Heroes

Notes: This chapter is a bit different. Justice League tends to bring out the snarky me, where as Static Shock brings out the angst happy me and…well, this went more towards the sarcastic and silly. Consider it comic respite.

Warning: GL (John)/(Wally) Flash slashiness. Remember? Told you this story attached to a larger series, way back in the forward, that contained GL/Flash? Right. Just checking.

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Chapter Four

Black Hole Sun

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"I think," Jacob muttered swaying on his feet some. "That I'm going to be sick."

Virgil turned and eyed him carefully. He did look paler than he had a few moments ago. Richie moved over towards him and rested a hand on his shoulder. Jacob smiled weakly.

"Don't."

Green Lantern was standing to the side of the transport platform, watching them. That didn't surprise him or anything, as he was getting better at not staring like an idiot when he encountered members of the League, but it was surprising that Flash wasn't anywhere nearby. Where Lantern went Flash was usually quick to follow.

And he meant that in a non-joking manner.

Virgil had to admit he'd wondered, more than once, if there was more between the two than just your usual friendship. Something about the way Lantern seemed just slightly less sarcastic and biting when Flash was with him, and the fact that Flash could maintain coherent anything for more than a few moments only when Lantern was around…

He didn't wonder about it because he cared, because he didn't. Not really anyway. Lantern had been his hero since he was younger, he couldn't have cared less who he slept with, and Flash was just…a really nice guy and fun to be around. He doubted he could have a problem with either, ever.

He did want to know what would attract them to each other though. They seemed very different to him.

"Go easy. It was his first time, it make anyone a little queasy."

Lantern smiled at him mildly then gestured that they should follow. "Superman is in mothering hen mode again and wants you to go down to the infirmary to make sure no one got hurt."

Virgil glanced over his shoulder at Richie to see if the idea of Superman as a mother hen was strange to anyone besides him. Richie looked just slightly bemused then shook his head. Jacob was too busy looking around in uncontained awe to care much apparently. Virgil couldn't blame him. The New and Improved Watchtower was…well, it was damn impressive.

And big. It'd taken Richie a good five minutes to memorize the blueprints and almost an hour before he could think of anything to improve it. Batman had seemed almost flattered that it'd taken so long for the young genius to find any flaws. Or…as flattered as Batman could seem about anything.

"How do you know what happened?"

"We're the Justice League, we know everything." Lantern said cryptically. Virgil blinked. O-kay then… "How else do you think we stop every disaster that crops up?"

"Somehow I doubt a potential car accident in Dakota counts as a disaster." Richie commented.

"Would you rather I said we keep tabs on every hero under the age of twenty-five at all hours of the day?"

Virgil swallowed at the very implications of that. Because he'd like to think that certain things (certain perfectly natural things for a young man his age, thanks) weren't being viewed by anyone else. Ever. Apparently Richie shared the sentiment.

"A-all hours?" Lantern chuckled at the slightly panicked tone to Richie's voice. Virgil swallowed and, feeling a change in topic was needed, asked the thing that'd been on his mind since he'd seen Lantern.

"Where's Flash?"

The older man actually turned and arched an eyebrow at him. "Flash?"

"Yeah, you know, about this tall, runs and talks really fast, eats more than Richie, really hyper? Usually goes wherever you go?"

"Believe it or not I'm not Flash's keeper. He's old enough to not have to answer to me."

"Sooo… You know where he is but don't want to give me the satisfaction of admitting to knowing?" Virgil knew he was pushing his luck just slightly. Green Lantern wasn't know for his social skills, exactly. According to Flash he pretty much hated everyone on the principal of belonging to the human race, because discrimination was wrong, and most people probably would have shut up before asking questions.

But not Virgil. He was more-or-less almost sure that Lantern actually liked him. Why else put up with him so often? Still he heard Richie muttering something about getting his Playstation when he died.

"Don't be a brat." before turning stopping in front of the door that Virgil knew led to the infirmary. It slid open after a moment and the older man walked in, leaving them to trail after him.

The aforementioned League member was in the room and flashed them all a smile when they walked in. His appearance gave everyone except Lantern a moment's pause. He was wearing a pair of jeans and…well, nothing else. A t-shirt was draped over a nearby chair, and a pair of shoes was on the floor. For a moment Virgil thought they'd caught him mid-change.

Or maybe not. His upper body was covered in small little fang marks, some of which were still bleeding, and he was sitting cross-legged on an examination table. Oh, and he was really…freckly. Really. He didn't look nearly old enough to be a member of the League, let alone one of the Seven.

He was also kind of pale.

Not that Virgil was looking or anything. …okay maybe a little bit. But he'd never seen Flash not…as Flash before. Well…maybe minus the mask. The secret identity thing had kind of gone out of the window after Gear accidentally hacked the Tower computers.

He still insisted he thought it was a computer game, not a security system. Virgil still wasn't sure what to make of that actually.

"What happened to you?" Richie asked, breaking the silence finally. The redhead's smile vanished almost instantly and his eyes narrowed in something resembling annoying. Lantern, who'd walked off and was now returning with a tube of something and a rag, smirked widely.

"Wally was attacked by rabbits."

Virgil put a hand over his mouth to hold his laughter in. Richie blinked slowly then nodded as if that actually made some kind of sense, before coughing. Jacob however arched an eyebrow.

"Rabbits?"

"Radioactive mutant vampire rabbits." Wally muttered, grabbing the tube from Lantern who continued to smirk. "Thousands of them. It's not like they were your usual…pet store variety or anything. They were evil rabbits. And they glowed."

Lantern rolled his eyes. "Pink. They glowed pink."

"It was still glowing! The color doesn't matter John; the point is they glowed. And were evil. And radioactive. What if my flesh melts?"

"I doubt your flesh is going to melt now. It's been an hour."

"The effects of exposure to radioactive materials or chemicals or…rabbits isn't usually immediate. It would take time for it to seep into his blood stream and spread throughout his body." Richie said almost absently, as if he didn't fully realize he was speaking out loud. Lantern fixed an irritated look on him and the blond had the decency to look contrite.

"See John? I'm going to mutate into something terrible and you're going to feel guilty." Wally muttered. "What the fuck is a tube of disinfectant going to do?"

"You're giving me a headache."

"So? This is your fault, with your stupid 'let's go save the little English town from the killer rabbits.' Who the hell cares about the English anyway? I wanted to get pizza. Why can't we do anything normal?"

Lantern rubbed at the bridge of his nose and Virgil could almost feel the frustration rolling off of him. "Wally I swear-"

"Children." J'onn's faintly amused voice cut off whatever Lantern was about to say. "You're frightening the medical staff again."

Wally's brow furrowed. "Do you just call us 'children'?"

"Yes." Batman swept into the room after the Martian. He headed right over for a computer console while J'onn glanced Wally over. "Virgil, Richie, Jacob;" He didn't look up as he spoke to them but Virgil doubted he needed to. "I trust everyone is okay."

"Not a scratch."

"How do you know my-" Jacob started but Richie just shook his head as if to tell him not to bother. He fell silent but still looked a little bewildered, torn between watching J'onn (which made sense. Wasn't everyday you encountered an alien) Batman, and Lantern and Wally.

"I didn't think so. Superman likes to overreact. Wally, you aren't going to mutate. The computer scan didn't show abnormal amounts of anything except caffeine." Batman glanced at him over his shoulder.

Wally nodded then reached over for his shirt then winced and sat back up. Lantern rolled his eyes and grabbed the shirt for him. He pulled it on then hopped of the table.

"What happened to the rabbits anyway?"

"John dropped a very large boulder on them." J'onn said with a strange half-smile.

Wally smiled sardonically. "My hero."

"I try." John deadpanned before inclining his head towards Virgil. "I have something I want you to test out for me."

"What?" Virgil had enough common sense to be wary. He'd rushed headlong into one of Lantern's 'tests' before and had been sore for weeks.

"New training drones for Young Justice. I've already got Nightwing to agree to test them from a non-powered standpoint but when I tried to talk Wally into it he went off on another conspiracy theory rant."

"Robots. Evil. Not happening." Wally gestured vaguely. "I don't know why you can't ask Bart. He's actually in Young Justice."

"He bothers me."

"Everyone bothers you."

"Then why do you keep suggesting it?" John's smile was faintly amused. "So, Virgil, how about it?"

Virgil decided not to ask. It just seemed…for the best. "Sure, I guess."

"Can I watch?" Virgil didn't need to look at Richie to know he had that crazy gleam in his eye he got at the prospect of modifying things. Lantern smiled and nodded.

"I was just about to ask. You can keep Wally and Adnai company on the observation deck."

Virgil headed after Lantern, who was already walking towards the door. It didn't occur to him to ask what Jacob was going to be doing throughout all of this until a good five minutes later and by then it seemed a little too late.

There was that guilt thing again.

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Richie watched Virgil follow Lantern then turned to Wally. "Who's Adnai?"

"Nightwing's boyfriend." Wally shrugged, either ignoring or missing Richie's bewildered look. "Now if you two would follow me we can go watch Static and Wing get slaughtered by John's robots."

"No." Batman said. Richie jumped. He had, somehow, forgotten Batman was there. How that was possible he didn't know, but he had. "I want to speak to Jacob. I'll send him down in a few minutes."

"…Right." Wally shook his head then nodded towards Richie. "Just us then. Well and Blair but he doesn't really count."

Richie frowned but walked out with Wally, offering a half-smile to Jacob who smiled back as if to say he'd be fine. He shoved his hands into his pockets and allowed himself to be lead through the winding halls of the 'Tower, though he could find his own way if he were so motivated.

"What you said, about Nightwing…"

"Did I say he was a crazy, suicidal prick out loud?" Wally sounded sheepish. "I could have sworn that was just in my head."

"Erhm. No. But I'll be sure to remember that." Richie smiled faintly. He did really like Wally. There was something very…disarming about him. Like that older brother you never really wanted but put up with anyway. And really he wasn't that much older than he and Virgil were, just under six years if the information he's stumbled across was right. "No, the thing about Adnai."

"Oh. That. Does that bother you?" He quirked an eyebrow in amusement. "Because if so this conversation is about to take a very nasty turn if for no other reason than I knew 'Wing before he was even 'Wing and am actually pretty fond of him."

"No! I mean…no. Just…you don't care?"

"Other than the comic irony of it all, not particularly. Adnai's too…umm…what's a nice word for wuss? Well, whatever, he's that. And Nightwing is crazy in a suicidal way, as opposed to John's occasional homicidal tendencies, which are actually endearing in strange and often disturbing way, and I've known him since I was…well, younger and…" Wally paused leaving Richie to try and decipher that jumble of words. Obviously pausing for breath wasn't something he needed to do.

"It occurs to me you have to be the only person around here who doesn't know about me and John."

"John and I." Richie muttered, feeling a blush working its way up his cheeks. "And no I didn't know."

That happened to him a lot. Give him a car engine and he'd have it apart, reconstructed, and making toast in a few minutes but people…people just weren't his thing.

He couldn't even understand himself most days.

"It's not a big deal. At least I don't think it is. Somebody probably thinks it is but…well. It isn't. I don't think. And people are weird anyway." He started worrying his bottom lip between his teeth almost nervously. Richie wasn't sure if he was confused, again, or amused.

He settled on amused.

"Your mind is a vastly confusing place isn't it?"

Wally nodded gravely. "You have no idea." He laughed quietly and shrugged. "Seriously. It's not. Unless you care for some strange reason."

Richie shook his head. "No, I don't. Forget about it."

"Sure. But, and please ignore how after-school special this sounds please, I'm around if you want to talk." Another small shrug. "Why not, you know? If John wants to play mentor to Virgil you might as well keep me from getting bored and doing something stupid."

"Um. Okay." Richie blinked then frowned, picking up a stray though about Jacob. "Do you know why Batman wanted Jacob to stay?"

"He finds your buddy 'intriguing'. Something about you trying to hack city death records and him finding something you missed."

"You weren't listening?" Why didn't it surprise him that Batman knew he'd been trying to get into Dakota's death records? One day he was really going to find out how much Batman, and the League, really knew about them. He, unlike Virgil, had things he truly wanted to keep hidden.

"Why bother when I can just ask John later?" The way Wally said it implied that it made perfect sense to him. "That's what he's for. Among…other things."

"What are you…oh. I didn't need to hear that." Wally's answering smile was borderline perverse.

Next chapter we'll find out what Batman's up to with Jacob. Nothing weird, so no worries. And also some strange subtle hints of things to come.

Raving: Yeah, Virgil's having issues adapting to Jacob being around. The fact Richie seems kind of taken with him probably…isn't helping much. And angst is fun.

Pita: No time soon. They barely know each other. To be honest I have a few plotlines threading through this story so…it's hard to say when certain things are going to take place.

Leev: Ah, yes, the method to Jacob's madness…heh. And Virgil…well. His confusion confused everyone else. Jacob hasn't a clue that Virgil doesn't 'like' him. …not that V doesn't like him. He's just jealous. Not that he knows he's jealous…

Cherre: Egypt? Try the moon… Maybe, if he's lucky. The worst part has to be that he isn't 'dense' or 'clueless' overall, he's just that way when it comes to Richie. I think if he were stupid it'd be less sad…

tp96: Well, I offer nothing if not a plot driven tale. Heh.

Mechante: Jacob is, when he isn't being morbid, a pretty sweet guy. He was a well meaning, naïve, preppy before all of this actually…so yes, he can do adorable. And…don't even get me started on Virgil. There is nothing worse than wanting to smack a character partway through a story. And I do feel very special.