Linda screamed. The ground shook beneath her feet as several androids marched towards her. Glancing to her left she just made out the crouched form of Marla as her face drained of all colour. Linda's head snapped back round, her eyes widened as a mechanical arm raised to level with her chest, staring in fascinated horror Linda saw the hand morph into what looked like a bazooka. Her last thought: she'd never get to see Wally naked.
Four hours earlier
Wally stood hunched over the sink in his private quarters on the Watchtower. It had been a birthday party like no other: hot wings, strippers and beer. The following morning after the debauched celebrations for Green Arrow's day of birth and his body was ripping through a hang over; by some lethal concoction of drinks and massive amounts of it Wally had gotten slightly drunk. Breathing heavily he straightened up, taking an impossibly large swig of water he yanked his cowl over his head. Shaking himself the Flash stepped out into the hall, he was taking a calculated risk but he figured by the time he got up to the bridge he'd be back to his chipper self. Squinting against the fluorescent tube lights Wally walked down the corridor before calling the lift that would take him to the nucleus of the Watchtower. After a few seconds of waiting none other than the Question joined him. Wally glanced over to his faceless companion and smiled, the Question merely nodded, well he might of smiled – he never really could tell.
"So..." Wally began, rocking back and forth on his feet.
"Are you aware that the distribution of..."
The Flash was saved from listening to the Question's theories as the elevator pinged; zipping in he pressed the appropriate button.
"Going up?" he questioned.
"...perpetuated by the Republican Party resulting in a significant election victory." Victor Sage stepped into the lift after Wally and nodded once more. The Flash braced himself for more conspiracy talk, something about Barbie dolls and ticket sales for the LA Lakers.
After what really seemed like an eternity later to the Flash, no doubt made worse by Sage's incessant ramblings, the two league members were released from the confines of the elevator. Zooming towards the cafeteria Wally took a quick a breakfast on Batman and then reported for duty on the bridge. Mr Terrific was in the middle of coordinating the relief effort for those in Australia and the volcanic eruption in Japan; affording Wally a curt nod he resumed his task barking orders to those on the ground. His job done for the time being Terrific rounded on Wally and the several heroes that had gathered behind him; the brush of feathers against Flash's arm alerted him to Shayera Hol's presence. Wally grinned at her, the Thanagrian merely grunted. She too had been present at the Oliver Queen's birthday but due her physiology and the subpar alcohol served on Earth hangovers rarely affected her. Sleepless nights, however, were a different story.
"So how was last night?" Wally whispered.
"Don't even go there..." Shayera spat out, her eyes staring straight ahead, her wings curled up tightly.
"That bad huh?" Wally questioned, behind his mask his eyes danced with mischief. "I didn't see you or Roy towards the end of the party..." he commented lightly, carelessly examining a scuff on his boot.
"You obviously weren't paying attention..." Shayera returned, still staring front and centre.
"You know I can just ask Speedy... locker room talk."
Shayera whirled round to face Wally, "What do you mean locker room talk?"
Flash giggled nervously as he scratched the back of his neck. "Roy's just really good with the ladies and everyone knows about it."
"Everyone?"
Wally noticed Shayera's arm darting out to grab his wrist and the Speedster neatly dodged her. Switching sides he whispered into her ear, "Don't worry GL wont find out, Roy tends to keep his bragging to us second generations guys."
"What makes you think I care what John thinks?" the winged heroine countered a little too quickly.
"Shayera don't even try to pretend with me..." Flash replied in hushed tones, casting a cursory glance to Doctor Light and Ice.
Shayera's shoulder's visibly relaxed, as did her grip on her mace. "Last night was fun and a good distraction. I know I'm supposedly destined to be with Carter and I may have a child with John in a possible future. But John told me he wasn't going to be destiny's puppet; everyone seems to be deciding exactly what they want and I'm not. Last night was different though..." Shayera sighed as Flash's hand wrapped round hers. Startled she glanced towards Wally.
"Its ok you know. I'm not going to judge you."
Shayera nodded, her next words were spoken with complete sincerity. "I know and that's why you're a wonderful friend."
Wally blushed, coughing to hide his embarrassment. "So I have this graduation type party to go to into Bludhaven next week, lots of beer?"
"Sounds good..." Shayera smiled.
"One problem though, Roy might be there."
Earth side, Central City to be precise and Linda Park bundled into the elevator with several other journalists and Marla. She had somehow managed to land the coveted roll of Bret De Vos' interviewer for Channel 4, she had 15 minutes with the movie star before she'd be hustled out to make room for E!'s chosen reporter. Having seen the film the night before with a bunch of other journos Linda could say, categorically, that the movie sucked. Brushing down her skirt she waited for the lift doors to open and for some fresh air to be circulated through her lungs, someone really needed to change their deodorant. Heading towards the hotel suite she perched nervously on an overstuffed chair as she fiddled with her press badge, it was that or check her phone for text messages. Seeing as she couldn't afford the rigmarole of analysing every word Wally sent her she did her best to ignore the urge to pull out her BlackBerry.
"Ms Park?" a tall slender woman approached, staring imperiously down at her clipboard, she glanced back up to Linda.
"Yes."
"Mr De Vos is ready for you now. I want to make this clear. You are to stick to the movie and his upcoming projects only, you do not mention the end of his relationship with Lana Willis nor do you mention his subsequent psychotic break."
Linda laughed nervously, "Right... Our Endless Summer Days only and the possible Harry Potter reboot with Bruce Wayne directing?"
The clipboard woman smiled icily, "Yes we are very excited about the possible collaboration with Wayne Entertainment on Mr Wayne's directorial debut."
20 minutes later and Linda stumbled onto the pavement, Marla stood next to her looking equally as exhausted. Less than half an hour with the difficult actor had left Linda craving a stiff drink, the man had been impossible. For the most part he had barely answered the questions that she had carefully prepped for, instead De Vos had demanded latte after latte before growing so enraged at the assistant's apparent lack of competence that he had thrown the offending drink at the poor girl. By this point Linda had managed to glean that the movie had 'spoken to him' on some sort of spiritual level. When Linda asked whether he had any interest in pursuing a career as a dog walker who volunteered at a local school for the hearing impaired like the protagonist De Vos had cracked up into hysterical laughter; before commenting where else was he going to get a job that paid him $2 million for reading lines. All thoughts of the demanding star were conveniently brushed to one side as the pavement shuddered beneath her feet, the windows of the surrounding buildings visibly rattling within their frames. Looking down the street towards the sound of rumbling, droning engines Linda visibly blanched.
"So do you know what's got Batman particularly pissed off recently?" Shayera questioned, as she stared ahead into empty air space.
Wally smirked, "Apparently he's had to sink a couple of million bucks into a movie that's never going to be made just to do some recky in London."
Shayera was cut off from responding by the hissing of the planes onboard communicator, pressing down on a blue button the Thanagarian opened up a link.
"Terrific to Javelin Seven, come in."
"This is Shayera, over."
"There's something going down in Central City, I'm rerouting your group."
"We're on it T..." Shayera replied before sneaking a look at Flash, the Scarlett Speedster had visibly tensed in his seat.
Now
Wally whipped round just in time to see Linda scream, the gun arm of a robot lifting to take aim. Kicking into gear he sped forward, his eyes never leaving Linda's form as he dodged several stray hits only to be sent careening into a parked car by a heavy blow to the chest. Shayera Hol meanwhile was circling above the battlefield ready to swoop in for another strike; her sharp eyes however had picked out her friend fall. Scanning the nearby area she noticed a small Asian woman cowering before a battle droid. With her fierce battle cry Shayera plummeted towards the ground, her mace at the ready. Landing in front of the woman Shayera quickly assessed the situation as her mace came up on reflex to parry a burst of energy from the robot. Deflecting several more beams of light Shayera got in close enough to land a forceful blow on the robot, knocking its head clean off. Lifting off and flying back towards the woman she now recognised as Wally's latest crush Shayera reached out with her arm and grabbed Linda round the middle. Forcing her wings to beat down against the air as quickly as possibly the Thanagarian powered along the street to the line held by the cops and the emergency services. Depositing Linda amongst the medics she gave a fleeting yet reassuring smile before swooping back towards the melee.
By this point Flash was back on his feet and sending several punches at incredible speed towards the severely depleted army of robots. It was then he saw a young boy crouched over a fallen figure, less than a second and he was by the child's side. A tear stained face looked up at him, wide-eyed and afraid; Wally scooped up the little boy before taking him towards safety. Placing the boy in the back of same ambulance currently housing Linda he gently addressed the crying child.
"I'll be back with your Mom in a minute little guy," Wally ruffled the boy's hair, before turning to Linda. "Would you mind watching out for him Ms Park? I'll be back..." without waiting for Linda to respond Flash had gone, the air current buffeting the little boy backwards. No sooner had Linda righted the boy and the Scarlett Speedster returned carrying a woman across his arms. Several EMTs pushed forward to relieve him of his load, with that done Wally nodded before joining his fellow Leaguers. Spotting Doctor Light being pushed under several robots he zipped towards the largest cluster of metallic men and began to cut them down with sharp blows through the chest disrupting their central processing units. Within minutes Shayera and Ice had joined him, fiercely pushing back the robots from their teammate. Soon the majority of the attackers were depowered; there was nothing more satisfying than cutting loose on a robot.
Shayera flapped her wings impatiently; Flash had disappeared once the last robot had been rendered useless.
"Kimiyo," she called out to Doctor Light, "I'll be back in a minute, I'm going to get to Flash."
Beating her wings harder and faster she rose into the air, the height gave her a clear view of the chaos below, several firemen and police officers were dotted about helping various civilians out of turned over cars and ruined shop fronts. Catching a splash of red amongst a sea of blue Shayera swooped down; landing next to the Scarlett Speedster she repressed a smile. Central City's local hero was crouched beside a small boy reassuring him as his mother was packed into an ambulance ready for transportation.
"You're just going to go with your Mom to the hospital and your Dad'll be there to pick you up."
"What if she doesn't wake up Flash?"
"She will, don't worry about it Toby..."
Linda at this point was looking dangerously close to bursting and Shayera stepped forward.
"Yo Flash, we've got to get back to Watchtower..."
Noticing the winged woman Linda cautiously stepped towards her, "Erm, Ms Hol, thanks for saving me back there."
"No problem..." the Thanagarian replied, "its Shayera."
"Right," Linda laughed, before glancing back at Flash who was now helping Toby back into the ambulance.
"He's some superhero isn't he?" Shayera commented mildly.
"He is." Linda agreed. "But sometimes you don't need a hero, you just need a guy, you know?"
"Yeah..." Shayera nodded absentmindedly.
"Right, I'm ready to go!" Wally called out, "You get home safe Linda."
"You too Flash... thanks again."
On the revolving space tower and having been given a brief respite before heading towards Japan Wally nipped up to his room. By some technical voodoo provided by Batman cell phones still had reception. Glancing down at his phone Wally noticed a missed call from Linda accompanied by a text message.
'Dinner my place after work? So long as you don't tempt me into stealing any priceless artefacts in lieu of dessert that is.'
Wally grinned.
A/N: Another chapter! Not much Wally/Linda interaction. Hope you guys dont mind.. anyway let me know what you think