Robin punched away at the speed bag in the Titans Tower fitness center. It was his morning ritual, a two hour workout beginning at 6:30 a.m. Usually he was finishing up at the same time as any of the others were getting up.
He'd go from there to check all the local, state and federal law enforcement communications for any data relevant to open cases. Then, a quick scan of the major papers on line, perhaps some research about weaponry or explosives, potential new birdarang ideas and some notes made on the computer about any open cases.
About this time he'd make his way to the kitchen, his body humming along at peak efficiency, metabolism roaring but pulse under control, breathing light as he encountered a bleary eyed Beast Boy or a shuffling Starfire or exhausted looking Raven. Cyborg seemed to get up better than the others. Maybe because so much of him was machine, just an on/off switch, not the slow rise to alertness of most people. But Cyborg stayed in his quarters till later in the morning most days. Probably doing something with his machine parts. Shudder.
Robin was the Titans. He never said that to the others. He didn't want to rub their faces in it, but that was part of the way he saw himself. None of the others gave to the group the way he did. Sometimes it really annoyed him. Frigging Beast Boy with his childish antics. And Starfire! God! So hot but such an airhead sometimes. Then there was Raven with her constant attitude and her all night meditation sessions and spell casting sessions that she would do whether or not they had a big day of fighting or missions looming ahead of them.
She would probably vote for him, wouldn't she? Some kind of a pity thing or something. Or maybe she wanted to jump carrot top? He shook his head. Oooooo you were too hard on him. He's poor. Oooooo! Well, boo hoo hoo. He got more than anyone could ever ask for and he screws around with it. Frigging pretty boy.
Robin imagined a certain blue eyed face there and over and over he smacked the speed bag with his gloved hands, the glancing blows making the bag ricochet with the stereotypical rhythm heard in boxing gyms. Robin stopped punching and leaped for the heavy bag.
"Yah!" he got all 132 pounds perfectly focused into his kick rocking the bag back and forth almost far enough to come off its hook. "Yah!" He jumped and spun and kicked it again, and then again and then again each time nearly separating it from its connection. He kept delivering blows, making sure to keep his form perfect and the whole force of his body focused like a laser onto the point of impact as preached in jeet kune do, the martial arts regimen synthesized by Bruce Lee and which Robin had adopted and nearly mastered.
He jumped over to the heavy bag and jumped atop it, getting his feet under the supporting chains so that he could do situps suspended against the bag.
"one -unh- two -unh- three . . "
". . -unh- ninetyeight -unh- ninetynine -unh- one hundred!"
Gasping for air but proud, Robin slid his legs out from under the chains above the bag and let himself slide down the side of the bag to the gymnastics mat below. He gathered himself and caught his breath as he walked out to the showers. He stopped for only a moment to glance at himself in profile in a mirror. A slight frown creased his brow and he pressed a palm to his hip. No matter what I do. He sighed and walked on.
I'm just not lucky like some people. Course, not everything falls right into their laps, he thought and smiled at the recollection of how he'd crushed his hand saying goodbye to him. Robin chuckled out loud as he pulled off his workout clothes and stepped into the showers setting the spray for power massage. That probably took out the hamate and pisiform bones of his right hand. No need to be bitter though, thought Robin as the jets of hot water worked their way down his back where he stood. Today'll close out that little episode of a potential mistake. Don't call us . . Robin sighed as the jets of hot water in the front of him started pressing hard against his chest, the tension washing right out of him with the warm kneading sprays.
Raven pondered it over and overthe morning that the Titans convened for their monthly meeting. It wasn't her usual thing this concern for the tiny details of intramural battling. Tapping into the great undercurrents of the universe was so much more worthwhile than trying to be Dogbert rather than Dilbert in the office wars. She tried to think, from her mystic sorceress mindset how to play this. But she was having trouble until she decided to follow the example of the master, Robin himself.
Not only was the black haired boy a master of strategy in a fight. He was the master of strategy in everything. Everything. He could not bear to lose and he could not turn off the competitive push he brought to everything. In most cases, it wasn't a problem with the other Titans. Beast Boy was so much a jokester and so needy for acceptance he just wasn't inclined to stand up to Robin except in the fake conflict of video games. In the combat simulations room, Robin owned him. Starfire was similarly inclined to be polite and cheerful. Only when a certain very distant line was crossed would Starfire really assert herself. Cyborg was another story. He was a good teammate but a self-sufficient personality. He didn't need Robin's approval. And he didn't have an absolute need to win at everything like Robin did, like he sensed Robin did. And she could swear that he'd let Robin win on occasion, once or twice at video games and once in the combat simulations room. There was some part of him that knew what he could do and how he'd fight when it counted and didn't care. Lose half your body and then lose it over getting beaten at grand theft auto 5? Uh uh. He just didn't need to win at some Wednesday night time killing mock fight in the Com Sims room. Let Robin take it.
And this attitude of Robin's even extended to procedural team meetings. Speedy had applied for membership after they'd first met him when he was one of the teen heroes tricked into fighting in a tournament by Master of Games. He obviously had great skills. For whatever reason, Robin didn't want him in the group. Cyborg wanted to champion Speedy's case. Cyborg had been to Robin's left. Robin moved to his left and went first. That was the way they did it. Whoever spoke first at 11 a.m. then to the left around the group. So, everyone else heard Robin's no vote and reasoning before the vote went around the circle. The issue was decided before Cyborg even got to make his case.
They'd agreed that, until they got up to 7 full members, approval of any new members had to be unanimous. If Cyborg had gone first and convinced the others, Robin might've have been in the difficult position of having to say no after everyone else had said yes, not that he wasn't up to that.
But Raven was still angry at how he'd handled Kid Flash's interview. They were the two members there to conduct it, Beast Boy got back to the Tower too late. Cyborg was doing some kind of registers flush, he'd called it, of his own systems. Couldn't wait he said. And Starfire had flown off to see sunspot activity or some such thing, some big treat in the eyes of Tamaranians. O-kay. They'd interviewed other applicants as a pair and had always done it the same way. Master gamesman Robin asked most if not all the questions and Raven judged the sincerity and character of the applicant.
Kid Flash had tried to prepare himself for the interview as well as he could but was completely thrown when he and Robin had the immediate recognition of their mutual antipathy. She sensed great dedication on his part and that he was dealing with great stress. He felt unloved by some in his life and was hurt by that lacking but he loved another. She couldn't tell whom. She hoped her abilities in this regard would increase and she'd be able to do full mind reading. At present, she could sense outlines, general sentiments and qualities of affection. Sometimes something would come into focus. It seemed almost random what it was Sometimes it was a strong memory. At other times a thought on which a person was focusing. Somewhere in the back of Kid Flash's mind was a strong thought of the book Brave New World. He must have just read it or been thinking about it. Awfully serious book for a guy that Robin said was just a cocky hotshot. And he seemed to be quite emotional about it. Hmmm. That was interesting.
But, almost as much as being upset at how Robin had treated the orange haired applicant, Raven simply wanted Robin to lose. It was unhealthy the way he couldn't turn off the urge to compete. His Slade fixation was just the tip of the iceberg. He needed to lose at something and see that losing didn't destroy you, that you could lose and grow from it. And this would be a painless loss, because Kid Flash was an excellent candidate. He was practically a pedigreed superhero, being the next in line to the great Flash tradition of super speed crime fighting. And she thought his point about the great reconnaissance benefit he could give to the team was right. How many times had the Titans taken a punch before they could deliver one because they didn't know what was coming? A teammate scouting out the opposition at mach 10 or faster would certainly help fix that. And he was kind of cute. Well . . she smirked recalling him in his uniform in front of her entering the conference room. Maybe more than kind of.
So, when 11 a.m. Monday had almost arrived and the five teens drifted into the conference room, Raven carefully eyed Robin. And she saw that he, in turn, was carefully eyeing her. Probably going to try the same trick. Sure enough, when he saw that she was to his left, though he'd seemed energetic a moment before, he suddenly forced a yawn and drifted to the back of the room where there was a box of donuts. When he returned, he was now to her left. And, of course, the moment the clock reached 11 he'd speak up and force the debate to start around the circle from him leaving her last. He'd correctly guessed that she'd strongly support Kid Flash.
So, Raven got competitive back. She traveled by spirit form under the floor and then back into the room immediately to Robin's left as she sent a very small bolt of black energy at the clock. The minute hand, which had been about to move from 10:58 to 10:59, moved instead to 11:00 a.m.
"I want to start" said Raven reappearing to Robin's left. The spiky haired informal leader started to sputter a protest but saw that the clock did, indeed, now read 11 a.m. and a few seconds.
"Well, it's time" said Cyborg. "You're first, I guess, Raven"
"Hey, wait! Isn't Robin supposed to go first?" asked Beast Boy.
"No, it just seems that way because he always did" said Raven with a glance at a glowering Robin. "And now that I have the floor, I'd like to advocate the acceptance for full membership of Kid Flash"
"The super fast boy with orange hair, yes?"
"Yeah, Starfire but you don't get to speak till Raven's done." said Cyborg. "That's what we agreed to, so that these things don't become a free for all."
"Well, I think we could use more members with bright hair" she giggled.
"Star!"
"Yes, Cyborg". She nodded
"Allright" continued Raven. "I'm going to vote now. I vote for accepting Kid Flash as a full member. He's got tremendous powers. He has refined his use of them over more than 3 years as a hero. He has a letter of recommendation from the Flash" she said handing out copies to the other 4, Robin last of all, with a smile to match his scowl. "Cyborg worked with him in stopping the attempted theft of Xinothium from Jump city College and can vouch for him. He's got a three plus year record without a single mark on it. He's got a couple statements in his record from police officers who don't like him but I bet all of us do, too. The bottom line is that he's got great powers, a spotless record of using them, excellent references and he really wants to be part of the team. If this boy isn't good enough to join the team then I wonder if there's anyone out there who some of us" she turned to Robin who gritted his teeth at her explicitly calling him out, "-will support for membership."
Next up was Cyborg.
"I also vote for accepting Kid Flash as a full member. Everything that Raven says is true. We could really use a guy who can scout areas out for the team at 10 times the speed of sound. I've gotta say that I'd heard that he was a kind of a cocky hotshot type but he was all business with me and Speedy on that Xinothium case. And he'd done his homework. He knew the half life and some of the rare properties of Xinothium. He was all set to go when he showed up and he did exactly what he was supposed to do. I was impressed. I vote yes to Kid Flash."
After him was Starfire.
"Well, I'm voting for him, too. Not just because he has bright orange hair!" she giggled into one hand. "Though I think we can all agree that that's a very good quality" she smiled. "My teammates Cyborg and Raven have looked into this boy very closely and I trust them. I vote to accept the Flash who is a Kid"
Raven smiled and glanced at Robin. He was furious, nostrils flaring and jaw muscles flexing. He could have bitten through steel at that moment. Starfire was the most easily influenced of the group. Every other time he'd gone first he'd gotten her to vote with him. Next up was Beast Boy.
"Well, I know he had a kind of a rocky interview. I think Robin went way overboard in giving him a hard time. I read through his whole file last night. Yeah, that's right! Me! I read a file. I did some studying. And I just don't see why not. He's got super speed. He seems like a good guy. I don't see that there's any serious mark against him and we need to have more power not less with the way the Brotherhood of Evil's going. I vote to accept Kid Flash"
Robin was doubly furious now. What the hell was going on? Even Beast Boy! He'd stared at him, stared at him really hard . . really really hard. And still he'd voted the other way. What the hell! He knew what that stare meant! Don't cross me, greenie! Since when did he rebel like that? Damn!
They all turned to him now. Five zero in favor of him or a denial by a four to one count, a veto by the boy wonder. They all stared.
"You'll win either way" said Raven. "Your vote will decide it either way. What's good for the team?"
"You're not supposed to speak!" he complained.
"I didn't advocate for him, unless you think asking you to vote for the good of the team is advocating for him"
Robin glared at her. He'd so carefully avoided this in the other votes. It'd been so smooth. The others hadn't even realized how the process had been steered, had they? Might've had to veto Speedy if not for going first that time. They all wanted him.
Don't they see what kind of a hotshot pretty boy this West is? God, that uniform! And the jokes . . jokes! Right in the middle of a fight, joking around, practically posing in that short piece of footage Cyborg was able to rip from the HIVE's security cameras. Okay, he's powerful. The crap he can do! What a lucky bastard! God, if I could run like that! If I could go through walls! I'd be unstoppable if I could do that stuff. Un . . stoppable. Un . . frigging . . stoppable. Instead it goes to Kid Flashy, mr self satisfied! God, where's the justice in the way powers get distributed? I have to scratch and claw for everything, have to accomplish everything by the skin of my teeth and he gets all that and coasts! Where's the justice?
"Robin?" asked Cyborg. "How do you vote?"
Robin sighed in defeat. He limply made a thumbs up sign to the others.
"Boo Yah! Boo Yah! Boo Yah!" exulted Cyborg with a clap of his huge hands. "I'll call and tell him!"
Beast Boy was happy too. Orange and green could work together sometimes. There was going to be a rave in the city next week. He and Kid Flash could go and meet some hot babes. And Kid Flash hadn't heard any of his jokes. None of 'em! Hehehe! He laughed in anticipation of it.
Starfire was happy because Raven and Beast Boy and Cyborg were so happy. And the pictures of this Flash who is a Kid were awfully cute. A boy with eyes like that could crilthorp the steezil off an urfdorn! She laughed at the thought, proud of her cleverness. The steezil off an urfdorn! Haha! She smiled at that and finished with a sigh. Such nice orange hair! But her warm feelings ended abruptly with the sight of the angry exit of teammate Robin from the room with curses under his breath.
Raven chased after him down the hallway.
"The meeting's not over, you know!" He didn't slow.
"You're not going to see the meeting through to the end? We'll just vote for all the foods you don't like . . " she joked as she caught up to him at the elevators. "And we'll let Starfire cook it all . . "
"Why are you following me?" he said with a scowl. "Did you need to gloat?"
The elevator arrived with a 'ding' but Raven threw a hand in front of him. "Look at yourself! You lose a vote, not a fight, just a vote and you stomp off?"
He scowled.
"I thought you were stronger than that. Kid Flash shook your hand and said thank you when he felt you'd completely screwed him out of something he really deserved. Aren't you that strong?"
He started to speak. He let out a deep breath. He grunted. He shook his head back and forth focusing his eyes on nothing in particular. Then, looking down at the floor and not at her, he extended his hand to her. He waited. And waited.
"You won't shake my hand?"
"Robin! You need to offer your hand to him, not me"
He sighed. "Well, I've got a few days to work up to that"
"You'll see. It'll work out fine and maybe he becomes your friend or . . something warm and fuzzy like that"
He sighed more deeply and started back to the conference room with her.
That night, Cyborg pressed the button for speaker mode on the phone in the conference room, Raven, Starfire and Beast Boy were beside him, and dialed the number for the West house. They all wanted to hear his happy reaction to the news.
One ring. Two rings. Three rings.
"Yeah?"
It was a girl's voice, not his. All four of them looked at the phone.
"Um, is Wallace West there?" asked Cyborg.
Wally's sister looked at him lying there horizontally, on the chair and ottoman beside the couch, absolutely asleep, not disturbed in the least by the ringing of the phone six feet away. God! She and her two friends were already laughing and joking about him when it rang. He was just her weirdo brother deathly tired for whatever weirdo reason.
He wasn't Kid Flash after the longest day of patrolling of his life, having patrolled for 4 hours then followed a jet to Steel City then another jet to Seattle then searched the whole airport and surrounding districts there for an hour then sprinted back to Jump City before returning home and sitting in the chair because he literally couldn't take another step for lack of food and rest. I'll just lie here a few seconds and recover before going to my room, he'd last thought before falling into a deep sleep after just seconds.
"What nutjob wants to know?" she giggled with a glance to the other two girls who, at first, were worried that Wally might wake but who now laughed openly.
"Excuse me?"
"If you wanna talk to him you must have a screw loose, unless you're some kind of telemarketer"
"Listen little girl. I don't have a screw loose. I-"
"Then you must be a telemarketer. We're on the do not call list"
-click-
Cyborg looked to the others. What? What was I supposed to do?
"So . . . madness runs in his family" said Raven. "On the bright side, it might be a passive sort of insanity for all we know"
Cyborg tried again. He dialed. One ring. Two rings.
"Yeah?"
"Is Wallace West there?"
"You're not gonna say what telemarketing company you're from?"
"Little girl, I am not a telemarketer"
"So you've got a screw loose"
He sighed. "Little girl, is Wallace West there?". The Titans heard nothing for several moment and then gasping laughing in the background.
"Yo yo!" said the voice on the other end of the line suddenly adopting a rap cadence. "You wanna speak to the gangsta geek?" the voice then descended into gales of laughter as did a couple other voices in the background before-
-click-
"I was wrong" admitted Raven. "Simple madness wouldn't be that annoying"
"Cyborg looked to the others. "It's the number on the form, the same number as I reached him at before. I'm sure of it."
He tried again. One ring. Two rings.
"Yeah" giggled the voice on the other end.
"Would you please pass along this message for me?"
"Shoot"
Cyborg looked at the others beside him in the Tower communications room. Progress at last.
"Tell him that Cy called and told him he's in"
"Right. Saul called and said he's out" the voice giggled slightly.
"No no. Cy called and told him he's in"
"The doctor called and wants to know if he has an innie?"
"No, little girl! Cy called and told him he's in!"
"Jenny Craig called and told him he's too thin?
"That's not what I said, little girl, I-"
-click-
"Damn!" Cyborg slammed his big hand down on the granite table.
"So . . . we can defeat Slade and the HIVE but not Suzy Gumsnap's phone etiquette? Does this feel wrong to anyone else?" asked Raven.
In the West household, Wally's sister and her two friends fell over on the couch laughing. They looked over nervously at Wally still lying horizontal on the chair and ottoman and not stirring. They laughed some more at this. Why's weirdo so tired? One of the friends got up and went over to him and put two fingertips to his neck.
"He's got a pulse"she smirked. They left him alone for a while then giggled and laughed dropping crumpled papers and wrappers from the trash all over him. Still nothing. More laughter. But they didn't know where to go from there. He was left alone after that only for lack of imagination.
His own imagination was getting a workout from dreams of Jinx as he slept a deep, exhausted sleep. He woke in the wee hours of the morning still feeling exhausted and surprised that he had to brush all that stuff off himself. He got a glass of juice from the fridge and went straight to his room, peeled off everything and slid under the covers. He never noticed a purring Empress enter the room and take up a sleeping pose across his neck as he slept on his side.
The only mental activity in Wally at all were the dreams in which he saw Jinx.
But everyone else saw Jinx that night,too, not in dreams, but on all the local news stations and in footage of the daring daylight bank robbery by the HIVE, led, as the CNN anchors noted, by their leader, Jinx.