When Kid Flash woke and showered and mostly, as Red X snickered, pointlessly shaved, he was in control of his body. Red X seemed to be in a nasty mood but except for making fun of how meager his whiskers were, was mostly silent. He pulled on his dance belt and Kid Flash suit and had breakfast or, rather, breakfasts, what with him being a speedster, alongside Robin, Raven, Starfire and Beast Boy. Cyborg was still at some robotics and electronics expo in Star City. Jinx was still at her mother's farm in the hills east of Jump City.

He mulled over telling everyone but could see Beast Boy occasionally glancing at him, fearful that he would do just that and have Gar cast as the irresponsible idiot again. He sighed and shot a glance at his green pal that said he wouldn't. But he was close to it. And he even considered contacting Flash and getting the Justice League's help. But then ALL of them would be cast as irresponsible idiot kids, not by Flash but certainly by Batman and some of the others. Ka-rist! Can you believe those kids? Had the damn transporter workin' one day, one day, before they get Flash's sidekick sharing a body with a villain. One day!

Uh un. He was not gonna bring that down on the Titans. No way.

So, he conferred quietly with Beast Boy in the hallway after his breakfasts. Gar promised to keep working at it with the manual to try and see how to separate Red X's mind out of his body. And then, just after Gar walked away, right on time with the 10,000 second alternating of control of the Kid Flash body, he felt like a pilot ejecting out of the cockpit of a jet in midflight, parachuting down, down, down, but somehow never reaching the ground and unable to control the plane but still reading all the instruments. He could still feel every sensation of his body like normal but he was paralyzed and unable to control anything. Red X was in control. The super thief, now super speedster, zipped over beside Robin and first mashed down his gelled hair spikes.

"Wally!"

Then he gave him a super speed wedgie that drew another shout of complaint, this one soprano.

"wa-lly!"

"God, you're so much fun to kid around with little leader. Anyway, I'm going for a run. Speedster stuff. You wouldn't understand."

Come on! He didn't deserve that!

"But you didn't stop me, did you?" muttered Red X in the hallway, and with that, he was out the Tower and across the bay just a second later. He was just 10 minutes into practicing using his new ultra conditioned speedster body, vibrating through things, buildings and walls, when a call came in on the communicator. It was Robin's voice and the tone was urgent.

"Titans! This is a blue 147. I repeat, Titans! This is a blue 147. The location is 742 Jump Ridge Lane. 742 Jump Ridge Lane."

What the hell's that, wondered Red X. He was just starting to scour Kid Flash's memories for what these codes meant when the speedster, now just a disembodied voice in the back of his head, spoke.

Blue 147! That's a fire with no known other crimes attached to it and the emergency is such that any Titans who can get there faster shouldn't wait for the rest of the group. 742 Jump Ridge Lane . . holy shit, that's an orphanage!

And then something surprising happened. Two and a half hours before they were due to switch control again, they switched. Kid Flash felt like he was vaulting back into the cockpit of the jet. He was suddenly standing amid the financial district flexing his red gloved hands and feeling in complete control of his own body. But he scarcely stopped a millisecond to enjoy the feeling before sprinting off.

What the fuck?!

Not everyone was inclined to revel at all in this turnabout.

Kid Flash poured on the speed, creating a red and yellow blur weaving through the streets of Jump City to the other side of town. He knew the address because he and the other Titans had been involved with a couple charity campaigns to raise money for the orphans. Frigging orphans, for god's sake. At the edge of his thoughts were tragic scenarios of some poor little girls and boys who'd already suffered so much burning alive. He ran even faster.

God, you're so melodramatic. It's probably a false a-

He sprinted around a certain corner and there was half the ugly, bare bones building ablaze. He was, of course, the first one there. They'd trained for this exact situation and gone out on similar calls. His job was rescue and recon. Get everyone out that he could and figure out where any other victims were that he couldn't get out then tell the others. Robin would make sure utilities, gas and electric to the building, were shut off. Star would fly victims off the roof and Raven would use her powers to get to people trapped in spots he couldn't get to. Cyborg would use his strength to help keep exits accessible and Robin and Beast Boy would do whatever was needed at the moment.

Kid Flash ran inside and frantically zipped from room to room. Most of them were empty. The orphans had just finished breakfast. Some had gone back to their rooms but many were still in the tiny cafeteria. He grabbed two grade school age boys from one smoky room and sprinted them outside.

"Ohmygod! It'sKidFlash!!"
"Thank you, Kid Flash!"

He grabbed a girl from a room starting to crackle with flame and bolted out front of the building where he left her with the boys. This was repeated over and over again. As the other Titans were arriving in the T-Jet, doing a vertical landing in the street, he was whipping up as powerful a pair of arm cyclones as he could. He'd tried it on a hunch and found, with portions of the building facade burnt and fallen away, he could literally blow out the flames at least for a few seconds. He'd give it the strongest arm cyclones he could and the fire would blow out for a few seconds, though it would quickly re-ignite as all the wood and other materials were too hot not to burst into flames with a normal supply of oxygen. It was wearing him out to keep doing it but it kept the flames from advancing toward the cafeteria where the remaining staff and 20 kids seemed to be trapped.

The other Titans could see what he was doing. He shouted to them about the kids trapped in the cafeteria and gave the flames another blast with both arms. Robin directed Beast Boy and Raven to help and threw open the top of a gas gate in the street to turn off the supply in case that was feeding it. Beast Boy immediately changed into a huge green rhino and charged through one charred wall right after Kid Flash had momentarily blown out the flames. They flickered anew around him but his thick rhino skin could take it. He charged further, lowered his horn and to the first terror, then relief of the orphans and staff a green rhino burst into the smoky cafeteria. The staff put a couple boys on his back and another grabbed his rhino ears. Beast Boy charged back out of there just as the flames started roaring again so loud that the Titans had to shout to each other to be heard over them.

Getting access to the cafeteria had been necessary but it also gave a new oxygen source to the flames and the walls of the cafeteria started crumbling faster than ever. An exhausted Kid Flash whirled both arms as fast as he could but couldn't put the flames out this time, only make them flicker. Robin shouted to Raven and she disappeared into the street and then reappeared in the orphanage cafeteria rescuing six orphans, on whom flaming debris was about to fall, inside a protective black sphere and carried them outside to safety. Starfire rescued a girl who'd gone to the roof to escape the flames and Robin coordinated Kid Flash giving one last burst of arm cyclones with Beast Boy the rhino charging in to the cafeteria again. The green teen emerged again, with two boys on his back, a girl holding on by his ears and another with Gar's horn through his belt loop, but he had flaming debris all over his thick, leathery hide. He changed back to pretty boy Garfield Logan and most of it simply fell off him.

The Jump City Fire Department was arriving on the scene now amidst sirens and horns and Robin directed Raven to one side of the cafeteria and Kid Flash the other to try to rescue the remaining trapped orphans. Raven got most of them in an ominous looking but protective black hand while Kid Flash, clearly running at less than full speed, grabbed one little girl in one arm and two little boys in the other before sprinting out and nearly collapsing in the street. Robin spoke to one of the staff and had them make a count, to check if everyone was safe. One boy was missing. Robin demanded to know where he would likely be. The staff member had barely finished describing the room when a gasping, bent over Kid Flash took off one last time and emerged five seconds, an eternity for speedsters, later with a red haired boy under one arm.

The other orphans cheered and he caught his breath leaning against a fire truck.

But, as soon as the danger was passed, it happened again. He felt like he was ejecting out of the cockpit of a jet and falling, falling, but never hitting ground, only suspended in the air, still feeling every sensation but not able to control anything. Robin came over to him and half shouted, "Good job!" over the din of the fire trucks and firemen and patted his shoulder.

You see! That's the real Robin!

A tiny orphan girl, one of the ones he'd carried out of the building, came over and hugged him around one thigh and mumbled "Thank you Ki' Flass" with a sigh. And Red X hesitantly patted her head.

"Hey, buddy, that was a new one. When'd you work on using that arm cyclone thing to tamp down the flames?" asked Robin over the din.

"Um, it was a spur of the moment thing."

"Hey, it was a great idea. Time was the big problem there and that worked directly on it," said the boy wonder with another pat on the shoulder before turning away and directing the firemen. Some of them came over and shook Red X's red gloved hand and thanked him as several more tearful orphans hugged him and wrapped themselves around him whispering thank yous and hugging the legs and waist of the speedster from all sides.

"Um, this, like, 8 year old girl in the front is squeezing my package fer chrissakes!" he thought to himself and Kid Flash.

Oh, shut up. She's 8 years old. She doesn't even know what your package is.

"Does she know what my buns are? Cuz she's squeezing both of 'em."

Fuuuuuuck off. You can't seriously be acting like a jerk about a wonderful emotional response like this.

No response.

We saved all these little kids' lives. I coud tell you felt real emotion about it. Don't try to pretend you didn't.

"Maybe," muttered Red X as the orphans slowly separated from his speedster body and as he watched Robin speaking to the News7 reporter in front of a camera, the real Kid Flash, only a disembodied voice in the back of his mind, continued to pepper him with questions.

This feels pretty good doesn't it? It can feel great to be a good guy, can't it? All those tearful little kids would be dead if it wasn't for us saving them. That's pretty worthwhile, isn't it? Isn't it? But then if you'd been in the area I bet you'd have come and helped save those orphans too, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you? And you saw the real Robin this time. He's all about the job but he gives credit and praises too, doen't he? He's not as bad as we joke about him being, is he?

But, though Kid Flash could feel strong sympathetic feelings in Red X's mind, Red X wouldn't admit to anything.

Okay. Fine. It had felt . . nice to be all goody two shoes on a rescue mission and all. But what filled Red X's thoughts were questions about how that had happened, Kid Flash regaining control of his body. There was that time and his being able to stop him from robbing that bank in L.A. It seemed like if he was absolutely committed to something, he could interrupt his control of the body. But if he was even a little bit ambivalent, like smiling suggestively at Starfire or giving Robin a wedgie, both of which he might, to some degree want to do, then he, Red X, maintained control.

Kid Flash was perplexed by Red X's response to the wonderful feeling after the rescue. He thought he might agree on the spot to become a hero and give up being a super thief. He could tell that he felt sympathy, especially when tearful orphans were clinging to him. But he didn't go further. Why not? What kind of person wouldn't? It was hard for him to understand. So, he started to delve deeper and deeper into Red X's memories.

The experience amazed him. When he called up a memory, it felt just as though it had happened to him, as though he was the little boy or the young man in the memory. He looked up at his mother, felt the pat on the back of his grandfather, looked into the eyes of that girl the first time. There was nothing like this. He was . . living that other life, at least the part of it contained in any memory

Over the more than two hours of Red X's control of his body, while Red X practiced being a speedster, Kid Flash went through Red X's memories, all of them that he could, some flashing by quickly, others lingering and Kid Flash stopping at one incident or another for minutes. There wasn't any orderly way to do it. How do you review a person's whole life? You could try to do it chronologically. Kid Flash did that. But one thing or another would catch his interest. School, for instance and he'd stop following Xing Fu Lee at his first day of school and the next one he remembered and he'd zoom ahead to something else that was more prominent in his memories of school.

That was his real name, as Kid Flash remembered from the day before, Xing Fu Lee. He repeated it out loud at the start of his research into Red X's life.

Xing Fu Lee

"Yeah, so what?" Red X said out loud, stopping in the breakdown lane of an interstate. "So you know my name . . Wally. At least it's cool and not a total dweeb name like Wally."

Red X went back to practicing being a speedster and Kid Flash called up memory after memory. It was difficult to form a complete picture. Human memory is a series of ties, associations, not a linear string of consecutive events. It was like one of those giant nearly impossible puzzles with every piece the same color that takes up the entire top of a coffee table. And recalling Xing Fu Lee's memories of one thing might put a piece in an open area with nothing touching it until something else connected to that and something else to that. School linked to memories of a friend. The friend linked to memories of a place, that place to another, to a certain job or another person, finally things might link to the other memories and fill in more of the picture.

The quality of the recollections, the feeling of having lived it, was incredible. The sights, sounds, smells and touches of every event were as though they'd happened to him. Incredible. However pissed he was that Gar and the transporter had done this to him, he had to give credit to the damn machine. This was amazing. And, at some point as he experienced the cascade of memories and formed a picture of Xing Fu Lee's life, he wondered about Xing Fu Lee experiencing the life of Wally West in such perfect detail.

But it was only a fleeting thought. Red X was a tremendous puzzle to him and slowly he filled in enough of the pieces to know him. And as he did, it occurred to him that aside from Red X himself, he was probably the only one who did. He was such a contradictory character.