This chapter is just some fluff and explaining a few things, like how Mallory keeps her secret identity. Hope you like it, and please review.
"Recognized, Inferno, B08," the computer announced.
"Well, Mallory, glad you could join us," Black Canary said.
Mallory nodded, not knowing if she was being sincere or sarcastic. Artemis and Robin were going at it in the arena, the two seasoned fighters expertly dodging blows and jumping around.
"Sorry I haven't been around for a few days," she said. Her parents hadn't let her leave the house because she'd stayed out so late that night with Robin, Wally, and Roy, but she wasn't going to tell the team that.
"It is fine. We are all called away from the team sometimes," Kalder said.
"Yeah, all," Conner muttered. Mallory bit her lip. She'd never found out the full story behind Superboy and the man of steel, and honestly she was afraid to bring it up to either of them. They heard a thud and turned to see Robin helping Artemis up.
"Mallory, you and Kalder," Black Canary called. Mallory sighed and stepped into the circle. She'd trained since the incident with Conner, but she always had a fear in the back of her head that it would happen again. Her sessions with Volcana were helping, though. She'd gone twice since the first time, and the older pyrokinetic was quick to give her tips.
She struck a fighting pose and started circling Kalder, looking for a weak spot. Suddenly he lunged and she hopped out of the way, landing perfectly balanced and ready for the next attack. Kalder tried to knock her legs out from under her, but she jumped over his leg, kicking at the same time and getting him on the jaw. He rubbed the spot thoughtfully.
"You are improving quickly," he commented. Mallory fought a proud smile. "I guess I have good teachers," she replied.
She started an all out attack, kicking and punching so fast that Kalder barely had time to block them. It wore her out, though, and he was able to take advantage of it. She was on the floor the next instant, the glaring red letters announcing her failure. Kalder offered her a hand up and she took it, slightly embarrassed.
"What did you do wrong Mallory?" Black Canary asked from the sidelines.
"I got cocky and wasted my energy too early in the fight," Mallory answered readily.
Black Canary smiled. "Good. You are getting better, though."
"Thanks, " Mallory replied.
The circle went dark and Black Canary started walking to the zeta tube. "I'll see you tomorrow," she called over her shoulder.
"So, Mallory, you're starting school tomorrow, right?" Wally asked.
"Yeah, but how did you know?" Mallory asked.
"Oh, don't worry about that. Hey, I have something for you. Let me go find it." He started walking towards his room.
"Hello Megan!" Mallory and Artemis turned to the Martian curiously. "Mallory hasn't gotten a room yet! " Megan explained.
"I don't need one," Mallory replied.
"Sure you do," Megan encouraged.
"No, I really don't,"
"But what if you want to stay overnight? Or if you have to sleep over for a mission?"
"She has a point," Artemis said. "I hardly use mine, but it's there for me when I need it."
"All right. But I won't be using it very often, so it's really not necessary."
Megan squealed and led the way to the rooms. She pressed a button on the keypad and the door slid open silently. There was a bed, a dresser, two side tables, a closet, bathroom, and a desk. Everything was plain, but serviceable.
"You can fix it up if you want," Megan said.
"I'm good. But I think I will bring some clothes up here so I don't have to go home every time we do something off duty," Mallory mused. She went into the bathroom. It had a separate shower and tub, a toilet, and a sink and mirror. She opened the mirror and saw that the medicine cabinet was well stocked with first aid supplies and pain killers.
"Convenient," she muttered, "but the medbay is just down the hall."
"Well, Robin put all the stuff in all of our cabinets in case we didn't want to go to the med Bay," Artemis explained, and Mallory nodded knowingly. Robin wouldn't go to the med Bay and publicly show he was in pain or vulnerable unless his life literally depended on it. Artemis was the same way, and so was Connor and herself.
The girls went back to the kitchen where the boys were gathered around the island with a tray of baked nachos. Judging by the amount of toppings on them, Wally must have made them.
"Well, now Inferno is officially a permanent member of the team," Megan announced.
"Thanks a lot, I guess the rest of the time hasn't counted for anything, huh?" Mallory said playfully. Megan smiled warmly.
"Well, I have to go," Robin said. He shoved one more chip in his mouth and started for the zeta tube.
"Dude, what happened to tonight?" Wally called after him. Robin started walking backwards and shrugged at Wally's question.
"Poison Ivy broke out of Arkham. Tonight's off." He walked forwards again and zetaed off to Gotham to do his dynamic duo thing with Batman.
"I should go, too," Mallory said. She strode for the zeta tube, but Wally caught up with her.
"Wait, here," he said. He handed her a bottle of conditioner.
"What is this?" she asked, looking at the bottle in confusion.
"Conditioner. For your hair."
Mallory sighed impatiently. "I can see that. Why are you giving it to me?" she asked.
"Because you're starting real school tomorrow, and I wanted to give you a present. And I'll know if you don't use it." Wally gave her a grin, but she stared at him suspiciously.
"What's it going to do?" she asked, suspecting a prank.
"Come on, have I ever let you down?" Wally asked. Mallory wracked her brains, honestly hoping to find one time that he had let her down so she wouldn't feel like she had to use the gift.
Wally smiled at her silence. "Just trust me," he said, then quietly, almost to himself, he added, "it probably won't make your hair fall out."
"What?!" Mallory exclaimed, alarmed.
"Nothing, nothing. Just, have a good first day at school." He zipped away and Mallory hesitated, deciding whether to go chase him down or go home. She decided on the latter and punched her coordinates in the zeta tube.
Mallory woke up at 5:00 the next morning. She already had everything laid out for the morning. All she had to do was have breakfast and take a shower. She turned the water on and got in, she rinsed the shampoo out of her hair, then hesitated when she reached for her conditioner. Wally's bottle was sitting next to her usual one. Wally had asked her to trust him, and he'd never let her down. Besides, he said he would know if she didn't use it.
She put a small amount on her hand. It was black, but the bottle said it had African black soap in it. She sniffed it, but it didn't smell suspicious. What he said about it making her hair fall off ran through her head as she massaged it through her hair. She rinsed it out thoroughly. She wrapped her hair in a towel and dried off.
Ten minutes later, she went back to the bathroom to finish getting ready. She was all dressed and had eaten, she just needed to put on some makeup and blow dry her hair. She didn't make up quickly, then unwrapped her hair and looked in the mirror.
"Oh, no,"she muttered, panic washing through her. Her hair was jet black. She filled the sink with water and grabbed the shampoo out of the shower. She scrubbed at her hair for the rest of the morning but the lack color stayed stubbornly stuck to her hair, not even dulling.
"Wally, I'm going to kill you," she muttered into the mirror, furious.
"Mallory, you're going to be late," Darrin called. Mallory quickly dried haler hair and dragged a brush through the damp locks, glaring at the mirror. She ran downstairs and jumped into the car where Darrin was waiting to drive her to school. "Mal, what-?" One look from Mallory and he turned away and started driving. Mallory was fuming the whole way to school.
When they pulled up to Keystone High School, she got out and slammed the car door behind her. She was late because of Wally. She took a few minutes to calm down, then went into the front office.
"Hi, my name is Mallory Johnson. This is my first day," she said to the secretary.
The older woman looked at her over her glasses. "Well, you're late," she said. Mallory took a deep breath, tempted to burn the lady where she sat.
"Yes, I realize that. Do I need a pass?" she asked.
"Well, of course you need a pass. This isn't a zoo,there are rules here, you know."
"Yes, I know. Do I get the pass here or is there somewhere else I need to go?" Mallory asked, proud of herself for keeping her cool.
"I suppose I can give you one," the secretary said, as if she was doing Mallory a tremendous favor. Mallory nodded and impatiently waited for the woman to find what she needed and write the pass. She nearly snatched the piece of paper from the woman and ran out the office. She looked for the 300 hallway and dashed down to 312 for her English class. She knocked on the door quietly and a student opened it for her.
"Can I help you?" the teacher asked. Mallory ignored the class's eyes as they watched the exchange.
"I'm sorry I'm late. Here, I have a pass. My name is Mallory Johnson," she told the teacher. The woman took the pass from Mallory and marked something down in a book.
"All right, you can sit anywhere you want. Just don't make a habit of being late." Mallory nodded and scanned the room for an empty seat. She found one at the end of the first row and slid in it quietly. The whole first period she planned out all the ways she was going to kill Wally when she got to the cave that afternoon.
Mallory grabbed her plate from the lunch lady and made her way out to the courtyard. She'd always hated cafeterias, and it was less awkward to sit alone when she was outside.
As she was making her way to a bench, a girl with brown hair sidled up to her.
"Hey, I'm Lola. We have bio 2 together," she said. Mallory nodded and said, "right, yeah, hi. I'm Mallory."
The girl glanced at Mallorys plate and made a face. "Oh, I wish I'd seen you before you got your food. The cafeteria food is the worst. The prostart class sells lunches out here. They're pretty good."
"What's prostart?" Mallory asked.
"It's the cooking class. They make about fifteen lunches everyday for practice, and they sell them to raise money for materials for the class. You have to get out here fast, but they're worth it."
Mallory nodded and started walking again. "Wait" the girl said, and Mallory turned. "Are you meeting friends?" she asked.
"No, actually, this is my first day here and I don't know anyone yet," Mallory answered honestly.
"You can come sit with my friends and me," Lola offered. "You met one of them, she's in bio with us. Her name is Chelsey."
Mallory nodded like she remembered, but she'd seen so many new faces and heard so many new names, they were all blurred together. "Thanks," she said, and followed the girl to a table under a tree where six really pretty girls were sitting around talking.
"Guys, this is Mallory," Lola told her friends. One of the girls made room for Mallory at the table and she slid her tray in the spot and sat down.
"Where was you're old school?" one of the girls asked after introductions had been passed around.
"I went to school in Metropolis my whole life before I moved back to Central City," Mallory told the girls.
They immediately perked up and started pelting her with questions about Metropolis and , mostly, Superman. Mallory answered them as vaguely as she could, and she felt pretty confident that she'd done a good job of acting normal with the answers. When the girls stopped asking her about the hero, she turned the conversation to Central City.
"So, do you see the Flash around a lot?" she asked, looking around the table.
"Yeah, like, all the time. I think he comes out just for the attention sometimes," Chelsey said, and Mallory almost choked on her water as she swallowed her laugh. She cleared her throat and moved on to the crime.
"What are the supervillains like around here? I mean, sometimes Metropolis was super scary because there was always a supervillain blowing something up or an alien stepping on buildings. Do you have things like that happen around here?"
The girls looked at each other and then took turns telling Mallory about the villains that frequented the city. Mallory listened and tried not to laugh at some of the descriptions of villains. The girls either had never seen the villains they were talking about and were going off stories they heard, or they were just prone to exaggerating. Mallory couldn't decide which one.
"The bell's going to ring soon," Lola told her. "Where's your next class?"
"I have algebra 3 in 418," Malllory replied.
"Oh, me too. We can walk there together," Lola said.
The girls packed their bags back up and threw their trash away. Mallory dumped her whole tray into the trash can. She didn't know what the slop on the tray was supposed to be, but she was sure that mud would be tastier and more nutritious. The bell rang and she and Lola started walking down the hall.
That was when she saw him. Wally was walking down the hall with another guy, and they were talking and laughing. She was surprised to see him at her school. He saw her and they locked eyes for a second. She'd intended to convey all of her hatred for him in that look, but the shocked expression on his face when he saw who she was walking with made her lose her concentration.
"Do you know him?" Lola asked. Mallory turned back to her companion and they kept walking.
"No, he was just looking at me kind of weird, that's all," she said. "Who is he?"
"I don't know, just some sophomore. He's kind of a loser."
Ordinarily, Mallory might have taken offense to that for her friend, but she was so mad at him over the hair that she actually kind of enjoyed hearing it. The girls went on to their math class and the rest of the day went by slowly, but Mallory actually enjoyed it and made some friends in some of her classes.
"Recognized, kid flash, B02."
Wally materialized in the cave, and before his eyes even cleared, Mallory had slammed him against the wall. Wally's eyes cleared and when he saw her he grinned.
"You look good with dark hair," he told Mallory. Her eyes glowed red as she glared at him, her forearm keeping him pinned against the wall.
"Relax, it comes right out," he said calmly.
"It didn't wash out, genius," she growled.
"Of course it didn't. I didn't want it to come out with water," he replied. He wriggled a little, trying to adjust the position of her arm.
"Wally, you'd better start making some sense. If Batman sees me with this hair, he'll kill me. And so will Superman. But I'll kill you first." Her tone was deadly and Wally realized that she was really mad at him.
"All right, just burn it off," he said.
The eyes turned back to their normal black. "What?" she asked.
"I made it to help you keep your secret identity, well, secret. Your hair is, like, your most identifiable feature, and you don't wear a mask, so I made something that would cover the red and be able to come off when you wanted it to, and not wash off if you got caught in the rain or something. So, the only thing that can get it off is fire. You can't really believe that I would make you suffer the wrath of Batman." Wally smiled.
Mallory backed away from him and flamed up. Wally grinned in relief as he watched the black burn off, revealing the fiery red color that matched her personality so well. She grabbed a lock of hair and inspected it carefully. Relief showed on her face, and her shoulders relaxed slightly.
"Sorry, I guess I should have told you what would happen," Wally apologized.
"Yeah, you think? I've been planning how to kill you all day." He laughed, then seemed to remember something.
"That girl you were with when you saw me, how do you know her?" he asked.
"Lola? I have a couple of classes with her, and she let me eat lunch with her and her group," Mallory replied. Wally gawked at her and Mallory rolled her eyes at him.
"What?" she asked.
"Lola Whitehead is, like, the most popular girl in the school. And she's a senior. How do you have classes with her?"
"I don't know, I just have bio 2 and algebra 3 with her, that's all," Mallory replied, waving him off.
"Those are senior classes! Aren't you a freshman?"
Mallory shrugged. "Yeah, I guess technically I am, but the school I went to was all year round, remember? And you could move through the classes at your own pace, so you didn't have to wait for your whole class to get something before moving on. I guess I got a little ahead because of that."
"A little, she says," Wally muttered. They walked into the kitchen, where the girls and Conner were watching them with confused expressions on their faces.
"Let's watch a movie or something," Wally suggested, rummaging through his cupboard.
Megan made popcorn and the team settled down on the couch to watch the Incredibles.
Around the middle of the movie, Mallory got up to make more popcorn and Artemis followed her into the kitchen. While they were waiting for the popcorn to finish, Artemis leaned on the counter and smiled.
"So, when are you and Wally going to announce it?" she asked.
Mallory turned to face her. "What?" she asked, genuinely confused.
"Oh come on. You too are adorable together. I mean, I'll never know what you see in him, but I guess I don't really need to."
Mallory tilted her head to the side. "You think that Wally and I are dating?" she asked, keeping her voice down.
"Sure," Artemis replied easily. "And hey, no judgment. I'm sure that Megan will appreciate you getting him off her."
"Artemis, we aren't dating," Mallory said with a slight smile.
"But you two are always around each other, and that whole scene when he got here today, you are such a cute couple," Artemis said.
Mallory chuckled. "Wally's like a brother to me. Sorry to disappoint you, but he's still very much available." She dumped the popcorn into a bowl and started to walk out of the kitchen, then went to Artemis's side and said, "and I see someone who cares in him. Other than Megan, everyone on the team is hardened. Robin may try to hide it, but he's the worst in the group. The crime fighting gig has scarred all of us. But Wally chooses to focus on the good side of it instead of letting the bad drag him down. He helps me look at the good side of things, too. And he may act like he's carefree and happy-go-lucky, but he's got a loyal streak a mile wide and he'll do anything to protect the people he cares about."
Artemis stared at the redhead sitting on the couch with new eyes. The girls joined the team, and Mallory noticed more than once that the archer was staring at Wally with something akin to admiration in her eyes.
Unfortunately, Wally noticed too, and he broke the moment with a defensive, "What?"
Artemis's tough exterior returned and she crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "You eat like a pig," she complained. Wally just grinned and stuffed another handful of popcorn in his mouth.
Mallory sighed and sank into the sofa cushion. She couldn't always defend him.