Tempest: Chapter Eighty-One: A Lead
AN: I've been binging on YJ and practically every animated DC movie in recent years, so, in case some of you aren't aware, there are going to be monthly updates for this fic for the next year, as I am currently working on chapter 95 ;) but updates are totally dependent on how much feedback I get, because if I don't get hardly any, I'm petty enough to push updates back month by month and I've got updates into 2021 at this point.
Barry was uneasy and trying not to let it show, but he'd gone on a solo run last night long after Wally had gone asleep. Supposedly, there was a serial killer running around his city, and Barry really didn't like it.
He'd even gotten a call from Max Mercury, a speedster that was an old friend of Jay's, so much so that he was somewhat viewed as a great-uncle by Wally and Amy, though they rarely ever saw him because he was always traveling, helping out speedsters around the world and enjoying his retirement. He was somewhat a godfather to modern speedsters.
"There was something out there and it likes to hunt," Max had said seriously, "it almost got Avery, and you know how fast she is."
The Flash of China wasn't as fast as Barry but she was getting there. She was a part of the Justice League of China. Barry had met her once and liked her; she was quite excitable, like Wally when you really got him going.
He didn't tell Max but he'd been feeling like there were eyes on him, but whenever he twisted to look, it was gone.
"There's something out there that's after speedsters," Max had warned, "so you and Wally need to be careful."
Wally didn't need any more tragedy in his life, that was for sure. Barry ran a hand through his hair, tugging at it lightly.
"You know, one day you'll have about as much hair as Lex Luthor," an amused voice behind him commented and Barry fumbled, the pile of files on the edge of his desk falling to the floor, spreading paper everywhere. It was a lucky thing that Barry's partner was out to lunch.
Leonard Snart smiled widely and Barry remembered when that used to make him turn bright red. "Looking good, Bear."
Barry's eyebrow twitched. "You're not allowed to call me 'Bear' anymore." No one called him that anymore. Well, Hal might've a few times, but Barry would let Hal get away with that; his best friend didn't say it in the same tone Leonard had. "I told you that when we broke up, remember?" Over the phone, no less, the bastard couldn't even do it in person.
Leonard pouted. "You're no fun."
Barry gave him a flat stare that Amy had probably replicated in some form. Amy had never asked him about his relationships before Iris -the only time she cared about people's past flings or exes was when she asked if anyone needed a good thrashing, which was made infinitely more humorous given her size and age- but both Barry and Iris had had bad taste in partners.
"Can I help you, Leonard?" Barry asked stiffly, crossing his arms and shifting onto his right foot.
(Amy could replicate that stance down to the scowl that it made people wonder if she was Barry's biological daughter instead of Mardon's; Amy was a fan of that theory)
"I need some help," Leonard said mildly.
Barry's brow creased in annoyance. "You always need help."
Leonard stepped towards him, nearly boxing him in against his desk, and Barry really didn't like that feeling. But instead, he reached behind Barry to lift something off his desk. "Cute family," he said, his voice taking a turn for the cool. "You always wanted something normal."
"Oh, don't you dare start!" Barry snapped. "You're the one that left, remember?"
They'd still been together when Barry had started working at CCPD, though they'd been on shaky ground when he'd accepted the job because of the criminal side of things Leonard was getting into, it still hurt when he came out of his coma after he'd been struck by lightning that he'd had to come home to an empty apartment.
He snatched the picture out of Leonard's grip. It was a nice picture, one from several months back, before Amy had run off to Russia in a frenzy. Iris and Amy's smiles were impossibly bright, Amy in the middle of a laugh. Barry needed a new one with Wally on it. He put it face down on his desk.
Leonard decided to quit while he was ahead. "I'm looking for my sister, Lisa."
Barry couldn't hide his surprise. Of course, as the Flash he knew all about Lisa Snart. She was known a bit infamously as the Golden Glider, even if she'd given up her life of crime…there was only so much she could do from her hospital bed in her coma, while doctors argued the ethical soundness of operating on the tumor growing in her brain.
"Dad?" Possibly the worst voice at the worst moment spoke up and both men turned to see Amy standing there. She was early; Barry hadn't been expecting her for a few hours. She was wearing a Flash shirt under her jacket that would've been amusing at any other point in time. Her eyes narrowed, taking in Leonard and the way they were both standing. "You okay? Cuz I've got a portable taser and I'm not afraid to use it."
There was nothing inherently frightening about a thirteen-year-old, particularly one that hardly seemed to grow but her words combined with the scowl that was nearly a pout was enough to make both Leonard and Barry share a laugh for the first time in years.
"You must be the daughter," Leonard was still smiling when he held out a hand.
Months ago, Amy would've answered his with a smile full of teeth and a grip that sparked. Now she did neither. She took his hand firmly, looking at him with an air of suspicion before arching an eyebrow at Barry.
Barry didn't have an answer for her, his eyes flickering to Leonard. If there was one thing that could be said about him, it was that he loved his sister, and, if rumors were to be believed, she might not have long left.
He took out a pad of paper, jotting down an address with a room number. "Leo," he said, using the nickname for the first time in an age, making him turn away from Amy to accept the paper. "This is where Lisa is."
Leonard looked at the address in surprise and then confusion. "This is a hospital."
"Yeah, it is," Barry agreed with a sigh, watching the realization slowly dawn. Then he was gone, like he was the one with superspeed and Amy was bouncing up to wrap her arms around his neck and Barry's hug lifted her clear off the ground, her feet dangling in the air, making her laugh.
"You are several hours early," Barry pointed out after releasing her to boop her nose, making her go cross-eyed. "Everything okay back home? With…Ariel?"
"What? Yeah, Ariel's sweet…you want some coffee?" Amy sidetracked and asked abruptly in a way that threw Barry off.
"You don't like coffee," he pointed out, something that he was grateful for, since she had a tendency stay up late into the night even without its use.
"No, but there's a shop selling hot apple cider and I hear it's amazing!"
"So…you and Captain Cold, huh?"
It was something else to be practically interrogated by your daughter about your relationship history. Barry was entirely too big to try to hide his flaming face behind his thermos. "God, when Pamela and Harley find out, I'll never rest."
Amy laughed. "Probably not…has everyone in this family dated or kissed someone on the other side?"
Barry opened his mouth and then thought about it. Actually, he wasn't sure. Harley had been with the Joker and the people Poison Ivy had tended to kiss didn't tend to live very long (back when she'd been trying at it). "Iris might be in the clear, actually, but Zoom's always been a bit obsessed with her."
Amy, who'd been taking a drink from her cup, choked and spluttered, forcing Barry to pound on her back as he laughed. "What the hell d'you mean Zoom's in love with Mom?!" she wheezed out in a demanding rasp.
"Volume, sweetheart," Barry reminded her and she looked quickly around, even though there was no one really close enough to hear her. "Don't worry, your mom can handle herself."
Amy rolled her eyes. "So how long were you and Cold together?"
"Well, he wasn't Cold, then," Barry pointed out, amused by the 'and?' gesture she made. "A year."
Amy whistled lowly. She and Zatanna had been dating for less than three months. "Does Mom know?"
"Your mom knew me when I dated other guys and girls," Barry snorted, "just like I knew her when she had a string of rather bad boyfriends…we actually moved in together before we started dating, we kinda did it backwards, I guess."
"Roommates?" Amy guessed, her eyes gleaming in mirth, "oh that's so cute."
"Oh, shut up," Barry grinned, ruffling his daughter's hair. "You're dating your own replacement."
"You wound me!" Amy clutched at her chest as though she was mortally injured. "I thought you loved me!" But she still caught his hand, continuing to walk with him. It was these little things that Barry was so grateful for. They'd all gone through some changes in the past few months, all unexpected, one unanticipated and certainly the worst, but they were growing and their wounds were healing and slowly, very slowly, Wally and Iris were learning to smile again. Amy bounced back better -she always had- and she'd known Rudy and Mary for less time, and sometimes Barry wished they had her resilience.
"So, why're you here so early?" Barry prompted, his arm against hers.
"I left early because I had to run by Wayne Manor," Amy said like it wasn't a big deal and Barry drew up short.
"Uh," he said, "wanna run that by me again?"
Amy scowled with an expression that was usually aimed at Bruce. "What? You're the one that hates the guy."
Amy rolled her eyes. "I don't hate him, what is it with you thinking I hate all your friends?"
"Maybe because you glare at them loads," Barry pointed out and she poked him harshly in the stomach with her free hand.
"You're the one that sent Hal to track me down when I ran away, both times," Amy pointed out mildly.
Barry arched an eyebrow. "Somehow I don't think the kid that was ten and thirteen when those incidents happened really has a leg to stand on."
Amy gave him a very direct look that Barry didn't have to try hard to read into. "Touché," he muttered into his coffee, making Amy snigger loudly.
"I have a theory about something we're working on, that's all," Amy said evasively.
Barry narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Amy was always evasive, but she kept the most secrets, so it wasn't all that surprising. She was prone to coded phrases in public -she was that paranoid- though she did seem to limit them to her conversations with Jade. But Barry could read between the lines. Amy had a lot of projects she worked on but only two were regarded as a priority, one of which was finding Roy -which she'd never take to Bruce, Ollie, maybe, but not Bruce- and the other, the more likely, was the Missing/Deceased wall in the Oracle Cave (Wally's name for it, not Amy's, though none of the JL had actually ever been to the Cave 2.0, which Bruce thought was wise, given how Mount Justice was bombed through Roy having insider knowledge about it).
"I'm more surprised you willingly went to Bruce," Barry said, that fact still boggling his mind. It was about as surprising as her asking for him after the Team had pulled her from the wreckage.
Amy shrugged, unconcerned, a frown forming across her face. "I mean, he's technically the leader of the JL, isn't he?"
("Technically?" Barry sighed loudly. "Amy, he's the literal leader.")
"There's something weird going on with those missing kids, that's all I know." Amy almost spilled her cider as she gave a 'what can you do' gesture. "But what about you and Cold?"
They'd returned to their previous conversation so fast that it gave Barry whiplash and he was arguably (not really, Barry could run faster than the speed of sound so there was no winning against him in a race). "What about me and Cold?"
Amy was a hypocrite who didn't like evasiveness used against her, but it was just Barry's nature. "How come you aren't still together? What changed?"
Her green eyes were open and curious; Barry appreciated that, but it still made him sigh.
"I'd gotten a job at the CCPD by then and he was still being a bit of a criminal, doing things I didn't approve of…we'd had a few fights about it, but then I had the accident."
"When you got electrocuted," Amy realized.
"I was in a coma for four months." Barry rubbed the back of his head, remembering when he'd awoken to the white walls, totally confused. He liked hospitals about as well as Amy, even if he didn't admit it much. "And when I got out, Cold had gone, taking practically everything of value from our apartment with him…by then Iris was struggling to keep an apartment and I had a job and she liked and trusted me so she asked me to room with her." Barry's mouth curved slightly. "It was also helpful to keep those ex-boyfriends of hers from bothering her."
Amy appraised him. "Yeah, those shoulders could knock someone out."
Barry laughed loudly.
"Don't worry, Dad, if anyone gets fresh with you, I've got these babies," Amy showed off her arms, "I've choked people out with these bad boys."
That made Barry lough so loud that he actually choked and Amy had to thump him on the back so he could get to breathing right again.
"I'm so relieved," he managed to force out, tears in his eyes while Amy nodded her head solemnly, patting his shoulder in understanding.
They walked in silence for a short way before Amy spoke again. "Hey, Dad?"
"Hm?" Barry hummed to let her know that he was listening.
"It's okay if you don't want to answer this…" Amy tapped her cup to her lips, taking a small drink. "But…your dad murdered your mom and then lied about it, right?"
Barry nodded slowly. "Right." It still hurt to remember coming home from the bookstore that one night to find all those police cars and cops on the lawn. The only thing he'd been able to think at the time was how upset Mom was going to be about people standing on the lawn instead of the stone paths. Barry believed that lie for so long, believed it to be true until its wasn't; the idea that Henry Allen had taken advantage of his nine year old son's love and twisted the truth to suit his needs…sometimes it made Barry have need to take a scorching shower to rid him of the filth and wonder why he didn't change his name. But it was a name he'd given to Iris, to Amy, freely. The only connection he now had to Henry was his blood, much like Amy's connection to Mark Mardon.
"And the captain took you in after that?" Amy furrowed her brow. "Just because?"
Barry grimaced. He'd loved his adoptive father until his death from cancer a year before they got Amy, but his reason for adopting Barry was difficult to explain without throwing both Darryl Frye and his mother under the bus…but maybe Amy could make her own decision about what she thought about it.
"Hm," Barry hummed trying to gather his thoughts, "I guess the best way to explain it is…my mom and dad weren't getting along to the point of my mom had opted for divorce, I told you that, right?"
Amy nodded.
"Their relationship was over long before that…and she'd been having an affair with Darryl."
Amy blinked in surprise but didn't comment so Barry barreled on.
"He didn't want me to grow up as an orphan, so he took me in, raised me as a way to honor my mom, I guess," Barry scratched his cheek awkwardly.
"Did he ever meet Jay or the rest of the family?" Amy asked instead.
"Nah, he didn't even know I was the Flash," Barry shook his head, flashing her a smile, "probably for the best; he and Jay would've gotten on like a wildfire."
Amy laughed as they rounded a corner to reach the precinct.
"And now, I'm taking you home," Barry said, directing her towards the parking lot. "So, I can get back to work."
Amy scoffed loudly. "Oh, come on! I can take a taxi or—"
"No flying!" Barry said quickly and Amy gave him a look so startled that he couldn't quite understand it; maybe she hadn't even considered flying…which was strange for her, but she'd been acting strange for months now. BC had been saying that it was like she was refusing to touch her atmokinesis but if Amy didn't want to bring it up then Barry wouldn't broach the subject; mental health, yes, but not if she was or wasn't using her powers.
"…or I could walk home?" Amy finished lamely.
"Alone? I don't think so," Barry held up a hand to stall her, "nope, no complaining…besides, there's something in your room waiting for you."
Amy side-eyed him suspiciously. "Just as long as it's not any bugs…though that's more of Bats' thing than yours…"
"I hope that's a joke."
Amy smiled, full of teeth, and didn't say.
"Jesus, kid, you're gonna give me gray hairs at thirty," Barry grumbled under his breath.
Amy snorted. "You were the one electrocuted, Dad, I think that already has done wonders for your hair."
"Hey!"
Amara beamed widely at the sight of it. It had been a present in her old room, the DNA strand that wound around the room, but they'd had to paint back over it before selling the house, so Amara's new room had been remarkably bare, or, it had been when she'd left it.
Now, the strand was back, in greens and blues instead.
Then she did her cursory check; the go bag was still under her bed, still with everything in it, and the box in her desk still had all the passports and cash for different countries in it.
Amara locked the box again and replaced it with a sigh. She didn't know why she was still so tense. She rubbed at her shoulder where a dart had hit her the day of her aunt and uncle's funeral. Amara still didn't know what that had been about and maybe not telling any of her parents wasn't a good idea, but she didn't want to worry them.
But maybe she should worry.
…Amara could probably stand to worry about it another day.
Jade was holding a nuclear bomb, not a literal one, not that that would've done her much good, but she looked down at the case in her hand.
Storm would need it if she wanted to get a lead on where Roy was, she'd known that as soon as she'd seen what was inside it, but she couldn't very well just hand it over to her…that could very well get Jade killed, and she wasn't a fan of that. No, it had to look genuine.
She climbed the stairs up to the plane, turning just slightly to cast a wink and a smirk towards where the camera was located.
Only when she was safely away from cameras, within the plane, did she use the phone that Storm had made untraceable so she and Roy could keep in contact, sending her an encrypted message.
Amara was sure that by other's standards, dinner with the parents wasn't supposed to be fun, but Zatanna and Artemis had both been out with Amara and Wally with Barry and Iris before and so far there were no complaints.
"Okay, but you make it look so easy," Artemis smacked the table. "He carries you all the time! The first time he tries to do that with me, he trips and falls on his face!"
Laughter belled out around them. It was an incredibly funny story about their last mission how Wally had grabbed up Artemis, so that she could shoot and he could run; it backfired quite spectacularly. Wally sank down in his chair, hiding his face with a groan.
"Wally's been giving me piggybacks for years, he's used to my weight," Amy grinned widely.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Artemis demanded.
"I think she's saying you're too heavy," Zatanna's eyes were gleaming.
"Oh, I don't think it's that," Iris said full of mirth, "I think she's saying that Wally needs to carry Artemis more."
"Aunt Iris!"
"We are definitely going to get cited for a noise complaint," Barry snorted into his drink, looking around the restaurant with a vein of amusement.
"You see," Amara pointed out to Zatanna, holding her hand under the table, her free one toying with her fork. She hadn't been all that hungry that night, or lately, and she knew it concerned her parents, but Amara just had too much to do. "This is why we can't all go out together, or people call the cops on us."
Laughter echoed again, hiding how Amara's phone buzzed loudly in her pocket. She looked down slightly to see the name 'Girlfriend' glowing on the screen. Zatanna wasn't a fan of the name Jade had in Amara's phone but really, why would Amara rewrite Zatanna's when 'Dark Magician Girl' was already great?
"I'm gonna go to the bathroom real quick," she said suddenly, extracting her hand from Zatanna's before taking her time heading towards the bathroom, locking a stall before pulling out her phone. Jade rarely called, not like when they'd been working together as Masquerade and Cheshire. She could only focus so much of her time on finding Roy without drawing unwanted attention and they both knew it. It was a terrible situation and they both wished they could do more, but it was what it was.
Jade wouldn't text out of the blue unless it was for a good reason and that reason was usually Roy-related. Amara scanned the contents of the text, eyes narrowing before she flushed the toilet and washed her hands, lingering close to the entrance of the restaurant to make a call.
"Aren't you supposed to be at dinner?" Dick asked, not even bothering to offer a 'hello'.
A brief smile flashed across Amara's face. "I am, I ducked out for a 'sec."
"To call me?" he asked archly.
Amara rolled her eyes, scuffing her boot on the floor. "Richard," she said without preamble, "can you do me a favor?" He was probably free right now. Batman had designated patrol nights for Robin (which was the funniest shit and when Amara had found out, Dick had turned bright red) and it wasn't one of them tonight.
"Sure," Dick replied without thinking, a bit surprised by the abruptness of the question, before amending, "depending on how illegal it is."
Amara ran a hand through her hair, trying not to tug on it too hard, like she always did when she was thinking too hard. "It's not illegal," she said, "not by League standards anyways."
"Okay," Dick drawled out slowly, "that doesn't tell me much."
Amara blew out a loud breath. "Can you arrange to get any alerts on Cheshire before the League?" she finally asked, biting the corner of her lip.
"Yes," Dick said cautiously, after a very long and very drawn out silence, "does this have something to do with Roy?"
"Probably," Amara acquiesced.
"Then you don't need to ask," he said simply and Amara could've kissed him.
"Thank you," Amara sighed in relief, ending the call and pressed her phone to her lips, drawing them into a thin line, trying to keep it together.
Amara really needed a fucking break.
She ran a hand through her hair, calming anything she'd tugged too hard on, before returning to the table like nothing had happened, a smile on her face that Dick would've seen through the way Wally did.
And a glance towards Wally told her that she hadn't fooled him, not in the slightest, but that was a problem for later.
AN: Barry is bi af and I've got a personal headcanon that Iris and Hal like to yank his chain about Hal trying to steal Iris' husband. What a bunch a' nerds. Is anyone in the West-Allen-Isley-Quinzel family straight? Trick question.
Investigations into Roy's disappearance are going to continue over the next few years in-fic, and not every lead pans out, but Amy's certainly willing to throw herself into harms way for a scrap of news.
As always: PLEASE REVIEW!
