Set after the great brain robbery episode

Word Count:2761

Includes but not limited to:starvation; aftermath; fear; Wally's past; abusive parents; admitting; concerned league; Bruce tearing out his hair in annoyance; GA and Black Canary planning someone's arrest as well as 4 other teams doing the exact same thing of which Bruce might have been one

The day after "the incident" as Wally had begun to call it, he teleported back to the watchtower for another obligatory meeting – they were all obligatory if you were a founding member sadly. The other day he had immediately headed home as John had offered to bring him back to earth using his ring's power.

John had seemed in a hurry to get Wally out of the watchtower, and he couldn't blame him: who knew what Luthor had done in his body. It would have been probably been hard to look on him again, after fighting him for the better part of the day. Wally just hoped this thing had blown over overnight, and everything had gone back to normal.

Karma can be awful at times: everything was different. Wally stepped off of the teleportation pad with his usual happy air, and quickly took in the mess around him: Luthor really had done a job on the watchtower main lobby. Hopefully, this would be the only wrecked place.

The second out of the ordinary occurrence was the people. Where usually they would have chatted idly among each other; avoided conversation with him because they thought him to excentric and laugh at him behind his back, he now just found them staring at him in fear.

Fear. The one thing he never wanted to see on the faces of the League, or anyone for that matter. Even to his enemies he was kind. What had Luthor done?! Wally knew he hardly used all of his powers: most of them were too dangerous to use. What if Luthorhadused them? What then?

Wally strolled idly off of the platform, walking slowly through the ranks of superheroes who opened up for him to pass. He sighed internally. He had only ever see them do this for Bats. Because they were scared of Bats. Were they just as afraid of him as of Bats?

Wally trudged along, the ranks opening and closing behind him. Behind him there was deadly silence. No gossip. No joking at his expense. Nobody was commenting on how dumb he was; how annoying or how childish. They were just silent. Silence: the thing Wally hated most in the world. It always made him think back to… no, he wasn't going to think of that. He shook the thought from his head and proceeded to the cafeteria.

Which, of course, was also destroyed. Wally looked with a mixture of amusement and annoyance at the forks embedded in the wall and heaved a sigh, making a quick sweep behind the counter: no food. Yeah: no surprise there. He begrudgingly took a granola bar he had been planning to save for later out of his suit's pocket, and started munching on it, settling down at one of the tables in the cafeteria.

The second his weight shifted onto his chosen chair, it broke underneath him. Wally only managed not to fall by the breadth of a hair. And looked at the chair forlornly: so much for sitting down whilst eating. Although, in all fairness, he didn't do that usually either, choosing to run around over sitting down.

Though ever since "the incident" he had been feeling exceptionally calm and serene, one could say. He didn't even feel like eating, in all fairness. He hadn't been feeling like it since he had returned to his own body. It was weird, but he shrugged it off as he looked at the clock and noticed it was 5 minutes until the meeting. With a sigh, he strolled out of the destroyed cafeteria and down the hall to the meeting room, and, for the first time in his life. He was early.

Batman looked up as Flash entered, quirking an eyebrow under the mask: 'You're early.'

'Thought it would be nice for a change.' Wally replied with a smile as he sat down in his chair at the meeting table.

'You walked in.' Batman stated. He was really the detective today.

'I noticed.' Wally told him smugly, starting to inspect his fingernails, but found Bruce starting to glare at him. He rolled his eyes: 'Just was feeling like walking for once, can you blame a guy? Honestly, all that running is tiring after a while.'

Bruce frowned but said nothing more as leaguers started to fill the room. Wally decided not to pay them any heed and instead scrolled through twitter, rolling his eyes at the stuff some of his college-roommates were up to: they should really get their live together instead of drinking.

He laughed to himself at this: in all honesty, he might have also been there, had he not had the annoying ability to not get drunk. And, if he was being candid, his whole life was probably an even bigger mess than theirs. Their team-members (or coworkers he guessed in their cases) were probably not avoiding them. His were.

He was pulled from his reverie about his life as Batman cleared his throat - unnecessarily, as all the leaguers had been uncharacteristically quiet - and he started the meeting: 'This meeting has been called due to the events of yesterday.' Batman stated needlessly. Wally frowned at this: normally he would have already zoned out at this point, because Bruce was talking too slowly for him, but for once in his life since he got his speed, Bruce seemed to be talking at a fast enough rate. Weird, but Wally shrugged it off.

'In short: Luthor took over Flash's body by accident, who was thrown into the latter's body. Flash doesn't really know anything about Luthor's base of operations, he just has some names. We managed to switch their minds back again to their correct bodies after a bit of a... uh.. curfuffle.

Wally decided it was time for a joke: 'What have we learned from this people? You know when I have been brainwashed or taken over by someone else if I decide to use the cafeteria as a batteling ground: its a dead giveaway.' he smiled as he said this, expecting at least a few jokes about his appetite, and some laughs. But none came. The Leaguers just stared at him intently, listening to every word, just as they did with Bruce. Wally slunk back in his chair as John, who was sitting next to him gave him a sympathetic smile: it would be fine. But it wouldn't, would it. They were scared of him. Of what he could do. If only he could turn back time - well, he could, but that was discouraged greatly - and change all this.

Batman continued: 'We called this meeting in case any of you have questions about what happened.'

The room was silent, then, finally, Green Arrow spoke up, turning to Flash: 'Why did you never tell us you could do all that?' Wally didn't respond, instead quirking an eyebrow, wanting GA to elaborate: what exactly had Luthor done. GA got the message and summarised it quickly: 'You ran almost 4 times as fast as Superman can, you broke walls just by vibrating and fought us all liek it was nothing. Why did you never tell us you could do that?' he quirried, repeating his question.

Wally sighed deeply: 'Because, frankly, I would never do that stuff okay? I know how dangerous it is to do. I would never do it, so I didn't see there was a reason to tell you guys.' he finished with a shrug.

Superman spoke up: 'When we did that race... we were neck-on-neck.'

Wally smiled: 'I must admit: I might have toyed with you. I could have easily won that race from you, but then the charity race would have not been that interesting. We had to give the public a story right?'

Superman chuckled, then turned serious: 'Didn't you think though, that even though you would never do that stuff, you should tell us about it? It feels kinda...weird, let's say, that you didn't tell us.'

All the Leaguers turned to Wally, even Batman seemed to be interested in the answer: not even knowing himself why Wally hadn't told them. Wally finally spoke up: 'Look, I like being the Flash: the guy that always makes jokes, however lame they may be; the guy who does his utmost best to think up puns; the guy that is the brunt of other people's jokes, just so that they can have a laugh,' At this several cheeks coloured in the room. 'I love having people laugh when they see me. I want people to see me as the cheerful dude whom they can rely on to always bring a chipper attitude to the table. I guess I just didn't want people to be scared of me.'

The League fell silent and Wally continued: 'Sure, for some people, being feared is nice. But for me? I hate it. I want young kids to not tremble at the sight of me, I want parents to feel comfortable when I zip around with their kids on my back, most of all, I just want to be viewed as a slightly normal person. I don't like it when people think of me as a monster.' he admitted with a sigh.

Wonder Woman spoke up now, her voice slow, as if weighing her words: 'You think we now view you as a monster?'

Wally shrugged: 'I mean: my parents did as well when they found out what I could do.' he yawned slightly as around him, at least 6 people started to plan the arrest of his parents.

'Just out of interest,' Black Canary spoke up, looking up from the notebook she and GA were sharing, 'What are your parents names?'

Wally looked up at this, seeing her intent, and shook his head: 'Nope, not telling you. Besides, they didn't beat me up that much anyway, only did that like once a day.'

The room fell into stunned silence as Wally realised what he had just said: they didn't know they were abusive, they just knew they thought of Wally as a monster. He had ruined things for himself.

Wally massaged his forehead in pain. A migraine was building up behind it. The Leaguers simultaneously started shouting in anger around him didn't really help him either. With a grimace he realised that his assumption that they would now view him as a monster, was unjust.

Batman quickly got the league to be quiet again. Wally hated the quiet. Despite his migraine, he hoped they would start shouting again. 'Flash,' Bruce asked, his eyes fiery, 'What did you say about them beating you up?' he asked, fire in his voice as his knuckles whitened where he was holding the edge of the table.

Wally shrugged: 'It's nothing dude. I delt with it. It's in the past.' he reassured quickly, leaning back in his chair again, his migraine only getting worse. Why did the room look so fuzzy? He wondered softly. He decided to avoid the question of abuse, by talking about more abuse. He really was an idiot sometimes:

'Yeah, they're like the reason I talk all the time. Whenever I had a beating coming they would deadly silent. That's why I hate it: why I always fill it, it reminds me of them.' Wally shot out quickly, immediately regretting what he had said as more and more faces grew from angry to furious.

Batman, however shushed the outrage that was about to burst out before it even happend with a wave of his arm, as he turned to Wally: 'Flash, are you alright?' he asked in concern.

Wally, misunderstanding his question, as he was using most of his brain power to determine which of the two batmen he should direct his attention to, answered quickly: 'Yeah, I'm fine. As I already said: it's in the past.'

'No,' Bruce said sighing, 'That's not what I meant. You're pale.' Superman sat up at this, squinting over at his friend, and found his heartbeat was not at the normal fast pace it usually was, but at a much slower pace, almost as fast as that of any other human being. Batman continued: 'Youwalked, and I can't stress this enough,walkedinto the meeting room. You were 3 minutes early here and then stated running all the time can be tiring and that you enjoyed to walk.'

This had most of the Leaguers already out of their chairs, as some rushed off to ready the medbay: if the Flash had walked somewhere, he was probably dying or something.

'His heartrate is almost as slow as that of a normal human being.' Superman added, 'and by the way he was clutching his head earlier: he seems to have a migraine.' he continued helpfully.

Bruce frowned as Wally made a feeble attempt to deny what the others were saying. Bruce quickly walked over to the speedsters: 'Exactly how many of me can you see?'

'Like only two.' Wally answered miserably, 'Is that wrong?' he asked dumbly, making Bruce even more concerned: normal Wally would know that was wrong, something was really wrong.

Realisation hit him suddenly like a freigh train: 'Wally,' he said, ignoring the gasps of several leaguers as they heard the speedster's name for the first time, 'Did you feel hungry at all today?'

'Nah, I ate like half a granola bar but didn't really feel like it.' Wally told him drowsily. 'Why?' Bruce frowned: normal Wally wouldn't have needed to ask that. He swivveled around Superman:

'Carry him to the medbay.' he ordered, quickly telling the assembled League that the meeting had been ajourned, they, however, all decided to stay.

Superman lifted Wally, who protested slightly, though his migraine and dizziness weakened his protest greatly. Superman let out a concerned oh and turned to Bruce: 'He is way too light.' Bruce merely nodded, as he had already figured out what had happened. Others had not.

Black Canary spoke up: 'What's wrong with him?' she questioned as Superman put some super speed into his flight as he sped towards the medbay. Bruce sighed as he realised no one would get off of their backs if he didn't give a short explenation:

'Luthor used his body too much: he ran at mach 2, he broke walls by vibrating, he knocked countless superheroes unconscous, he hurled forks at people and vibrated so fast that he could move through walls. All that time: he didn't eat, successfully starving Wally's body, who has an incredibly hightened metabolism. Wally has entered the last stage of starvation: his heartrate plummets and he isn't even hungry anymore, then, he dies.' Bruce offered, then swept out of the room, leaving stunned leaguers in his wake as they started whispering amongst themselves.

Wally woke up to the steady beeping of a machine. Heart machine maybe? No, it was too fast for that. Wait: his heart was fast. So was it a hear machine.

He sluggishly blinked open his eyes, only to find every single founding member of the league asleep in chairs, and, in hawkgirl's and GL's case, slumped against the wall, hugging each other. Wally smiled at the two: he was glad they were back together and made up. He was also happy GL was no longer dating Vixen, Wally didn't like her that much.

Wally stirred slightly, awaking the big mean bat, who gave him a smile: 'Gave us quite the scare there Walls.' he said soflty, as to not wake the others. Wally smiled:

'Sorry, my brain was too food-deprived to realise that it was.' he admitted, as Bats pushed a burger into his hands.

They fell into comfortable silence, as Wally chewed the food obnoxiously loudly, though now Bats finally understood why he did that: he just didn't want it to be silent.

Bats cleared his throat, making Wally look up immediately look up: 'In case you wanted to know: they're in prison now, and I made sure you don't need to testify. That's the reason you never took them to court, wasn't it?' Wally nodded, smiling at the Bat:

'Thanks.' he said shortly, making Bruce give him a smile back:

'Oh, and also: no one thinks you're a monster. They wree just in awe of you. I think they finally realised that the leader they had been scoffing at all these years really could beat their butts at any given moment in time.' Wally scoffed happily, then Bats smiled wickedly: 'Figuratively and literally.' he added, making Wally almost choke on his food: Batman did not just use a pun!