WHOO I kept on schedule and posted on Monday! Just like I wanted! WHOO. Anyway, this was a SUPREMELY fun chapter to write and I hope that transfers over to your guys' enjoyment 3 Because it's time for some shenanigans in this supposed comedy of errors.

Special thanks to analiarvb, secretlystephaniebrown, freshzombiewriter, washingtonstub, icefrozenover, ashleystlawrence, fuckyeahroosterteethproductions, thepheonixqueen, cobaltqueen, justsmilesome, Yin, notatroll7, a-taller-tale, orestes-swimming, and orangecookiekay on AO3 and tumblr for the wonderful feed back! I truly appreciate it more than you know.

Double Time
Chapter Six: Power Team

Tucker sat back against the hood of his car, right by a dent that would have probably been enough to make a regular car owner take the vehicle immediately to the shop. Of course, it was the least distracting part of the vehicle in Wash's assessment so Tucker, of course, did nothing to signify embarrassment.

No, he simply leaned back with his arms folded and a significant pout on his face for completely unrelated reasons to the moment at hand.

"I look so dumb," Tucker groaned.

Washington was wearing spandex and kevlar that fit his every curve so he found little pity within himself to offer Tucker for having to wear sunglasses and a hoodie. "You're fine."

Tucker lowered his glasses enough to raise a brow and smirk slightly. "What kind of fine?"

"Not now," Washington warned, holding up his hand. "The teenagers will be here soon and I don't think all of them are aware of my identity. Which is why you're dressed like that. And why I'm dressed like this."

"Like a tool?" Tucker asked.

"What is up with you lately?" Wash finally asked, turning enough to leer at Tucker. "You're just so… aggressive."

"By who's standards?" Tucker replied snappishly.

"You just did it again," Washington said pointing at him. "And now you're about to change the subject–"

"Did you call Tex like I asked?" Tucker changed subjects, expectedly.

"Goddammit, Tucker," Wash groaned before rubbing his face. "Yes. Yes, I called Tex to ask her and she spent about ten minutes laughing at me before hanging up. So her not being here has nothing to do with me not coming up on my end."

"Bow chicka bow wow."

Letting out a sharp breath, Washington turned toward Tucker and put his hands on his hips. "That has to be the most passive aggressive innuendo I've heard in my life," he announced.

"Heard a lot of them?" Tucker asked, tilting his head.

"Mostly from you," Wash admitted, looking to his wrist for the time. "Everyone should be arriving soon. You know, you don't have to be here. I'll keep Junior by my side. You being here is kind of like… I don't know. Parents who stay and watch basketball practice."

Tucker, if possible, got tenser. "Right. Because I'm just an overprotective, single parent."

Wash looked at Tucker, sensing that barely suppressed upset again. "I didn't mean it that way–"

"What way?" Tucker asked sharply. "I swear to fucking god, you are so dense. You don't even know what I'm upset about."

"No, I don't, so why don't you tell me later after we get through here?" Wash offered in what he hoped wasn't a dismissive tone, though he had his doubts given Tucker's continuing, building upset. "Tucker–"

"Don't give my name out in public or anything," Tucker said, throwing his wrist fully into a dismissive hand wave. "I mean, fuck, hate to have anyone know you're together with someone when they already seem to know about every other aspect of your life."

Opening his mouth, Washington tried desperately, and failed, to find an adequate response. But even if he had had more than a few seconds he probably would not have been able to think of anything.

Even so, the moment was thankfully upended by the loud THUD of Junior leaping onto the top of the car and throwing up his arms in an excited honk.

He was wearing his usual playtime 'superhero suit' – blanket cape, rubber rain boots, and all. Wash didn't miss how it was a Texas merch shirt rather than a Washington one.

It was very difficult to not take it immediately into offense.

When neither Tucker nor Wash had responded appropriately toward Junior's arrival, he clapped his jaws together in warning and glared at them both before performing a little jump and honking again.

Catching on immediately, both Tucker and Washington began clapping for the child's arrival which led to excitable cooing from Junior.

"You look very heroic, Junior," Wash commended him while Tucker lifted the little hybrid off the car and onto the street. "You're going to make all the other heroes very jealous after I introduce you today."

Tucker gave Wash a look. "Really? He's wearing rubber boots."

"Which are insulated from electrocution," Washington said without pause.

Slowly, Tucker picked Junior back up and held onto him defensively. "What the hell are you planning on doing to the children, Wash?"

"What? Nothing! I didn't mean it like–" Wash stopped himself and shook his head. "Nevermind. I was just being hyperbolic."

"Is that a superhero term?" Tucker asked, holding onto Junior despite his son's struggling to get free.

"No," Wash said deadpanned just before there was the sound of multiple feet running in their direction. Wash turned and looked as the four teenagers from the courthouse made it to them breathlessly. "Good! You've come, and five minutes early. Not to mention you had the foresight to hide your identities by not bringing your personal vehicles with you and hiding them off sight. Very forward thinking."

The four were catching their breaths.

"Actually," the one who was scantily clad save for the outrageous cape all but gulped down with his air. "None of us have cars. So we had to catch a bus here. Didn't even know buses run to this part of town."

"Oh," Wash said, rubbing at his neck. "Okay, I'll be sure to clarify transport with the four of you for next time. But it does show initiative that you changed and hid your clothes in the area. That's also smart. Did you change in one of the alleys or abandoned buildings?"

Again, a silence fell over the group awkwardly and Jensen rubbed at her arm. "Aw, geesh," she slurred through her braces. "We kinda rode here in costume."

Tucker began laughing behind him as Wash stared at the group in disbelief.

"On… the public bus?" Wash asked critically.

"Were we not supposed to do that, Washington, Sir?" the tallest one asked worriedly.

"I told you it was stupid," the one in orange accents snapped at the group.

"I was just suggesting to be practical!" the scantily clad one cried out.

"Palomo, you just want to show off your tight bod!" Jensen seethed.

"Which is not built," the yellow one snapped with a shake of his head.

"I'm built! I do cross fit!" Palomo defended.

"Okay, enough!" Washington ordered, getting everyone's attention back on him. "I'm partially to blame for this, I didn't go over the basics when we initially met with the mayors. I'm aiming to correct that mistake starting today. So let's start with an introduction. My name is Washington. I am a senior hero, used to be with the superhero team known as the Freelancers–"

"I used to have all your comics!" Jensen exploded with excitement. "On the fan forums I used to multiship you with almost all the other Freelancers! My OTP was definitely you and Maine!"

Wash glanced toward her. "Which… of course is not disconcerting or creepy to me at all." He then continued, "Before Freelancer I went through the sidekick program as Epsilon. And since Freelancer's disbandment after the Invasion I have taken up residence here in Blood Gulch to become something of a nighttime vigilante."

The group watched him in awe.

"Now, I'm going to teach the four of you what I know and, hopefully, help you to become the heroes this city needs," Wash said further.

"But are they the ones it deserves?" Tucker all but sniggered in the background.

Wash gave him a look before seeing the way Junior was hiding behind his father's legs, only peaking out to look at the new heroes with caution from time to time.

"Which reminds me," Wash said, turning to the group. "Introductions are in order. I need names and I need the kind of powers we're dealing with."

"Sir, yessir!" the tall one in blue said with a salute. "My name is John Elizabeth Andersmith!" He then flexed, each part of his body that showed skin suddenly morphed before their eyes to a shiny, metallic color. "I can turn my skin into an organic metal."

"That's astounding," Wash said, blinking. He then thought harder about it and tilted his head. "What do you mean by organic metal?"

"Sir?" Andersmith asked back curiously.

"Organic elements and metallic ones aren't… usually the same," Wash tried to explain. "So when you say organic metal do you mean like a metal that's in your body components naturally? Like copper or iron or zinc? Or…"

"I'm… not sure," Andersmith said. "Isn't all metal the same?"

"They have different strengths, different melting points," Wash continued before shaking his head. "You know what? It's really something we can figure out later. And we will figure it out later. I need to know if you can walk through lava or not without melting."

"Lava?" the kids repeated in alarm.

"Again, Wash, I ask just what the hell you're doing in these training sessions," Tucker called from beside him.

Giving his boyfriend an expectant stare, Wash expected for Tucker to back off but he merely crossed his arms and looked expectantly back. Sighing and giving in, Wash looked back to the teenagers.

Katie Jensen, the secretary Wash remembered readily, stepped forward. She was so excited she was verging on hyperventilating.

"Are you alright?" Wash asked.

"I-I'm g-great!" she wheezed. "Just. Wow. Excited. Oh! I'm also Katie Jensen and-and-and… Powers! Right. Okay, I'm magnetic! Not, like, personality or anything. Heh. I mean. Wow, it's super awkward to be around someone in person. That you didn't treat like a person. And shipped with other real-people. Wow. Okay. Hi."

Washington rubbed his shoulder. "Right. Let's just… not discuss that part."

"Oh! Yeah. Okay. That makes sense," she said, voice getting more slurred and blubbery as her cheeks lit up. "Stupid, Jensen, stupid. Get it together, girl."

"Taking sympathy on the young woman, Wash tried to edge her in the right direction. "You were telling us that you're magnetic. You mind expanding on that a bit?"

"Of course!" she half-shouted, throwing up her arms in excitement. Sure enough, as she did so, an explosive burst came out from her – moving Tucker's car back onto the curb, knocking most of her teammates over, and causing the knives at Wash's utility belt to be thrown backward.

Fortunately, Wash moved fast, flipping back and grabbing each of the throwing knives before they hit Tucker's car, or, more importantly, Tucker and Junior.

"Holy shit! My car!" Tucker bemoaned.

Curious, Wash glanced toward the vehicle. It literally looked no different than it had beforehand, but that didn't mean anything.

"Right, magnetism," Wash finally said, looking back to Jensen. "Thank you for the display."

Jensen, however, was not as excited and was sitting, hugging her knees and berating herself under her breath.

"Guess that means I'm next!" the scantily clad one said, stepping out ahead of everyone.

Wash pressed his lips to a thin line. "Oh, good," he said at least seventy-five percent sarcastic. Fortunately, it went right over the enthusiastic teenager's head as he stretched and flexed and then grabbed onto the edges of his cape for dramatic effect as he swung his hips.

"Please turn invisible," Wash said to himself, forcing himself to not look away.

"My name is Charles Palomo," he announced with a swish of his hips.

"Oh gawd," Tucker said, aghast.

"And my massively impressive, incredibly sexy power is…" He released his cape and waved his hands in front of him, skin shining and sparks igniting from his fingertips. "I… sparkle!"

Blinking a few times, Washington tried desperately to process the moment. Then he turned his head almost on its side. "You… sparkle?" he clarified.

"I sparkle!" Palomo replied enthusiastically.

"Oh my gawd," the remaining teenager groaned.

"Right. Okay," Washington said, not even sure what to do with the information.

"Hey, I don't know about being a superhero, but I can direct him to the nearest strip club. They'd love to give the fog machine a rest while maintaining their kitsch aesthetic," Tucker laughed.

"You know, that's not the most helpful input you could be giving me right now," Washington told him.

"Who said I was here to be helpful? I relish in being a civilian compared to all you assholes in tights," Tucker laughed. "I mean, you ever saw Church's full getup?"

"No, and I can't even imagine it," Wash said with a wave of his hand. "Okay we only have one more – what's your name?"

The last stood his ground and gave a halfhearted shrug. "I'm Bitters. I do stuff with fire. I don't feel the need to show off."

Wash frowned. "This isn't a show and tell, this is your first training session. It would help us all tremendously if we all knew what we were working with, Bitters."

"Yeah, I don't feel like it," Bitters replied.

Wash pinched his nose and took a heralding breath. "It's fine, it's fine, we'll work with this," he muttered to himself before clapping his hands together. "Okay! Well, we have a good variety of meta powers here. And hopefully through training we'll be able to learn how to work off of one another's powers and strengths. It's going to take a lot of training and evaluation." He glanced toward Palomo again and then to the others. "And training. And more training. I cannot emphasize enough that we're going to need a hell of a lot of training. But fortunately the variety here is–"

Without warning, there was a loud "HONK!" from behind Washington which caused him to turn on his heels to face the familiar sound.

"What the hell is that?" Bitters asked.

Tucker grabbed his hair in horror, words trying to escape his throat and failing to come out as more than strangled noise.

But Wash, Wash just found himself filled with a strange pride and genuinely being impressed.

Junior stood underneath the family car, lifting it over his tiny head before he threw it a bit forward with a BLARGH and getting it off the curb after Jensen's little explosion.

"That," Washington answered as Tucker raced over to Junior's side and checked him out, "is your new teammate and my current trainee – the Extraterrestrial Kid."

Tucker shot Washington a dirty look but the rest of the superheroes all clapped and nodded happily in agreement with the choice of teammate.

"We'll work on codenames for all of you eventually," Wash said, turning back toward the teenagers. "But until then, we work on your teamwork, your perserverance, and your general aptitude for the job ahead of you. I'm not going to be going easy on any of you, because the villains and monsters you'll run into on a daily basis as superheroes have no interest in going easy on you. And my job is to make sure you all stay alive and well despite that."

The teenagers immediately looked like they almost regretted the opportunity that had been offered to the.

Wash rubbed his neck. "Uh… then we'll go to a nearby diner I really love and get milkshakes."

"Yes!"
"Alright!"
"Fuck yeah!"
"At least we're getting something out of this."

Breathing with relief at the show of approval, Wash then watched as Junior fought to get away from Tucker's overly concerned nursing and protectiveness and took off to go stand by his new teammates, not at all deterred by either the quality of his costume, his height or lack thereof, or the fact that he, of course, was non-human.

It accented for Wash what a ragtag group he had before him.

This was going to be a challenge.

Jensen raised her hand patiently like she was in a lecture hall.

"Um, Washington, Sir?" she asked timidly. "Not that we're not super excited and that anyone would doubt a veteran of so many cool things like you… but why are we in the worst part of the city for this training instead of the training room the mayors have built for us?"

Tucker puffed out his bottom lip. "Worst part of town? Seriously?"

"You're here because no matter what skills you were born with, or what rules you're told on the first day, nothing is going to show you just where your powers and skill levels are at or give you a clue as to how to work together as a team like a real-life trial," Washington explained. "Which is why I called in a favor from some friends."

The kids looked perplexed just before an echo of polka music could be heard echoing around the street corner.

Washington looked back down to his wrist and then to Tucker. "Right on time."

"How'd you manage that?" Tucker asked. "That's almost more impressive than the fact you kept a straight face through most of that bullcrap you were talking to these kids. The Reds haven't been right on time for anything in their entire lives. Combined."

Wash shrugged and gave a small smirk Tucker's way. "I gave them the same time as the kids to be here and then just assumed it'd be about fifteen to twenty minutes later."

"Smart," Tucker replied, unable to stop the small smirk he had in response.

Without any further ado, the Reds pulled up their jeep right beside Tucker's car and revealed to be in full costume, looking curiously at the kids.

"Whoo!" Donut said, giving a thumbs up to Palomo. "Nice sparkles!"

"Thanks!" Palomo responded.

"What'd you want us here for, Wash? Is there some kinda freak costume parade in Blood Gulch no one warned us about?" Grif asked dully.

"I want you guys here to… have some fun," Wash explained cryptically before turning back to the teenagers and Junior. "Everyone, this is the Red Dead Blood Gulch Gang. They're a group of vandals and anarchists that are on the mend."

"Yeah, unwillingly," Grif countered.

"They like to paint stoplights, steal gasoline from gas stations that are overcharging, and break windows of buildings to make a point," Wash continued.

"We do?" Simmons asked.

"Is that why we brought all these paint cans?" Donut asked.

"They also like to run over superheroes that try to stop them," Wash said with a slight glare their way which was enough to silence the majority of the Reds and make Sarge chuckle deviously. "So I suppose you could call them armed and dangerous."

Grif tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. "Dude, what the actual fuck. I thought you were rehabilitating us and all that shit?"

"Oh, I am," Wash assured them. "And there's nothing better to teach you a lesson about the downsides of rampant crime than to be hounded by a bunch of super powered teenagers."

"You're going to let them chase us around Blood Gulch!?" Simmons cried out.

"You are!?" the kids said excitedly.

"Yes," Wash answered. "And I want you, Reds, to show these kids what the price of their inactions, failures, or mistakes in the field are by vandalizing any uninhabited property between here and the junkyard," Wash explained. "All of which they have to clean up if they lose you, and you have to clean up if they catch you."

The Reds stared at him before leaning in toward each other and loudly whispering between each other. Then they sat back up.

"Challenge accepted, dirtbag!" Sarge announced. "By the way, hate your new costume. Blue and yellow is disgusting!"

Without any further warning, Grif stomped down on the gas pedal and took off down the street to the whooping scream of an excited Donut.

"Wait!" Jensen cried out. "How're we supposed to catch them?" she asked.

Wash leaned back and shrugged. "I don't know. That's what you're going to show me. I'd hurry if I were you, though. I can guarantee their first crimes are going to be ignoring stoplights and stop signs."

The kids all looked at each other and then took off with a scream.

Just as Wash had worried they would, they immediately split up without any game plan. "Well," he sighed as Tucker walked up to his side. "This is going to take a long time."

"The fact that you're a bad coach might be at least partially to blame for that, Wash," Tucker replied with a raised brow. "You've not given them any instruction! Any ideas!"

"I know," Wash said. "Today isn't about that. Today is about showing them everything they don't know. Break them in. Make that over confidence they have from having super powers disappear."

Tucker stared at him. "That's fucked up."

"That's what my mentor did to me," Wash said with a shrug. "She was the best influence I ever had."

"Aw, now that just hurts my feelings, Wash," Tex's voice called from behind them.

Surprised, both Wash and Tucker turned and were faced with Tex as she casually reappeared from her invisibility.

"Tex!" Tucker said enthusiastically before they fist bumped each other.

"Nice, Wash," she said, eyes flicking up to him. "You got started without me, asshole."

"You laughed at me on the phone, you said no," Washington reminded her.

"I laughed, that wasn't a no," she shrugged.

"Well, I'll introduce you after this practice run ends," Wash said, looking back toward the streets the teams had ran down, hearing some screeching and yells as well as a light show of sparks in the air. "It… might end quicker than expected. One way or the other."

"Yeah, no thanks," Tex said with a wave of her hand. "I don't… do the kid thing. Or the responsibility thing, or the revealing I'm alive to most people thing. It's for the best that way. Keeping to the shadows."

Wash pointed at his chest. "That's what I wanted to do–"

"But now the government knows everything about you. Congrats," Tex reminded him. "Which is another reason I'm late," she said, glancing toward the rooftops. "Tell me, Wash, how long have you been tailed by someone?"

Confused, Washington crossed his arms. "Tailed? I've not been tailed. I would have noticed–"

"You are tailed," she said. "Guy was here even before I was, watching you all. Didn't get a great look at him and he noticed me and took off before I could get closer and take them out. Somehow they noticed me with my invisibility."

"That's… not great," Tucker lamp shaded.

"What did they want?" Wash demanded, more than a little worried.

"I didn't catch them, Wash," she reminded him. "But they were very interested in your little pow wow here. And if I had to take a guess… they're going to continue to be."

She began to disappear again at the second sound of an explosion a few blocks over. "Watch out for yourselves, guys. I'm not always going to pop up and save your asses at the last minute."

Washington watched her disappear before rolling his eyes nearly back into his skull. "Most unhelpful partner ever. Of all time."

"Wash, this sounds pretty serious," Tucker said worriedly.

"Almost as serious as your crankiness factor lately," Wash said, glancing toward him. "You ready to talk about that while we–"

There was a huge crashing noise and Wash sighed.

"Later, Superhero," Tucker said, waving Wash off. "Go clean up your extremely bad idea. Let me worry about my family. Alone. Again."

Wash raised a brow at him before doing as instructed.

It was something they could talk about later, obviously.