A New Perspective
That's it. He was done. Wally was going to convert to villainy from this day forward; starting with the bloody murder of Artemis Crock.
She simply would not stop judging his life choices.
"If I want to eat sixteen Wagonwheels, what's it to you? Can't I just live my life?" The ginger opened another one, chocolate shedding out of the plastic wrapping as he tore at it with gloved fingers.
The blonde sitting next to him in the cramped monitor room looked horrified. "That is disgusting."
He grinned, taking an absurdly large bite simply because he knew it annoyed her, "I have a calorie count to maintain, you know?"
Wally was fairly certain that, at this point, they both knew she wasn't really grossed out by his diet. It was merely a charade, the same weird dynamic they'd been trapped in since their first meeting.
They both liked each other. At least, he was fairly certain she liked him, and he definitely liked her. Yet they had always been lacking some driving force, the catalyst that would kickstart their relationship.
The situation was as infuriating as it was obvious; Wally was pretty sure Kaldur had long since been aware of it. Though he wasn't overly certain about M'gann and Conner.
Both aliens could be extremely…unobservant, at times.
Speaking of, their Atlantean leader turned to stare at them over the back his wheeled chair. "You do realize we are on a highly imperative stakeout in which the success of our case currently rides?"
Wally swallowed thickly under Aqualad's pallor gaze, shooting an accusing glare at Artemis, "She started it."
Kaldur sighed, facing the monitors again, "Just please keep a look out."
Earlier that day, after Detective Moody had been dismissed by the commissioner, the woman had politely asked them to stakeout the precinct while everyone else was at home. Sleeping. In a warm bed.
Did he mention he didn't want to be here? 'Cause he didn't want to be here.
Sure, Wally understood the commissioner's reasoning.
She'd told them that, if Detective Sourpuss was right, whoever was trying to keep the compound hidden might make a move tonight to dispose of the bodies for good.
Young Justice had been delegated the task, as she didn't trust more than half of her officers. It reminded the speedster of their early days, when there'd been a mole in their midst.
He'd hated the mistrust and deceit that such a discovery had caused; the way it had torn their team apart. The reveal that it had been Roy, the first sidekick, nearly crushed them beyond repair.
So now here they were: an archer, Kryptonian clone, speedster, and fish-boy, sitting in a police station. It sounded like the beginning of a bad joke.
Or a really cool concept for a show. Wally would watch the hell out of that, not going to lie.
They were originally supposed to be watching the security monitors spread in front of them, each flickering with static every now and then, but Wally's attention had long since wandered.
It wasn't that he was trying to be a bad hero. Au contraire, he truly had attempted attentiveness. The issue had more to do with the fact that his body was operating in an entirely different time frame then the rest of the team.
While they'd been sitting here since the precinct closed—a few hours, at best—because of his superspeed, it felt like Wally had been crouched for double that.
He could practically feel the lightning arcing through his veins, begging to be released in one powerful burst of motion.
The speedster sighed, fingers twitching rapidly as he watched another screen flicker with static. And then another.
He repressed a yawn, clamping a hand over his mouth. This was truly prime entertainment. Someone ought to call the HBO.
"What was that?" Artemis leaned closer to one of the cameras, eyes narrowing at it.
Wally would deny it even after death, but he loved Artemis' eyes. Actually, he loved her whole face. It was stunning.
The way her blonde waves hung down her back, held aloft by a high ponytail gave him butterflies. Everything about her gave him a conflicting mess of fluttering hormones and soppy satisfaction.
It was kind of pathetic, actually.
Pulling his mind out of whatever gutter it'd just rolled into, he turned his attention back to the mission at hand. "What room is that?"
Kaldur shot him an appreciative glance, as if glad the ginger was finally showing some interest in the mission, "It shows the hallway to the evidence lockup. What'd you see, Artemis?"
The archer leaned back, resting her bow across her legs with an air of casual practice. "I'm not sure, it might've just been a shadow."
"We should check in with M'gann," Conner piped up from the back by the door. He was supposed to be keeping one of his super-ears tuned for any unusual sounds, but Wally suspected he'd been sleeping.
"Good idea, Superboy." Kaldur spoke into their mental link, rightly assuming M'gann had left it open in her absence.
The Martian was invisibly staking out the commissioner's office, seeing as it was the only room without a camera. It was extremely unlikely that anyone would try and break in, but they wanted to be prepared for every contingency.
"M'gann?" Kaldur inquired into the link, his mental voice intoning it as a question.
Wally, despite having used this mode of communication for years now, still found it just a teensy bit strange. He suspected that was his humanness piping up.
That is, human as he could be having literally broken the sound barrier. On multiple occasions.
"Hi, guys!" The Martian's cheery voice answered back. The speedster absently wondered how she kept so pippy. "What's up?"
"Nothing much, sweet-cheeks," Wally answered. He was long, long over his crush on her, but the term had sort of become one of platonic meaning to the two. "Artemis thought she saw a shadow."
"Oh shut up, Kid Klutz. At least I was looking at the screen." Artemis shot him a playful glare over her shoulder.
At least, he hoped it was playful. He didn't want to get shot by another arrow; not so soon after the last time.
"Conner wanted to check in with you," Kaldur re-railed the conversation.
Wally could actually feel the Martian's pleased mental purr, "That's sweet, but I'm alright."
Conner mumbled something aloud, sinking even further into his chair.
"Alright," Artemis spoke for the embarrassed Kryptonian. "Tell us if anything happens."
"Will do!"
Then they returned to their monotonous stakeout.
It'd been so long that Wally was seriously considering getting up and scrounging the room for some toothpicks. You know, to prop his eyelids open.
The security cams' timestamps displayed that less than an hour had gone by, but the ginger was certain they were deceiving him. Maybe this was technology's first step towards world dominance.
Today, the time. Tomorrow, the world. If the evil devices ever needed a slogan, Wally could hook them up.
Literally hook them up, because they had cords and—that's it. This stakeout was making him crazy.
The speedster smacked himself in the face, ignoring the confused look their resident archer sent him.
He was on the verge of sleep when M'gann's voice sounded over the link, edged with that tone it always took on when she was spooked about something,
"Guys, someone's picking the lock. I can hear them."
Artemis' reaction was instantaneous. She moved so close to one of the monitors that her face was practically pressed up against it, then she was cursing savagely.
"It's a loop! Someone put camera seventeen on loop." She snatched up her bow, heading towards the door, "We've got to move, now. Whoever it is, they're already inside."
Kaldur spoke quickly, laying a hand gently on Artemis' shoulder to stop her exit, "M'gann, do you need immediate assistance? What is your verdict?"
The Martian pause for a moment before answering, her voice measured. "Stay in position for now. I don't want to spook them before we see what they're after."
The Atlantean shot the antsy archer a quelling look, "You heard her, Artemis. We maintain position for now."
The blonde didn't look happy about it, but she sank back into her chair all the same.
Aqualad really had earned their collective respect over the years. No matter how chummy they got with him, at the end of the day they still obeyed.
Most of the time.
Fortunately, this was one of those times. The monitor room was silent except for the barest hum of the computers, accented by the occasional heavy breath.
Conner's hand was clenching the arm of his chair so hard that Wally was sure it would crack, but the large man stayed in position. The raven-haired clone knew what his girlfriend was capable of.
As did Wally, but he still felt a pang of mounting concern for his Martian teammate with every passing minute.
Just when he was about to suggest they storm downstairs, M'gann gave a mental gasp.
It was somewhat disturbing to hear the familiar sound in his head, but what followed was even more so. "It's them! It's the vigilante, they're here!"
Whatever Wally had been anticipating seemed inconsequential compared to that, his heart leaping up into his throat.
The rest of the team had similar reactions, all of them jumping to their feet.
Kaldur was the first to find his mental voice again, "We will converge on your position. Try and get into his head."
Her reply was short and strained, lacking the Martian's usual charisma, "Got it."
"Now can we get down there?" Wally practically pleaded, the feeling of the speed force biting at his heels as familiar as it was comforting.
Aqualad spared the ginger one of his rare and stoic smiles. "Yes."
And then they were off, hurtling through the dark station towards their teammate.
Had Wally not been surrounded by his team, the building might've been a little creepy. Maybe even mildly terrifying. But now, with three trained heroes beside him, he felt ready for anything.
Which is why he was surprised to be so blatantly un-ready for the sight that greeted him upon their arrival.
The speedster had just skidded to a stop outside of the commissioner's door—having slowed down significantly to keep pace with his teammates—and rammed his shoulder into the wood.
The action proved unnecessary, however, when he realized that the door was already unlocked. Just closed.
Flushing faintly, he turned the handle and pushed, hurrying into the room with the others hot on his heels.
M'gann stood with her back to them, her stealth suit helping her blend into the room's shadows. She hovered an inch off the floor, the green glow of her eyes indicating that she was doing some freaky Martian stuff.
Wally followed her glare, trying to pinpoint who exactly she was focusing it on.
Had he not known to look in that specific corner, Wally never would've spotted the intruder.
They blended into the black like they were an extension of it, the only thing visible of their costume being the barest trace of its outline and a foreign, bird-like symbol spanning the chest.
The speedster had to fight a smile when he saw that the figure was decidedly male, recalling he and Artemis' argument in the bioship early and shooting her a snide look.
She rolled her eyes in response but kept them focused on the vigilante, bow nocked and at the ready.
M'gann's voice spoke into their link, sounding strangely put-out, "I can't read his mind, somehow he's bloc—"
The Martian was abruptly cut off as the man darted into action, snapping out of his relaxed side-lean to hurl himself across the floor towards her.
She didn't have enough time to react before they crashed into the ground, the air whooshing out of M'gann as the two collided.
Without missing a beat, the vigilante had something pressed up against the green skin of her throat, the other hand jerking her head back by the hair.
Conner made an inhuman noise, somewhere between an enraged growl and terrified yell. He was about to charge when the man pressed the blade down harder, nearly enough to draw blood.
"Stay where you are." His voice wasn't nearly as deep as Wally had been expecting, the sound of it almost putting the speedster at ease. It was light, almost genial. Like they were simply old friends meeting in the park.
"Let her go." Conner's tone was deadly, the sound nearly stopping Wally's pounding heart in its tracks. "I swear I'll—"
"Superboy," Kaldur could've chipped diamonds with the look on his face. It was stony, obviously angry, but hidden beneath a mask of faux calm.
Wally, for the briefest of seconds, was thankful the Atlantean was on their side. The man would make a formidable villain.
Speaking of villains, the vigilante remained unmoving, the white lenses of his mask narrowing at each of them in turn. "So, the junior Justice League. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"What do you want?" Artemis barked, ignoring his banter.
"With your Martian?" He flicked a gaze at the woman in his captivity. It might have just been the darkness playing tricks on him, but Wally could've sworn he saw the man's gloved grip on her hair loosen.
"Nothing," The vigilante grimaced slightly, nose wrinkling beneath the black edge of his mask. "Please stop trying to read my mind. It won't work, and it's only giving me a headache."
Miss Martian let out a hiss of annoyance, shooting her team an apologetic look.
Wally opted for a smile, hoping it conveyed reassurance and not a death wish. "Look man, how about we just talk about this. You know? Have a little friendly chat?"
"If you're getting ready to superspeed me, don't." The geniality was gone, the man's voice suddenly nothing but taut darkness. "I would nick her artery before you took a step."
Wally cursed quietly, for that had been his plan exactly.
Conner took a step forward, wincing at the way the vigilante's grip tightened on the blade at the motion, "Just let her go."
"Look, I don't want to hurt her any more than you don't want me to want to hurt her," The man frowned, letting go of M'gann's hair completely to run a hand down his face. "And That didn't make any sense."
The speedster was slightly taken aback. This was not what he'd been expecting from a supposedly murderous vigilante, at all. "So there's no chance of you just…letting her go?" Wally inquired hopefully, speaking into the link as he did. "Anybody got any ideas?"
"We could, perhaps, let you escape without a fight? But only if you promise our teammate's safety." Kaldur shot Wally the briefest of glances, "We can't let him go. I do not enjoy this double deceit, but we promised the League we'd bring him in."
"We promised the League we would speak with him," M'gann's mental voice sounded unruffled despite the position she was in. "There is no proof he even is who we think he is."
Wally decided to clear that up as soon as possible, "Are you Bludhaven's newest vigilante?"
The man's gaze swivelled towards the speedster, clearly seizing him up behind the mask. Evidently he didn't like what he saw. "What's it to you, Flash Child?"
"Aha," The ginger pantomimed laughter, dabbing underneath his cowl's goggles as if wiping away tears. "This guy's a comedian."
The vigilante frowned, as if that hadn't been the reaction he was hoping for. He turned to Artemis instead, "And why are you here?" The man cocked his head at her, ruffled black hair flopping to the side. "Daddy not pay a high enough salary?"
Oh. That wasn't going to go over well at all. Wally shot Artemis a look, but the blonde was already in motion, flying across the room towards her offender,
"Don't you dare talk to me like that, you—"
The vigilante gave a chilling smile as Artemis moved, his lithe body snapping into motion so quick Wally was tempted to ask if the man was his long-lost speedster brother.
Then the room exploded.
(A/N): Sorry for the cliffhanger (but not really :D)! Hope you still enjoyed even if the ending was a little rocky :/
As always, thanks for reading! And a special thanks to those who reviewed: EveningSongEnchantment, Guest, Hamato-Grayson, rgjflood, and Lunacrosser! Each one encourages me to keep writing so much 3
Have a great week!
~ASL