Author's Note: Another chapter! Aren't I so nice? Don't get used to this, though. I'll explain my updating schedule down in the end author's note, so be sure to look for that! Alright, this chapter is dedicated to a person D who had an awesome story to go with an awesome penname. Read, review, and enjoy!
Responses to Guest Reviews:
Guest – Haha, yeah. Don't get used to fast updates. These are just one-offs that come with having absolutely nothing to do at school. Thanks for taking the time to review!
Guest – I couldn't decide what to put in the little Trickster gadget and for some reason, hamsters were the best thing that came to mind. And yep, Flash needs to step up his game if he wants Wally to actually like him. Thanks for reviewing!
Zatannagurl – Aw, you're amazing too! I couldn't survive without my most dedicated reviewer! I feel so bad; I keep trying to prove that Barry is actually a wonderful, perfect soul, but then… plot. And he's so easy to use to move the plot along and he ends up being bad. Thanks for the wonderful review!
Spoongoon – Congrats for getting the story dedicated to you as the best penname this chapter! I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for the review!
Kate – Thanks for the review!
WWWWWW
Okay, Wally was ready for this. It had taken just over a day to collect all the supplies he'd need (not aided at all by the fact that every time Wally went to one of the safe houses Flash descended on him like some sort of unescapable demon). The escape part of the plan was super easy. All he had to do was get all the Rogues into wherever Sam was being kept hidden and then get Sam a mirror. Then, voila. Escape guaranteed. It wouldn't be pleasant for anyone because no one likes the mirror dimensions and they like it even less when Sam doesn't have a destination in mind right away, but there wasn't enough time nor a chance to get a message to Sam. They'd just have to make do once the plan started.
Step one of his plan: Wally really needed to get rid of the Flash. The man was getting seriously irritating and he was the only one that Wally needed to worry about when it came to speed (other than Superman, of course, but Wally was just going to ignore that). The thing was, the timing was pretty delicate. Wally needed to use the Flash to get into JL headquarters since the whole vibrating through stuff hadn't really panned out all that well. But he also needed the Flash to not be in fighting shape once they got into headquarters. So: problem. What he needed to do was pretend to surrender to the Flash and then take him down once they made it to HQ. Therein lied another problem, though. That stupid inhibitor collar. If Wally couldn't run, then how was he supposed to do anything? Wally had a plan for that.
Walking into another one of the safehouses, Wally sat down. All he needed to do was wait for Barry to end up at this safehouse. The elder speedster had been running through each house on a random pattern, stopping and waiting in each one for a bit before moving on. It was a surprisingly effective tactic. As was proven when the Flash flew into the room moments later, pulling to a quick stop (that most certainly did not have Wally jealous) and glancing at Wally apprehensively.
Gritting his teeth, Wally stood and said, "Arrest me. Take me in. Whatever. Protect me." He spat out the last two words as if they burned his tongue before continuing, "I obviously can't help my family from out here, so I'll go in there and we'll figure out a way to escape from the inside."
Barry winced, "You know that we're keeping all the Rogues separate, right? We can't risk you guys escaping like that. Besides, even if you got together and planned it out, you still wouldn't escape. It's a stronghold. Please, just let us protect you until the issue with the Light blows over and then we'll transfer you guys to a normal jail and it'll be fine. You can try to escape from there and you'll probably succeed, but don't get your hopes up for escaping us." Wally just rolled his eyes and crossed his arms petulantly.
The Flash stepped closer as if Wally was an animal about to startle away. Even though it made Wally's skin crawl, he let the Flash close the inhibitor collar around his neck before turning it on, effectively cutting Wally off from his ability to run. It was like a physical pain and Wally gritted his teeth at the thought of bearing it for however long it took to get the Flash taken care of. He'd get the thing off as soon as possible, but he just needed to deal with it for now.
Stepping lightly over to Wally, Barry sealed the deal with a pair of handcuffs to keep Wally's hands immobile behind his back. What Barry didn't know was that Wally had planned for that. After securing him, the Flash slipped an arm around Wally's waist and crouched to get his other arm behind the redhead's legs, standing up so Wally was in a bridal style carrying hold. Wally growled, "I can walk on my own! Put me down!"
"You can walk on your own, but you can't go as fast as we should go." Barry threw back, a note of apology in his voice that Wally refused to acknowledge. He had no right to be sorry. He was the one that got Wally into this situation in the first place. And to think that Wally had thought of trusting Barry.
It took them only moments to reach the Hall of Justice. There must have been some sort of secret entrance because Barry never went through any crowds to get to the door. Only, it wasn't any sort of door that Wally recognized. When Barry stepped through, there was a flash (no pun intended) of bright white light and then a rushing, whooshing feeling that was kind of like going into the mirror dimension but not as nauseating. Wally vaguely heard something reading out some sort of designation code overhead, but he was still trying to blink the whites out of his eyes.
He was kind of sorry he'd done that because what he saw totally killed his plans. There were other people! Other heroes! They were just milling around, talking to each other and laughing. Did none of them have lives they had to get back to? Or people to save? Seriously, if this is what the heroes of the world did, then Wally was glad he was a villain. Someone called out from the side, "Whatcha got there, Flash? I don't recognize that one." Wally identified the uniform and figured out that the one talking was Green Lantern.
Flash hefted Wally down and put a hand on his back, urging him forwards while turning slightly to talk to Green Lantern, "This is Momentum, the new member of the Rogues I was telling you about."
"Oh yeah? The one that's been running you ragged the past day or so, right?" Green Lantern grinned, sarcastic and bored. Wally kind of liked him even though he was a hero and obviously friends with the Flash. No accounting for bad taste.
"Haha. Hilarious." Flash deadpanned, prodding Wally down a side hallway. The other heroes were starting to thin out (seriously, how many were there?) and it only took one more turn (which Wally dutifully memorized in case his other plans went sideways) before the only people in the hallway were the Flash, the Green Lantern, and Wally. It wasn't exactly ideal, but Green Lantern didn't seem to have any intention of leaving, so Wally would take what chances he got.
Wally was filled with a sort of nervous energy as he slowed down imperceptibly. He made sure that Barry was looking at the Green Lantern before Wally started fiddling with the tip of his glove. The catch didn't work all the well since Wally had had to add it in last minute, but it still worked after a few seconds. It was… just… stubborn… sometimes… and… there! The catch came unlocked and one of his arm compartments just fell open. Out of it came three hundred and seventy six (yes, he did count) marbles. The Flash, who was standing right behind him and who really should be able to deal with this by now, stepped onto a multitude of marbles and flailed comically for a moment before dropping to the floor, smacking his head against the ground.
Amazingly enough, the marbles rolled right under the Green Lantern's feet too, so he fell to the ground as well. It was a stroke of good luck that Wally would not take for granted. He quickly pressed a button he'd installed on his gloves that would send a really small electromagnetic wave out of his hands, effectively killing the electric lock on his cuffs. The heroes were groaning and starting to stand up, so Wally had to get going. He picked the lock quickly – Len's endless training sessions were actually helpful in the long run; who knew – and turned around. He punched Barry, feeling something smug uncurl in his stomach, but not dwelling on it for long. He needed to get going. Steady fingers unlatched the inhibitor collar around his neck, ignoring the electric shocks it sent through his system. He'd known that the collars basically electrocuted you if you tried to remove them without permission, but it'd been a while since he'd actually tried to remove one of those things. It hurt!
Finally working it free, Wally latched the collar onto Barry's neck and closed the handcuffs around the unconscious man's hands. He didn't feel the satisfaction he thought he'd get through the action. Instead, he just felt sad. He couldn't dwell on that, though. He needed to get going. The Rogues weren't going to rescue themselves (although, that would have been nice). A low groan and the sound of scattering marbles caught Wally's attention. The Green Lantern was starting to get up, holding his head and using the wall to pull himself up.
Wally inwardly panicked for a moment – what was he supposed to do? He didn't even know how Green Lantern powers worked! Wally was pretty sure the hero was human, though, so if he managed to knock the man out, then there wouldn't be that much of a problem. He'd take a while to wake up. Thinking fast, Wally started rotating his arm quickly, creating a wind gust and aiming it at the green hero. The man struggled to maintain his footing before he steadied himself and raising the arm with a ring on it. Was that where the powers came from? Wally didn't want to wait and find out, so he pulled out a small little box that he'd grabbed from James's room in one of the safehouses. Pressing a button, Wally zipped forward and aimed the device at the hero's face. Seconds later, a huge boxing glove sprung out of the box and smacked right between the hero's eyes. Wally laughed with delight. Yes! This was going great! He still didn't understand how James was keeping these things in these small little containers. He'd ask the older teen when he freed him.
He didn't have anything to keep the green hero immobile, so Wally just hoped that the man stayed unconscious long enough for Wally to pull the whole thing off. Trying to seem nonchalant, Wally strolled lightly through the halls.
Step two of his plan: locate all the Rogues. He really, really hoped that they were all sitting in cells next to each other or something because otherwise this was about to get a lot more complicated. Idly, Wally scratched at his neck, still feeling the phantom itches of the inhibitor collar. He was able to get away with acting like just another new hero by glancing around the rooms with a slightly awed expression and waving to the heroes, but that was probably only because there weren't any big hitters wandering around by him. Any second that there weren't other heroes around, he'd super speed through the halls. It was only a matter of time before someone noticed the unconscious heroes surrounded by marbles.
Seven halls later, Wally finally found the prisoner's bay. He almost jumped for joy, but he knew better than that when there was a chance that someone could walk around the corner and see him at any moment. Okay, now he just had to make sure that all the Rogues were here. He couldn't miss a single one. So he walked calmly down the hallway, making sure to not glance to the side obviously. Instead, he used his super speed to send sneaky glances in either direction, checking each of the cells.
So far… no Rogues… no Rogues… no Rogues… Ah! Finally. He saw a room made entirely of rough plastic. There wasn't a single shiny thing in sight and Sam was sitting dejectedly on the bed in his room, head in his hands. Wally couldn't help but grin at the sight.
He saw Hartley next. The older teen was idly flipping through a book he'd apparently been provided with. The expression on his face said everything about how bored out of his mind he was. Long, slender fingers tapped his leg repeatedly, his lips twitching down. The walls, floor, and all the metal seemed to be covered in fabric. That was likely so Pied Piper couldn't make a musical instrument out of the prison supplies. The joke's on the Justice League because Piper could make a paper flute. Fools.
Then there was Heatwave. His room was pretty well ventilated – Wally could see Mick shivering slightly like he always did when it was anywhere below seventy degrees. Again, the thermostat wars were legendary. Mick was staring intently at the wall and Wally almost did a double take to see what exactly it was that had Mick so entranced. He didn't look again because not only would it get him caught, but also because Mick likely wasn't actually looking at anything. Honestly, he was probably just thinking about fire.
Len was in the next cell. He was sat on his bed so he faced the door. His legs were spread and his elbows rested on his knees, his steepled hands tapping lightly against his lips. There was sweat beading against his brow, showing that they'd turned the heat up in his room. Captain Cold was the only one to look up when Wally passed. Wally was gratified to see something immensely proud in Len's look before he was passing the cell and moving onto the next one.
Digger's cell was almost identical to Mick and Len's just without the changing temperature. Everything was bolted down. Mark's cell was more similar to Sam's with all the plastic. The JL probably didn't want him to get some static build up (rugs) or to have a good conductor (metal) in the off chance that he managed to push past the pain and get his inhibitor collar off. Something in Wally ached at the thought of anyone else having to wear one of those things. James's cell was a little different. He was in a literal padded room, his arms trapped by a straight jacket. That didn't seem to matter to the villain because he was cheerfully singing something to himself anyways.
Alright, that was everyone accounted for. Good. Awesome. Just a few more steps to go. This was when he really needed to get moving quickly.
Step four of his plan: get one of the heroes to open the doors. Well, not necessarily have one of the heroes do it. If he could get a way to open the doors, then he was totally cool with doing it himself. He'd hope that whomever was closest to the jail section would have the keys to the cells and he really hoped that there weren't any sort of codes or anything. That would majorly suck. Honestly, there was a depressingly large amount of this plan that was based on what he hoped would be the situation. Anything else and he was screwed.
Eying what looked like a camera (who could even tell with these fancy heroes?), Wally grabbed a tiny little spray can out of one of his pockets and aimed it at the camera. In super speed, he knocked out all the cameras in the area. At least, all the ones he could see. He hoped that was all of them, or at least enough. Moving quickly, Wally opened a quickly added compartment on his back (that would be coming off as soon as this was all over because it was super uncomfortable) and took out seven thin collapsible metal rectangles. He opened them up, pleased to note that they were big enough. They were a little too big, but not enough to cause serious problems.
He placed the metal in front of all the doors housing his family and then he grabbed the paint he'd collected in various pockets and pouches on his suit. Painting as quickly as possible, Wally covered each metal with an approximation of what the doorway would look like if the door was open (he really, really hoped that the doors slid to the side instead of pushing/pulling open) and the prisoner had escaped.
The paintings finished, Wally panted a little bit and put the nearing empty tubes away. The hope was that someone in the control center or whatever in this place would have seen the cameras go dark. They would have sent someone to check the doors – probably whomever was supposed to hang around the cells. That person would check in and see all the prisoners missing. Before the person could call for help, Wally intended to get their attention and freak out before knocking them out and using their key or card or whatever to get everyone into Sam's room. Then he'd take one of the collapsible metal sheets (he'd be kind enough to leave the rest for the heroes; it was the least he could do) and bring it into Sam's room. It should be clean enough to work as a mirror. Wally couldn't do much about whatever the heroes had confiscated, but he knew that all the villains kept duplicates of their weapons and suits hidden in places in case they lost or broke the originals.
What Wally had not planned for, however, was two people running down the corridor to meet him. Because that was not supposed to happen. Worse still, both of them were big hitters. These were major league justice league members. One of them was a founder. Wally found himself more than a little star-struck and a lot terrified as freaking Green Arrow and Aquaman ran down the hall to meet him.
Wally had to take a couple deep, shuddering breaths to center himself before he jogged (at human speed) to meet the heroes. He pulled to a stop and gave them a wide-eyed (wide masked?) look, gasping out, "I heard running and I came as soon as I heard it. Someone had said that this was where the prisoners were kept and I figured that prisoners shouldn't be running around and who else would be so I ran out to meet them. I figured that I'd try to hold them off and hope someone noticed that they'd escaped pretty soon because I didn't know how to, like, sound an alarm or something, but by the time I got here, there was no one here."
Green Arrow clapped a hand on his back, making Wally's back muscles twitch, but he didn't outwardly flinch. Aquaman said gravely, "You did well, young hero. Which direction did you hail from? We will know then that the villains escaped through the opposite side."
"I came from back there, but they could have made it through there before I did. Like I said, they were long gone before I got here and there are all sorts of side halls and stuff here." Wally said emphatically.
Green Arrow muttered, "Nice." Aquaman wandered a little off to the side to speak over the comms to, presumably, the other heroes, telling them to fan out and check the rest of the building because the Rogues were missing. Green Arrow turned his attention to Wally, "Good job, kiddo. You new around here? I don't recognize you."
"Why does everyone call me a kid?" Wally pouted. Green Arrow laughed and slapped his back again. This one was certainly tactile. Wally could work with that. Opening another latch on his glove (this one had originally held a chord that he could attach to a computer to upload data, but he'd taken it out for the mission), he casually pulled and pulled at the fingertip. Once he'd pulled enough out of the glove, Wally turned quickly, grabbing the hand that had been rested on his shoulder before wrapping the extra tough magician's cloth around the hand. It was one of those clothes that magicians pulled from somewhere innocuous and kept pulling and pulling until it seemed like it would never end. It was wonderfully useful for this situation as Wally turned and twisted Green Arrow, wrapping his hands in the cloth and wrapping it around his body before tangling it in the bow and then tying it in a sturdy knot just out of reach of the archer's hands. Wally was mentally apologizing to Roy for attacking his mentor.
By the time Aquaman realized what was going on, Green Arrow was left struggling on the floor and Wally was throwing a punch directly in the Atlantean's face. Remembering what he'd done to the man's protégé, Wally briefly considered surrounding the man with flames, but that wasn't the best of choices in this small of a hallway. He did still need to get his teammates through after all. Plus, there was almost no chance of getting Mick to leave when there was a perfectly good fire burning right there. And Wally did not want to deal with that.
So Wally did the next best thing. He threw a handful of magnetic rubber chickens (don't ask him how it worked; he tended to just go with the things James's made and assume that there was a little bit of magic involved in their creation) at the man. Aquaman was not only incredibly confused, but also incredibly wary. He pushed and pulled and swung at the rubber chickens as if they were dangerous animals. Either Aquaman was afraid of chickens or he thought that they were bombs. With the Trickster's inventions, though, it really wouldn't have been that much of a shock if they did explode.
Using the Atlantean King's momentary distraction, Wally darted in and started running in circles around the man. He ran faster and faster and faster until a whirlwind of air surrounded the hero. By the time the air started to leave the area, Aquaman had been distracted by the chickens long enough that Wally was going so fast that Aquaman couldn't dare put out his arm to stop the teenaged speedster. There was a good chance he wouldn't be keeping that arm – Atlantean biology or not. It wasn't much longer before the hero fell to the ground, unconscious. Lack of air does that to a person. Wally easily took the security badge and tested it on Sam's door, ignoring the angry, accusing eyes of the emerald archer. The badge worked!
Step five of his plan: get everyone to Sam's room. First was making sure that Sam knew what was going on, of course. The Mirror Master's supplies were the only things of his teammates that Wally had brought for them because he actually wasn't entirely certain how the whole mirror dimension travel thing worked and he wanted to make sure that they could get out of here.
He clearly startled the Mirror Master who jumped to his feet and swore loudly before seeing who it was that had barged so rudely into his room. Sam grinned and yelled out, "Momentum! You wouldn't believe how happy I am to see you! I could kiss you!"
"Please don't." Wally said with a grimace before talking as quickly as he could while still being understood by a regular human, "This giant sheet of metal will have to work as your mirror. This is your stuff. I'm counting on you to get us out of here. I'll run the others into the room as fast as possible. Got it?" Wally was out of the room the moment he saw Sam start to nod.
It took longer than Wally had thought it would to get everyone into Sam's room. He hadn't been as specific with the minutiae as he should have been when planning, so he hadn't really thought about the fact that he did not have a lot of room to get up to speed and still stop without smashing into the wall and knocking himself out or something so he could run people around as fast as he wanted to.
He ended up getting Hartley last since the teenaged villain was the closest to Sam. He'd wanted to get the ones farther away first so he'd have less distance to run when his time was cutting short. And it was definitely cutting short. There were heroes coming from both sides of the hallway. Leading the group from the right side was Batman and Superman. Leading the group from the left side was Flash and Green Lantern. Shoot! They weren't supposed to have gotten out already.
Distracted as he was by the oncoming heroes, Wally didn't notice that Green Arrow had freed himself from his multicolored bonds. The man tackled Wally who flung Hartley away from him in an effort to keep the Pied Piper safe. There was a small 'oof' as Mick caught the flying teen. Len was carrying James who was unfortunately still bound by the straight jacket. Wally's family yelled out to him desperately. Sam was already halfway through the mirror and pulling the rest of the Rogues through.
Kicking out, Wally managed to hit Green Arrow in the shin, but it did absolutely nothing to deter the man who simply held on tighter and started to try to drag him back and out of the way of the door. Breathing hard and squirming, Wally started vibrating quickly. Eventually, the friction burns and excess heat became too much for even the Green Arrow who yelped and let his arms loosen. Taking his momentary advantage, Wally slipped through the loosened grip.
Green Arrow wasn't ready to let him go without a fight, though. With one last ditch effort, the emerald archer's fingers caught on Wally's cowl and pulled it down, choking him and yanking him back from his run. Wally panicked. The Flash was right there outside the door. If Wally turned around now, the Flash would definitely recognize him. If Wally didn't turn around now, though, he wouldn't be able to find the catch that detached his cowl from the rest of his suit. The thought that if he was captured, the Justice League would take his mask off anyways, spurred Wally into a decision. Turning around quickly and locating the latch, Wally detached his cowl and rushed forwards towards the mirror and the waiting arms of his family. He pretended to not notice the stricken expression on Barry's face.
Tumbling through the mirror dimension was as unpleasant as it had been the first time he'd made a trip like that, but it didn't really register for Wally. All that registered was the absolute glee when he tumbled out of the mirror into Sam's waiting arms. For a few moments, all he could really process was a multitude of limbs and a bunch of people cheering and some slightly hysterical laughter. Wally pulled back after a second and said, "Wait, wait. Before we celebrate. Is this place safe? Does the Flash know where it is?"
Sam smiled tiredly down at him, "We don't tell him all of our secret spots. We're not that stupid, kid. This one's safe."
Wally practically melted at that, heaving a great sigh of relief, "Awesome. Because I've been dodging the Flash through all the safe houses I knew about. He's relentless."
"I hate to admit it, but I'm impressed kid. I didn't think you were ready to fight against heroes yet, but you somehow managed to infiltrate the Justice League headquarters and get us out of there." Len said, something soft in his expression that made Wally want to preen a little bit. Mick grunted in agreement.
"Seriously, how did you do that? I had no clue what was happening through most of that." Mark grinned, itching at the inhibitor collar restlessly.
Wally was about to comment on it, but Captain Cold beat him first, "You're getting that off first thing. Anyone know how to get those off?"
Wally shrugged, "I just tore mine off. I mean, it zapped me and it sucked a lot, but whatever. Beyond that, I really don't know how to get it off. Hey, actually. Do you think that sending an electromagnetic wave through it would knock out the power enough to get it off?"
Digger stared at him incredulously, "We'll talk about the fact that ya ripped one of them buggers off in a moment, but yeah, a wave should work."
"Seriously?" Wally asked, groaning to himself, "I should have definitely thought of that when I was trying to get mine off. Why can't I remember these things at the right time?" He walked over to Mark and gently placed his hands on the collar, using his gloves to send out an electromagnetic wave like he'd done with his handcuffs in the early stages of the escape plan.
It beeped once before dying and Mark immediately ripped the thing off, tossing it as far from him as he good. "Good riddance." He snarled. Wally could relate on so many levels.
"Tell us what happened." Len commanded. The group moved to sit in the assorted living room chairs (and it was really, really assorted; Wally was pretty sure that not a single chair matched one of the others) and Wally started talking. He started with waking up in the morning and having a panic attack to the Flash helping just so he could trick Wally. He skipped the bit with Eel's – Patrick's – advice and went straight to being cornered by Flash in one of the safe houses and getting the idea of what to do to help them escape from James's gadget. The weird hamster shooter or whatever had Bugs Bunny stickers on the side and that had reminded Wally of a few things that the characters did in Looney Tunes and he figured that he might as well try them out in real life. He described the whole plan and it's execution from start to finish.
When he was finished, Hartley burst out laughing, "I can't believe that actually worked!"
Wally grinned at him brightly, "I know right? There were a lot of times where I was, like, this is most certainly not going to work, but it actually did!"
Mick stood suddenly, gaining the attention of everyone as he lumbered out of the room. He called back, "You deserve your favorites for dinner. I'm going to go make them." It sounded almost like an afterthought, like it hadn't even occurred to him that he should probably tell the team where he was going.
Wally just blinked at his retreating back. Mark laughed, "That's Mick for 'It's been too long since I've seen fire and you did well, but I need fire.'" Mick swore cheerfully at him from another room. Wally just basked in the glow of being with his family again. He never wanted to be alone like that again. Weird what a month or so with actual, loving human contact does to a tough street kid.
Author's Note: There was more I wanted for this chapter, but then I was like, this is actually a really good place to stop the story. So, about that updating schedule I mentioned in the beginning author's note. I still want to update every weekend. That's my goal. I might end up with more updates per week, or I might end up with having to do one every other week. Summer vacation is starting, but so is my first job. The job takes priority and means that there's a good chance that my schedule will be upset. We'll play that by ear and go with it. Thanks for reading and I'm going to ask for seven reviews for another chapter!