. Arrow – Main Theme – Blake Neely

XXXXXXXXXX

"Get 'zem!" Dementor screamed as everyone burst into action. A few of Bane's mercenaries cocked semi-automatic guns and pointed them towards the heroes, before Ron exploded into action.

In a blink, he was nearby and slapping the guns out of their hands. He got face to face with Bane as he did so. Something was off. The mercenary had weird tubes feeding in something green at his back and neck.

And he looked too damn big. Ron threw a few speed punches before the mercenary caught him up with a backhand. The speedster flew back a good ten meters and landed on his back. "That's new." He grunted as he rolled to his feet.

Arrow was raining down his namesake ammunition on the Germans with muscle-enhancing rings. A few of them fell with some damage, but mostly stayed upright. Oliver cursed under his breath. "I hate super strength."

Batman got in close and started taking down mercenaries and Germans alike. Ron noticed his gloves had an attachment that was shocking whomever Batman hit.

The speedster exploded towards Dementor, who seemed to be in the process of putting the ring on. His path was blocked by a white cold blast. Ron barely stopped in time to avoid it. He turned to the source and saw Snart under his fur coat and black goggles.

"Don't tell me you forgot about me kid!"

Ron snarled. "Oh yes, I've heard all about how you made new friends just like yourself, Snart." He uttered the name with extra emphasis.

"Oh, you found out my name. Should I be terrified? Cowering? I don't think so." He lifted a big black futuristic looking gun he was holding. "Not with these babies."

Dementor activated his ring and suddenly got both bulkier and taller. Ron kept an eye on him, but also on Snart. "Where is Dr. Fries? I know you were the one who kidnapped him."

"Dear Victor is fine. In fact, he might have even gotten some ideas from my gloves. He was very helpful. Didn't even need to threaten him." Snart declared with disinterest. "But you don't care about that really. Oh, you really want to get me for that overpass, don't you?"

Ron's senses were sharpened after nearly a week of training with the vigilantes. He heard something move nearby and spun to catch two darts thrown at him. They were filled with another green liquid. "That won't work on me." He threw them back at the source, the new Count Vertigo himself, who had tried to sneak up on him.

He had to avoid two white blasts of cold right after. They were so much faster than before, and he saw the freezing they caused at their impact point. The gun, it seemed, was so much more powerful than the gloves Snart had on before. "Your dance is with me kid."

"It's gonna be a short one. Won't even need a DJ." Ron exploded towards Snart, who fired more cold blasts, forcing Ron to avoid them.

The traveling cold blasts hit the surrounding area, whom included all the other combatants. Batman flipped over a cartel gunman, who was frozen by an incoming blast a second later. The gunman was probably dead in that instant.

Bane reached the cowled vigilante and started raining down punches. "I have you now, Batman."

Batman blocked some, but had to flip back later, since the punches were hitting like a truck. "Looks like the good professor gave you an upgrade."

"Don't you admire it Batman? The pure power of Venom, laced with adrenaline and choice elements of Vertigo to ignore pain! And I get it constantly! I'm invincible!"

"I don't think so." Batman stated and threw a few of his batarangs to try to cut off the cables feeding Bane his Venom. The mercenary just slapped them away.

Arrow was having a different kind of problem. Now that Flash was tangling with Cold, and Batman with Bane, everyone else had turned their attention on him. He got in close and sunk a few tranq arrows deep into the calves of the Germans with muscle rings. He saw Dementor himself getting close to Ron's general direction, and sent an exploding arrow near the mad scientist's feet. The screaming professor got knocked down, and Ron spared one nod at Arrow while he took cover near a big box. Then he had to move again as another blast tore that box apart in a cold explosion.

"Not going to loze to 'ze so-called 'heroes' again! NEIN!" Dementor screamed and grabbed a vial of green liquid from a nearby table. He jammed it into his arm. The already enhanced frame of the German scientist was immediately lined with veins upon veins as he screamed more.

Then he charged towards Arrow with increased speed and strength. The vigilante barely rolled away in time to avoid him. Dementor crashed into some wooden boxes. Then he lifted them and started throwing them with a single hand. Arrow had to dive behind cover to avoid a few of them.

One of the boxes flew towards the general area where Cold was standing. He froze it in the air and dove nearby as well. The frozen box shattered, sending fragments all around. Ron saw his chance as Snart was on the ground, and blurred into action from behind his cover.

Snart didn't see him coming and received a strong kick on his chest that sent him flying away a few meters. He held onto his gun though, and managed to target Ron while he was rolling on the ground.

The blonde had stopped after hitting Snart, so the oncoming blast came as a bad surprise. He leaned back and to his side with only milliseconds to spare. The white blast grazed his lower torso on the left side. He screamed and fell back as the immense cold reached his nerve endings and sent an incredibly intense burning sensation.

"Shit, Ron!" Wade's panicked voice crackled in all of their earpieces. "That's it, brace for impact everyone!"

Batman, reeling from his last exchange with Bane, glanced at Arrow and nodded. Anyone still standing in the room heard a weird hissing noise. Batman threw a smoke pellet and disappeared into that, while Arrow fired a smoke arrow just near Ron's feet, covering the speedster in smoke.

Bane, Cold and Vertigo was trying to figure out what was going on while a crazed Dementor was still throwing boxes and thrashing around. It appeared that the Venom cocktail added on top of the muscle rings were affecting him very badly.

The hissing got worse, and all of a sudden, the walls exploded, sending steaming hot water from the now exploded pipes. It caught Bane and Dementor head on, while forcing the other two criminals to hide.

Amongst all the commotion, their earpieces came alive again. "Police are on their way after the explosions, you need to clean up right now!" Felicity Smoak shouted. Right as rain, they could hear the sirens getting closer.

Dementor, crazed by pain and what he has done to himself, ran through one of the walls and got out on the street. They could hear the maniac thrashing cars around. Ron crawled and gave his back to a box, holding his side. Batman descended from the top of a nearby box and grabbed his hand. "Get yourself together!"

Ron fought through the pain and rose to his feet shakily. Snart had also stood up. The teenager and the criminal exchanged a heated look for a second. Snart heard the sirens as well. "Looks like it's time for my exit."

"You...You're not going anywhere!" Flash got ready to blast towards the man, but fell on one of his knees. Batman held his arm to prevent him from falling flat on his face.

"I'll see you back at Tri-City kid. Good luck with that crazy professor." Snart smirked and pointed his freeze gun at his own feet, freezing the area separating himself from the heroes. Then he disappeared into the back of the depot.

Batman helped Ron get up again and steadied him. "We have bigger problems than him. There's a maniac tearing through the streets, not to mention the other two still here."

Ron, angry and disappointed to let Snart go, nodded silently. Then his eyes turned to Batman, who could see lightning shooting up in the eyes. "I'll take care of them."

Bane, still dazed from the pressurized water hit, didn't even see the speedster getting close. All the cables attached to his body were ripped away and he screamed out as his strength was sapped. He saw Flash standing over him, looking very angry. A single hit punched his lights out as he was already weakened.

Meanwhile, Arrow had trapped the Count in a corner. The bearded man threw more darts at Oliver, but they never even made it to him as lightning passed by. Oliver just used an arrow that exploded in the air into a net of high tensile strength cables, trapping the drug chemist on the wall. Then he hit the man with a tranq arrow, shutting him up for now.

They all rushed outside through the hole in the wall Dementor's huge figure had made. They could see the madman had left a trail of destruction in his wake.

"Good God. He has gone completely ballistic." Ron remarked as he held his somewhat frozen side.

"Yes. We need to stop him. Every single tranquilizer agent we have, we need to use." Bruce stated. He looked at Oliver. "That arrow you had prepared for Flash. We need to use that one."

"Wait what?" Ron looked at them both.

He was ignored. Oliver nodded. "We might need to weaken him first."

They heard a chopper's sound descending nearby, and looked slightly up. A news helicopter was shining its floodlight on the three heroes standing together. Batman turned his head downwards. "We need to end this now. Move out." He ran ahead and used a grappling gun to get on top of a nearby rooftop.

Arrow did the same a second later, on the other side of the street. Ron, left alone, forced himself to ignore the pain still shooting up in his chest. He heard Wade's voice in his ear. "Ron, as soon as you get Dementor neutralized, or at least have somewhat stopped him, get that ring off! That should stop him for good."

Ron voiced a pained affirmative and blasted forwards.

Dementor, completely lost to a primal rage, flipped the cop cars that had arrived first and tried to cut him off. The red blur arrived and pulled cops out of the cars. A moment later, he was standing some distance away from the huge Dementor. He turned to the other oncoming cop cars and signaled for them to go back.

"It's not safe! Tell them to pull back! We got this!" The cops he had saved nodded and ran towards their colleagues.

The news copter was filming it all above, but Ron had no time to worry about that. Dementor reached him and tried to grab the red speedster. Ron avoided the hands and flipped back with a distinct Monkey Kung Fu move. Up close, he could see what had happened to the mad German. His skin had green veins all over, his disfigured face looking ever so monstrous, and his now seven feet tall frame looking all wrong as it flailed.

Ron exploded forwards and buried a punch in the monster's belly. That didn't do almost anything, as Dementor swatted him away. Ron heard a cape fluttering and saw Batman arriving from the side, descending. The caped vigilante landed a twin kick on the side of Dementor's head, and flipped backwards after the kick.

That last hit drove Dementor a few meters away, but not enough. With all the flailing, Oliver, on a nearby rooftop, couldn't get a clear shot.

Ron turned to Batman. "I need ten seconds! Keep him here!" Batman nodded, then Ron surged away from the battlefield.

Back at the base, Felicity was watching with Diggle and Roy Harper doing the same from behind her. She near-screamed as she saw Ron leaving. "What is he doing?!"

Wade grabbed the edge of his seat as he saw how far Ron had gone. "Can't be...He's gonna..."

Ron, miles away, out of Starling City itself, turned around and looked forward. "Here goes nothing." Lightning shot up in his eyes, and a moment later, he surged back to the battlefield.

Batman, who was busy avoiding the monster and keeping him busy, heard Wade's shout. "Batman, clear out!"

Bruce Wayne was already expecting something along that line, so he didn't waste any time as he zipped away with his grappling gun.

Dementor didn't hear or see Flash coming. One moment, he was alone on that street. Next, a red blur streaked with lightning collided head on with him. Then, everyone else around heard a very loud sonic boom reach them, shattering every single window in the street.

Ron had landed a singular punch at a speed of roughly Mach Two, right on Dementor's huge chest. The monstrous man was hurled back with the power of the punch, going through four cars, a bus stop and a clothing store, to finally come to a stop in front of the cops who had retreated.

From far away, an arrow flew through the air, in a high arc, finally landing on Dementor's arm. Two hundred milliliters of horse tranquilizers put the crazed man under. Flash came to a stop near the downed villain, rubbing his own right hand. He looked at the cops. "Sorry about the property damage." He turned the muscle enhancing ring off, then pulled it off Dementor's body.

The mad German shrunk back to his own side, but his entire body looked wrecked. The Venom overload on top of molecular manipulation had effectively destroyed the man's body. Even with all the anger he held for Dementor, Ron couldn't help but feel sad for him. He took the ring and joined Arrow and Batman a second later, who were watching from a nearby rooftop.

Everyone looked at them standing on top of the building. The news copter had once again caught up, and lighting their position. Arrow had turned his hooded face downwards, just like Batman had done. In contrast, Ron had turned towards the helicopter.

And he threw a little salute. Of course, he was vibrating his face to hide his features. Batman activated a device on his belt.

One more moment of them standing together, then they were gone as the light on the helicopter was suddenly turned off.


"Well, we pulled it all off. And you were doubting us." Ron, his mask down but still in Flash suit, declared with confidence. His gaze was directed towards the rest of Team Arrow.

Oliver walked from the nightclub and descended on the stairs. Everyone looked at him, expectantly.

He smiled slightly. "It's all done. Bane was picked up along with the Count. All traces of Vertigo burnt, and Dementor's formula was destroyed."

"Dementor himself?" Wade asked.

Oliver shook his head. "He won't ever stand up again, if he can ever get out of bed. His body is damaged beyond repair."

"What about his country? Did they ask for extradition?" Ron asked hastily.

"Laurel says that since he was arrested on grounds of terrorism, he won't ever be extradited." He placed his hand on Wade's shoulder. "He will face justice. Proper justice."

Ron sighed. "So only my villain got away. Typical."

Everyone fell silent after that. Then Ron slapped his knees and stood up. "Well, this has been fun. But I got a shift in the crime lab tomorrow."

Goodbyes were exchanged. Felicity hugged the kid genius and then glared at him. "Next time, don't bring my entire system down."

"Then make it harder lady." He turned to Alfred, who was waiting nearby. "Let's go Mr. Pennyworth."

"You're not leaving with Ron?" Diggle asked.

To everyone's surprise, Bruce Wayne answered that. "Ron will run back I think." Then he looked at Oliver. "But before that."

Oliver smiled as well. "We still have one last thing to do." Then they both looked at Ron.

The teenager just shook his head dramatically. "If you two really want that."

Felicity buried her head in her hands. "Oh God, you are all gonna punch each other."

Wade handed a box to Oliver before he left. "As you asked. Improved your clothes. But kept that hood. Hope you like it."

Oliver smiled and patted the genius on his back.


XXXXXXXXXXX

Justice League: Doom Main Theme

XXXXXXXXXXX

"Seriously guys, this time, you two are toast. We shouldn't even do this." Ron bounced on his toes as he watched the other two heroes in costume.

"You are still a long way off from warranting that confidence Ron." Oliver said.

Ron fell silent. Then talked slowly. "Look. I'm sorry about that outburst back at the first raid location. I was out of line."

Oliver sighed. "You were right, too." He looked at Bruce Wayne, who seemed as stone-faced as ever, but Oliver could see some understanding in the man's ice blue eyes. "Doing what we do...Without powers, without any safety net...Takes conviction. He and I, we are not like you. We are not really heroes."

Bruce spoke, and both Oliver and Ron were surprised to hear some sort of emotion in his voice. "More often than not, it's the will to do what's ugly. That's what was asked from both Oliver and me. It is the only way to make our cities a better place. But doing that comes at a price."

He sighed heavily. "I've not been a child since I was eight. I have never been really a teenager like you are now. And he…" Looking at Oliver, "God knows what that island did to him. We trade away pieces of ourselves to be these horrifying symbols. That's why I warned you about working with us. You are not like us, and you should never be like us. Because Ron...You are a good person. You are still Ron Stoppable. He and I...We are more Batman and Arrow than we are Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen."

Ron looked at them both for a second, then snorted. "Bullshit. You two think you are not good guys? Get out there on the street and ask what people in Gotham and Starling think about you two. Yea, I'm glad I'm not like you two, 'cause you two have zero sense of humor," That made the other two smirk, "but not being good people? Whether you guys like it or not, you are heroes. And you are good people."

He jumped in his place again. "Okay, enough touchy-feeliness. Let's get down to punching!" He blurred away to some distance and stopped, with his hood on his face.

Bruce smiled slightly and put on his cowl as he backed away some distance as well. They formed a triangle, each looking at the other two.

Arrow drew his bow. Batman retrieved a few batarangs from his belt. Ron did a few speed punches in his place. Bruce Wayne's 'Batman' voice sounded out. "Ready."

Ron shouted. "Set!"

Oliver let loose an arrow, and all hell broke loose.


To be Continued In: "The Teens and The Titans."


A.N.: As always, huge props and thanks to CajunBear73 for the beta read and humongously improving the narrative.

I've had to deal with some family stuff back home, plus a little bit of vacation, so this one is coming out really late. The chapter also went under a little rewrite to make story a bit more cohesive.

I look forward to the reviews on this chapter with special interest. Hope you all like it and had fun with the comedic touches I tried my hand at.

A.N.2: In a few days' time, I'm going to be putting out an action-packed side story. It will be a companion to this chapter. Remember to check in for that as well, through my profile! Till next time all!