"Hi Roy!" Scarlet hugged Roy who smiled at her, nodding. "I see you brought thing one and thing two along." he joked, nodding to Dick and Wally.
"Yeah. Barry said we're going to McDonalds!" she said, bouncing on the balls of her feet, excited.
"Really? Great..." Roy was, in truth, starving. Ollie had been dragging him to Joseph A. Banks and Mens' Warehouse stores for the past four hours, since he'd outgrown his suits and, being the ward of wealthy Oliver Queen, needed to dress up and go to stupid galas...
Yet most of his pent up frustration and fear was completely gone when he saw Scarlet. Oliver must've sensed his frustration and called them to have lunch with them. He smiled slightly. How did Ollie know Scarlet was like a massage chair- she took away all the tension that had ever existed and totally replaced it with cuteness. She was like a little air freshener, except she not only smelled like gingerbread, she was like a kitten...
"McDonalds!" Scarlet was instantly racing towards the McDonald's play land, Dick and Wally racing after her, all laughing like maniacs. Roy shook his head and grinned slightly. "Ollie, get me a number four combo, okay?" he said, before he, too, took off running after them.
They ditched their shoes, tossing them into the plastic cubbies, before climbing into the labyrinth of plastic tubes and slides, climbing the ladders and playing tag...
"Ugg... those play lands are like petri-dishes. So many germs..." Barry said as they sat down with the food, content to watch the children play through the clear plastic bubbles that pervaded some areas...
"It's called hand-sanitizer, Barry." Bruce said, producing a pump of it from his pocket.
Oliver laughed. "Never thought I'd hear you being so... motherish, Bats." he said finally.
"At least he'd prepared." Barry said, and the settled back into a contented silence, watching the kids play...
Inside the little maze of tubes, everyone could hear everything, and laughter echoed as the kids ran around, ignoring all the kids they didn't know, simply obsessed with evading the one who was 'it'.
"I'll get you, Dick!" Roy yelled, scooting after Dick as he raced through the tube maze. Dick easily jumped into a blue tubed twisty slide, and Roy headed down after him. Only Roy didn't come out at the mouth of the slide. Dick approached the slide, cautious for any trickery- anything went when they played tag.
"Roy? You there?" he asked.
There was a curse, and then some noise. "No." Roy's voice drifted down the twisty slide, out to Dick. "I'm stuck..."
"Stuck?" Dick asked.
"Yes, stuck in the friggin slide. Ugg! Get Ollie, would you? And make sure none of the little twerps try and slide down this deathtrap..."
Dick trotted off to get Oliver. "Uncle Ollie- Roy's stuck in the slide."
Oliver looked up, slightly startled. "You mean he can't get himself out?"
"Nope, he's stuck. Wally and Scarlet and making sure nobody slides down on top of him, but he told me to get you..."
Oliver was already striding over to the slide, slightly afraid of how stuck Roy really was... Bruce and Barry, parents and uncles as they were, followed...
"Roy, you alright in there?" Ollie called, feeling like an idiot as he spoke into a slide.
"Umm, no. I'm stuck in a friggin slide, Ollie, I am not alright!" Roy said, sounding grumpy.
"Just how stuck are you, Roy?" Bruce asked.
"Stuck. You think I'd be in here if I could get myself out?" Roy asked.
"Try and wiggle around a little." Barry suggested.
"I can't. Do you guys not know what STUCK means?"
Scarlet and Wally were listening in as they kept vigil at the slide entrance, explaining politely to all the other snot-covered, drooling children that no, they could NOT use this slide, because their very grumpy friend Roy was stuck in it and might eat them if they went down it.
"What position are you in, son?" Oliver asked, trying to picture how Roy was stuck.
"The fetal position, dang it! I can't move! Just get me out of here, Ollie."
Ollie sighed, pulling back. "He's really stuck. I think we're going to have to call the fire department." he said.
"The media would totally jump all over that." Bruce said, sighing. "Why can't anything be simple with these four?"
Oliver sighed. "I know, but what else can we do?"
At the top of the slide, Scarlet and Wally were having a discussion. "Hey Wally, do you think we could get Roy unstuck? I mean, we are heroes and all, and he needs help..."
Wally looked thoughtful. "You know, I bet we could. What's the worst that could happen?"
Just as Ollie was getting his phone out to call the fire department, Wally's voice drifted down to them. "Hang on, Roy, Scarlet and I are going to help you!"
"What?" Roy asked, slightly shocked, before he realized what they were going to do. "Oh nonononononono!" he was cut off by a large bang as the two slid into him, side by side, whamming him and knocking him loose.
A moment later all three children tumbled out, landing at Oliver's feet...
"Uhhh..." Roy's head lolled to the side and he tasted blood...
"Roy! Are you alright?" Oliver asked, seeing the blood pouring from him nose. Bruce handed the boy a few cheap McDonalds napkins to hold to it...
"Yeah, I think so. I just remembered why I hate play lands." Roy stood, striding over to the table and sighing, sitting down to his quarter pounder, intent on getting the taste of blood out of his mouth.
"That was awesome! I'm glad I got it all on video!" Dick grinned, holding up his phone.
"You didn't..." Roy gulped, nearly choking on his cheese burger.
"We saved your life, Roy! It was worth recording..." Scarlet said, taking a bite of a chicken nugget.
Roy realized she'd gotten barbecue sauce on her nose and smiled slightly, wiping it away and deciding he'd let Dick get away with keeping the video... for now.
Wally cracked jokes that were so lame that Roy had to laugh, as did the others, but soon the meal was finished, and Wally, Dick, and Scarlet were heading back up into the play land...
"You coming, Roy?" Scarlet asked.
"Not after that little incident, no." Roy said firmly, and Scarlet's smile dimmed slightly.
Roy sighed. "Aw, it isn't your fault, kid. I'm just way too big for that now..." Roy explained, and she nodded, "Okay, see you oater, then..." she chirped, before scrambling up the ladder and disappearing into the maze of tubes...
It wasn't more than two minutes later when Bruce looked up to see Dick about twenty feet off the ground, not in, but on top of a tube, in the open air, where he could easily fall and break some bones...
Several parents were gasped and pointing, and Dick waved to Bruce, flashing his normal easygoing grin.
"Dickey bird, can you come down for me?" Bruce asked.
"Sure Tati. We were playing hide and seek..." Dick easily climbed down, much to everyone's relief, before darting back into the play place...
"How the heck did he even get up there?" Barry asked, and Bruce shrugged nonchalantly as Dick jumped down and Bruce caught him, letting the boy scamper back into the play place...
The next miniature crisis occurred twenty minutes later, when two girls that looked to be about nine were dragging a boy of about five out of the play land.
"Mommy, Jimmy peed." the one girl said, and instantly, all conversation in the room stopped. There was a moment where everyone stared at the mom, who blushed, horribly embarrassed, and took her wet son into the bathroom...
Every parent in the room whipped out their phones and started texting their children to get out of the play place and watch for wet spots. Bruce and Barry were no exception. Word spread like wildfire, and soon children were shrieking and scrambling down anyway possible. More than one little girl came out in tears because she'd stumbled and fell or managed to crawl through the pee trail...
"Where's Scarlet?" Bruce asked, looking through the mob. He saw Wally and Dick, who hurried over.
"Scarlet didn't make it out." Dick said seriously.
"What do you mean?" Bruce asked. They were talking about it like it was some nuclear apocalypse, not just an accident in the play place...
"She was in the danger zone." Wally said, studying the floor.
Everyone looked up at the same time to see it. Twenty feet up, in a yellow box with bubble plexiglass windows, at a dead end in the tube maze, was Scarlet, knees curled to her chest, looking like it was the end of the world.
Bruce grabbed his cell phone and called her quickly. Everyone in the room was watching.
"Scarlet? You okay, sweetheart?" he asked.
"Turn it on speaker." Someone demanded.
Bruce rolled his eyes but obeyed.
"Fine, Daddy, it's just... there's a really big puddle... and I don't want to go through it..."
"Okay, just hang in there, will you, Scarlet?"
"Alright..." Bruce sighed. "We'll get someone to go up and clean it..."
The mother of the boy who'd wet himself exited the washroom, looking close to tears from the incident... She was obviously pregnant, there was no way she could go up and do it...
"There ain't no way I'm cleaning that up." Announced the cleaning lady, who was a woman who looked a bit big to fit in the tunnels, even if she'd felt inclined to clean up the mess. She'd pulled out the cart of cleaning supplies, at least.
Roy looked up, and Scarlet put her hand on the plexiglass bubble window, looking down as though desperate... He sighed. Scarlet was like his little sister, and there was no way he was leaving the kid up there...
"For gosh sakes, someone here has to have some balls!" Roy said, grabbing rubber gloves, a roll of paper towels, and disinfectant spray. He nodded up at Scarlet, who grinned. Roy was coming for her. Everything wold be okay, now...
"Ollie, take my phone." he shoved it into his father's hands, ditching his black hoodie to reveal a white t-shirt... he hoped it'd stay white.
"Take these with ya." the cleaning lady handed him a plastic trash bag. "For ya used paper towels."
"Thanks." Roy rolled his eyes before sighing, taking a breath if air and starting up the little raised plastic ovals that acted as ladders in this little tube maze...
Gosh, he could already smell it. He thought about the route carefully. It was already uncomfortably hit and stuffy in the tubes, making every smell more awful... At least he'd disregarded the rules. There was no WAY he was taking off his shoes now, not with pee in here...
His thoughts drifted once again to Scarlet, poor kid, trapped by a puddle of pee in this in only socks...
He was brought back to the present by a junction of tubes. Right or left? He had no idea. The tubes changed color every five feet, it was a friggin rainbow maze...
"Scarlet?" he yelled.
"Roy!" the voice was faint, and Roy sighed, realizing he had a lot of twists and turns to make before he found her. Luckily, he stumbled on the trail a moment later. Stupid pee... H was wearing gloves, thankfully, and the smell of disinfectant was welcome as he wiped up the mess, before disinfecting the area...
He kept crawling on like that, content his knees were wet from disinfected surfaces, not urine. Finally, after ten minutes of serious cleaning, the fumes from the lysol were starting to get to him. He was feeling kinda light headed...
He almost fell face first into the mother load, then. Almost. He caught himself at the last second, mopping up the huge puddle of pee and tossing the drenched paper towels into the trash bag he'd dragged behind him, spraying, no, actually, drenching the area and scrubbing it with lysol before he looked up to see Scarlet.
"Roy!" she chirped, so happy to see him.
Down below, Oliver stared, relieved, as he saw Roy enter the small boxy compartment with Scarlet, alive... He'd been worried ever since the hit five minutes of Roy's rescue mission.
"I can't believe he did it..." Wally said, looking up in awe.
"We aren't home free yet, kid." Roy said, pulling off his rubber gloves and tossing them into the trash bag before spraying his bare hands with disinfectant, doing the same for Scarlet. "Now, I did my best to clean everything up, but you're in socks, so there's no way I'm letting you walk across the floor. It's still wet from the disinfectant, you'd slip and break your face open..." he tied off the trash bag, nodding to Scarlet.
"I'll carry you, but you need to hold this..." Roy handed her the trash bag, which she held willingly, along with the disinfectant spray... Roy picked her up, not letting her stocking feet touch the ground...
"The lysol fumes will get to your head, but we'll be out of here soon enough..." Roy assured her, starting forward in a crouch, moving painfully slowly to avoid hitting his head as he carried her...
He ditched his original route, choosing to go into another tube, hoping he knew where it'd lead... He was going to pass out if he didn't escape the stupid labyrinth and the lysol fumes...
Scarlet started coughing, and beads of sweat broke out on Roy's forehead. It was hot in here, so hot...
"Yes!" he choked out. He never thought he'd be so glad to see another slide in his life...
He tossed down the trash bag and disinfectant, knowing Ollie would remove the bag and can in time, before nodding to Scarlet. "Dang it... I hate play lands..." Roy muttered, and slid down the slide, holding Scarlet...
They both just gasped for breath for a moment, and Roy looked up to see everyone in the food court applauding...
He stood, looking disgusted. "Let's get out of here." he said, looking at Oliver. And that was when Bruce decided they would never return to that McDonalds. And Oliver learned that when it came down to it, Roy was a pretty good big brother.