Author's note: Thank you so much to everyone who's reviewed or messaged me about the story. Your support and feedback means so much and it makes me want to keep on writing this story as much as I can. Anyway, on to our first interlude, a bridge of sorts between the time gap in the story. Hope you enjoy it!

-SOM


Soundtrack: "Carry On" – Common Rider

Name: Nicole Diaz

Birth Date: 8/13/1988 (It was a Friday.)

Height: 5'3" Weight: 114lbs

Hair: Pink Eyes: Pink

Restrictions: Corrective Lenses

Blood Type: O-

Organ Donor

Jinx sighed stubbornly as she rolled her eyes, her thumbs digging holes into the pockets of her dark blue jeans. She was leaning her back against the side of an old, slightly dented, slightly rusted 1972 Chevy Nova. Standing in front of her were Officers Roland and Sykes. A couple of highway patrol cops, Roland and Sykes had been on this beat for 4 hours now and this was their first ticket of the day. Talk about bad luck.

Jinx couldn't believe the stupidity of the situation. As they were crossing from California into Nevada, fatigue was starting to take its toll on her and she reluctantly let Kid Flash drive. Fifteen minutes later and they were pulled over. For speeding.

'Unbelievable,' she thought.

Kid Flash sat in the passenger seat, trying not to show how worried he was. He was glad that he had at least been able to talk Jinx out of stealing a car and instead buying a cheap bucket of crap out of the newspaper. He could only imagine how much worse things would be if they were pulled over for speeding and grand theft auto. It wasn't the ticket that was worrying him though; it was the authority figures and the chance that he might be found out. It was thanks only to his quick thinking that it was him in the car instead of Jinx now, but then again, quick thinking is the only kind of thinking Kid Flash does.

As soon as they saw the blinking blue lights behind them, Kid Flash told Jinx exactly what they needed to do. As soon as they had pulled over, and with the snap of her fingers, Jinx watched as both airbags in the squad car behind them inflated, much to the surprise of the officers trapped beneath them. Using the time they had bought to their advantage, Kid Flash quickly used his powers to swap seats with Jinx in the blink of an eye. Now all they needed was for Jinx to talk them out of any further confrontation. Piece of cake.

She pulls Officer Roland to the side and puts her hand up to the side of her mouth like she was about to tell a secret. "Excuse me, officer but I have some special identification I think you should see." She reaches into her pocket and slowly pulls out her official Teen Titans membership badge. "See, for the past couple days now, we've been on an undercover mission for the Titans. I'd tell you more but it's classified, top-secret, you understand. My partner and I were late for a rendezvous and were trying to make up for lost time. I'm really sorry for breaking the speed limit but you understand the situation it was under. You have my word that no one was in any danger." She gestured with her thumb to the car behind her. "It may not look like much, but it's actually outfitted with the latest in navigation technology and safety precautions."

The officer was stunned. "Ma'am I am so sorry. I feel just terrible about pulling you over, but you know, regulations and all…"

"Absolutely, sir. Think nothing of it. You had no way of knowing who we were."

Roland craned his neck to peer over Jinx's shoulder for a better look at the young man sitting inside the vehicle. "So he's a Titan too?"

Jinx smiled. "Yeah, he is."

"If you don't mind me asking, which one is he? I'm a big fan of your team…" The cop blushed slightly and broke off eye contact with the girl.

Beaming, Jinx replied, "Can't you tell? Look at that red hair, it's a dead give-away." With her arms, she silently charaded out the motions of pulling back the string of a bow and arrow.

"Oooh! Of course! He's that archer kid! Green Arrow's old sidekick. He's whats-his-name, Red Arrow?"

"It's Speedy, actually." Jinx just couldn't get rid of the grin on her face.

"Oh, right. Speedy." 'What a stupid name for an archer,' he thought.

Minutes later, with Jinx once again behind the wheel, the couple was driving off down the highway rolling in fits of laughter.

"Hahaha! Man, I can't believe that worked! Babe, you're the bes-OW!"

With her left hand on the wheel, Jinx punched her boyfriend in the shoulder with her right.

"What was that for?"

"That was for being a moron. You know what could have happened if they found out who you were!"

"I know, I know, and I'm sorry ok? It's just…you don't understand how hard it is for me to go slow…it takes way more concentration and patience than I'm capable of. Really, baby, I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

"I know it won't happen again because I'm never letting you drive again. If I have to drink an espresso every hour than so be it! I'm not letting them find you."

Kid Flash looked at his girlfriend in a subtle amazement. 'Time to change the subject,' he thought. "I can't believe they really bought it, though. Good thing we still have our Titan ID's huh?"

Jinx frowned. "Sure, we have them for now, but don't think for a minute that the Batman won't try to take them back once he takes over."

He saw her frown and raised her one of his own. "You really think he'd try to track us down just to get back our ID cards?"

"If any of the stories I've heard through the super villain grape-vine are true, than yeah, I do."

They sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes. "Well…maybe he won't be able to find us." From the tone in Kid Flash's voice, it sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than his companion.

"Come on, he's friggin Batman. Of course he'll find us! And then what will we do?"

At first Kid Flash didn't answer, then, "Well, maybe he'll find us and then just leave us alone. I haven't done anything wrong. Maybe they won't care who I am…"

Jinx's lips quivered and her eyes were threatening to tear up. "What am I gonna do when they take you away?? I'll be all alone again with no where to go and who knows what they'll do to you!!"

He reaches out and gently rubs the top of her right shoulder. "Don't worry, baby. Everything's gonna work out, you'll see. We'll figure something out. It'll be fine. Trust me."

She nodded. "Ok. I trust you."

"I love you, Nicole."

A combination of a sigh and a smile escaped from Jinx's mouth. "I love you too, Wally."

See, that's the funny thing about time travel. Everyone thinks they understand it but until you've lived through it, you'll never know what to expect. Wally West was living it right now and even he had no idea what the future would bring.

It was just another ordinary day for Kid Flash. The year was 1997 and he had only just recently broken off from his uncle Barry to try and find his own way as a hero. He couldn't recall all the details of the day, but the one thing he remembered was that he was running. Fast. He couldn't remember where to or why he was running, just that he was running. The next thing he knew, he stopped and he was in the year 2007 but he hadn't aged a day. As a Flash, Wally came from a long line of time-travelers, but had never experienced it himself, nor was he ready for it.Wally's first reaction was to seek out his older self. Surely he could help him get back to his old time. Realization started to sink in that he had no idea where to find this 'older Wally', but then Kid Flash had another idea. He'd do nothing. Surely his future self would remember this happening to him from his past and come and find him. After hours turned to days and days to weeks, Wally began to become increasingly concerned. 'What if he has no idea I'm here? What if this never happened to him when he was my age? What if I became some kind of crazy time anomaly and cease to exist!!'

Depression began to sink in, but Kid Flash was not the type to sit around and feel sorry for himself. He decided that the best course of action would be to do get right back into the swing of things. Do what he does best. He would do what he set out to do in the first place. Make his own mark on the world, become his own hero. It wasn't too long after that Kid Flash ran into a group of misfit teen villains calling themselves the H.I.V.E. Five…


So what'd you think? Good? No Good? Something worth mentioning, this will be the last chapter with the T rating. Come next chapter, the characters won't be teens anymore, so the language and themes will have to adjust accordingly. I'm sure you've already noticed but I try to do things as realisticly as possible (for cartoon characters, at least.) Think its a bad idea? Let me know. Thanks again for reading! Happy New Year!

-SOM