Disclaimer: Justice League not mine.
First Steps
Chapter 8: Decision
Why Me?
Wally looked up to the ceiling in the hope that God would answer his question, but was only greeted by yet more awkward silence. He glanced over at Fire, then quickly put his eyes back in their proper position, facing forward.
How do you get stuck in the same elevator with the same beautiful woman in the same month?
Wally began to think of all the things he was going to do today, trying to take his mind off the woman standing next to him in the elevator.
Okay…
1. Get something to eat. (She even smells good).
2. Talk to Supes. (Is she looking at me?)
3. Get something to eat. (Focus focus focus.)
4. Go to Central City. (Damn. It.)
Wally decided to throw caution to the wind. He turned towards her to start a conversation, when the elevator doors opened, revealing Dick Grayson stood in front of the doors. As he spotted Wally, he smiled.
"There you are. I was hoping to catch you before you left."
Fire looked over at Wally, a concerned look on her face. "You're leaving?"
Wally's brain melted.
"Wha… well, I… he… yeah," he squeezed out, the amused look crossing Dick's face making Wally hate the closed quarters of the elevator all the more.
"Permanently?"
"N-no… just a vacation. I-I'll see you again, don't worry."
Wally realised how what he said could be interpreted and started to blush, despite his best efforts to resist. Fire smiled as the elevator stopped on her floor.
"I'll look to forward to it then," she said, waving as she left. The elevator doors closed. Dick's smug smile increased, causing Wally's embarrassed blush to turn into one of anger.
"Smooth," he said, his voice dripping with amused sarcasm.
"Oh yeah? Look who's talking? 'Oh, Starfire! I loooove you! Pleeeeeease go out with me!"
The two swapped expressions, Dick's becoming an annoyed frown while a smirk spread across Wally's face.
"At least I could to talk to my girl. You're afraid of yours," Dick grumbled.
"Am not," Wally challenged, reminding him of the numerous arguments he would have with Garfield that always descended into 'Am not's and 'Am too's. He couldn't remember ever having one with Dick though. And Dick wasn't about to break that tradition.
"Anyway…" he said, "I wanted to ask you a favour."
Wally studied his friend's masked face. He was obviously troubled about something, but Wally let it go as being a result of being run ragged.
"Fire away."
"Could I have a meeting with the original League members?"
Wally scratched his cheek as he thought. "Gee, I dunno. It's kinda hard to get all seven of us together at once. Usually there's only about three of us in one place at a time."
"Well, just two or three would do."
"Why? What's the problem?"
"Uh… it's…"
The elevator door opened, revealing Shining Knight. Wally and Dick made room for him, then went back to their conversation.
"Well?"
"I'd rather not… talk about it here. Could you just organise it, please?"
Wally thought for a moment. "Okay. I think that Supes and G.L are here, I'll see if they can spare some time. Where'll you be if I need to call you?"
"Monitor duty."
Wally nodded. "Okay. I'll call you to tell you when."
"Thanks."
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What with now being a man on a mission, Wally decided to skip the first step on his list and move straight on to his second. He had gone to the control center and had been told by a member of the staff that Supes had gone to see the Atom about something. Wally figured that the Atom would be in the laboratory area of the Watchtower building and went there first.
He approached the door to the lab and saw the Atom through the window. He entered, marvelling at the various devices scattered around the room, wondering what each one was for. He looked up at the Atom, who had his back to him. Wally always found visiting the Atom fun, even though he got angry at him a lot for interfering with his experiments. It was shame, because the Atom seemed like the kind of guy that was easy to get along with, and Steel didn't mind when Wally messed around with his experiments, although his experiments usually looked pretty deadly. Atom's experiments always looked so… interesting. Wally looked at the scientist in question. He was preoccupied with some strange device he was tweaking, looking at it through some odd looking goggles.
"Hey, Atom?"
He held up his hand to stop him from talking, and Wally complied, tapping his foot impatiently. His foot gradually became faster and faster the longer the Atom remained silent.
"What'cha working on?"
"Something… very… delicate…"
"Why don't you just shrink?"
"Because… the quantiphasic properties… of the paradigm matrixes… interferes with…" he trailed off, consumed in his work.
"Your shrinking thingy?"
He remained silent.
"Atom?"
"Mmm?"
"Really need to talk to you..."
"Mmm."
Silence fell yet again. Wally frowned in frustration and stepped forward, putting his hand on the Atom's shoulder to get his attention. Atom yet out a small yelp, and Wally saw a bright light flash from where he stood behind the Atom. Atom put the strange device on the table top before him, and, sighing, removed his goggles. He turned to face Wally, his face scorched from the bright light that Wally had seen earlier.
"Yes, Flash?" he said with a tone of voice that Wally nicknamed 'Angry Atom'.
"Have you seen Supes?"
"No."
"Oh. Supergirl?"
"No."
"Steel?"
"Flash."
"Yeah?"
"Get. Out."
Wally backed away from the fuming scientist, and kept on going until he saw the door to the laboratory slide in front of him and he was stood in the corridor.
Okay, Supes isn't in there.
A voice came over the comm. system.
"Vigilante, Green Arrow and Captain Atom report to the teleportation chamber," John's voice boomed, before promptly turning off the comm.
Well, that's John out.
Wally's head perked up. Wait… Captain Atom? Maybe that guy had said Captain Atom, come to think of it. And now he's headed for the teleporter room.
Wally thought about this for a moment before his eyes widened and he shot down the corridor towards the teleportation chamber. As he entered the room, he saw Captain Atom stepping up to the teleporter pad. Wally cupped his hands around his mouth.
"Captain Atom!"
He turned, and Wally ran up to him. "Do you know where Superman is?"
"Yeah, I talked to him a few minutes ago. He said he was heading out for the day."
"Where'd you see him last?"
"The R&R room."
Wally grinned and put his thumbs up. "Thanks a lot, guy."
John floated over and gave Wally a look. "Problem?"
"Nope. Where're you headed?"
"Trouble in Japan."
"So you'll probably be out for the day, huh?"
John nodded. "Probably, why?"
Wally shook his head lightly and shrugged.
"Doesn't matter. See you guys later!" he said, shooting off in the direction of the R&R room.
He spotted Clark as soon as he entered, part of a crowd watching a game of Chess between Plastic Man and Elastic Man (who Wally knew better as Ralph Dibny). Plastic Man was his usual cheery self, while Ralph continually had look of constant distaste on his face. It made Wally tired to even think of the amount of times he has sat listening to Ralph's 'Plastic Man sucks' tirades. He carefully approached the game, being careful not distract either player, and made his way towards Clark. For some reason, he had some uncontrollable urge to shout a greeting to Clark from the other side of the room, but decided against it, having already made the Atom angry at him today. He stood next to Clark and tried valiantly to pay attention to the game, his arms behind his back in his best 'smart guy' impression. He leaned towards Clark.
"Who's winning?" he whispered.
Clark glanced over at him quickly, obviously not wanting to miss a moment. He smiled. "Plastic Man."
Ralph's head shot up to look at him. "He is not."
Plastic Man just grinned. Wally had always liked Plastic Man, from the first day he had met him. He had an easygoing charm about him, but he also had this very crazy side, like he was on a constant sugar high. Quiet frankly, Wally was amazed that Plastic Man had sat down long enough to play a game of chess.
Unfortunately, Wally also made fast friends with Ralph, having liked him for his immaturity that was masked by his serious demeanour. Wally wondered which one he should support, but simply opted to remain silent.
Ralph stretch out a finger and moved a piece forward. Wally had no idea how to play this game, and so couldn't tell which piece it was. He simply looked at the reaction of the people watching to see if it was a good move. Evidently, so was Ralph. He paused before putting the piece down, looking first at the reaction of his audience, then at his opponent. Plastic Man just grinned at him, taking a huge bite out of his chocolate bar. Yet another reason Wally liked the guy – he always had food with him, hidden in some stretched pocket of his body.
After much silent deliberating, the piece came down. Plastic Man's grin grew even larger, and Ralph's face fell.
"Ah, crap," he muttered.
Plastic Man moved a piece and knocked Ralph's over.
"Checkmate," he said through a mouthful of chocolate.
Wally sighed, thankful that he had come in at the end of the game. He tapped Clark's shoulder.
"Hey, Supes?"
Clark grinned as Ralph grumbled about Plastic Man cheating in some way, then sipped at his coffee as he turned to look at Wally.
"What can I do for you, Flash?" he said, gesturing to an empty table and sitting down.
Wally sat opposite him, his attention suddenly drawn to Plastic Man pestering Ralph to change into something as a result of losing the game. Ralph shouted at him a few times, then finally relented, stretching his form into that of a chair. Plastic Man laughed and leapt onto Ralph, prompting a muffled cry from somewhere in the chair. Wally slowly turned his head back to Clark.
"I was wondering what you were doing now?"
"I was about to head off to the Planet. Why?"
"Well, first of all…" Wally started to fidget.
Why are apologies always so difficult to get out?
"Flash?"
"I uh… just wanted to say I'm sorry for how I treated you in the medical bay before. I know you were doing what was best and all that, and I just wanted to say I was sorry for how I acted."
Clark smiled and placed a hand on Wally's shoulder. "You don't need to apologise, Flash. I understand."
Wally smiled back. "Okay. Now that's out of the way, I wanted to ask a favour."
Clark eyed him suspiciously over his coffee cup. "And what would that be?"
Wally put his hands up defensively. "Nothing embarrassing or anything, I swear. Nightwing just wanted to have a meeting with some founding members."
Clark raised a dark eyebrow. "Any reason?"
"No… but it seemed pretty serious. I don't think he'd take up too much time, so…"
Clark nodded, smiling as he did so. "Okay Flash. Where is he now?"
"He's on monitor duty, so we'll have to wait for his shift to end first."
Clark's face darkened slightly. "I don't want to be hanging around here all day, Flash."
"I know, I know, but... he's an old friend of mine, and I owe him more than I can remember. We could play some chess or whatever while we wait, and… well, think of it this way; now I'll owe you one."
Clark shook his head. "It's okay, Flash. You don't have to be indebted to me."
"No, no, you're going out of your way for me; I'd like to pay you back. Let's see… I could…" he checked around the room before speaking. "Help out around the farm."
Clark shook his head. "No, Flash, it's-"
"Or maybe I could help you out at the Planet. I always wanted to work in a newspaper."
"Flash-"
"Or maybe-"
"Flash!"
Everyone in the room turned towards the table, and Clark smiled at them apologetically, his cheeks reddening slightly. Wally let out a big Cheshire grin. He had never seen Superman blush. It was a very odd experience.
"C'mon, Supes, there's gotta be something I can do."
He was silent as he seemed to give the matter some serious thought. "Well, now that you mention it… I was supposed to go fishing with Kara, but something came up, so…"
Wally grin became a warm smile as he nodded slowly. "Yeah, sure Supes."
Clark once again eyed him suspiciously.
"Really?" he said, sounding more like a statement than a question.
He shrugged. "Yeah, why not? Who knows, could be fun."
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The doors to the League conference room opened and Dick stepped through. Wally grinned at his friend, raising his hand in a quick wave. Dick smiled back, and turned his eyes towards Clark. Wally was anxious to know what was troubling his friend so much, and leaned forward on the table.
"Thank you for seeing me on such short notice. I… hope it wasn't too much trouble."
Clark smiled the classic Superman smile, which Wally had noticed could put almost anyone at ease. Except, of course, for Bats.
"Not at all. What's the problem?" he said, gesturing for Dick to take a seat.
Wally noted with some interest that Dick sat in Bat's chair. He wasn't sure if it was a subconscious thing, or if he actually remembered from the last time he was in here. Wally put it out of his head as Dick spoke.
"Well… I'm not sure if you've noticed or not, but I've been becoming increasingly…"
"Exhausted," Wally put in.
Dick nodded.
"This is because I've been patrolling Bludhaven every night, while attending to my League duties during the day."
Clark raised an eyebrow. "When do you sleep?"
"He doesn't," Wally said, ignoring the glare that Dick was giving him.
"Is that true?"
Dick looked as though he was about to deny it, then sighed.
"Yes. I've been sleeping less and less in order to fulfil my responsibilities to both Bludhaven and the League."
"What about the Titans? You work with them occasionally as well, don't you?"
Dick seemed slightly surprised that Clark knew of his affiliation with Titans, but quickly recovered, nodding before he spoke. "Sometimes. But nowhere near as much as with the League."
Clark was silent for a moment. "If this is about changing your level of work, I'm afraid that's just not possible. Your life outside the League and how you manage it is your own business."
Wally decided to speak up. "We could help him out, couldn't we?"
Clark looked at him. "What do you mean?"
"I mean we could get some heroes to patrol Bludhaven now and then, couldn't we?"
Clark bowed his head in thought. "I suppose… it would take some working out, but-"
Dick's voice cut into the conversation sharply.
"No."
Wally looked up at him, surprised.
"No?"
"Bludhaven is my city. I don't want other heroes doing my work."
He sighed heavily. "This has been a very hard choice for me. And I want you to know it wasn't just a snap decision."
He looked Clark straight in the eyes as he spoke. "With that being said, I would like to respectfully resign from the Justice League."
Wally's jaw dropped. He couldn't believe it.
This is his great solution? To QUIT?
"You're… what?" he said, the question coming out in a whisper.
Dick looked at him, sadness written on his face. "I'm sorry, Flash. But… there are plenty of people that can do what I do in the League. In most cases, they can do them better. But no-one else can, or will, look after Bludhaven. Except for me. It's my responsibility. And I have to live up to it."
He looked over at Clark and brought his Watchtower I.D card from his utility belt and handed it over to him.
"Thank you for your time, Superman," he said holding the card in front of him. Clark took the other end and smiled.
"Thank you, Nightwing. I'm sorry to lose you."
Dick smiled. "And tell Supergirl that I'm sorry, but she'll have to do without her Batgirl replacement."
"Will do."
Dick stood, as did Clark and Wally. He nodded at them both and left. Wally followed him out, nodding a goodbye to Clark as he pursued. He put a hand on Dick's shoulder as he pushed the button for the elevator, causing him to turn around. Dick was obviously expecting Wally to be angry with him, because he seemed genuinely surprised to see Wally with his hand extended, and a sad smile on his usually cheery face. He gladly took his hand and shook it.
"Not going to try and convince me to stay?"
"Would it have done any good?"
Dick smiled.
"That's what I thought. It was a fun few weeks though, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Sure you won't consider becoming a part timer like Bats?"
"Thanks, but somehow I don't think that would help much."
Wally's face wrinkled slightly as he struggled to say the right words to his friend. "Dick… thanks."
"What for?"
"For helping me to get over… everything. Y'know?"
Dick smiled, looking down to see that they were still shaking hands. "Yeah. I do."
Wally looked down and laughed, slowly letting the handshake drop.
"See you around, Wally."
"Yeah. I'll come visit you in Bludhaven sometime."
"Likewise."
The elevator arrived, and Dick stepped inside. He gave a mock salute as the doors closed. Wally gave him a thumbs up.
He waited until the elevator doors closed before turning around and heading back to the conference room.
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