Part 0: Shadow of Youth
PG-13
Summary: Post DWF. As an accident saves Flash from his own metabolism (but not without leaving some changes of its own) an unknown benefactor is gathering information on the League's greatest weakness.
Disclaimer: The DC characters are not mine. I'm just playing with them. They'll be returned…eventually, not in good condition but that can hardly be blamed on me!
Author's Note: Back for more are you? Mwa ha ha ha haaa.
PLEASE READ THE A/N IN CHAPTER 1 SO YOU ARE NOT CONFUSED LATER!
Chapter 5 - Maxima Debetur Puero Reverentia
The red digits blinked annoyingly in the otherwise peaceful apartment. Forty-two. Forty-two. Forty-two.
"I get the idea," Dick muttered to himself.
Wally had been 'missing' for over twenty days now and Dick had taken it upon himself to make sure his friend's place was okay and keep up the alibi that had been fed to his friends. Still, there were forty-two new messages waiting for him and Dick had cleared the machine just six days ago. Didn't these people have something else to do? He wasn't really angry but the obvious concern Wally's friends had for him just emphasized the distinct lack of friends in Dick's own life.
After college, after what happened between him, Bruce and Barbara, he'd moved away and lost contact with his college buddies. Not that they'd want to hang out with him now that he was just a bartender but he wasn't the same person as he was back then and he doubted that he'd be able to connect with them again. Somehow Wally had stayed close. Maybe since Wally had known him more as Robin, not the well behaved preppie, just another kid fighting crime, Dick had never really changed to him.
Dick began playing the messages writing down the few that were important as he looked around the small flat. He'd only seen Wally a few times since the accident that turned him into a five-year old. Dick had conversed with the child that had been one of his best friends. He'd asked simple questions about his family and his home.
Wally had talked for whole minutes (which was a long time for Wally) about his father. It was clear that Rudolph West was his son's hero. Dick could only smile sadly at the child. It hadn't happened to the kid yet but he estimated that it was only a few weeks ahead in young Wally's timeline when his life would take another rough turn.
The messages played themselves out and Dick deleted them before he made one last round of the apartment, making sure it was secure. He left through the window just as he had come.
The sun wouldn't set for hours. He had plenty of time to make it back to Blüdhaven before nightfall. He wasn't in costume. He found that sneaking around during the day was easier if he could blend in with a crowd. He'd take the train home and visit Wally tomorrow. Poor kid was stuck with John and Shayera until then.
+JLU+
"Who's that?" Wally pointed to another man in the picture. He'd somehow found his way into John's photo album and had to know who everybody was. They had made it through the earlier years of John's life with many laughs at John's expense but now they were into his years in the Marine Core.
"Jeff Derman. I met him on my first day of training."
"Who's that? And that?"
"Uh…Hal Collins. Mo Juma."
Shayera walked into the bedroom. Wally had the large book on his lap his head turning from side to side as he rapidly looked at all the pictures. She didn't remember Flash being so…twitchy. At least he could slow down every once in a while and force himself to do some things at a normal pace. Not little Wally. Everything was done at break-neck speeds.
John sat next to the child looking down at the memories. It seemed like ages since he'd left the core but he remembered so much of it in detail. Some moments he'd rather not recall but he knew that being in the military had provided him experience that made him a better member of the Lantern Core and the discipline to do what had to be done for peace.
"My Dad says army guys are really tough."
John's wandering mind came back to the present. "Was your dad in the army?" He'd heard this Wally talk about his father fairly often. Apparently he was the primary caregiver and Wally looked up to him. But John could almost sense Wally had a fear of his father. Not the type of parent-invoked fear that kept children from running amuck but the type that scared them into running and hiding. Rudolph West probably had a bad temper and short fuse.
"I don't know but he has lots of pictures of army things."
John and Shayera glanced at each other. They didn't know what this meant, hopefully nothing.
"We have to get going," Shayera announced. "One section of the new tower it nearly complete. Batman wants us there to help him check it out."
"What about Wally?"
"He has to come with us. Everyone else is busy and can't watch him."
"I can stay here," Wally suggested.
John shook his head and closed the photo album. "Not by yourself."
"But I do all the time," he protested.
Again John and Shay looked at each other. Wally kept unintentionally dropping hints about his life with his father and it didn't sound very good. All they knew for certain was that eventually Wally would end up in an orphanage. It had yet to happen in to little Wally but it would and they could do nothing to prevent it. Time travel was a cruel tease.
+JLU+
The man tugged at the ratty overalls and hard hat. They didn't fit properly but he had to be in disguise and this was all they could get.
"Quit grumbling."
He turned to find one of their leaders behind him, similarly attired.
"It's not my fault this thing is too small."
The higher ranking man stepped close to him. "Suck it up."
A crackle on a walkie-talkie and then a female voice broke up the conversation. "Samson, we're ready here. What about you guys?"
"Except for a few complaints we're ready here too." Around him several men nodded and patted the tool boxes some of them carried.
"Alright let's synchronize. Four o'clock in 5…4….3….2…1…mark."
Samson set his watch with the count down as did the others. "We're ready." He turned to his followers. "Remember we do this for our kind, for our future, for the Human Federation."
A cheer went up and the operation moved forward.
+JLU+
Batman had just arrived at the site. His jet was parked not too far away, but away from prying and curious eyes. He'd left J'onn on the watchtower to finish up the research. They were close to a breakthrough. They'd be able to fix Wally soon but there was just one piece of the puzzle that they didn't have. The exact frequency of the quantum chrono-generator that changed the Flash. The frequency would determine the energy of the chronotons and the radiation produced and they could then find an equal but opposite energy to return Flash to his true age by reversing the regression. Problem was that without the original weapon or its schematic they could be guessing for eons. At least with Wally being a kid they were saving money on his food bill.
He swung down from his grappling-hook and landed with practiced ease. The auxiliary section of the tower was nearly complete. It looked good with Metropolis harbour in the background.
The primary section was still under construction. The top few floors were just naked skeletons of steel and concrete. The lower floors had the panelling on the outside and on the inside carpenters were hard at work.
Batman watched a group of about six workers walk past him. They were heading for the primary construction site. He didn't think much of it until one man glanced back at him and something in his eyes raised a warning.
He was just about to head after them when John, Shayera and Wally landed in front of him. As soon as he was free from the green bubble Wally ran a few meters away. He wasn't used to the Green Lantern method of travel.
John spoke first. "I know. We're late. But somebody held us up." They looked down at Wally.
"I had to pee."
Batman smirked. "They joys of baby-sitting." He'd had his turn already. The others had forced him to take Wally for two days citing that he had plenty of experience taking care of children. Of course Dick and Tim had been older when they came to live with Bruce so the only person in the Wayne household with experience with young children was Alfred.
Alfred hadn't minded the extra company and had even managed to make the pint-sized speedster useful with chores around the manor. Tim had balked at the idea of baby-sitting but once Wally had beaten him at a video game, a game at which Tim declared himself to be the master of, then they'd found something to keep both of them busy.
For the brief times that Bruce was home he had managed to find a tenuous connection with the child. Seeing Batman out of costume went a long way in making Wally more comfortable but they still were not as close as Wally was with the others.
"Have you been in yet?" Shayera asked.
"Not-"
"Hey! Quit it, kid!"
The three heroes turned to find Wally darting around one of the workers trying to peak into his toolbox.
"I just want to see." He stared up at the large man not recognizing the malevolence in the pinched expression.
Before the situation could slide any further, one of the less likely of peacekeepers intervened.
"You," Shayera pointed at the worker, "Back off! And you," she scooped Wally up, "With me." She sent the worker another glare before taking off and heading for the entrance of the auxiliary wing.
"I just wanted to see his blinking toys," Wally muttered sadly as she put him down.
"It's okay, Wally," she said softly and patted his head. She took a small hand in her own and they walked into the building, followed by John and then Batman. He hadn't missed Wally's comment. That worker was one of the ones that had walked past him a minute ago. He hadn't forgotten about them and Batman wanted to see those blinking toys too.
Shayera and John looked at the set up. They had limited power in the building, there were frequent water interruptions and the first thing Batman had installed was this?
"Security monitors," Shayera stated.
"Of course." Batman tapped a few buttons to change the image on the central monitors.
Shayera looked at John and intoned with great sarcasm, "Oh, of course."
Batman zoomed in on the ill-tempered worker he recognized from outside. The camera angle wasn't the best and he was unable to see into the tool box. He sought out and observed the other workers from the groups carefully monitoring their movements. They had spread out into many areas and many levels of the structure. The white eyes of Batman's cowl narrowed. Something was going on. A tug on his cape drew his attention downward and into big green eyes speckled with blue.
"Mr. Bats," Shayera and John snickered behind him, "I want to play with that toy." Wally pointed to one of the smaller monitors. It showed a bend in a corridor and at the corner was a small blinking device. The pattern of flashing lights was no doubt what drew the child's attention to it but this was no toy.
"Bomb."
The smiles on John and Shayera's faces fell immediately.
Batman worked rapidly trying to determine which camera it was and where it was aimed. "Where is it?" John asked tensely from over his shoulder.
"Primary, lobby, south-west corner."
"I'm there." John took off.
A tense minute passed and then John was on the screen. He easily disarmed the explosive and was back with the others very soon. Batman took the brick sized explosive. It was low tech but no less dangerous. He began carefully removing the casing. He could hear Wally asking to see it but John held him back.
It didn't take long for Batman to find it. He'd read the report about the robbery at LexCorp. He knew what had been stolen. He didn't know how it ended up in this low-grade explosive. He removed the small device; a receiver –a 4700-GZ L to be exact –built for almost all ranges and for all most all frequencies. Great for devices looking for certain signals in areas where there was a lot of interference, a large city for example. Most of these were used for remote detonation for controlled explosions used in a variety of applications from mining to the military. It was simpler than using wires.
The problem with LexCorp was that they liked to put their technology to use in weapons. It was one of the reasons why Bruce pulled Wayne Enterprises out of the partnership they had with LexCorp. You were likely to find these receivers in weapons designed by LexCorp for the US military and just as likely to find them in the devices used by the enemies that the US and other governments were trying to fight.
"It's LexCorp tech, isn't it," Shayera asked. Luthor was still the usual suspect for these types of things, even if he was behind bars.
"It is. But according to reports, twenty-six units were stolen."
There was a short pause before they took action. Shayera took Wally and got him out of the building. John began using his ring to scan for more bombs. Batman called for help and went to track down the six bombers.
Outside were some of the League Doctors and medical technicians overseeing the plans for the medical facility incorporated into the building design. Shayera landed and put Wally down. She recognized one of the physicians, one who had been helping save Flash from his hyper-metabolism.
"Keep an eye on him," she told the doctor. She was about to fly off but reconsidered. "Keep both eyes on him." She stepped into the wind and was away a moment later.
The Doctor looked down and the child looked up. "Hello there."
Wally responded with a quick 'hi' in return but his attention was soon drawn to the commotion not too far away. Hawkgirl had had joined Batman in rounding up the bombers. Needless to say they were not about to give up without a fight.
Behind Wally the Doctor observed, not the battle but the child. He fidgeted, a lot –he knew someone else who did the same thing. The child's movements were also very staccato. This couldn't possibly be who he thought it was. And if he was, then how?
"Doctor Warner, can we check the site?" one of the subordinate Doctor's asked.
"We'll have to wait a bit. There's something going on and we can't go in just yet." He glanced down to make sure the child was still there. More than the Thanagarian's warning was telling him that the kid needed constant monitoring.
+JLU+
John disarmed and collected another two bombs and added them to the growing pile within a green sphere. That totalled twenty-one. Not the roundest of numbers, but his ring couldn't find anymore. He decided to make one last round just in case. As he took off the sounds of a battle punctuated the background noise of the city.
"I said 'stay down'!" She punched one of the bombers, taking him out for the count. One man ran at her from behind, a large piece of metal grasped in his hands. Shayera, being the hardened fighter that she was, easily dodged the arc of the makeshift weapon with a smooth duck. From her crouch she punched him twice, hard in the gut forcing his breath from his lungs. A sweep kick knocked the assailant from his feet. He remained there clutching at his stomach and trying to breath. He was taken care of –now for the others.
It was a fifty-fifty chance that she would glance right rather than left but she didn't. As it was the armed woman was too far away for Shayera to make out in her peripheral vision. Shayera looked left and remained unaware of the danger. The weapon levelled on the winged fighter and just at the trigger was being squeezed, a flying object struck the gun. The force of the impact and the sharp pain vibrating up her hands caused her to drop the firearm.
"You wretched Bat," the woman hissed looking at the one who'd thwarted her.
"Don't expect me to apologize."
The woman crouched into a fighting stance but Batman just stood there. Another member of the bombing squad sailed between them and landed with a thud and a bit of a crunch several feet away.
Shayera flew over and joined the stand off. "What are you waiting for?" She looked at Batman. He glanced to his colleague and gave her a measured look. Shayera rolled her eyes. "What a time to be a gentleman." Shayera flew at the woman. The other woman's hastily thrown kick was caught in a tight grip and not a moment later the woman landed heavily on top of one bombers who had been trying to get up.
Shayera walked over to them. The man was unconscious. The woman wasn't but from her dazed look she wasn't going to be getting up anytime soon.
"Look's like I missed the fun." John landed, an orb filled with bombs floating in front of him.
"Is that all of them?" Batman asked.
"All that's in the tower. There were only twenty more."
"That still leaves five receivers unaccounted for," the Dark Knight mumbled. He crouched next to the barely conscious woman. "How many bombs?"
The response was slow to come but after a few tries she managed to whisper. "For our humanity….we shall take back our justice…."
"Forget her." Shayera turned away. Her patience had been exhausted during the fight. She hadn't even gotten a chance to use her mace. Batman and John watched her leave when suddenly she stopped and began looking around frantically.
"What is it?" John asked. Shayera's eyes darted around scanning the crowd for the one person she knew had to be there somewhere. Damn it, where was he? She headed to a small group of spectators, John following.
"Where is he?" She demanded.
"What-"
Her hands twisted into the front of his white shirt. "Wally! You were supposed to watch him."
Dr. Warner was acutely aware that his feet weren't on the ground. Her small stature hid a fierce personality and her fury was aimed directly at him. It was only when the grip tightened that he figured she wanted some sort of response.
"He was just here a moment ago."
She promptly dropped him and the esteemed medical professional landed painfully on his gluteus maximus. Rather than being outraged at his treatment at the hands of a Justice League member, his colleagues and the other spectators were more concerned with the child who was missing. They didn't know who the youngster was but obviously he meant a great deal to Hawkgirl.
"I don't see him," the Green Lantern announced. He had taken flight as soon as he realized who was absent. From his vantage point he didn't see any little head of red hair, but with his speed Wally could be just about anywhere. The two heroes and other League employees continued to search while still seated on the hard ground Dr. Warner rolled the name around his head. Wally.
+JLU+
Another bomb was laid with deliberate care. A series of buttons were pressed and a small red light lit up bathing a content face with its glow. He picked up and moved on, whistling a tune as he went. He'd picked up this particular habit when observing a few people on the street. Familiar music seemed to make a good mood even better. It certainly kept the smile on his face.
The tune echoed in the bare concrete corridor until was barely a whisper. It was only then that the small stalker stepped out of his hiding place. He cautiously approached the device. It looked harmless enough but GL, Fly-girl and even Mr. Bats were scared of them and the other ones were smaller than this.
Carefully he repeated the pattern of buttons that he'd seen, confident that the red light would turn off. It did, so had the other two things with the red lights that he'd already encountered. The pattern of buttons was the same every time but he always moved fast enough to keep up with the stranger just to make sure. He was certain something bad would happen if he input the wrong code.
With his small hands he picked up the device and put it in the middle of the small paint splotched fabric tarp he'd found. Gathering up the corners he lifted the makeshift bag and followed the faint sound of the stranger's song.
+JLU+
Batman had secured the bombers but had not been able to pry any additional information from them. They were obviously members of a radical group so there had to be more of them. He looked at the bystanders who'd been kept at bay by the local police. Anyone of those people could be one of them. And even more might agree with them.
Above them the Green Lantern and Shayera searched for Wally. He could have easily been swallowed up by the mob. Or the more likely scenario was that Wally had gotten himself in trouble -adult or child where there's Wally, there's trouble.
"Anything?" He asked as John flew over.
"No. I'm going to expand the search area."
"Wait." Batman took out one of his gadgets and flipped out the small antenna.
"What's that?"
Batman smirked. "Electronic leash." He'd hidden a small tracker in Wally's shoes, just in case. His face returned to its familiar serious expression when the screen came to life and a location was indicated.
"I should have thought of that," GL mumbled.
"Twenty-first or twenty-second story!"
Batman ran by him.
"Wait. Of what?" John called after but when he looked up in the direction Batman was heading his question was answered. "Oh, no."
As though responding to his faint words the side of one of the uppermost floors erupted in a ball of flames and smoke as a large explosive detonated. The shockwave pushed him back and knocked many people to the ground. A large section of the top two floors crumbled away and fell many meters to the empty ground directly below. Other pieces of debris, liberated during the initial blast, hurtled perilously to the spectators. Lantern quickly extended a green force-field over the people at risk but he couldn't cover everybody.
Instinctively they ducked and covered their heads but it would not have done them any good had the debris made it too them. Thankfully, the large pieces were pulverized by Shayera and her mace and the convenient arrival of Superman and the Martian Manhunter allowed them to keep everybody safe.
"Sorry were late," Superman began. "We were-"
"Save it," Shayera cut him off. "We have to find Wally." She was about to continue to search the crowd but John's words stopped her.
"He's somewhere in the tower."
The other three all stared at him hoping they'd misheard. John simply shook his head. This was not a bad joke.
J'onn looked up at the destruction. Flames licked up the naked skeleton of the building. There was little to burn but the initial blast had caused more than a little bit of damage. The top two floors were a write off and the floors below had been scorched black and brown. Even three floors below the explosion site there were red glows; flames that had followed the path of least resistance through the openings in the concrete levels and spread, consuming any available fuel.
As they flew towards the crippled tower J'onn begged silently of some god, any god, to protect that child.
+JLU+
Batman, first on the scene, followed the faint sound of coughing, jumping collapsed sections of concrete and steel. He relied on his flash-light to pick his way through. The lights that had been strung along the ceiling had been destroyed, the broken shards of thin glass crunching under his feet as he walked.
"Wally!" The coughs had dwindled and he needed a voice to follow.
The responding yell was cut off by more coughs but he could follow those too. Every few meters patches of sunlight shone through the holes in the upper levels and lit the wreckage. It was at a particularly large patch of light that he stopped.
A large rectangular section of the floor above had broken off but had remained mostly in one piece. It blocked the corridor and had provided a fire-shield for anything on the other side, the side where the coughs originated.
There was no way through but there was a way over. Batman scaled the fairly steep incline of the cement section and from the floor above managed to find another opening back down. It was then just a simple matter of stepping over some debris and finding his target.
"Wally." Batman's flashlight pierced through the smoky haze permeating the air and focused on the small form in a corner. Batman turned the light away from Wally so that the child wasn't blinded. Some of the light reflected off the grey surfaces and gave enough light for Wally to make out who had found him.
Batman was quickly at Wally's side but the child didn't say anything. He wiped away some of the soot that had fallen on the fair cheeks but still the child said nothing. From beneath hair darkened with particles of soot scared green eyes regarded him. "You're okay," Batman reassured. Wally had some cuts and scrapes and he'd probably breathed in more than his share of dust and ash but he would be okay.
He checked him over visually for more injuries, of which there were none but the watery green eyes were full of fright. Batman didn't know what to do. Comforting kids was Flash's forte.
The bag next to Wally soon found itself the owner of Batman's attention, at least for the moment. He opened it and saw more bombs but these ones were of a better design and carried a higher explosive yield. Thankfully they were all disarmed. Batman looked at Wally but Wally was looking off to the side staring at nothing. He took the collection of bomb in the sheet and stood.
"Come on, Wally." His voice was soft, holding none of the usual Batman thunder. After a moment Wally stood somewhat shakily and followed Batman who picked an easy path through the debris. There was another set of stairs on the other side, the thankfully undamaged side of the building. They could take those a few flights down and get to an opening where one of the other members could help them to the ground.
As he walked Batman felt a light tug from near the bottom of his cape. He stopped walking and looked down. A small trembling hand had latched on to the dark material.
Wally nearly walked into the suddenly stationary Batman. Glancing up and finding the white eyes looking down at him he quickly let go of the cape and took a step back. From glistening eyes tears had cleansed narrow paths over the pale cheeks. His head was bowed but his eyes peaked up at the Dark Knight while small hands twisted with anxiety.
Suddenly Bruce crouched down. He grasped the edge of his cape and curled his arm around the small body offering the physical and emotional protection of his cape and his embrace. When he stood again there was only one set of feet on the ground. Wally borrowed as deep into the embrace as possible. Batman would carry him the rest of the way.
End Chapter 5 - We Owe the Greatest Respect to a Child
Thanks so much for all the reviews guys. There's just one more chapter to go in Part 0 so stay tuned.
Sagga Bott…