"Oh, sorry," said Red X, controlling Kid Flash's body now, to Raven beside him in the aisle between bookcases of the Titans library.
She shrugged at the speedster. "You can have it."
"No, no. I . . " he looked her right in the eye about to say something then seemed to think better of it and turned away. "You should take it. I was going to get it for . . ," he paused and sighed, ". . for Jinx but she won't be back till tomorrow. Probably wouldn't matter . . anyway." He let out a disconsolate sigh and moved down the aisle a few feet.
Raven raised an eyebrow but kept going, looking for another book and, at last, finding it. As she was looking, she noticed Kid Flash, repeatedly glancing her way with a particularly intense expression on his face. Then, they bumped into each other by the main entrance to the several rooms that made up the library.
"Oh, gosh, sorry." he muttered as he caught her by the shoulders. "I'm so used to zipping around here with the place empty. I really love these places. I don't care if that makes me a hopeless nerd. I don't want everything to be on a Kindle or an iPad. I like holding books. I like the look of them, the feel of them. I don't want everything you read to be out of a single nondescript piece of plastic."
"I couldn't agree more," said Raven softly with what almost seemed like a smile to X.
"That's why if . . . " Kid Flash stopped himself. He shook his head and turned away.
"What?"
"No, forget it."
"By Azareth, what, Wally?"
He turned slowly around and gave a long, deep sigh. "I . . I don't know how a person can possibly bring this up to another person he so deeply respects and so much likes. So I'll-I'll just do it," he said and then paused again.
She was in the grip of anticipation now.
"What?"
He took another long slow sigh and then spoke looking her right in those beautiful violet eyes.
"You know that Jinx is away at her mother's farm in the hills east of Jump, right?"
"Sure. I saw her go."
"But you don't really know why."
"What do you mean?"
"Well . . . you know how-how competitive Jinx is . . "
"Of course. She was the driving force behind the HIVE 5. Where've they been since she left?"
"Right. Nowhere. Well . . a few weeks ago, I found out something about her past and-and since then," sigh "well, did you know a person can even be competitive in a relationship?"
Raven's brow furrowed.
"No. It's true. It happens. Look . . I . . I don't fault her for being that way. It's what allowed her to survive being ostracized even as a little kid. The stories I could tell you about how horrible people were to her . . ! If she hadn't been so willful . . ."
Raven nodded, empathetic.
"So, like I say, it's how she survived. I don't begrudge her her spirit. I love it. But it's . . ," he looked down at his feet now. "It's driving us apart now. You see, I . . I found out from Kyd Wykkyd that Jinx had had a fling with Red X-"
Raven caught her breath. Her eyes went wider.
"It was before we were married!" he added. "I don't . . blame her or-or think there was anything wrong with that. I mean, the guy's incredibly cool. He's got a great body. I mean, the one now, of course, not . . -" X noticed that Raven was smiling and stopped.
"What?" he asked her.
"Nothing. It's just. I was remembering when he first appeared on the scene, the Red X there is now, not Robin. And Robin went to great pains to try to convince us that it wasn't him, as if we wouldn't notice that this other guy was about 5 inches taller and had this amazing pair of-" she started forming the shape of Red X's butt in the air and stopped herself.
Red X controlling Kid Flash's body smiled at her. "It's okay. Even all us guys notice."
She faintly smiled.
"But it-it doesn't bother me. It was after I'd first met her but before we had made any sort of commitment to each other. It doesn't bother me, no matter how cool he is and how much of a nerd I am by comparison. Probably every girl wants to be with him. So what? But . . you know what I said about being competitive even in a relationship?"
Raven nodded.
"Since Jinx saw Kyd Wykkyd sign that news to me she just can't accept that it doesn't bother me, that I'm not," he made air quotes "one up on her, somehow. It doesn't mean anything. But she's always on edge, hyper vigilant that I'm not going to think of her the same way or that I'm going to somehow look down on her. There's been so much tension since I found out a month ago."
"Really? I thought you two had seemed as close as ever."
He sighed. "I wish. Only on the surface. Things have been getting more and more strained. Finally, get ready for this one, she came up with a solution. Are you ready?"
Raven nodded.
"She wants me to sleep with someone else to even things out."
"What?!"
"Yes."
"So . . you've been wondering if I'd . . . "
He nodded.
She was taken aback and gazed off to one side trying to wrap her mind around this news.
"I know it's a crazy situation," he blurted out. "How can I ask that of you? It's not right, I know. Heck, I-I don't even know if I can do it. It's insane in a way. But when I tried to think of a girl who was attractive and smart and had all the qualities I care about, other than her, I . . I kept thinking of . . . you."
He stepped closer to her now. "It's almost like a catch 22. The more wonderful a girl is, the less likely she is to do something like this in these circumstances, right? But for me . . for . . our marriage. Will you . . . . . will you . . . "
Raven let out a long slow breath and gave the slightest nod.
Red X, controlling Kid Flash's body, allowed himself a millisecond long smirk. Knew it! Knew she wanted to fuck him! Knew it!!
Slowly, he pulled back the hood of her cloak revealing her violet hair and letting him see clearly her light gray face and big beautiful eyes. "You're so pretty. Still, I-I don't know how to go forward doing something like this. Maybe if you took the initiative . . "
She stepped up on her tip toes and just touched her lips to his. He gave her a bashful smile and she actually seemed to smile at him before taking his red gloved hand in hers and leading him out of the Tower library. He made sure to say nothing including when they got to her room. Holy shit, the place was spooky. Did she have black light bulbs in the lamps beside her bed?
She made him stay in one exact spot just inside the door and then covered up a large mirror and some books sitting open on wooden pedastals. He sniffed at the air. Is that brimstone? Well, this is certainly different.
All that done, she returned to where he was and pulled his cowl down around his neck.
"I always liked the wings," she said. "Makes you think of Mercury. It's such a nice touch."
She continued pulling his uniform off him, which was actually quite difficult to do. But after much tugging and straining he was there naked. She stepped forward and kissed him. X wanted to rip her cloak, leotard and top right off her in return. But he held back. Everything went very slowly. Compared to doing it with Starfire, this was like glaciers in love or giant sea tortoises. But he got in the rhythm of it. She was all about slowly building quality. X knew that game. There'd been with a red haired Vogue cover model in Paris who insisted on it being like this.
At least, things had to start real slow. He kissed her and slowly removed her belt. He kissed her some more and removed her gloves. More kissing. Her boots. Kissing. Cloak. Kissing. Leotard. Kissing. Leggings.
He vibrated his lips ever so slightly to give a special tingle to their kisses and gave a couple similar jolts with his tongue. She was breathing deeply now. Oh, she's gonna be a moaner. He felt sure of that. Starfire's the screamer. Raven's the moaner.
He put her down on the bed gently and whispered some Rilke to her in between kissing her breasts and her neck. Her hands were all over him now. He kissed her in all the strategic spots and some of the less likely ones noting her reaction, where she wanted to be touched. X was an expert at this, alternating from one special spot to another to make it feel even better. It wasn't till several minutes later that they got to the act itself.
But for all her desire for sensitive foreplay, an hour later, he was thrusting away with his magic johnson just like with Starfire not just because X wanted it that way but because she did. They did it 8 different ways in their nearly 10,000 seconds together. But after each time, she made him lay there a few minutes with her, lying beside her or underneath her. Basically, she wanted to cuddle. He guessed that she never got that in her life. Having sex was already a big risk for her, setting emotions free. A little spooning afterward wasn't much additional risk. He pretended to be all conflicted. How can I do this? I shouldn't have done this. But, of course, she was having a great time and was more than willing to talk him through his "deep ambivalence" so that they could fuck again in another minute. Somehow, against all odds, she was able to break through his reservations and he'd be banging away minutes later.
At one point X worried that she would somehow detect that it was him not Kid Flash controlling the body she was snuggling up against. But he remembered that she'd told Kid Flash something about the way his speed force energy came into his body totally screwing up her reading his mind or seeing his life force.
X almost felt guilty about it. The girl really was special. And she was incredibly hot with that cloak and everything off her. She had pale gray skin and big dark eyes and violet hair but she was a normal seeming girl, otherwise, physically. Well, much better than normal, an extremely hot normal seeming girl in great shape with a nice rack and a tight round ass. By the end of his 10,000 second period of control of the body, they were both behaving completely without inhibitions. X was pushing her buttons so perfectly, with the help of his temporary speedster body, that he wasn't sure what she'd do. This was incredibly powerful Raven, after all. And he had her gasping and moaning and just barely in control of, well, anything for minute after minute. It was only afterward that he learned of the reports of a giant purple happy face somehow appearing in the sky over Jump City and Fourth of July style fireworks in the most amazing range of colors exploding high over the city with a power that dwarfed the city's actual Fourth of July display and whose origins no one could seem to explain.
He came back from her bathroom, shockingly just like the others in the Tower, no skull faucet handles or taps dispensing blood, and lay down beside her after their last time. She sighed and lay her head down on his chest, a beatific smile on her face.
"Maybe emotions are worth the risk if you can be this happy," she finally whispered.
It was at this precise moment that Red X felt the accustomed sensation, like a pilot ejecting from the cockpit of a jet fighter then parachuting down ever down. He wasn't in control of the speedster's body any more. Kid Flash was.
And he was terrified.
He was in Raven's room. He was naked in Raven's room, in her bed and she, also naked, was lying on top of him.
He realized he had his hand on her butt and frantically pulled it away. She had one of her hands around his equipment. His eyes were wide with fear. How do I get out of here?! What if she realizes what went on for the last, almost 3 hours? Does she banish me to some realm of everlasting excruciating pain? He didn't want to find out.
As carefully as possible, he wriggled out from under her then got off the bed and pulled on his dance belt and Kid Flash uniform.
"What's the matter?" she asked, sitting up in bed but not bothering to cover herself.
He remembered Red X's lie.
"I can't stay any longer. If I do then I'm enjoying it for it's own sake. I've-I've done what I have to do to satisfy-to satisfy Jinx. Please don't think of my leaving as in any way a commentary on you. You're a wonderful girl a-a beautiful girl. I . . " he didn't know what else to say and sped out of there, vibrating right through her door and out into the hall. From there he sped not to his room but Beast Boy's.
He knocked on the door a hundred times.
"Jeez, dude, come in!" came the shout from inside.
Kid Flash walked in. The room was as incredibly messy as usual only now with copies of contracts with modeling agencies in among the detritus on the floor. Beast Boy was at his computer on one side of the room. He didn't even look at Kid Flash.
"I programmed my communicator for that 10,000 second thing. It beeped a minute ago, so you're Wally not Red X, right?"
"Yeah, Gar. But we've got a real problem."
"Just a second, dude. Check out this Youtube. This guy made a video with his two cats. He trained 'em to-"
"Gar!"
At last Beast Boy looked up from his laptop. "Jeez. All the knocks and now yelling at me. Maybe Robin's taking a turn running your butt."
"Gar we've got a problem. A serious fucking problem."
"I know, I know. Red X is in your body. So-"
"Gar! In the last, like, 9 hours he did both Star and Raven!"
Beast Boy jumped to his feet. "What?! He did Star and . . and . . Rae?"
Kid Flash explained it without going into details of all the things he'd done in bed with the two female Titans.
"We've gotta do something, Gar. We can't let him run wild. Who knows what, or who he'll do next?"
"Well, jeez, don't look at me when you say that?" chuckled Beast Boy.
"He's slept with guys before, Gar. And you are a model now, too, so . . . "
"What?! Okay, it's time to stop this guy. Do you really think he'd try to do me?" he asked, both hands sliding behind him.
"Nah, probably not. He mostly goes for girls. But I went through his memories of his life for hours and he has been with some guys."
Beast Boy made a face of extreme displeasure.
"Are you sure?"
"Gar, we share a mind, practically now. I could recall everything he had stored in his memory. It was incredibly vivid, like it was actually happening to me."
"Ohmygod! So it felt like you and some dude actually . . "
Kid Flash made a face of extreme displeasure.
"Yeah, can we change the subject now and concentrate on the task at hand? We have to stop him."
"He really did Rae?"
Kid Flash nodded.
Beast Boy sighed. "I don't know why I'm so disappointed. It's not like she and I were a couple or anything. Maybe I still held out hope. I don't know."
"Can you . . can you change into some animal that could sting me or bite me right at the end of the 10,000 second period so that I'm pretty much unconscious for the 10,000 seconds that he's in control?"
"Dude! That's a tall order. The problem is that you recover so fast. And where's the line between a snake filling you with enough venome to knock even you out for three hours and filling you with enough venom to kill you. You're kind of a freak, Wally."
Ove the next few minutes, Kid Flash ran through a whole bunch of suggestions of poisonous or incapacitating animals, snakes, scorpions, spiders etc. But Gar shot them all down. Either not strong enough or life threatening. The two of them were silent for several moments.
"Did she like it?"
"Huh?"
"Raven. Did she like it?"
Kid Flash nodded. "Every time."
"Every time?!?!? How many times did you, or he do her?"
"What's it matter whether I tell you six, eight or ten, Gar?"
"Ten times?!?! You fucked my girl ten times?! Some pal you are!"
"Gar! When did she become your girl? And I didn't have anything to do with it. I got out of bed and got out of there as soon as it was me in control."
"You were in bed with her?!" Beast Boy hung his head, crestfallen.
"Gar, can we get past this?"
"Easy for you to say. As soon as somebody who looks exactly like you gives her some bullshit story she's on his rod."
"Gar. Some other time. We've gotta come up with something to stop Red X from doing it again or doing something else. I tried to stop him but if I have any interest at all, even the tiniest fraction of 1 percent in doing what he's doing, then I can't stop him. I . . . tried to stop him both times. I don't want to cheat on Jinx! But, I'm not some kind of saint or something. Star and Raven are hot. Any guy would have at least some interest in doing them. We've gotta stop him now before he does something else we don't want and we've got a little less than 3 hours to figure out a way to do it."
"Well . . . what about Z? Couldn't she cast some kind of magic spell?"'
"She's not around. Jinx invited her to meet her at her mother's but Z had to be in some alternate dimension or something."'
"Maybe we could break into her place and drop some of that frog powder stuff on your head. Remember that? Haha. One crystal and you turned into a frog! What was it she said about you and Flash? Uniquely su-what?"
Kid Flash groaned. "Susceptible. Uniquely susceptible to transformational energies. Fine. "
"Well, why don't we just turn you into a frog?"
"I don't want to be a frog, Gar. Transformations freak me out, okay? Besides. Z protects her place with a guard spell. If she's not there nobody else can get in."
"What if we locked you into one of those cube cages with the two layers of hard clear plastic and xenothium plasma between 'em like Slade used."
"We took those apart, Gar. There aren't any anywhere."
The two teens batted around a lot of ideas. Well, mostly Beast Boy made suggestions off the top of his head and Kid Flash explained why they wouldn't work. The thing was, it's very hard to contain a speedster. Beast Boy suggested that they take away his powers. Kid Flash said he didn't know of any way that someone could. Finally, Beast Boy asked if they didn't have something at the Flash Museum in Keystone City that they could use, all those crazy transformations villains worked on Flash.
Kid Flash shuddered. He didn't even like talking about all those transformations. He hated even the idea of them, all that black magic and futuristic devices. There was no defense against it. He hated that. Partly it was because he felt like it took away his edge. He could squeeze space and time with his super speed that gave him a huge edge over villains. They couldn't defend against a lot that he did. But magic and some of these bizarre ray guns trumped his super speed.
But partly it was because he didn't have exactly the same powers as Flash. It was the same way with Mas and Menos. Their abilities weren't exactly the same as his. They'd developed the ability to speed apart from each other for short periods but they still had that limitation. Flash's powers were different, too.
At almost 19, Kid Flash thought he might be even faster than Flash now. And he was working on an ability to take the speed out of things. He'd done it on a bullet. He hadn't caught it. He focused his thoughts a certain way and touched it in mid flight and the bullet just stopped and dropped to the ground. He took the speed right out of it. Flash couldn't do that. But Flash had an amazing control over all the molecules in his body. He could practically melt his own body down and then reconstitute it in another second and be good as new. He's used this ability to beat most of those freaky transformations that they had displays of in the Flash Museum. Turned into a mirror. Turned into a puppet. Etc etc. Kid Flash shuddered just thinking about them. Because he had no way out of it if something like that was done to him. Of course there was that one humiliating one where the way out didn't involve special molecular control. He shuddered just thinking of that one, too. Ugh. Disgusting. Of course, that might actually work.
He and Beast Boy kept batting around ideas in Gar's messy room but after a few minutes, Kid Flash realized that Gar's ideas were getting increasingly wild. Have Larry zap you! Suspended animation! Clone zombies! That was when he realized he had to make a tough choice or they were just wasting time, when Gar was veering off into clone zombies. His thoughts kept returning to the one possibility. But he shuddered at the thought of the solution. He ran his red gloved hands down his sides and took a deep breath. What else is there? He shuddered again and almost gagged thinking about it.
"Gar."
"What about we turn you into a Plasmus for three hours and-"
"Gar!"
". . sorry . . "
"Gar, I . . . I think I know one that'll work Gar."
He explained what he had in mind to Beast Boy.
"Would you really do that?" asked Beast Boy stepping across some laundry on the floor of his room and closer to where Kid Flash stood. " That's, like, totally anti-speedster."
"What other option do we have?" asked Kid Flash before taking a deep sigh and telling Beast Boy, "Okay, turn into a flea or something and jump on me. We're going to the Flash Museum in Keystone City."