Location: Bialya
Date: Sept 4th
Time: 16:33
Unidentifiable shapes and sounds swirled through Emerald's unconscious mind, forcing her to wake. She blinked once. Twice. A faint groan of pain escaped on the wind and the slight part of her brain that was aware noticed that it came from her. Her head was throbbing, and she couldn't get her vision to clear. The air was hot and dry, and she felt the faint grit of sand on her tongue. As she moved to rub her eyes, her shoulder blades dug into the hard ground. She froze. This wasn't her bed. It was far too hot to be March in Bludhaven and-
"Hey Beautiful, wake up," her vision focused right as she lifted her head to see a boy crouching on the ground in front of her. Bright red hair stuck out of an odd, all black uniform. A slightly tan face smattered with freckles housed a lopsided smile and the most vibrant green eyes she had ever seen. Within a second she was rolling over her left shoulder and into a fighting stance.
"Who the hell are you?" Emmy snapped as she reached for the knife she kept in her waistband. She was disturbed to find that it was missing, and when she glanced down to her waist, she was stunned to find her black sports bra and shorts replaced with a dark green, full-body suit that almost glowed from within.
"What the hell? Who put me in this?" Her eyes darted back toward the intruder to see him standing at the opposite end of the shack with wide eyes and his hands up in surrender.
"Wow. I am NOT touching that with a ten-foot- you know what never mind," mystery boy cut himself off quietly while looking off to the side and rubbing the back of his neck nervously.
As he was mumbling, Emmy took the opportunity to evaluate her surroundings without moving from her crouch. She was in a shack. Small and made from wood, maybe 20 by 15 feet. There was a single, glassless window pointing south. A hole in the ceiling. No supplies or weapons available of any kind, unless she wanted to throw dirt or dust in his eyes, which was always an option she supposed. The image outside the little window was a sea of sand. This was a desert, not Bludhaven. How the heck did she get here? Her head still hurt, and the pain got worse as she tried to remember what happened. "Focus on your surroundings," a deep and unwelcome voice cut through her confusion, "You can ask for the how's and why's after you've eliminated the threats". Emmy chose to ignore the fact that her father's voice had popped up again for the first time in months and turned to the boy. 5'9 ish. 160 pounds lean muscle. Despite the fairly impressive physique, his mannerisms and body movements made him look lanky, awkward, and not completely on the other side of puberty. Young. Naive. Not someone who could coordinate a drugging, kidnapping, and transportation to a desert. But then again, she didn't look like a murderer, so she wasn't about to underestimate him.
He lifted his eyes back to her. "Look don't worry, okay," he said soothingly. Nice voice. "I'm one of the good guys. You know, Kid Flash!" His tone turned jaunty and smug. He jolted a thumb toward the red lightning bolt on his chest.
Emmy took the invitation to subtly check him out before replying, "Doesn't Kid Flash stick to primary colors?"
He blinked at her. "Yeah, to be honest, I have no idea what's going on here. What about you? Green Lantern fixation?"
She frowned, suddenly remembering her foreign get up, and looked down again. Her entire body was clothed in a material she couldn't fully describe. It looked like a second, green skin that coated each of her muscles in an exoskeleton that for some reason had a bright green light flowing through it. The areas around her hands and feet were such a dark green that they looked like black gloves. Her eyes followed the light as it flickered along her forearms and pulsed into one spot on her left pointer finger. A ring with a vaguely familiar insignia on it. The red head was right, she noticed with shock.
"How the hell did I get a Green Lantern's ring?" She muttered to herself. "What is going on?"
"I don't know, Beautiful," Kid Flash sighed. "My head hurts too much to figure it out right now, but hey, at least we know we're both good guys. So…you can stop planning the best way to attack me now."
Emmy ignored the annoying flip her stomach pulled at hearing an attractive guy compliment her and did a quick assessment. Desert. Alone with a guy who looks like Kid Flash. No supplies. No memory. She needed help to get out of this and figure out who she needed to pulverize. After a lingering pause, she stood up normally.
"Last thing I remember was being in the gym training. In Bludhaven," she gave a mental sigh of relief as the memory of swinging her fists at the punching bag came back. She had been nowhere near Violet and Hunter, so they were still safe with the Ramirez's. A month of her memory came back all at once and she put her hands on her throbbing temples. Her last fight for Bobby. She-Tak. Waking up on Oa. She was only a couple weeks into her training. How was she back? She wasn't supposed to return to earth until May or June. "Wait, no. I was on Oa training to use my ring. I have no idea how I could have gotten back to Earth with no memory."
Red sent a dazzling smile at her decision to work together, "I was with my uncle fighting off bad guys in Central City, as usual, and then we went to eat a post-victory dinner."
"Uncle?" Emmy raised an eyebrow at the idea of Red fighting people with some overweight, accountant in tow.
"Yeah," he said proudly, "My uncle's the Flash. We're partners in crime." Emmy hated the jealousy that sprung up in her chest at the way this guy casually described being with his family. Despite the cocky tone, there was a blatant respect and love present when he mentioned being partners with a family member. She never got to have that-"Well not partners in crime, obviously, since we're the heroes. I just meant the super common phrase. No secrets here just the perfect team," Emerald smirked. He was cute when he rambled. "Although I'm totally going to kill him for not telling me that there was a new GL who looks like you after this."
Emmy scoffed a single laugh out of her nose, but it was sufficient to calm Red down. He puffed out his chest and regained his brash smile.
Something in the air shifted. The smile immediately dropped. "Look out!" Red screamed as he zipped past her and yanked Emmy out of the shack just in time to watch it explode.
Red was pulling her forward by her hand when the force of the bursting shack sent them both crashing into the sand. Emmy rolled over herself a few times and spun around to look at their assailants. Three tanks were barreling towards them behind a jeep bearing a machine-gun. They were yelling in a language that wasn't quite Arabic but was fairly similar. She frowned. Farsi? Bialyan? Urdu? She could figure that out later, right now she needed something to launch at them. Emerald gasped quietly as a rush of energy coursed through her and a glowing green bazooka gun loaded and ready to fire appeared in her hands. Kilowag had been making her read about the history of the Lantern Corps and practice flying. She hadn't made anything with her ring since the karambit when she woke up a few weeks ago, but it felt very…natural. She glanced at Red and saw his expression of shock matched her own. She threw her left knee up, aimed, and launched the green rocket straight into the wheels of the jeep. It went careening over their heads. The tank sent a missile at them. Emmy barely managed to knock it back toward its origin. Two more missiles were soaring toward her when arms picked her up bridal style and Emmy was racing away. She allowed herself one second to be in shock at her first experience with super speed before glancing at Kid Flash. She definitely believed it was actually him now.
"Sorry! They have bigger rockets," Red smiled down at the slightly bewildered girl as he casually dodged the missile impacts. "You said you were still getting trained with your ring?"
"Uh, yeah, thanks, Red," Emmy blinked sand out of her left eye as they zipped through the desert. "Got the ring two weeks ago."
"Told ya, I'm the good guy," he winked at her. They were far enough from the missiles that he transitioned to running in a straight line.
"So uh, what's your name by the way? Do I just call you GL?" Red asked after a few seconds of Emmy absorbing the experience of zooming across the ground at the speed of sound. It was a different feeling than flying. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to say her name or not, but her head was still throbbing, and she didn't really care if he knew her chosen first name anyway.
"Emerald," she said into his neck. She'd turned there to avoid getting sand shot into her retinas, but it was actually kind of comfortable. And it let her pretend to not hear him say her name again. Quietly and slowly. Like it was delicious, and he was in no rush to get it off his tongue.
They stopped after a few minutes. The afternoon sun was low and scorching. Red set her down behind a large boulder. He was breathing hard.
"Sorry. I have a crazy metabolism. Don't think I've eaten in a while," he panted and opened a compartment on his wrist. "Cupboards are bare. We've been out here for more than 24 hours."
Emmy looked him over, "I'm 80 percent sure those soldiers were speaking Bialyan. Who could we have both pissed off capable of shipping us off to the middle east?"
Red glanced at her contemplatively. "Every villain I put away hates me, but I'm not sure where you come in if you're a newbie."
"I wasn't supposed to come back to Earth for a few months. They don't send lanterns on codes until we've been cleared for active duty, so I wouldn't have been sent here," Emmy frowned at the sand and crossed her arms. "Unless Bobby somehow found a way to track me to Oa after my last match for him, but no way he has the reach to get me from another planet. Hell, not even my father can find me on Oa, and he's worse than Bobby."
"Last Match?" Red said. Emmy looked up swiftly. She had momentarily forgotten he was here during her musings. "Wait, you said you lived in Bludhaven. Bobby like Bobby Spark? The underground cage fighting dude! Wow, you're doing a sting operation on him, Beautiful?" The admiration and envy were evident in his voice.
He assumed it was a sting operation. Right because you're dressed up like some hero, duh Emerald. Because you kind of technically are one now? She was still unclear on if her ring gave her immunity on past crimes or not. Just go with it and redirect.
Emmy checked him out openly this time. "Jealous," she simpered and quirked her right eyebrow up for a second, "Handsome?"
Red's eyes went wide as he noticed that he had inadvertently pinned her against a rock piece with his right hand as he caught his breath. This was dumb. She had recently gone through the whole mess with Akio, and she had already done two stupid rebound one nighters, but she had always thought Kid Flash was attractive whenever she saw him on the news. And right now, she was confused and lost and had a horrible headache and needed this guy, who happened to be cute, to keep thinking she was a hero and help her so…what was the harm? Besides, as soon as she figured out how and why she got back to Earth, she'd be on her way to finish her training on Oa, and she'd never see Red again.
Emmy slowly pulled him toward her and mentally cheered when his breathing picked up. He took a step closer, and she inhaled sharply when her back hit the rock. His left arm moved to her waist. "You know..." Emmy trailed off while lightly sliding her fingertips over his taut biceps. "I have a big thing for redheads..."
Kid Flash leaned down toward her, his voice equally husky, "Is that so?"
Vibrant emerald and artificial lime eyes searched each other. Emmy hummed her agreement. The noise in the back of her throat kick started Red to life, and his mouth crashed onto hers. Emmy's hands flew to the back of his neck while her left leg wrapped around his hip. Red's lips were a little desert-chapped, but he tasted like hot chocolate and cinnamon which was as confusing as it was enticing, and his hands were grasping her lower back desperately. Emerald used the leg around his hip to pull them even closer and swallowed the guttural groan that escaped his throat as his right hand slid to hold the leg up higher. He nipped her bottom lip. She responded with a fervor that made both their blood boil. Red abruptly pulled away with Emmy's mouth following his for a few centimeters. She let out a noise closer to a whine than she would ever admit. He swooped to pick her up. His hands on her ass. Her legs around his waist. He smiled devilishly.
"Don't worry, Beautiful," he said through slightly swollen lips. "I'm not done with you."
"Prove it," Emmy smirked, pulling him in for another kiss before he could think of something else to say.
She had just discovered that Kid Flash let out a perfect little moan if she ran her teeth across his bottom lip when a loud roar forced them to jump apart. They barely moved in time to avoid being crushed by a large, shirtless boy. He smacked Red into the rocks, but Emerald flipped out of the way of his attack and prepared for a fist fight. She heard the alarming whistle of a missile and flew to pull Red away from the blast zone as shirtless boy got hit in the chest with a rocket. Emmy and Kid Flash got thrown further into the sand from the explosion.
"We can not catch a bomb break," Red quipped as he helped Emmy get back to her feet. They were both looking at the intruder who was screaming at the sky. A few more tanks were heading their way. Emmy was about to whack shirtless boy with a mallet and deal with the tanks when the feral teen roared again and jumped at the nearest one, ripping the gun off of the front.
"Is he attacking us or not?" She snapped.
"Let's not stick around to find out," Red picked her up and took off zooming again. This time he tripped over a rock after twenty second and they both went tumbling down a sand dune. They rolled over one another until they stopped with him on top.
He sent a saucy smile toward her, and Emmy couldn't help but pull him down for a blunt kiss. She used her hips to roll on top, pin his arms down, and rubbed her core across the bump in his pants. He hissed and clamped his eyes shut, his head digging into the sand as he tilted his chin up. A fighter jet came toward them, but she instinctively sent a green disc from her hands to destroy its wing and bent down to capture his lips again. He had just opened his mouth to Emmy's tongue when a female voice invaded her head, "Don't worry, I'm almost there!"
Emmy bit down a little too hard on his lip in surprise. Red yelped and Emmy sat up on his lap quickly.
"Did you just hear a girl in your head?" She asked with concern. "Talking?"
"Girls are always on my mind," Red replied while holding a finger to the tiny split in his lip courtesy of her teeth. "But they're not usually talking," he smirked and raked his eyes over the girl in his lap, "and they certainly wouldn't get me to interrupt this moment."
Two more fighter jets appeared above their heads. Before Emmy could fire anything at them, they mysteriously smashed together and exploded. A pretty girl with red hair and green skin immerged and lowered to the ground.
"Well, J'onn, the costume looks familiar, but I'm not sure the new bod screams 'manhunter'," Red said sarcastically. Emmy furrowed her eyebrows at the girl in front of them. A Martian?
"You know my Uncle J'onn?" she smiled with excitement. "Hello, Megan, of course, you do! You're Kid Flash. Wally! And you're Emerald, our Green Lantern!" The girl beamed at them, but then looked to the side in embarrassment. "Oh, are you two, uhm, in the middle of…something?"
Emmy met Red's eyes. Or…Wally's eyes? That's a weird name. Not that I'm one to talk. He was sitting up now, but she was still straddling his lap. He wiggled his eyebrows and she stood up, pulling him to his feet with a smirk of her own.
"Wait, wait, wait. Martian Manhunter is your uncle?" Red took a step toward the Martian. "Is that how you know my name?"
"Your name is actually Wally?" The corner of Emmy's lips twitched.
Wally groaned at his inability to rebut the name.
She whispered in his ear, "Don't worry. I'm sure it sounds a lot better when it's moaned."
Red swallowed, his voice needy. "Wanna go find a sand dune to hide behind?"
Emmy's amusement dropped as soon as she realized the girl had said her name as well. She glared at the green girl suspiciously. "Wait. How the hell do you know my name?"
"It's okay!" She chirped a little desperately. "Remember, Emmy? We're best friends. And Wally? We're friends too! I baked you cookies!"
Emmy looked at Red out of the corner of her eye, "You eat her cookies?"
"What? No, Beautiful, I swear I don't!" He said before hesitating. "At least…not that I remember?"
"You've both lost your memories too," Megan sighed. She turned her head to a murky pillar of smoke. More Jeeps were coming. "C'mon, I'll fill you in as we go. Robin, Artemis, and Superboy need our help."
Emmy was disconcerted by the Martian's knowledge of her name, but she seemed to be on their side and the green girl had said she was Emmy's 'best friend'. Red had already started walking after the other girl, so Emmy figured she might as well follow too.
"Of course," Red drawled out sending a look back at Emmy as she caught up. "Robin, Artemis, and Super-what now?"
Emmy frowned. Artemis was her half-sister's name. Did the Martian know her too? That seemed like too much of a coincidence. She thought for a second.
"You work with Robin sometimes, right? So, if he's here then Green Girl's probably telling the truth." She raised an eyebrow at Red.
"I am so flattered to have you in my fan club," his grin was smug, and he pecked her lips when Megan wasn't looking.
"I've seen you on the news with him a few times, don't get too excited," she nudged him playfully.
Megan turned to look at her two teammates behind her. She wished she could remember them better. They saw her looking and she began relaying all the information she had about their situation.
…
Emmy frowned, "We're a covert team of teenagers who go on missions?"
It was a lot of confusing information to take in at once. Megan explained that they were on a team with three other people, it was September (and not March), and that they were on a mission when their memories were repressed. The Martian had enough memories of Sage and Hunter to assure Emmy that they were safe, but Megan still didn't remember much of the last six months. She was taking the trio toward the nearest remnant of one of her physic links, which would evidently lead them to Robin, Artemis, and/or Superboy. Emmy was concerned about the Artemis girl possibly being her half-sister. That would make it more likely that her father knew she was alive.
"Yes," Megan nodded. "My head hurts too much when I try to remember more than that, but I do know that we need to get our team together."
Wally leaned over to Emmy and whispered, "I wonder if we'll have any particularly interesting memories pop up."
She sent him a dirty wink. If she really had been on a hero team for the past two months, after becoming a full-fledged Lantern, it was possible she had started something with one of her teammates. Something very casual, of course. It didn't really seem like something she would do considering Hunter and Sage were involved but making out with a stranger in the desert also wasn't something she would typically do. Maybe she got more spontaneous in her missing six months. The sun had gone down, and the roasting air quickly transitioned to a biting chill. They heard gunfire half a mile ahead. Emmy flew toward it with Megan hot on her tail. Red flashed along the ground underneath them.
There was a dune covered in smoke. Emmy saw flashes from guns, the edge of a cape, and a green arrow stick a soldier to a rock outcropping with a thick green foam. She dove into the dissipating smoke and knocked out a few soldiers.
A black blur streaked around the dune. "I'll take that," Red's voice called out as he snatched away the soldier's guns. "Thanks!"
He dropped a large pile of guns at the edge of the ridge before running back into the chaos. Emmy crushed the guns with a mallet and disarmed another soldier in front of her. She heard an arrow shriek past her head and saw another one get foamed against a rock. The arrow came from a teenage girl with long blonde hair in a Green Arrow costume. Emmy frowned but kept fighting. That was definitely the Artemis she was related to. This day keeps getting weirder and weirder.
The group of teens quickly disposed of the soldiers around them. A green arrow tracked the lone man attempting to run away and sent him into the sand. Artemis was on top of the dune. She smiled slightly after her impressive shot and joined the other four on the ground.
"KF!" Robin exclaimed as he and the redhead clasped each other's forearms. "Man, it is good to see a familiar face."
"Hey Rob. Memory loss?" Kid Flash let go of the boy's hand.
"Six months!" Robin shouted in outrage. "Let's hogtie these creeps and compare notes."
They tied the soldiers together while Megan explained to Artemis and Robin what she had told Wally and Emmy. Robin and Artemis had evidently woken up next to each other as tanks drove past and had stuck together since then. Eventually, they all relayed what they knew about their current situation.
Robin frowned, a little suspicious but mostly believing the Martian. "So, we're a team?"
"The five of us and Superboy," Megan nodded.
Artemis tugged a piece of fabric with a red 'S' on it out of her quiver. "This must be his then, right?" Robin nodded next to the archer as Megan happily grabbed it.
"Yes! Did you see him?" she gasped.
Robin and Artemis shook their heads, but Emmy and Wally shared a glance.
"Pretty sure we did," Emmy raised an eyebrow at the redhead.
"Feral Boy?" Wally scoffed, annoyed. "Some teammate. He attacked us."
"He probably didn't know who you are," Artemis spoke up from the other side of the circle. Emmy eyed her carefully, it was very odd being so close to her. "I don't know who we are!" The archer continued, sounding both annoyed and frightened.
"I remember Batman ordering radio silence," Robin said, slyly placing a comforting hand of Artemis's shoulder. "Our team must work for him."
Wally adopted a sardonic smirk. "How do you know we don't work for my mentor?" He hit the lightning logo on his chest and his suit morphed back into its typical yellow and red. "Whoa!" He tapped it a few more times, rapid fire. "This is so cool."
Artemis and Robin hit their logos, but nothing happened. Emmy didn't even try to hit hers. She was pretty sure a lantern suit wouldn't change colors when you poked it.
"I'm not sure why I would be here," Emmy put her hands on her hips. "Lanterns don't typically work in teams outside of the Corps."
"We look ridiculous!" Artemis snapped.
Red was still poking his logo with amusement. Emmy rolled her eyes, "Quit playing with yourself."
"Why?" He smirked at her. His suit had stopped at yellow and red. "Wanna do it for me?"
"Yes," she looked at him through half-lidded eyes. His own eye started to darken but then she abruptly poked his logo, and he went back to the covert black version of his uniform. He pouted slightly but perked up when Emmy winked at him.
Artemis was still talking in the background. "We need our memories back! Now."
Emmy agreed with that. She did not like the idea of having six months of her life completely gone. "No kidding. It's disturbing having so much time vanish."
"Indeed," Robin nodded. "Not turbing at all."
Megan wrung her hands nervously before she turned to the group and her eyes started glowing white. Emmy felt a warm breeze and suddenly found herself in a room with glowing and shifting purple walls covered with fragments of memories. The other three teens were in the purple room as well and were staring at snippets of moments replaying in stunned silence. Emmy could see herself in four of them.
"I brought you into my mind to share what I remember so far." A luminescent white form appeared in front of them. "But I need your help," Megan appeared, removing the hood from her head. "Together, our broken memories can form a whole…if you open your minds to mine."
Artemis crossed her arms defensively and backed away. "You wanna paw through our private thoughts?"
Megan raised her hands in peace, "I don't wish to intrude but-"
Robin cut her off, "You need to hack our minds to figure out what happened to us. Got it, go." He snapped his fingers. The boy appeared to be jovial, but Emmy noticed the way he inched toward Artemis and whispered something to her.
"My brain's all yours. Try not to let its brilliance overwhelm you." Wally quipped.
"Or underwhelm you." Robin snorted. "Hey, why isn't anyone just whelmed?" He mused.
Emmy shifted and bit her thumb. She needed to know what had happened in the last six months, but she also was not crazy about the idea of letting a random person dig through her memories. If they really were a team, there was no way in hell she wanted any of them knowing anything about her past. Red got closer to her.
"You good, gorgeous?" He whispered into her ear, slipping his hand around her waist, subtly kissing a spot behind her right ear. She leaned into him a little.
Artemis's voice popped up from across the mind room. "Alright. But only the last six months, and only what you need."
Megan turned to Emmy. "What she said," Emmy smirked with fake ease.
The Martian nodded. They all closed their eyes and found themselves sharing memories of how they got here. They saw Batman assigning them the mission in Bialya. They had been doing recon around a campsite.
"The Bialyans control the site," Artemis verified through their mental link as she and Robin army-crawled through the sand toward the small camp.
"Set up here," Aqualad instructed Superboy. The clone dropped a device he had been carrying.
"We'll be up and running in no time," Robin relayed, typing on the device Superboy had dropped.
"Jackpot!" Kid Flash called from behind the bird in a crouch. "This site's lousy with Zeta Beam radiation."
"Detecting non-terrestrial trace elements from the tent," Robin narrowed his eyes.
"I'll check it out in camouflage mode," M'gann offered.
"Good idea. Go," Aqualad ordered.
"If there are ET's in there let me know, Megs," Emmy added. "I should be the one to fight them if necessary."
"We get it," Wally's voice rang through the link sarcastically. "You have the most jurisdiction. What do you want, a medal?"
"If you're going to be so jealous of me all the time you should really consider wearing more green, KF," Emmy shot back.
"Careful," Superboy pleaded with Megan, ignoring the slight argument.
"And maintain telepathic contact," Kaldur reminded softly.
"I will Aqualad," Megan pledged as she entered camouflage mode.
The five teens fell out of Megan's mind abruptly.
"Aqualad!" They all screamed at once. Their team had seven members, not six.
"Where is he?" Robin snapped. "What happened next?"
"I don't know," Megan bit her lip with worry. "That's the last thing I- that we remember."
Emmy and Wally met each other's eyes at the exact same moment and jumped to un-entangle their bodies in horror. Emmy's cheeks sizzled. She couldn't even look in Wally's direction. What the fuck did you do, East!? She couldn't remember what happened after Megs went into the tent, but she remembered everything until then. Getting her ring, finishing her training, rescuing Sage and Hunter, getting recruited to join the team, all of it. She remembered all of it.
Emmy winced as she looked anywhere that wasn't the speedster. She kissed Wally. No, she didn't just kiss Wally, she made out with Wally. She straddled Wally. She flirted with Wally. Wally. The Wally. The Wally who had done nothing but make her life more difficult and annoying since the day they met. And she had initiated it. More than once. Her blush got darker as she thought back to how hungry she had been for him and how she had no excuse for any of her actions. A chanced look his way saw him rubbing the back of his neck and staring at the sand with an intense contemplation that made her stomach churn for some inexplicable reason.
Robin chuckled humorlessly, "Ignoring whatever's going on here," he gestured between the two teens still avoiding eye contact. The callout sprung Wally into action.
"Uhm," Wally's voice cracked slightly, and he cleared his throat. "I, uhm, we landed 24 hours ago. If Kaldur's been wandering the desert that long." Emmy heard the concern in his voice even without looking at him. "Well, that's not good for a guy with gills."
"Now that I know to look for him…" Robin trailed off, pulling up his hologlove. "He's close, but he's not moving."
Emmy frowned. They needed to get to their leader fast. Had she charged her ring before this mission? How much longer did she have? The group quickly walked toward Aqualad's tracking beacon. Rob and Wally walked in the front while the girls hung back slightly. Emmy commended Megs for getting their memories back. The green girl blushed at the praise.
"Seriously, we owe you big time," Artemis lowered her voice and glanced at the bird in front of them. "I had…forgotten certain things."
Emmy let out a noise that was half a nervous laugh and half a panicked cough. She suddenly found the ground very interesting as both her friends sent her questioning looks. Wally's stomach grumbled in front of them. She was grateful for any distraction. She glanced at her ring. How you feeling, girl? Her ring was tired. Not as tired as it had been during the war on Mars, but definitely feeling the effects of the desert exertion. Emmy hadn't charged her before their mission. She cursed her past self. Her eyes flickered toward the back of Wally's head and she frowned, cursing her past self a second time.
Robin made a noise, and they all scrambled around a small cluster of rocks to find Aqualad on his back in the sand. He was murmuring in his native tongue. Artemis and Robin lifted his arms and legs looking for injuries while the other three looked on in concern.
"I can't restore his memories in this state," Megan said.
"He needs immediate restoration," Robin declared. "Call the Bioship."
"It's out of range," Megan frowned. She turned to Wally, "You can get him there quickly."
"He's too heavy, and I'm low on fuel," Wally sounded almost breathless, his stomach grumbling yet again. "Right now, I couldn't even carry Emmy."
He threw a thumb at her, and she shifted in embarrassment. He seemed to realize that he had just initiated their first interaction since their memories returned because he immediately pulled his thumb away and crossed his arms. Their eyes met for a second, and they snapped away from each other.
"Why not just levitate him back?" Artemis asked.
Megan frowned at Aqualad. "I can't. I have to find Superboy. Six months ago, he didn't exist. He only has animal impulses. I'm the only one who can help him."
Emmy quirked an eyebrow at her friend. Superboy was basically indestructible. He would be okay the extra half hour it would take for them to get Kaldur to the Bioship and then find him.
"Superboy's indestructible. Just ask those tanks," Wally argued. "It's Aqualad who needs your help. Like, now."
"I can fly him back to the ship," Emmy said. "I just need to know which direction to go."
M'gann clutched her head. "No! Superboy's in pain!" She flew off without warning.
"Megs!" Emmy called after her. "Where's the ship?"
"M'gann, wait!" Artemis yelled.
"We still don't know what erased our memories!" Robin shouted after her. "It could happen again!"
Megan kept flying away without looking back. Seriously? You have teammates other than Superboy. Emerald scowled at her friend's retreating figure. She understood that Megan had a crush on Superboy, but they were a team, and they had to help the person who needed it most first.
"Do you know where the ship is?" Emmy asked Robin.
"Sort of," he pressed a few buttons on his hologlove. "I don't have a tracker on the ship since Miss M can feel its exact location. I can get a rough idea of where it is from the energy it expels, but we'll have to get closer for me to know for sure."
Emmy threw a structure of a stretcher underneath their leader and lifted him a foot of the ground.
"After you, Birdman." Emmy nodded at Robin and he took off. Wally followed after the bird. Artemis trailed next to Emmy.
The girls quietly discussed their knowledge of Bialya and the Bialyan language as they followed the Boy Wonder. The sound of Jeeps cut through the desert night; Robin pointed toward a nearby rock formation.
"Quick. Over there."
They rushed behind the rock and Emmy lowered Kaldur to the ground, dropping her structure so that the tanks would not see the faint glow. Kaldur groaned quietly and muttered in Atlantean again. Emmy covered his mouth while Artemis stroked his forehead and hushed him gently.
"We can't risk a firefight with Aqualad KO'd like this," Robin crouched next to them after he got a view of the 5 soldiers walking past their hiding spot with the Jeeps.
Wally groaned quietly, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's not just him. I'm way out of juice."
"And I'm almost out of arrows," Artemis tugged on her quiver emphatically.
"I just got the low charge warning from my ring," Emmy glanced at her hand twitching slightly from the electrical impulse. "I think I should just take Kaldur and fly toward the Bioship." She turned to Robin to see if he had a better idea of where it was yet, but he was gone.
"Ugh, I forgot how much I hate it when he does the ninja thing," Wally complained, exasperated. He looked at his surroundings. Artemis was hushing Kaldur and looking around the rock to the right. He was in the center, and Emmy was peaking her head around their hiding spot to the left.
Emmy was well aware of the speed demon's gaze oh-so-unsubtly drilling into the back of her skull, but she was not about to turn around. She had no desire to look at his stupid cinnamon mouth and his stupid cinnamon hair and his stupid cinnamon existence. Of all the things to do when she woke up with no memory in the desert how on earth did making out with the veritable bane of her recent existence make the cut? It's not even like he's attractive...alright, so maybe he's decent, but his stupid personality ruins any booty call material he could possibly have and-
"Are your parents really dead?" His hissed in her ear.
Emmy faltered. "What?"
"Earlier. When you were talking about Bobby not being able to track you to Oa," his annoying voice was closer to her than she would have liked. "You said not even your father could find you there. Present tense."
Emmy's body remained poised, but her mind froze. She had been thinking about her hormones and this prick had the audacity to be mulling over the slight bit of information she had unfortunately given. She spun around to face him, taking a quick millisecond to confirm that he was, in fact, brazenly invading her personal space and started to lie, "Yes they're dead, moron. Thanks for bringing that fun memory up. Sage and I watched Taken the other night. Must've gotten confused."
"Really?" Wally's eyes were suspicious, and his voice was skeptical.
"Our brains were scrambled, remember?" Emmy glanced up at him pointedly. "I said and did quite a few things I regret when my brain was fucked."
"Hey, I wasn't exactly having a field day myself," Wally scowled.
"Could've fooled me," Emmy bit back.
"Says the instigator."
Emmy bristled. "The amnesia made me forget how completely unbearable you are."
Wally laughed harshly, "Right, because you're a ray of sunshine."
"Sheesh! Get a room," Robin griped as he flipped back behind the rock. "You guys ever hear of silence?"
Artemis leaned toward them with a smirk. "Seriously. What happened with you two anyway?"
"Nothing!" They snapped simultaneously while crossing their arms.
"Dude, where were you?" Kid demanded.
The Boy Wonder smirked. "Breaking radio silence."
Robin's laugh surrounded the Bialyan soldiers. They followed the noise only for smoke bombs to blow up in their faces. The hiding teens heard the small explosions.
"That's our cue. Move!" Robin ran forward and the rest followed, Emmy throwing a stretcher structure underneath Kaldur as they ran. Robin cursed at his hologlove.
"There are more trucks coming," they continued to run. "We could take them out if we split up, but I don't know if we can pull it off dragging Aqualad with us."
Emmy's ring had beeped a few minutes ago. She wouldn't be an active lantern for much longer. She turned to Robin.
"You have a better idea where the ship is yet?"
"Northwest," The Boy Wonder pointed.
"I take Aqualad. You take the tanks," Emmy ordered. The other three nodded. She flew off with Aqualad in a stretcher beneath her.
She was tired, hungry, and would kill for a bottle of water. But Kaldur kept muttering, and she was scared he wouldn't make it much longer, so she flew faster. She thought about a different problem she was having. How was she supposed to deal with Wally? And the kisses, plural? Their mini argument had been more reminiscent of their interactions during the first month they knew each other. Back when there was no team bond and just hostility. They had been cautiously friendly since the Doctor Fate mission, but where the hell did this leave them? If she blatantly ignored what happened, would he? They could have an unspoken, 'what happens in Bialya, stays in Bialya" agreement. That seemed like it would work. They were antagonistic the second they got their memories back, so it's not like anything that happened meant anything…right?
Her ring beeped a final warning. "Uh oh." Emmy said to the sky. The next second she and Kaldur were dropping to the ground. Emmy curled her body around Kaldur's head and torso to protect him as they roughly rolled down a large sand dune. Each bump and roll burned, and sand skinned her elbows and knees. Kaldur grunted with each bump as Emmy yelped. They hit the bottom of the hill with a painful plop. Kaldur's head was on her chest and knocked the air out of her lungs. Emmy coughed and groaned.
"That hurt," she grumbled, slowly sitting up and moving the Atlantean on top of her.
She glared at her ring. Really? You make it three days on Mars no problem, but draw the line in Bialya? There was something digging into her left thigh. She pulled a small glob of smoothed glass out from underneath her leg. Emmy brought it closer to her face and let the moonlight shine through it. The glass was a light, golden yellow shade. She had heard of desert glass before but had never seen any. Cool. Souvenir. She scowled at herself for the reference and stood up, pushing the small piece of glass in the zipper pocket of her lilac leggings. She sighed. They hadn't expected to be on the mission for so long, so Emmy had only worn black sneakers, and matching lilac leggings and sports bra. I've got to start wearing real clothes under my uniform. She pulled Aqualad up to a sitting position, and with a groan from both of them, got his arms over her shoulders and started walking forward. His limp feet dug tracks in the sands behind them. Emmy was breathing heavily from exertion. She had seen the moonlight reflect on the edge of the camouflaged Bioship right before they crash landed.
"Fucking hell, Kaldur," she groaned underneath the weight of the boy. "You are so heavy."
Her thighs were already burning, and she had to stop to catch her breath every few meters. If only Robin had needed a piggyback ride instead of this 18-year-old block of muscle. Her mouth was incredibly dry, and there were a few streams of blood dripping their way down her scratched forearms and shredded knees. Emmy frowned at the holes in her leggings. I thought these weren't supposed to tear.
"Ugh, this is the…Worst. Mission. Ever."
She heard distant explosions behind her. A few minutes later there was an exhausted blur, and Wally was taking Aqualad off her back. Emmy grunted a thank you and collapsed in the sand, greedily gasping for air. They stayed silent until Robin and Artemis caught up, and the foursome managed to get the Atlantean to the Bioship smoothly. Robin and Wally started hooking Kaldur up to an IV and putting wet cloths on his head. Emmy slumped in the nearest seat with a wince. Her muscles were aching, and there was sand everywhere. Absolutely, everywhere. Artemis walked over to her with a first aid kit.
"Can you stand up for me for a second?" Artemis asked.
"Do I have to?" Emmy whined.
Artemis snorted and pulled her up by the less scratched arm. Artemis poked and prodded her for a minute.
"Alright," she let Emmy sit down again. "Nothing broken or sprained. Just a whole lot of cuts and bruises. What happened?"
Emmy hissed as Artemis started wiping her forearms with cotton pads soaked in alcohol. "Ring died. We crashed. And now I'll never go on another mission without charging my ring first."
Artemis huffed, amused. "You banged yourself up pretty good. Kaldur doesn't have a single cut on him though, so way to mother bird him."
The archer made quick work of patching Emmy's arms and moved to her legs.
"Speaking of birds," Emmy leaned in cheekily. "Did I see you holding hands with our resident Robin, or was that a mirage?"
Artemis harshly yanked a tiny pebble out of Emmy's knee.
"Ow!" Emmy yelped before she started chuckling. The boys glanced in their direction, and Artemis glowered at the older blonde and slapped the knee she hadn't cleaned yet. The lantern snickered despite the pain. "Your abuse is essentially an admission, Moon Goddess."
"It is not!" Artemis snapped, her eyes jumping to the boys tending to Kaldur. They were still curiously glancing up at the two blondes. She lowered her voice so that only Emmy could hear. "He's too young for me. I mean, come on, he's like a head shorter than I am."
Emmy quirked an eyebrow at her half-sister. She had just been teasing, but that reaction was…unexpected. Maybe something had actually happened between the two when they woke up with no memories. If it happened to me, it could happen to her. She whispered a response to the crouching Artemis. "Hey, Babe, he's an old 13, and you're a fresh 15. If something happens eventually, it wouldn't be creepy or inappropriate."
Artemis was smoothing the last piece of gauze onto Emmy's left knee. She was staring at the white material with furrowed brow. Once she realized that she was actually considering Emmy's comment, she deflected.
"Just because you like younger guys, doesn't mean the rest of us do," Artemis smirked at Emmy's confused expression.
"I haven't been with anyone who was younger than me."
Artemis whispered in her ear. "Isn't Wally younger than you? Did I see you cuddling with our resident speedster, or was that a mirage?"
Emmy frowned and lightly punched Artemis in the shoulder. The archer smirked triumphantly.
"Truce?" Emmy asked, grateful when Artemis shook her offered hand willingly. The lantern looked at her bandages. "Thank you, by the way."
Artemis gave her a small smile in return. "No problem."
Location: Quarac
Date: Sep 5th
Time: 02:32
Wally was eating his way through his third serving of emergency rations. Artemis and Emmy were taking their turns caring for Aqualad, and Robin was fiddling with his hologlove. Megan's voice cut into their minds.
"Hey everybody, I've got Superboy. He's back to normal, and we're on our way."
Emmy rolled her eyes and muttered, "Well as long as her boyfriend's safe."
Artemis pulled a jealous look and she hissed, "Are they dating?"
Emmy shook her head. "Nah." Not yet anyway. Artemis relaxed and added more water to the towel on Kaldur's head.
The teen bolted into a sitting position, panting heavily. "Who are you?" He demanded as Artemis gently pushed him to his back. "And how did you get inside my head?"
"Hello, Megan," the Martian chastised herself. "Aqualad's memories. I knew I forgot something."
"Aw man, me too," Wally groused. "I didn't get a souvenir for the mission."
"Don't worry. We've got the souvenir thing covered," Megs chirped. A mental picture of a rolling silver ball entered the group link. Weird, but okay. Emmy remembered something. She unzipped the pocket in her wrecked leggings.
"Wally," she called. He looked at her in surprise, and she threw the glass to him. He caught it with both hands and looked at it in confusion. "Souvenir," Emmy shrugged as though that answered his silent question.
He looked at her for a long moment. "Thank you," his voice was abnormally gentle, and Emmy turned her back on him with a nervous swallow. She was not a fan of his momentarily kind eyes burrowing into her soul.
…
Twenty minutes later, Kaldur had his memories returned and they were flying back to the mountain. They were all tired, thirsty, and dreading the few hours of flight keeping them from scrubbing the sand off of every inch of their body and going to sleep. Emerald had almost succeeded in keeping the sand confined to her hair since her suit was pure energy and not susceptible to interloping granules. But then her ring had died, and now the sand clung to her like hydrogen on a weak acid. She sighed at her outfit. Artemis had bandaged her up nicely, but there were still a few dried blood splotches all around the rips. She felt ridiculous. Glancing around the ship she lamented that while she was half in her underwear, everyone else was still in full hero garb. Sapphire gaze met verdant, and she snapped back to the window with a lurching stomach.
She did not want to deal with Wally and the Bialya Incident. Ignoring him seemed like the best plan. Why was he looking over here anyway? She chanced a glance at his reflection in the windshield and was grateful to see that he had also turned away from her. Emmy had no idea what was going through that thick head of his. She wasn't sure she wanted to know. They had had no memories of each other, so it really wasn't even like they had kissed at all. It was six months ago Emmy and Wally, and those were entirely different people. Plus, there had been dehydration and secret identities involved and mind melding and honestly who's to say it wasn't just a weird side effect of having their brain's screwed with by that Simon Says idiot?
Because you did it twice and enjoyed each time, came the unwelcome voice in her head. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, kicking her legs up on the console as she slumped into her chair. Two times didn't have to mean anything. There's no limit for villain side effects. It was totally possible. She moved her knees apart slightly to study Wally's reflection from a safer angle. He was staring out the window. Left arm crossed around his chest. Right hand fiddling with the desert glass. Eyebrows furrowed. White teeth peeking out to bite a chapped lower lip. Clearly the face of a teen boy thinking hard about something. She pulled her knees together before she got too distracted. He was probably angry that he made out with the "team's resident she-devil" and convinced it would ruin any possible chance he had with Megan. She smirked to herself feeling a tad better. The smirk fell as she realized something: Megan. Megs had gone through the last six months of their minds...had she seen anything from after their memories were taken, or had she only been focused on things before they woke up with no memory? Her mind jumped again. Had Superboy seen what they'd been doing the second before he landed in between them screaming bloody murder?
Emmy's face got hot again, and she bit the inside of her left cheek. It's not like she was a prude. Far from it. She'd gone into the world young, and she'd experienced a lot very quickly. She'd been 13 when she started with Akio, and there had been two others since then. But that was different. She'd been completely alone, caring for two really young children, one with a severe brain injury and one who couldn't hear anything. She'd been desperate for any kind of release, and sex seemed like a safer option than drugs and alcohol. But this team, this horrible-starting-to-become-wonderful-even-though-she-didn't-want-to-join-in-the-first-place team, was beginning to feel like something permanent. Something important. She didn't care about ruining things with Akio, not that he needed any help with that, but she wanted things to work out with this group. They all loved Hunter and Sage. Hell, Megs and Supey had been learning ASL just to talk to them more. And the kids loved the team just as much. Sage would hit her again if she thought Emmy was risking the stability of the group in any way. This team was Hunter's and Sage's closest thing to a family. Emmy was determined not to ruin it with drama and kisses that Wally clearly regretted. She looked at Meg and Supey to see if they had any signs of knowledge on their faces.
Emmy blinked in surprise at what she saw. They were both flittering their eyes back to one another, and each time they met, their lips would quirk a bit, shy but also with repressed giddiness. You have got to be kidding me. She rolled her eyes. Well at least they finally admitted it to each other. Her eyes fell on Artemis during their acerbic travel around the cockpit, and she was astonished to find that Robin was playing with Artemis's hair as it dangled behind her chair. Emmy couldn't tell if she was more shocked by the fact that he was doing it at all, or that the blonde girl was actually letting him.
"Was Kaldur the only one who didn't get some desert action?" She scoffed under her breath. She thought no one heard her, but Supey turned toward her with wide eyes. Wally used the motion as an excuse to glance over at her again.
Emmy avoided the redhead's eyeline and decided a post-mission nap was her only way out of this awkwardness since her ring was dead and flying wasn't an option. It kind of makes sense that Wally would be decent with his mouth since he never stops running it. She chastised that mental comment and drifted off with the importance of charging her ring more often tucking her into the sleep.
Despite the tiredness seeping into his very synovial fluid, Wally was bouncing his leg just a few notches above a normal human's capabilities. He'd been thinking since he got his memories back, and he still hadn't come to a firm conclusion to explain the events of the last mission. Specifically, the fact that East had kissed him and that he had kissed her, and that they were blatantly the best kisses he had ever had by about 10,000 parsecs and he wasn't sure how he felt about any of that. It wasn't like he'd kissed a huge amount of people. He was at seven. The majority of them being isolated events. Jenny Crockett on the monkey bars in fourth grade. Lisa Howard during a round of seven minutes in heaven in sixth grade. Mariposa Ramirez in seventh after their motion sensor to scale solar system model won the school science fair. A cute, much older Brunette with big brown eyes whose name he didn't know had kissed him on his third week as Kid Flash when he saved her from a hostage situation the summer before eighth grade. Jinx when she planted one on him during that same summer. Stacy Johnson throughout all of eighth grade and half of ninth, and Lana Stone at a party in May of this year during a round of spin the bottle. And now Emerald East was on that list too, he realized with a jolt, making it a grand total of eight people.
Stacy was different because she had actually been his girlfriend. They'd both been labelled nerds who bonded over mutual love of Star Wars and astronomy. She had struggled in the class, so he'd offered to tutor her, and their relationship bloomed somewhere in between Orion and Draco. They'd dated for fifteen months, giving him the kissing and heavy petting practice that he had so desperately needed, but then she dumped him without warning. Her parents had taken her to Spain the summer before high school, and she had changed. She stopped replying to his texts as often, and when she came back for their Freshman year, she was tan, 15 pounds lighter, threw a Spanish phrase into every other sentence, never went anywhere without three coats of pink lip gloss on, pretended to know nothing about Star Wars, and joined the cheerleading team. He had been excited at first. He thought it would be fun to have his girlfriend be a cheerleader. He'd actually thought it would make him cooler and expand his social circle. Instead, she gradually talked to him less and less and instead of becoming 'cool' he became the butt of the joke as his girlfriend cheated on him with any football player who was willing. Wally had only found out when he saw her kissing Zeke Brown, the quarterback of the football team, the day they left for Winter Break. Stacy had made eye contact with Wally, blown one of her pink gum bubbles, and laughed, "So does this count as me breaking up with you?"
Wally hadn't let it show at school, but he'd been completely devastated. He had been upset when Stacy had barely spent time with him that semester, but he had trusted her when she said she was 'super busy with the team'. He had even been a little happy that she was so busy because it meant he didn't have to lie to her as often when hero business popped up. What had confused him, was that they'd had their English class together that year, and she'd kissed his cheek or lips before they left for their second period every. Single. Day. What the hell was up with that? Even when they hadn't seen each other outside of school in three weeks she was still giving him a daily peck. Had he been a game to her? Did she do it just to show the other cheerleaders how wrapped around her finger he had been? He couldn't understand it. What was even worse, was that every third Saturday of the month, they would meet for endless pancakes at a local diner. It had been their tradition since they'd first started dating. Regardless of how tired or sick they were, they went to Pancake day. Fifteen months, and fifteen pancake days. He had absolutely no idea why she would keep going each month if she was just messing with him. The entire situation had been the most humiliating thing to ever happen to him. It was worse than the time his suit got ripped during a fight, and the news anchor outside got a shot of his pink strawberry boxers. Because until he had been cheated on in front of the whole school, he had thought the Strawberry Boxers Incident would forever be the most embarrassing moment of his life.
But then Stacy ripped his heart out ten seconds after their vacation started and gave it to Zeke to kick around and he was miserable. He zipped home, crawled into his room, and stayed in the fetal position until his panicked parents had forced him to eat some food. He didn't move from his bed for days. Barry had shown up with 14 IV bags at one point when it got bad enough. Wally had started eating again after he saw the terrified looks on his family's faces. He had become numb to his hunger in his temporary state of depression, but once he started eating again, he devoured everything in the house and started regaining some of his body weight. He still didn't leave his room though.
He had been holed up in the dark for three weeks when Dick finally dragged him out for a patrol followed by 10,000 calories of burgers and ice cream on a rooftop overlooking Gotham. And if Dick's uniform had absorbed a few of Wally's tears during the hug that took place sometime after they punched the last mugger of the night and sometime before they finished the first milkshake of the morning, well, that was between them and the Gotham skyline. A week later, second semester had started, and Wally pranced into school like nothing had happened.
After Stacy, Wally had focused on himself, his heroic extracurriculars, and harmless flirting. If Megan had ended up swooning for him, he would have enjoyed it, but it certainly wasn't his end goal. He just thought flirting was fun and it was naturally how he was, and he didn't think he needed to change that as long as he wasn't being super inappropriate. He wasn't hurt over Stacy anymore. His ego had certainly taken a hit, but his feelings were fine. The problem was that she had seriously freaked him out and poisoned the idea of serious relationships for him. It wasn't like they had been a fling. They had dated for an entire year before she started cheating on him. He had never thought she would do something like that. She had always been the shy and quiet girl in all their classes, and before she had gone to Spain, Wally had exactly zero complaints about their relationship. He had even thought he loved her in a puppy dog sort of way. She had just changed so quickly, and that was coming from a speedster. Stacy went from a sweet and caring girlfriend to a manipulative popularity-seeking monster without so much as a warning. It unnerved him so much, that he really didn't like the idea of putting himself out there again so soon...even if "so soon" was almost a year later.
He steered his mind away from his bitter reverie and back to the problem at hand. Stacy hadn't been that great a kisser. He was sure that he hadn't been either after the five isolated incidents he experienced before their relationship started, but he liked to think that he had improved over the course of their dalliance. He stopped using so much tongue, learned how and when to use teeth, figured out how to prevent slobber, and, he congratulated himself, perfected the "massaging grope against the wall" kiss. Stacy on the other hand, had never quite figured out how to use her tongue or how to make her kisses a little less wet. Of course, he could not have cared less at the time, he had a cute and willing girl in his arms to focus on, but the distance and healing after their breakup had let him realize that he really wasn't missing out on much.
Emerald...well, Emerald was another story entirely. She was his first real kiss since Stacy. And her kissing was the kind you read about in raunchy books under the covers when you're at the pubescent age where you're starting to feel things but haven't quite worked up the courage to watch certain videos at night in the same house as your parents. It was passionate, hot, well-executed, dizzying, unexpected, and... firework-esque. He cringed at himself. He had always hated the way people described kissing as fireworks because he found it to be an unrealistic cliche. Kissing felt like someone putting their varyingly wet lips on your varyingly wet lips. It was great, but it wasn't all that. Unfortunately, he was sorry to report, Emerald's kissing was all that. His stomach had flipped in new ways when she caught his lower lip between her teeth, and his mind short-circuited when she ran the tip of her tongue on the roof of his mouth before sucking on his upper lip and playing with his hair. Those kisses had felt like fireworks, and it was the worst news he could have gotten. He prayed to a deity he didn't even believe in that he was wrong, and Emerald's kissing had only been mildly better than Stacy's, but his prayers went unanswered, and he was forced to live with the information that the girl who hated him even more than he hated her was possibly the best kisser he would ever experience.
What was he supposed to do with this knowledge? Write it on a letter, put it in a bottle, throw it in the ocean, and get mercilessly teased after Kaldur found it on his next visit to Poseidonis? Inform the National Kissing Association that he had found their next president in the form of a secretive, biting she-devil? Build a rover for NASA, encode a binary message saying, "Emerald East is an amazing kisser" and send it out into the astral abyss until it found planet KissWell and they sent for her? He sighed at his pointless ramble. He didn't have any way to deal this new information without telling someone, most likely Rob, (not an option because he didn't want anyone to know, least of all her, what he thought of her performance. And also, because he was very sure that she would kill him if he let anyone on the team know what had happened) or asking Emerald to marry him. He chuckled slightly at the crazy thought and finally calmed down. He wasn't even 16 yet. It's not that Emerald was this perfect kisser, it's just that he hadn't met anyone better yet. Like his future wife, Megan Fox, for instance. He shoved down any and all thoughts of what else Emerald might be able to do with that mouth and tried to examine the situation logically.
They had had their brain's scrambled, worked together, and ended up kissing. They're teammates, no big deal. The 1973 study by Donald Dutton and Arthur Aron found that there was a strong link between adrenaline and perceived sexual attraction. He and Emmy had woken up together with no memory of the last six months, and immediately been shot at. They fought the tanks off, survived, and each experienced an adrenaline rush, so it made perfect sense that two active and healthy teenagers would jump each other when left alone. Sure, it was irresponsible since they had no idea what was going on and should have been working on finding out, but he could easily blame that on the intense hormone fluctuations. Not to mention he had been inquiring about her Sparks comment right before she flirted with him. He frowned at that. Had she just kissed him to distract him from his interrogation? That would sting his ego a bit. The whole team knew that she didn't like to talk about her past, so it would make sense that she would misdirect a random guy in the desert. No, she wouldn't have done that to distract him unless she was at least slightly attracted to him. And she kissed him that second time before Megan showed up and he hadn't even said anything then. He smirked mentally, and who can blame her I am a total specimen.
He refocused and scanned his past thoughts and the evidence. Emerald and he did not get along well. They did not particularly enjoy each other's company. However, when put in an inexplicable position where they were strangers who needed to cooperate, hormones and external factors had interfered to create the perfect storm that led to a make out session or two. Then their memories were restored, they became their true selves again, and they jumped apart immediately. It was a harmless blip. She doesn't like him, and he doesn't like her. Wally yet again ignored a slight pull in his gut that might imply a different verdict and kept going. They just objectively find each other to be acceptable kissing partners when presented with literally no other options. That was fine. He could live with that. They would both ignore that anything happened, the external variables would disappear, the attraction would die with the return of Emerald's caustic quips and unrelenting inhumanity, and everything would go back to normal.
Satisfied with his conclusion he turned away from the window and surveyed the cabin. Everyone looked tired, but Emerald was actually asleep. Her legs were on the dashboard, the right side of her face was squished into her knees, her bandaged arms were hanging off the chair, and her mouth hung open slightly. He smiled at the sight. She looked harmless and even a little dorky in her current sleeping position. His mind suddenly became very aware of the smooth glass chunk sliding between his fingers. He hadn't even thought to stop for a souvenir, but she got one for him. And she did it directly after he had accused her of lying about her parents' deaths. He wasn't proud of that one. Wally started to feel a little warm and fuzzy. His eyes softened as he surveyed the sleeping lantern. She had a quiet, little snore that was actually really endearing and cute-
Nope. He turned back to the window. Not quite far enough away from the Bialya Anomaly yet.
-Hmm, longest 'episode' yet. Another fun fact: This was the first chapter I ever wrote of this story. Back in January, when I hadn't chosen Emmy's name yet and was calling her 'Scarlett', I wrote out a basic idea for this chapter, realized I wanted to create an actual story for it, and then From East to West was born.
Until next time,
TheDarkAbyss
