Wally groaned as he woke up with a sore neck. He moved his head slowly trying to remove any kink there might be to it.
"He's waking up!" he heard someone say. The voice was familiar. He tightened his eyes before opening them in a glare.
"Really?" he asked. In front of him were the younger members of the bat clan. Tim, Jason, Stephanie, Cassie, and Damian. All five at one time… in an unknown vehicle. Great. Kidnapped again. He sighed. Better them than a villain he guessed. It's not like they would subject him to torture worse than the Bat-Flash suit.
"Alright. What's the emergency?" he asked stretching his arms. The one good thing about being kidnapped by them regularly was that they no longer hand cuffed him and tied his legs together. So he was fairly free in the car.
"Well…," Cassie began.
"We don't know what to get for Dick," said Jason bluntly. Wally smiled. Straight and direct.
"Birthday coming up?" he asked. He didn't know. The boy wonder never would tell him. Even though he would plague him with gifts on Wally's birthday. Wally in turn gave him his gifts on the day Robin first started to fight crime. But never his actual birthday.
"Uh huh. And we figured you would know what to get him since you hang out with him so much," said Steph. Wally smiled. At least she didn't reason that he was a bat. That would be a bit awkward.
"Well… why don't we go to the mall? I'm sure we can find something there that'll be perfect," he said to them making their faces light up.
"Okay!" they said in unison. Except for Damian who just smiled his little baby smile like he knew what they were talking about. Though it wouldn't surprise Wally. HE was a baby bat. But a bat nonetheless.
"So where are we?" he asked.
"Gotham," said Tim. Of course they were in Gotham. Bruce liked to keep them all close by. He would question them later on how he was kidnapped since he already got the why and was pretty sure he really didn't want to know how they had gotten him. Just leaving it at the fact that they were bats. Simple as that.
Though he was surprised to later learn that being kidnapped by the bat clan was going to be the normal part of the day. And without them he would've had a completely normal day. But alas, he is Kid Flash. Nothing is normal for him.
Once they got to the mall he was dragged into an electronic store to begin looking for Dick's gift. What do you get for the rich hacker who could have about anything? It was easier for Wally to get him his traditional gift of Flash merchandise than to find something he would actually like. He looked at the laptops and CDs with the younger bats carrying Damian in his arms. He was so focused on the gifts he didn't notice some of the people staring at him.
"He's a good brother," one said.
"So nice," said another. One person just looked over at him with his back turned. Long blond hair and steely grey eyes saw the group. She knew them from somewhere… But where?
"Artemis," said an older woman's voice.
"Yeah mom?" Artemis asked.
"Time to go," she said. Artemis looked at the group again. The oldest being around her age. Short windblown red hair. A thin and somewhat graceful body. She knew him from somewhere. But he wasn't at her school. She would've remembered him. Like she remembered the little troll that took her picture. Dick Grayson.
She pondered this as she walked out of the mall.
"Are you sure you want to get this for your brother?" Wally asked slightly disturbed. It was a poster. One that people seemed to laugh at. Wally didn't see it but the younger ones insisted that it was perfect for their big brother.
"Uh huh," said Cassie excitedly. All the siblings were smiling at Wally. So he sighed and walked up to the counter to pay for the poster.
"Everybody put your hands in the air!"
Wally instinctively pulled the younger bats to the other side of him and turned to face the voice. Great. A robbery. Fantastic. Why did this sort of thing happen every time he visited Gotham. It made no sense. Was he cursed to attract villains, heroes and strange people alike? Why not Robin? He was a billionaire's son for goodness sake. Wait… he had all of Robin's siblings here. SHIT!
"Tim," he said softly, "Get everyone out."
Tim looked up at him with large doe eyes. His lower lip quivered a bit. Wally gave a small smile. How could he reassure him and convince him to get his siblings out.
"Don't worry. I'm a bat," he said quickly. A smile crept onto Tim's face. He grabbed his siblings' hands and led them outside. Unfortunately this was noticed by the leader.
"I said freeze!" he said shooting a gun at Tim. Wally's eyes went wide. He jumped between the bullet and the younger bats. He felt his shoulder being pierced by hot lead. He hated that his speed kicked in making feel so much slower.
"RUN!" he cried out to the bat siblings. Tim ran out carrying Damian and having the other siblings follow. Wally stood up between the criminals and the exit. The man scowled at him. He walked over to Wally with a nasty scowl on his face. Wally would've run, but with his injury he couldn't guarantee he could control his speed. So the man grabbed Wally's shirt and dragged him out with a gun by his head. Wally steadied his breath as he was dragged outside. The security couldn't do anything. He was taken outside and thrown into a black van (cliché much?)
They were moving away from the mall just as the police began to show up.
"You are… so going to… be in… trouble," wheezed Wally with blood dripping from his shoulder. The man rolled his eyes.
"You don't talk. You're going to be lucky if you make it out alive," he said entering the red light district. Wally's eyes looked around. Why did this look like Joker's neighborhood?
He was answered when something hit the car.
"Jesus!" the man cried. Wally smiled.
"You see… I'm a jinx. Joker has attacked me more times than you could believe."
The man stopped the car. He did not want to deal with Joker. And if the kid could be a distraction… then the kid had to go. He opened the door and tossed him out to fend with the clown.
Lucky for the criminal he was able to escape from the clown, leaving Wally at the feet of the prince of crime.
"Aw… someone left me a present. Little Wayne," he said with a sick smile on his face. Wally frowned. He could tell this wasn't going to end well.
"Joker," he said softly. The Joker smiled.
"Well at least I was remembered!" he said happily. He grabbed him by his hair and began dragging him to what was most likely to his new hide out. He didn't bother to struggle. His shoulder hurt so much. He was walking behind him quickly.
"…and then a little acid bath…"
Oh great. He was going to torture him. The only good thing about today was that his siblings got Dick a present. He better damn well like it too. With all he was going through.
He was so engrossed in his own thoughts he almost didn't notice that Joker let go of his hair. That he was lying on the ground out cold.
"I see that Joker has started gathering children to build his toys to take over the world using the innocence of life."
Wally knew that voice anywhere.
"Question?" he asked.
"And you are the brains of the operation," said Question. He walked over to Wally and looked him over, "And either you are wearing an experimental mind control substance or you're bleeding," he said. Wally gave him a small smile. Of course Question would question why Joker had kidnapped him once again. A lot of people wondered why he was kidnapped so much.
"So you will have to come with me for some questions," he said grabbing Wally's wrist. Wally groaned. Why did he think Question would not leave him alone?
One hour later
I'm telling you I was shopping with the Bat-clan," Wally moaned for the eighth time.
"To find security footage that the government is gathering in order to make sure that there are no informants of their plans to control free thinking with pamphlets."
"That's not what this is about," he said angrily. God he still had the bullet in his shoulder and god it was healing weird. He would have to have some surgery.
"No. Because the aliens are using that information," said Question. Wally's eye began to twitch. Oh whatever god is out there, get me away from cousin Question.
His plea was answered with a smoke bomb. He started coughing violently and felt himself being thrown onto someone's shoulder.
"Jeez kiddo, why are you with crazy?" he heard a familiar silky voice ask. Another person he did not want to be kidnapped by.
"Catwoman?" he squeaked. He felt himself being taken outside of the building and thrown into a car. The same black car he had ridden in when she had saved him last time.
"Yeah," she said zipping around in the car. She looked over at his shoulder, "And what happened to your shoulder?"
"I kind of got shot at the mall," he said. If he were normal he would've had a heart attack as she slammed down the brakes. He looked over at her.
"You were what?" she asked again.
"Shot. By a pistol. And that bullet still hurts," he said rubbing his shoulder. She sighed.
"So first aid station first," she said. Wally didn't complain. He wanted the bullet out. He almost wondered why Question hadn't asked about that. He was more fixated on Joker's umpteenth time that he had kidnapped Wally. It took a few minutes to get to her first aid station. He didn't bother trying to fight her. If his mom trusted her then he might as well suck it up and get the bullet out. Granted he trusted Batman a bit more. He had removed plenty of bullets from Wally. And even more from Robin. Hey, there was one thing that the Boy Wonder had more of then he did. Boy would he be thrilled to know that!
Her first aid station was a modest apartment. Grey like the city. She took him inside and had him take off his shirt. She had tweezers, bandages and other medical devices ready. Wally lay down on the table as she looked at the now smaller hole.
"This looks smaller than a bullet hole," she said.
"My healing. Though I haven't eaten so it didn't fully heal it," he groaned. She began working on his shoulder. Wally grunted with a little pain. Catwoman smiled that he could take the pain.
"You're done," she stated. Wally sat up and felt the stiches that were placed over the bullet hole.
"I'm hungry," he said. Catwoman frowned. She had a small idea on how much he could eat. Only hearing Batman complain once.
"Well, then let's get you something," she said standing up. She was glad she had stolen a few credit cards from Bruce Wayne and other people earlier. She tossed Wally a black shirt that he quickly slipped on. Wally followed her outside… to see his mom?
"Selina? What in the world is going on?" she questioned.
"Mary? What are you doing here?" Selina asked.
"Wally? Were you kidnapped again?" Mary asked. Wally sheepishly nodded his head.
"Selina! I thought better of you!" she berated.
"No. She kidnapped me from Question who kidnapped me from Joker who kidnapped me from some con who kidnapped me from a group of kids who kidnapped me in the first place," Wally corrected. Mary smacked her head. She was going to castrate Batman and Flash. Why weren't they watching Wally with all their overprotectiveness?
Batman and Flash
"Ow. Geez," said Flash in the watch tower med bay, "I hate fighting alien invaders."
"I second that," said Batman who couldn't move with his two broken legs and broken arm.
"It doesn't help that I have the weirdest feeling that someone wants to castrate me," said Flash. Batman gave him a look.
"I have the same feeling.
Mary
"And you didn't take pictures?" Mary said on a roll. Wally blinked.
"Mom. No camera."
"No. There was no pictures of Wally as a cat. I mean I have footage but…"
"You have footage? YOU KNOW WHO SHE IS!" Wally questioned his mother. She nodded.
"Selina isn't the best at keeping secrets. Now come on Wally, let's get you something to eat."
This is in dedication to one of the two winners. Our 200th Butterflyjazz reviewer graciously gave her prize to the 201st and the 199th reviewers of the story. This is the 201st SpritelyGryffindor. Enjoy one of her ideas in my words. Please review as always.
