34

Brady crossed his legs at the knee, placing his hands behind his head, being careful not to kick the top of his father's lamp as he floated by. The last thing he needed was for Ryder to be in an even weirder mood that night. He was supposed to have been at Barry's bachelor party, had told Cadence he would but…cancelled last minute.

Surprise, surprise.

That always seemed to be a bad habit of his. First, he runs out on being a father (though that wasn't entirely his fault, and he did come back), then he runs out on anything else that seemed made him uncomfortable.

"I have too much work to get caught up on," Ryder said apologetically with a quick phone call. Then his voice turned slightly bitter—enough so that even Brady noticed, when Ryder added, "A lot of messes to clean up."

He'd ordered pizza for the young kids to eat and locked himself in his room afterwards. Brady didn't think he was handling the closeness to the wedding as well as his father said he was. Brady's eyebrows lowered as he thought about it, it wasn't so weird, now that he realized it. His dad and Barry got along well as friends, they played basketball together when they had the chance, hung out by themselves when they had the chance.

But, honestly, Brady thought his father still didn't know how to really come to terms with how much meta stuff went on around his ex-girlfriend and his son. It was one thing to hear about it, certainly another to have to deal with it daily. Having to sit back and watch the news reports on what was going on with Meta Rights probably wasn't helping either.

The news didn't interest Brady at all—he lived through it, why did he have to see it on the TV every night?—but it was still something he was aware of. And with all the cleaning up Ryder had to do, it had to have taken over every minute of his life.

"I'm bored," Brady said, heaving a sigh. "Is there anything you guys want to do?" He reached one end of the living room and reached out his hands, using it as a buffer to push himself back in the direction he came from, still hovering over the ground. He lightly rolled his eyes, seeing Connor and Leah pressed closely together in the armchair, still gazing at Connor's laptop screen as he did…something. "Other than stare at a screen all day?"

Leah looked toward Brady with a raised eyebrow. "Aren't you the one who likes to play PC games all day?"

"I'd like to, but I'm too busy," Brady corrected her, matching her sarcastic tone with one of his own. He was a kid with a job that he wasn't getting paid for but got all the other benefits—potential death. "Come on, let's do something."

"I am doing something," Conner said. Her face scrunched up for a second. "I'm updating my metahuman database. There's been a lot of things going on lately. I needed to add the Meta-Human Hit List…" he shook his head. "This thing with the meta dampening collars, and this guy that attacked you…Ralph Dibny…"

Brady's upper lip curled at the mention of Ralph Dibny. Of the man who managed to annoy him faster than he'd ever had an adult annoy him. How many times was he going to be called "Short Stack" or "Small Fry" before it became acceptable for Brady to just solidly punch him in the stomach. Not that it'd matter much, Ralph could stretch and morph and form around his fist as much as he wanted. What good was a power where you could solidify yourself if it wasn't going to be able to be used against someone who stretched?

"I meant if you wanted to do something a little more fun," Brady remarked.

Leah shrugged. "I could call Alicia. She could find something for us to do."

At that, Brady sighed heavily. What was more of a scoffing sound than a sigh, he figured, considering the way Connor looked at him directly after he expelled it. "Why do you keep trying to bring her into my life?" Brady asked, voice dripping with as much disdain as he could muster. They didn't hate each other as much as they had before, and Alicia did stand up for him when Chad was giving him grief.

But, man, that girl annoyed him. He couldn't quite figure out why, but something about her mere presence seemed to bug him more than anything in life ever could.

Leah shrugged. "Cause she's my friend?"

"Cause she likes Shadowhunter," Connor remarked with a grin. He shook his head at the disgruntled expression on Brady's face. Brady thought he hid it well, but his upper lip curled before he could stop it. There were more than enough "You save her once and you're allllll she talks about."

"Now I know why Barry hates attention," Brady mused. He rolled onto his stomach, resting his chin in his hands. "Did you see him the last time he was on the news? It looked like he was about to have a heart attack." He laughed to himself along with Leah, while Connor frowned at his computer screen. "What's wrong?"

"I just think it's weird that all of this is happening now," Connor remarked. He reached up and slowly closed the lid of his laptop, a pensive expression on his face. "The wedding is almost here, and it seems like everything is happening all at once. Almost as if it was done on purpose."

Brady snorted. "You think all of this is happening because people are trying to keep my mom and Barry from getting married?" That sounded even dumber out loud than it did in his head. Of course, he'd had the same thought. But it was a passing thought. Anyone who knew Barry's identity knew the best way to get to him, was to attack him where it'd hurt him the most. And that was the people he cared about most.

"No, I think this is all happening so that the Flash is hit where it hurts," Connor said. He ran a hand through his hair. "And, maybe, it has something to do with the MRA?" He shrugged. "Put something in The Flash's head that shows he's not as much of a hero as he says he is, then show him in a bad light? They're already doing it with Flare…"

"Yeah…" Brady shook his head. "But that'd take too much time to do. It was Incognito and the erst of the Assassination Bureau that had done that to my mom, and then it wasn't helped with the missiles that Grodd and Solovar shot off. Why'd they want to do it now?"

"I don't know." Connor shrugged. "Ask Lex Luthor why he hates metas so much. Maybe that's how we'll get our answer."

"Right." Leah snorted. "We just march up to his office and go 'Please, Mr. Luthor, why do you hate metas?' and then things end happily ever after?"

"I was being sarcastic, not serious."

The two smirked at each other.

Brady shook his head. "Things aren't going to get better for anyone until people realize that metas aren't bad people. It's just that bad people are becoming metas. And, technically, Team Flash would be the cause for that, too."

"So…" Connor pursed his lips. "No matter what we do, we're screwed."

"Pretty much," Brady agreed. The only point he didn't want to bring up, that was staring them in the face and really making things dangerous…was how did anyone know The Flash's real identity as Barry Allen? How did anyone know his identity as Shadowhunter and his mom's as Flare? Those men that had attacked them…

Leah rolled her eyes. "Are you guys always such downers?"

"Only when we feel like it."

Thwack!

Leah smirked, lowering her hand while Brady lifted his head from the faceplant she'd forced on him. He glared at her and pushed himself back to his knees, brushing off his elbows and the tip of his nose. It throbbed, he'd probably come close to breaking it, but he hadn't been floating off the ground too high for it to cause too much damage. Nevertheless, he glanced toward the door to his father's bedroom, wondering if he'd heard the commotion—how could he miss Connor's laughter—or simply didn't care.

He gave a sheepish smile when, after a few seconds, Ryder opened the door and poked his head out to see what was going on. "Don't worry, dad, we didn't break anything."

"Except his face when he hit the floor," Leah teased.

Ryder chuckled quietly. He walked over to his son and lifted his chin, studying his face. "It's gonna bruise, but it's not broken." He shook his head, glancing at the pre-teens. "How'd you manage to bust your face, anyway?"

"I was minding my own business, floating, and Leah gave me a crash course landing back to the ground," Brady said, gently rubbing his nose. He looked up into his father's face, his heart sinking when he saw Ryder looked away.

The truth crashed on him all at once. As it always did.

He stayed silent when Ryder turned back to the three and smiled to himself. "You can't stay out of trouble for more than a few minutes, can you?" He asked with a teasing smile. "Kind of reminds me of your mom when we were younger. She was always the one dragging us into trouble." Brady grinned. "And Mallory as well. When the two of them were together…" he shook his head. "What ever happened to playing video games and beating each other up with pillows?"

"Sorry, dad, we'll try to keep it down," Brady quickly apologized. He smiled softly when Ryder reached out and ruffled his hair. "I know you're still trying to get some work done."

"It's alright, buddy. Just let me know if any of you start bleeding."

Brady nodded and watched his dad go back into his room. Then he got to his feet and shuffled to the kitchen to get an ice pack for his nose. How many times had he wished to get his mother's healing powers? Even more so then than ever before. He was sure his nose wasn't broken, but geez did it hurt. It hurt nearly as much as it had when he had that meta dampener collar put around his neck and he felt his powers fading away as if a plug was pulled from a sink.

He remembered before his powers activated how a cut or a bruise would feel like the end of the world. How getting a broken bone meant a cast and you were the cool kid in the classroom until someone else broke something or the cast came off. Now he had to worry about walking out the door more than he had to worry about his homework. His mom would be devastated if she knew that.

"Are you okay?" He heard Leah's voice behind him. "I didn't mean for you to get hit so hard."

"It's not that." Brady shook his head. He pressed the ice pack to his nose and looked at his friends. "It's…my dad doesn't like that I'm a meta. He can barely stand to look at me."

"Your dad loves you," Connor reminded him after a second of hesitation. Brady wondered if he was thinking about Oliver in that moment.

"I know he does. But he doesn't like that I'm a meta." Brady shrugged. "I don't know, maybe he thinks I'm dangerous. Or maybe he's afraid for me because I'm one. He argued with my mom about it when he first found out." Brady's eyebrows came together. "Maybe that's why he didn't want to go to the bachelor party…" he trailed off and shrugged. "Or maybe he really is a stripper and didn't want people to find out."

He laughed along with his friends, their laughter cutting short when an alert started to go off on their phones. He pulled it from his pocket while Connor and Leah looked over theirs as well. Brady's eyebrows pulled together, quickly reading over the article of a man's body that had been found, that looked to be attacked by a large, predatory animal—blood of which found on a nearby statue of a saber-tooth tiger, and for citizens to be careful out in Central City.

"Someone got attacked by a statue…?" Leah asked slowly.

Connor hummed. "Sounds like a meta to me."

"Let's go!" Brady said excitedly. He started to bring up the watch that housed his suit, then stopped, seeing his friends look at him as if he were crazy. "What?" He asked. "Aren't you coming?"

"What about Barry? Or Wally?" Leah reminded him. "They're supposed to come back in case something like this happens." She shrugged. "We're benched, remember?"

Brady rolled his eyes, turning to his friends. "Do you really think they're actually going to come back here? It's the only time that Barry would be able to get drunk and you know Wally's really going to try. Oliver and Diggle are probably going to keep them out of trouble and…Uncle Cisco and Ralph are probably going to make things worse. They don't have any time to get back here."

Connor smiled quietly, acknowledging it was probably true and that Brady was more than likely to be right. His smile faded, worry replacing it. "Okay, so, how are we supposed to get to this crime scene? Your ATV is at STAR Labs and none of us can drive. It won't end up well if we call someone for a ride. And it'd be weird if we caught a bus at this time of night."

Leah and Brady exchanged glances. "Looks like we're going to have to fly," she said.

Brady nodded and, at the same time, he and Leah pressed their hands into the tops of their watches and waited for their suits to pop out and encompass their bodies. "Let's go!"

Using the GPS locator through their phones, it didn't take long for Brady, Leah, and Connor to find the crime scene. Not only was it swarming with police, but they found Joe encircling the statue that seemed to have been taken over to attack the man. The man that was lying under a sheet, blood spattering the ground below it and stuck to the middle of the blanket.

"Victim's name was Jim Fox;" they heard Joe say, ducking behind a nearby truck that belonged to crime scene cleanup.

Brady'd heard enough cases from his mom and Barry to know the sort of people that would be swarming around the scene. If they were cleaning up already, they missed most important personnel and, more importantly, Chief Paulson. If it had anything to do with a meta, Chief Paulson was obviously going to be around.

Being attacked by a statue was either strange or meta-strange and nothing in between.

"He was auctioneer at Weatherby's. He was transporting a Native American artifact when he was attacked. We didn't know which one at the time, until we were able to get the combination open on the case he had with him."

"I can't hear anything," Connor complained. He pushed closer against Brady's back. "What are they saying?"

"Shh," Leah hissed, shoving him. "We can't hear either, if you're talking like that."

"Did you not get super hearing with your powers?"

"Will both of you shut up?" Brady shot back. He thought for a moment then turned to his friends. "I'm going over there. Wait for me to get you." He noticed the skeptical looks on his friend's faces. "They're not going to see me." Within seconds, he tapped into his powers to make himself invisible and phased through the truck, moving him closer to Joe and the fellow officer with him.

"According to what we've found at the crime scene," Joe continued, speaking to the officer. Brady held his breath, inching closer and as the seconds passed. Joe barely looked in his direction, clearly not aware that Shadowhunter was standing nearby. "It appears they were going after a necklace. It was separated into three pieces. The first was in the briefcase we just opened, the third unknown, and the second is in the hands of a private collector."

"Christoph Banks, we got the information ten minutes ago," The officer Joe was talking to agreed.

"We'll need as much manpower as we can spare to ensure this guy's safety. Maybe put him into protective custody," Joe continued. "He may be in danger." The officer nodded and hurried away.

Brady took that opportunity to reveal himself to Joe, the second he turned. "We'll go with you!"

Joe visibly jumped, pressing his hand to his chest. "Damn! And I thought Barry racing around was going to give me a heart attack," he took in a deep beath. "Now I've got to worry about you sneaking around corners and appearing out of nowhere?"

"Joe, we can help!" Brady motioned for Leah and Connor to join them.

Joe looked at the three of them, two dressed up in their suits, and shook his head. He started a wheezing laugh, one of incredulity; of still being scared half to death and of the mere idea of the three being able to help him. He turned his gaze away, scanning the crime scene, finally catching his breath. He shook his head. "No, you're not."

"Joe, everyone else is busy," Brady pointed out. "No one is coming. If Barry was, he'd be here by now. Or my mom." He waited for the realization to his Joe before continuing. "You need our help."

"I don't need a bunch of teenagers to help me."

"We've helped save the city before," Leah insisted. "Why does it matter now?"

"Because I don't want to have a bunch of people looking at me as if I'm an abuser because I have three kids tailing me on a case." Joe quickly lowered his voice, looking around once more before motioning for them to follow him to the edge of the crime scene, towards his cruiser.

"Haven't you done ride alongs before?" Connor asked, walking fast to keep up with Joe's fast pace. "Field trips?"

"Not field trips to meta infested crime scenes," Joe said sarcastically. "Though I'm starting to think that's going to become more of a reality now more than ever before.

"Well, that's simple… you won't even know we're there." Brady grinned when he grabbed Connor's and Leah's wrists and tapped into his powers and made the three of them go invisible. He knew it worked when he saw Joe's eyes shift around, as if trying to find them. He shook his head and started forward once more. Brady stopped making them invisible at the same time Leah threw out her hand, using her gravity powers to hold Joe into the spot.

Joe sighed heavily. "Why is it always me?" He muttered before turning to the three. "Look, no one's going to hear about this; I don't need a speedster and a fire metahuman on my ass." He added under his breath, "Let alone my own daughter knowing I handled this myself." He nodded toward the cruiser. "Let's go."

Brady frowned. "You don't want us to fly you?"

Joe glared at him. "I've had enough of speedsters and people's faces falling off when they sneeze. We're driving." He ushered the three into the car and headed toward Christoph Banks's house. As they went, Joe declared the ground rules: "Don't do anything unless I say" and "Stay out of trouble."

"We're superheroes and we still get treated like kids," Leah grumbled.

"You were benched, weren't you?" Joe asked, looking at them in the rearview mirror.

"Yeah, yeah," Brady grumbled. "Don't rub it in…"

When they arrived at Christoph Banks' humble abode—as humble as a massive mansion in the richest neighborhood of Central City could be—police were already swarming over the outside. The reds and blues flashed rapidly as they converged around the outside. Brady and Leah phased out of Joe's car and followed Joe across the grass to the officers that milled around while Connor went into the front seat of the police cruiser, looking over Christoph's profile on the computer.

"So, is the Flash going to show up or what?" The officer who had been at the crime scene asked Joe as he approached. A half smile was on his face. "Usually, he's the first one here. Whisking things away before we can do our jobs."

"It doesn't look like we've got Flash coming this time around," Joe replied with a half-smile of his own. "We've got Shadowhunter and Geo to help us." He nodded toward Brady and Leah, watching as the officer's eyes widened.

He looked between the two, practically sputtering before turning his attention to Joe. "They're just a bunch of kids," the officer said, practically whining.

"And without the Flash, they're the best we got," Joe said firmly. "Shadowhunter and Geo will lead the way inside and convince Christoph to come out, warn him of the danger he's in. We'll have to put him into protective custody. He may react to that better than sudden police presence. Central City has been a little worried of the way we've been handling things as of late, or else you've forgotten."

The officer's eyebrows furrowed, a scowl appearing on his face. He glared towards Brady and Leah. "I think it's the meta presence we need to worry about." Joe's eyes narrowed. He stepped toward the officer, one step, that made the officer take a step back and lower his gaze. "Sir, I just meant that—"

"—I don't need you to mean anything other than to keep the citizens of our city safe, no matter the cost. I'm not asking for your opinion on metahumans and metahuman rights. I'm asking you to keep the city safe in the way you made an oath to do."

"Yes, sir," The officer replied. He stepped back, falling silent.

Brady looked to Leah and nodded, the two phased into the house and started to look around. This place is more like a museum than a house, Brady thought as they moved through the rooms. Every room seemed to be filled with bookcases and priceless artifacts. Things that'd go for a pretty penny if they were ever sold.

It made Brady's blood boil. There were people in life who lived like kings, who had more than enough of what they needed in excess and held onto it because…because they could. All the while, when he was a baby and growing up, he and his mom struggled to even make ends meet. Days where she wouldn't eat anything just so that he had enough food, where he wore the same clothes even after he grew out of them to save money. And here was someone who threw it away on…on what?

Shaking off his negative thoughts, Brady and Leah pushed forward, continuing to phase through walls until they heard voices coming from a nearby room. Leah grabbed his arm and pulled him to a halt as they listened. Two voices, a man and a woman. Christoph wasn't alone.

Nodding to Leah, they moved closer and listened to the conversation. "I know my collection is impressive," the English accented voice said as they moved closer. "It took a lot of acquire. I'm glad to share it with someone who appreciates it."

Moving closer, they found Christoph standing next to a long-haired Native woman, wearing a cornstalk colored leather jacket watching Christoph closely. "I do," she said, voice monotone. She eyed him closely, almost like she were watching him for any false or quick movements he'd make.

Christoph smiled towards the woman. "So, the book you're writing is on Sioux artifacts?"

The woman nodded. "My entire bloodline is Sioux," She paced the large room quietly, looking around the room, eyes barely glancing over the artifacts placed in front of her. Her head kept roving around to look back at Christoph. "Lakota to be exact."

"Then you'll love this." Christophe grinned, lifting a finger. He turned to the side, stepping around the woman and picked up what looked like a necklace off a nearby stand.

"They're interested in a necklace?" Leah whispered. "I mean, it doesn't look bad, but it's a necklace."

"Whatever it is, it has to be part of what was in the briefcase," Brady pointed out. He shook his head. "I still don't get what it's for, though."

"It's a peace pipe," Christoph continued. Brady and Leah looked at each other, slightly stunned, as if Christoph knew they were there and had answered their question. "I took it apart and had it repaired to be smoked." He chuckled to himself, held it out towards the woman. "You want to try?"

Silence stretched between the two before the woman's face screwed up into absolute fury. Tranquil fury. Nothing in her face changed, and yet it was as if everything had changed. "That what you call a peace pipe is no such thing," she practically hissed. "It is a sacred gift for prayer. You'd never hand a Christian cross upside down or lay an American flag on the floor. But you destroy this, what is Holy, by letting it touch your filthy flesh."

As the woman spoke, Christoph frowned. He looked a mixture between being disgusted and scared. He took a hesitant step backwards. "Who do you think you are?"

"I'm the Black Bison." Her eyes shifted to the side, suddenly pulsed a strange, flashing color. She took a step back away from the man, as there was a sudden clanking sound. To the room's amazement, a chainmail suit of amor that had been posed in the corner started to move.

First its arms and legs twitched, then it got down from the pedestal and moved toward the man. The man gasped in surprise as Black Bison took a step back, watching the scene unfold. Brady quickly moved forward, phasing through the wall. He created a shadow ball and held it above his palm, showing Black Bison exactly what he'd do when he got the chance.

"Enough!" Brady called.

Leah gasped, watching the suit of armor grab Christoph around the neck and start to choke him. "Whoa, that thing's moving on its own." Black Bison turned and gasped, seeing the two heroes in front of her. At the same time, the suit of armor threw the man to the ground, giving Black Bison the chance to run for the door. "I'll get Black Bison!" Leah hurried after her.

Brady nodded and turned back, watching as the suit of armor converged upon Christoph, who cowered on the ground. "Help! Help me, please!" Brady quickly phased through the suit and shot it apart from the inside with a bursting pulse of his shadow powers. Then he turned to the side, pressing his finger into the comm. Link that sat nestled like an earbud. "Detective West, Banks is safe, ready for a police escort."

Then he turned and hurried in the same direction that Leah had just gone, all the way down to the street where he caught her running around the side of the house where a car sat, waiting. He caught up to Leah just as Black Bison threw open the driver's side door and climbed in.

"Did you get it, Aunt Mina?" A tiny voice came out the second the door opened.

"Yeah, let's go." Black Bison slammed the door shut and, within seconds, the car started.

The taillights lit up, white, then red, and the car started to pull away. Throwing out her hands, Leah used her gravity powers to hold the car in place. It had started to move a few feet forward then slammed to a stop; Brady could see the heads of Black Bison and her passenger fling forward once the strength of the sudden stop hit them.

There was a second where the car stopped accelerating and Leah started to pull it back before it lurched forward once more. Gritting her teeth, Leah bent at her knees, stretching a foot out, worked to hold onto the car. The tug of war only became stronger as the seconds passed. The tires spun, screeching filling the air as it struggled to move forward. Smoke started to pour out from the wheel well, rubber burning from the strength Leah enforced upon it.

Brady flew over to the passenger side of the car and peered inside. He gasped and jerked his head back, when the passenger turned his way, as if she'd heard the light gasp that he managed to let escape his lips. His classmate looked back at him…through him as he turned invisible…

"Rose?" Brady murmured.

The car lurched once more. Brady moved back and turned toward Leah. "Stop!" He called. "Let them go!"

Surprised, Leah dropped her hands and the car spun out, fishtailing before Mina was able to regain control and speed out of sight.

Brady stood back, watching as the car drove away.

A/N: Took me wayyyyy too long to get back to this, but at least it's with an interesting chapter with Team Shadow, because Team Flash are too busy in Gotham and Star City to be able to get back to Central City to help them out. But, hey, it'll be interesting to see what Brady, Connor, and Leah can do while Joe is there to help them out, right?

I did also realize that I had said, at one point, that Ryder would be at Barry's bachelor party, and here's the reason why he's not there. It's something that's been brought up a little bit, but its still something that's a sore subject between all parties involved. Especially since metas are a huge part of all of their lives.

Cheers,

-Riles