Hello...its me..
I got a laptop for Christmas! This is a little unfinished, but its something...
"It's my birthday Friday. Boy-girl party, totally supervised and you are just lucky enough to be invited," Jesse declared, shoving a pink envelope under Wally's nose.
"A party?" Wally mumbled. Partying was something Wally had not done in a long time. He hadn't thought much about it, but he missed the rush of being intoxicated, the high you get off of other people's high.
"Sure. Don't freak out, Bart and Speedy will both be attending so you'll know people. The YJ crew has been dying to meet Bart's 'completely crash cousin'. Plus I already told Barry you were coming. I'm just telling you so you don't forget to buy me a present," Jesse smirked.
"I dunno Jess. I think I'd feel kinda...scuzzy next to your hero friends," Wally sighed.
"They're all surprisingly scuzzy. They all have their own tragic back stories. Makes for some good angst moments," Jesse shrugged.
"Fine," Wally relented, "But there had better be good cake. Like sacrifice your family to the cake gods good."
"Deal."
(..)(..)
"Lenny! Leeeeenny! Len! Lenard! O Captain, my Captain! Leonardo! Cold! Len-"
"WHAT!? What do you want James?!" Cold demanded angrily from his usual chair in the living room. Len always seemed grumpy but James knew it was all for show. Len was a teddy bear when it came to 'the brats.'
"We're invited!" James declared breathlessly, waving the green envelope excitedly above his head.
"Back to the Heights?" Mick murmured
"No! To Duela's birthday party! It's supposed to be the biggest rager of the year!" James gushed excitedly. Central villains were rarely invited to cool parties. Just Len sometimes when the other ice villains wanted his help with something.
"Is it even Duela's birthday?" Hartley groaned.
"Who knows! The point is that were invited" James laughed.
"Who's Duela?" Evan yawned from his spot on the couch. James liked Evan the most out of all of the new kids. The older boy was more adventurous than Hartley, always ready to do something wild and reckless with James. Just last week the two of them had stolen the mayor of Keystones car and trapped it inside the mirrorverse. They'd left a nice sealed reflection for the man to look at though.
"Duela Dent. She's Two Face's biological daughter. Mad as the Joker, if you ask me," Hartley elaborated.
"Who cares. We actually got invited. What will I wear!? Cape or no cape? Lisa help!" James gasped melodramatically. Lisa was Cold's little sister but the Junior Rogues considered her more of their big sister.
"No cape," Lisa said decisively.
"Will you curl my Leese?" Amy asked.
"Sure, but I think it would look better up. Wear that black jacket, the leather one."
"It'll be good for building my rep!" Evan exclaimed.
"So we are wearing colors? Because I have a new cloak I've been just dying to wear," Harley said excitedly.
"Hate to break it to you, but you little bastards ain't going to a party in Gotham. No way, no how," Len snapped.
"What?! Why!?" James gasped.
"Ain't nothing gonna be there but drugs n' crazies. Ya can drink the beer in the fridge if ya want to party. Jus don't give Owen none," Boomer yawned.
"We can drink the beer in the fridge anytime! We want to go to a party! It's not fare that everyone else gets to go! We don't wanna fallow rules! That's why we all ran away! C'mon Len!" James begged.
"No, Jamie. I let you go you all come back laced with Joker Venom or in body bags."
"I hate it here! My circus family would have let me go to a highly dangerous supervillan probably-not-really-her-birthday party!" James screamed, turning and running up the stairs to his room.
"He's crying again!" Axels muffled voice rang through the ceiling.
"Let 'im. Damn kids don't need to be nowhere near Gotham City," Mick nodded.
"I'll go talk to him," Hartley sighed, pushing himself up from whatever he was working on in the floor.
"Can Josh choke on anything down there?" Mark quipped after him.
"No!" Hartley called, mounting the stairs.
"We'll go too," Amunet declared, hauling Evan up by the arm.
"And me!" Owen laughed, hustling after the older children.
"Lenny?" Jerrie asked softly, obviously bothered by all the yelling.
"Yeah?"
"Can I have a party when it's my birthday?"
"Sure kid," Len smirked softly.
(..)(..)
"What to get her, what to get her, what to get her, what to get her, what t-," Bart's outer dialogue was cut short by a hand placed over his mouth.
It seemed as though the two of them had been at the mall for hours even though it had only really been...no according to Wally's phone they really had been at the mall for hours.
Somebody end him.
"Just get her shoes or a purse or something," Wally said with poorly controlled restraint.
"What did yo get her?"
"A Dummy's Guide To Finding A Sugar Daddy," Wally laughed.
"She's going to punch you," Bart warned.
"Planned for it!" Wally laughed, "let's just grab lunch here, since you seem hellbent on spending the whole day here."
"Crash!" Bart snickered. Wally was pretty sure that Bart could be considered his sibling. He loved the kid so much it was kind of mind blowing, but he couldn't let him know that so he was always at least a little bit of a jerk to him. Kept him grounded.
One trip to the mall Subway later and the boys were seated in a booth far away from everyone else.
"Hey can I ask you a question?" Bart asked through a mouthful of food.
"Sure," Wally murmured.
"How did you get your powers? I mean, we were all born with ours, and your technically not blood related to us so..." Bart rambled.
That made Wally pause momentarily. Barry knew how he had gotten his powers, at least the abridged version, and Wally had just assumed that he had filled everybody in on the details.
"When I was about your age I...I wanted to be like Flash..I didn't know it was Barry back then. Keystone schools are a lot worse than Central. There is a lot more crime over there. I hoped that once I got my powers that I would be able to make a difference. I...I started taking this real underground experimental drug one of my dad's friends took. I figured out how to reverse engineer it to make the effects permanent,"
"Drug?" Bart gasped, white as a ghost, what drug?"
"Velocity 9,"
"It makes you fast? Faster than me?" Bart said with urgency.
"Yeah I guess. Don't beat yourself up Barty, your only about 5'3. Once you hit puberty you'll shoot up to about 5'6 and get a little faster," Wally laughed, reaching over and rubbing Bart's scalp roughly with his knuckles.
"But in theory could that be why you're so fast? Because your speed comes from a drug and not nature? Like a steroid of sorts?" Bart asked, shaking Wally off.
"Yeah. You know I never thought of that. It's like speed gogo juice! Weird how things work out, hu?"
"Is this drug still available?"
"You thinkin of becoming a crackhead?"
"No! No way! Not me! That's soooooo mode! I was just wondering! I mean, Uncle Barry might want to sweep the market of it!"
"I haven't heard of anyone else selling it. I swept the market myself when I was 14, but you never know," Wally shrugged.
"Before you reengineered it...would you just have to keep taking it?"
"Yeah. If I didn't I would get real violent and shaky. It was awful! I had track marks all over my legs and arms, my hair was always real long and greasy, I looked like I was addicted to meth! I weighed like 150 pounds. It was a really bad time in my life. I'm glad it's over,"Wally said. He really did hate how low he fell while addicted to V9.
"But in theory, if a speedster took it, would it make them faster?"
"In theory, yes. But eventually your body's already super charged molecules wouldn't be able to slow themselves down and they would just...vibrate away into nothing. So don't go trying it!"
"Don't tell Uncle Barry but...I have reason to believe that Inertia has been taking large amounts of Velocity 9," Bart mumbled.
"That why he's been wiping the floor with you?"
"I really think so. I saw him shooting up in the locker room at school," Bart said, swinging his feet sadly.
"Inertia goes to our school?" Wally asked, eyes wide. Shouldn't that be something that he had found out by now?
"Yeah, it's Thad Thawne. He had to transfer there our seventh grade year,"
"Why?"
"He assaulted a teacher. Punched him right in the mouth for calling his dad a wakjob. You never wondered why Thad went to Central and his brother Oscar or whatever went to Keystone?"
"Owen. His half brother's name is Owen. He's Boomerangs son. And that teacher wasn't wrong," Wally murmured, shaking his head.
"Not at all. And I guess you'd know about The Rogues. You're all buddy buddy with them now, eh?" Bart said, looking down to his shoes.
"Chill. It's not like I'm going to flip on you guys," Wally snorted. He wasn't sure if that was the truth. He'd been considering Cold's offer very seriously.
"Good good. It would be sooooo mode for you to go and turn on me! I'd miss you too much,"
"Yeah yeah. You've grown on me a little too you imp. Let me look into the V9. I still have some contacts that could help. Now, can we be done with our little girly moment? We still have to get Jesse a present before tonight,"
"Then we better get back to shopping," Bart smirked.
(..)(..)
"Out!" Amy snapped, grabbing Axel by the arm and dragging him out of the door.
"Hey! What the heck do you think that you're doing?! This is my room!" Axel shouted, banging on the door.
"Hey guys! Let me in! It's me, Owen!"
"This is so devastating to me," James sighed bleary eyed from his disaster of a bed.
"Chill J.J. We're going to the party," Amy said, rolling her eyes. Her new cohorts could be so idiotic. The Rogues definitely needed more girl power than just Lisa and herself.
"How? Lenny said no, Sam won't take us! And we can't walk that far!" James declared somberly.
"Yer forgetting me," Evan smirked.
"We want to go to a party, Ev, not Saudi Arabia," Amy sighed. Evan was awful at his super simple job. Sometimes she really did miss Goldface. Sure, he was more than a little rough around the edges, but hell, they could have been married. They were going to get married...
"I can do it. I know I can," Evan nodded.
"I don't believe in you," Amy deadpanned.
"I do!" James declared, throwing his arms around Evan excitedly.
Evan politely patted James back, long use to the younger boys overly excessive displays of affection. Even Amy tolerated the kid.
" Len won't be ver happy if he finds out," Hartley murmured. Yes, real outlaw Piper is.
"Who cares?" Amy sighed.
"I do. Pissin off your new employer ain't the way to start out a everlasting relationship," Evan groaned, crossing his arms over his chest.
"He won't be pissed because he'll never ever know! Leave it to Beaver guys, I got an idea!" James declared, smiling proudly.
"Dear lord," Amy murmured,"Send us some help"
(..)(..)
"You sure you don't want to join us, Chesh?" Junior purred from his lounged position on the couch next to Artemis.
He was being a little prick, acting more like Icicle Junior than Cameron at the moment. It was necessary, Jade supposed. Villains had to be on the defensive, especially around other villains, and Duela Dent's party was going to be full of them.
"I'm sure," she said absentmindedly. She couldn't drink, couldn't smoke, couldn't fight, couldn't cope, couldn't tell Roy or Artemis or mom or dad or Roy or anybody.
"It's about time to go," Artemis said seriously. No time for fun in her Wonderland.
She thinks it's a boy. A little worrier, strong and brave. Couldn't be a girl, she couldn't raise herself, or Artemis.
She likes the name Andrew. She likes Tyson and Felix and Kolby.
She likes Lian, like Artemis.
She likes Roy, thinks if he could put down the needle he'd be an amazing father.
Maybe if she could put down the mask she'd be a good mom, but her mask was just as addictive as Roy's drugs. She didn't deserve to be a mother.
She couldn't be a mother.
She couldn't kill her own child ether.
She'd told her father she was going away for a while, to take care of some personal business.
Andrew.
Jin.
Pax.
Tyson.
Felix.
Kolby.
Her little warrior.
Lian.
Her little princess.
Artemis kicked up off of the couch, hair braided back in Tigris fashion, she had her uniform on too, a hoodie over it to hide from the police. It was only six and the party wasn't until ten, but they had a long drive ahead of them until they met up with whatever contact was suppose to take them to Gothum.
Cameron was right behind her, hoodie pulled over his purple tinted skin, like a puppy dog.
Jade reached out and grabbed Artemis by the arm, pulling her into a hug.
"Be safe, little sister," Jade whispered into her ear.
"Always."
(..)(..)
Common sense.
Not everybody has it, but everybody definitely should. Science should stop looking for life on Mars and start looking for a way to insert some shred of intelligence in every earthbound brain.
"Perfect," James said as though he really believed that the ballon with his hideous comforter draped over the top of it actually looked like him laying in bed.
"Hardly," Piper scoffed. He really hated public outings, especially ones that involved him meeting with close minded people. He was not at all ashamed of his homosexuality, but he didn't advertise it, which led to many hatful rumors to develop about him in the villain community.
"Lighten up, Piper," Amunet laughed, throwing an arm around his shoulders. Her hair was beautifully styled, new costume in place, makeup done to a t.
"Yeah! Lenny ain't gonna check, Hart," James scoffed.
"And I ain't gonna tell!" Axel called as he counted his $150 from his bed across the room.
Hartley really thought the whole thing was a bad idea. There was no friendship among villains, especially Gotham's.
"You better not," Evan snipped, "and not a word to Owen or Jerrie, they'll snitch!"
"Snitches get stitches, I got it," Axel moaned.
"I suppose we had better get going," Hartley sighed melodramatically. At least he got to wear his new cloak. He had special ordered it off of .
"Ready men?" Evan asked, firing up his gun.
"Excuse you?" Amy snapped.
"Ready comrades?" Evan corrected.
"Bye losers! Hope to see you again!" Axel called as the shot fired and James dresser mirror light up.
"Here we go!" James shouted, grabbing hold of Hartley who had hold of Amunet who had hold of Evan.
Evan dipped his fingers in and pulled them into the mirrorverse.
(..)(..)
Wally thought he was going to vomit.
He was going to meet actual superheroes his own age.
How extremely scary.
The Christmas lights had been strung up high next door, the tables and chairs had been sat up, music had started blasting a half hour ago.
Tons of cars had started parking all over the block and Wally was positive that there were adults talking to his uncle down the hall.
He had peeked out the window and saw several groups of teenagers spread out across the lawns. Wally was pretty positive that Jesse had declined to invite any of her friends from school, which was fine by him, considering most of them were complete and total bitches. Who's to say her super besties weren't bitches too?
If he didn't go soon Bart or Jesse were going to come and get him.
Wally hated meeting new people so much. Why was he forced to step out of his comfort zone? Like seriously. He was perfectly fine having like five friends, honestly how many more could he possibly need.
You know what as a matter of fact Wally wasn't going to go. Nobody could make him go, no matter how close to his house it was.
Forget it. No, not forget it, fu-
CRACK.
A large rock shot through his window , shattering the glass, busting through the drywall of his bedroom and into the house.
What the hell?
"Oh shit!" somebody yelled from his yard.
Jesse appeared next to him and gapped at the holes in both his window and wall.
"It's bad!"she yelled out the window hole.
"Oh shit it is," said a girl who literally floated up off of the ground to peer in.
"Why did you throw it so hard!" Jesse snapped.
"Well I obviously didn't mean to!" outside girl shouted back.
"What are we going to do!" Jesse sighed.
"Barry ain't even gonna notice!"
"Yes he will, Kara!"
"As long as my cousin doesn't find out it will be fine!"
"Hi, I'm Wally, it's nice to meet you," Wally sighed.
"Hi Wally, I'm Kara, it's nice to meet you! I've heard so much about you!" Kara smiled sweetly at him.
"Nothing bad I hope," Wally laughed.
"Absolutely not! Bart says your 'crashtastic'. I really think it's awesome how your trying to turn your life around," Kara nodded.
"Well thanks, I appreciate that,"
"Shut the hell up Wally! You're on my death list because you're 30 minutes late for my party! I bought a whole damn cake just for you and it's strawberry and you were going to be so excited about it, dick!" Jesse snapped, "and I'm not fixing this Kara, you are!"
"Lets just not say anything!" Kara shouted back.
"Even Barry will notice a bunch of gapping hole in his own house!" Jesse laughed.
"Yes, a hole Conner made!" Kara laughed.
"We're not blaming this on Conner!" Jesse snapped.
"Why not?!" Kara screamed back.
"Do you want to maybe come inside? I mean you are probably going to start attracting attention soon. The flying and all. We do have super criminals around here," Wally laughed nervously.
(..)(..)
"You come here often, cutie?" He asked, leaning heavily against the table at the back of the room that Hartley was seated at.
"Obviously not, considering the fact that this is a party in an abandoned building in a town that I do not live in," Piper snapped. Tall, dark, and blue eyes had started staring at him from across the room a good twenty minutes ago.
The older boy whistled loudly and laughed, "you're sure something, huh? Pied Piper, right? From Central?"
"What do you want, uh... Sorry, your reputation isn't well known enough for me to be able to recognize you in or out of uniform," Hartley snapped, rolling his eyes.
"Fury," He drawled, seating himself uninvitedly next to Piper.
"Take a hike skeeve," Hartley barked.
"C'mon, I brought you a drink," Fury cooed holding out a green plastic cup.
"Partying 101, never accept drinks from a stranger," Hartley gaffed.
"I'm Earl and you're...?"
"Hartley,"
"Hartley." Fury smiled, "See, we're not strangers. C'mon, have a drink! Word on the street is that you're, you know..."
"Gay?" Piper snipped hatefully.
"I was gonna say "open"" Earl snickered, reaching out and placing the plastic cup in Hartley's hand, fingers lingering far to long.
"I swear, if you're making fun of me you will regret it," Piper sneered, pulling his hand away forcefully.
"I'm fairly "open" myself," Earl winked, toeing at Hartley's foot under the table.
"Look, just because I like men does not mean that I'll go with the first douchebag wannabe bad boy that comes along,"
"Oh baby," Fury smirked, "I ain't just anybody,"
(..)(..)
It was completely unpractical. Hartley prided himself on being one of the most levelheaded people that he knew.
But Earl Povich made him see stars and want to do crazy, James level things.
Earl kept calling him "cute" and "talented" and "interesting". Hartley was seventeen and had never so much as kissed a boy, or a girl for that matter. He was homeschooled until he joined the Rogues, a supervillainous freak at school after he did, and most villains weren't pro LGBT anything. He had never had a boy or girlfriend and...well...Earl made him smile and blush and feel so special.
Not to mention that Earl was just gorgeous. That dark hair, dazzling blue eyes, fit figure, godlike bone structure; stark contrast to Hartley's stringy red hair, too big teeth, and wire thin frame.
"Who's your friend?" Amunet asked, appearing out of nowhere and tugging Hartley away from his close dance with Earl.
"Blacksmith, this is Fury," Piper said.
"Fury?" Amy snapped, crossing her arms across her chest. She was drunk, but not too drunk. Hartley assumed that she was staying sober enough to watch the lot of them.
"Yeah," Earl said, suddenly defensive.
"How old are you dude?" Amy asked, eyeing Earl up and down.
"Twenty-three, as of last week," Earl smirked.
"Can I talk to you real fast?" Amy growled, snagging Piper by the arm and pulling him over to a quiet corner of the room.
"What the hell!" Amy shouted, smacking the side of Hartley's head.
"Ow! What?"
"That guy is skeezy, Piper! He's trying to take gay advantage of you or something! Did your mind drop into your testicels?"
"What are you talking about? Earl is sweet! You barely said two words to him before you were freaking out over nothing!"
"He's six years older than you!" Amy snapped, drawing the attention of the surrounding villain offspring.
"When your gay, age doesn't really matter. Don't be such a biggot!"
"Shut the hell up with your gay equality crap, Piper! If she was a twenty three year old woman I would have a problem with it!"
"How much older than you was Goldie? Huh?"
"A lot! That's the point I'm trying to make right now. People who are that much older than you can't get anybody their own damn age for a reason! Goldface was a dick, all the way around, he just used me and my powers to move himself up the damn ladder! And that guy is after something, Hartley. I can feel it," Blacksmith sighed, squeezing Pipers arm.
"I'm not going to have sex with him, if that's what you mean," Piper said in a much calmer tone.
"It's not. Just... I have to check on Ev and Jamie...just...watch out for yourself. Please. For me?" Hartley had never seen Amunet not being a bruding bitch before. She was different now, somehow.
"I will. I always do."