The moment biochemistry class ended, Wally and Dick started weaving through the crowd of students in the room and then out in the quadrangle. It was a set thing they did without a word. Wally could have rounded a corner and switched to his red and yellow uniform and been at Titans Tower a second later. But he just ran across part of campus beside Dick, across a busy street and into a large office building. Twenty seconds later, the T-car was rolling through city streets with Robin at the wheel and Kid Flash, as always, pleading for a chance to drive. Robin drove a scorching path through the streets and then over a cliff. He literally drove over a cliff. But, then, he did so every day. The T-car had had a few modifications courtesy of Cyborg. The wheels popped outward and started providing upward thrust. Another thrust emerged from behind where the license plate had been. A few minutes later they were landing on the roof at the Tower.
Once inside, Dick, as always, immediately started to do his homework. Wally wasn't quite so diligent. He returned to his quarters. He changed to his tight, red and yellow Kid Flash uniform leaving the mask down, loosely around his neck. He thought of Jinx's expected arrival that night. He pulled out the drawer of the nightstand built into the headboard of his Titans platform bed. Nearly a full box of condoms. He nodded in relief. Then he plugged in his Titans issued laptop and checked his email.
". . stock tip? Spam . . discount viagra? Spam . . make my penis larger? Hey! Complete spam! . . oh god, another one from S.T.A.R. Labs. What's this one? . . . hmmm, another physical, huh? Didn't you people poke me and stare at my buns and my equipment enough? Even made me bend over to look at my . . . ," he gave a shuddering shake of his head. "Delete! Delete with extreme prejudice. . ."
Wally listened to some music then did his homework at super speed then went back up to the great room. He first saw Robin.
"How is he?" he asked glancing at the green gorilla in the great room.
"Pretty good spirits. But if he leaves the tower, go to Murakami school and check."
Wally nodded. Beast Boy seemed to have resigned himself to his inability to win Terra back but they still weren't sure about his frame of mind. And they worried. So, Robin had Kid Flash see where he went when he left the Tower. It wasn't that hard. No bird or animal Gar became could get out of Kid Flash's sight. But he didn't try to follow him everywhere, just see that he wasn't still pursuing his Terra fixation. Gar hadn't gone to her school or waited outside her home for weeks now. Slowly, his upbeat personality had been returning. A laughing Cyborg was mock fighting the giant green gorilla in the great room, at the moment.
Wally was making his way to the kitchen for a pre-lunch meal when the light at the command station of the communications center began flashing both red and green. Kid Flash wasn't sure what that signified. In case he had to speak on the videoconference line, he pulled his mask up. "Robin!" he called over his shoulder toward the great room. "Red and green lights both flashing. What's that?"
A jump up from the couch, a running step then a tumbling run and a forward flip later, Robin was at his side.
"Showoff acrobat," Kid Flash grinned.
"Hey, I get to have fun sometimes too." Robin smiled.
"Well, what do those lights mean?"
"Oh, that's a video call but not from East, Doom Patrol or Justice League. You've got more discretion to refuse one not from those sources or to give them only audio access."
Robin pressed a series of buttons. "Hmmph. S.T.A.R. Labs." Robin nodded. Sure. A moment later, the pretty image of Dr. Clyburn, the doctor who'd given KF his physical, filled the huge screen in her lab coat with a clipboard in her hands. She chuckled. "Kid Flash! Perfect"
Kid Flash flinched. Damn. He recalled the emails suggesting that they wanted to give him a follow up physical and discuss, what had they called them, anomalies? Can't delete the doctor on the communications screen. Oh well. Sigh.
"Good morning Dr. Clyburn!" he said with a forced smile.
"Why haven't you gotten back to us, Kid Flash? You never responded to our emails about a follow up physical."
Beast Boy was behind KF too, now, and gave a push to KF's backside.
"Cut it out, Gar," he grumbled over his shoulder before turning to the screen. "Sorry, Dr. Clyburn. I've been real busy trying to get acclimated here and do my share of patrolling and recon for group missions."
Beast Boy snickered, "Hehe. Nice lie pretty boy," he mumbled
"Uh huh, well, how about a commitment to a date on the schedule now?"
Kid Flash let out a slow exhale. Damn. Trapped. And worse, his friends weren't helping. Robin put one arm around his pal's shoulder.
"Don't worry, Dr. Clyburn. We want to make sure our pal KF stays healthy as possible. We'll make sure he shows up to a second physical," said Robin and he and Gar smiled at Wally.
"I'm glad to hear you say that, Robin," said Dr. Clyburn flipping through sheets of paper on her clipboard. "Because . . hmm . . yes . . you're overdue for another physical yourself."
"What?" His arm dropped off Wally's shoulder.
"Yes. It's been . . . wow, almost two years. For a teen hero, a young man like yourself in puberty and constantly fighting under hazardous conditions, that's much too long. We'll do you at the same time, Robin."
Gar turned himself into a hyena behind them and let out the signature sound, like a snickering laugh, of that species.
"Dr. Clyburn?" asked Kid Flash. "Why can't I wait a while longer before another physical? I'm not asking for a-a," he turned to Robin, "clearly dangerous two year gap between physicals," Wally smiled at Dick, "Why do I need another one right away?"
"You don't need one, per se. It's just that, well, we're a little bit puzzled. There're . . there're so many things . . for instance, do you know that you don't have an appendix?"
This was news to Wally. "Well, uh-"
"And you didn't have any scar. Your skin was flawless, but then, it healed over immediately when we took the blood sample. Did-did you ever have your appendix taken out?"
"No, ma'am."
"See? That's why. You don't have an appendix but it's never been taken out."
"Well, it's superfluous anyway, isn't it? No uh no anachronistic digestive system feature no foul, right?"
She chuckled. "Uh. No. This is for your benefit, not just because you're the absolute favorite of the the boys in the DNA lab."
"Long as it's DNA and not gastroenterology."
Dr. Clyburn chuckled. "It won't be that kind of exam . . for you," she said and seemed to turn to look at Robin. His mouth dropped open.
Now, Dr. Clyburn was sure of it. It'd sounded like it before but now she was sure that she could hear the laugh of a hyena on the audio feed.
A date was set for three weeks out. When the screen went black, Kid Flash pulled his mask down to his neck again. Starfire immediately ran one hand through his hair with a giggle.
"Why are you so reluctant to be examined, friends KF and Robin? It is for your own good. You are very, um, healthy boys. You are not ashamed to be seen are you?"
"Of course not, Star," said Robin. "It's just uncomfortable to be stared at and poked and handled like a piece of meat like that."
KF nodded agreement.
"I bet they were fascinated by your orange hair, friend KF," she giggled.
"Actually,they thought it might besymptomatic of something being wrong with me."
"That's silly! I hope they didn't think anything so silly about your perfectly black hair, friend Robin," she said running a hand through Robin's jet locks. Robin blushed visibly. He stammered out a few words to the effect that they hadn't found anything wrong with his hair and left the room. Kid Flash watched Starfire closely as she watched him depart. She sighed and made a little expression of perhaps frustration or disappointment. She saw him watching her. She sighed again with an expression that was like a confession.Kid Flash's expression was one of sympathy for her.
"He is a riddle to me, friend KF."
"He's had a very difficult life."
"I have much sympathy for Robin. And I would like to express it."
"Sometimes leaders feel obliged to always be giving their strength to those under their command and feel that they cannot show weakness to them."
"But you already know about his life?"
KF shrugged. He couldn't tell her all that he knew about Robin..
"He is most admirable, friend KF, but somehow I am stuck as if in a role in a play, in a position where I can say that to you, his friend, but not to him. How did you become the boyfriend of Jinx? How did you move past roles like mine and his?"
Kid Flash sighed. "It's-it's different, Starfire. Robin and I are very different. I-"
"No. I disagree, friend KF. That is why I knew that you and he would become good friends, that you and he would not fight when you started to talk about your disagreements in friend Robin's quarters. You are very very similar warrior boys. You would both be good Tamaranian soldiers."
"Um, thanks. In a lot of ways, we are. But Robin and I talked once about how our powers influence us and shape how we behave and how we see things. My-my power effectively lets me slow time. It makes things possible. I always see possibilities. It's my natureand, well, frankly, my power, when I use my speed, it-it causes chemical reactions where I feel . . I feel euphoric. When I use my speed I feel euphoric."
"So, when you saw the girl Jinx . . "
"I-I thought she was . . exceptionally . . pretty and very very smart, too. I also thought it was perfectly reasonable to believe in the possibility that she could be something different, something better."
"Did you have to overcome many obstacles?"
"Well," Kid Flash chuckled. "She hit me over the head with a sign and knocked me out and then she and her HIVE teammates put me in a cage. So, it didn't happen immediately."
Starfire giggled into her hand. "Jinx put you in a cage?" She giggled some more.
"Yeah," he admitted with embarrassment. "But we talked some more. I showed her that I was willing to take a risk to be with her, that I took her seriously and thought she could do better. We had dates and talked and found more and more that we were right for each other. And now . . " he left it unsaid. "But you have to be fair to Robin. I was probably silly to act the way I did. But super speed influenced me to think that way. Robin's a tremendous leader and incredibly resourceful but he doesn't have a super power so he-he feels like he has to be unrelenting. Between that and the demands of leadership that he feels it-it may be hard for him to give himself the luxury of devoting his energy to something besides missions and patrolling. Can you see that?"
He waited for her answer. And he waited. And he waited. Her eyes went back and forth and her expression changed more than once.
"I can see that he is very admirable." she said and then walked away.
Kid Flash considered going to see Robin right away but decided it was best to let him be for the moment but talk to him on the way to school the next day if he didn't get the right opportunity before then. Instead, he followed Cyborg back from the kitchen to his quarters. It always fascinated him to watch Cyborg work on his limbs.
"Whatcha doin'?"
Seated on a large leather chair at the edge of the room, Cyborg casually pulled off his arm. Kid Flash gulped and sat down opposite him on the edge of Cyborg's bed.
"Trying out a new neural to cybernetic interface. The old one's good but I think I can be a little quicker if I improve the efficiency of my circuits receiving the pulse of commands through my nerves and translating them into commands."
"Uh huh."
"See, part of the difficulty is that computer programs are represented by either ones or zeros in a computer. But signals through your neural system don't work quite like that. They're more complex. Any attempt to represent them is going to inherently be a sort of imprecise translation," he said reaching into the socket of his shoulder with his human hand. "Good" he told himself feeling something there. "You see, it's kind of like commands going out from my brain in english and then my machine parts speak spanish. So I'm trying to speed up how fast the translation book turns hello into hola or whatever."
Kid Flash bent over to one side. "Um, I can see the inside of your shoulder socket there. And that is pretty freaking scary."
"Well, it should be scary to you to see that. You 'd be one sick orange haired fuck if it wasn't. But I've seen it hundreds of times. Doesn't bother me at all now. But, after the crash when I first got new limbs I was completely freaked out, too. But, see, this is my life, incremental improvements and an incredible maintenance burden," said Cyborg as he removed a thin coppery looking piece of tape at the shoulder end of his arm and expertly replaced it with another. "I can't be carefree like you. But that's okay. I get satisfactions that you guys don't get either. And I can become stronger and stronger. I can come up with new techniques, new weapons, new abilities. I'm always thinking about fights and opponents, and how I'll deal with them," said Cyborg with a sidewise grin at him. Kid Flash knew what that meant.
"Me?"
"Yeah."
"What would you do to fight me?"
"Well, you're an interesting problem. Your strength is good for your size but nothing special. Your fighting is good but nothing special."
"Thanks a lot."
"You've got no protection whatsoever against anybody who gets a shot in on you with just that uniform. In some ways, you don't have a whole lot going for you. But, what you've got is awesome. You can approach so fast that you're nearly invisible. I've watched how you rushed guys and they just didn't know what to do. One moment nothing. The next, they're getting red gloved fists in their face a hundred times a second."
"So, what would you do against me?" smiled Kid Flash.
"I'd keep you away if I could."
"How?"
"Well, I don't know if there's a surefire way. Gas. Laser trip wire. Electric shock. Gotta be something that you can't get around with your speed," he chuckled.
"Oh, I don't know. You might find I'm harder to deal with than you think. But why would you even bother thinking about how to fight me?"
"Heroes get hynotized or blackmailed or put under mind control. It happens. I've fought Gar and Dick. No reason I shouldn't prepare in case we fight. And, uh, how would you fight me?"
"Not gonna say," grinned Kid Flash.
"Ooooo," laughed Cyborg. "Smart."
Kid Flash nodded. He chatted a while longer with Cyborg, handing him tools now and then and listening to Cy's explanations of what he was doing while Philly International songs played in the background. He was very much interested. But when the intercom in his room buzzed with Starfire's voice telling him that Jinx was there, he was gone before Cyborg could even glance his way.
He met her at the elevators with a kiss. She saw Raven watching them over his shoulder, well really looking at him. It didn't matter. Nothing else mattered. They spent the whole night making love, laughing, sighing and moaning. He went to get food at one point in the wee small hours and came back with a bottle of champagne, just a half bottle left, a leftover from his 15th birthday party. He pulled out the cork eliciting a still robust popping sound.
"Oops," he said and started pouring it over Jinx. She was momentarily angry, but laughed and hugged him, seeing to it that he was equally covered withchampagne.
A few hours after that they were both quite free of any champagne residue. He was sitting up at the edge of the bed and gazing down at her lying sideways across his bed haphazardly covered by the sheets. "I know I have my bias, but it's just incomprehensible to me that you weren't swarmed over by boys wanting you," he said then bent over, rubbed the end of his nose on her breast. Lick, warm breath, evaporation cooling, point skyward. She smiled at him. "You're such a freak."
"Ugh."
"What?" she laughed. "I mean that in a good way."
He shrugged. "I-I don't like being called a freak. It's just . . I don't know."
She laughed again and ran a hand down the hard muscles of his V shaped back to his tiny waist then let it settle where her hands usually did. "Do you know any other boy with a waist as small as yours and a pair like this behind him?"
He screwed his face into an expression of displeasure.
"Look," she chuckled. "I, of all people, know that you're not on that team."
"Titans East?" he chuckled. "Anyway. Freak was kind of, was part of how I felt growing up. I don't like freak as a term. And I'm feeling a little extra freakish today. I found out that . . " he rubbed the lower right side of his flat stomach.
"What?"
"The doctor from S.T.A.R. Labs told me that I don't have an appendix."
"So what? Lots of people have their appendixes out. You've just got that super fast healing thing so the scar doesn't show."
"No, Jinx. I found out today. I never had my appendix taken out. I just assumed that I had one like everyone else."
"Are you sure?"
"Am I sure? Yeah. I think I'd remember if I'd ever been in the hospital. I've never gotten sick. Hell, I've never even had a cold. Never mind gotten cut open."
"Maybe it happened where you were too little to remember?"
"Are you kidding? If I'd ever cost my parents five minutes of their time never mind five bucks of their money having an emergency operation in the hospital I'd have heard about it forever," he said and then adopted a whiny imitation of his mother's voice. "You're eating us out of house and home and we'll never get back that $300 it cost us to save your life and take out your appendix, either. Most boys don't have to have theirs out. Your father and I spent $300 that we shouldn't have had to spend, because of you! We could have gotten things for your sister with that money!"
"She doesn't talk like that, does she?"
"Well . . not quite that bad," he smiled.
"So what? Nobody needs one anyway. Maybe the whole, what'd you call it, speedforce? Maybe the speedforce got rid of it to make you faster by ditching a few ounces of intestine?"
"Hmm. Maybe," he said then reached over and ran his hand down her side to her hip.
"So, they made you feel like a freak?"
He wouldn't look at her. "Yeah, that was part of the experience."
She chuckled, shaking her head. "They did such a number on you."
"Hey! I got through it okay. I'm here, aren't I?"
"You ever think of how damaged you all are?"
He frowned.
"No, seriously, you're all seriously fucking damaged. Cyborg and-and Beast Boy? Please!Robin must be fucked up in his background. That's how you slide so easily into the whole save the world thing. Look at you. They treat you like dirt, like absolute fucking dirt, your family does. They've got the cutest little orange haired boy and they won't talk to him or hold him or practically touch him. They treat you like dirt. And then the whole Kid Flash thing happens to you and, what'd you say, a hundred fifty seven? Was that the number that you quoted Robin, 157?"
He nodded with a sigh. He knew where she was going with this.
"A hundred fifty seven times you get called and a hundred fifty seven times you answer. There wasn't even a little bit of seeing yourself in a negative way because they treated you like dirt in your feeling like you had to answer every call? Hmm?"
"It's . . it's more complicated than that. Okay. Maybe I-I didn't have quite the self image I could have. I-"
"Didn't? Ha! Don't, Mr. Humble. Every woman in the world would like to sink her teeth into your buns but you go around like-like . . . do you even realize how Raven looks at you? I mean, Starfire's pretty open about the hair fixation and hugging you but Depresso-"
"Depresso?"
Jinx chuckled. "Yeah."
"Oh, she's not shiny happy people like you," he laughed.
"I am compared to her," Jinx smiled. "Except she's certainly upbeat about shooting glances at you. You are on her radar screen 24-7, Wally."
He shrugged. "If someone wants to look at me . . . I mean, I do wear the suit. It's pretty . . "
She grinned and shook her head at the defensiveness and humility of his words. Still doesn't see himself as the pretty boy he is. She rubbed his washboard abs with delight. He did the same to her in response.
"Anyway. The whole 157 thing. There's more to it than you said. Even if I was some Richie Rich, it'd be more fun to be running around as Kid Flash than to be in a mansion. And once you save a life or save someone's home, saying no to a call feels like choosing to risk someone else's life, choosing to let their home burn down. There're a lot of factors that go into it. It's not just some phony they-mistreated-me thing motivating me. Not even close."
She laughed. "This is soooo completely one of those male-female divides. About 50 of girls would absolutely milk your situation and play up the whole victim thing to the max, for all it was worth but you won't even admit it. Do you ever admit it to anyone? Do you?"
"I-I mentioned it to Robin."
"Robin! Captain Uptight? Really?"
"He's not quite what you think he is. Appearances can be deceiving. He-he was sure I was a lazy flake when he met me."
Jinx laughed. "You? A . . " She laughed and laughed and pointed at Wally and doubled over on her side laughing some more.
Then there was a knock at the door and he could hear a voice from a communicator under something off the side of the bed. He zipped over and retrieved it from beneath a blanket.
"Wally! It's almost time to go."
"Oh, shit. I'll be right out."
Robin shook his head with a smile at the brief image of Wally. Hair going every which way and, at least from chest up, nothing on. Twenty seconds later, Wally emerged in his gray dress slacks and JCA blazer, white shirt and tie, orange hair uncombed as usual but sort of neat anyway, as usual and otherwise looking like he'd spent some time getting himself ready.
"You ready lover boy?"
Wally shot a look at him.
"Alright. Alright."
They made their way quickly to the roof and were lifting off in the T-car just a minute later, Robin at the wheel, as always, and Kid Flash begging for a chance to drive, as always.
"You only just became legal two weeks ago. You were driving us to school illegally for a month before that. Give me a shot."
"No."
"Aw come on. It'll seem like slow motion to me."
"No. Seriously," said Robin as he steered the hybrid jet/rocket airship and supercharged car to a smooth landing at an overlook beside the bay before speeding off down the roar. "are you ready for school?"
Wally nodded. "I think so."
"You're not too distracted?"
"You should try some distraction yourself. Starfire seems like a suitable distraction."
"Maybe soon."
"Not just soon. Why not today? She's fallen for you, Dick"
"So many complications. I-I don't want to talk about it."
"What complications? Just have a dinner alone with her. Do anything alone with her. You don't have to call it a date. Just so long as it's just you and her, it's a start."
"What'd you do first time with Jinx, matchmaker boy?"
"I fought her and the HIVE. Probably not a good example."
"No. I-"
Robin's words were interrupted by a silent alarm call. A red light flashed on the console of the T-car and a map of the city streets showed on a display with a red dot at the location of the Jump City Reserve Bank.
"We might be late for class." said Robin as he yanked the wheel and spun the car into a hard right turn. He zigzagged his way through city streets but then was caught in three blocks of traffic gridlocked by an accident a half mile away from the Jump City Reserve Bank and right underneath a series of overhead wires. He looked upward out the window. "Damn!" Then,Robin glanced over just in time to see Kid Flash instantaneously attired in his red and yellow uniform.
"I can get there quicker, Dick. See you later." he said and Robin watched a red and yellow blur pass through traffic till out of sight.
Kid Flash got to the Bank and approached warily. But there was a guard outside. The guard suddenly found Kid Flash standing right in front of him.
"What's the trouble?"
"Ahh! Oh jeez, it's you, Kid Flash. Well, it might be no trouble at all. I just. Well, don't call me paranoid. But I thought I saw a light from the Jump City Modern Art Museum across the street. Maybe I'm crazy but I thought I did."
"I'll check it out," said Kid Flash leaving the guard behind and circling the oddly colored building across the street. Nothing. There were no signs of anything unusual. Okay. He vibrated through the wall of the museum and checked out the displays floor by floor. They were all intact and untouched through the first 5 floors. But on the top floor, the display had something extra.
Red X.
Kid Flash caught a glimpse of him rolling up a painting, just a series of blotches of color, really, and sticking it in a plastic tube and then Red X disappeared.
What the . . ? Alright, alright, he calmed himself. Cloaking device. Now where would he go? Top floor. Traffic jam below. Roof! Kid Flash sprinted to one of the building's fourstairwells. The door at the roof was locked but he just vibrated right through it. Out on the sunny top of the building, no one else was visible. Kid Flash waited there several seconds. He was watching the doors but realized that Red X might have cut a hole in the roof and not used any door.
Now, he was getting worried. Every second seemed like an eternity and not just because he was a time stretching speedster. The thief might be anywhere up there and throw one of his sharp little stars or an exploding X or who knows what at him without any notice. Damn cloaking device. But Kid Flash came up with an idea. There was a box, maybe a window box for flowers but full of rainwater just a few steps away and there were cigarette butts and a surprising amount of debris all over the roof. Kid Flash grabbed the box and sprinted to one corner of the roof. He threw the water up into the air and started whirling his right arm creating a sort of horizontal mini tornado that took in all the water and much of the debris on the roof. Kid Flash directed that tornado to sweep across the entire roof. There toward the opposite end, outlined in water droplets, cigarette butts and cellophane wrappers stuck to him was a slender athletic figure about the same height as Kid Flash.
"Hey pal!"
"Shit! I thought you just ran into people, pretty boy."
"I heard I wasn't the only one who ran into you that night," Kid Flash chuckled.
Red X's response was to produce a red and black X from his belt and throw it at Kid Flash. But fast as it was thrown, Kid Flash was fifty feet away across the roof when it exploded with a screech and a boom like a massive piece of fireworks.
Kid Flash was torn, wanting to just rush him and knock him out but spooked by the fact that Red X just stood there, not even tensed or prepared to defend himself. Why would that be? He whirled his right arm again and created another powerful vortex of air. Sure enough, he caught glimpses of color as something in the air around Red X was being blown away. Trying to get me with knockout gas, probably. Now's the time to act, thought Kid Flash. But Red X was already jumping off the roof. He dove off and then somehow started to glide down to the pavement below.
Kid Flash considered running down the side of the building but he needed to practice that particular trick. He couldn't do it like Flash could. So, he vibrated back through the door and down the six flights of stairs into the street. He gave it his best burst of speed and smacked a sprinting Red X in the back of the head knocking him down by the entrance to an alleyway opposite a small park.
"Trying to run away from me, chuckles? Not very bright."
Red X backed into the alley and threw three sharpened stars at Kid Flash. No normal person could have dodged those projectiles but Kid Flash easily stepped to one side and ducked and picked them out of the air like gently thrown frisbees. He put them on the ground.
"Thanks for offering to share your toys but you really don't have to. I'll just take 'em all from you in a minute if I want," he said and advanced. He bolted at Red X and smacked him where he believed his jaw was under his white skull mask, easily getting his fast past what seemed like a molasses slow attempted block.
Problem was, Red X's uniform tight as it seemed to be, had quite a bit of body armor underneath, especially upper body. Kid Flash thought he hit something but wasn't sure it was his jaw. He saw Red X reaching for him with gloved hands and correctly guessed electricity. He grabbed his hands in his own red gloved ones.
"My gloves don't conduct, either," he said to Red X and sidestepped X's attempt to kick him between the legs. He continued his motion, turned, spun with a kicking motion and smashed his heel into Red X's chest knocking him to the pavement in the alley.He heard Red X curse. He yanked at Red X's black utility belt and got that off him.
"This is for Robin," he said advancing on X as he got to his feet and then proceeded to treat Red X like a human speed bag. He threw a series of punches as Red X threw up his hands once to block. He dodged one glacially paced, to him, attempt at a kick and gave him a kick in return, throwing Red X back against a brick wall. Before he could gather himself, Kid Flash advanced and gave him two dozen uppercuts to thegut. He ducked undera super slowmo attempt to tag him with an electrified glove and delivered ten straight rights to his jaw. He thought he detected a hissing sound like another attempted use of knockout gas, so he stepped back and whirled his arm tocreate a burst of air at Red X. Then he moved in for the finish and threw punchafter punch past the ridiculously slow attempted blocks of RedX till the black clad thief slumped to the ground.
Kid Flash eyed him warily for a few moments then checked on him. Still breathing. Good. He grabbed him, lifted him over his shoulder and carried him across the street. He laid him over a low fence and as he did started to hear radio traffic from his teammates over the ear wing on the left side of his head.
"Watch out, KF! The reports we're getting are that it may be Red X. Remember to watch out for electric current in his gloves."
"Robin!" came a second voice that Kid Flash immediately placed as Starfire. It seemed that she was intending to speak only to him but that Robin had inadvertantly left the line open to Kid Flash so that it was an accidental 3 way call. "I'll feel very strange not telling friend KF."
Not telling me? Not telling me what?
"When someone close dies. A person should be told right away."
"We will, Star! Right after this mission."
Kid Flash's eyes went wide. What!
"Robin! What's going on!" he demanded, pressing the wing by his right ear to be heard speaking. "What the hell's going on?"
