Running With It

"Ha! Did you see me own that lame-ass mech that guy was hauling?" Kid Flash snickers as he buffs his nails on his suit. "Totally sweet. I tell you, a guy has enough smarts to put together something like that, but not enough to know about reverse-clamp poly meters?" Another snicker. "Obvious flaw. Didn't take me more than a second to pop off."

"Mmm." Kaldur nods, looking over the files they've managed to extract from the base. "Perhaps you should design a better one."

Glancing over, Kid Flash arches an eyebrow at the Atlantean. "What the heck would I need a mech for?"

Kaldur has to admit the boy has a point. "Well… perhaps for one of the other members on the team."

"What, like you? Or Superboy?" Kid Flash snorts. "M'gann maybe… but ohhhhh man, it'd be criminal to cover up a bod like that…"

"Plus it would render the majority of her powers useless." Kaldur points out.

Wally nods. "Same goes for Robin… last thing that guy would do is stay in one place and shoot." A thought seems to strike him. "I suppose Artemis…"

"No." Kaldur quashes that thought before it can lead to disaster. "I do not think Artemis would react well to such a suggestion."

"You sure?" At Kaldur's enigmatic nod, Kid Flash shrugs and leans back. "Well. There you have it. No point in building a mech."

"Well…" Kaldur muses a moment. "I am no expert on human matters, but… could you not sell it?"

Kid Flash looks at him like he's lost his mind. "Oh sure, I'll just invent a deadly piece of weaponry, apply for a patent and get right on working out a multi-billion dollar company." He laughs. "Seriously dude? I'm just a kid. I'm too young for all that."

Shrugging, Kaldur turns away. "If you say so."

"Yeah, well, I do." Again he thinks. "I suppose I could get my uncle Barry to run a company for me…" He considers. "Million bucks… my private yacht… movie stars…." Apparently surfacing from the fantasy he shakes his head. "Nah. No way. Too much hassle. I'd have to be all responsible and stuff."

"Some would say that to be a superhero is to take on responsibility." Kaldur gently reminds him.

"Well… yeah. I mean, naturally." Wally looks uncomfortable. "But it's just… I mean, yeah, responsibility, great power, yadda yadda, but… that's just the easy stuff. I mean, honestly? Outside of using my powers for good? I just sorta let you and Rob sort out the responsibility stuff. I'm just here to have fun."

Half-turning, Kaldur arches an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Well… you know. I mean, I care for good and peace and truth and justice and all that stuff… and I'm totally on board with helping to do that… But I mean… I basically got into this to follow my Uncle Barry." Still looking somewhat uncomfortable, Kid Flash shrugs. "And seriously, most of the guys we fight? Not a threat at all."

"Like the Reds who nearly drowned us?"

Wally winces. "Well yeah, but Robin totally had that covered."

"Or the Injustice League?"

"I knew you guys had a plan B…"

"What about when we were captured by Project Cadmus?"

"Oh that… that totally doesn't even count." Wally scoffs. "We all knew it was just a matter of time before Robin broke loose. And you guys were all doing the mind-game-mumbo-jumbo stuff on Superboy… they were never anywhere close to killing us. I wasn't scared for a minute."

Raising his eyebrows, Kaldur shrugs. "I was."

Kid Flash looks at him a moment before shrugging it off. "Naw, you guys totally had that."

"One day we might not."

"Oh, whatever," chuckles Wally nervously, throwing his head back. "What's with you being all morbid and stuff recently, anyway?"

Kaldur wonders at that a bit himself. "Perhaps… the simulation caused me to… take my responsibilities more seriously." He says.

Arching an eyebrow, Wally comments, "Dude, don't take this the wrong way, but you're already WAY too serious."

"Someone in the team has to be," answers Kaldur, feeling a rare flash of irritation. "It might behoove you to gain some gravity of your own."

"Gain some gravity…" Wally snickers, but it dies away at the earnest expression on Kaldur's face. "Look, man, chill, okay?" He sighs, rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean… trust me, I kinda get where you're coming from, but… you and Rob always have it handled." He smiles awkwardly. "And… I've been trying, too, since the simulation to… you know… watch out for the others." He shivers momentarily. "I could've… I could've saved Artemis. In the simulation. I should have."

Kaldur's irritation melts away, and in its place comes flooding in memories of Wally's recent behavior—last-minute rescues of teammates not seriously in danger, early neutralization of threats far ahead of the team. He HAS been taking more responsibility, Kaldur realizes.

"I just… I'm not the serious type," continues Wally, heedless of Kaldur's thoughts. "The simulation… that was the first time it really hit me that… y'know… things could actually go wrong in this job." He smiles shakily up at Kaldur. "And… trust me, I've been trying to take things more seriously. But…" A shrug. "It's just so much FUN most of the time."

Unable to stop himself, Kaldur ruffles Wally's hair. "That is all right, my friend." He smiles. "Someone needs to remind the team that there is fun to be had."

A/N: Not much to say. Young Justice is back on the airwaves, so that's cool. Kid Flash was a bit harder to write than I figured. I'm very intrigued at the show's decision to present him as a chemistry whiz... generally teams have only one genius who somehow understands all fields. And while Flash IS a genius in the comic series, his cartoon adaptations tend to be a bit more... reckless. So genius Kid Flash is an interesting touch.

Up next is M'gann